Cue the bagpipes. Let’s get ready for St. Patrick’s Day!
Visit my Etsy shop for printable coloring pages:
downloadable clipart:
and invitation borders:
Order St. Patrick’s Day flair in my Zazzle shop!
Create an Irish Blessing sign with this free downloadable pdf and transfer tips.
I paint with watercolor from tubes. Very little remains of my original set of Van Gogh tubes. I’ve since added individual tubes – of mostly Winsor & Newton and some (more economical Winsor & Newton) Cotman tubes. I also have my Holbein Gouache mixing set – of which I’ve had to replace the white several times. All the tubes I keep in an adjustable storage case I bought years ago.
For easy access, I keep my palette filled with paint. Today as I was painting, I thought “I need more light brown. Wait, what color is this light brown?” Between the burnt and raw siennas and various other browns, I had to do a little work and sampling of tubes to find the right paint. Recently I used the last of the green in the palette and when I refilled it, the green was totally different. A bit inconvenient when you are in the middle of a painting! The original green tube is long gone. I really need to keep better track of my colors!
I started this little sketch to fill in what the colors in the palette are. I’d like to do another one with room to paint swatches of each color. How do you keep track of your colors? How do you store your paint tubes?
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Recently in my newsletter, I featured the work of block printer Marta Harvey. (My newsletter is a collection of all the things inspiring me – artists, mediums, places, and more. Sign up here.) As I sat looking at a blank page in my sketchbook I thought about Marta and how she creates a sliver of a mandala and then prints several times, in different directions, to form her mandalas. I decided to draw a circle and divide the circle into halves and quarters and fill the sections with different designs using watercolor. Then I scanned the page in and separated the different designs, and for each design I repeated it to form a circle. My eyes are open to a new way to design fabric prints!
Have you visited my Etsy shop? Click to visit. 🙂
I am having such a good time, turning my sketchbook illustrations into various digital downloads for my Etsy shop www.etsy.com/shop/EileenMcKennaArt.
My shop offers:
With each season and holiday, I’m inspired to paint and draw new things and I can’t wait to see what’s to come. Please come visit my shop! 🙂
Want a dose of creative inspiration? Sign up for my newsletter “My Creative Collection” by clicking here. Learn more here.
I’ve been having fun painting and drawing designs for Valentine’s Day. After painting trees and creating my family tree digital download product, I thought a customizable “relationship tree” digital print would be cute! I also thought a lot of the kid Valentine’s are very girlie, so I designed cards with the boys and sporty girls in mind. My kids are beyond the age where they bring in cards for the class, but I remember those days – especially when I forgot to buy cards and was stuck making cards last minute. I would have loved the convenience of Printable Valentine’s Day cards. No need to leave the house!
Visit my Etsy shop at https://www.etsy.com/shop/EileenMcKennaArt.
I’m excited to announce another swimmer themed fabric is available in my Spoonflower shop!
“Swim Champs” joins eight other fabric designs in the Swimmer theme, perfect for making a quilt, bag, or any other sewing project for your favorite swimmer!
Click here to visit my Spoonflower shop! Click here to see swim related sewing projects.
Designing an invite – especially for your own event – is so fun! Here are some easy steps to guide you through it.
1. Determine the style and aesthetic of your event. Your invite should be a reflection of the actual event. You don’t want a formal, elegant invite for a backyard BBQ. Is your event:
2. Select the form of your invite:
3. Select a type of invite:
4. Select a size. Keep in mind standard envelope sizes and postage rates. I believe square envelopes are more expensive to mail. Standard sizes:
5. Select artwork that suits your theme. Digital download invitation borders and clipart are available in my Etsy shop – Click here to visit. Or use a photo of the guest of honor. Or both.
6. Collect all the key information of the event – The who, what, where, when, why, RSVP, and anything else you need to convey. Write it on scrap paper or print it out for the next step.
7. Layout. On your scrap paper divide the information into different levels of info and label it. The most important info is what the event is – Level 1. Level 2 is the date and place and Level 3 are the time and address. Use the same style to format anything within the same level. The style of the text is made up of font, text size, and color. Select colors from your chosen artwork. Use no more than two fonts that complement each other. While professional layout programs are great, Word and some free or inexpensive programs can do the job too.
8. Paper. Select a thicker card stock than basic computer paper. Select specialty paper(s) or colored paper if it suits your event’s style and works with your chosen invite form and type.
9. Optional – Add embellishments. Keep in mind some embellishments will increase the cost of postage.
Whether you print at home or send you file to be printed at a copy shop, following these steps will help you achieve the perfect invites for your event! Click here to visit my Etsy Shop for downloadable invitation borders and clipart for your invitation designs.
Want a dose of creative inspiration? Sign up for my newsletter “My Creative Collection” where I feature artists and makers, and link to inspiring art, design, and craft, inspiring places, interesting books, movies, and more. It’s a collection of all the things inspiring me delivered to your inbox every two weeks. Click here to sign up.
2019 is off to a good start! I’m making drawing and painting a priority and try to work in the mornings, even if it’s just for a little bit. It’s fun to sit down with no real thought as to where it will lead and let things unfold.
With painting holiday themed things throughout December, it’s been a while since I painted a seascape. Looking through my stack of unfinished projects, I found the start of a seascape and suddenly felt inspired to finish it. (Our annual New Year’s Day walk at the beach may have also inspired this. The waves were crazy!) Painting the foam was so much fun!
There are two time-lapse videos on Instagram if you want to see how I went from here:
to here: The secret is a lot of white gouache!
As I was looking through my supplies this week, my kneaded eraser was nowhere to be found, I had only one sheet of watercolor paper left, and my favorite sketchbook
was running low! I didn’t paint today but I did head to Blick to stock up on these essentials. I usually paint using 9” x 12”
or 12” x 12”
watercolor paper, but felt inspired to also grab a larger pad of 12″ x 16″.
It’s funny – a few years ago my favorite size was 6” x 6” – so small! It was an accident that I went to the 12” x 12”. I ordered the wrong size, decided to give it a try, and have never looked back!
Want a dose of creative inspiration? Sign up for my newsletter “My Creative Collection” by clicking here. Learn more here.
This post contains affiliate links to products/brands I use and recommend. I earn a small commission whenever you buy using these links, at no additional cost to you. Thank you for supporting my blog!
Over 10 years ago I took a drawing class that reintroduced art to my life. The class was a mix of new people and regulars who took the class every semester. Soon I became a “regular” too. Us regulars worked somewhat independently, but also loosely followed the class assignments. It was a great experience.
After a few years I began to want more. I didn’t want to limit myself to only creating when class was in session, or within class assignments, and I wanted to discover, “what would I create if I was 100% free to pursue anything?” This was the point where I started this blog. I was really excited about the possibilities. I thought a career in hand painting furniture was on the horizon – it wasn’t. I only refinished one table. But I was free to paint that table, paint signs, finished old canvas paintings, and rediscover my love for watercolor. A year later I tried block printing, surface design, etc. Some things stuck and some didn’t.
On the eve of 2019, I’m feeling this excitement. I have the freedom to pursue anything. My interests have definitely gotten more focused, but at the same time the possibilities are endless. I can’t wait!
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