It's Good Friday!

It's Good Friday, and many people are taking the day off.

It's not a holiday where I work, although we may take it as a religious holiday. So the halls of my office will be "bare" today, I'm sure.

My little butterfly sweetheart to the left is a little creation I came up with yesterday. He's colorful, and sweet. And he's ready for spring!

In Ohio, we've gone, overnight, back to winter. On Tuesday, we had 80 degrees, and had snow flurries by Wednesday with strong gusts of bitterly cold wind. Our wind chill factor had us drop back into the teens -- and it's cold.

All the better for this bright little creature I've made to share today. He adds a little touch of spring to my life!

Here's my "June" character in a new creation also.

While it's not Mother's Day yet, she would look great on the front of any card.

In my case, I am the "mother" of my family. With no parents of my own left to celebrate, I re-live memories on special days for parents, and I hope to be the best mom I can be for my own grown children.

My husband is still fortunate though, to have his mother still living, and in fairly good health. While she lives far awhile with many other family members, they keep in touch by phone.

Have a really great Friday.

My comments section is open to post to, if you wish. If you leave a comment, it will not post right away, but comes to my email. In this way, I can edit, publish, or reject a comment.

Blogger 2 is a terrific new program!

See you tomorrow.

Pixel Tubes

My drawing adventures led me into the world of pixels.

Pixels are very small, and while the outline is created one pixel at a time, I learned as I had with making patterns that once the outline is drawn, you can select the shapes and fill instantly. After filling, you simple use your special effects to shade by choosing the cutout function.

Because they are so small, you have to work "zoomed in", but they do come out so adorable.

Pixels are great for putting in emails.


After making the first little pink mouse, it was easy to add a cookie to him. I just drew the arms around front instead of at this side. Because I made a pattern for him, I could easily change his coloring this time.

I've done several pixels, and over time, I will display more. I am constantly trying new ways of creating my art.

Graph paper would be one way to design a pixel. But using PSP, you can simply snap on the grid which gives you kind of a computerized graph paper.

Have a great day.

See you tomorrow!

Ah! More Tubes

Hump day! That's Wednesday.

Here's a little rambling snail. I was experiment-ing with making textures, and found his shell to be interesting.

I started playing with it first, and then thought it could be used for a "shell creature".

Below, you'll see a girl set for her prom. She took much more time to create than the snail.

I once had a dress in black in white like this, but in a short style. It didn't have the red trim on it, but because I like red, and thought it would define the dress more, I added it.

When she was finished, I decided she needed a wrist corsage. And there it is.

Drawing is so much fun.

You can do anything with it!

And that it's for today!

Make it a great "HUMP" day!

Back Yard

This picture started out with just making ONE fence post.

Of course, once I had one, I decided to make a group of three.

Then I thought it would be nice to curve the top.

Then it needed something in front of it.

I made some unusual-looking bushes, and added some flower tubes I'd already made and had stashed away.

ThenI needed dirt and grass which I made. Actually, I had made grass, so could just add that.

Then I thought I'd put a house behind it. I once had a patio like this in an apartment.

Then the curtain came. An experiment. And then I had this girl tube I'd made.

Next, the wall looked a little empty. Viola! A light! With a glow.

Tubes can also be made from photographs. I often find pictures to use that say, "Tubed by ...."

You can take your trusty camera with you and take some wonderful pictures.

At this time of year, with the flowers just beginning to bloom, you can do some beautiful flower tubes.

You can do your children, grandchildren, pets, and attractive items you find around your house.

A tube is usually ONE item, although you'll find tubes that may have "a couple" in them, such as two lovers embracing.

It is amazing what is out there!

I started out "collecting" tubes. From there, I wanted to make tubes, and that's when I discovered that it could be done using vectors.

I've made tubes as well as just patterns, which can then be filled with any color you decide.

Right now, I am playing with textures, shading, and composition. It is all great fun!

That's it! See you tomorrow!

Well, the new week is here.

Here are some tubes I made and then put together to create an ad for my blog.

Now that's a clean, shiny floor there.

