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.

Almost Too Busy

I’ve been almost to busy to create art. Almost, but not quite! I still haven’t been creating at the speed I was last year but I’m convinced that’s just my way. I’m considering starting another home & family type blog since that’s where most of my energy is being devoted these days. One of my friends mentioned that she missed seeing my recipes on facebook. I do my best to avoid that site, so I think a blog would be an excellent alternative.

Here’s what I’ve been working on lately, mostly drawings these days, color coming from soft pastels and colored pencils. I love soft pastels! I love the effects you can create with them. I just need more work with them.

“Imagine Invent Explore” – drawing created by Melody Kittles – To purchase your print of this item, click the photo to go to my deviantArt page.

I started first with pencil, then inked over the lines. The balloon’s color comes from the colored pencils and I added color to the sky with the pastels. In this next one, I used ink and soft pastels.

“Changes” – drawing by Melody Kittles – If you’d like to purchase your own print of this piece, please click on the photo to go to my deviantArt page.

This piece is very organic…it’s a vine…or a tree…or just some random leaves and twigs…leaves a lot open for the imagination. My husband says he really likes this one.

If you like either of these pieces and would like to have a print of your own, you can click on the photos to go directly to my deviantArt page, where you can choose from a variety of items sporting my prints. They’d make nice holiday gifts!

Inspiration and Art

I have another couple of photos to share with you, as well as one art piece I finished this week. I’d started it during our Thanksgiving break but wasn’t able to finish it for one reason and another. I hope you enjoy these! To find out more about each one, click the photos to go to my deviantART pages for each. There you can see which ones are available for purchase as photo prints, art prints, canvas prints, or more. You can also see which ones are available as downloads for personal use only. Please do not use any of my work in any way without asking my permission first.

“Sunset Glory” – photo by Melody Kittles – Click on the photo for more info available on my deviantART page.

“Pieces Of My Heart” – photo by Melody Kittles – For more information, please check out my deviantART page. This photo is NOT available for purchase or download. You DO NOT have permission to use any of my photos with people in them in any way without my permission.

“Shattered” – mixed media artwork by Melody Kittles – I created this after watching ‘Mockingjay’ with Starshine. For more information on this artwork, please click the photo to go to my deviantART page.

 

Art Projects

I’m working on yesterday’s art challenge, as well as today’s art challenge. I hope to have photos to share with you tomorrow. If I’m able to finish them today, it will still be late before I’m done and the signal is terrible from about 7pm until about 2am. I just wanted to keep you guys posted. The challenges I’m working on are “A Change of Heart” and “You As A Cartoon”. The second one will prove to be the most difficult for me, but probably the most helpful. I need lots of work with proportion. It would be nice if I could just use ChibiMaker! I may use it as reference for lines and such. I’ll share one of the chibis I created with it so you can see what that is. I know I’ve blogged about it before because the girls and I really enjoy having fun creating little characters.

I used Chibi Maker to create this little character of myself. This is probably the one I’ll use as reference to draw/paint a picture of myself later today. Clicking the photo will take you to ChibiMaker and you can have fun creating your own little chibi!

Today’s Art Challenge: Skyline

When I first heard about today’s art challenge, I cringed. We don’t get many opportunities to see a real city skyline. Then I realized it happened to coincide with a trip we needed to make to New Orleans, LA. I was so happy!

…And then I thought about it some more. The nifty thing about this art challenge group on facebook is that the artist has the freedom to choose the interpretation of the theme and the medium they wish to use. This is great for me because it means I’ll get to participate on more days than I would otherwise. I don’t always get to break out the paints. Neither do I always have the time to devote to a detailed pencil sketch.

So the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I didn’t have to do a traditional skyline and since when did I prefer traditional in most of my work or life choices? Not for many years now!

Here’s my contribution to the fb group for today’s challenge: “Skyline.”

I know the art challenge theme was singular but I chose to display multiple “skylines” in my interpretation of the theme. I used my cell to snap the shot and Pixlr Express to edit it. Clicking on the photo will take you to my deviantART gallery where you can view the photo, download a copy, or purchase a print, if you so choose! 🙂

This is not the first photo of ‘skylines’ I snapped. I also got the one below and I had a really hard time choosing between the two. John helped me choose the above photo for the challenge. So this one remains a second. Which one do you prefer? Feel free to leave a comment.

