It's done!

I made a big boo-boo when it was done. I was shaking a bottle of gold ink and some must've been ont he rim and splatted right on the finished picture. I said "oh no..." and then got to thinkin' how I could fix it. I took some paper towel and tried to get it off, but it just smudged, so I took the ink, watered it down and sarted smearing it all over the paper, making hte cool green background! Thank-you, Lord, for making my picture even better!

Isn't that the way it goes, though. We mess stuff up and God turns our mess into beauty!

Opinions??

Here are a couple pictures of a sketch-up of the commissioned work I am tackling for the lady at the bank. The only instruction I got was to have a crown, the initials COP, kids bithdays and names and a Bible verse. I am wondering if you all could give me some advice before I finish it. I know that it needs to have more white space around it, so I was going to move the kids names and birthdays closer to the crown. I also know that I need to drink less coffee before I write so I don't have the shakeys when I write! This is just the mock up, so the writing isn't the greatest, I don't think...Any critiscm that I can put into it would be great!

This is the picture since I fixed the spacing on the outside edge. And I wrote the scripture smaller to make it fit better.

Jessica's verse

Here is the layout--straight out of my wee little noggin'...This is the final layout. I drew it all out once before but the paper wasn't as good so I had to re-draw it on this paper.

With the words written.

Finished! (4 hours later)

Up close the "I"
SO pretty. Not quite as I had hoped, but I'm OK with it!

In the same frame and matte I test all my pictures in...


Jessica asked me to write her this verse (my first paying customer LOL) before I injured my hand last year. I made it back then. The original is here. But I messed it up and wasn't happy with it. While, since then, I haven't been able to write, I have read and studied books to get better. This is actually my first real attempt at the painting. I've never really painted before so it was challenging. And yes, I of course find some issues with it. None that I am going to share!

I hope you like it, Jessica! And Ronnie, too, seeing as he'll have to look at it as well! lol

I made this the other day. I asked my daughter what she thought and she emphatically stated that she swore I had bought. She walked over to it with awe saying, "I saw it. I thought you bought it at the store!" How sweet.

I want to do this one over. I pictured it much differently in my head. For this one, I just grabbed some paper and drew it out. When I look at it, I can see how little of time was spent on it.

For a dear friend...

If you click on the pictures, you can see it much bigger and more clearly.


I made this for a friend. She picked it as our weekly memory verse at Bible study, so I just wrote it up. I love it when people say "How long did it take you?"
How long does it take you to find a pen and write a sentence? Cuz that's how long...
Except I do have to open an ink bottle and dip the pen a few times...so maybe a couple seconds extra?

Thanks for the prayers about my hand. It feels much better as each day passes. I have a little numbness still in the palm of my hand, but other than that, I feel like God is doin' his healing thing through the blessings of capable physicians!

Talk about URGGG!

To finally be able to pick up your pen, go to write something,

get it 90% finished,

somehow get ink on your finger,

which is gently resting on your paper,

and realize too late,
you should have put a piece of paper

under your hand

to prevent the infamous

SMUDGE...

Can you say it with me, now?

URGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!

(and all this for you, Jessica...*giggles*)

Gal. 6-9 005

Gal. 6-9 005, originally uploaded by try2basunbeam.

I think I'm getting better! This is after I messed it up. The original had the capital "L" as just a large pinkish letter. I tried to add some blue to the side and messed up so I ended up with the blue and pink cloud behind it. Craig said it looked really nice and her didn't even realize it wasn't meant to be there!

Pen Play

I want to share my playing last night after the kids went to bed. I am planning to give this to my friend who invited me to her Thanksgiving dinner (She invited me over a year ago--to make sure I'd come *wink*) as a hostess gift. This is my first time making the fancy corner letter, and only a second time using gold leaf...(In other words, I know it's not perfect!)

Copperplate Video

HA! I got it to work! Enjoy the video. Mr Joe Vitolo made it, I think. You can check out more on www.zanerian.com

This has got to be the most beautiful video I have seen of this writing.

Copperplate

Ok, so I thought maybe you all might be curious as to what this copperplate stuff is I am always talking about. I am going to post a couple pictures of my latest work. I am hardly a pro--I've only been doing it since June and even still only have been able to practice a handful of times. Some of my friends think I just have the knack for it. To me, it is very peaceful. The pen just glides over the paper and it's beautiful.





Now,I am going to try to get a beautiful video of copperplate on here. As I watched this the first time, with the music in the background, it was exactly as I thought ornamental penmanship was. A symphony...
Hmm... youtube said it'd be on here in a bit...