The woman, I call June. The paint brush tip was made from a kaleidoscope, and of course, the creation on the back wall is also a kaleidoscope.

Kaleidoscopes remind me a lot of scribble drawings that I talked about in another post. I see pictures and figures in my kalei's, as I call them, and often use them for a new creation.

Sometimes the idea I see is very small. The details are hidden, but the nice thing about drawing in psp is that you can just keep working with what you see until you get something. Some drawings turn into a creature that doesn't exist, but that's the fun of it.

Below you can see one of my examples that I'm talking about. This was an alien bug made from a kalei. I used it in a creation called, "I can't come to work today. I caught some kind of new bug!" Oh yeah.


June was made several months ago. She was made with vectors, turned into rasters. Layer upon layer until she was finished.

I added her to my computer desktop at work as my screen saver with a popular question I hear at work all day. I also used her to make stationary in Outlook Express called "The House Wife".


And that's it for today. See you tomorrow!

It's Spring --

It's Spring! And life and love is all around.

I love spring.

The birds have been singing their welcoming song for about 2 weeks now. I've heard them as I take the long walk in from my car in the parking lot to my building each morning.

I hear them this morning outside my window in my tiny home office.

And the early spring flowers are just blooming.

Colors come alive in spring. The new shoes for spring all sport bright new springy colors. I just love it!

Above is another creation I made this morning. With spring comes renewed energy and a feeling of love. A love for life and for those we have around us.

Easter is next weekend. Again. An example of love from our Creator to the creation He gave life to.

Ah! What a beautiful time of year!

See you tomorrow!

I created this "Royalty" icon yesterday.

It's funny how they come into creation sometimes.

I am a big fan of "kaleidoscopes". It's a tool inside PSP, for those of you that aren't familiar with it.

Royalty's hat is made from a design that popped up. I saw something in it I liked, cleaned it up, and when I was done, it looked like a hat. So I began working with it.

After the hat was done, the next logical step, to me, was to have a head under it. Viola! Her dress was also taken from a different kaleidoscope.

One of the methods I use when drawing sometimes is one I've used since I was a kid.

Have you ever laid on your back on a blanket and just looked at the clouds? I like to sit in the car on trips and look at them, too. You find pictures in them, and as they move, the pictures change.

Well. I use scribbing on a sheet of paper. Arm held loose and just scribble away. Then I study the picture as I would the clouds. Sometimes something pops out right away. Other times, I may turn it around, one side at a time. Something always pops out.

And then I know what I'm drawing. Once I have an idea, I just run with it.

As usual, since I love cartoons, it is usually "cartoon-style". Cartooning gives you so much room, and exaggeration is more than acceptable.

This fish below was done on my computer, freehand using my vectors in my program.

I signed up for a 3d art draw "2-year school" for kids. Mark Kistler said it's okay to be a kid at 108. I'm NOT 108, but I am a rather OLDER kid. I'm a grandma. You can find his school at www.draw3d.com.

This fish is one of the things he teaches in his school. He has a PBS program series as well as 4 wonderful sketching books. I signed up for his classes to learn more about 3d drawing, shading, and perspective.

The fish was probably one of the first three or four lessons he taught. I'd already gone through about 15 items or so, and drew this one from memory. I had put my pages aways, and just went back to look at it. I was surprised how similar it still is to the original he taught.


Here it is in color, and one in shades of black and white.

Drawing is great fun! It's relaxing. A day without drawing is not much of a day for me.

I work hard every week. I work overtime when it's allowed. Working 100-105 hours every two weeks takes a lot out of you. So precious "early morning" hours give me time to get some creating in. That's why you see such early hours for my postings.

I happen to be lucky enough to work a "flexible" schedule. I start at 6 a.m. on the job, so find the "wee hours" of morning for MY TIME. I come home late. Often I don't leave work till 6 p.m., and am just too exhausted to get on my computer at night. When overtime ends, I will leave at 3 p.m. Then, I will probably find some late afternoon time, too!

That's it for today.

See you tomorrow!