Author: Toadsongs

Toadsongs https://toadsongs.wordpress.com I am an artist, writer, mom and wife.

Back to the Drawing Board

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Get it! Because I literally am BACK at DRAWING on my BOARD after National Novel Writing Month, I have dubbed this post “Back to the Drawing Board.” Nice!

Not that I’m finished with the novel, yet. Both my husband and I were able to reach the 50,000 word goal a day early thanks to some fresh hop beer and some good music. I still have about 10,000 words left in the story, I think. I would like to finish this year. I think I have a lot more 2011 goals to finish than New Years’ Resolutions at this point.

First, I needed to begin my entry into the Prismacolor contest. I re-started one of the drawings I had been working on and hid my Luminance pencils from myself. Even if my drawing makes it nowhere in the contest, I thought it would be fun to go back to using only Prismas for a change. I predict I will miss the super layering, non breaking powers of the Caran d’Ache Luminance, which will of course be great validation to buy more. Buah ha ha!

Meanwhile, have this sketch I did to try and win a commission. I never heard back about it, but it was a fun little drawing competed in a day. Toad Thinker:

I know what I’m doing in December!

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Prismacolor, which is probably the most popular artist’s colored pencil  (at least here in the US), is having an art contest! I of course can not wait to enter. The winner gets to have their art piece on the Prismacolor tin. That is a huge deal, seeing as they sell millions of those things at billions of places . (Disclaimer: I may be exaggerating a little.)

Due to NaNoWriMo (28,000 words in now) I didn’t enter the CPSA’s “Explore This” as planned.  I am grinding through my novel with at least 1000 words nightly. It’s fun, and I think I have a decent idea, but it restricts time for everything else. I thought about entering “Reflection” into the Prismacolor contest, but it has a lot of Caran d’Ache Luminance in it. I thought about entering “Lipstick”, but it has been in a contest before which disqualifies it. So, I plan on creating a brand new 100% Prismacolor piece for this contest. Entries are due by January 3rd. Some great entries are in so far, and I know there are great CP artists out there getting a jump on me right now.

I encourage everyone who likes colored pencils to give it a shot. Let’s show the world wat you can do with colored pencils! But first I need to write 22,000 more words. Oh, and I also need to play some more Skyrim!

 

You can find the contest on Facebook here: http://apps.facebook.com/contestshq/contests/172075

A month of writing

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I haven’t done a bit of art since I finished “Reflection.” What I have done is write 17,000 words for National Novel Writing Month so far! It is a challenge; I don’t feel like writing very much after working, driving home through hell traffic, making dinner and so on. So I have been devoting my precious art time to writing, and I do feel a little bad about it.

The CPSA has their deadline for the “Explore This!” Expo next week. I am hoping to finish “Reflection” off with a coat of acrylic  like I used to do on my first colored pencil drawings. My first favorites are a pair of Gray’s tree frog drawings that have a colored pencil base and a thick coat of acrylic and acrylic medium over them. They look more like paintings because of this treatment. But first I need to write a few hundred more words.

Halloween Nail Art

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Last week I took a break from my traditional art making. I can’t totally shun creativity for long and so I found myself making some fingernail art. I was reading my favorite Internet forums and they pointed to a contest on Facebook for horror movie themed fingernails. The salon nail polish company OPI was having a giveaway where the best nails would take home some glow in the dark nailpolish among other goodies. I decided to enter. For some reason, I noticed my fingernails about two months ago and became really in to painting them, so this seemed like a great idea. We happened to be watching the horror  classic “The Exorcist” as our Halloween themed Netflix viewing for the time being, and so I decided to take that theme to my nails.

This is what I came up with:

Possessed Reagan puking her famous pea green vomit. The Exorcist is a much more disturbing movie to me now that I have a kid; I can’t imagine if mine was possessed by the devil. As much as it sometimes seems she already is, the ordeal in The Exorcist is crazy.

It was fun to paint my nails. I used a tiny oil painting brush and about ten colors of polish. I hope to score some free nail polish, but really it was just fun. I wore these nails to work a couple days and then out to a some fun fall themed get-togethers. I have never been a fingernail person, but I have found that keeping my nails up is relaxing and fun, even with short little fingernails!

Now, back to some colored pencil works. Well, maybe after the pumpkin carving. . .

Finished!

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After two months of drawing, I think I’m finally finished with my latest colored pencil piece. “Reflection.” Thank God! I still want to do a mixed media piece to enter into the CPSA‘s Explore This expo, and the deadline is November 15th! The Colored Pencil Society has been a great motivator form e this year. This will be the fifth finished piece I have done in 2011. I usually finish one or two at the most. Here’s “Reflection.” I may enter it into next year’s International Expo, but because it is 100% colored pencil it doesn’t qualify for the CPSA’s upcoming show.

I can already see more things I’d like to change.  We’re close, though.  I took good photos along the way and hope to have an animated gif of the process put together soon. This is the same toad who posed for me in “Lipstick.” I liked the reflection idea and whipped up a three way mirror with some tiles from Micheal’s.

My next piece will feature a new fabulous amphibian model (although to be fair, all of my models look pretty much alike.) It will be colored pencil with some acrylic paint to qualify it for “Explore This.” It is also more in the vein of “Lipstick.” I can’t wait to get started.