Eclectic Studio - Tammy Morrison-Koenig

After the holiday I have been lacking any type of motivation. It is like the longest turkey hangover...ever. LOl So to start the year off I decided to give my kitchen and bath a quick update with new towels. By taking a teatowel and a pattern I found here http://www.momtastic.com/diy/172615-diy-hanging-dishtowel   I came up with this cute little stove towel.  I did make a minor adjustment by adding a button hole instead of just the velcro closure - just testing to see which one will be added to my Christmas gift list for next year.. ;) Hope you enjoy. :)

This painting practically painted its self. Using a value study as an underpainting to your watercolor is an easy way to paint any subject. This portrait used water-soluble markers to apply washes of color. by using color left on your water pen you can bounce some softer transitions this is also another way to control your hard and soft edges in a painting.  After applying the first washes of darks I went back in with a few washes of color to bring this lady to life. The best part is that the shading was already taken care of for you. I hope you take this opportunity to practice a variety of painting techniques. Hope you enjoy. Merry Christmas everyone.

I am not a seamstress by any stretch of the imagination but I can thread my machine and sew a straight line, which is exactly what is needed for this project. I already had the material and lace on hand so I didn't have to go out for anything, which was even better. Last year I bought 3 yards of this burlap for only 3.99 and the lace was a grocery bag full of assorted lengths and widths and colors for 2.00.. Trust me I was doing the Happy dance with that deal.  There are still alot of these supplies left over for any other projects that tickle my fancy. This finished runner measures 13 * 64 inches.  So i cut my fabric 1/2 inch larger than my finished size, folded over 1/4 inch, iron then fold over again 1/4 inch iron. When you come to the corners all I did was clip the corner at a diagonal, to reduce the bulk and iron down and sew down with a simple straight stich.  Next pin your lace onto your fabric and sew down with a straight stich. There are alot of variations on the

I haven't been painting alot for a few months now, but i have 4 small open ended paintings that have been ordered and need to finished in time for Christmas. I usually don't take orders this late in the season, but the same client does this to me every year and makes it worth my while .. lol So in order to get back in the swing of things I did this very loose 2hr portrait of a little african boy. This little man was done on an 8 * 10 canvas board and just 5 colors UMB, alizarin crimson, yellow ochre, and black and white. Hope you enjoy. Click Here For Auction!

My daughter needed a lunch bag for school and so I went shopping, but anything pretty was incredibly overpriced for what you get, and being in kindergarten I know we will be going through at least 3 during the year. So while I was at the dollar store I found this "blank canvas", grabbed my fabric markers and turned it into what looks like a designer bag. My girl is so happy, even though it's not pink. ;) Hope this inspires you to turn something boring into something beautiful.

It has been a long time since I posted a demo so I will take this opportunity and share with you my latest commission. This is Maia, her wonderful husband asked me to paint this gorgeous picture of his wife as a surprise for her birthday. Awe isn't he just so sweet. I have known this couple for many years and was so honoured when asked, and in all reality who could pass up such a beautiful model. :D Step 1: This is the third workup of the line drawing hence the 2 pieces of paper taped together, nothing fancy here. So I waited for a nice bright day taped her to the window and transferred her to my watercolor paper. The hard part is over. I think that probably my most challenging aspect of this project was the fact that I knew this lady and wanted to do her justice. Stage 2: Lets add color. So in this stage I masked out some key highlights, like the glints of lights from the underskirt and earring, and eyes. The other highlights, like the one on her shoulder I could work around be

It has a long month away from doing anything creative. I lost my grandpa :( , my baby boy turned 3,  went in for my first surgery, kids started soccer and gardening season has started :D  Well after getting all of that sorted out and my gardens off and planted I was looking out at the Moai statue I did last year, I figured he needed someone to hang out with after the lights go out at night.  So I whipped this guy up. Now off to the garden center while this guy dries. :D Hope you enjoy First grab your supplies Wrap with Chicken wire Attach armature Start slathering on the concrete, keep adding until it has covered all wire and plugged all bare spots Ta Da!!! Now let him cure for the reccommended time, Pull out your paints and go a little crazy. Plant it up with what ever you want. Add water and sunshine and see what happens. :)

One of my students have asked me to post the demo that I did for a workshop on portraits from last week. This is a 2 hour painting (including dry time) using a limited pallette of quin gold, aliz crimson, Ultramarine blue, Burnt Sienna and Burnt Umber.  Stage 1: Mask out any highlights or if you are really confident you can paint around them. Due to the small size of this little man I masked. Stage 2 Sunshine : Wet your paper into the hairline, background, even the whites of the eyes. Wait until the sheen is gone from the paper and start dropping in your mid mix of quin gold. I love this color for 2 reasons. 1 it lifts easy, which comes in handy when laying down your road map  and 2 it adds your sunshine.   DRY Stage 3 I added a little BS and BU just to place a few darks in the eyes and hair. DRY Then mix up a light mix of aliz crimson. This is a high power, staining color and should be used with care. It is way easier to add color then to take it away. Wet his little face again a

