Sweet Baby Xander

'Sweet Baby Xander' 

8" x 10" watercolor on paper

not for sale

Remember around Valentine's day when I had a contest where I was giving away an 8 x 10 painting to whoever submitted a 'smitten' photo that got the most votes? Well here is the finished painting of sweet baby Xander.

I love his little nose pressed against his binky and his chubby fist. Brings back so many memories to me (although my kids were never into pacifiers, not for lack of trying I tell you!). There is just nothing sweeter than a sleeping baby is there? 

Listening to: ZZ Ward 

Reading: Daughter of Smoke and Bone (for the second time)

Watching: Grimm

Snacking on: Salted caramel hot chocolate (it's chilly today!)  

Truffle - SOLD and a personal request

'Truffle' SOLD private commission

6" x 9" watercolor on paper

This beautiful girl is owned by the same woman (who has become a good friend I'm happy to say) who commissioned me to paint "Twilight." I wanted Truffle's painting to have the same kind of feel as Twilight's did, as far as color scheme and paint handling. I think it worked out pretty good. But it's hard to go wrong when working with such a beautiful horse you know? I love her. :) 

I have a sick boy home today and this is the last painting I have finished for the 30 day challenge. I don't know if I'll get one done today or not, but I'm not going to stress about it or rush to finish something just to finish it. Even though not following through with a commitment (I said I was going to do 30 paintings in 30 days you know?) is driving me a little crazy.

The other day I went to the gym the morning after our big snow storm. This meant shoveling three feet of snow (I may be exaggerating a little. . . but just a little, especially since my husband shoveled the majority of the snow the day before, but I digress) out of the driveway (at least the path directly behind my car, heh heh) and numb fingers and noses and all that good stuff. By the time I got back from the gym I was s-s-s-so c-c-c-c-cold!!! 

 

I walked into the kitchen and found this waiting for me on the kitchen counter: 

My sweet oldest son had made me hot chocolate and left it out for me for when I got back along with two cookies and a little note. (And yes I did eat them, I earned them after all that snow shoveling right??) And I wasn't cold at all anymore. :) 

I mention this because this is where my personal request comes in. My sweet boy, who turned eleven in December, has been busy sculpting little dragons with me the last few days and he asked if I'd put his 'best one' (his words, I think they are all amazing) on my blog for all of you to see. Here it is: 

 

It would mean a lot to him, and me, if you guys could leave a short comment telling him what you think. :))) Thanks so much you guys, you are like a second family to us. My boys and husband know all about you (some of you specifically by name) from how often I talk about you. :) 

 

And just one more thing (I promise this time), the deadline to submit your photo to my Smitten contest is tomorrow January 23, click here to go to the entry form. I'd love it if one of you guys could win. 

 

Until tomorrow!

 

Hugs,

Crystal

Her Soul is in Her Eyes SOLD

'Her Soul is in Her Eyes'

6" x 6" watercolor on paper SOLD

"Your eyes-- your soul is there, but the rest of you is still so undefined. That's the beauty of childhood. The eyes show everything you've seen so far, but the rest of you is still so open to possibility, to whatever you might become.”
― Bree Despain, The Dark Divine

There was something in this girl's eyes that instantly drew me to her. Something I can't quite put into words. But the quote I found, says a lot of it I think. :) This painting had a very long "ugly" stage. I really thought I'd have to trash it, but then at the end I was able to turn it around. Now this painting is one of my personal favorites. A good way to start the year right?

Photo reference by Tracie76Stock, thank you!

Last Sunday was my middle child's 8th birthday. :) I had my husband take this picture of us, and my heart melted when I saw this look on his face. The same one he had when he was a toddler tugging on my pants and asking me 'I wanna hold you' (how he used to ask me to pick him up and hold him).

My boys are out of school until Monday and we have been pretty much staying in our jammies, playing games, and eating treats all week long. It's been awesome. I'll be sad to see it end. :(

This painting is 1/30 for the 30 paintings in 30 days challenge. Onward to the next! Huzzah!!

And in case you missed my last post click here for details on how you could win a custom portrait painted by me.

Smitten Photo Contest - you could win a custom painting!

