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Art Blast for May 2021

Shelley Overton
May 18, 2021
2 min read

Hello! So good to be with you here. If you are new to the blog, my name is Shelley Overton. I am an artist in central Florida. One of the things I love to do is explore mixed media. These two illustrations started out as graphite mechanical pencil sketches. I resolved to do challenge my subject composition weakness, and do more drawings based on things I like, and think about. This drawing started out with a Moon. While we call the Moon "her", many times we refer to the "man in the Moon". Being an astrologer, traditionally, Moon is a she. The energy is considered feminine because it enhances our emotions. Men have emotions, too, let's be clear. So I, as an astrologer, it is natural for me to want to include planets, and "lights" in my art.

I have been interacting with sunflowers, mostly in bouquets for birthdays and Mother's Day. They are really popping up in social awareness right now. Then, finally, the bees are one of my ongoing favorites. I love the irreverence they exhibit. They can sting us, but they don't actively look to do that. Only upon irritation do they resort to the painful sting. Otherwise, they do humanity a great service by pollinating our plants, and giving us flowers and food. (If you want a print, or shirt with these designs, click the images, or link to subject name).

This next illustration is a caricature version of a Red Tailed Hawk. They are around my part of the world. I see them all the time, and they are one of my spirit animals. I get dive-bombed by them, and they show up on fences near my bedroom windows. What a wonderful, sharp creature. They are my messengers.

To illustrate one in my environment, I have this short video of one such awesome creature. As for the illustration style, I sketched these like I stated, the tried to scan them into my computer. The scanner left a shadow, so I ended up taking a photo of them, and bringing them into my Affinity Photo program. I just got Photo, Designer and Publisher by Affinity. They are wonderful, and once you buy them, you own them. I hadn't worked in the Affinity Photo app much before, though I had Publisher. It is pretty powerful, and I "erased the white paper" on my sketches. Then I could add a layer behind, or two, and add color. I still have brushes to play with, and great add-ons to download. This is a lot of fun. I am working on a bluebird illustration now. I will keep you up on that. Please follow my Instagram accounts for more of what I'm up to. @artfulshelley @dottedsky @angeliczodiac