I have this entire week off for vacation. I am pumped. I have needed a good break like this to rejuvenate myself in more ways than one. Besides working vigorously on my art and cleaning my house to the core, I am taking a much needed trip to Ohio to visit my family.
As always, expect a lot of pictures. I have a new lens that I haven’t been able to play with yet and it’s eating away at me! I need to try it out and this week will be the perfect opportunity.
I have a few pieces in the works. I have a realism piece of an otter, a zentangle of a sloth and a mini canvas painting. I will have to finish them when I get back but they are all coming along nicely.
Check back soon for more artwork and photography! Hope you’re enjoying the Summer! It’s been a busy one!
I’m starting my next piece and I’m giving in to this sloth obsession that has been going on. It seems like every year their is a strange animal that people go “ga-ga” over! This year is the sloth, I guess. Perhaps it’s one of those “you’re so ugly, you’re cute” kind of thing? Or is it their slow, calm and chill attitude? Whatever it may be, I’ve decided to try my hand at a sloth.
This is my rough sketch. I don’t think sloths really sleep like this but I wanted to play off of their lazy-like appearance. I’ve been really tired lately between work, family, summer activities and staying up later than I probably should. When I look at this, I can just imagine taking a nap in the trees with a nice, cool breeze. That would be the life, am I right? I think it’s safe to say we have all been there.
I have some of the ink done. This piece has a lot of patterns in it naturally so incorporating them will be fun! I also can’t wait to start the color. I don’t typically incorporate backgrounds for my totem pieces but this one definitely called for it. The leaves will be neat to create and green is one of my favorite colors to work with.
I hope you enjoyed the work in progress of my Sloth Totem. Check back soon to see the finished piece! What do you think about sloths? Cute and chill? Or Ugly and Freaky? Leave a comment below and let me know what you think?
Yesterday was my boss’s birthday at my landscaping job. Our birthdays are only four days apart! I’ve been with the company for a while now and she’s become someone I really look up to. She’s an amazing entrepreneur who works her “arse” off and is strong willed. I decided to draw her a picture and surprise her with it! I tried to figure out what her favorite flower was but no one knew. I chose an Iris since it is in bloom on her birthday. She was very happy to receive it! It was nice to get back to some realism work. I will have to do more in the near future!
Like what you see? You can get this image on apparel, home décor or a print of your own! Find it in my Redbubble store!
I’ve been out of sort for the past week or two, getting a lot of snow removal hours and trying to catch up on some zzzzz’s! I think Mother Nature is going to give me a breather now…for a little while…so I can start my next totem, the blue-footed booby! I real excited to get start because the colors are going to be bright and beautiful! Once I finish the booby, I thought it would be fun to let you guys choose what totem I should do next. I’ve created a poll to let you guys pick which animal you would like to see next. Here are the choices…
Which totem animal should I draw next?
Orca
Jaguar
Sloth
Mouse
Horse
Wolf
Kingfisher
Buffalo
Zebra
Dog
Leave a comment below with the animal of your choice.
Thanks for voting! I can’t wait to see who the winner is!
I also have the poll up on twitter and deviant art. Those votes will be counted towards the total as well! Unfortunately, twitter only allows 4 choices so you can only vote on the full list here on my blog and on deviant art.
Free Spirit Meg’s Art Shop….I like the way that sounds! Anyways…I am so excited to officially announce that I have my own online store now! It’s been a long time coming. Now, I can finally offer prints and canvases of my work. I am slowly creating an online presence starting with Society6 and RedBubble. They have a lot of great products on both sites and it is really fun creating merchandise with my art! I’ve already made my first sale on Society6 and I am so excited and grateful! This is my next step to becoming a full time artist and I feel that much closer to achieving my goal! Thank you to everyone who has supported me this far. I hope I can continue to create beautiful artwork to please your eyeballs! Be sure to check out the new shop and pick up what you like. There are frequent sales going on so check back often!
Another way that you can support my work is by subscribing to Free Spirit Meg on Patreon. It is a site that helps creative entrepreneurs build their business and put together Reward Tiers. You get to choose how much money you want to contribute and receive subscription boxes for each month you are subscribed. I currently offer monthly photography postcards, totem animal prints and custom totem cards exclusively for patrons! The more I grow, the more goodies I can put in my subscription boxes! Check it out and let me know what you think!
Again, I just want to say thank you to everyone who has helped me get this far and I can’t wait to see where it goes from here! Let me know what you think of the new shop and what your favorite items are! Also, if you have a favorite totem animal that hasn’t made it to the shop yet, feel free to leave a comment and I’ll be sure to add it in with haste!
✌✍🖼Here is a sneak peek on my concept sketch I did yesterday. I have different intentions for it now that it’s on paper. I’ll have to finish at a later date. Today I’m going to create a different one. I’m working on coyote for my next totem piece. I’m a little scatterbrained lately so I can’t make up my mind on how I want to approach it. 🤔🙃☺🤔 No worries though! I will surely figure out something!
