Danielle Calabro

We have been super busy with the holidays Lately and I have found it hard to stay on top of everything. So where to start, we are waiting for the final "Gold Cert." on the loan approval for the house and it is driving me crazy and stressing me out. Its hard not to think about but we keep praying that everything will work out. Thanksgiving was great and time flew by getting to Christmas, only a few more days left and of course I have a couple more things to get got to love waiting on a pay check.  One thing I did not wait until the last possible minute on was Christmas cards. I only did 5, to be honest I loved doing the outside of the cards but the blank inside is what scared me the most.  THE SNOWMAN He is my favorite, just so darn cute. I used watercolor for the background and took a chance on the snowman and used gouache. I loved the matte finish the gouache has, I outlined using india ink. THE LIGHTS This is my second favorite, the lines were done with cop...

I have been super busy with the holidays lately and I haven't taken the time to Blog. I have however been busy creating. Here I was playing with watercolor and Gouache again. 

Unfortunately, here in Florida there is no such thing as seasons, you have hot, comfortable or wait its not supposed to be this cold in Florida. I have grown up in florida and have never had the opportunity to see the changing leaves of fall, when it gets to what we call cold in Florida you just see the trees loose their leaves. So in celebration of the fall season...... I wanted to try something a little different, this is done in india ink. I started with a cheap calligraphy brush but couldn't get the thin lines I was looking for so I switched to a calligraphy dip pen and #0 and #00 watercolor brushes. I did not draw this out first, I wanted to see what I could come up with right out of my head, there were a few mistakes but I made them work for me. I really like the way this came out and I am considering trying this on canvas with acrylics, maybe even add a little color.

Well its that time of year again, and I already have the hiding spot for the candy. No, this is not to punish my children, this is to regulate how much candy they are eating. We have one kid in braces and the other one soon to be in braces, I am not taking any chances. So in the spirit of Halloween I have an accidental monster man. I was playing with some gouache paint and watered it down like watercolor and did a wet on wet, I wanted to see if it would react the same as regular watercolor. So I let it dry and just kept looking at it and had no idea what I was going to do with it. My daughter came over and said, "Mom, that looks like a nose and head." and thats where it started. I followed the edge of the yellow and went to town. I used acrylic ink for the hair and back. HAPPY HALLOWEEN!! Only a few days left

Playing with a watercolor technique with the background and Gouache silhouette of trees.  The background did not come out as dark as I would have liked, still have to keep playing with the water and paint mixture. Either way, I am very happy with the way this came out. This is my favorite tree between the two of them Of course we all know, no two trees are the same. I find it relaxing painting a bare tree, sitting there with a brush and doing each individual branch. The thick and thin lines are teaching me 2 things: 1. Patients - Something I lack most of the time 2. Better brush control - I tend to have a heavy hand

Every now and then I like to check out what " Skillshare " has to offer for a traditional artist. They don't have a lot but they do have a few. One I chose was " Modern Watercolor Techniques " It was a fun little class and not hard to follow at all. This is where I got my "Spacey picture side from, it was the last assignment. My favorite part was the Jelly fish though, I had a tough time with the first one I did so I tried it a second time, here is the fist and second one. This was the fist try, she had us mixing different mediums with watercolors. I was using watercolors, acrylic ink and gouache. I liked the colors of the right jelly and the bottom jelly the most.  This was Jelly number 2. I felt like I was getting a little more control with the smaller brush. I also added that thing in the middle that I saw on most jelly fish. I can't say I will start painting jelly fish or sea creatures but it was nice to learn a new way to le...

I remember as a young child I loved everything about space and I am still in awe by Galaxy pictures, they are so beautiful.  Playing with Watercolor technique, stars added with white Gouache     I love when we go to an area outside the city limits where you can look out and see every star in the sky, it truly is a beautiful sight. The other day we were driving home from my Grandfathers house and the roads we took had no bothersome lights. I happen to look out my window and noticed how well we could see the stars. It was late but my son was still awake so I had him look out his window and he was in awe.  As adults I think we forget to take a look around us, we forget how small we are in this massive universe. My sons reaction made me realize that they have not experienced nature enough. They have their heads stuck in a tablet, computer or video games. I can gladly say where our new house is being built we will be able to enjoy the night sky, it may not b...

