Red-y for Fall, Sherry West, Cover, Glo Magazine, November, 2020.
Shés here!
Today is the day!
Glo magazine released their latest issue, and my art is on the cover! Glo is a FREE womeńs monthly Ft. Wayne, Indiana publication.
I’ve been wanting to see my art on the cover for the last few years since they started publication. What a thrill!
It was such a treat for me to meet the editors at a home and garden show, and I have quite a few of the past Glo issues in my possession. I just love their magazine and covers.
And we’ve got them in every shape, size, pattern and color. Especially Fall colors…which is rather odd. But then again, our cats tend to be rather odd.
My cat is the Mother Ship. She’s a medium long-hair tortoiseshell – snowy white on her bottom half and large gorgeous patches of orange and black on top. We have a big ginger male the boys appropriately named Cheese Puff, a black and orange stripey female, two black kittens, and an adorable black and white kitten who looks like Eddie Munster of the classic Munster’s tv sitcom, plus an odd assortment of other random cats…which all seem to get named after the boy’s favorite foods.
My cat, Queen Sushi.
Eddie (Munster). Thank you, Layne Ihde, for this awesome name! Layne is the cat-dad of a little black cat name Pippin who is the star of his new series of children’s books titled Pippin, No Licken! And Pippin, No Drippin!https://www.layneihde.com
And they LIKE mice, but not in the same way this cat likes mice. Consequently, we don’t (currently) have a mouse problem.
The chickens. Our chickens run the gamut of the fall color palette, too. I’m not quite sure how that happened, but our cats and chickens match.
That presents us with a technical difficulty: Marla. Marla doesn’t match. We either need a new dog, or we need to paint her orange.
Marla
I don’t think that would bother the cats one little bit.
Facebook, that measured modern moderator of all things most beneficial to civilized society, doesn’t think she is appropriate for your delicate sensibilities, so she has been BANNED from their Very Respectable Forum. (Consequently, I can´t sell her to you in my Facebook shop.)
Apparently, she ´s too fast and loose for their tender tastes. Ooh, la, la!
I think it’s her dashing, suggestive slip that did the trick and set off their pearl-clutching, gasping and breast-heaving!
Quick! Somebody grab the smelling salts and fainting couch!
Do you suppose shés got French lace-trimmed pantaloons under there?
Heaven ´s-to-Betsy!
Whatever shall we do??
“Oh, my stars and garters!” as my great Aunt Gwen used to say.
Awhile ago, a long while ago, I submitted to Bored Panda what I thought was SURE to be the next viral cartoon series “Silly Spiders.”
With a few hundred views, no positive comments, no shares and only 20 upvotes (sympathetic friends and family, I’m guessing), I quickly realized the inevitable (which didn’t include going viral).
I forgot all about these silly things until I happened to stumble over them recently.
After showing them to the ladies on my design team, most of whom weren’t aware of their existence, the team leader noticed something rather interesting.
See the red circles?
Yes, THOSE.
See what’s inside the big one?
Yep.
Of course, I was completely oblivious since I was focused on the spiders and trying to figure out how to make them better artistically.
Kathy noticed it IMMEDIATELY. (Of course, she did, being the mother of a normal six-year-old boy.)
I saw: someone sitting on the toilet with their bright red undies down around their ankles.
She saw: “Stop Wiping Your Butt.”
So, the lesson for today is: Even when presented with stuff in black and white and in print online, each person still perceives it DIFFERENTLY.
And the other life lesson? Always reread what you just read, just in case you missed something REALLY obvious.
Now I understand why everyone is going crazy for junk journals, bible journaling, bullet journaling, and paper piecing!
This was sooooooo very satisfying to make!
I wasn ´ t actually trying to do a mixed media piece. I was bored and drew the central head, then added color to it with Inktense pencils.
I started the initial drawing in my sketch book so scribbled color swatches and samples all around her while I was having fun. She wasn’t supposed to be anything more than a way to keep my brain busy.
I thought, well, why not cut her out and paste her to a new page like Íve seen other people do? So I did.
And then I kept going.
I scribbled some scratchy roses.
Some of my color samples were bleeding into the top of her head, so scribbled roses up there to cover it up, otherwise she looked like a Russian babushka with a headband, lol.
I wanted to try and add some other different things to the page so scribbled a word, added hearts, scribbled lines and color them in.
Then got a great idea: I could make a mixed media piece for my boss who loves this kind of stuff!
I wasńt quite sure what else to do to it, but grabbed some paper from the library trash can (reuse and recycle!), cut out some hearts, put sticky tape on the back of them and randomly placed them all over the page.
They needed some color and shabbiness, so I hit them with some blues and reds in a watercolor type wash, plus some scribbles, then bent and cut the edges so they looked like they were coming off the page, which they were, and trimmed the outer perimeter of the whole page.
I showed it to the girls on my design team, and now they want to do it! So I’m going to redraw her on my iPad, but now I can’t find my Apple Pencils.
Here’s a lovely list of some great ones for this August and early Fall I found that you’re going to LOVE!
Now, mind you, these are focused on adult coloring, crafting, cardmaking, papercrafting, stamping, scrapbooking, art, etc, but there are a very few for kids.
Would you like to have a complete, good-quality coloring kit that won’t cost an arm, leg, kidney or plasma, but don’t know where to start?
Here are my quick, cheap recommendations, followed by the longer, more expensive versions, all of which I have, use and highly recommend.
Crayola is my go-to brand because I’m a mom and have kids who like to raid my art supplies, all while I’m working on professional art projects, lol, so it keeps them from destroying my expensive stuff.
