Lingshoestudio

12" 18" Black Ink Drawing on 5 Panels of Bristol Board  Each November I create an ink drawing while my high school students are studying and working on a large scale ink piece.  I reproduce this drawing on small adhesive labels and personalize them as bookplates for family, friends and coworkers. These drawings are usually reminiscent of something in my life over the past year but this year I decided to create my drawing about my favorite Shakespeare comedy "A Midsummer Night's Dream."  I have been dreaming myself of directing this magical show but had to face the sad fact, I really can't take on the task.  I've directed and performed in lots of shows and love live theater but i think it's time to focus on other things. A Victorian Toy Theater Over the past few months I have discovered and become a little obsessed with Victorian, Toy Theaters.  These miniature stages are like doll houses but instead of a home, they are created with elaborate backdrop...

So excited that my little Etsy shop recently recorded 1,000 sales and counting.  I realize that it's not giant numbers in comparison to many but it is a thrilling milestone for me. I have had opportunities to expand my line of dictionary drawings into retail stores, licensing agreements and constantly get requests from people who want to use my artwork on everything from T-shirts to record album covers but I'm pretty content to keep things small for now.  I am about as busy as I can manage doing art shows, galleries and online sales.  I am having great fun meeting and knowing the people who buy and enjoy my work.  I plan to keep it personal for now. Thank you to everyone who has followed, supported, purchased and enjoyed my work.  Flying Shoes Art Studio is flying high thanks to you.

Brand New Zodiac Dictionary Pages Not long ago, I started experimenting with vivid, watercolor washes across my dictionary pages.  When I first started doing dictionary drawings I actually used a variety of colors  in watercolor washes on the page but later decided that I preferred the authentic, distressed look of the real page. This past summer I created a "Constellations" drawing and wanted to use white pen, ink pencils and needed a dark background.  That drawing has been very popular so I've been playing with doing a whole series of the zodiac constellations. I was thrilled to find all 12 signs of the Zodiac in one, wonderful, 1930's edition dictionary.  I've created most of the original drawings but just couldn't make up my mind how to best letter these darker drawings.  I typically hand letter each original with sepia watercolor but I was afraid that the dark color wouldn't pop much on such a dark page. I have continued to experiment with all sorts o...

"Winfield in the Milo" My art studio is filled with projects to finish.  I love to do so many different, creative things and like many artists, I tend to jump from project to project.   This summer I promised myself I would finish an acrylic painting that has special significance to me.  It is a painting of my paternal Grandfather, Winfield Powell standing in a field of red milo (some folks call this crop sorghum).  My photo reference was an old family,  heirloom, picture in black and white which showed this gentle man standing in an unusually great harvest of this crop.  The milo was nearly as high as his waist. I decided to create a full color painting with the milo shorter so I could add a beautiful, Oklahoma sunset.  I wanted the colors and the light to be vivid. Modern crops are now shorter and denser due to hybrid varieties.  There are also fewer and fewer farmers who grow the old fashioned, red-headed milo.  Long ago I cut a few s...

To start the year with my high school craft classes, I teach a unit on making paper sculptures.  I love demonstrating all the ways I have discovered of manipulating, folding, twisting, curling and changing the shapes of plain, everyday paper. This year I made the word "PAPER" as I demonstrated some of these techniques.  I think the letter 'E' is my favorite and was created by folding little strips of paper similar to quilling. My Paper Sculpture Bulletin Board When I decided to dive back into regularly updating my blog, I knew I wanted to include a lot of my most popular art lessons.  I am often asked for copies of my handouts so I have also included a downloadable PDF of some of the handouts I use during this unit. Feel free to share and change this to suit your needs.  There are also a lot of great, online videos.  Over the years, I have collected quite a few supplies that I provide for students during this unit.  A few years ago, a scrapbooking friend of...

My Dollar Store, Fabric Covered Pumpkins  It's always a great day when I get to do something creative.  Today I covered some Dollar Store, plastic pumpkins with fabric and burlap scraps.  I just used glue stix to butter up the back of the scraps to attach them and then hot glued strips of burlap on top. I made a prototype as a gift earlier this week in my classroom and I decided to attach the fabric using mod Podge and I was so sticky and frustrated, I almost burned the whole thing before I finished.  I also had to varnish the finished piece in order to even out the glue application.  So this first attempt was also pretty shiny. I really prefer the natural fabric texture of today's attempt. Now to see if I can ever watch off all the sticky on my fingers.