Watercolor and Gouache A Lot of people I know have a pet or two or more, we have one 14yr old cat. His name is Jasper, I found him at work as a kitten roaming the parking lot, and he is a sweet cat, especially now that he is older. There are however a couple family members on both sides that do not feel that way about Jasper, he is a cat that knows what he does and does not want and if you are petting him wrong or he is done, he will let you know, of course he doesn't do that to us. He has put our kids in their place a few times, so now they are cautious around him. Jasper He use to be sneaky though, if my Hubby was aggravating him, Jasper would rub against my husbands legs really sweet like and then when he least expected it Jasper would turn and bite the back of my husbands ankle. I found it pretty funny and I always warn him that it was going to happen. When Jasper was younger I could get him to jump at least 3 feet in the air, he would run around the house all ...

This would be a great place to be when everything seems to be going wrong Watercolor Think about when you were a kid, how much you enjoyed running to the swings, trying to be the first kid there. Trying to go as high as you can, pretending you were fly off into space. Maybe even laying on your tummy pretending you were superman or in my case superwoman. I remember have contests with my friends, we would swing as high as we could then jump of to see who could land the farthest.   Those were the days, now a days I wish for a moment like that. Maybe it should be mediatory for jobs to have a swing in the office. Have a difficult customer, take a swing and fly away for a little while. Pain in the ass co-worker, go for a swing, kids driving you crazy, go for a swing. Where are all the playgrounds for adults?  The older we act, the faster life is sucking us dry. We need to take time out to be a kid again, let the stress of a bad day wash away with a little bit of f...

This is one of my most recent oops, Originally this started as a tree in watercolors. As you can see this looks nothing like a tree I do not like to waste paper, and right now I am really trying to save, this mama got a little credit card happy and any extra money needs to go towards those before we get into our new house. So as you can see, for me wasting paper is not an option.  Instead of trashing the page I decided to cover the entire thing with jet black gouache, knowing that gouache reacts to water much like watercolors do, I chose a dry media to use over it. I also wanted to change it up from the white pens so I used Prismacolor™ colored pencils. They didn't cover as well as I would have liked but I liked the way it came out and it wasn't a wasted page.

I started this 2 page Mandala a few weeks ago and decided to finish it up. Done in watercolors, gouache and white pen. I left the black circles blank because they were too small for the pens I was using and I hit a block. On one of the mandalas I tried using a black Copic marker but it was absorbed into the white ink so it now looks gray.  The large one is my favorite, probably because I had more room.  This was defiantly a test of patients for me, that why it took a few weeks to finish, I had to go back to it when I wasn't completely stressed out.     

Staying true to what I love to draw I have yet another page of flowers.  Still doodling my way through life, after the kids are in bed and the hubby is off to work this is my way of shedding off the stress of the day. There was no planning to this, I went straight to paper with pen. This took about a week to draw out, and a few days to fill in with Copic Markers. I am trying to make sure I am creating everyday, in between work and life I am staying on track. there are days I only get in an hour but more often then not I am going at it for a few hours. I have learned a great deal of patients doing more pen sketches, and it has trickled over to outside of my art. I have said this before in other post, I am not a patient person by nature but over the last few months doing more tangles has taught me to slow down, evaluate then execute.

It has been a couple of weeks since my last post. We have been very busy, we finally found a house! After being in a contract for over 9 months with a short sale house we decided to step away from it and see if we would qualify for a new house, we did. So between the kids being back at school and getting all the necessary paperwork together for the house I have had very little time to blog. However, that does not mean I haven't made time to create. I have been doing a lot of artwork in my smaller sketchbook lately, It is much easier to carry around on the go, and we have been on the go. The flowers were drawn first then painted in with watercolors and sketched out the rest in pen.