'Magnetic'  part of my Smitten series

6 x 6 in gouache on paper - SOLD

 

 

Happy New Year everyone! I hope all your resolutions and wishes for this year come true. :)

 

Now, down to business, I'm hosting a challenge over on my facebook page that gives you the chance to win an 8" x 10" watercolor painting based on your photo. I'm looking for photos that represent love, along the lines of my 'Smitten' series of paintings. It can be love in all its forms, young or old, people or animals, your interpretation. But please no nudity, I'm keeping this family friendly. 

 

So what you do is click here (you can also just click on the banner at the top of my blog) to go to the contest and submit your photo before January 23. Voting begins on January 24, which is your chance to get all your friends to come vote for your photo, and the photo with the most votes wins the painting. Pretty simple. :)

 

I'd love to see all your photos about love! I think this will be a lot of fun.    

 

You'll probably be very sick of hearing from me this month because I'm joining in with Leslie Saeta and about a million other people to do the thirty paintings in thirty days (because I'm crazy like that). Gulp. Ambitious I know, and probably not doable for me, but what the heck right? Right.

 

Until tomorrow then. Thanks friends. :)

Passing Interest

Passing Interest

7" x 9" watercolor

Some of you will remember that last year around this time I had a contest where I gave away one watercolor portrait. And here is the finished painting. :)

The winner of the contest lives in Utah so we were able to get together so I could take the kind of reference photos I like to work from.

I took my model to a place that looked like a harmless office building with lots of grassy areas lit with gorgeous light from the sun that had just started to set. And no people or pets within sight, which is what I saw at every single park I looked at before I found this perfectly deserted spot.

I start taking pictures, giving very vague and not-too-helpful hints for my poor model to look "that way" while I point somewhere to the north-south-westish, "somewhat mysteriously", "like you're an international woman of intrigue",  and repeatedly "stop laughing at me!" (I need some work on my model directing skills.)

When all of a sudden a security guard (complete with darkened sunglasses) walks out. Thus begins my tale of how I narrowly escaped Serious Trouble With The Government:

Security Guard: "DON'T take pictures of the building."

Me: *blinks* "Ooooh-kay."

Because obviously that's what I was doing. This woman posing for me was all a ruse so I could take pictures of this fantastically secret, but very well protected building. MWA HA HA!

Model:  *barely contained laughter*

Me: *gives model a pleading look that says "Dude, do NOT mock the security guard!"*

Security Guard: *crosses arms over chest while giving me the evil eye*

Me: *smiling innocently* "I wasn't taking pictures of the building, just her," I say, pointing to the model who's trying to supress yet more laughter.

Security Guard: *more evil eye directed at me*

Me:  *gives security guard feigned look of shock after looking down at my camera (I should totally be an actress)*

"And would you look at that! I got all the photos I needed so we'll, um, *swallow* just be going now," I say. 

Me and Model: *start backing away from the security guard in a calm, non-guilty way for about five seconds before turning around and speed walking to my car*

Luckily we both escaped with our lives, our freedom, and my camera. :) The moral of this story? Don't take your model to a building, or area, that you think is just an office building but might be an undisclosed government location.

Unless you like getting hit with the evil eye by burly security guards.  Or worse.

That's all I'm gonna say.

Hopefully government officials are not reading this blog. . .

*It should also be noted that this model is beautiful and she was a joy to work with. She took my direction to look "somewhat mysterious to the north-south-westish" very well. :))))

Upcoming Events: I will be teaching a one day watercolor portrait class on October 15 for the Syracuse Arts Guild in Syracuse, Utah. click here for details or email me with questions at crystal@crystalcookart.com

And the WINNER is. . .

"Bright Eyes, And A Good Grip"

Having this contest was so much fun. It was awesome to get to know some new people and to see the effort that so many of you put in to help me get the word out. Thank you. :) And welcome new friends!

There were nearly 1,700 entries. Wow! That's a LOT of entries! Amazing. :) It would be impossible for me to pick a winner, so we did the only thing I could think of to make it fair.

