Purify Color Sketch

I’m creating again! Finally! I’ve mentioned before that my faith is a big part of my life. More and more, I hope to convey that in my work. 

This newest sketch, done in pastels, was inspired by an essay I’ve been reading by JC Ryle titled Holiness : Its Nature, Hindrances, Difficulties, and Roots. It’s available to purchase on Kindle if you’d like to check it out. 

My youngest daughter modeled for me.I still need more practice drawing humans, but I’m really happy with the sketch and can’t wait to transfer it to canvas. 

“Purify” – a pastel sketch by Melody Kittles

“Therefore, my dear friends, since we have these promises, let us purify ourselves from everything that can defile either body or spirit, and strive to be completely holy, out of reverence for God.”  2 Corinthians 7:1 (CJV)

New Items Available!

Last week, I was able to add two of my favorite pieces of art to my pages on Redbubble and Society6. Please do stop by and check them out. I’m working to add most of my art and photography to the sites but it’s slow work indeed with our wonky internet.

Here are the two pieces of art now available on my pages. You can visit the pages by clicking on the link for each site in the caption under each photo. Thanks for stopping by!

“Web of Life” – mixed media artwork by Melody Kittles – Check it out on Redbubble by clicking here. Check it out on Society6 by clicking here.

“The Mechanic” – mixed media (drawing in micron pens, colors and textures added in Gimp) by Melody Kittles. Check it out on Redbubble by clicking here. Check it out on Society6 by clicking here.

Far Too Long

It’s been far too long since I sat down to write to you, dear readers. I’ve been dealing with a lot of changes going on in my life. I’m fairly certain I’m pre-menapausal and we’re adjusting to a new budget. The latter has always been hard for me but add to it the former? Yikes!

I’m in a creative slump. I’ve really done more with photography lately, simply because it’s handy. I almost always have my phone with me. I’ve started uploading my work to Redbubble and Society6 again. Looking back through my favorite pieces has really inspired me to restart and see what I can create.

Wish me luck, offer up a prayer or two or MANY. I need it! And I could use some hints, tips, and words of encouragement as well. Goodness only knows what it will take to jumpstart my creative mind. I know I want to get back into jewelry making. And I have a good-sized canvas waiting for me to fill it. My awesome Son and DiL bought an easel for me some time ago and I need to put it through its paces. 🙂

Here are two photos I took at our son’s wedding (and you can check them out on Instagram, too, if you like.) He was married in April. I edited these in my phone (Samsung S5) with the editor that came with it.

Our Sons – Photo by Melody Kittles – I managed to catch this photo before the other grooms-people got to their places.

Our Daughters – Photo by Melody Kittles – I caught this photo while we were waiting for the ceremony to begin. The girls were super happy to be able to walk for their brother as grooms-people.

The photo of our sons was edited with the photo editor that came with my phone. I simply cropped the photo of our daughters and left it alone after that.

I hope to blog next week. I’ll be attending BayouCon in Sulfur, LA this weekend with my husband, John, of J.D. Kittles Photography. He’ll be doing a panel on his passion, storm photography, along with Andy Thibodeaux who is best known in our area as the Cajun Weatherman. Andy heads up our group, Cajun Weather Spotters, and will be talking about storm spotting.

If you’re in the area, you might like to check it out. Their panel will be at 3 pm on Saturday, June 25. (Yes, that’s this Saturday.) Just click here to find out more about the event.

Twistangled

I didn’t realize this post was left as a draft! Life has indeed been crazy as we finished up our school year and began our summer school session. And some of the circumstances left me in a slump during which I simply focused on the extremely important and urgent things I needed to do. So it’s a been a while since this event which happened in January. I hope you will still enjoy reading about it and the photo I was able to catch during the trip.

Our family visited San Antonio, TX last month. We’d gone there to witness the graduation of the USAF TACP Eagle 100 class. My husband is part of Eagle 23 class. It was nice to see some positive changes in how the TACP tech school is done. There’s a fantastic graduation ceremony for those who pass the course, as well as a question and answer session for spouses and parents to get a general view of what their loved ones will be living once they join the career field.

When the graduation service was over, we walked out of the building and I saw this beautiful sleeping tree. The sky was extremely clear and the branches stood out so perfectly against that crystalline sky. I snapped a couple of shots with my cell and created this photo-manipulation. I added an overlay I created by using the fisheye mode on my cell to snap a blurred macro shot of a makeup sponge covered in soft pastels. The overall effect was pretty surprising and I’m really happy with the result. I hope you enjoy it, too! If you like what you see, please share this post. If you’d like to purchase a print or photo gift with this print on it, these options are only available on deviantArt for now. I’ll be uploading to Society6 and Redbubble as soon as possible.

