It's time to think about the rest of the holiday season now that Halloween is done. Although, I will be creating and selling my creepy art, Halloween and gothic style art all year this year! I'm going to try to keep my happiest time of the year close to my heart and online as much as possible. It makes me happy, that is something I need NOW!
FIRST THINGS FIRST
Selling my art online, especially at my Etsy shop, has dwindled greatly since the artificial intelligence has taken over, practically EVERYTHING and I hate it ... many do now and that's good. So, I am going to try to post more art for sale here and you can pay fast and securely with PayPal.
Long awaited for and loved by many, the art challenges of October have begun! They started many years ago and have grown in popularity so now we have SO many people hosting them! I don't know if INKTOBER was the first art challenge or not, but I believe it may have been, I'll do more research and try to find out. MAB GRAVES and her 'club' have one, she is so creative and brilliant!!
MABSDRAWLLOWEENCLUB25
Because of the way Instagram works, we have to tag our artwork a certain way and Mab came up with this code. The first day was tagged with a hashtag and then the call letters of what it is, (Mab's Drawlloween Club) the year and then what day it is. So day one went like this: #mdwc25d1 and since the first day was 'Spooky Intro' you also made a tag like this: #mdwc25d1spookyintro. This way we can all see what everyone else is creating right away, the algorithm isn't all messed up and it is so handy! I love viewing what everyone is creating and I follow new artists that I discover this way too.
Day 2 - My Familiar
Every year I swear I'm going to paint with real paint and make art that perhaps I could sell, like maybe 8" x 10" or ACEO size (2.5" x 3.5") or make greeting cards and sell them in lots of 10. Or, maybe do some clay work, sewing or some other fun craft. That is my goal, my personal art challenge. I've been doing digital art for so long now, I don't know if I can paint, draw or do anything crafty without the computer! For sure I'd like to embroider something, so that will be a fun challenge! I should check out the prompt list and start it soon, maybe I'll embroider a mushroom, for day 19.
Day 3 - Witch
My Frunsi android tablet has an art program installed called SKETCHBOOK and it's pretty good actually. It has a lot of nice tools, good paint brushes, pencils, chalk, charcoal, textures and air sprayers. I can purchase the premium version for $2.99 but I don't really need to. This tablet has been fun for me, does just what I want for sketching little things as I watch night time tv, I can check my social media, mail and weather, but the battery doesn't last long. It's just a cheap tablet, but for now, it's fine.
Day 3 - Witch in color
Day 4 - Haunting
Ok, so today is day five and I'm going to try to paint something for Mab's Drawlloween Club art challenge. I'm loving the prompt FOREST SPRITE and I'll need all day, I'm sure. In the meantime, here are some more challenges by other artists who host such fun artistic challenges! Join in! NOBODY has to be the best artist in the world to do this, it's a challenge for fun, for learning, for sharing, for enjoying other artists work in a great way and it's all fun for everyone! NO pressure!
Day 5 - Forest Sprite
Day 6 - Werewolf
Day 7 - Ghoul
Day 8 - Lightning Lad
Day 9 - Undead
Day 10 - Dark Water
Day 11 - Pumpkin
Day 12 - Yokai
Day 13 - Omen (Black Cat)
Day 14 - Lovely Bones
Day 15 - Vampire
Day 16 - Gnome
Day 17 - Baba Yaga
Day 18 - Spellbook
Day 19 - Mushroom
Day 20 - Toad
Day 21 - Fin Folk
Day 22 - Lantern
Day 23 - Web
Day 24 - Candy Creep
HERE'S A LINK to some fun looking art challenges listed at Instagram! Below are some challenges now on at Instagram too, enjoy perusing them and do go ahead and try some of these fun prompts!
Now that autumn has officially started, according to ME, in August, it's time for fall colors, fall temperatures, fall decor, fall food, fall smells, fall sweaters, fall bonfires, fall leaves, fall cleaning, fall blankets and fall FALL!
I've decided to enjoy this September by getting outside and taking a photo every day. I intend on painting something from that photo or the photo itself. It's going to be a phenology wheel style like the one that Marion creates. Marion? You don't know Marion?
Go to MARION'S WORLD at YouTube!! She is a wonder. A dear. A true nature lover, gardener, cook, creative sewer extraordinaire! I love her dearly. She's in the UK. She just had a terrific live stream for her 66th birthday and it was so much fun! Everyone was happy and excited and gracious to her, giving her gifts of money was awesome!
I don't remember how I found out about her but I believe it was when I was doing research on how to make fabric rope, rope or cloth weaving or something like that. I saw her video of how she makes coiled cloth rope and I was hooked! Not only was she down to earth, so interesting and charming, but the way she shows how to do this method she does of making coiled rope or cloth rope or cloth twine, is the best!
CRAFTY MONTH
We've seen Halloween in the stores already, I think I actually saw some things in July! Wait, we have Christmas in July too, geesh! But for sure, September is the time to get those fall decor crafts made and the Halloween makings AND the Thanksgiving season decorations made too! Oh, and don't put everything away yet because you'd better get the Christmas supplies out and keep them handy because you'll be needing those right away too!
So yes, it's time to make the stuff for the 'holiday season'! After you've spent all your money getting the kids ready for school with all the supplies and clothes they need, time to go into debt for all the craft and decor items you'll need for FALLHALLOWTHANKSCHRISTMAS!
