The Day Before Christmas

The Day Before Christmas

We have been helping with the cake, 

And licking out the pan,

And wrapping up our present,

As neatly as we can,

We have hung our stockings up,

Beside the open grate,

And now there's nothing more to do,

Except

To

Wait.

Both my illustration and poem were inspired by anonymous artists from the 20th century.

Merry Christmas

~ Karen

Little Boy w/ His ChristmasTree

  Gian Patrick with his sister, Jessie looking more like themselves. 

Happy Holidays.

~ Karen

The Cave Digger

This is absolutely amazing and beautiful. I just had to share with my blogger friends.

A place to visit and add to my bucket list.

Enjoy your day.
~Karen

Sunday Sketches... Pine Cone Santa

 Well the Christmas rush is upon us all and I for one can't find the energy to get everything done. I'm behind doing everything! Haven't completed a watercolor painting, a gift for my daughter Jessie. It must be completed today and in the mail by tomorrow or it won't get there in time. The tree has lights but no decorations yet, haven't set up my Christmas Village, and haven't made any cookies or my chocolate pecan candy to give as gifts this week.  I didn't even sketch every day.
A lot of  students are sick at school, maybe I'm fighting off a cold which could be the reason I'm sleeping so much when getting home after work.
On a positive note I did manage to draw this cute little pine cone Santa which was a gift from my daughter Jessie, several years ago. You can't see the white glitter that was added to the piece but I think he turned out quite well... Maybe I should frame him and send to her, would that be called re gifting?   ha ha.
Have a great week.

~ Karen

Sunday Sketches

This is the second week I've been keeping a promise to myself to draw in my sketch book every night. The watercolor was added to Saturday morning. I've chosen two of my favorites to share for this weeks Sunday Sketches.

I'm also super excited to share that my new website is up! http://www.karenmaggioart.com/
Stop by to see my new Acorn Holiday Greeting Card Series. The cards also make wonderful hostess gifts when displayed in a frame.
You can purchase them in sets of 6 w/envelopes for $24.00. They'll be sent right to your door.

Have a wonderful week and make sure you visit Sunday Sketches to see what the artists in the group have posted.

~Karen

We GOTTA PRAY by Alica Keys

Very emotional and so true.  We gotta pray! Thank you Alica Keys ....

Creative Tuesday "Dreaming of Christmas"

 My first drawing for this weeks Theme "Dreaming of Christmas."

 I love the simplicity of this drawing, but the little girls feet, face and waving hand looked strange to me.

So I decided to give it another try and this time add a background to the scene.

 2nd drawing

Well..I didn't get to finish the revise as you can see. I had sketched out the background in my sketchbook and was still revising the children when I realized I wasn't going to complete the piece by today's dead line. I ended up cutting out the children and gluing their feet onto the background. My little girl seems to have aged and the little boys face got puffy. It still needs work but I made the dead line Michael.

Would you believe  I was thinking of calling in sick this morning just to stay home and finish it properly. I'm starting to take Creative Tuesday a bit to seriously. haha

I love my concept, it brought back so many fond memories of my own children when they were small. We always cut down our own tree and would dress up just to visit Santa at the Art Gallery. I remember their Grandparents telling us "This is the best time of your life, enjoy every minute with your children when there young."

I must admit, it is so true.

Happy Holidays

~Karen

Sunday Sketches "Holiday Baking"

Sketch #1

Sketch #2

Tis the season to firer up the oven and starting baking....

That's exactly what I did on Wednesday just like a thousand other people in the States.

It's also the day I decided to make a commitment to myself  to sketch something in my sketchbook every day for 108 days.

What ever gave me that idea you might ask?  Well another artist / blogger of course.  Marla Baggetta, of Painting & Pastels mentioned she was going to try sketching daily for 108 days and wondered if anyone else wanted to join her. You can read that post on her blog  Painting & Pastels.

I must admit  I've seen some amazing Art Journals in the past few weeks and have been toying with the idea of recording something positive each day in my sketchbook. When I read Marla's post I took it has a sign to do just that every evening before I drop into bed. ha ha. Please note that not all of my sketches will look as finished as what I posted today (I've been on Thanksgiving break) but at least one will be worthy to share on Sunday Sketches.

Have a great week and don't forget to follow the link above and see what the other artist are sharing today on Sunday Sketches.

~Karen

Lily of the Valley for Sunday Sketchs

 I was recently asked how I start my watercolor paintings. This week I thought I would show some sketches.. This is called Sunday Sketch's. ha ha.

 I take all my own inspirational photographs to use as reference. Usually I pencil in my composition first so I can erase and correct things. Once I'm happy with the composition I like to start adding the watercolor, trying not to paint within the lines so that it doesn't look to tight and controlled.

 In this particular piece I added just enough color to see what I was doing. It was a close up photo and it was rather hard telling what was in the forground and what was the background.

I did start using pen at this point too.

Unfortunately I didn't take photos of how I layered the color for you.

But at this point I start adding more value contrast and building up the color.I love the transparence of watercolor and like to see the various colors used within the shapes.

The last step is adding more detail and value lines using the pen. 

 

Finally the finished watercolor that was started in the spring when my garden was full of beautiful 

   Lily of the Valleys.

detail #1

detail #2

detail #3

detail #4

The final piece

I thought you might be tired of seeing all my Holiday Acorns this week, so decided to post this watercolor which was finished in between doing all those acorns...ha ha

Don't worry next week your going to see all six finished Holiday Acorn designs! I even made four of the designs in two different color versions, and ordered cards which will be delivered November 26th. 

I'm so excited!!

Don't forget to follow the link to see what the other artists have created for this weeks Sunday Sketch's

Have a wonderful, safe and Happy Thanksgiving.

~ Karen

Creative Tuesday

 

I'm a bit late... But here is my submission to Creative Tuesdays.

Follow the link to see some amazing artwork!

Let the Holiday season begin!

                                 ~ Karen

Sunday Sketchs The Centerpiece

Well my still life is finally done but I'm sorry to report the photographs don't give it justice. I always try to take my photographs outside using natural light, but the weather combined with a busy schedule caused me to photograph when there wasn't sunshine resulting in flat lighting  The pictures look rather blue.
I tried my best to use Photoshop but I just could get them to look like the actual painting.
My husband, Chris is a commercial photographer so I asked him to scan the painting and do his magic in Photoshop. Unforunately he didn't have it done for Sunday Sketchs so I had to use my photos.:(
I plan on making prints and cards of the painting along with some very whimsical acorns for the holidays.
Chris is busy handling the scans and printing for those so we get the color just right.
Till then have a wonderful Sunday.

Karen

Sunday Sketchs and another Acorn

If you haven't noticed.... I really had fun taking pictures of the latest two acorns. Hope I didn't bore you with my silliness but it's that time of the year when its hard not to get a bit squirrelly.

Just Having Fun With Acorns

If you have been following my blog for some time you know that I LOVE acorns. I've been working on a series of whimsical acorns that  will evidently turn into greeting cards. This is acorn number four, and next Sunday I'll share number five. If you would like to see the first three click here.

~ Karen

A Peek inside my Classroom Halloween

 My day started at 4:00 am...

 A sample of what the students were creating.

 She was smiling at 7:30 am that's always a good sign.

 Students busy applying paper mache to their fantasy creatures.

 Living art work

Having fun with some of my girls. It was a good day.