JennFamousArt Craft Artisan and Storyteller.

This past week I've been reading a book by Joe Garcia , a watercolor painter.  That's one of his paintings on the left. The book is called "The Watercolor Bible"  It was written in 2006, so it is fairly current.  It gets down to all the little details watercolor artists need to know, but one thing I noticed: it barely mentioned watercolor pencils!  I was rather dissapointed by this at first, but after reading further I found that while the watercolor pencils are slightly different, the same techniques and general rules still apply. There were many exsamples with detailed explanations throught the 8 sections, from materials and supplies, collecting and recording ideas for paintings, composition, Drawing and painting techniques and properties, Color and special effects, even demonstrationss of popular subjects. It was easy to understand, and really helpful, and I came away inspired and full of ideas.  Perhaps I'll show you some in later blogs!  I willdefinate...

this is the first thing I did with my new pencils. (it's not finnished yet) I started it in the car on the way home! all that's left to do is use water to make it look all soft and watercolor painting ish. I took a pic and posted it to my facebookFanPage  it would appear that I'm starting a watercolor pencil obsession... last month it was knitting I made several scarves and have listed a few in my ArtfireShop  I will be adding more as I find the time.  I've been away for a while, mostly because new internet arangements... um ie get it at the Library or taco bell or other Free wi fi connection places around town instead of at my own home.... it's been rough.... but I guess I'm just a survivor.... I've survived w/ no phone, even no electric for about a month or two... no internet is no big deal... Library's only a mile away... and weather is getting nicer so if I can just fix my bycycle tire it'll be a sinch to get here.... oh yeah... don't let me...

     Yea, I've been on facebook with a profile page for a little over a year. For a while, it was bringing in views for my etsy. I liked having a profile page, especially because I didn't have to spam my friends with what was going on in my shop . They could find that info by a simple click on my profile page under my etsy tab . Recently, facebook decided it was inefficient for business, so they put the word out that they would be deleting them from profiles, and instead to create a fan page . Ok, so I made a fan page, but I doubt that it will be effective due to my lack of a sufficient amount of fans. I'm struggling with the SEO stuff, and don't really know how to talk about my art. When I socialize on facebook, groups, and stuff, the  links will still go to my profile page. I guess it will be about two years before my fan page is built up like my profile page. I have 200 friends, but only 15 fans. My dilemma is; How do I teach myself how to make my fan p...

I have a friend who loves Betta fish. (also known as Chinese Fighting Fish) He has seven, and is always looking at more. I think it may be kinda catchy too, as hubby has three, which he acquired after we started hanging with our friend.  Hubby's taking care of one for me, (I tend to kill fish) which I named Sapphire.  We went over to our friends house for a visit, and I took my acrylic pad (for acrylic paintings) and decided to do a sketch of Snow Wolf, our friend's Veil tail Betta.  Snow wolf is housed in a half gallon cube tank, with a dragon pattern background, and a grass like plant (fake).  He is white with a little bit of red violet across the top, and a hint of blue green hues in his tail. He was purchased at half price, because of near fatal illness, which our friend cured quite easily with expert care. Snow Wolf is now happy and healthy, and has lived a year and a half since his recovery, and is expected to live to a ripe old Betta age of 3. (they have a sh...

OK, so this post doesn't have a picture, or anything really neat to link to. it's just a really sweet story of my thanksgiving holiday.  the story starts a bit before the holiday with a little background info. so here goes my attempt at a story, (be warned you may cry both sad and happy tears with me on this one) It was Tuesday morning, 2 weeks before thanksgiving, and I was scheduled for an 8:30am appointment to "Donate" Plasma (what I do for quick cash) and I get a phone call from the hubby.  It was about 8am, and he's explaining to me that he's at McDonalds. Why? What happened? He got pulled over. When? In the parking lot? For what? The Plates. Huh? what do you mean the plates I thought we were good on them. Aren't they antique? (it was a misconception about not having to renew the plates ... because of the vehicle being antique or something I thought we sorted out last year) Anyway, so we talked for like 15 minutes about what had happened, why it hap...

 Jennie's Cousin Modeling Jennie's wrist warmers.    So I've been Working this past week on my brand new Team "Jenns of Etsy" and one of the first members to Join Jenphan has become my good friend. I wanted to introduce her to you! Her name is Jennie , (see photo on Left) and she is an amazing crochet artist.  She learned from her mom over summer in High School.  She is now working on her BA in Child and Adolescent Development and she takes her Crochet with her to class (working between note taking and class work of course). One of her friends gave her the nick name "The Crocheting Machine", probably cause of taking her Crochet to class! lol (I've no room to talk I've taken my Knitting to the Plasma Center when I go to Donate!) you can tell she's passionately enjoying her Crochet work, from how she hasn't put her Crochet hook down since she picked up the "hobby" again last Christmas eve!  I definitely think the...

 Christmas in a Tin - ?reminds me of home!!! This week I had been feeling a little home sick, (yeah I know insert "awww" here), so when I was on my etsy  just doing some "Social Networking"  I poked around a bit to see if anyone had anything to look at and remind me of home (Alaska), and then I saw this! A buddy from etsy chat Aromalite  made this. She said the idea sorta just came to her. She loves Christmas - who doesn't!  And I guess it just so happens that Christmas and Alaska have some things in common! Pine trees! Raindeer! Snow! Snowmen! (yeah I put snow Men plural!!! that's because even if everyone doesn't have one in the yard with the first snow fall - yes they do melt in summer! most people especially those with young kids have them by mid december! so that means there are more than one! as for Santa , and the North Pole, well, I'm not sure what others believe about the Santa bit, but the North Pole is the name of a town  slightly ...