Finally finished...

February 4th, 2010

The art pieces I did last night and today were things I finished up from a long time ago. The two Dream Sailing pieces are from an art class during my first year of college, before Simon and I were married, and the Johnny Cash one is from high school. The Johnny Cash drawing required very little to finish. All I did was add a little more to the background. The other two were at one time "finished" for class, but I didn't like the way they looked at all, so I used some of my many sharpies and added more to them. I like how they turned out. Sharpies can fix almost anything. :)

I am still a little sick, but I took some medicine so I'm feeling better. I was able to do the shooting for my first digital photography project, which was fun. The assignment was to get an object and take pictures of it in different settings and at every angle you can think of. I think we were supposed to take about 20 pictures. I really like how some of the pictures turned out. I accidently deleted 3 of them though, so I have to take some more. I want to wait until it is a little darker outside though, so I can get some different lighting. 

I also want to say thank you to Marsha Cleaveland, Simon's aunt, for purchasing some artwork! I am so thankful for the support you are giving us. It means a lot and helps out tremendously! Thank you to everyone who reads this and for the support on facebook and foundmyself.com . It has been a lot of fun doing this challenge because of all the positive influence I am continuing to get! Don't forget to take a look at the gallery on foundmyself.com/gallery/nikkiandsimon . Only 330 more pieces to go! Buh bye :)

Hello February

February 3, 2010

Well, I am happy to be back on the blog and kicking off February. I am a little late again but there has been a lot going on. On monday evening, our little ferret Harvey started to get sick. He was very tired an unobservant, which is very odd for a ferret. The next morning I woke up to him whimpering. The poor little guy was trying to go to the bathroom but nothing was happening. He was getting worse and worse by the hour, eventually looking as if he was going to die at any moment. We took him to the vet at about 10:00 am and they rushed him into the back to put him on fluids and some heating bags. His temp was dangerously low and he was completely dehydrated. A few possibilities about what could be causing this were talked about. Everything from him swallowing something that got stuck to a common disease ferrets can get that needs emergency surgery. Simon and I left him in the hospital to get the immediate treatment he needed and went home to talk things over. If he did need surgery it was going to cost us another $600-$800 on top of the current bill. We just couldn't do that. It was heartbreaking to me, but that was way over any amount we were able to spend. When we picked him up he wasn't much better. We looked at some x-rays and were given a few meds he had already started taking during his stay. We were told that if he wasn't any better by

 morning, we would probably have to put him down. Once we were

 home he went straight to "his" corner and struggled to go to the bathroom again. He did and out came a piece of cork. Idiot ferret... eating cork. Well after that he went again about 4 times, started drinking and eating, and went back to sleep. By this morning, he almost seemed back to normal. You can tell he is still tired, and we are going to be continuing his meds, but I am so happy to see his continuing recovery! 

This was the most stressful thing that has happened the past few days, but not the only thing. At some point yesterday evening I started to feel sick. By the time Simon and I were going to bed I had a full blown fever, aches, and a sore throat. I was able to get to sleep, but I woke up this morning with all the same symptoms. I wasn't able to go to school today because of it, and didn't have the teacher's e-mail or number to call and get my absent excused. Ughh. Such a pain. Hopefully she will have some mercy on me and allow me to make up my critique I was supposed to do. I also have to get some pictures printed and take some more for my photography class, get some prints made, do my color class homework, hopefully go to my quilting class tomorrow and take care of the ferret. This was a horrible time to get sick!

Well besides all that, I posted the art for the 1st and the 2nd. The results of the poll were for me to use an owl in my painting for February 1st, so here it is. I also have some more pictures for the 2nd. I still need to do the art piece for today so I will either post it later or tomorrow. Sadly, because of the ferret emergency, the money meter for our trip has gone up. His final bill was $262 which came out of that savings. We do have our little friend still though, so its worth it! Thank you to everyone for your support. I hope you like the new design for the blog. Don't forget to take a look at the gallery at foundmyself.com/gallery/nikkiandsimon . See you soon. 

Colorfully out of my box!

January 31, 2010

I made it though my first month! I still have 11 more to go, but already I feel like being in this challenge has done a lot for me. Not only has it made me accountable to something, but I have been able to share my art with people and work on my creative side more then ever. This is going to be short since I am about ready for bed, but I just want to say thank you to everyone for being so supportive during January and I can't wait to share another 334 more pieces of art with you! 

The piece I did today was very relaxing and fun. I didn't do any pre-planning, but instead just dove into the blank paper. I started out with a doodle and it just went from there. It was a lot of fun, and minimal clean up because it was markers! I really think I want to do some more of these since they end up looking pretty neat. Well see you tomorrow. I have my mono-print class, so check back to see what I did with the other ravens. Night! 

Falling behind.

January 30, 2010

It has been a couple days since I posted last, but I have no excuse this time. Just got a little lazy. Still did all of my art though! I was having a hard time this week. For what ever reason, I suddenly got completely burned out on all things artistic. I was just in a bad mood in general. Nothing seemed fun. I think the art part was because I have been doing so many basic, ordinary, what ever pieces of art. Not that I didn't like the end products, doing them just wasn't at all fulfilling. It started to become a mental burden to produce the paintings I was doing. So the past few days I started to explore a little. 

