Creative Tuesday's Cats and a wee bit of Origami

Rolling back into the swing of things with another Creative Tuesday!

Now I might have possibly misinterpreted the theme as the cat in my picture is not black.... so maybe a more philosophical approach could suffice. My cat is dark - mummified and maybe even evil? Ok maybe that's too harsh.

Either way I am up at the crack of dawn drawing cats and videoing my efforts. If you haven't seen already I am now dabbling in some speed drawing. trying new things in each video. They are far from perfect and are mute since I need some research into music and copyright.

I want to work out next how to take a good video of painting without boring the viewers! What would you like to see me do with this?

Here's the finished cat painting...

Mummified Cat - Original ATC - Katie Hone

Head on over to Creative Tuesday this week to see others interpretation of the theme.

Origami again!!!

On another note I am really throwing myself back into origami. I used to do it and loved it but was very much a solo enjoyment. Now I have a few friends interested we're very keen on working on Christmas decorations! Need more paper already though but I suppose nothing is stopping me from cutting up paper myself... Food for thought!

Modular Origami - 5 Pointed Star

Drawlloween

I am a few days early but I have completed this whole challenge - it has been amazingly challenging! it has introduced pixel art to me (the one subject I was least looking forward to but enjoyed the most!) Has anyone else embarked on this challenge? I reckon I can do it again for next year too.

These pictures are not in order but if you need to refer to the Drawlloween theme list I talk about it in my previous post: Art Topic List for Halloween - Oh and Cookies

Drawlloween Challenge (Landscape ATCs) - Not in Order

Drawlloween Challenge (Portrait ATCs) - Not in Order

Before I leave I'd like to refer you to a free giveaway on my Facebook page (Katie Hone - Illustrator) - please send your love that way and who knows you could get lucky! I will be introducing free giveaways every month so please get involved.

Thank you for stopping by, any and all feedback on the video would be great!

32 Art Trading Cards in just five days!

What a crazy month this has been

Last year I participated in one of the most fun events on IllustratedATCs - called a Halloween-Athon. I'm sure it's popular elsewhere but here we set aside four days in October to make and trade frantically. Last year I was extremely under prepared. I had to go to work in the early morning which made staying up late to keep up with American trading impossible.

This year however:

1. I took 5 days off work

2. I made about 20 cards beforehand (with the help of #Drawlloween prompts) - check out one of my last posts to see the prompts.

3. I drew out lots of outlines to simply paint later.

Halloween-Athon - ATCs Trading - Katie Hone

That didn't stop the calamity, that is my computer suddenly stopped functioning. I had a very panicked 12 hours where I thought some of my images would be lost forever. A massive sigh of relief when a disk clean up (which took 5 hours) got it back.

And my results?

52 cards made

43 cards traded

I am exhausted!

ATC art by Katie Hone - Halloween-Athon

Mailing list at the end of Halloween-Athon

Monday was great, I could slow down and get the packages ready which for some reason is something I really enjoy. 

I am looking forward to the coming weeks of mail art!

I also received a Secret Halloween package - another mail art madness I do at IllustratedATCs - here is my little Georgie playing with the dolls I received.

Georgie - Aged 2 playing with DADAology's Vampire art Doll

I like to share this art with Georgie - check out the pictures of when Georgie was weeks old, she got a bunch of ATCs as a gift for when she was born. ATCs on her just looked so huge!!

What is my workstation like?

I've been seeing some interesting work spaces lately and want to add mine to the collection - along with my general environment.

Noodlerabbit88 - Work space

I work very small so realistically I use very little space. In this picture you can see my usual layout for painting ATC's - this bat is day 14 on Drawlloween - one of my more simpler designs. Anyhow I have my computer right in front of me because I can't tear myself away from my emails and Facebook!

Lego Minifigure and art collection - Katie Hone

Boxes of stuff - organised heaven!

Workspace and inspiration

These pictures are what surrounds me, mostly envies, Moos and inchies - inspiring and a great collection of Lego Mini - Figures (which by the way I love)!

Finally I wanted to share these awesome pictures that TF Balding has got on her Facebook page called Southern Sweet Tea Studio - She is an exceptional artist and here she's done a time lapse of her latest piece which will be a giveaway to a random lucky winner. Check out her Etsy shop too.

TF Balding 2015 Southern Sweet Tea Studio

I would love to see your workspace too, how organised are you?

Check out how much my art and working has changed. 

A Canvas Work in Progress

Way back in 2012 I used to paint canvas, bigger, more space needed. I'm quite glad I work small with my little set up!

Art Topic List For Halloween, oh and Cookies!!

Hello everybody! I hope everyone is doing good.

Monday

I had a rather epic day with a new friend from work, she is all artsy and we had grand plans to do some interesting stuff. I was going to introduce her to Art Trading Cards, make origami things, this strange plastic bead you can melt down and mold which then hardens. Followed by an interesting dinner and cookies (we figured that would appease the Georgie girl).

