Travel Art

Sketches of Olive

Here are some sketches of my friend Luke's dog

Im so busy. Full time job + freelance children's book illustrations + potty training my new puppy. I'll post more drawings once I come up for air

Until next time!
Tiffanny

My Brown Eyed Girl

Meet my new dog! I love her so much. We already have a song! Brown Eyed Girl by Van Morrison

Hey, where did we go 
Days when the rains came? 
Down in the hollow 
Playin' a new game
Laughin' and a-runnin', hey hey 
Skippin' and a-jumpin' 
In the misty mornin' fog  
With our, our hearts a-thumpin'
And you, my brown eyed girl  
You my brown eyed girl

 Arrow and Me!

 

Speak through Art, Make Someone Smile.

For some reason, people think that art is magical. That you are born with the "artistic bones" in your body. I think that art is a language skill that you can learn, like learning Spanish or French. It's learning how to speak pictorially, a language that is universally understood.It takes time, effort, practice, dedication, much like learning another language - or anything for that matter. And like any second language, you can learn basic conversation, or strive for fluency. I'm striving for that fluency, and eventually, hopefully I'll have something worth saying. Otherwise, what's the point? (other than a steady job drawing what others tell me to draw.)

Because a lot of people think that drawing ability is a magical god-given talent, it never ceases to thrill and amaze people when I draw them or their pets when I go out and do observational drawings. I love making people happy through art. It makes me feel that what I'm doing is worth while. I did these sketches while at the dog park. I gave the two ladies who owned this dog this sketch and portraits I did of them. One of the girls said "This is why I love Austin. Meet a total stranger and get your portrait done!... This is a day to remember!"

Sorry for the blurry picture, these were taken on the spot because I gave away the drawings so I couldn't scan them.

If you're an artist, go make someone smile with your art! You'll love the way you feel.

Tiffanny

observational pen drawings

I do a lot of observational drawing. They're fun and they keep the pen moving. When I draw out of my head, I mostly stare at the paper blankly and get a nosebleed from thinking too hard about what to draw. Observational work is fun because there's no shortage of things to draw. You get lots and lots of practice and it prepares you for when you do have to do imagination drawings. This discipline informs the other. So carry your sketchbook with you everywhere and draw everything in sight!

Illustration Friday - Grounded, with youtube video!

The inspiration for the doggie is of course, my darling Gracie, my gorgeous red Toller.

Isn't she gorgeous?!

To watch me paint this in time-lapse, click here!

Tiffanny

Watercolor - Gesture

This serves both as my "Illustration Friday" and "Watercolor Wednesdays" piece. The Illustration Friday word is "gesture", hence.......

"Watercolor Wednesday's" topic is "Baby's First....." Well, if you've followed my blog you know that I'll find any excuse to put some sort of animal in the piece, so I decided that the dog can be baby's first guardian angel. I purposely positioned the baby's swirl hair over the puppy serve as puppy's halo. If you look super close, you'll see her dog tag has little wings drawn on it, designating her very important job. Here's a closeup:

Anyway, I really dont know if the puppy succeeds at keeping the stupid baby from getting attacked by the blender. I will leave that up to your imagination :) hehehe You tell me what you think happens!!!!!!

Tiff
PS, dog was modeled after my dog Gracie, a Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever, who is actually a pretty cruelly indifferent dog. I once took her to Barton Springs to play water fetch with her. I decided to test and see what she would do if I pretended to drown. As I "drowned" she picked up her ball and took it to my husband instead. She didn't even think twice!!

Watercolor Sketchbook - Dog Park!

I wanted to spoil my dogs today so we went to the dog park!!! Unfortunately the dogs kept splashing on my sketchbook so I stopped painting and finished at home. So this isn't completely an on-the-spot painting. :)

The dog to the left is Gracie, the brown dog is my other dog Honker, and the man in white is my hubby :)

Hope you like my painting
Until next time!
Tiffanny

When I Was A Stupid Kid - Tiffanny, Private First Class

 When I Was A Stupid Kid, I liked to pretend that I was a soldier.

 I would dash from foxhole to foxhole...

 I would subordinate my enemies with my machine gun...

 I would crawl bravely though dangerous mine fields...

 I would... What the hell is that smell???

And that's how I got myself completely covered in dog crap When I Was A Stupid Kid.
What's the worst thing you got all over yourself when you were a Stupid Kid? How did it get there?

note: I decided not to paint all the frames, mainly because watercolor paper is verrrry expensive :( I would love to paint everything though! But I should really save some paper for plein air painting or still life or something. I would blow through it way too fast if I painted all of my Stupid Kid stories.

Economizing,
Tiffanny

Watercolor - Walnut Creek, En Plein Air

I love this park. It's a leash-free dog park. People that go here are people who love dogs, so they're perfectly understanding when your dogs run up to say hello. In fact they love it. They don't freak out. I had so much fun bringing my two dogs Gracie (next to the man in red, my husband), Honker, the one in the foreground. And Frannie (middleground dog) came with her owner too!
Plein air painting is fun, but even more so when you can bring your dog :)

Tiffanny

Watercolor - Still Life with Lily, Poms, and a Picture of Frannie

Spent my Sunday painting this still life. It has been one week since I even held a pencil to draw. Last week was just crazy! It's a relief to be creating again. Frannie is the dog of a friend of mine. She's a funny dog. She always makes people smile or laugh. She makes funny noises in the form of grunts, snorts, and snores. She's a great family dog.

Tiffanny

" Zombie Kid" Watercolor

I've been trying to think of what to paint that might appeal to my friend Tom if he were a little kid. This guy likes stuff that's not really kid-friendly. He likes monster movies, blood, gore, and really dark stuff. I wanted to try and meld two unlikely genres. A kid-friendly zombie is the result. The dog is modeled after my sister's dog Alex.

Hope you like Zombie Kid!
Tiffanny