4th Annual Mother Daughter Pumpkin Carving Contest!

Happy Halloween!
I have moved the contest this year over to my new "an artist's life" blog.

Please head over there to vote for either "Nemo or Snoopy"...I have lost 3 years in a row! Hoping this might be my year.  click here to go to my new blog, see previous years' photos, & what the winner gets.

Or you can leave a vote in the comments below :-)

You all are the best - SO FUN to connect with you, thanks,

Pumpkin Carving Contest - I sure hope I win this year ;-)

 

HaPpY hAlLoWeEn!

Posting the winner as of Sunday Nov. 1.  - "A" Emily's pumpkin had 57 votes when I stopped counting and "B" Ann's pumpkin had 5 votes! This is pretty much what happened the first two years, I almost get skunked! I have paid up and the winner is below holding her pumpkin. Thanks for voting - we had so much fun with this :-D

This is the 3rd annual pumpkin carving contest between Emily (daughter, 19 yrs.) and myself (Annie 51 yrs. young). No pressure, but I have lost the last two years in a row. IF Emily wins, she gets $25. WHEN I win, I get bragging rights for a year. (College kids need cash :-)

We don't tell each other what we are going to carve. We BOTH decided on owls! I guess the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree :-) Emily suggested I buy a Speedball Linoleum Cutter for easier 'peeling' of the pumpkins. It worked great!

Please vote for "A" or "B".  You can vote in the comment section below - anonymously if you like, email me: info@AnnGraphics.com or through any of the social media site I am on.

I will post the winner sometime on Sunday.

THANKS to all of you for voting! We have so much fun doing this and kidding each other. LOVE that many of you have asked if we were going to do this again this year :-D

Here are last years' pumpkins: http://annietroe.blogspot.com/2014/10/pumpkin-carving-contest-aka-i-am-going.html

First years' pumpkins: http://annietroe.blogspot.com/2013/10/pumpkin-carving-peeling-teeth.html

Behind the Scenes: Building a Painting in a Collection

Happy Friday Everyone!

This is a follow up post to "How I am Building an Art Licensing Portfolio". In that post I talked about painting a lot of icons. This photo post will give you a better idea of how I do it. No worries if you pull icons out of your finished paintings. I am sure there are as many ways of doing this as there are artists :-)

This collection is acrylic paint on canvas panel.  Click images to view larger.

Above are a few of the icons in my "Pumpkin Snow" collection. I scan in the finished icons so I can easily use them in a variety of situations for art on products.

I have scanned in the barrel. I chose the highest dpi that the scanner will allow me to choose. For this image that was 1,800 dpi. That means this barrel can be almost 3 feet in size at 300 dpi.  Now it is time to turn it into a painting :-)

I like to leave some space in the painting so I can add other elements in Photoshop for variety.

Love how the blue makes this pop!

Notice the barrel on the flag - fun to change it up!

How do you create art for licensing?

Thank you for stopping by the blog. All of you sharing and supporting this blog makes it work! Sign up for my newsletter if you don't want to miss anything :-) .

Pumpkin Carving Contest! AKA I am going to win this year :-)

Happy Halloween Everyone! - Calling this one early - "B" won by a landslide! That is my daughter's pumpkin :-)

I won't be posting this Friday, cuz it is Halloween! Last year was the First Annual Troe Pumpkin Carving contest between myself and my daughter ( she is 18yrs old, freshman in college). I LOST by a landslide last year!!! Not only was I out $25 bucks but I had to do the pumpking carving walk of shame for a year... SO, No pressure, but vote for your favorite pumpkin carving design above, I am really counting on you! :-)

Voting can be anonymous (choose that option in the comment section below). My favorite vote from last year even though it was totally biased AND completely unfair, was from an anonymous voter: "Gram and I each cast a vote for our grand daughter's pumpkin ~ Gramps." I am going to see if I can block this voter this year ;-)

THANK you for playing along AND helping me keep my $25 bucks! I will post the winner on Wednesday Nov. 5th.

Paint a Simple Pumpkin Mug

Visit your local paint your own pottery place

First I painted the inside white - you don't have to, but I wanted to be able to scrape off any blobs I didn't like easily. Let each step dry a bit to make things easier.

Next I painted the outside of the mug a light orange. Just one good coat - I wanted some of the brush strokes to show.

Then I mixed some of the darker orange in with the light orange paint and painted with a wide square brush vertical stripes on the mug - you can see the stripes bend a little with the pressure on the brush and that is OK :-D I just painted one coat of the mixed color of orange.

Now use a smaller brush - I like the square brushes for stripes. Use the darker orange paint to paint a stripe down the middle of the wider stripes you just painted.

Paint the handle black. 2 coats will work. black is a very strong color.

With a number 2 pencil, I lightly drew the face I want on the mug - Painted it black. 2 coats

I used an old tooth brush and splattered black paint on the inside and to make "blush" on my pumpkin face. Then I used a small round brush (you could use a 'writer bottle' too) and made the black drips that run from the rim of the mug down the inside a bit. There are a few blobs on the backside of the mug too.

Last thing I did was to use a round brush handle and dip the handle into the darker orange paint and made dots on the black handle of the mug :-)

Enjoy! - Make my day and follow my blog :-D Post a link or send me your Halloween pottery painting project. anntroe@cox.net