Category: Uncategorized

This week’s featured piece:

Title: Rain on the Lake

Medium: Watercolor

Size: 11″ x 14″

When: Fall 2014

Time to complete: A few hours over 3 or 4 days

Purpose: To see if I could do it (I’ve never really enjoyed watercolors and have found them difficult to use) and to work on building a portfolio of items for the art show in December

Problems I encountered: Getting the trees dark enough was pretty difficult. I had a hard time getting them dark enough without becoming big black blobs. Finding that happy medium between dark enough yet still tree-like was a challenge, and I think this was actually my second or third painting of this subject before I felt I got it right.

The clouds were also on the tricky side; getting them dark enough in color but still light enough in weight so they looked like clouds took quite a bit of time.

Favorite part: Um….everything. I’d love to own this piece, but if I kept all the pieces I loved that I made, I’d run out of wall space and would never have anything to sell!

Least favorite part: I don’t think I have anything that really bothers me about this piece!

Product availability: This is available as an original, a print in two sizes, and in my Landscape note card set!

Have you tried watercolors before? What do you think of them?

Did you guys see the announcement yesterday on my Facebook page? It’s pretty exciting; I get to cross something off of my bucket list!

When I was in college, one of my drawing class instructors did a unit on bookmaking. We had to make up a book, either fully drawn or a combination of writing and drawing, and then we had to make the cover and hand bind it. It was a great project, and I did a children’s book based on something my daughter loved. During that assignment, I fell in love with the process, and ever since then I’ve wanted to either write or illustrate a children’s book.

Well, now I can say that I am going to be a children’s book illustrator! How exciting is that?!?

I’m going to be collaborating with an author friend of mine, RV Hodge. He has written a chapter book series that is amazing (Book 1 and 2 are available now, Book 3 is coming out in May!), and is in the process of writing a children’s book series. The series will be about twelve books, and if all goes well, we hope to have 3-4 books available by the end of the year!

The first story is simply wonderful, and I can’t wait to share more details with you all! Make sure you follow me on Facebook; there are a couple pictures up of illustrating prep, and trust me when I say that there are a lot more to come!

You can read RV’s original announcement about the children’s series here, and then the announcement of me as his illustrator here! Stay tuned to his blog for more announcements over the next few weeks 🙂

This week’s featured piece is one of my favorites…

Title: Daughter of the Universe

Size: 20″ x 30″

Medium: Graphite and acrylic paint on paper

When: Drawing 2 class in college, Fall 2004

Time to complete: A couple weeks

Purpose: Class assignment

Thought Process: This professor liked to get us to think outside of the box. It helped us to think more creatively and stretch ourselves, which for someone like me that prefers realism, is a good thing to do once in awhile.

For this assignment, she gave us a piece of paper with two columns on it. In each column were words or parts of phrases. We had to choose one word/phrase from each column and that would be our title for our piece we were to create. All imagery had to reflect that title in some way. As you can see, I chose “daughter of” and “the universe”

I remember I was really struggling with not being literal in my imagery! I think my first sketch was a girl sitting on a star. I remember my teacher coaching me by telling me to not think of “daughter” and “universe”, but as things that symbolize them. We threw around words and ideas of what a daughter was, what she symbolized, or things that she would use. One of the ideas was a pearl necklace, and using it as a string of stars. I liked that, but my professor wanted me to stretch even farther. 

As I reviewed our meeting notes later that evening, one word stuck out at me that someone had mentioned: innocence. I did some research online, and found a picture of a beautiful white water lily. Lilies are my favorite flower (doesn’t matter what kind!), and it just resonated with me. I did cheat and chose a group of stars for the universe, but as the lily and the stars normally don’t appear this way, it was okay for the project.

Problems I encountered: Getting the graphite to be dark enough without turning shiny was really hard. Getting the graphite even dark was tricky! It took forever and was physically painful at times with the repetitive motion of drawing it in.

Favorite part: I don’t know, but I think this is one of my favorite pieces that I’ve done. There’s just something about it that I love!

Least favorite part: The fact that although I love it, it never feels finished. I take it out of the frame once or twice a year and work on some parts of it, fixing shadows, things like that.

Fun tidbits: I always get so many compliments on this piece! It hangs in our house, and I remember we had some friends over for dinner one night, and my girlfriend was staring at it during dinner. I thought something  was wrong, but she said she just couldn’t stop looking at it, that she loved it. When I thanked her, she asked where I got it and I told her I drew it. She didn’t believe me at first!

This piece moves around our house on a regular basis! It has hung in our bedroom, on a wall in our dining room, on two different walls in the living room, and is now on a different wall in the dining room 🙂

The upper left corner where the stars are? The misty part? That was totally unintentional. It was my arm and hand gave out from all the drawing in the dark graphite, but I couldn’t leave it white! So I smudged graphite around a bit, blending it into the white paper, and it turned into the misty area. Because the graphite was too dark to be erased, I painted stars in with white acrylic paint.

Questions on this piece:

Will this be available as prints?

Eventually! I think it might even end up as a note card as well!

What imagery comes to your mind when you hear “Daughter of the Universe”?

This week’s topic: Prints!

What are prints?

The easy answer? Prints are basically a printed picture of an original piece of art.

However, there is a lot of work and care that goes into the making of each print. Each piece of my work is either scanned or photographed and then edited on a computer, making sure each print looks as close to the original piece of work as possible. Then I do test prints, making sure the resolution and colors are all good; this is the most stressful time for me as I’m a perfectionist! Once test prints are approved, I will print each image on high quality, acid free cotton rag paper. Once the ink is good and dry, they are each individually sealed with two coats of a special varnish that aids in protecting for water, UV rays, and scratches. They are all hand signed once the varnish is dry, and then packaged up in an acid-free bag with a backer board. The backer board is for packaging and transporting purposes only; it helps the print to not get bent and wrinkled, and is not intended to go into a frame. Right now all of the prints also come with an acid free, archival quality off white mat.

Can all of your pieces become prints?

Unfortunately, no. Some original pieces (like some of my Throwback Thursday pieces) do not have high quality pictures taken of them, so the quality will not be high enough for the prints to be made. Other pieces cannot be made into prints as whoever commissioned the piece has not given me permission to use it for other products.

However, most of them can be! If you see any piece you like either on the blog or somewhere on my website, check the prints section of the store to see if it’s available. If it isn’t, send me an email at shawnaapps@gmail.com and I’d love to try and create it as a print if I’m able!

What sizes are they available in?

Right now just two sizes: 4″ x 6″ (matted to a frame size of 5″ x 7″) and 5″ x 7″ (matted to a frame size of 8″ x 10″). I am looking into expanding the sizes, even doing some images as large as 11″ x 14″ if possible! I am also planning on having prints available without the mats; I know a lot of stores sell frames with mats as well as without them, so having both options available is beneficial to you.

Are all pieces available in all sizes?

No. All pieces can be made into smaller sizes, but not all of them can go bigger. Depending on the medium the piece is originally created with, the piece just doesn’t transfer well to the bigger size. For example, my Snowman piece is adorable as the 4″ x 6″ print. However, I printed it as a 5″ x 7″, and even after re-editing it, it still was very washed out. This is more because my watercolor style is very soft than anything else; a drawing would probably be able to transfer to the bigger size much easier. 

Why do you make prints?

This is a great question. I make prints for one reason: it’s a more affordable way to have art. A lot of people love my work (thanks, guys!), but can’t afford an original piece, and I completely understand that. This is a way for them to have something they love that works with their budget.

Let me know if I didn’t answer all of your questions in the comments below!