The Art of Shawna Apps
It’s probably no surprise, but I love painting and drawing birds. They’re the animal I create most often, and they are my most requested subject as well. On our vacations to the Outer Banks, sandpipers are one of our favorite birds to watch while we’re on the beach, and I knew I’d be painting one soon…
Title: Sandpiper
Continue reading “New Piece: Sandpiper”A question I get often is do I use reference images for all of my pieces or can I just draw/paint them by memory. My answer is always this: I have to use reference images!
That statement is no longer true because of this piece…
If you know me, you know when I see the clouds or sky I get the feeling of just needing to paint it. Sometimes I get the urge to do it in watercolors, other times oil, but the feeling doesn’t go away until I get it out of my brain onto canvas or paper.
When I finally sit down to recreate it…it doesn’t always go the way I want it to. The colors aren’t looking right, they’re not blending the way I want…and I end up creating something completely different than intended, and most of the time, I end up loving the outcome.
This new piece definitely was one of those times!
Continue reading “New Piece: Magenta Morning”Just as a warning, there might be a theme for some of these newer pieces. When I started relaunching my business, we happened to have our annual Apps family vacation fall smack dab right in the middle of it. And when we stayed on a beautiful river and as an artist I am obsessed with clouds, sunrises/sunsets, and all things landscape and of nature, we can just say that there were a lot of photos taken as inspiration for future pieces (including Serenity Bay!).
While we were on vacation, I was asking some of our family members what kinds of things they’d like to see me do. The #1 response? Another blue heron…
Title: Harry
Continue reading “New Piece Alert: Harry”New prints are coming on FRIDAY!!!!
And not just one new design. Or two.
BUT FIVE.
I had only planned on releasing one new design this week as color prints tend to give me more challenges than the gray scale ones, but I was in the groove and the technology cooperated, so I took advantage of it.
Stay tuned for the release announcement, and enjoy this teaser of what’s being released!
A few months ago I desperately wanted to get into my studio. I had been in my funk for awhile, but on this particular day I just HAD to create something. Anything. Just give me a brush or pencil and I’d be good.
But one of my kids woke up sick and just needed mom. Creating went to the back burner as I snuggled and watched movies with my boy while he still is young enough to want his mom.
After a couple movies, he asked me what I had planned on doing if he hadn’t been home. I mentioned painting or drawing, and he looked up at me with those big gray eyes of his and said:
“Mom, I’m okay. Go paint. You need a break.”
Happy 2nd to last day of the challenge!!!!
I decided to just finish out the Hogwarts House series; half of the series was already done, and I know I had some people very anxious to have the series in print, so it made sense to finish it now. Continue reading “Drawing a Day Challenge 2018: Day 24”
Happy Friday, everyone!
I am so glad this week is almost over. My boys have been wrapping up their Odyssey of the Mind presentations this week (the Regional competition is tomorrow!), my daughter is in her last week of the modified swim season, and we are all just plain tired. My day started off with sunshine, coffee with a dear friend who I haven’t seen in forever, and of course, drawing!
Guess what I started working on today!???!??
PRINTS!!!!
So far I have the Giraffe in 5×7 and 8×10, Starry Sky in 8×10, and I’m working on the Sloth right now. Every one of the drawings should be available soon in 5×7 AND 8×10, so if there are any you are interested, let me know and I’ll get those images done first. I’ll be listing what I have available on Etsy within the next couple of days!
I am having a serious issue with the challenge this year.
Okay, so maybe serious is a little too strong of a word to use, but I’m having a problem and I blame all of you: my list of things to draw keeps getting longer and longer as I keep adding amazing suggestions from you guys, but there is no way I can do them all in the time frame I have set aside for the challenge.
Now I could always add another week (or probably two or three if I were to do everything on my list) and get everything done, but I really can’t do that as I have a book that is just begging to be illustrated. Maybe I’ll do a challenge in the fall, but that’s my busy season with festivals so that doesn’t really work either. I might just have to save the rest of the list for next year or just randomly work on the drawings during the year here and there as my schedule allows. Whatever option I end up doing, you guys have really outdone yourselves with fantastic suggestions this year and it’s making it hard for me to choose what to do every day and wish that I could keep up this crazy challenge indefinitely! Kudos to you all!
But back to today’s drawing…
Back to the Drawing Board 