Nursery Artwork ♡

Today I would love to share with you a project I completed for a friend. I dearly loved the process, so I hope you enjoy seeing the work!

I was asked to create a piece of nursery artwork for my friend, who is expecting her first child! The criterium:  an adorable elephant, and a excerpt from Disney's Dumbo; "Rest your head close to my heart never to part, baby of mine".

This series of images show: (Left) an initial pencil sketch, (Right) a more complete sketch as I work in Photoshop, and then the finished piece, printed & framed!

 

*My apologies for the goofy smile, my photographer started cracking jokes :)

Thank you as always for visiting, and I hope to see you back here next Wednesday for more art!
-Brianna

A Bazaar Adventure!

Artist & a part of our booth!

A new year & so many art-adventures to share!

This weekend was my very first arts & crafts bazaar as a vendor! I was so excited to share my art shop, Under Sea & Stars Studio! To all of my wonderful family, friends, and the lovely patrons who came to the event, thank you for supporting my artwork!

Valentine's Day Cards

"A Bazaar to Love" was a Valentine's Day themed event, so I created all-new Valentine's Day mini-cards! My designs include love & friendship themed cards & nature themed mini cards, all with a gold sticker-seal.

I also brought along my new labor of love:  mini animal sculptures! All these little charms are sculpted & painted by hand, and make perfect pocket-sized gifts!

Animals at the Bazaar:

Zebra 

Elephant (Available here)

White & Gold Unicorn

Black & Gold Unicorn

By far the most popular this weekend was the white & gold unicorn :)

I was very lucky to share the booth with two other wonderful & creative ladies! Jessica of "Roosevelt Kid" (pictured left), & Meg of "Adornments by Meg" (center).

"Roosevelt Kid" brought her sweet sewn creations, which you can check out here.

"Adornments by Meg"'s delicate natural stone jewelry was lovely too! You can visit her shop here.

&... of course my shop is UnderSeaAndStars! You can see my shop here...

& my Studio's Instagram here.

Thanks as always for taking the time to read! Catch you next week!

Sculpting Mini-Elephants: An Art-Thursday

Hello! Happy Art-Thursday :)

I was recently reminded how much I love and missed sculpting! An old friend of mine visited, and we reminisced about how we used to make sculpted-creations for each other as gifts! So I was inspired to make her this little guy for old time's sake:

 

Baby Grizzly Sculpt

(Click to enlarge)

I enjoyed the process so much, that I decided I would create more, even smaller sculptures! My first thought was of a tiny elephant, and how sweet he would be as an animal totem pendant! I thought it might be fun to see my process through the elephant's creation, so without further ado, here it is:

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1.  Concept 
First, I go on my trusty computer to look for reference, this time of asian elephants. I chose asian elephants specifically because I remembered loving their structure and colors. Based on my reference (pictured left), I came up with this quick pen and digital sketch (right) for my elephant pendant:

 

Reference & My Original Concept

(Click to enlarge)

2. Sculpt
This little guy (pictured left) was my first draft. I used a small bunch of floral wire to bulk his body and give me a good handle to hold him by as I sculpted. I used Super Sculpey polymer clay and a myriad of wood and metal sculpting tools, and my hands to sculpt his body.

Once his sculpt was finished, it was baking time! The middle image shows him at the baking process, and the start of my casting a mold of him. I used Sculpey mold maker.

In the photo on the right, I have some of his family! It was my very first time creating a mold, so the elephant brethren on the right were very roughed out by the mold, and then I took over the rest of the sculpting by hand.

 

Elephant Sculpt Process

(Click to enlarge)

3. Hook & Paint
For the necklaces, I add a hook to the raw clay elephants and bake them in the oven already intact. Then it is painting time! I use all acrylic paints, and the (almost) finished product can be seen below! The last finishing touch I'd like to experiment with is adding a varnish to protect the paint further and make him look A+

Elephant Pendant, First Draft

(Click to Enlarge)

4. Review
I am always looking for ways to improve my work, and these guys are no exception! I am pretty happy with how they are looking so far, but like I said, I'd like to give them finishing touches. I will definitely experiment with varnish, and I would like to make the next group a little more pudgy in the body, and work on an even smoother surface finish of the sculpt.

I will post an update later with my improvements! But for now, this will conclude our Art-Thursday!

Thank you for reading, and check back next week!

Live Animal Drawing: Los Angeles Zoo

The following drawings were done from live observation of animals at the Los Angeles Zoo. Straight from my sketchbook, this selection of sketches are all done in dark brown Prismacolor colored pencil on regular sketchbook paper.

My Sketchbook Pages: Pachyderm Studies

Gesture drawing studies of pachyderms! I referenced the book Drawing Animals by Hugh Laidman, 2003. This is the sixth installment!

And course I do not claim the original drawings as my own; these are just studies to practice what I have been learning in my Animal and Wildlife drawing class.

All of the drawings were done in a dark brown Prismacolor colored pencil.