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!!

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.

Creative Tuesday - Jam on Toast

Over at Creative Tuesday the theme this fortnight is "Hot Toast and Jam" - I of course can't ever miss the opportunity to bring out my pair of cute giraffes who obviously seem to like this for breakfast. I sit here and wish and wish I could have a pair of tiny giraffes... Anyone seen the scene in Despicable Me when they shrink the elephant... yes I would love that shrink ray :)

2.5" x 3.5" Original ACEO - Giraffes eat Jam on Toast

Pop on over to Creative Tuesday see what other people have made!

This item is also in my Etsy store - hop on over if you want to see where these critters also go.

Creative Tuesday - "I want to go to"

Every time I hear the phrase "I want to go to" I nearly always think of the moon.... so hmmm... I decided to draw all of the giraffe family hanging out on a rather Mars looking like moon (what with the bright red colours). Well we can all bend the rules a little!!!

2.5" x 3.5" Original Art ACEO - Giraffes on the Moon

 

 

 

 

Head on over to Creative Tuesday's little corner of blog land to see other inspirations for this fortnight's topic :)

 

 

You can find this piece of art for sale here in my Etsy shop.

 

I have also kept myself busy with this month's NFAC Theme: All in a Row

 

Check out my Elephants - Giraffes - Pigs

All on eBay now!

 

Minion Mashup

One of the swaps on ATCs for All that I've joined is Minion Mash Up which was to find a famous painting and put minions in them. Now I am an enormous fan of minions and I am thrilled to bits that they get a whole movie to themselves next year!!! Here are a few that I've done so far. I was tempted to stick to my ultra vibrant colors but rather experimented with trying to get the colors close to the original painting as possible. A very fun endeavor.

So here we have “Minion’s Mother” – inspired by “Whistler’s Mother”

 

2.5" x 3.5" ACEO - Minion's Mother

"Whistler's Mother"

A Salvidor Dali inspired mashed up painting inspired by “Sleep” 

2.5" x 3.5" ACEO - "Sleepy Minion"

"Sleep" - Salvidor Dali

My last one is for sale in my Etsy shop – inspired by “The Metamorphosis of Narcissus”. I absolutely love Dali and will probably keep using him.

"2.5 x 3.5" ACEO - "Metamorphosis of Minion"

 

"Metamorphosis of Narcissus" - Salvidor Dali

I've also been experimenting with different pen thicknesses with some great results. It helps that I've also acquired a tiny thin brush to do all the fiddly detailed bits!

Creative Tuesday - Birdhouse

I had a great idea once I saw this theme to once again shrink my cute giraffes so that they could go visit some bird houses of there very own. I don't think they found any birds as they've scared them all away. I don't keep a bird house at home but maybe I should, some of them are supremely adorable!!!

 

Here is my entry for this fortnight's theme:

 

 

2.5" x 3.5" Original ACEO

Head on over to Creative Tuesday to see all the other awesome bird houses/cages.

 

If you want to grab it for yourself - this item is listed in my Etsy Shop.

The Angry Robots

I haven't checked in in a while and had painted something "Bizarre" for the Artist's Playroom.

 

A few weeks ago my friend wanted me to join an "Everybody Dance" swap - but I declined because the theme didn't really interest me... Later I decided to join because some of the other peoples cards looked great and wanted to get in on it. I was going to paint elephant and giraffe doing some moves, but they're perhaps a bit difficult to draw on an ATC doing the tango!! So I opted for my new Angry Robots... I do love how annoyed they look that they have to dance. What fun these were to do, I think the dancing tango robots are the most popular but I personally love the three flamenco robots.

Angry Robots Dancing Swap ATCs

 

Pop on over to the Artist's Playroom for more bizarre art!

 

Here is another comic strip of Georgie. She went to a baby group yesterday where we got her feet painted onto card - I've transformed it into a Father's Day card - aw. Also big big news! She's sleeping for 9 hours at night (most of the time) - OMG - I actually get sleep now! Yay!