Second option for the ‘skyline’ challenge… I used my cell to snap the shot and Pixlr Express to edit it. If you click on the photo, it will take you to my deviantART gallery where you can view the photo, download a copy, or buy a print. Oh! And please don’t be confused by the different title on this photo. It’s not really titled at all. I just snapped this shot first, so I labeled it as such when I uploaded it to deviantART.

 

More Photos

I haven’t had much of an opportunity to create art over the last couple of days. We’re playing catch up on all the chores that were neglected while we were busy with the theater production. But I keep snapping photos here and there and I got a few good ones today that I’ll share with you. I hope you enjoy them! I used my cell to snap the shots and for the editing on most of them, I used Pixlr Express.

This is the unedited version of the snail shell photo. It was such a pretty little thing! Magiba was kinda bummed because it wouldn’t come out of the shell. My settings were probably all wrong for this shot. Live and learn…but the beauty of nature is still pretty evident, I think. 🙂

I’ve been enjoying Emerald Wake’s snail photographs. (You can see one by clicking here and then check out the others while you’re there!) So it was really cool when John found this snail and showed it to Magiba, who then ran inside to show it to me. I snapped a photo and this is the edited version.

Today’s art challenge in the “Your Daily Art Challenge” facebook group. This was my contribution. I thought long and hard about it before snapping the shot, though. I really wanted something different but I’m glad I snapped this. It came out pretty nifty! I’m happy with the shot and I guess that’s what matters.

Again, thanks for stopping by and taking the time to check out these photos. I hope they make you smile! Feel free to leave comments or ask questions. 🙂

More Inspiration

Too late to write much…but not too busy to snap a few photos of inspiring things…

These clouds inspired me to ooh and ahh for the duration of the drive from our house to the theater where we practice. I often wish I could capture these like good ol’ Bob Ross.

Starshine is on the left. She’s modeling a fedora my grandpa wore. Magiba is on the right and she’s wearing a had my Papa used to wear when he was still with us. Our girls can sure rock those fedoras! They inspire me to smile more often than frown. I think John would agree we’re pretty blessed.

To prove my earlier statement, the epic clouds were indeed hanging out over the theater. What a fabulous show the sky put on today! We also saw two rainbows on the drive to the theater, and that’s only 10-15 minutes of driving! Very inspiring!

I like photos that show an interesting perspective so I snapped this one. This building inspires me a lot for some reason. It’s not the first time I’ve photographed it. It probably won’t be the last. It’s full of character!

I am calling this one ‘Flaming Cage’…because that’s what it makes me think of. I stood and looked at it for some time and I always look at these boarded up and barred windows. They were boarded up, I think, because they look out onto a quite uninspiring building across the way. If the building were to be painted with something fantastic, and some beautiful flowers planted in the little grassy patches beside the walkway, I think they owners of the restaurant might re-open those windows and let the sun shine in.

I had a lot of fun snapping these shots today. I hope you enjoy checking them out. Who knows? Maybe they’ll inspire you, too! I used my cellphone to take the photos and Pixlr-O-Matic editing app to edit them.

Time For A Change

Yesterday’s post was so very heavy. I decided to travel a lighter path today.

Bowties. They’ve made a come-back in recent years.

My girls love them.

My youth group members love them.

I love them!

So I decided to try my hand at making one. I have a pattern but I lost the instructions. I did my youtube research and found this tutorial on making an adjustable, pre-tied bowtie (This guy has a fabulous accent, don’t you think?) and this other tutorial on how to tie an actual bowtie. I found lots of online patterns like this one for making an actual bowtie but my pieces are already cut for the pre-tied version. I hope to make an actual bowtie in the future.

Now you may be asking, “How are bowties a lighter topic?” Well, here’s part of the reason…

Oh, the choices! I have lots of fabric leftover from projects, fabric given to me years ago, fabric from everywhere. So which one of these should I use first?

I’m guessing your next question is, “Why all these bright, crazy colors and patterns?” Well, why not? We’re usually a bright and crazy kind of family. I debated using sequin dot fabric for the knot but decided against it since it may irritate the skin. Our daughters would probably wear this kind of bowtie with a t-shirt. I’ll have to figure out how to make an adjustable closure without having the nifty hardware. Necessity is the mother of invention, you know. On to the next project!

“His high endeavors are an inward light
That makes the path before him always bright.”
~William Wordsworth