 

Beaded Curtain Project

I love shiny things! Glitter…tinsel…shiny glass ornaments…crystal and glass beads…stained glass windows…mirrors…diamond-paned windows…Moroccan lanterns…OK…any kind of glass lanterns…I love them all!  Light, bright, airy and happy! I have a general plan for what I’d like to do with our craft room and bringing in more light and sparkle is a must. It’s a dark room on the east side of our house. It only gets light in the early morning hours and while there are 4 windows, one set looks out onto our carport. Right now, it’s dark and the wooden walls and single overhead light are doing nothing to help. I plan to create some Roman shades in light-colored fabric for the windows and hang a beaded curtain over each one. This way, when the shades are up, there will be lots of color and shine…I hope. I’ve also got a small collection of candle lanterns I want to hang up and a lamp set I want to purchase. So far, this is what I’ve got. Thanks to my daughters and my future DiL, I’ve got a total of 21 strands ready to hang.

— My bunch of bead strands —

P.S. I’m on Snapchat as artcreationist so if you’d like to connect with me there, look me up! 🙂 I’m also on Periscope ( @ArtCreationist5) but I haven’t decided what my first video should be about, or how I can accomplish it well. I hope to have something up soon.

Unfathomable Love

I’m a music person. I don’t really collect the music of certain bands as much as I collect certain songs that speak to me in some way, either technically or emotionally. There are certain songs that lodge within my innermost being and will not be removed. Maybe, I am a strange person after all. While I was at work earlier this week, “Jose Cuervo” kept running through my head. It’s not technically fantastic, nor or the lyrics anything special but my elementary school self truly enjoyed that song. I haven’t heard it song for years  but the chorus kept repeating while I kept pinning fringe strips on country Mardi Gras costumes. When I told my husband about it, he had a good chuckle over it. 🙂 This is a recurring thing, though, random songs just popping into my mind at odd times.

This morning, before my eyes were even open, a different song was running through my head. I knew I had to hear it again! After I got out of bed, had my coffee, did my morning reading and wrote in my journal, I pulled it up on YouTube. “How Deep The Father’s Love For Us” by Stewart Townsend has made a huge impression on me. I first heard it during this past summer at a church we were visiting and it found a comfy section of my mind to make its home in. All it took was hearing it once for me to love the message it carried. What a magnificent blessing! To wake to such empowering and humbling lyrics and know I am LOVED this much.

As I listened to the song once more, cried uncontrollable tears while pondering the lyrics and what they meant to me, one phrase stood out above the others and it stood out in a personal way: “to make a wretch His treasure.” He made this wretch His treasure. Me. This meant so much much to me that I decided to do something I’d been putting on the back burner for a long time.
I’ve been wanting to try my hand at creating a work of text art. By now, I have a fair collection of various artworks I’ve created over the last 2 years. I decided to use some of my photography and digital art pieces to create this. I’m pleased with how it turned out. I hope it inspires you to create something equally as important to you!

“Unfathomable Love” – digital artwork by Melody Kittles, not for sale. A free download for personal use only is available at my deviantArt gallery page. Just click here. All the necessary credits for the song it’s based on are embedded in the artwork.

To check out the lyrics of the song, please visit the artist’s website by clicking here.

 

New Photography Up!

I’ve been through the results of my polls and the winner was “Things Only Children See” with 23 votes. The runner-up was “Mystic Sunset.” Both items are now up for sale at my Society6 and Redbubble pages. Simply click on the links provided below to get to them!

To get to “Things Only Children See” at Redbubble, click here!

To get to “Things Only Children See” at Soceity6, click here!

“Things Only Children Can See” – The winner in my current photography poll…for a limited time, it will be offered as a free download for personal use, through deviantArt. Simply visit my deviantArt page by clicking here!

To get to “Mystic Sunset” at Redbubble, click here!

To get to “Mystic Sunset” at Society6, click here!

“Mystic Sunset” photo by Melody Kittles – To read more about it, or to purchase a photo/photo gift, please click here to be directed to my deviantArt page.

These prints are available for sale on deviantArt in these forms. Items marked with an * are only available with “Things Only Children See” on them.

1. art prints
2. photos
3. canvas prints
4. mugs
5. greeting card*
6. postcard*
7. mouse pad*
8. coaster*
9. magnet (2 sizes available)*

They’re available on Society6 in these forms:

1. iphone/ipod case
2. canvas print
3. travel mug
4. hoody
5. duvet cover
6. long sleeved tee
7. all over print tee
8. throw pillow
9. tote bag
10. stationary cards
11. laptop sleeve
12. t-shirt
13. biker tank
14. framed art print
15. laptop/ipad skin
16. ipad case
17. shower curtain
18. wall clock
19. v-neck tee
20. unisex tank

They’re available on Redbubble in these forms:

1. Samsung Galaxy S5 case
2. leggings
3. graphic tee
4. pencil skirt
5. scarf
6. unisex tee
7. women’s tee
8. laptop skin
9. poster print
10. photographic art print
11. art print
12. framed print
13. metal print
14. mug
15. travel mug
16. throw pillow
17. duvet cover (twin/queen/king)
18. shower curtain
19. draw string bag
20. tote bag
21. laptop sleeve
22. studio pouch
23. journal
24. sticker
25. greeting card

As you can see, it just depends on which item you want as to which site you’ll need to visit. I was recently made aware of another site which I’ll be checking out called Artflakes. My artist friend Care Halverson, who does beautiful work, is the one who called my attention to it. Please do visit her deviantArt page to check it out by clicking here!

