Tweedlepox in Denver's Frugal Examiner

A friend of mine, Marilyn, has an examiner.com page, Denver Frugal Living, and recently featured some of my artwork that's on Etsy. I didn't even know it was there until I decided to see what new articles she had posted.

She concentrates on short simple ideas for living on a budget. As a mother of 5 (hers are all grown now) she's had a lot of experience stretching a dollar to care for a large family and many of her articles give tips on how to do that. She discusses growing your own produce and making your own pizza as well as other tips and local entertainments too.



She spoke of Etsy as one way stay home moms (like me :) can contribute monetarily to the household while being able to continue to stay and be the mom. As she mentioned, for those of us with a large family, the amount we'd make elsewhere doesn't even cover the cost of childcare. Etsy is a great place for any artist, full or part time, to market their wares as literally thousands of people shop Etsy everyday.

Marilyn even included a link to my Tweedlepox store so I guess I should get more stuff out there. I have been waiting for Gabe to teach me how to do the pictures on the computer but his schedule has been packed this month so it has gone undone. It was my intent to get new products up each week. Well, we all know that many good intentions get thwarted in life but that's no excuse to stop trying.

I think I'll work on it this weekend. And maybe we'll have some pizza too.

Meliss

Changes Afoot?

I'm considering revamping my logo. I still like certain elements of it, namely the Tweedle "D" and the rattle "P", though Gabe says the "O" personifies the Tweedle and the pox. I even very briefly considered changing the name entirely.

While trying to think of names we decided that it needed to be something fanciful that caught your attention. We came up with many that were OK, but...then I said maybe it should be totally silly. Gabe said "Tweedpox" and I changed it to "Tweedlepox" as I am an Alice in Wonderland fan and that is the name we kept going back to.

I decided, for now, not to change the name because for one thing, its too much work and for another, I can't think of anything that would fit me. So I stick with Tweedlepox and its expression of fanciful, silly, whimsicalness while trying to be perfectly proper. But I consider changing the font or style of it.

This is what I doodled the other day and I rather like it. What do you think?

Paintings of a Friend

A friend of mine married this weekend and as a gift I painted some pictures for her. I wasn't too sure how I felt about them but they did turn out OK. And she liked them too! That's quite a compliment since she's an accomplished artist herself. (Another friend made this beautiful, scrumptious cake. Art comes in all forms, I think.)














There were some challenges in making these pictures. When I went to take a photo of her (she didn't know why of course) I had forgotten my camera so I used my phone. I had only tiny pictures to look at, I may have been able to move them to my computer but I didn't have time to mess with it.














I tried to start on Monday and the wedding was on Saturday. I was not able to work on the paintings all of Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday or half of Friday because of forgotten errands, pop-ins, a school function, a Drs appointment and more pop-ins. That turned my 5 1/2 days to work into 2, minus all the school and kids and nursing and nagging-that gave me about 3 hours to draw and paint 3 pictures and create a keepable wedding card to boot. (which I forgot to photograph)










My friend is quite a ham, so in all the pictures I had of her she was making faces. That's OK, it fits her perfectly.

I only have minimal, inexpensive equipment, which I am determined to make work for me. I believe great art can be made with modest tools, its not the fancy materials that makes it art.












This is the first time I've watercolored/painted skin. I have colored people with chalk and pencil but usually when I paint its nature not people. The paintings turned out pretty good despite my inexperience.















I've never really considered myself good at sketching, especially people, but I was happy to find that my pictures do basically look like my friend.

















I tried something different with the color this time as I only have an eight pack of watercolors. I was wanting to find just the right mix of colors for my friends rich skin tone so I took my chalks and used them with the watercolors. I tried wetting the brush and touching the chalk but in most cases it was way too light. I also have a blender pen to give the chalk a watercolor look but I didn't want to pen such a large surface. So instead I used a file to grate the chalk, even combining the colors of chalk and the watercolor paint to get the right shade.











I used watercolor brushes(cheap) for some application but I also used a wetted Qtip dipped in the wet color. I really liked how the Qtip gave some of the softest lines. (I didn't think to use it until half way through the second picture) And I was able to blend the colors so much easier than with a brush.







I seem to do most of my best work as gifts for other people. Maybe art as a token of love is the best art a person can make. That's why it's important to only make what you love yourself.

Meliss