 

 

 

Giraffe and Elephant Sail the Seven Seas - or the bathtub.

Over at Inspiration Avenue the theme is Nautical...

 

Does an origami paper boat in the bath count as a ship in the ocean?? It does when you throw in the fearless Giraffe and Elephant Pirates!!! Yaaarrr!!



Pirates at Sea - Watercolour ATC

Pop on over to see more great work.

Giraffe and Elephant in miniature

There are so many things I can do with Giraffe and Elephant - and so much more when you make them tiny! Who wouldn't love them as pets! However you may not say yes after seeing what mischievous deeds they're getting up to!

Giraffe Catches a Fish - Watercolour ATC

Giraffe and Elephant go Snorkelling - Watercolour ATC

I have so many art projects to do and yet my body doesn't seem to like the idea. I have come down with mastitis at around the same time I was deciding to wean onto a bottle. Now I'm on antibiotics and painkillers. My god it's painful... I can barely lift my arms since my lymph nodes are so swollen and painful.... The antibiotics are thankfully very strong and I hope to blast it away in a few days time.

So in the meantime - enjoy my latest montage :)

Giraffe and Elephant in a Dali World

Over at the Artist's Playroom the theme of the week is "Famous Artist". So what artist inspires me? Well; Dali has always been a fave of mine, I love his surrealism, his melting clocks and general strangeness of his scenes. So where better to take Giraffe and Elephant, it's already pretty surreal that they've infiltrated the movies - why not let them find the art world too.

Giraffe and Elephant in a Dali World - 2.5 x 3.5 Watercolour ATC

 

Once again this has opened up a new line of ideas, I'm thinking Giraffe and Elephant photobombing the "Scream" - I would get  them to do bunny ears but they erm don't have fingers, ho hum....

 

Anyway pop on over to the Play Room to see other Famous Artist inspired great art! :D

The Tale of the Rainbow Elephants

One day a family of three elephants decided to go on a long trip to look for their fortune.





Blue Elephants ATC - Watercolour

But something happened!!!

An Elephant's Memory ATC - Watercolour

The little one disappeared in a swirl of colour!!!

Green Elephant ATC - Watercolour

The father elephant searched until his mate died.

Yellow Elephant ATC - Watercolour

But he never found him. 

Little Elephant grew up in a world of green skies and blue grass. She regretted leaving her parents behind but the world she now lived in was free of all predators and she lived a long happy life.

I'll admit that turned into a more morbid story than I imagined, but I didn't really paint these with a story in mind. In fact this was an experiment to see how well the colours would work in different situations. Somehow they've come out much more vibrant than I imagined! Very happy!

So I put the new colours to the test and added a new item to my Abstract Etsy Shop. I did that item with Creative Tuesday in mind since last week's theme was skyscrapers... except that I got it in my head that it was Monday so rush rush to get something done. I really do have all my days mixed up at the moment. This week's theme is newborn which I think is pretty appropriate for me!

Maybe next time I'll paint these with a story to hand!



Larkinor

When I was 16 I got heavily addicted to a web based browser game called Larkinor, I played it for about 2 years before I moved onto better games. It wasn't a very widely known game, in fact I would say there were only 100 regular players at that time. I joined a chat room and met a lot of people, most of whom were from America, they were all very nice and it made my gaming experience very enjoyable. This image I drew using pen and ink was to commemorate all the friends I'd made during my time there. All of the quirky names on the outside of the image were player names so that when I posted this on the forum they could see where they were.

This second image was drawn specifically for a friend I'd made in the game called Monty (game name). He had lost his Dad that week so I decided in memory I would draw an image and do a similar thing with everybody's names. The game was very much a community of very nice people and it was nice to show him how much we all meant to each other. It was a last minute decision to actually colour this one in, it certainly made it more vivid.

This drawing was the last one I ever did for Larkinor, by this time I was getting bored of the game and a lot of my old friends were leaving. This drawing was for somebody we all called Cinder who within the game was on the top list for being the best robber, so I focused on the robbing aspect of the game. It was a nice way to say goodbye.