Art – Page 96 – Katie Jeanne Wood

Watermelon – summer portrait painting – Throwback Thursday

Watermelon
acrylic on birch plywood
2010
The original has been sold.
Prints are available here

Happy 4th of July to those in the USA. I thought this painting went well with the holiday theme today.

Bathtub Monster – Wayback Wednesday

Bathtub Monster
Wayback Wednesday Art
January 2009

This one made me laugh out loud. The first reason being, I’ve known my husband for years, and he’s never taken a bath that I can recall. Reason number two..the expression I painted on his face. He looks oh so devious, and three, that monster breathing down his neck is hilarious.

I have no idea how or why I came up with the idea for this painting, but it cracks me up seeing it again. 😀

Going to miss her

Little Dude
sold

I was cleaning up and deleting some old files off my mac last night because I’m running out of hard drive space. In the process, I came across quite a few older portrait videos that I never uploaded to Youtube.

Even though most of the paintings have been sold already, I’m going to go ahead and edit the videos anyway, and put them up on my portrait channel in a Flashback Friday type of style.

Should be interesting. I edited the video for Little Dude last night, and was it ever time consuming. I filmed every single second of each painting I painted back then. No wonder my hard drive is full! lol I had to cut most of what I filmed to make a YT size video.

Field of cotton

A postcard I pulled from my half finished stack of work, which has been sitting around for about a year. I don’t know about you, but I immediately saw a polka dot bathing suit painting. Video of what happened next will be coming soon. You don’t want to miss it. 😀

We praise the world by making
others see what we see.
James Davis May

I have two of these gorgeous trees in my yard, and it’s making me sooo happy right now to look out my kitchen windows. I had no idea what they were until they started to bloom. Then I popped a photo of one of the blossoms into Google photo search, but bam! Found the answer – Hibiscus.

I think technically they’re called plants or bushes, but these beauties are waaaay above my head, so I’m calling them trees.

Sweet Pea and Miss Maude kitty
Dancing cheek to cheek
!!!
If you only knew how much these girls fight
you’d be as shocked as I am
to see them like this

New portrait painting
WIP
Video will be coming soon to my YT channel

One of my favorite paintings sold last night.
Although I’m happy she’s going off to a new home,
it’s always bittersweet when I have to say goodbye.
I’m going to miss her.
Small to large prints are available here.

Hope you’re having an awesome Monday! Did you get everything accomplished that you thought you would today?

How to make a digital signature brush for your artwork in Photoshop

Chaos
Acrylic abstract canvas painting
by Katie Jeanne Wood

As always, the signature you see on this first photo isn’t on the painting itself. It’s on the photo only. I watermark my first photo in case the photo gets shared by someone other than me on social media. I like all my paintings to be traceable back to me or my website. If my digital signature is on the painting, my name can be googled, and my art found. I don’t know how many times I’ve seen artwork that I love, but have no idea who the artist was that made it.

Since these photos are going to be on Etsy, I’m using my name as the signature, not my website. I haven’t checked, but I’m assuming it might be against Etsy’s TOS to have your website plastered all over every photo. I’d rather be cautious, and not have to redo thousands of photos or have my shop shut down over it. We all know how persnickety Etsy can be, and how shops have vanished into thin air for no apparent reason, and without explanation.

If you have Photoshop, it’s super easy to make a signature brush that you can then use over and over again. Keep scrolling down for the directions.

How to make a signature brush in PhotoshopCC 20.0.4 (I was finally able to upgrade to the latest version on my Mac. Yay!):

Write your name – you can either use a font or you can use your real handwriting. I personally don’t like the idea of putting my own signature out there online, but if you’re comfortable with that, go for it. If you use your own handwriting, write with a dark magic marker on a piece of paper, then scan or take a photo of it.
Open the scan or photo in Photoshop, and skip down to step No 4. If you’re going to sign your name using a font instead, keep reading.
Start with a new blank canvas. Click File –> New, choose a font that best suits you, and type out your name using the type tool, which is the large T you see in the toolbar.
When you’re finished signing or typing your name, select Edit – Define Brush Preset
Name your brush something simple to identify, such as signature, and click OK.
That’s all there is to it. You now have a new signature brush to use over and over again on all your artwork! Easy peasy!! You can change the size, and use any color you’d like when using the brush, as I demonstrated in the photo above.

