The Steampunk Fairy is Done!

The Steampunk Fairy is done! This one was really a fun piece to create, she has a totally playful attitude sitting on her "paper moon" set, which I based on old Victorian designs of antique paper moon photos that were very popular from the turn of the century up into the 40's. although the Vernian looking rocket-ship was my own addition. I'll have her available in my Etsy store soon, both as prints and gifts!

I hope you enjoy my new fairy, more to come in the future.

Blessings,

Mickie

I'm Now a Contributing Artist to the Enchanted Visions Project!

I got some exciting news today! I have just found out that I've been accepted to be a contributing artist to the Enchanted Visions Project! What's that? Well, it's a creative endevor that was originally concieved by legendary fantasy/fairy artists Jessica Galbreth and Amy Brown. The idea was that they would challenge each other every month by agreeing upon a thematic title for a piece of art, then both artists would create their own artistic interpretation of the theme. Artist Coriander Shea Detwiler was inspired by the project and joined as well. Coriander has since facilitated the project as something that select other artists can contribute to as well. It's really fun to look through the themes and see what different artists envision when given a theme. It's a great opportunity to be creative, and join in with other talented artists to create some very interesting galleries.

I felt very honored when I found out that I'm included as a new contributing artist. So I recieved my first theme, and hope to finish something before the deadline which is the end of the month to be posted for November. The idea is to create brand new pieces, not send in work that is already done that might fit in with the theme, so I don't have any art included yet, but plan to very soon.

I'll be sure to post my new contribution when it's finished. Watch for my new steampunk fairy later on today!

Freebee Holiday Gift Tags on My Etsy Store!

We have a really fun special in our Etsy store for the month of November! I created these designer gift tags, I'll be using them on all my gifts this year for sure! So I put them all together on a digital file that you can print as many as you need yourself on your choice of paper. With any purchase in the month of November, we'll email you this file and you can print all of the gift tags you need for your gift giving this holiday season!














Here are the ones I printed out myself last night, they turned out pretty nice!














I made a little holiday gift scene showing gifts, as you can see the tags are a good size, so there's plenty of room to write on, plus if you really need a smaller tag, you could easily re size them.


Of course, as soon as I started setting this little photo shoot up, Willow the cat had to get right in the middle of everything!
Have a great weekend!
Blessings,
Mickie

Steampunk Fairy: A Work in Progress

I had an opportunity to work on this one some more last night, in fact I was looking forward to it all day. Once I got into it, I was having so much fun, I didn't want to stop, I was working on it past midnight. Still a lot to do, the skirt has a pattern with lots of detail, so that will take a lot of time. Anyway, here it is so far, I thought you might enjoy seeing where she's taking me, she's really developing a life of her own. In case you missed the first post with the sketch and the inspiration behind this piece it's two posts below this one or, click here!

Enjoy!

Mickie

Steampunk Fairy Sketches

During the turn of the century, "paper moon" photos became very popular. The moon was cut out so that people could sit on the moon to have their photo taken, ladies, couples, even whole families would get their photos taken posing on these celestial sets. I think they're charming!

I wanted to draw a Steampunk Fairy, and I decided to take the inspiration for my new piece from these whimsical old photos. Sunday we turned our clocks back, and I used that extra hour to go back in time, and revisit not only and old photography tradition, but also a time that never was and created this sketch for my new Steampunk Fairy! I hope you like her so far.

Below is a detail shot of the Steampunk Fairy Sketch

Join me later for my pick for Magical Monday Night Movie!

Blessings,

Mickie

Midnight Ice Fairy: A Redoux

I had an old piece of art on the wooden art table this weekend that I wanted to share with you! Back in 2004 I did this piece I called The Ice Fairy, I really liked the pose, she's enchanting sitting up there on her snowy branch blowing ice across the land on a winters day. There were a couple of problems with the Ice Fairy though. One was that there was simply not very much contrast, with so much white from the fairy herself, the overcast sky, and the snow on the branches, she just never really "popped." The other problem was that my vision for her wings, and how they turned out really never really pleased me. At the time, I just left it as is and never really fiddled with it. In my head I visualised her with wings that looked like frost on the window, but what I ended up with looked kind of chunky and really didn't have much grace. But at the time, I just went on to the next and left her as is.

Dan and I were pulling together all of my winter pieces to press onto these sweet little porcelain ornaments that we got to dye sub on when we looked at The Ice Fairy. "Yea, I was never really happy with how that one turned out." I explained. So Dan suggested, "Can you change it, what would you do differently?" When I told him there just isn't enough contrast, so she doesn't stand out, he said, "What if the scene was at night and the sky dark and full of stars?" Epiphany!

So I mocked it up in Photoshop to see how it would look and we both agreed, it was a huge improvement. So I got to work with the pencils and paint this weekend! I really had fun with it, I changed her hair, ears, added more contrast to the entire figure, and added a starry night sky, changed to sun behind the clouds to a moon with a ring around it. I also did away with her old strange chunky ice wings and gave her delicate graceful iced wings that fit in with my original vision. Who says you can never go back? Sometimes you can. I hope you enjoy the before and after pictures of what I'm now calling Midnight Ice Fairy! She'll be available in my etsy store as prints, cards, and ornaments very soon!

~Mickie