Be Mused Art » Daily Work

A Wayward Path

Melia — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 07:28:10 +0000

Things have been busy as usual around here. I guess the biggest piece of news is that you can now create my art for yourself with cross stitch patterns by Misty Dreamz.
Also for all you taggers, My Tag Art is now offering some cool bulk deals and you can get a huge discount, and can then make you own cool tags and avatars.
And of course there is the art. For those that have been following my art for the decade that I have been actually sending it out into the world, you might recognize the style that I have been working in lately. So who remembers that belly dancers and the mandalas? Yes, they are both back with a fantasy twist, with a little bit of Mucha’s art nouveau style (which has been showing up off and on for years).
My artistic style seems to meander along a twisty little path, and every so often doubles back on itself, so I can pick up a style that seemed to have been dropped by the wayside. Everything I see infects my art and sometimes it takes months or years to figure out how to incorporate this new vision on the world with what I was already doing.

In the beginning – oh about junior high or early highschool – I drew cats. I could copy a photo of any cat with prismacolors and a piece of mat board. Then I went to my first sci-fi conventions. Thst turned my world upside down. I was only 16 then. In college, I picked up an interest in mythology and prayer book illuminations. And that became a major influence. Then after college I was so tired of painting that I took up crazy quilting and researching Victorian life – which introduced me to Art Nouveau. After my daughter was born, I lost the sewing room to a nursery and picked up belly dancing to get back in shape – which lead to belly dance paintings first a pop art then a cubist style as I became more focused on capturing the movement of the dance than a realistic representation of the dancer. And of course a bit of research into eastern culture and meditation played out in the form of elaborate mandalas. Then I came back to the kitties, they started to sprout wings, which lead to fairies with art nouveau style borders and backgrounds.

Which is how I find myself today with sketchbooks filled with art of a variety of styles and subjects. And I have been cutting those sketchbooks up and scanning the sketches to save as digital files, and putting the originals up in a special shop on etsy.

Mercat with 7 Fishies

Melia — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 09:21:47 +0000

There is nothing like a new idea to keep a gal up till nearly 4:30am. Going to sleep now. I really need to get this drawing onto watercolor paper and painted. I actually completed 3 drawings since I woke up. I will have to post the other one later – I think it is funny, but at 4:20am most things are funny.

Frozen Dragon

Melia — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 20:15:15 +0000

Frozen Dragon

This was drawn for this week’s illustration friday them “frozen”. I think I must have an over active imagination, because I am taking that glare rather personally. It almost seems like he is mad at me for putting him into that situation. Kind of like those old Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck cartoons where they argue with the illustrator because they don’t like how they were drawn. But then if I didn’t have such an overactive imagination, I probably wouldn’t be in this business. So I will deal with the accusing glare of this little dragon.
BTW did you notice that he is using an old sock to keep the tip of his tail warm. I really don’t think dragons like the cold.

Christmas Dragon

Melia — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 04:52:10 +0000

This is what I have been working on today. This is a drawing about 5 inches tall. I sketched and inked it in my sketchbook. I am going to increase the size about 20% and redraw and ink it on bristol board, just because I really like ink on bristol board. Not sure yet if I am going to use watercolor or am going to do shading in ink yet.

Each Day Is Something New

Melia — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 03:30:00 +0000

Fairy Cat with blue and purple wings

Every day I am creating art. Either drawing, painting or playing with stuff digitally. Yes the digital is all new. I even got a trial of Photoshop to play with. But anyway, back to the subject at hand. I figured that people might actually be interested in my daily creations. If nothing else it gives me something to post and talk about.

Here we have a button design I worked on today. I call it Pretty Wings. The fairy cat is based on the pen and ink drawing I did “Fairy Cat with Rose Window“. I redrew the image then scanned it in and played with it in Photoshop. In a week or so, I will send the design out to be made into 1″ buttons. I am very excited about this new product, and am hoping to have 10 different button designs based on my artwork.

Also, I would like to say something wonderful is happening on Tuesday. I am very excited and I can barely keep it to myself. Come back Tuesday and see what it is going to be. Eeeeee!

Tomorrow I will post again with my day’s doodlings. Maybe I can keep it up. I am always creating, but don’t always take the time to scan things to show off.