So I was asked to teach a workshop this week, I knew that these students had been taking classes for the past 6 months in drawing and acrylics, so I was under the assumption that some of the basics would have been covered. You know... composition, value, brush work, even maybe a color wheel or color chart? Well now I know why they have been frusterated. Ok lets stop and think about this, I wish I would have years ago whe I first started painting. LOL Going from point A to point Z is not going to happen over night, but building a good foundation will only lead to monumental things. - wow that was deep - lol. The most valuable tool in my arsenol is a 2 inch square, or in my case just ripped off the corner of a piece of binder paper, piece of cheap paper with a whole punched out of it. Why you ask? K take that tiny piece of paper and place it anywhere on your reference.. Now ask yourself, Is this tomatoe really red, how do the many tones relate to eachother, what color are the shadows r

Inspired by some twine ornaments that I made up last week. 6 of these in 3 differant sizes for under $3 Gotta love that :) So I thought I would carry that rustic whimsy tree theme we have going this year and make up some wee-folk inspired mushroom ornaments. These are so very simple to make. What you need: styrofoam balls twigs or dowels cut to 1.5 inch long twine beads - any color small scrap of ribbon glue gun Step 1: Cut aprox 1/3 off the bottom of the ball Step 2: Fold ribbon in 1/2 and insert into a small hole in the top for hanging, glue the twig into the bottom. Step 3: Starting at the top, glue a starting point with your twine. and start wrapping glueing as you go. Keep wrapping all the way under the cap. Once you get to the bottom just cut, tuck and glue. Step 4: Add your embellishments. I simply glued some med sized beads for a little color, But you could go in with some acrylic paint and also add color that way. I found these cute ladybug thumbtacks and thought

Hope everyone is having a good week. I just got this one completed this morning and couldnt wait to share it. ATC 2.5 * 3.5 inch Watercolor on 140lb CP Arches Hope you enjoy SOLD

Hope everyone had a fantastic weekend. I put together this mini demo on how I work in pencil to achieve the different textures on this monkey drawing. 5 * 7 inch chimpanzee in graphite on copy paper aprox 4 hours. I wish I would have done him on better paper, but i have stuck him in a frame and he hangs proudly on my wall. :) Start with a basic line drawing blocking on major shapes and patterns. Work around your subject comparing one area against the next, varying your pencil strokes to represent the changes in textures you are drawing. The hair would be done in long, wispy strokes and the face would be done in more of a confined circular stroke, avoiding harsh lines but varying value. Final touches are then added and or subtracted from your subject.

I really haven't been in the mood for anything this past week. And it has really been hard to get anything started let alone get anything completed. So when I saw this weeks WDE (weekly drawing event) and the challenge that went with it, I thought this would be just the escape that I needed. This is a small painting of an emerging hibiscus using only a 3 secondary color triad. For this painting, I chose Magenta, Brilliant orange and Cobalt turquoise. These are colors I seldom use so I thought I would try it out. Pretty flowers always make me feel better. :) Hope you enjoy 4.25 * 4.75 in watercolor on 140lb CP

16 * 20 acrylic on stretched canvas Please PM for purchase information This item is sold unframed Just a quick stop by to show the finished mask that I have been working on. Im pretty happy with it, my DH loves it but would love to hear your thoughts.. :) Happy Painting!

Well i thought I would try something new with this watercolor pour of a wren sitting on a fence. Inspired by my favorite site - wet canvas - they were hosting pour challenges for the past few months and I have finally gotten around to trying this technique. Not going to win any prizes but i think this may be something i try again.

I've been using up the scraps of watercolor paper that has been laying around my studio.. with Christmas coming up you never know what Santa is going to bring me. ;)They are all about 5 * 7 in size Hope you enjoy

I have been experimenting lately with toned grounds. A toned background is a background that has been painted in a flat wash of color. This is done for 2 reasons, it seems to take away the intimidation of starting with a blank white canvas and it adds continuity to the painting as the undercoat will show through in spots. Some colors work better than others as a toned background. For this painting I use I started off by toning this little 2.5 * 2.5 inch canvas with cad. red and then applied my color dashes of color. For something so tiny it sure hold a lot of impact. The red under painting that is showing through seems to highlight the greens of the trees and the fields.

My favorite time of the year. Halloween is probably more busy around here then Christmas. 8 bins of Halloween vs. 3 of Christmas. ;) Decorating starts the first weekend in Oct and really doesnt stop. I keep telling my husband that it is a good thing I am not allowed to touch anything electrical or our yard would be animated all year long. HAHAHAHA This year we have moved to a much bigger space so that involves "mom" getting a little more creative. :) These are a few grave markers that i made up a few years ago and the life sized "snot rag" mache devil that I am in the process of finishing up. My husband and neighbout have been busy building my mini fences and everyone has been involved in decorating. Still have to put up the lighting, set up the sound effects, web and spiderize, finish the devils arms, carve the pumpkins .. oh my!!!! Id better get on it. LOL In addition I laso managed to fit in teaching an acrylic one stroke class last weekend. My first one i