Sketch Fest February 2014

   I almost didn't get to participate in the Sketch Fest #47 of Feb. 2014.  February is a busy month for a mom/artist of a high school cellist.  The biggest event of the school year, the All-State Orchestra, takes place during the middle of the month, which is preceded by a concert at a high shcool, then followed a week later by a Solo and Ensemble Festival for Strings for the school district.  So the cello mom gets busy!  Especially for the Solo and Ensemble since this artist/cello mom moonlights as the lowly piano accompanist. XD lol  

   While trying to get the challenge blog (http://www.aurorawingschallenge.blogspot.com) for my digital stamp business ready for the big day (March 17th is the day!), I had to squeeze in some practice time on the piano.  It's just like homework that requires a lot of hours!  Since the Festival was during the same weekend as the Sketch Fest #47, I nearly scratched this event off my schedule.  I've learned from my past experience to not taken on more than I can handle.  So I kind of checked and looked at the prompts during Friday evening, but didn't actually select and tag prompts until Sunday morning.   Luckily, not a lot of prompts caught my attention this time, so I only picked 2.  

   The first prompt I picked was "cheeky freckled pixie with head of clover".  Sounds like fun, doesn't it?  Just descriptive enough to get your imagination going, but definitely not too specific like a novella (Yes, some prompters actually leave lines of text as their prompts.  I just run the other way whenever I see those. ^^; ).  I like a lot of breathing room when picking prompts.  Nothing like overly (and demandingly) specific prompts/requests to rob the wind out of your sail of creativity...

"Clover Pixie/ Shamrock Elf" ACEO (2.5 " x 3.5") in ink & watercolor on bristol vellum (140 lb.) *SOLD*

   I love hair of anything ... leaves, flowers, etc.  It's so much fun for me to pile on heaps of something for hair. :D  And I also love faces with freckles.    Freckles are kind of tricky as it's easy to get a little carried away when placing random mix-size dots. :D   I also love putting sparkly dots/dewdrops.  That's something else that's also easy to overdo.

 Next, I picked something that's classically "me".  "Storm of Petals".  It was easy to see the vision of cherry petal storm in my head.

"Sakura Fubuki - Urei" (Cherry Petal Storm - Melancholy) ACEO (2.5" x 3.5") in ink & watercolor on bristol (115lb.)
*SOLD*

   Cherry blossoms are loaded with memories and emotions for me, as I am Japanese.  As I get older, the memory seems to get bitter sweet, and all of my cherry blossom images (except for the happy sprites) like this have a touch of sadness permiating from the work.  That said, I am very fond of this particular ACEO.  I am very happy it sold to one of my dear collectors. ^_^

  The line art versions of these two ACEOs have been released as digital stamps at my Etsy shop.

"Clover Pixie/ Shamrock Elf" digital stamp

"Sakura Fubuki - Urei" digital stamp