One new thing to note, I’m removing the “like” button from my posts from this point on. It’s a depressing thing I’d like to remove from my feed. If possible, I would prefer interaction with my readers. To me, giving an honest opinion and/or sharing the link means more than clicking a button on the bottom of a post.

And with that, I do believe today’s post is complete! I’m going to try making the other artwork I previously loaded onto the Society6 and Redbubble sites available on other products but my internet is being very uncooperative. I’ve been trying to load the correctly sized pictures to the sites for the past 3 days with no luck. I’ll keep troubleshooting with my husband and do my best to work it all out. Thanks for stopping by today. If you enjoy my work, please share these links with your friends and remember to support your local artists, artisans, thespians, farmers, and small businesses! Your courteous comments are welcome here!

Poll Closed and Free Download

To thank everyone who voted in my polls, I’m offering a free download of the photo with the most votes. It will only be free for a limited time. The photo with the most votes (21) was “Things Only Children Can See” and it really surprised me. I had a lot of fun seeing what everyone’s favorites were and I appreciate all the help. My next step is to re-edit this photo for sale on Society6 and Redbubble products. I’ll be busy for quite some time as I’ll work my way down the list of all these pieces and add them to my pages according to their popularity in the polls.

To get your free download, FOR PERSONAL USE ONLY, please visit my deviantArt page by clicking here.

“Things Only Children Can See” – The winner in my current photography poll! For a limited time, it will be offered as a free download for personal use. Simply visit the link above.

First Photography Poll

I want to start adding more work to my Redbubble and Society 6 pages. I’d absolutely love to have your help! Would you please consider taking a bit of your time to vote for your favorite photo in each of these collages? There are 4 different polls in this post. I’ll use the results to see which photos should get my attention first. Thanks in advance!

Photo Collage 1: Vote for your favorite photo in this collage by clicking on the link under this picture. It will take you to poll-maker.com where you can click on your favorite.

Poll #1

Please click on the link below to vote for your favorite photo in this collage. The link will take you to poll #2 at poll-maker.com.

Poll #2

Please click on the link below to go to poll #3 at poll-maker.com to vote for your favorite photo in this collage.

Poll #3

Please click on the link below to go to Poll #4 and vote for your favorite of these three photos. The link will take you to poll-maker.com.

Poll #4

Please click on the link below to go to Poll #5 and vote for your favorite photo in this collage. The link will take you to poll-maker.com.

Poll #5

I realize this could’ve been done much easier through Polldaddy if I knew more about how to make it work. I just didn’t have the time to figure out how to link it to my WordPress and I need the results as fast as I can get them. Thanks in advance for voting!

Holiday Art

I’ve been so overwhelmed with the direction my life is going right now. However, I have had time to squeeze in some art on the side. These two pieces were created for a holiday card drive which was posted on deviantArt. I used the opportunity as both a school project and an art club project. I’m not sure I posted about that but our daughters wanted to start a club. Since they and several of their friends are interested in art of all kinds, we decided on an art club. We’ve had three meetings so far and the club members are all doing their best to make the club fun and successful.

My challenge was to create a holiday card that sent out my true wishes and also maintained a non-religion-specific message. First I tried creating a fractal. I had so much fun using Chaotica to create this! I watched a YouTube tutorial to learn what the different tools and settings did and then ended up with this.

“Bright Days” was created in Chaotica by Melody Kittles. To purchase a magnet or coffee mug with this fractal on it, please visit my deviantArt gallery at http://pianolady32.deviantart.com/art/Bright-Days-577637713

I’m so happy with how the fractal turned out but it just wasn’t what I really wanted for this card. So I created this mixed media artwork with ink and acrylics.

“Christmas Card 2015” is a mixed media artwork created by Melody Kittles. If you would like to purchase a print, card, or print gift, please visit my deviantArt page here: http://pianolady32.deviantart.com/art/Christmas-Card-2015-577649924

I’m also happy with how this card turned out. I had a lot of fun creating the blue for the night sky and painting in the little gold stars. Very storybook-like! And I really like how the copper edging on the brown border really added a nice depth.

If you’d like to purchase one of these in a format not available on deviantArt, please leave a comment and I’ll see what I can do. Thanks for stopping by!