Flipping Through My Art Journal – ASMR Art Video

Flipping through my art journal video

Happy Friday, everyone! Today I’m sharing a video I posted to my portrait painting channel a couple weeks ago. I thought I’d give you a peek inside my art journal.

Hope you have a super weekend! I’ll be busy recording video for next week.

What I’m watching: Fleabag on Amazon Prime..definitely an adult show, so don’t watch if the kids are around. Pretty entertaining, and has all the feels. So far I like it, and give it about an 8.5 out of 10.

Also watching Two’s Company, which is a British comedy from the 70s. Not sure if I’m going to finish this one..not as funny as I hoped it would be. Meh. I’d give it a 2 out of 10 so far. It might be okay to have on in the background while painting, but to sit and watch it? Nah.

What I’m reading: False Step, which is a mindless, super fast, beach-read type of book that I got for free on Amazon. If you have Prime, you get to pre-order a book to read each month before it’s released, and I usually take advantage of that..even if the book is just eh, you can’t beat new release, and free. 🙂

I hate to say it, but I gave up on Donna Tartt’s book, Little Friend. I tried, but reading about kids, their religious school plays, and their religion classes started to bore me to tears. I kept falling asleep with the book in my lap. It never seemed to get to the point, which was supposed to be a little boy’s murder, and finding his killer. I skipped ahead 200 pages, and it was still the same old. I’m sure there was a point to it all, but it was time for me to choose something different to read.

5th Grader – Throwback Thursday

5th Grader
Oil portrait painting on canvas

I painted this little boy portrait back in 2013. I didn’t use a reference photo. The hardest part about not using a reference is knowing where the shadowy areas are, and where the lightest lights are, and keeping it straight in my head while painting.

Sometimes, I will search for a photo of someone on Pinterest to use as a shadow reference only. Doesn’t matter the gender of the person in the picture, I’m only looking at it to get an idea of where to put down the shadow and light.

Sometimes I paint eyes the proper way with eyelashes and all. Most of the time, I don’t. I tend to paint more realistically when I’m using oils.

5th Grader
Oil portrait painting on canvas
Available here..
PS: buying paintings directly through me saves you money
because there is no middleman like Etsy or eBay
hitting me with high fees

I don’t know if you do this, also, but when I think of oil painting, I classify it in my head as more “serious” work. It’s the paint the masters used, after all, and I respect that. Also, oil paint and medium costs a small fortune, especially my favorite brand. Oil paint isn’t meant for kids play, unless you’re buying student grade oil paint, which I don’t recommend. I’ve tried several brands, and they’re all terrible.

Have you read my Tips for Artists Who Are Painting on a Budget, and Tips for Artists Buying Paint on a Budget posts? What’s your favorite brand of paint, and do you use oils in your work? If so, why or why not? I want to know what your opinion is, so leave a comment below.

I have a lot more to say on this subject, so stay tuned.

Also..some gorgeous shots of the sky from around 7 this morning. One thing I LOVE about this house is the kitchen door faces directly east. So every morning when I let Chewy out, bright and early, I get to see the fantastic show the sky puts on just for me. 😉

Looking east..

Looking west..

It looked like my fairy godmother threw a BIG handful of pixie dust up into the air right over the top of my house. So beautiful! I didn’t notice the little birds on the dead tree off in the distance until I pulled the photo up in Photoshop. Aww..

5 little birds enjoying the sunrise with me..
and I thought I was all alone out there.
😀

It’s definitely summer around here now. The heat index has been over 100F for the past few days. The flooding, unfortunately continues.

Kansas Ghost Town Digital Art Story time – Wayback Wednesday

Wayback Wednesday
2002

I used to like exploring old abandoned houses. There was a time when it was the popular thing to do. Back when Flickr was big, there were many photo groups for this type of hobby. But, people started to get arrested for trespassing, and it kinda took the fun out of it. Even though I never went into any abandoned houses I found, I lost interest in seeking them out. Most of the abandoned houses around here have been turned into meth labs. It became too dangerous to go exploring.