 All of the names were entered into a random name generator equal to the amount of entries they had earned. So, if you entered the contest and followed my blog your name went in six times (the number of points you earn for following plus one for entering the contest). If you entered the contest and then earned thirty additional entries (for blogging about it, posting to Facebook, or any of the other options) your name went in thirty times.

My husband totaled all the entries and then we had my five year old son push the key that would pick the winner. I couldn't look. Oh, the suspense!

And so, the winner is. . .

Catie Dutton

Congratulations Catie! I'll be sending you an email soon and we'll talk about your portrait. :)

Now, before you guys go I want to talk about one more thing. Within the next couple of months I'm planning on having another contest and I'm thinking of having a different way to enter this time. Some ideas my husband and I had were: best photo, most inspiring story or something like that. And you, my blog followers, would get to vote on them. What do you think? Do you have any ideas?

Also, I had some requests for me to explain my commission process and some prices. I have a brief overview above. Just click on the tab that says "How to commission a portrait."

Thanks everybody! Have a great day!

A postponment, and Sketchbook Monday

"Mischief"

charcoal on Canson Mi-tienes (the smooth side)

     I must ask you to forgive me. I don't have the winner ready to announce today. I'm sorry :( There were a LOT more entries than I thought there would be and, as I always do, I underestimated how long it would take to calculate all of them. But, I promise to have the winner by Wednesday. Unless some major calamity pops up in my life, like a hurricane, or the chicken pox.

     So, you'll have to put up with this sketch instead. Lately I've been looking at some articles in magazines about life drawing and I've been thinking about signing up for a class. But. . . um. . . that means I'd have to draw the undraped figure, and well. . . I just don't know if I want to do that. *this is me, BLUSHING*

     I may just stick to drawing my family members when they're unaware, and fully clothed of course. :)

     But I can say that I'm feeling extra-motivated to pick up my pencils even more and just draw. There's something SO satisfying about just plain old drawing. Don't you think? And, it's crucial to keeping your eye trained for any representational artist. But we all know that right? Yes, of course we do.

     Practice, practice, practice.

     That's my motivation to you today. Just keep practicing. All it can do is make you better. :)

      I'll see you guys on Wednesday for the big announcement! Wa-hoo!

Jack and the Skeleton

"Jack and the Skeleton"

10 x 14 watercolor

     Well, it's finished! And on the first of October, very spooky connection don't you think? This was a really fun painting. I loved painting the bones on his costume, all that reflected light, it's one of my favorite things to paint.

     Did you know that October is National Art Month? Neither did I, but I think it's a very cool thing. I have another art exhibit opening tonight in Ogden, Utah at the Gallery at Ogden Blue Print. It's a statewide juried show in honor of National Art Month. It should be fun, I'll let you know how it goes. And maybe, if I'm having a good hair day, I'll take some pictures. :)

     And the contest is now officially over, all I have to do is tally up the entries and stick them in random.org to choose a winner. I thought that would be the fairest way to do it, but if you earned any extra entries you'll have a greater chance to win. Good luck to you all! I hope to have it all finished this weekend so I can announce the winner on Monday. So, be sure to check back then.

     Have a great weekend everyone!

What I'm listening too: Waiting For The End, by Linkin Park 

WIP Wednesday, and more randomness behind the scenes

      I loved reading the comments from my last post. It was awesome to read all the different things you guys love about the way you create. So many of them were things that I love too, proving once more that blogging is cool and we are very like minded people. At least when it comes to being creative. :)

      Here's my answer: Something that I love about how I paint. . . hmmm. . . I guess I would say that I am confident in my ability to control my medium, watercolor. It took me many years and many, many, many failed paintings to reach the point that I'm at now. And I think I can say in all honesty that I'm proud of that.

colored pencil portrait, work in progress

      This piece is moving along slowly, mostly because I've had a stack of paintings calling out to me to hurry up and finish them already! I'm not finished with the face, but I felt like I needed to have some of the hair laid in so I could get more of a feel for how much I want to push the rest of the face. Truly, this is a work in progress. Those finishing touches that pull it all together are still to come. And yes, I think he might still need an ear.