Over the weekend I learned two friends of mine are getting married and I am super excited for both of them. So excited it inspired me to create this: I wanted to do something with hearts, I found some awesome inspiration, this Celtic knot was perfect for the meaning. This knot has no beginning and no end just like love should be.  The back ground was painted with watercolors and then drew in the weave which was shaded with pastel pencil and the black was done with a black Copic marker. This was a true mixed media project. Watercolor, pen, marker, charcoal pencil and pastel pencil.  I got a little worried when I got farther into this project,  I decided to do the weave in the background, which was a hell of a lot harder then I expected but it was too late to back out, I had already started the lines but it turned out better then I thought it would. I decided to add some shading, everything was looking a little flat. Let me know what you think, this may end up...

Some how I have been able to keep my creativity flowing, even with everything going on. I am calling this one, "Ladybug Landings." This is page 2 of the new sketchbook and try to my word, I tested out the watercolors. They worked great, didn't lead through at all. I also used water-based paint markers and of course my trusty Copic markers and pens. I did something a little different on this one. I wanted a little more depth so I added extra shading with multiliner pens.  I like the way it turned out, there are a few areas I would like to re-do but for the most part very happy with the way it came out. With a little more practice shading with pens and that won't be a problem anymore, of course we are our own worse critics.  Do you see the ladybugs? 

Doodle done with Copic markers, multiliners and pencil Last Friday I did a little shopping, got paid and needed to (wanted to) pick up a few things.  One thing was a smaller sketchbook, something that could fit in my purse. I always have to get the first page done right away so above is page one of my new compact sketchbook. I was hoping it would stand up to my Copic markers but unfortunately they bleed through a bit. I will be trying out  watercolors next to see how it stands up to the water. You should be able to check that out in a few days, that is if the kids don't come home with loads of homework every night.

I have wanted to do one of these for a while, I always see these really beautiful Mandala's on Pintrest so I figured I would give it a shot. The one thing I learned with these is a compass, ruler and protract are a necessity. I am not a patient person so the first part was the most painful for me. Finding the center of the page, marking it then using the protractor to set my ruler lines. After that drawing out the lines I grabbed the compass and drew the circles. Once complete I got to work.  I was a little afraid of putting color on it, I didn't want to use too many and mess it up. I tried to reuse colors through out the whole thing. I started this bad boy on Sunday, and I have to say I am very happy with the way it came out. Here are some close ups of the detail: Unfortunately I will have to put my art off for a few days, we have to finish a summer time school project that apparently will be graded (and yes, I did say Summer time project). We get to make a t...

There is a place in Orlando, FL called Leu Gardens , it has been well over 10 years since I have been there but I remember it like it was last year. It is magnificent, I remember walking around there for hours. When I was younger I would go there to photograph the flowers. Sadly I have lost touch with it, talking about it makes me want to go again, take my kids to one of the movie nights they have there. Go during the day and photograph some of the flowers all while listening to my children tell me how hot and bored they are, it's great to torture your kids with a little fresh air. Honestly I'm not sure how they will act bit hopefully they would enjoy it. I sat down last weekend and started this sketch and I finished it up last night, it reminded me of the times I use to go to the garden. I sketched this out in pencil then went over the sketch with my Micron pens and color was added with Copic markers. I am sure you have heard me say this before and I am going to say ...

After spending a while on Tangles I have decided to focus on how to handle watercolors more besides just using them for the backgrounds. I have always been a little afraid of watercolors because the can be so unpredictable, however I am finding that to be the best thing about them.  I am not a patient person so practicing is pretty much out of the question, with me, it's do or die when it comes to art. So instead of taking a scrap of watercolor paper I dove right into my new watercolor journal and sketched out my little bugs world and went right to painting it today after my hubby went to work. Of course I had to take a few breaks but it is finished.  Still trying to get the blending down but I am happy with the way it turned out. It was painted in watercolors and outlined with Microns, the little bit of white you see was done with my Uni-ball broad white pen. Of course I still don't have the right lighting so the picture doesn't do it justice. 