Artists can and do produce good artwork using Crayola products, believe it or not!
Give them your email, and sign up for their newsletter.
You’ll get an immediate 10% coupon, as well as 15% and 20% coupons from time to time, and free shipping.
Before I buy, I compare prices on Crayola.com, Walmart.com, eBay, and Amazon, then I buy the cheapest.
If you want to get started but have a very, very limited budget:
DOLLAR STORE SHOPPING LIST
White printer paper, 8.5 s 11”
Clipboard
Pacon Art pad, white, 50 sheets
Correction fluid
Eraser
Paint brush pens
Markers, set, 24-36
Colored pencils, set of 24-36
Set of paint brushes
Paint palette
Sharpener
Gel pens, set, glitter, neocon, metallic
Permanent markers
TOTAL $15, plus or minus
If you have a bit more to spend….
BASIC COLORING SUPPLY LIST FOR ADULT COLORING AND STAMPING
Watercolor pencils, 24-36 count, $7
good sharpener, Kum, $3
erasers – regular (pink), gum, white, eraser pencil fine point for tiny areas, $5
water brush pen set, Arteza or OOKU, etc., 6 tip sizes, $10
markers, 36 count or more, water soluble, brush tip are best, $15
mixed media art pad , #98 or higher, Canson, $6
clipboard, $2
white printer paper, 8.5×11”, $4
#110 white cardstock, 8.5×11”, $5
white gel pen, $3
Sharpies, ultra fine point, black, grey, brown, tan, $5
TOTAL $70, plus or minus
You can take a trip to your nearest Walmart and get almost everything you need.
This is where I regularly purchase…
Canson mixed media pads
Canson watercolor pads
Canson sketch pads
Neenah white cardstock
Neenah black cardstock
Neenah kraft cardstock
Hammer mills #110 cardstock
White printer paper
Crayola Colored pencils sets – 50, 100
Gel pens set of 24, 36 – Scribble Stuff – best, smoothest ink flow of any gel pen ever!
Crayola Supertips Markers sets – 20, 50, 100
Crayola Paint Brush Pens
Oil pastels
Paint brush sets
Erasers
Sharpeners
Clipboard
USE WHAT YOU HAVE
baby oil
petroleum jelly
mineral spirits
eye shadow
Qtips
cotton balls
paper towels
old cloths
paint brushes, fine, flat, round, medium, large
old plate or lid to mix colors
cup for water
Use baby oil, petroleum jelly, rubbing alcohol, gamsol, or mineral spirits to create a wash or blend regular colored pencils with QTips, cotton balls, paper towel, rags.
MY GO-TO COLORING KIT
Crayola Super Tip Markers, 100, $15
Crayola Watercolor Pencils, 24, $7
Crayola Color and Blend Pencils in tin, 50, $15, OR Crayola color pencils, 120, $15
Crayola water soluble oil pastels in tin, $15
Crayola pearlescent water soluble crayons in tin, $20
Sakura Gelly Roll pens – white for adding highlights, corrections, $4
Blending pen (water-based, not alcohol), $4
Blending pencils, $4
Eraser pencils for fine details to get in corners and create highlights, $4
Arteza, OOKU, etc., waterpen brush set of 6 tips, set, $10
Canson mixed media pads – small, medium, large, $6-$10
Clipboard, regular or larger size for art, $2-$6
White printer paper, pack, $4
Cardstock, #110 pound, white, $5
Cardstock, black, $5
Cardstock, Kraft paper, $5
TOTAL $200, plus or minus
Note: Walmart doesn’t carry Crayola Tri-tone pencils, oil pastels, pearlescent pastels, watercolor pencils, fine-tip markers, Color and Blend pencils or product lines, or gel pens. However, Walmart.com does. I purchased mine at Crayola.com, EBay, and Amazon.
These are my go-to coloring supplies when I’m not creating on the IPad. I also have the more expensive stuff, but I’m afraid to use it, lol.
DUAL PURPOSE PRODUCT
These Crayola products are all watersoluble and can be used as paint, as well as pencil, markers, pens and pastels, so each one is dual-purpose!
Draw a line, use the waterbrush pen or a paintbrush dipped in water and it becomes a painted line!
I recommend the largest sets of colors in the markers and pencils because you need the full range of tones for skin tones for portraits – pets and people – as well as for shading.
Otherwise, a basic set of 36 colors is a good set to start with, and these colors can be blended to create new shades.
Scribble a marker or pastel on a plastic lid or plate, dip a wet paint brush in the color, use it as watercolor paint on mixed media or #110 cardstock.
DO YOU REALLY NEED EXPENSIVE ART SUPPLIES?
It’s not the product you use, it’s your ability to use it. I can draw with a burned matchstick, and it looks as if I had used a piece of charcoal produced by a well-known art company.
Expensive art supplies DO have better pigmentation, lay down, ease of use, etc., but it really depends on the skill of the user.
Crayola products are so solid in terms of quality, color, vibrancy, ease of use, lay down and cost that it’s a great product for beginning and intermediate colorists.
SAVE MONEY ON PRINTER INK
And while you’re at it, sign up with HP Ink to save money on printing off coloring pages and stamps! $2.99 per month!
Purchasing an HP ink cartridge for our printer runs about $45 for the black and white and color.
For $25, you can buy a new HP printer at Walmart, then sign up at HP.com for their amazing ink savings deal: $2.99 per month for 50 pages. And if you need to print more than that for some reason, it will cost you only $1 per every 10 pages over that.
HAPPY ART FOR A HAPPY HEART! 