Watch the Video!
I thought it would be fun to share with you my process for creating a new Animal Personality Portrait commission.
Archive | Darling Original Artwork
Inspiration vs. Originality: The Artist’s Struggle
Almost every creative person I know has wrestled with discouragement brought on when something born out of their heart and imagination—something that felt personal and original—was found reproduced by others who had no attachment to the idea beyond its “pretty effect.” (more…)
New Animal Portraits: Honey Bee, Baboon, Owl & Bear
Hello there, honey bee!
I have new portraits to share with you that are a part of my Animal Personality Portrait series. Each of the portraits this week is a custom painting done in watercolor and ink on 9 x 12 inch watercolor paper.
I am so excited about the warm reception this project received last week. A HUGE THANK YOU to all of you who have started following my art, and especially to those of you who shared about my promotion online!
You’ve got ONE DAY LEFT to sign up for your Animal Personality Portrait & still take advantage of the 12-pack of free custom stickers + guaranteed delivery in time for the holidays. Click here for general information on commissioning a one-of-a-kind animal portrait.
And EMAIL ME at hello@darlingillustrations.com if you have any questions, or once you’re ready to get started! (more…)
Discover the Wild Animal Inside of Your Loved Ones
Inside of each of us there lives a wild spirit.
It’s easy to overlook this intangible part of our being, but it creeps up into our awareness, through our nicknames, our slang, our childlike imaginations. We often use animals to help us describe the otherwise indescribable aspects of ourselves.
What is the difference between a hug and a bear hug? What do we mean when we say one person is sheepish and another is foxy?
Animals make terrific analogies for the different parts of the human spirit or the different personalities that people exhibit. Animals are fun. They are whimsical. And the anthropomorphism of our favorite critters is something that has been around ever since children sat around a fire listening to the first fables and stories known to man.
We tend to compartmentalize our concept of The Physical apart from our concept of The Metaphysical. But what if the two were intertwined all along? What if the skin on our faces reflected the face of our souls? What would that look like?
Maybe it looks something like this. (more…)
How to Make Art Prints from Your Paintings
UPDATE 4/11/2023: I wrote this blog post 8 years ago. Do not follow the advice here. I have learned SO MUCH since then. If you want advice for making art prints from your paintings, join my discord server and ask me directly as my recommendation may change depending on your needs and what my current knowledge of the printing options are.
When I started selling my watercolor paintings, I only sold originals. It soon became obvious to me that this was not a sustainable way to make money off my art. The watercolor cards and watercolor paintings I produced were well-loved and well-received, but in order to offer the art at a price that was fair for the time I put into each piece, the end product was too expensive for most people.
That’s when I started looking into printing services.
It is more difficult to create prints from watercolors than from other kinds of paintings because of the translucent nature of the watercolor. You cannot simply scan and print these images at a Kinkos while retaining the true nuanced nature of the original work. I understand that no print will ever be as good as the original, but there is a certain level of quality I expect from anything I sell. I refuse to put my name on a product that is subpar.
I explored dozens of businesses that offered reproduction services. The easiest services to find are professional reproduction services that will professionally reproduce your artwork for a hefty price. Sometimes these companies require that they manage the printing of the reproductions, as well. Oftentimes there are requirements on how many prints you create; a 100 print minimum is not uncommon. As a small-scale artist who was just getting started, these options did not suit my needs. I needed a DIY option.
Here is what I found. (more…)
What is the Shape of Your Soul?
The only statement you really need to make is the sound of Your Name pressed against the never-ending skin of the universe.
When someone is striving to be more spiritual or more religious, all too often they end up despising their physical existence in the hunt for the metaphysical. I have been guilty of this. I understand the impulse. I want to rub up against something divine, to grant Meaning and Purpose to my mundane existence. I want to believe things happen for a Reason, that the monotony and heartbreak of everyday life isn’t all that there is.
I’m not supposed to talk about these things. It’s not polite. But, during tragedies, or in the quiet, lonely moments of the night, these feelings slink about in my heart, like never-ending questions. What is the meaning? Who am I? What is my purpose?
I don’t have answers, but I find comfort in words. (more…)
How To Start Selling Art Online
Are you a visual artist who is thinking about selling your art on the internet? Here is my Guide on How to Start Selling Your Art Online!