I originally started this garden with the intentions to do tangles on it and as you can see I changed my mind. I started with a watercolor background and used salt to add some little effects. Once the background was dry I drew out my little garden. I then painted it in with gouache, outlined and added some details to the plants and rocks. After staring at it for about 30 minutes I figured out what I was missing....some depth. To be honest I have been staying up so late lately that the last thing I wanted to do is get the paint out and then have to clean up a mess but I wanted to finish. I grabbed my copic markers and figured what the hell, lets see if they will work on top go the gouache and they did. All of the shading was done with Copic markers.

There is no pretty pictures in this post only the UGLY truth of how health care is more about getting the money and less about treating the person. This post will have absolutely nothing to do with art and everything to do with the screwed up health system. I am so disgusted with our so called health care system and I am going to explain why. A very close family member of mine woke with a headache the other night only to end up having a seizer, she said she was feeling better only to start having another one a little while later. Now I don't know every detail of what exactly happened that morning, I do know I received a call at 7:30 in the morning letting me know she was on the way to the hospital. This family member I speak of is a wonderful mother of 5, a foster mother of 2 other children, a wife and she works a regular job. Her family is not the type of family to sit around and let the government take care of them, not only that a few months ago they had their house burn ...

My art has changed over that year since I have started. I started with acrylics and have moved to smaller more detailed art. I still like playing around with the acrylics but I am still trying to find myself as an artist. I love doodling, I love watercolors and I love mixing them. I also love working with my Copic markers. I purchased a new compass last week and I wanted to put it to the test. I am not sure if any of you remember from an earlier post I had started a page with just the rectangle and had a bunch of white left. I decided to add to the page and this is what I came up with. I used Copic and Micron multiliner pens and filled the tangles in with Copic Sketch markers. I am not sure if this type of doodling will get me anywhere but it is defiantly a way to keep my creative mind flowing.  What do you do to keep your creative mind flowing?

I know I said I was done doing trees for a while but I picked up this really cool handmade watercolor journal from hand-book journal Co from Hobby Lobby. The pages  have deckled edges, Love it! I wanted something to go across the first two pages and what better then a big tangled tree. As you can tell by this painting I really like Blue and green together and I added a touch of yellow. I also wanted to test some new white pens, which I have been on the hunt for forever and after a very intense search for the perfect white pen I stumbled across a few reviews on Uni-ball Singo Broad. I had never seen these in the store here so I ordered them off Amazon and I can say I absolutely love these. They have a nice thick line and have a great opaque white pigment. I didn't have a problem with them pulling up the black gouache, only one minor  problem, I went though the whole pen with this one tree. I also picked up the Uni-ball Angelic, it is great for the thinner lines but it doe...

We are have now made it to negotiations with the bank for our new house, hopefully they do not come back with a ridiculous counter offer. Then it is one to running the numbers then inspection. If everything good good then hopefully we will be moving in a couple of months. Then my poor children will get pulled out of school to start a new one, wish this would have been finished before school started but I have lost hope with that. So I have been a little stressed and have hit an artist block again, painting is being forces so it is time to step back. Instead of forcing an idea I have turned to my trusty sketch book and doodling. My way of keeping my creativity flowing, when I can't focus. I do plan on starting the next painting I am going to use for a Christmas card, that should be one of the next couple of post so look for it, think Carrot and coal.

In my attempt to stay focused on creating artwork I did a full page Zentangle™.  I started with this one, of course this left the entire bottom of the page white  and I couldn't have that so...... I got my ruler and draw out a couple of lines and just let it flow. It was a nice  break. These were colored with Copic Sketch markers, love these markers and even though I have around 30 or 40 of them, there are plenty of colors I wish I would have had. 

