SandraHealy's Blog

A Wild Life with Animals
1

Five Hidden Animals at Echo Lake

Published: 11-27-2011 12:00am
Posted In: Hidden Animal Paintings
I have enjoyed painting Echo Lake before, with the trees turning into animals. Here's another one of that beautiful Lake in the Trinity Alps of northern California. Again, the animals crept in, settling in a circle. Can you find them? The original is done using an airbrush, plus art markers and colored pencil, on multimedia artboard, and is 5 by 7 inches.This is available reproduced as 5 hidden animals blank note card.... » Read More

Airbrush Technique - Painting a Goldfinch using masks

Published: 11-26-2011 12:00am
Posted In: Carving and Painting Wood
When airbrushing the animal carvings, I use an assortment of things to confine the spray; these are called masks. I use various shapes cut from plastic, and also sometimes use my fingers, masking tape, a sticky backed thin plastic, or a rubber based compound which I brush on and later rub off. Here I'm using two curved pieces to keep the black paint on the Goldfinch's wing.And here I juggle the pink piece to make the black cap, and the orange one to keep spray off of the beak. My airbrush is lying there ready to go.And here you see the results, and next the finished Goldfinch.... » Read More

Background paintings

Published: 11-25-2011 12:00am
Posted In: Art Business
Product photography is an ongoing challenge. Background or no background? The primary concern is to show off the product. But also it's a plus if the photograph stands out from the rest in some way. My current venture is to paint simple scenes to use as backgrounds. They have to be simple, light in color, and without too much contrast and not too interesting: basically lousy art. So far I've done 3 different scenes, which I show here. They are about 17 by 24 inches, and I set them up so the front is flat on the table, and the back curves to vertical. Here's a Blackpoll Warbler in the forest habitat. Check out my s... » Read More

Bear and Fish Sculpture Featured

Published: 11-24-2011 12:00am
Posted In: Carving and Painting Wood
C Ryan made a lovely ArtFire Collection called "Here Fishy Fishy" including some wonderful fish art found on ArtFire. Bear and Fish ("Stream of Consciousness") was included in the collection, and also featured in the blog,  C Ryan Jewelry Art. ... » Read More

Hand painted wrapping paper 2

Published: 11-23-2011 12:00am
Posted In: Art Business
The carved animal is wrapped in the hand painted tissue paper so the border is on the outside, and then tucked into a sturdy white cardboard box, nestled in recycled clean unprinted newsprint paper. Two animal carvings usually will fit quite nicely in the box. I tuck in a small brochure, a business card, and packing list. A shipping label is stuck to the outside and into the mailbox it goes!... » Read More

Hand painted wrapping paper 1

Published: 11-22-2011 12:00am
Posted In: Art Business
Each animal I ship is wrapped in hand painted tissue paper. This photo shows the red stencil which I've cut, the silver airbrush I use to spray paint through the stencil, and the finished paper painted in different colors. The stencil includes a turtle, rabbit, some kind of bird maybe a cormorant, a skunk or squirrel, hummingbird, snail, rattlesnake, bird of prey perhaps a bald eagle, and a snake. In a later post, after I take more photos, I'll show a carving wrapped in this paper and how I package it all into a nice box for shipping worldwide.... » Read More

Painting a Peacock

Published: 11-21-2011 12:00am
Posted In: Carving and Painting Wood
  I recently finished this Peacock carving. Next time, I will try to make a photographic sequence of the process of painting the "eyes" on the tail, but this time I was so into actually doing it that there was no thought of getting the camera. I use an airbrush, which produces a fine and controlled spray. Sometimes. Sometimes not. Sometimes everything seems totally out of control. This, or a similar Peacock is available in my Artfire store HERE.... » Read More

Dark-eyed Junco Rescue

Published: 11-20-2011 12:00am
Posted In: Live animals
I left the sunroom door open and this little Dark-eyed Junco flew in. Oh it was in a panic, but I finally got my hand around it. I happened to have my camera in my pocket, so snapped a photo just before it flew away to freedom. Here's the carved Junco from my Artfire shop. ... » Read More

Praying Mantis at work

Published: 11-19-2011 12:00am
Posted In: Live animals
Here's a visitor I had while carving. ... » Read More

How I create my animals

Published: 11-18-2011 07:15am
Posted In: Carving and Painting Wood
I've put together a collection of 29 photos which shows the process, from drawing to carving to painting to finishing, by which I create my animals.  Click here to see them on Flickr (a new window should open).... » Read More

Artfire Featured Artist Interview!

Published: 11-10-2011 08:50am
Posted In: Carving and Painting Wood
Check out this interview with my animal carvings! ... » Read More
1