How did we do?

We made dinner and cookies - hah!!!

Jody and I spent the whole day chatting and I showed my enormous collection of Art Trading Cards I have collected in two years. Georgie wanted plenty of attention and wouldn't go down for her much needed nap.

Georgie mashes up the mix

Georgie beats the dough into submission

Drawlloween Challenge

My topic list for Drawlloween

Oh this is such fun - for every day in October this year is a topic, we post everyday with our creations and with any luck I will complete all 31 and get a cute little pixel challenge trophy! Don't we just love pixel trophies!

Here is a sneak peak at a few completed ones:

Drawlloween - Ghosts - Eyeballs - Skull - Dragon - Devil --- Katie Hone

Someone you must go and look at

Clicking a few links and looking around the internet I happened to bump into a very good friend of mine on her blog! And it's rich with posts and ideas which, when I have a bit more time I will start reading through. Her name is Amy Weaver - you can find her blog at TheWeaversHand. She has traded some awesome pictures of my daughter, I'm not usually a great fan of collage but the way she uses mixed media is just incredible. Seriously check her out!

Moos made by Amy Weaver - Georgie Atkin 

Children's Books and Youtube Banners

Out of the woods and back into blogging. A new effort to blog at least once a week on either Mondays or Wednesdays.

What am I doing currently? A lot! Seriously I have every single toe and finger dipped into projects with one larger project in mind. Though the way to do this is actually to take my hands and feet out and stick them all into one big bucket... Ok now it's sounding weird! 

A children's book has been an idea I've had for ages but it isn't just me who says this. People from all over who have seen and received my art have always said I might be pretty good at this. I was never keen because I found the project a bit too large to comprehend. With a little help from time management apps (Trello is just wonderful) - I am now attempting to remove myself from small projects and really make a go at this.

Here are some images from an idea --- also found on Etsy:

Elephant and Giraffe at Breakfast

Elephant Skiing down a Volcano

Giraffe and Elephant Original Aceo - Katie Hone

Elephant Skiing on Volcano Original Aceo - Katie Hone

Perhaps I am falling at the first hurdle which is the story itself... am I really meant to write and illustrate, might have to put my feelers out for an author!

Scott Whitehill Youtube Challenges Channel - Art by Katie Hone

One of my other little side projects is aiding small time Youtubers with bits of artwork to help make their profile colourful and attractive. Make way for Scott Whitehill - he happens to work with me at the local Tesco and aims to make a channel about strange and wonderful challenges. Using some of his challenges has helped with my painting.... Eating candy vs insects - yummy!!! Go check him out, support is always a great thing! Do you know a Youtuber that needs a little hand in some fun free banner art? Send me a message!

It's nice to get back into the blogging atmosphere - I'd love to hear your comments :D

Also my Aceo Etsy store is now back up and running with a goal of keeping the shop full and exciting!

Cheese Trees and Beached Hippos

YES - an abnormal title for abnormal art!!!

I have started a new swap over at ATCSforall and I decided to try and create a truely random set of cards. My aim was to have three seperate list of themes and to choose randomly from each one of them to try and draw on a tiny ATC.

So here is my first one - Beached Hippos find themselves amidst a desert of rainbow melting cactus!

2.5" x 3.5" Original ACEO - Hippos beached rainbow cactus

This can be found on Ebay here.

And my second one - Giraffe wonders around on the moon and finds a rainbow igloo amongst the cheese trees. (I loved drawing the cheese trees and also igloos have become one of my favorite things to draw!

2.5" x 3.5" Original ACEO - Giraffe finds a rainbow igloo and cheese trees

This can be found on Ebay here.

I am really enjoying really surreal art because you can make the stories up afterwards - I do love the idea of cheese trees growing on the moon instead of the moon being made of cheese. So many ideas!!

NFAC - Animals in Hats!

Another month of the NFAC - I'm still pretty new to it but I have learnt that it's best to do all three for the month. I used to find it quite taxing on me creatively but now I'm really organised and have all the topics for the future in my diary. That way when I get a creative hit I can go crazy! Here are my three cards for this month - the topic is "Animals in Hats".

2.5" x 3.5" Original Art ACEO -  Toucan in a Fez

2.5" x 3.5" Original Art ACEO - Lions in Fancy Dress

2.5" x 3.5" Original Art ACEO - Giraffes in Fancy Hats

2.5" x 3.5" Original Art ACEO - Tortoise Crawls under a Straw Hat

The only one not listed on Ebay are the two giraffes. When I did all of these I usually found a hat on the internet and then tried to fit an animal underneath it, maybe there was a better way????

Find them here on Ebay:

Tortoise

Toucan

Lions

They all start at $0.99 as per the NFAC competition rules. Search up NFAC on ebay to find what other people have put forward this month.