sometimes the paint makes it on the paper » general

and so it goes…

leandra — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 20:25:01 +0000

Hobbies tend to get pushed to the side when we get busy. In my case, I’ve been starting my web design company and as such, haven’t made the time for painting, knitting or other creative activities that don’t involve my laptop computer.

Today is my birthday and my resolution is to start painting regularly again, even if it’s only an hour a week. Which means I have to clean out my studio. Ah, it’s always something!

Last night, while watching the Olympics, I created this avatar for myself in Photoshop using this tutorial on PSDTuts.com. Eric made me add the freckles! :)

I’m all official and stuff

leandra — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 15:42:52 +0000

After about two hours of running around from office to office in downtown Durham and paying some crazy fees I am now the proud owner of a business license. :)

All this really means is that the state of NC recognizes that I can do business under my design firm name, I can legally work out of my home, and I am able to open a bank account under my business name. These are all steps to transform my “freelance adventure” into officially being in business for myself.

I am working on a new website… to be unveiled by the end of the month!

my new mug

leandra — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 15:38:33 +0000

On the inside it says: n: having more creative ability while drinking tea.

This time it’s a latte… at night it’s tea.

obviously a little burned out from NaBloPoMo

leandra — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 02:24:40 +0000

Hi there. I’ve made quite a bit of progress on pup’s sweater, but haven’t done much else in terms of painting over the last few weeks. Happily, I’ve had some paying work to keep me busy as well as a lot of Christmas shopping and preparing for our trip up to New York tomorrow. I asked Santa for some new art supplies this Christmas, so I should have some new work soon. :)

my very first published ad!

leandra — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 22:12:26 +0000

The newest issue of Fido Friendly is on the newsstands and the ad I co-created with Elizabeth is on the back cover!

How exciting!

Here’s what the original ad copy looked like:

We were given less than two days to come up with a campaign and ad design. They are reportedly thrilled with our efforts and we will have more SPCA work coming our way.

I didn’t paint today

leandra — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 03:35:08 +0000

This was due partially to being tired from traveling for Thanksgiving and partially because I just didn’t get around to it. Bleh, sorry to my NaBloPoMo readers, I promise something more interesting tomorrow.

unfinished business

leandra — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 03:46:28 +0000

I have a few paintings sitting around my small studio that are about 60-75% done. I’d like to complete the Utah landscape and Lucky before I get started on another flower painting. More tomorrow!

best laid plans

leandra — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 22:49:21 +0000

Because we forgot the USB cord for our camera, I have no way of posting my recent moleskine entry to my blog. So instead, check out this post about the Landscapes from the Age of Impressionism exhibit that we attended at the North Carolina Museum of Art on Monday.

other artists on Flickr

leandra — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 17:46:49 +0000

I contribute to several art groups on Flickr and in honor of Thanksgiving, here are a few other artists who inspire me.

7 unusual things about me

leandra — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 17:33:42 +0000

I’ve been tagged for this meme by Girlrobot through NaBloPoMo, so I’ll do my best to make it art related!

1) I can’t draw trees. At all. They wind up looking like giant sticks with green cottonballs on top. I have a beautiful photo picked out of some birch trees from our trip to Utah, however, so I’m hoping I can get over this problem.

2) Also teeth. I discovered this recently when I was working on a pastel portrait of the three of us for our holiday cards, but alas, the teeth were not good.

3) I work exclusively on dark colored paper, specifically black. I don’t even own any white pastel paper.

4) I sing out loud to songs on my iPod when I’m painting. My dog probably thinks I’m nuts, but I hold back when Eric’s home.

5) I still have a whole bunch of bought-on-clearance art supplies from when a store in St. Petersburg went out of business my senior year of college. Including paper. I guess you could say that I “collect” art supplies.

6) I am an obsessive blender and I only blend pastels with my fingers—usually all of them. I admire artists that manage to create beautiful pieces without blending a single stroke but I don’t work that way.

7) Even though I am a professional artist/designer, I only have a minor in fine arts from college. My major was biology. I’ve learned graphic and web design through 14 years of practice.

I found seven folks to tag that haven’t done this yet. Feel free to play along or not, but at the very least, it’s a blog post topic!

Guidelines:

Link to the person that tagged you and post these rules on your blog.
Share 7 random and or weird things about yourself.
Tag 7 random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs.
Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.