"M U R D E R !"

Before you get all panicky, take a deep breath and remember the #1 rule in Wibbley World - "Nothing bad ever happens," so we should be safe. Hey, I just noticed that looks just like my house he's leaving - I don't think I like that!

I painted this ACEO for the May Nibblefest contest, "The Secret Life of Toys." This is a portrait (from life, something I don't do a lot!) of an actual marionette I have along with his demented brown bear associate, and I swear I can hear them saying "mmmuuurrrdddeeerrr" when they think I'm not paying attention. These are some seriously disturbing looking "toys" (I'm not sure when they were made, the heads are composition though so they're pretty old), maybe they were designed to keep the naughty children in check.

 

"I thought that kid would NEVER go to sleep! And where the heck is Andy, he was supposed to be here 15 minutes ago?!!"

Dolls these days!! I guess it's true that you just can't get good help anymore. On the other hand, at least she's not stealing the jewelry or breaking the fine china.


This is my latest Nibblefest entry, our theme this month is "The Secret Life of Toys." All entries start at just 99¢, no reserve!

I've been a little lax about posting here, I'll try to be better about keeping up.

Anyway, I just listed this one on ebay, it's an ACEO:

Mr. Sainesbury
American Gentleman
(Click Mr. S. to go to the auction)

Mr. Sainesbury is looking quite proper and dignified in his bowler hat, bow tie and pipe, it's easy to see why the nickname for the Boston Terrier is the "American Gentleman". Of course whoever came up with that nickname obviously never met Mr. Wiggles, the alter-ego of Mr. Sainesbury. In fact, if Sainesbury had gone to medical school, I'd venture to say that these two were the Jekyll and Hyde of Dogdom. In case you've forgotten Mr. Wiggles, here's a recent pic:

Mr. Wiggles*
Unspiration for this painting

Don't get me wrong, we love Mr. Wiggles dearly, he's just not particularly dignified.

February's Nibblefest theme is "Vintage Cats," so I painted Mr. Fluffypants on his way to have his legs shaved:



I also recently opened an ETSY store where I'm selling prints & some originals. I haven't listed too much yet but hope to over the next few weeks, please click on the banner to go to the store:

My last painting for 2008 (completed on New Years Eve) was for the EBSQ "Better Late than Never" show, it's a portrait of Tracey Greene's little one-eyed shih tzu, "Won Ton". I'm happy to say that Won Ton won the "Member's Choice" award! That was a nice little ending to an otherwise underwhelming year.

I just finished and listed my December Nibblefest painting last night at 2:30 AM, thanks very much to my husband Chris for some excellent last minute suggestions!  It's not a great time of year to be listing new artwork, but last January I had made a commitment to enter every Nibblefest contest, and I made it!

Yay!

Introducing the newest member of the Knowles family:

So it happened that this week's Illustration Friday themes overlapped and I was able to do one painting for both. I love it when that happens!

Illustration Friday's topic is "Pretend", and Nibblefest's is "Christmas Trees," so the obvious solution was to paint a squid pretending to be a Christmas Tree. I'm just worried now that more people will have done the same thing. Oh well.

Anyway, here's my entry:


Remember, all Nibblefest auctions start at just 99¢, no reserve! This one ends on Thanksgiving, so if you're thinking of bidding, please do so early or use a sniping software such as esnipe (which I swear by, btw. I'd do a commercial for them!)

So I was organizing my closet a few weeks ago and came across an old sketchbook mixed in with some photos. Generally looking at my old work makes me cringe a bit, but frankly these made me wonder what the "F" was going on in my head! These drawings were pure stream of consciousness and similar to the rapidograph drawings I posted back in May, although older (maybe from around 1989ish) and a bit darker - I confess they do frighten me a little. I suffered from depression for a long time and I think it's interesting to see the changes in my artwork as I started feeling better over the years.

Anyway here they are, they're all pretty small (3"x4") and a little beaten-up. Unfortunately I don't have clever titles or stories to go with them, but oh well:












I was pretty lucky, for some reason after I found these drawings I took them downstairs right away - the next night we had a fire in our room and these probably would have been ruined if I'd left them lying around (the way I usually do). I'm not sure, but there's probably a lesson in there for me!

I think the original plan was to do paintings of these, maybe I could do something along those lines (eventually).

Hi,

I'm pretty late in posting this - I actually have a bunch of stuff to post but wanted to do this one first since the auction ends tomorrow (the 27th). Been very busy lately!!

This painting is my September Nibblefest entry, our theme is "Smiling Black Cats". It's a little bit different for me in that it's in acrylic (will post more about that in a bit).

Anyway, here's Big Spooky (who really isn't so big, he's an ACEO)!



Click on Big Spooky to go to the auction, and don't forget to search eBay for NFAC to see more great entries!

This is my newest painting for Nibblefest, our theme this month is "A Dog's Life".

