Artist’s Alley: Last week I…

Drew some new pictures and thought that I would share some old ones as well.  I haven’t been able to knit or crochet for the last two weeks due to some really severe RSI in my right wrist, and a milder case in my left.  So I’ve been picking up my pencil again, and have been really enjoying getting back into it.  I hope you like the pictures!

xox,

bonita

What my camera shows me

       

Some photographic adventures with the iPhone.  Instagram is seriously awesome sauce ~ it makes everything ten times prettier and I feel like I don’t have to stress about not having my DSLR on me all the time because this app is doing a fairly good job as a substitute! 

Mind you, there is definitely a slightly different technique required when you are using your phone camera.  Yes, you can still do your fine art photographic style, but framing, focus, lighting, and all that jazz is pretty iffy.  I tend to think of my phone like a polaroid camera; you have your limitations but you can still get some really good snaps with a bit of creative juggling!

In the mean time here are some more ‘serious’ pieces I’ve put in the Studio recently. 

You can click through on the photos to go to my studio and check out all the other pictures I have also put up.  Apparently I’ve been a real busy little beaver!  I didn’t even realize how many I had done until I started looking at which ones I wanted to share.  It’s good though; maybe one of these days I will get out of 2010 and start editing the photos I have taken this year….  -____-‘  Hopefully I can get fully caught up soon!! 

xox,

bonita

Lines and Pixels

Some of my recent art work ~

I would show the inspiration for these two ladies, but I don’t have one particular picture.  Rather the idea for them grew from vintage inspired tattoo art mixed with vintage pattern illustrations and finally, a picture I drew a while ago of a Japanese courtier.    Random mix no? 

But it produced something I am quite pleased with.  I want to try to paint these with acrylics, but I have to figure a way to get my line art onto canvas without spending a fortune.  I think that tracing might be my best bet.  I shall have to experiment.  

Sorry for the huge watermarks, but I really can’t risk these pictures getting stolen.  So although I know it’s not going to stop determined art thieves, I sure hope that it’s enough to deter them considering that I do not think that any one would particularly want to steal these anyway!

I drew all these pictures while in Perth, and I wanted to show you, but had to wait until I got home and could scan them.   I haven’t drawn any more line art since I got home, but I have coloured the last picture:

And finally, a bit of fun.  

If you follow me on Twitter, you might have seen my Tweet about how I have not done any pixel art in forever and I wanted to do some thanks to Cherri Drop from Pink Padded Cell.   She did these cute as dividers and backgrounds ~

To see more of her pixel art go here.  I was inspired and drew Ichi~chan and animated him!  It was great to get back to some pixel art and I had fun doing it.

So that wraps up my latest artistic shenanigans; if you are interested in prints of any of my work, or would like to talk about commissioning me to do a specific piece of work for you, please contact me at bonita@bdotdepictions.com.

You can also visit my studio www.bdotdepictions.com to view my online portfolio of photography and art.  

xox,

bonita

C-c-c-c-changes!

Do you like the new theme I have created for Depict This! ?   Personally, I have never really liked change ~ I do not like moving furniture, or houses, or fiddling around with my environment.   Once anything is set up the way I like it ~ I hate changing it!  I am a bit like a cat in that regards {and in my sleeping habits….}; my fur gets all ruffled when I have to move around.

So it is going to take a while for me to get used to the new theme, but it is based off my new B dot Depictions studio website and the design I created for it.

The reason I changed the blog theme to match my studio’s look was that my blog is actually part of the studio, so I really need to have the two looking coherent.  Slowly, but surely, the studio is all coming together and for that I am super excited!! 

Of course, that also means changing my Etsy and Cafepress shop banners and styles too, but I will get around to that soon {hopefully!}.

In keeping with all the changes, however, I am keen to know what you all like to see on my blog ~ so I am going to do a content poll.   Now is the time to speak up about what topics you prefer to read about and what you would like me to post more on in the future.

