Hipster Link

I am SO excited about this pic. I have had very few digital drawings that I have been proud of enough to keep looking at them over and over again. This next year, I’d love to really increase my digital painting skills, and I’m hoping this piece will inspire me to stay motivated.

While surfing around on Twitter, I found and followed the artist (Jerrod Maruyama) who created the “Hipster Mickey” illustration I’ve seen at the mini Wonderground Gallery at Downtown Disney Disney Springs (I’m so old school about WDW names…). I think it’s such a cute idea, so that got me thinking about which character I’d love to see as a hipster. Of course, Link came to mind pretty quickly.

I searched the internet for “Hipster Link” and found a few things that were cute or funny, but nothing like what I wanted to do, so I set forth to create the one I wanted to see. I found a pic of Wind Waker Link that I liked and looked up male hipster trends to work from…

Wind Waker Link

Similarly-posed Hipster Guy

Hipster Shoes

Then I sketched out the pose in my sketch book, made my modifications…

Sketchbook Link

Scanned Link

And my Hipster Link was born!

Hipster Link

He’s so cute. If I ever have a boy, I think I want him to dress up like this for Halloween every year. 🙂

What do you think of him? Would you add anything or do something different?

It’s getting better all the time,

Natalie Grace

Cali

Here’s yet another project I finished as a Christmas commission:

Cali Details

Cali Almost Finished

“Cali” (Acrylic)

Cali is the sweet pup of some dear friends from church. They actually allowed me to stay in their home for a few months leading up to my wedding over 5 years ago, so it was really fun to work on a pup I knew semi-well. I was a little worried about this one at first as she has a beautiful buttercream coat which doesn’t initially provide much definition or contrast in a photo. But I did what I could and this has actually become one of my favorite portraits I’ve ever done. I loved working on her sweet eyes. They are so kind and loving. So dog-like. 🙂

I’ve also been working on a personal just-for-fun project that I’ll post about soon. Stay tuned!

Enjoying life,

Natalie Grace

Baldwin Park First Fridays Festival!

I am SO thrilled to be preparing like crazy for my first art fair! It’s this Friday night and I think I’m just about to be fully prepared. I’ll be showcasing printouts of my favorite pet portraits, art prints of works like “Garden in the Shade”, “Owl Always Watch Over You”, “Sing” and more, and be selling Christmas ornaments like these:

“Christmas Cheer”

“Joy to the World”

“Merry Christmas Tree”

“Adore Him”

These have been so fun to make and practice my penmanship with! I actually got the idea from walking through the Days of Christmas shop at Downtown Disney (I know it’s “Disney Springs” now, but I will always be old school on that one). A lady was sitting at a table with a black container of DecoColor markers, penning personalizations on ornaments customers had bought from the shop. Looking at the prices, I thought Sheesh, I could do that! And so I am…

Please stop by if you’re in the Orlando area and say hello! I’d love to hear your thoughts on my booth and see if there’s anything I can create for you! Find out more at baldwinparkevents.com.

Bringing my art to the world,

Natalie Grace

“Sing”

It’s been a long time coming, but I feel like I’m finally having my own post-birth art renaissance. My little one just turned a year and a half (yikes!), and she’s finally gotten to a great point where she can sit and do her own Jackson Pollocks while I do my thing. It’s so lovely. I also have my first real art show coming up at the beginning of next month! My brain has been on a constant kick to come up with a fabulous but inexpensive table layout while also contemplating and completing new pieces to paint, print, and show.

