Here are my entries for May 2015
 |
| week 19 |
 |
| week 20 there's a space on Sunday for me to sketch the sewing machine that I inherited (it's currently in for repair) |
 |
| week 21 |
 |
| week 22 |
You can catch up on previous entries here:
Sketch Diary May 2015
Uh oh, it's nearly the end of July and I haven't done a sketch diary post for a while. Oops - I hope you don't mind a sudden barrage of posts until I've caught up!
Here are my entries for May 2015
You can catch up on previous entries here:
Here are my entries for May 2015
You can catch up on previous entries here:
Around the World Blog Hop
Has anyone got a tuit? I need a good supply of round ones....towards the back end of last year I was invited to take part in an around world blog hop and to my absolute shame it has taken me over six months to get around to it. Get it? A round tuit? No? Hey ho I won't give up the day job just yet.
Back to the blog hop. I was invited by fellow artist Tessa Spanton who runs an interesting art blog full of hints and tips and plenty of inspiration. Tessa and I first met a couple of years ago on the folksy forums where we still meet up for a chat and where we both have shops Tessa's Colours and Textures and my own Stephanie Guy Fine Art. Tessa's silk paintings are particularly inspiring - it was after seeing some of her works that I decided to take a one day workshop. I now have all the gear, just need the time to experiment!
Continuing the blog hop, I'd like to introduce you to two of my arty-farty friends. Well, three friends and an aquaintance, but three of them share a blog.
Firstly, Maxine Veronica is the owner of the wonderful folksy shop Paper Chains and Beads. Max describes herself as a Crafty Welsh Mam, and creates a huge range of items. I'm very fond of her ink art and regularly use and admire a set of her coasters that I bought. She also creates the most wonderful shopping lists with matching pens - I have commissioned her to make over 15 of these with a Liverpool basis so far, they make superb gifts for our many foreign visitors. My favourite part of Max's blog is her art journal - she has an envious ability to assemble random items on a page and make them look like they belong together.
And now for one of my very favourite blogs. Watercolours by Polly Birchall is where Polly and her friends and creations Annie Arkwright and Kenny Eckerslyke document their trials and tribulations. A hop over to this blog will be so rewarding. Polly shares the ups (lots of these) and downs (I have to say I don't think they are downs at all) of her watercolour journey creating the most beautiful paintings and sketches. She also shares the absolute joy of Annie's life...I can't wait to see how Annie and Kenny do at this year's Wimbledon tennis tournament.
I'm really looking forward to seeing who Polly and Max introduce in their blog hop posts, I'm sure their introductions will be equally worthy of a follow.
Back to the blog hop. I was invited by fellow artist Tessa Spanton who runs an interesting art blog full of hints and tips and plenty of inspiration. Tessa and I first met a couple of years ago on the folksy forums where we still meet up for a chat and where we both have shops Tessa's Colours and Textures and my own Stephanie Guy Fine Art. Tessa's silk paintings are particularly inspiring - it was after seeing some of her works that I decided to take a one day workshop. I now have all the gear, just need the time to experiment!
Continuing the blog hop, I'd like to introduce you to two of my arty-farty friends. Well, three friends and an aquaintance, but three of them share a blog.
Firstly, Maxine Veronica is the owner of the wonderful folksy shop Paper Chains and Beads. Max describes herself as a Crafty Welsh Mam, and creates a huge range of items. I'm very fond of her ink art and regularly use and admire a set of her coasters that I bought. She also creates the most wonderful shopping lists with matching pens - I have commissioned her to make over 15 of these with a Liverpool basis so far, they make superb gifts for our many foreign visitors. My favourite part of Max's blog is her art journal - she has an envious ability to assemble random items on a page and make them look like they belong together.
And now for one of my very favourite blogs. Watercolours by Polly Birchall is where Polly and her friends and creations Annie Arkwright and Kenny Eckerslyke document their trials and tribulations. A hop over to this blog will be so rewarding. Polly shares the ups (lots of these) and downs (I have to say I don't think they are downs at all) of her watercolour journey creating the most beautiful paintings and sketches. She also shares the absolute joy of Annie's life...I can't wait to see how Annie and Kenny do at this year's Wimbledon tennis tournament.
