Mindy Lacefield All Weekend + More!

This past weekend I was in Santa Rosa, CA for the Art-Is-You retreat. I had the pleasure of taking two all day classes with one of my favorite artist, Mindy Lacefield. I was so excited to meet her in person (whose's from Arkansas) and be able to learn how she paints her adorable girls.

Here's a couple of my favorite pieces I made from her classes...

I painted the above girls in my really large journal (repurposed urban outfitters catalog).

The picture above was painted by Mindy, it was our class sample - so beautiful and mysterious.

Above, was my attempt of the same picture. Then below are a couple more interpretations of a simplicity girl.

The picture below started primarily black. It was super challenging to create a face over a black surface, but I was happy with how it came out.

I painted the pieces below on 12"x12" piece of water color paper, where we explored creating a fun - playful background.

I wish I could have a dress like the one below. :-)

 Another girl painted in my large journal.

Following are some pictures from the class...

Mindy did a great job at explaining her techniques and sharing her favorite products. 

Below are some photos of other students' work...

My friend, Lois's girls

My friend Niley's girls

Mindy is very tall or I'm just really short. :-)

 The two photos below are pieces that Mindy painted during our class - so Adorable!

Mindy's piece - love it!

My favorite painting that Mindy created - so Sweet!

What a special weekend, Mindy is an amazing artist and was so generous in her supplies and her techniques...a wonderful teacher! Also, it was so fun to take the Saturday class with my sister, Lana and my friends Lois and Niley. A weekend I'll remember for a long time.

And, I was thrilled to receive my complimentary issue of Somerset Studio today for having my altered bird houses published.

I bought these wooden bird houses from Jo-Ann's for a $1 each.

I was looking for more surfaces to paint my Paige dolls on.

They all have my signature graphic dresses made with printed tissue paper.

Thank you Somerset for publishing my bird houses - it's a wonderful issue of inspiring projects!

And on a last note, I'm so excited for my daughter, Rachel, who got accepted to Stanford! She's a hard working, smart, creative and passionate individual whom I'm so proud of! Go Cardinals!

Thanks for stopping by. Enjoy the rest of your week!

Lots More Paige Dolls - so fun.

I'm having so much fun learning new techniques from Mindy Lacefield in her 24 Faces on-line class.

I tend to draw girls in sets. I decided to give the three girls below some accents on top of their head...a more whimsical look. 

The set below was experimenting with side angle faces - it's much harder than drawing faces looking straight on. I also had them pose a bit differently - I think they'll be fun to copy, reduce and cut them out and use in my art journals.

And since I wear eye glasses, of course I had to make a set of dolls with glasses on them. I love the fun hair colors too - so unexpected and playful.

I love black and white striped paper, I decided to use some for the arms in the set of girls pictured below.

The photo below was actually lesson 2, where we had to paint a very impressionistic face on a piece of 6" x 6" piece of wood, using only a few colors. 

The last photo is a small set of faces painted on 3" x 3" paper.

Believe it or not, there's only been two lessons so far. I've been doing lots of practicing!

Happy Easter!

New Paige Dolls & Paintings

I'm taking a couple of on-line courses right now. I'm taking Mindy Lacefields's 24 Faces. Below is a picture of my first painting, after taking lesson one. It's painted on a 5"x5" wood substrate.

Mindy had some great tips for shading and shares the paints she likes to use. I've used Mindy's techniques for developing my Paige dolls. I made three more Paige dolls recently.

I've previously mentioned, I'm also taking Pam Garrison's Painting Petals class and loving painting flowers and learning her special techniques. Below is a picture of some of my sample drawings.

On a final note, I'm was surprised to be published in the latest issue of Take Ten magazine.

Awhile ago, I picked up some vintage paint chip samples from a recycle store. I challenged myself to take one stamp and the paint chip samples and create some cards, mini book and a banner. The article shows all the samples I made.

Thanks for stopping by. Have a great week!

New Character Construction Paper Dolls

Catherine Moore has released her new line of stamps, Paris Flea, for 2016 and they're so adorable, I couldn't wait to make some paper dolls!

I made these dolls sitting, which are perfect for perching on bookshelf ledges. 

I love the striped arms and legs. Thanks Catherine for allowing us to play with paper dolls again.

On another note, I'm happy to be published in the latest issue of Somerset Studio.

The project published, is an art journal I made from a mini deck of cards. It was a project I made from taking Seth Apter's wonderful class.

 

 

 

You can see more pictures from the deck, on my previous post, published last September.

 

Have a great weekend!

Pam Garrison's Painting Petals Class & LA Cookie Con

I'm so excited to be taking Pam Garrison's on-line class called, "Painting Petals". I love her style and I love painting flowers (second to painting dolls). Here's some pictures of the pieces I made from her lessons.

It's really fun and I like how the flowers aren't realistic, but more expressive. Many more lessons to come, I can't wait!

I also wanted to share some pictures of our recent trip to LA, when my daughter and I went to LA Cookie Con.

It was held at the LA Convention Center.

 There were so many people attending, lines were everywhere!

 There were some amazing cakes on display.

My daughter, Rachel, appeared on the main stage with Sarah Michelle Gellar, promoting Sarah's product, Foodstirs.

Rachel also appeared on the Traditional Baking stage, where she showed how to make Red Velvet Brownies.

Below is a picture of Rachel with students from the Cordon Bleu, who assisted her on stage and helped with the prep.

She was also happy to meet many of her YouTube fans after the demo.

Guests were waiting in line for her autograph and to be able to take a photo with her.

It's amazing how far she has come from her early videos, to now presenting at conventions. I'm so proud of her!

You can see Rachel's YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/user/kawaiisweetworld.

Thanks for stopping by, have a great weekend!