 

poll by twiigs.com

 

If I have missed out on anything you would like to see on Depict This!, just leave a comment and I will put in my blog ideas list.  Thank you for your input ~ it is very important to me.  ^ w ^ 

xox,

bonita

Cute Wallpaper Madness ~

I have noticed that I am changing my desktop wallpaper a lot these days.  I see a really cute picture and I want to have that instead of the one I’ve got!

I thought I would post up a few of my favourite wallpapers that I’ve had, and also a couple I have done myself.  > w <

Just right click to see the original images in a new tab and click save image to download it to your computer.   Then you can go to your computer’s theme settings and change your wallpaper to whatever cute picture you want.  ^ U ^

Modes4u Free Wallpapers ~

These wallpapers are free in the Modes4u Facebook album FREE cute wallpaper.  If you don’t follow Modes4u on Facebook, you might like too as they are constantly putting up new cute wallpapers you can download and they have a lot more than just these available to use.

Takochou Wallpaper ~

I don’t have the original link to this one ~ I downloaded it from the Takochou website which was in Japanese and I can not even remember how I got there or how I managed to download it…  >  <

Blueberry Chuu~Chan Wallpaper by b dot depictions

    800 x 568  ~  Small version

    1000 x 710  ~  Large version

OC Cute Characters Wallpaper by b dot depictions

    800 x 568  ~  Small version

     1610 x 1173  ~  Large version

~* ♥ * ~ * ♥ *~ * ♥ * ~ * ♥ * ~

Gah!  I can’t believe the last time I did a wallpaper was in 2oo7!  Oh well, it’s ok because I have started to colour another wallpaper line art that I drew the other day, but it’ll be a while before the colouring is all done I think…. 

I hope you found something cute to put up as your desktop wallpaper.  I have had all of these myself in the last few months alone!

Do you have a favourite picture to use for your desktop?

xox,

bonita

Eleven days and twelve sleeps until my Darling comes home!!! 

The Goals for 2011

Or to be more accurate ~ my New Years resolutions.   I want to share these with you, maybe you can keep me accountable on a few of them!   I also want to make sure that I set achievable goals and resolutions and not overload myself with expectations as I am prone to….  > . >’

So without further ado…  

My personal goal:  To be the best mother I can be.

~ * ♥ * ~  For me this doesn’t mean making sure baby is looked after perfectly, because frankly I have no idea whether I can do that or not.  I guess it depends on what your standard of ‘perfect’ is!   So this resolution is more about the child’s character.  I want to be the sort of person I want my children to grow up to be.   I say this because I believe that children learn by example. 

So this year I strive to be more disciplined and less procrastinating; especially when it comes to house chores and cooking!   I can be organized, I know that.  It’s when I get lazy that the organization falls apart and I am sick of that happening!   Less computer, more chores.  My 2011 mantra perhaps?

My skills goal:  To practise sewing and by the end of 2011; to have sewn myself a day dress.

~ * ♥ * ~  Pretty self-explanatory.   I wanted to learn to sew last year, and I started to, but then I lost track of things and I stopped.   I keep on forgetting how much I enjoy it and spend too much time mucking around and wasting time on other things.  This year I plan to change that by practising at least once a week.  {I am also trying to do a least one drawing a week too; with a similar goal to practise art but I made this resolution before the new year. : ) }

My business goal:  To set up my b dot depictions studio website properly, to get my business cards done and to go to at least one fair with my photographs this year. 

~ * ♥ * ~  Again, self explanatory, but this one is really important to me.  I feel like my business has been stuck in the one spot for the last four months of 2010 simply because I didn’t know what I was doing.   I want my studio website up because then I feel I can actually work on the studio products and promote my services. 

I can not seem to move forwards without that all important web launching pad, so this is a crucial part to the goals I can achieve for 2011 business wise.