I'm really looking forward to seeing who Polly and Max introduce in their blog hop posts, I'm sure their introductions will be equally worthy of a follow.
Pet Portraits in aid of the Cinnamon Trust
A few weeks ago I was introduced to the wonderful work of The Cinnamon Trust, - the only specialist national charity for people in their last years and their much loved, much needed companion animals.
Volunteers undertake a multitude of pet related tasks; exercising, bathing, cleaning out cages, taking the pet to the vet, fostering while the owner is in hospital or care - basically anything that will keep the pet and owner together for longer, thus extending the lives, happiness and well-being of both owners and pets.
On the sad occasion that an owner dies, the Cinnamon trust will then rehome the pet, where possible matching up with a new owner who's companion pet has died - allowing an animal loving person who is approaching the end of their life (and therefore cannot commit to a new pet) to still have an animal companion to ease their days. They also have a centre where some pets can go to live out the rest of their lives in peace and comfort.
Isn't that a fabulous cause? I was so blown away by this charity that I immediately decided to donate 20% of the list price of all future pet portraits to The Cinnamon trust. And in the Autumn I intend to donate my time too.
 |
| The Cinnamon Trust |
 |
| A sample of my most popular miniature pet portraits |
 |
| A recent colour portrait 2.5 x 3.5 inches |
 |
| Pets come in all shapes and sizes! |
How I package my small paintings
I'm frequently asked how I package my mini paintings, and am just as frequently complimented on how well packaged my art is. Here's how I do it...
The first layer of protection for my mini paintings is a clear cellophane collectors sleeve. I haven't shown the sleeve in the photo as the reflections play havoc with my camera settings.
Every miniature painting is presented with a Certificate of Authenticity. The certificate is made from card and acts as the second layer of protection.
The third level of protection is a super cute hand-made envelope, made from recycled materials. I use any good quality paper - magazine covers, top quality catalogues (the M&S food catalogue is a good one although it can make one feel a little peckish).
The fourth layer of protection is tissue paper. It only has to cover one side of the envelope with a little to wrap around the edges.
The fifth layer of protection is a piece of card. Shoe box card is the perfect thickness as this keeps the whole depth of the final package under 5mm, the size of an ordinary first class envelope, whilst being tough enough to offer a good level of protection. I always use a guillotine to cut my card - just because it is recycled doesn't mean that it can't look professional. The card needs to be just a little bigger than the tissue wrapped envelope so that the corners will be well protected. I tape the package to the middle of the card.
If I'm sending a few mini paintings in the one package I cut a larger piece of card and tape them so that they do not overlap, keeping the package within the standard first class envelope size.
As a courtesy to my customers I always include a hand written thank you note with the essential care instructions and a little snippet about the piece. Full care instructions are detailed within the Certificate of Authenticity.
We were due some seriously wet weather when I posted this next one so I put it in a waterproof envelope. Sadly when I got to the post office the excess plastic that I had wrapped double around the package took it over the 5mm and I had to pay extra postage for a few more stamps. I'm glad I found that out before it went into the postal system - my policy of always getting my packages checked at the post office counter paid off this time. No prizes for spotting that I have manipulated the addresses in photoshop!
And that's it! Efficient, mostly recycled and most importantly, safe packaging for my mini artwork.
Larger pieces are packaged in lots of thick card...but that's a post for another day.
The first layer of protection for my mini paintings is a clear cellophane collectors sleeve. I haven't shown the sleeve in the photo as the reflections play havoc with my camera settings.
Every miniature painting is presented with a Certificate of Authenticity. The certificate is made from card and acts as the second layer of protection.
The third level of protection is a super cute hand-made envelope, made from recycled materials. I use any good quality paper - magazine covers, top quality catalogues (the M&S food catalogue is a good one although it can make one feel a little peckish).
The fourth layer of protection is tissue paper. It only has to cover one side of the envelope with a little to wrap around the edges.