I have always had a really hard time finding a style of art I love to do. I know that I am still in school, and because of that, everyone tells me I shouldn't worry about a "style", but I have been doing art a long time now and would like to be at least heading in the direction. Even with my experimenting these last three days, I haven't come any closer. They were definitely more fulfilling to produce, but still not quite right. I guess I still have a lot more to learn. I think that the biggest problem I have with these pieces is that they are not as good as I think they should be. The Self Portrait painting I did was fun with texture and la

yers, but still amateur work. I painted that one for a while. Well, kind of a while. I have to remind myself that all of these are one day paintings, and dragging them out to be multi-day would probably help them out a lot.

 

I am hoping I will be able to fully explore the different mediums this semester at school, but I think the following semester I am going to take some technical classes again. I need to further that part of my art before I really find what I am looking for. Doing my one drawing class in Tucson greatly improved my drawing, and so I am sure many classes of the same type will benefit me as well. I will keep you all updated with that, since I will still be doing my challenge at the time! 

Thank you all, as always, for your support by reading this, and don't forget to vote on the poll. So far it is a 3 way tie (since only 3 people voted and all for different animals) and its going to be a little annoying having to try and fit them all into one painting. haha. Don't forget to take a look at the shop at foundmyself.com/gallery/nikkiandsimon . I am planning on getting the other site up and running in about a week if finances permit it. I am also taking commissions right now, so let me know if you are interested in anything by emailing me. I think that my email is on this blog, but if not, the address is nikkisimonwelch@gmail.com . See you tomorrow (hopefully :).  Only 335 more pieces to go!

Mono-printing

January 27, 2010

This semester I am taking a class called mono-print. The process is quite simple, but completely new to me and a lot of fun. You paint a special type of paint on thin fiberglass using a variety of tools. You then take your damp watercolor type paper and use a press to make your print from your painted plate. What is neat about these is your print is completely unique. Because you do not etch anything or make a stamp, once the ink has been pressed to paper, thats it. You can make a lighter version by running it though again which is called a ghost, but it is usually used as an under layer for a different idea. 

Today I finished my first print! It took me two more layers on the first print of a raven I did in the second class. This print was primarily for experimenting, but I think it turned out pretty neat. Like usual, the idea evolved as I did it. I originally was going to only print the raven, but the first print turned out so dark, I needed a background to make it pop. I remembered seeing a raven in the road a while ago, picking the remains of old road kill and though that would be some fun textures to work with. I ended up with a little gruesome but interesting print. I like it :). If you have never had any experience with printing I highly recommend a class. It is a very flexible and unique medium that is a lot of fun to mess around with. I still have two more prints of the basic bird shape, so check back to see how those evolve!

As always, check out the gallery for more art at foundmyself.com/gallery/nikkiandsimon. I am going to upload some older art today as well as the raven. I am hoping to get the web site up soon, but we are waiting for some extra money to come in first. All of our bills are at the very first of the month, so we are always tight on funds around this time. Thank you everyone for your support and see you tomorrow! 338 more days!!!

Back to my photos!

January 26, 2010

I still have a lot of pictures to correct from the photo shoot Simon and I had a couple weeks ago. I though, since I had class this evening, tonight would be a good night to do some more correcting. I also want to play around with some blog extras I talked about in my last post, so I used the photos as a way to save some time.  Even with using them as a ;ast resort, I really like how they turn out. I can't wait to start my digital photography class and get some more pictures up here! If you have missed any previous art or would like to see some different things I have been doing, don't forget to visit foundmyself.com/gallery/nikkiandsimon. Thanks for the support and see you tomorrow! Only 339 more days!

Finally back!

January 26, 2010

I am so sorry for the long delay, but after a series of unfortunate events, it was necessary. Prescott had a huge storm on Thursday and friday that wiped out our internet completely. We escaped on friday evening to Tucson, but I forgot the cord to upload photos from our camera. We came back yesterday morning, just in time for work and classes. Even though I was not able to post during this time, I was able to get all of my art done, so I can post it now. :)

The art piece I did after my sketch was a home made book. It has about 20 recipes and little illustrations though out it. It was fun to make and turned out cute, although obviously home made. The recipes are all vegan and for desserts. There are some really good ones in there! The other art pieces are all scratch boards because that is the easiest thing to do while on the road. i really like how these turned out, so I am thinking about having a show at a coffee shop with just the boards. I will have to figure out how to display them though. I was thinking about little box frames made out of light balsa wood, and putting christmas lights in them to back light it. That way you can see all the detail in them.

I have a lot more to update when it comes to the blog and the sites my art is on. Simon and I decided to buy a domain name and server space for our own site from foundmyself.com . That way it will be easier to access the art work and we will be able to work with displaying and selling art easier. I will still be blogging though. I just want people to be able to browse and buy the art with a little more organization. 

I am currently working on re-vamping this blog as well. I though it would be neat to kinda beef it up a little. I plan on putting up interviews of other artists, raffles, contests, among other things. I am really excited about it so check back often to see the new stuff. I hope will be able to link the blog and the site together so it will be easier to navigate between the two. 

Well that is about it for now. I, hopefully, will be able to get all the updates started in the next few days. Thank you all for your support and I am excited to be starting my next faze in this adventure. See you later today when I post my art piece for the 26th! Only 340 more to go before that!