~ * ♥ * ~ * ♥ * ~ * ♥ * ~

So those are my new year’s resolutions.  I hope I can actually stick with them!   I sometimes manage to get half way to my goals and sometimes I forget about them altogether.  But I do think that it’s a worthwhile thing to set goals and work to achieve them.  Of course, you can do this anytime in the year and I don’t think you should put off making a resolution as soon as you realize that you need to!

I have also heard that one of the best ways to help improve your blogging {if you are interested in that} is to make goals and resolutions for your blog.   It seems to me that there are a lot of serious bloggers out there that do want to achieve certain levels of performance with their blog as it is their income/day job.

I personally refrained from making any particular goal for Depict This! {besides to keep up my 3 a week posting schedule} simply because this is something I do for fun.   I don’t want to fall into the trap of trying to get x number of readers, or x number of sponsors.   My business is my studio, blogging is a hobby and I want to keep it that way. 

What do you think?  Should all bloggers have specific goals to try and achieve?  Do you have any blogging goals in your new years resolutions?

xox,

bonita

Today I ~

So I spent today out to lunch with my Mom {darn it!  I should have taken photos now that I think of it!  Next time I promise….} and we shared a delicious bowl of Noodle Laksa soup with BBQ pork and Wonton noodles.  We both were not keen on the pork bits, but loved the Wonton noodles, so now I know what to get next time.  ^__^

An then I came home and designed a new avatar to sprinkle around the wide world of web~ness. 

   I think it’s pretty cute. 

I am sussing out a new hosting service for the b dot depictions’ studio website, and if I go with the one I am thinking of, I do not need my Etsy shop for prints any more and can sell my art and photographs directly through my website.  The only downside is that the subscription fee is quite exorbitant ~ $150.00 USD a year to use their service.  Ouch much!!  

So I haven’t decided what to do.   But I am already thinking of how I’d redesign my Etsy shop so that it  focuses on the sale of amigurumi and other stuff I make and long story short, that is how I decided I needed a new avatar.   Strawberry with bow time!! 

Oh and I also filled out a Property Purchase Offer Form which I am going to send off as soon as I finish this post.   Yup, that’s right, DH and I are trying to buy a house…..    O_________O

I will let you know how that ends up going down….   >o<

Bye for now!

 

xox,

bonita

Outfit Thirteen ~ Bow Peep

I was trying to recreate an outfit I wore last night but I realized it was totally unsuitable for trotting around Civic centre for goodness knows how long as the key coordinate involved high heels of some description.  >.>’

So I threw together an outfit that actually centred around my most favourite pair of flats ~ which are these totally cute round toed black ones with a frill and bow accent.  ^3^  ~ ♥   I also realized that I had a lot of bow accessories on today.  But that is hardly surprising as bows are kind of my signature item.   I can not resist stamping them all over my nails!

 

 

Accessories   ~  Hair bow {Equip}   Crochet Collar { b dot depictions}   Belt   {Thrifted}  

Cardigan  ~  SES     Jumper  ~  Can not remember; it's years old but I love it      Shirt  ~  SES

Tights  ~  Valley Girl   Flats  ~  Kmart {best buy ever!!}

Nail Art  ~  Konad Stamping on BYS metallic purple polish {my sister’s}

In other news ~ I updated my Etsy shop with some new items that I have been working on.   I have made a variety of rose hair accessories ~ bobby pins with different sized blossoms and in two different colours as well as a comb with a cluster of roses on it.

Have a look!  ~ b dot depictions Etsy shop ~   Please let me know if you like them and if you think that they are reasonably priced.  I always have trouble trying to decide how much I should price things.  I want to be fair, but also cover the amount of materials and time I put into the handcrafted items.

In terms of busyness, DH and I will be at Mt. Perisher for the next two days so I will be AWOL from blog posting as I will have no internet access.  Enjoy the rest of your week and I’ll try to find a giveaway to post about this weekend.  >u<

xox,

b.