You won’t believe it! I barely believe it and I saw it! I was driving to the store on a familiar route on the highway. Off to the right is a big clearing where herds of deer are often seen grazing. I always enjoy seeing them when I drive by. Sure enough, on this drive, they were there. A big herd from about 10 – 15. Then I noticed something that was a little off. There was another animal grazing with the herd, right in the center of them all in fact. Most of it was white as snow and at first glance I thought maybe it was snow. Was it a horse? A goat? Holy Cannoli!! It was a white deer! I couldn’t believe it but it made more sense than a goat grazing with deer! I studied it as long as I could. I wanted to turn around so badly and get pictures but I was on the highway and had only my phone, which was at 4% battery. I was so upset that I couldn’t document such an amazing sight! I never in a million years thought I would see such a thing in the wild; I probably will never see another again for just as long! It was literally breath taking. I was in awe. The deer was not purely white though. It looked like someone had poured black paint on it’s head and back and it started to run down the sides. Not a brown, like the other deer, it was much darker. Everywhere else on the deer was totally white all the way down to it’s toes. This deer was truly Mother Earth’s canvas and she did a marvelous job!
I can’t be 100% sure but I think it was a buck. It is hard to make out antlers with the trees in the background but it looked like it had a rack, 4-point perhaps? I came home and drew a sketch of it as soon as I could. If I can’t have a photograph of him, then at least I have my drawing. This is exactly what he looked like (give or take the antlers).
Needless to say, I will be studying the symbolism behind white deer or white animals and see what I can find. I’ll share a post after the holidays with some information on that and maybe another drawing.
Have you ever seen a white deer before? Share your story in the comments below! I would love to hear it! I was ecstatic when I saw this guy! Thanks for stopping by.
It has been a crazy week and the weather is really starting to heat up! I finally started my next totem piece. I haven’t been able to get more than the sketch done at this point. I will continue to work on it and share the completed piece next week along with the mourning dove’s symbolism.
This drawing, however, is very different from the others. It is going to be a gift for my grandfather. Long story short, he has been through a lot lately and hasn’t been feeling the greatest, physically or emotionally. I haven’t seen him in sometime since we live states apart but I would still like to try and cheer him up.
I have a memory with my grandpa that I think of often. When I was a little girl, about five years old, both of my parents had to work in the mornings. They left before I got on the bus for school so for a short time my grandfather, Grandpa Pooch as I called him then, would stay with me until the bus came. We would sit at the end of our long driveway in his old truck and listen to the birds chirping. He taught me what a mourning dove’s call sounded like. We would wait to hear it and then call back to it.
Oooowoooo whooooo…. whoo…. whoo.
As a child, I felt like I was having a conversation with the doves because they would respond every time! Who am I kidding; I still do it! We did that until the bus came every morning. Now, I hear the mourning dove’s call and that’s the first thing I think of. It will be interesting to see what the mourning dove’s symbolism is.
Once I finish the piece, I will mail it to my grandpa and hopefully it will bring a smile to his face. Thanks for stopping by this week. Check back soon to see the final piece!
Until next time,
“It ain’t about how hard you hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward.”
I apologize for my absence last week. These nor’easters are kicking my booty! I have been working snow removal since these last random snow storms have rolled in, therefore, I was gone most of the day and night. The snow has finally gave us a breather…at least for now. Although there is one nice thing about working in the middle of the night in a snowstorm; everything looks absolutely beautiful. Nothing is touched, the snow is fresh and everything totally blanketed in white. Unfortunately, I was drenched and was afraid to pull out my phone for many pictures. I did however manage to get these two photos.
Winter Night
Blue Night
I haven’t had the opportunity to draw anything new these past two weeks but have a couple treasures sitting in my sketchbook waiting to be shared. I recently made a flight to Ohio and had a four hour layover between connecting flights. I had downloaded the “IT” audio book to go along with the actual book I am reading right now by Stephen King. (I am actually going to finish it tonight and I’m ecstatic!) Anyways, long story short, I’m obsessed with “IT’ and drew this while I listened to the audio book. It was relaxing even though the story is so murderous. ;P
“IT” 2017 movie poster
I have also been working on tangles. I have a couple sketches that I ,naturally, enjoyed creating. Do not be offended by the finger. Even peace-loving free spirits can get angry sometimes. I was pretty upset that week. Nothing was working how I planned. So I said, “F!ck it all!” and I felt much better after the drawing! ;P
Some days…
I have a list of totem animals I still want to complete. Every time I think of a new animal I write it on a post-it note on my desk. I’m up to 56 and counting. I feel like the squirrel, the manatee and the hawk will be completed in the near future. I’m surprised I have not done horse yet. That one needs to get bumped up as well. Stay tuned for new work and symbolism to come!
I’ve recently subscribed to WordPress so I have many new tools at my disposal to better customize my website. I immediately opted for my own domain name which is now…dunt da da da…. freespiritmeg.com! No more dot wordpress dot com. I do love you wordpress, dont get me wrong, but it’s time for my own name. I also have changed the look of my page, adding a new home page and a theme that is clean and simple. I feel it is a suitable look for displaying my work and is easier to see that this is an “artist’s website”. A new slideshow welcomes you to the site and my blog now has it’s own tab where you can find all of my recent and past posts. I will be continuing to play around with all these new features more and more to bring a better viewing and reading experience for all.
Thanks for stopping by this week! I hope you are staying warm through this last winter battle. What do you think about the new look? Do you like the new layout for my page? Leave a comment below and let me know what you think.
Until next time,
“I believe whatever doesn’t kill you simply makes you…stranger.”