I know I have been away for about a week, I have been working on a few things. I got over my little grumble about the business license and I am moving forward. As I said in one of my last post I am making my christmas cards this year, so I have started my first one. The background is done, all I need to work on is the lettering. I have not decided if I will do the lettering myself or have a hi-res scan of the painting and just use a font. I think I will do a couple of more then go from there. The background was done in watercolor, I used a watercolor mask for the stars. While the background was still wet I sprinkled table salt on it and got a nice speckled effect. The tress were painted with gouache, I wanted a nice opaque cover, along with a gold paint pen, this added a nice little shine to it. Of course I doubt I will be able to get that effect on a printed card and if I can I may end up paying more, something to think about, I then tangled the trees.

As most of you know I have decided to hold off on selling any of my artwork, I need to make sure I am completely legit before I make the move. I need to get a business structure and a business license, which of course both take money. If you have read any of my other post and my about page you will know we lost our house a few years ago, well we our getting a little closer to being home owners again. It has been a LONG drawn out process but hopefully worth it we, still have to get the inspection and praying that all will be good. Of course with every new home there are things that need to be purchased and thing that will have to wait. I have choose to wait on the business license until I know where we are with the house, if it passes inspection and we get the right loan then the business license will have to wait, if it does not pass inspection then I will probably go ahead and get my "art" business set-up. Either way  I will continue to create, this is just another test in ...

At the advise of my husband I did a little research on the legalities of selling my art. Little did I realize, I still need to have a business license and set up a business structure. Honestly I didn't even realize that I need that to sell online. So I have made the decision to hold of on selling my artwork online until I have done my homework on this. I also did not realize how expensive it is to get all this legal mumbo jumbo stuff. So for the time being I will still continue to paint my pretties and post them but I will be shutting my Etsy store down for a little while while I do my research. If anyone has any information regarding this legal stuff your advise is greatly appreciated. I do not intend on letting this bump in the road stop me but it will slow me down a little.

I have finished my final Zentree, as I have mentioned before I have decided to have prints made of my ZenTree Collection. There will be 4 of each for know. The first three I should have in a couple of weeks. They will be on cold press watercolor paper and printed with archival inks. I have made sure I have picked a high qualityArt printshop, I also did a walk through and I was very impressed. Needless to say I am very excited and proud of myself making this step. I know it will be an investment well made. My Etsy shop will be going through a name change and facelift over the next few days also. Watercolor, gouache and pen I let my daughter pick the colors for this one and in observation of the 4th of July she picked Red, White and Blue.  So it is on tho the next project, I have decided I am actually going to follow through with something I keep saying I am going to do. I will be creating my own Christmas cards this year. I know its a little early but I have had a habit...

I wanted to try the wave again, I wasn't satisfied with the first one I did.  I used watercolor, gouache and table salt, I made the tree a little bigger and added more palms. I defiantly like this one more then the first attempt.  *IMPORTANT NEWS*  I have decided to make prints of my ZenTrees. I will actually be going down to the print shop today. These will be high quality prints of my original artwork. For though of you interested they will be available in my Etsy store in about 2 weeks and will be reasonably priced. I am so excited to be taking the next step. Honestly I can't wait to see what they look like once completed. I know this is an investment but I know it will be a good investment. So be on the lookout I will be letting everyone know when they are out. 

Yes, I did another one, I love doing these trees. When something is not coming to mind they are my perfect fix. I went on a website last week and saw what one of them would look like on a pillow, phone case and iPad case, even a t-shirt and it looked good, I have also thought about turning some of these into journal covers, again I am not sure where to start. I would like to take this a little further but I am confused about the whole copyright and licensing part of all of this. I think it is time to sit down and do a little more research and reading. If there is anyone out there that can help point me in the right direction I would greatly appreciate it. I feel I have finally found my niche, I love to tangle and I have fallen for watercolors and gouache, the are unpredictable, that is what I love the most about them. As I am typing out this post I am thinking of my next project. The thing with tangling is it is a process, it is time consuming. I can sit down and start work...