This is one of those pieces. It’s refreshing to jump back into my work after being gone and truly enjoy and appreciate the work that comes about. There’s nothing that will send me back into my artistic hermitage more than spending long-lost emotional intensity on something that, in my opinion, ends up crappy. But I really like this one…

(The GLA logo is just a watermark)

The Psalms are stuffed full of musical images since they are songs in themselves. Reading them always sends my soul into an artistic mood. This one popped in my mind a couple days ago, so I doodled a sketch and went to town. Can you tell I’m in love with gradients? ;o)

I love thinking about the way the Israelites sang these Psalms, or were at least instructed to. My husband and I were talking about it the other day. We’re so static in church these days (at least at my very Caucasian Baptist/Grace Brethren/Presbyterian churches), I  heard a friend confess she’d love to clap but doesn’t cause it would seem out of place and make too much noise. What happened to passages like “You have turned my mourning into joyful dancing” (Psalm 30:11) and “Shout with joy to the Lord, all the earth!” (Psalm 100:1). Dunno about you, but ain’t nobody shoutin’ in my church unless they have a hearing problem…

By the way, I’m hoping to take a dose of this joyful medication myself. I’m normally pretty reserved, but I think it’s just a sign that I don’t fully understand what Jesus has done for me. If I really grasped the Gospel, I wouldn’t be able to shut up about it!

Here’s my challenge to you (and me!): if you’re the church-going sort, loosen up just a little this week during worship. Stop thinking about what people are thinking of you and think about what you’re singing to God. There are some awesome truths in those songs you might have missed for years.

In love and truth,

Natalie Grace

Inadvertent Identity

Life has been busy. We’re hoping to move, raising our daughter, and trying to figure out the future. The days fly by and I realize it’s been weeks since I’ve worked on any art. Then I start binging on YouTube videos of animation reels and reading through books like The Art of ‘Up’ and Lovely, and I get back into the swing of things and remember one of my first loves…

Tonight, I just sat down at my computer, opened Krita, and started doodling. Sometimes that’s my favorite. No preconceived notions of what I need to get done, no time restraints, no limits. I started with a face like I normally do. Circle for the skull. Then the chin added on ’round the bottom. A nose at the guideline, little eyes and a mouth. Hair. I started with the shaggy bangs, but thought it might be fun to add what I figure to be little flapper curls just in front of her ears. And for some reason, I decided to keep the hair short and shaggy in the back.

This looks like V’s hair, I mused to myself. I hadn’t planned it that way, but in all actuality, this random girl ended up looking like a more mature version of my sweet baby girl. I suppose it makes sense that I’d draw the one person I see almost every moment of my day, but I love that it happened that way! My husband sitting next to me at his computer glanced over and said “I know who that is!” “Who?” I asked, since I hadn’t fully admitted to myself that it was V. “That’s V! It looks just like her. Her little curls…”

“Vienna Sketch”

If V would keep her hair at this length when she grows up a little, I suspect she’d look extremely similar to this pic. Her striking blue eyes were fun to try to replicate, too. What a great ending to a doodling session! I’m pleased…

Keeping up the artistic pursuit,

Natalie Grace

 

“Riley”

Yet another pet portrait is sealed! This sweet pup was a commission from my in-laws for my Grandma-in-law’s birthday next month. Thankfully I can post early since she doesn’t have Internet access! 😉

“Riley” 1

“Riley” 2

“Riley” 3

“Riley” 4

“Riley” 5

“Riley” (Acrylic)

This has been fun to do and a good challenge. Lace, textured carpet, fur galore! Hope Grandma loves it!

Want to see how your pup would look in a painting? Click here to send me an email!

– Natalie Grace

In An Apple State of Mind

I’ve been posting about this on Facebook, but my epic quest for a MacBook Pro has finally come to an exciting and rewarding end. I told myself before I started my search that I wouldn’t buy from Craigslist because you never know what kind of people you’ll find and what kind of junk could be left on a computer. Well, I abandoned that logic when I realized the prices there were SO much better than anything else I had found. However, I had to run the gauntlet to get the awesome computer and price that I finally did.