Click on Scottsey to go to the auction!

The Mint Chip Disaster:

A Tragedy of Cataclysmic Proportions

Starring

Scottsey and the Squirrelipede

Some people think a dog's life is nothing but fun & games - I think Scottsey here would disagree. Just imagine that you're about to take a bite of your delicious chocolate chip mint ice cream cone when it falls to the ground -

Kersplat!!

Then imagine that a squirrelipede comes swooping in out of nowhere and starts licking it! Ugh, don’t you just hate when that happens?!

FIVE SECOND RULE!!

Just listed on eBay for Nibblefest, July's theme is "Angels and Demons":

Who says Angels and Debils always have to be at odds with each other? I happen to know that’s just an act they put on, they’re actually quite close and enjoy each other’s company when no one’s watching (no one that is, except the angel kittens, Cerberus, and me of course)! They’ll probably be pretty mad when they realize I’m plastering this picture all over the internet, but oh well.

What I’d really like to know though, is what exactly is this painting saying about dogs and cats?

I have some things I'm working on, but nothing ready to show yet since most are sketches for the upcoming EBSQ "Ripped Off" show, in which I'll be interpreting the work of Lori Rase Hall, Valerie Jeanne, and Noelle Hunt . I always love doing this show, I find it challenging and inspiring. I've also been working on my July Nibblefest piece, our theme is Angels & Demons.

Anyway, my daughter Violet spent a good part of today making ridiculously cute little creatures she calls "Ghosties" (I generously allowed her to raid my secret stash of eyeballs). When she was done we had a little photo shoot:



A close up:




The rejects (didn't get to be in the show, I'm not sure why but maybe they have trouble controlling themselves):



Surrounded by PINECONES - Look out!!!:



And finally, the artist and her creations:

I just listed this little painting for the June Nibblefest contest, our theme this month is "In the Mist"

You know how sometimes when you’re sitting on a bench, pretending to read your homework assignment and you just can’t stay awake? Then you sort of doze off, but you’re not really sure anymore if you’re awake or asleep, and all of a sudden squids start barging out of the mist in droves? Don’t you hate when that happens?

Please search NFAC on ebay to see all of the other Nibblefest entries!

This week's topic is "Forgotten," and I instantly thought of poor Little Red, who is sadly forgotten on the shelf:

"The Secret Garden"

I have a little garden
I keep it on a shelf
My garden is a secret
For no one but myself

Why do there always have to be hurt feelings? Why can’t anything just be happy and good, and stay that way? Little Red used to like to pretend he was one of his plant friends, but sadly was left behind on the shelf. It sucks to be forgotten, doesn’t it.

Poor Little Red.

I'm going to try to create another piece for this theme too, if I have the time. The problem is that everything I can think of is really sad, and, well, sad is just so sad!

I've finally decided to participate in Illustration Friday - how could I not when this week's topic is "Baby"?

My piece shows the first meeting of Sparky and the squid (since I know you've all been wondering how it all started). Look, they've known each other since they were in diapers!


I will be putting this piece on ebay sometime this week. It's 4x4, oil on masonite panel. I may touch it up a teense first though.

So I was looking through some old stuff over the weekend and came across a sketch book from a few years ago. I used to do work like this all the time, pure stream of consciousness - I was always surprised at what would come out. Technically I know these drawings aren't that great, but I do think they look kind of cool (especially when the whole page is filled up). Just seeing this again makes me want to go order another rapidograph (since they don't make rapidoliners anymore) that would probably get clogged up and rendered useless within two days.

Anyway, here's one of my drawings:


If nothing else I think it's kind of interesting to see how much my style has evolved over the years. Speaking of which, I finally found photos of some paintings I did ~20-23 years ago! The paintings themselves are still lost somewhere in my house, and when I find them again I want to get decent scans. There are a couple that didn't make it to the photo session so I'd especially love to get pix of those. Anyway, I was pretty depressed back in those days & my paintings were a lot darker. Now I can finally update the "Oldeys" section of my website! Yay!

I thought I'd give watercolors a try again - about once a year or so I give watercolors and/or acrylics another go, determined that this time I'll figure them out! I really don't know how you water-media folks do it! So anyway, I dug out all of my watercolor paraphernalia again & came up with Chirpy II:




I had a little bit more success this time. I may never be a "watercolor artist" but maybe won't wait another year before trying them again!

Hamstey doesn't know it, but he's a winner. All he needs to do is look in the mirror and see for himself (or take off his shirt and read it).

This is a little colored pencil ACEO (Artist Trading Card) I had originally created for the February Nibblefest art contest (Rodents), but I changed my mind at the last minute. It was a tough call - on the one hand you have hamsters, on the other, capybaras - ultimately the capybaras triumphed.

Wow, I hope that' not why Hamstey is crying.