I'll tumbl for ya

I've been doing my blogging over at tumblr lately. It seems to be where all the cool kids are right now. Haven't decided what I'm going to do with this blog yet, but for the time being, you can see new work at http://jenhoney.tumblr.com/.

Animated progress

I just finished this quick painting, which I'll probably put on some cards soo, but I thought it might be fun to make a little animation of some steps through the process.

Air and Roots

This week's Illustration Friday topic was "air". I only got as far as a sketch...

And, this week's Super Secret Art Club topic was "Roots". I did 2 pieces for that...

Illustration Friday: Water

For this week's Illustration Friday topic of water, I wanted to do a mermaid. I was also working on t-shirt designs, so I made her all graphic-y, and am not happy with the result.

I also took the opportunity to make some graphics to possibly be used for pool party invitations. These will probably sit in my files unused until Summer rolls around.

I'm feeling like my work is getting really bland and "safe" lately, so this weekend I'm going to get back to traditional media in my sketchbook. I need to make contact with the world around me and let my imagination fly a bit. Results of my sketch-o-rama weekend will be posted Monday.

Mirror/Celestial

This week's Illustration Friday topic is "mirror". This is sort of a self(s?) portrait.

And this week's Super Secret Art Club topic is "Celestial. So, I did another one of my angels, with a celestial theme. Sorry about all the watermarks. I went a little overboard.

Illustration Friday: Book.

I used to participate in Illustration Friday occasionally, but I kinda forgot that it existed for the last couple years.

I'm so glad my friend Kim brought it up and suggested we participate this week. This cleared up a little creative constipation I had earlier today.

The topic was "book", which could potentially be a really broad topic, as in ' anything that was ever written about in a book', but I kept it simple by doing a painting with an actual book in it. I'm pleased with the result. It took 2 hours or so.

So much miscellaneous stuff!

I have mish-mosh of things to share today.

First, I am proud to say that my Facebook page passed 100 likes a couple days ago.

Previous to that, I bribed some folks to share the page by offering free custom Facebook cover images to the first few sharers.  I got varying degrees of instruction on how to personalize these images, from "Just something pretty" to exact specifications. I enjoy both the freedom of creating my own concept and the task of bringing someone else's vision to life.

 This one is for a friend who sings and is very musically-minded. She wanted something Fall-inspired.

 This was the "just something pretty" one. I based it off an unfinished watercolor painting that I did years ago and recently found in a pile-o-stuff.

This one was for a close friend who let me do whatever I wanted, so I cobbled together a bunch of her favorite things. Her kitties, the kiddos in her life, her favorite flowers, and an apple because she's a teacher.

This is the one I got pretty concise instructions on. Fortunately the composition worked out really well right off the bat. Sometimes I have to chop up my paintings and move things around a dozen times before I have something that works- especially when I'm working off someone else's original idea- but this was one of those rare ones that went from my brain to  a finished piece without much fuss.

I've also done a couple little Halloween-ish drawings because I'm mostly working on Winter holiday stuff lately and I keep needing to step back and remind myself it's still early in October.

This little monster of Frankenstein painting just absolutely refused to look scary. i spent 15 minutes painting the majority of it and another 2 hours trying to get him to look less like a Precious Moments character.

I'm a little tapped out on Halloween inspiration right now, but I am still slowly getting work done on my Medusa painting. In fact, she's had a complete makeover.

Here's what she looked like last time I showed her here:

My idea was that we were supposed to sympathize with her. She's lonesome because she can't look anyone in the eye and everyone's scared of her. I decided that idea was lost in the actual painting and went ahead and made her scarier.

I'm not sure if I like my fleeting idea to have her snakes pulled back into a reptilian ponytail, but I like her face and pose much better at this point. Still lots of work to be done, though.

Onward to thanksgiving things. I finished that cornucopia I was painting and used it in greeting cards.

This is the front and back of the greeting card. It's a very light yellow on the inside. This and all the cards in my Zazzle shop are half off through November 27 if you use the coupon code "ALLCARDSSALE" during checkout.

Here's a couple designs of Thanksgiving invites that I made, too. I really love them.

I'm also working on Christmas stuff. These are my absolute favorite...

They're customizable with your own photos and greetings, and it's pretty easy to do. Check them out in the shop!

Also some non-photo cards, for those of us who don't get Holiday pictures taken.

These are also customizable with text on the banner in the front or in the burgundy area on the back.

Today I'm working on some angels for ornaments...or whatever. Here's a sneak peek at the first one-

I intend to do a whole series of these. This one, as you might guess, is the Angel of Love. I have ideas for angels of peace, laughter, vitality, etc. What would you like to see an angel of? Let me know in the comments.