The fifth layer of protection is a piece of card. Shoe box card is the perfect thickness as this keeps the whole depth of the final package under 5mm, the size of an ordinary first class envelope, whilst being tough enough to offer a good level of protection. I always use a guillotine to cut my card - just because it is recycled doesn't mean that it can't look professional. The card needs to be just a little bigger than the tissue wrapped envelope so that the corners will be well protected. I tape the package to the middle of the card.
If I'm sending a few mini paintings in the one package I cut a larger piece of card and tape them so that they do not overlap, keeping the package within the standard first class envelope size.
As a courtesy to my customers I always include a hand written thank you note with the essential care instructions and a little snippet about the piece. Full care instructions are detailed within the Certificate of Authenticity.
The sixth layer of protection is the envelope itself.
We were due some seriously wet weather when I posted this next one so I put it in a waterproof envelope. Sadly when I got to the post office the excess plastic that I had wrapped double around the package took it over the 5mm and I had to pay extra postage for a few more stamps. I'm glad I found that out before it went into the postal system - my policy of always getting my packages checked at the post office counter paid off this time. No prizes for spotting that I have manipulated the addresses in photoshop!
And that's it! Efficient, mostly recycled and most importantly, safe packaging for my mini artwork.
Larger pieces are packaged in lots of thick card...but that's a post for another day.
A watercolour postcard home
Lucky lucky me - I recently got a freebie set of watercolour postcards from Cass Art in Liverpool. When we took our week's vacation in Wales this last week, I knew that I would have lots of spare time as my daughter and her friend had tonnes of revision to do for their forthcoming A levels. What better way to spend it than painting?!
If you follow me on Instagram you'll have seen that I regularly walk my friend's Fox Red Labrador (who has the most impossibly short and cutest legs that I have ever seen on a lab) so the first postcard home was addressed to Rory. We were staying on the coast in Wales, and Rory is a HUGE fan of water....
Next on the list was my wonderful Dad. He used to breed budgies when he was a lad, and I now own two beautiful budgies that we are hoping will breed, so it made perfect sense to me to paint my budgies at the seaside for him
I was wondering what to paint next when a seagull flew by. My in-laws live by the sea and love bird watching, so this was for them...
My very dear friend has an elderly black labrador who's beach visiting days are sadly over, he can't walk very far at all these days
What next? We met a very friendly bunch of sheep (yes, I know that they are really a flock, but such friendly animals deserve a friendlier collective noun) so my Aunt got this one
Now feeling in a VERY silly mood, my other aunt loves orchids and is very good at persuading them to flower year after year
And that's my postcard list covered :D
I still had time to spare, so on my facebook page I asked what else I should take to the beach...this suggestion pinged right back to me!
Do you think this counts as proof of posting? Hehehee
If you follow me on Instagram you'll have seen that I regularly walk my friend's Fox Red Labrador (who has the most impossibly short and cutest legs that I have ever seen on a lab) so the first postcard home was addressed to Rory. We were staying on the coast in Wales, and Rory is a HUGE fan of water....
Next on the list was my wonderful Dad. He used to breed budgies when he was a lad, and I now own two beautiful budgies that we are hoping will breed, so it made perfect sense to me to paint my budgies at the seaside for him
I was wondering what to paint next when a seagull flew by. My in-laws live by the sea and love bird watching, so this was for them...
My very dear friend has an elderly black labrador who's beach visiting days are sadly over, he can't walk very far at all these days
What next? We met a very friendly bunch of sheep (yes, I know that they are really a flock, but such friendly animals deserve a friendlier collective noun) so my Aunt got this one
Now feeling in a VERY silly mood, my other aunt loves orchids and is very good at persuading them to flower year after year
And that's my postcard list covered :D
I still had time to spare, so on my facebook page I asked what else I should take to the beach...this suggestion pinged right back to me!
Do you think this counts as proof of posting? Hehehee
And here are all my paintings from our short stay. What fun!
Sketch Diary April 2015
Sketch diary March 2015
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)