After almost losing $5oo bucks to a scammer, being mailed a broken plate instead of a computer, meeting up to check out a 13″ that just wasn’t what I wanted, driving 30 minutes with my baby girl to meet a no-show, trying to bid on a few Ebay auctions and realizing the final prices were WAY too high for my wallet, and being late to the game on multiple computers I was really excited about… *gasp* I finally have a 15″ Pro that I absolutely love, and it was worth every penny. 😉

Mac and Friends

My first hour or so with it, I was overwhelmed trying to figure out the differences between my new Mac and all the PCs I’d ever known. I’m still trying to pour all the PC out of my brain. But it’s fun to learn something new. And now, playing around with Photoshop has been a blast. I hooked up my medium Wacom tablet, and have been flying along. Here are my first couple pieces from my next project:

“Grace” Heads

“Dimples” Heads

Hopefully, I’ll be posting a lot more often now, so stick around to see what happens!

Trying to be a fast learner,

Natalie Grace

Nursery Projects

I can’t believe all my illustrations for the surprise project are finished! I’m so excited to see the final product and share it all with you. Until then, I’ll revisit some old projects I haven’t blogged about yet.

First up, I wanted to archive the commissions I’ve done so far for children’s rooms. I love doing art for kids since cartoons (especially Disney characters) are my favorite things to draw.

My first mural commission ever was for a couple from our church. They had picked out the bedding set they loved for their son’s room, but wanted to add some related flair to the walls. Unfortunately they’ve since moved, so I assume these have been painted over, but I’m glad I still have pictures! I first researched the bedding set they told me about and found the owl and fox pictures you could buy to go with the set, then drew them myself and added the tree and stump. I borrowed a projector from church and projected my image onto their wall, traced it, and started painting. It was SO fun, and I’d love to try one again.

Owl and Fox Originals

Mr. Fox Projection

Mr. Fox Closeup

Mr. Fox and Stump

Mr. Owl Closeup

Mr. Owl and Tree

These puppy pics are a commission I did a couple years ago for my friend Crystal. She and her husband wanted to deck out their son’s nursery with puppies. She has an amazing eye for decoration (hint: she even has her own business), so she gave me great directions for what she was picturing in her mind and I happily dove into the challenge of making it come alive for her.

Puppy Nursery

Dog Outlines 2

Canines

I’ve already done a full blog post on my commission for my friend’s son’s room here (part 1) and here (part 2), but I’ll post a couple here for the sake of revisiting them.

“Remy”

“Peter and Tink”

“Jaq and Gus”

And finally, the paintings I did for my own daughter’s nursery. I worked on these all through my first trimester to keep myself busy. Can you tell the theme?

Minnie Mouse Nursery

Have an idea for your child’s room? 🙂

-Natalie Grace

“Webby Wednesdays” – Beauty and the Beast on 20/20

Most Webby Wednesdays, since this is an artist’s website, will contain media involving art. This week, it’s all about my favorite Disney masterpiece, Beauty and the Beast.

I love BatB not just because it’s a great work of art, but because of the intriguing story behind the production. For years, Disney played with the idea of using this tale, but they just couldn’t get it to meet Walt’s standards. For instance, check out this story-boarding that only lightly resembles the finished work we know now:

Purdum’s storyboards were only created a year or two out from the final story, but almost everything was reworked to create the best story possible. To see how they achieved greatness, you have to check out this 20/20 episode that aired a week before BatB‘s theatrical release (in 3 parts):

Amazing, huh? I love seeing all the hard work and story telling that goes into classics like this to be reminded that it didn’t “just happen.” Extremely talented people like Glen Keane (who you’ll no doubt be seeing featured again during Webby Wednesdays) pour out their hearts and souls on paper to make iconic characters like the Beast touch the audience so deeply that we might even be brought to tears if something should happen to them.

These kinds of animators inspired me to do what I do, and I can’t thank Disney enough for introducing and drawing me into the world of art.

Feeling nostalgic,

Natalie Grace

Extra: For more little-known facts about BatB, check out this BuzzFeed collection!