Etsy is JUST A STOREFRONT
There are many sites where you can sell your art online: etsy, society6, redbubble and café press are all popular. These sites provide a storefront, but they do not promote/market/sell your art for you. Don’t expect them to. Don’t just throw your art up there hoping to get “lucky” and “discovered.” It will never happen.
Ok, sure, maybe as your shop gains momentum, it will seem like more people are finding you through whatever storefront site you use. But that’s not the case. The new customers are finding you because of networking.
YOU have to be very active in promoting and marketing yourself and your work. (more…)
Paint Away The Pain: On Hard Times and Creating Art
Elune and I are discussing artwork and the creative process. She asks me: “Have you ever used art to paint your way out of your hardest times in life or your inner struggles?”
This past year, I addressed some painful issues: depression, financial insecurity, old wounds, and disillusionment with church leadership. These topics probably seem even heavier when juxtaposed against the lighthearted and fanciful style of my artwork. How does my life experience inform my artwork? How can someone who thinks about such dark things create such whimsical pieces?
I’m not sure I have an answer. (more…)
Do Not Despair
Joy is a complicated thing.
Matt walks in the door after a long day. I tell him how I have felt sick all day, how Phoebe fought her nap for two hours, how all of the dishes are dirty, how it’s beans and rice for dinner because I was too exhausted to prepare anything more elaborate. With compassion, he hugs me and says, “I’m sorry it’s been a bad day.” And it hits me: it HASN’T been a bad day. A difficult day? Yes. But a good one; a fulfilling one; a purposeful one. A day filled with love and blessings.
How are we to be JOYFUL when we are called to pass through DIFFICULT TIMES? I’m not even talking about the bombing in Boston or the shooting in Newtown, although those tragedies apply. I’m talking about your everyday life, your everyday grief, the griefs you carry with you that you cannot seem to shake. I have these types of griefs, and I believe we all do: money troubles, aches and pains, illness, injury, people we have lost, relationships that have withered, divorce, death, miscarriage, the yawning pain of absence.
Being Joyful is less about being happy, per se, and more about Being OK whether or not I’m happy. Knowing that my world will not fall apart in the face of despair, this is what gives me hope and strength and tenacity. I do not speak these words as someone who has never felt pain. This I have seen time and again: wherever there is disaster and death and chaos, life and love and hope spring back in it wake. Love is victorious. Good is victorious. The flowers pop up each spring. Babies are born. Wounds heal. Rainbows paint the sky.
Loving someone means you open your heart and make yourself vulnerable. Even the most loving relationship has its hurts. But that’s ok. Because loving someone was never supposed to be about symbiosis, but about paying it forward. Love is not about keeping track of how even a relationship is. Love is about being poured out, being ok with the mystery of emptiness, and being amazed when God fills you up again.
This, I believe, is the mystery of Faith. This is the act of surrendering my idols and worshipping God. I don’t need to be healthy. I don’t need to know where my food or clothing or shelter will come from. I don’t need to be with my child. I don’t need rest. “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” I don’t wallow in my sufferings, because suffering tenderizes me: it opens me up to feel the suffering of others and teaches me how to love compassionately.
My hope for you is not that you will never suffer, but that you will suffer well.
My hope for you is not that you will never feel pain, but that when pain finds you, you will allow yourself to feel it, and then let it pass; and when the echoes of that pain find you: let them fill you, take a breath, and then empty yourself all over again.
My hope for you is that, when you find joy, you dance and hug and sing and laugh. Pour yourself out, over and over, like a jar of clay. For we feel like sinew and bone, but we are dust-to-dust in the blink of an eye. And recognizing the slice of eternity we are called to steward within our hearts might just be the key to turning our Grief into Joy.
I leave you with this poem by Mary Oliver…
The Summer Day
Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean–
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down–
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don’t know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?
Blog post by Erin
4/16/2013
I’ve been painting
I’ve been painting. I hope to start selling paintings, soon.
PS: Respect the artist and DON’T STEAL MY IMAGES! ^_^ Thanks! If you want to use one of these images for something, contact me first.
Xoxo
Erin
4/15/2013
– Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone