Gina Lento: Fine Art and Illustration

All she wants to do is dance and Goo Goo Love

All Penny wants to do is dance. She loves to go shopping for outfits and accessories and she especially likes dresses that twirl.

Goo Goo is a sturdy little dog that imagines herself as a brave explorer. She wants to travel the world and be an archeologist.

Madame Papillon and Fifi

Madame Papillon is a very snobby fluffy dog who is obsessed with fashion and is always impeccably groomed. Until one very muddy Spring thaw.

Fifi and her owner live in an apartment overlooking a huge park. Their perfectly styled hair always matches their outfits and they were very popular.

Valentine Birds

The Pink Heart bird delivers Valentine’s greetings on Valentine’s Day. However, one year, because of a strong wind, the deliveries didn’t go as planned.

Scarlet lives in a field of flowers. Her bedroom is built on an old sunflower, decorated with pink flower hearts and has a great view.

These creatures came from sketches done in my morning pages. They started out as a random shape, that I move around until I find something I can work with in that shape, and then pull a creature out of it.

Edgar is a lonely bird-like creature who has stubby wing looking arms and webbed feet. He can’t fly or swim and has a broken heart.

Igor is a naughty candy heart stealing dragon who is angry at the world because he doesn’t have wings.

Imaginary Dogs

Chili is a dapper little dog. He’s an explorer of the city and knows all the fun dog parks and yummy eating spots.

Brinkley is a Thief of Hearts, that grow in his neighbor’s gardens. He steals them and hides them in the wood pile behind his family’s shed.

Love gives you wings

Wally the owl is obsessed with hearts and loves Valentine’s Day. He loves hearts decorated on everything, including his food. Wally is afraid to fly.

This is Corky the Cupid Kitty. Corky has a very important task to do for Valentine’s Day.

If he could only remember what that task is…

Sea Hearts, Swan and Duckie

Violet, the tiny sea dragon, doesn’t have wings but longs to fly like her airborne cousins.

Swan and Duckie are the best friends ever. Duckie always rides along on Swan’s back because, well, he’s afraid to swim.

Esmerelda and the Pink Diva Bird

Esmerelda is a shy daydreamer who would love to dance ballet with a large ballet troupe and hopes to someday be a prima ballerina.

The Pink Diva Bird dreams of singing opera at La Scala in Italy. She practices her scales every day and loves to dress up.

These creatures came from sketches done in my morning pages. They started out as a random shape, that I move around until I find something I can work with in that shape, and the pull a creature out of it.

Happy Hearts Valentine Themed Sketchbook

Ok, so I am a wee bit late posting these. This hand bound, hand painted, 20 page sketchbook was a little labor intensive and most of the postcards my mom received from this sketchbook were critters without page embellishments. I just finished all of the embellishments today.

Some of these may get bumped out by St Patrick’s Day but love is a daily activity anyway, right?

One of these days I need to get a new updated printer because the color of these postcards is quite intense in person and my printer does a “WTF is this?!” when I printed them out. I had to use color pencils after I printed them. I had used some metallic paint which scanned well but the printer didn’t do it justice. Yeah, I could have done these digitally, but there are some things that are best left to chance.

EVERY SINGLE ONE of these creatures came from a sketch in my morning pages which started out as a random shape, that I move around until I find something to work with in that shape, and pull a creature out of it.

I prepainted the pages before assembling the sketchbook. The colors are very bright and intense.

The media used was whatever I had within reach of my desk. Nothing has been tweaked digitally, I will be posting the raw sketchbook pages

This happy fellow was actually just completed yesterday, #19, but because he’s the cover, he is first for the series. I will also be writing a short description of each….

Happy is a loyal friend who loves to run, chase squirrels and eat bacon. One day Happy chased a big raccoon out of his yard.

Happy Valentine’s Day

I have been working on a few Valentine’s Day projects. One of those projects was felt patterns I found by Alison Kaplan.

I used to love to cross stitch and I had made so many things with cross stitch when I was in my 20’s. I still hang my hand stitched ornaments on my Christmas tree but for some reason, a needle and thread were something I have tried to avoid for many, many years. I have tons of cross stitch books with patterns and I have three DMC floss containers that were stored away. I don’t remember why I put a project away and never went back to it.

Then I found instructions for making a felt mouse and fox. I was surprised that I had everything I needed to do these projects except for the felt. I definitely had the DMC floss! To make these projects my own, I made them Valentine themed.

I cut out the felt and started sewing. Before I knew it, these two guys were complete. I even tried some embroidery going as far as using You Tube to research stitches. I really surprised myself with this project.

But could I make my own pattern? Why not? So I made a kitty pattern and then made my mom a kitty and mailed it to her as a Valentine’s gift. (Update on mom, she’s had her Covid vaccinations.)

Then I thought, ooooooh, what if I made a kitty with different colored ears and a heart shaped patch around an eye? I finished this one and gave it to my daughter as a Valentine’s present and even made pockets on the dress to tuck things into, like chocolate.

I have many more ideas for these little guys that are also influencing my 2d work. I really enjoyed making my own patterns and have ideas for more creatures, including dogs. I found that doing these were very relaxing and Mindful.