      And, I've changed the commenting format for this blog. I've been getting some really nasty spam, so I've now limited comments to registered users (meaning that you either have a blogger account or some type of google open ID) Sorry guys. If you're not able to comment anymore and you'd still like to get in touch with me feel free to send me an email at crystal(at)crystalcookart(dot)com. I'd love to talk to you!

       Arrr! Scurvy bilge rat spammers!

      So, Crystal (you may be thinking) . . . what's with the pirate talk?

     It just so happens that I have missed two very important milestones this month. One: September 19 was National Talk Like A Pirate Day. Arrr! Avast me hearties! This saddens me as I was planning on incorporating pirate speak into my blog post for that day. *wipestears* Oh well, there's always next year.
Right? ;)

     And Two: The other day was my one hundredth post! So exciting! I feel like such a blogging expert now! (kidding, of course) Thanks everyone for reading along with me this far and for all your excellent conversation, encouragement and friendships.

      I think it is pretty darn cool that my 100th post coincides very neatly with my portrait giveaway. Just a quick reminder that if you still want to enter for a chance to win just click on the banner above and fill out the form, there's only two days left! Special thanks to everyone who has helped get the word out! I appreciate it so much :)

      See you tomorrow guys, have a great day!

   

Spooky WIP Wednesday and a sketch

spooky watercolor work in progress

still untitled, but I'm working on it :)

     This has got to be one of the funnest pieces I've ever painted. Halloween is one of my favorite holidays and I'm kind of surprised that I haven't included it in a painting yet. I can just see all the possibilities now for holiday-kid-themed paintings. It's going to be fun :)

     And the skeleton costume wasn't as tricky as I thought it was going to be, it was basically just negative painting which is easy when your mind is thinking 'shape' instead of 'preconceived notion of what bones should look like.'

     Of course this is far from finished, but it's coming along.

     And this week is crazy-hectic-busy for me so I did not get my sketchbook post up for yesterday, but I'm making up for it today.

     I was very interested in the shape of the antlers of this elk (??, hold on I'll go check. . . yep, it's an elk), and the rim of light along the edge. It was just a fun quick sketch. However, I had problems getting a good photo of the sketch so here you have a grand photo of ze whole sketchbook.

     And last but not least, just a quick reminder that time is running out if you would like to enter to win my portrait giveaway. It ends next week, September 30, so go click on the banner at the top of my blog if you haven't entered yet and fill out the form! Also, instead of sending me an email at the end of the contest you can just fill out the form under the banner, it has a place for you to tally up all your points (which I'm hoping will be easier for you guys). Thanks everyone! And good luck!!

     Oh, and really this is the very last thing, I forgot to include in my artist's statement from Monday's post one Very Important Reason Why I Paint. If I don't get to paint I get cranky. And that's just not good for anyone at my house. Do you think I should share that information with galleries? ;)

     Have a great day everybody! If I haven't been to visit your blog lately please forgive me, I'm running around here like a crazy woman lately, I'll be there soon :)

Sketchbook. . . Wednesday and some photos

 

snuggly wolf sketch :)

graphite on bristol

     First of all a great big thank you to all of you who have helped me get the word out about my contest. I really appreciate it and now consider each one of you the ultimate in awesomeness :) If I could I would bake you all chocolate chip cookies. In fact, if you're ever in Utah stop on by! 

     Now, it's back to business folks. I'm a day late with my sketchbook post, but here it is.

     I went to the library and got a bunch of books about wolves and have been studying them and sketching from them, to help me with the wolf painting I have in mind that is probably going to be one of my next works in progress. It's been fun and I just had to share this one of a wolf snuggled up against the back of another wolf. I kind of like the idea of wolves as cuddle beasts instead of slavering attack beasts.

And here are some pictures from my art show that opened on Friday. It was very small, but still pretty fun.

Here I am next to one of my favorite paintings of my baby boy.

     Posing with my model baby (okay he's two, kind of not a baby anymore). And yes I know he needs a haircut, but I just can't bring myself to do it. He's my last one. I think. I'm pretty sure. We'll see :)

    And here's handsome hubby next to his portrait. Smiling. Because I asked him to :) Sometimes he needs a little coaching in that department, he's prone to looking. . . intimidating?? Is that the word I'm going for? Maybe more like serious. No wait, I got it, 'intense.' That's it ;)

    So. . . what's up with you guys? Anybody have any good news to share?

