My Hand!!

Hello everyone!

Again been busy creating for the last few days- I am having a phase of having too many ideas in my head to know what to do when I get a chance to sitt down and do some art! Crazy feeling and it is actually resulting in some annoying artists block! When that happens I have decided to make an ACEO as they are so small I don't really worry about going wrong etc. Chances are I like what I do anyway once the pressure is off!

Okay so here as promised is my zendoodle hand :-D Can you see it?! A zendoodle is basically a 'controlled doodle'- a shape divided into sections and then filled with the most crazy and random of doodles. The doodles themselves do not have to be difficult to draw, it is the overall effect which looks so intricate, difficult and complicated!

It is for sale on Etsy at:  http://www.etsy.com/listing/79246733/original-ink-drawing-hand-zendoodle 

This took a good few hours to complete, and I thought I would share the progress with you!

Step 1: Draw round a side plate, place hand down then draw round hand....

Step 2: The scary bit- draw wavy lines across whole thing!

Step 3: Start doodling! This is the fun part, and from here on in I really do not know where the drawing will take me next. It is a case of, pen, paper, idea, GO!

Step 4: Keep Doodling!



Step 5: And doodling.... I really love all these tiny little spirals inside the larger spiral

Step 6: looking fuller

Step 7: I think the bit on the left (unintentionally) looks like veins! See I really have no idea what it will look like till it's happening in front of me! :-)



Step 8: I think this is my favourite section, the 'leaves'

Step 9: Keep doodling.... alomost there

Step 10: finished! (I went over the curved ines on the left to make them stand out more, that side was looking a little unfinished)



So there you have it, step by step, amost! it would be amost impossible to show you every single step! But hopefully you can see the systematic nature of the zendoodle, and how simplicity can turn into such intricacy. Have a go yourself- it is such good fun! You don't have to do something as elaborate as this, a random shape divided up can produce equally fantastic results!

If you like my work please take a look at my etsy store: www.etsy.com/shop/JoArtyJo

Sorry can't stay longer, all that photo uploading took ages! ;-)

Jo x x



My First Sale!!

Hi guys

Sorry for the gap in blogging, I have been working hard on my art- it's very easy to get swallowed by this laptop so I have been trying to keep it to a minimum while I finish my projects!

So- the big zendoodle hand is ALMOST finished- I hope to post pics on here soon!

Today I got a free spot in a BNR and made my first Etsy sale HOORAY! Now I feel like a genuine seller :-) I sold these little thank you tags which I only listed yesterday! I have now relisted them :-)



http://www.etsy.com/listing/79133656/thank-you-tags-unique-original-drawings

So thank you Kara who I know follows this blog- not only did she give me the idea for the tags but she also ran the BNR and nudged me to get involved. Thank you Kara I owe you sooo much!

So I am now mega excited and working on more tags to list :-D

Sorry to be short and sweet but sometimes that is the best ;-)

Jo x x

www.etsy.com/shop/JoArtyJo

Creative Day

Another boiling day here, hope the rest of the world is having such lovely weather!

We had a trip to the 'toddler splash park' in our local park- however being school holidays it was full of running/shouting/scooter riding crazy non toddlers, so LO did not really enjoy it as he was constantly in someone's way it seemed :-( may stay away from there till september now!

Also had a trip to HobbyCraft to pick up supplies :-) I plan to try making thank you tags and also greetings cards so picked up some cards and a cute little thank you stamp! Looking forward to getting started on those. Today however I was working on a new project, a big zendoodle of my hand! As it is a pretty big piece (compared to my others!) it is still unfinished. I have been taking photos along the way so I can show you all the steps to creating it! Very excited about that.... I hope it will be ready by tomorrow night.

For now here is my latest 5" x 7" zendoodle, I really love making these sooo much! Won't say too much about Zendoodles now as that is what the hand project is all about.



Well that's all for now- off to bed at a reasonable hour tonight as all of these late nights are really catching up with me now!
Remember my shop! www.etsy.com/shop/JoArtyJo

Lots of love

Jo x x

Summer is here- Welcome August!

So today has been a total scorcher here in the UK! Lovely weather for playing in the garden in the paddling pool and sand pit yay! LO (little one- my baby ) had a friend round (and so did I!) after we all went to playgroup which was lovely. I was totally exhausted by the time friends went home, and am looking forward to sleep soon! Only problem is I tend to stay up way too late on here, Etsy, facebook and now deviantart.com aswell! Not to mention creating my artwork!

This is my newest listing. It is inspired by LO who adores ducks! I was very pleased that when I showed him this he made his duck noise (a very realistic version of "quack quack"- he sounds like an actual duck!), if he hadn't I would have been worried that it was rubbish ha ha :-)



Also some very exciting news about another one of my pieces today- my pink birds:



It has been chosen as the feature item for a new competition within one of my teams- the 'promoting creative friends' team. Basically the competition is to create a treasury featuring a particuar item, and this time it's my picture! They will all be judged and a winner picked after 12 August. This is so exciting- my picture is going to be in goodness knows how many treasuries! 2 have already been created and they are both sooo cute. I will post links here to try and get them more views and hopefully clicks too- please take a look :-D I am so excited about this, and of course extremely honoured! Thank you Audrey for choosing my work!

http://www.etsy.com/treasury/ODcxODE4MXw1MjE4NDgwNjI/birdie-birdie-in-the-sky

http://www.etsy.com/treasury/MTQ5NjkyOTd8NTIxMDM2NjM5/sweet-love-birds

So all in all a lovely day had by us here- I hope you can all say the same!

Jo x x

PS please remember to look in my shop, and if you like it tell your frinds :-)  xx <3
www.etsy.com/shop/JoArtyJo