A CONTEST! Here's your chance to win a custom portrait of your choice!

"Here Be Dragons"

watercolor portrait of my son

      Okay friends, remember a few months ago when I talked about a contest I wanted to have? Well now is the time! I'm going to be offering one 8 x 10 watercolor portrait (human or animal, your choice) to one winner of this contest. I've decided to start accepting commissions again after having declined them for the last three years, and the one you win would be the first on my list!

      Does that sound good?

     But I need your help in spreading the word, so here is what I'm asking for all my fabulous friends to help me with. I'm going to be giving points away for the different ways you could help promote this contest. Some of them you may already be doing (like following me or being my Facebook friend, thanks guys!) others will require a little bit of work on your part (like having a blog or Facebook post about this). This determines how many points you earn and increases your chance to win the portrait.

"Intensity"

watercolor portrait of my husband

      I appreciate all of you so much, your friendship and kind words have been like a light shining out of the darkness for me on some days, and I've really, truly been honored with that. I know your lives are busy and I want you to know how much it means to me that you take the time to stop by and comment and help lift me up, so this is my way of trying to pay that back to you.

      Here's a list of how you can earn points in my contest:

• follow me :) +5
• follow my Networked blog +5
• comment on this blog post (so I know you want to be entered in the contest)  +1
• comment on new posts from now to September 30 +1 per post
• friend me on Facebook +5
• blog about this contest (leave me the link) up to four times +5 for each time you post
• post about this contest on Facebook up to four times +5 for each time you post
• link to this contest in the sidebar of your blog +7
• heart my etsy shop right here +3
• were you sent here by someone? Tell me their name and they get +15 for referring you
• total your points and send them to me in an email, telling me what you've done

     And if you are already following me, or facebook friends with me then you definetly get to count those in your point total :)

     This contest will run until September 30 and during the first week of October I will announce the winner! Good luck everyone, and thanks in advance for helping me get the word out about this contest! :):):) If you have any questions send me an email at crystal@crystalcookart.com

"All Set"

Almost finished!

      I am so close to being finished with this painting. I just see a few things I need to fix and strengthen. Overall, I think it's going well. It's been fun to paint, that's the most important thing right? I like the background, but for some reason the photograph here makes it kind of hard to see. Since I painted this for a demo I'm going to go ahead and describe how I got to this point, from the previous post.

      I continued to layer colors over the skin tones, mainly using permanent rose, raw sienna, burnt sienna and a very, very small amount of my purpley-gray shadow color. That has been one of the hardest things for me to learn, don't paint the shadows as deep as you see them in the photograph. I always think it looks better if you don't make it really dark (it took me several paintings to understand this, finally!), and I like to do the majority of my modeling with the yellows, reds and oranges. They will build up form more than you think they will. At least that's what I was thinking :)

      While the face was drying, I would then go in to the hair and also sharpen up the eyes and mouth a bit. The hair is finished at this point, well. . . maybe. I might go back in and soften it up a little. I try to stop before I really overdo it, but jeez it's hard sometimes! But I can see that I definitely need to darken the cast shadow under his ear. And I'm thinking I might use some more rose on his cheeks and under his chin. All of this will be done quickly, get in and get out, no wishy washy brush work. That's the goal anyway, sometimes my brush just can't help itself :)

      Now, I am planning on having a contest here for all you wonderful, supportive, awesome people who follow along on this journey with me. You guys are great and it never fails to make me smile when I open up my email and see a comment from one of you. It really means a lot to me and I thank you for taking the time to be so kind and helpful :):):) I'm going to be attempting to repay that kindness, and so there is a poll on the sidebar of my blog that has a list of what kind of a prize you guys would like the most. Unfortunately there can only be one winner :( But I may be doing something like this on and off throughout the year. So stay tuned for that. And know that you are loved here! Also, this is going to be an interactive contest, so comments and input are welcome and appreciated! More details to come. Thanks everyone :)