Danielle Calabro

I found this Quote and added it to my little painting. Art is my outlet, it relaxes me and helps me to forget about things that make me worry.  Life does beat you down but it's up to you on weather or not you are going to just stand there and take it or fight back. Life is like a road and just like every road there are detours, traffic, pot holes and hills, of course there are roads that are nice and smooth and flows, the ones we all want to be on.  The question is, are you willing to keep driving on those horrible roads to get the the one you want to be on, or stop and pull off because it gets too bumpy. When life beats you down, stand up, dust yourself off and get ready for a fight.

I have always been fascinated with Sugar Skulls and how colorful and decorative they are, I know it had something to do with the "Day of the Dead," which I never understood, so being the curious person I am, I did a little research. If I am going to draw something I have to know what it is I am drawing and if there is a deeper meaning. "Day of the Dead" is held on November 1st and 2nd and is a day that family and friends gather to pray and remember their loved ones that have passed on and to help them on their spiritual journey. So where did the "Sugar Skull" get its name? Well once again something I had to find out for myself. Sugar art was brought over by Italian missionaries in the 17th century and adopted by the people who quickly learned how to make sugar art. Personally I find them beautiful. "Day of the Dead" is also celebrated on the same days as the Catholic holy days of "All Saints' Day" on Nov. 1st which is dedicat...

As a mother of two, a wife and a full time job, creating can end up being put off until the end of the day. Staying up until 12am in the morning just to get a little practice in then waking up at 6am to go to work is all apart of the sacrifices we as artist make to do what we love. Being in the baby stages of making a dream come true seems like a never-ending quest, sometime unreachable. Getting discouraged and ready to give up is always in the back of your mind, but there is always that little voice, that little spark of inspiration that tells you not to give up, never let go of your dreams. Try something new, go bak to the old, mix the both of them. A busy life can sometimes take over and you briefly forget what you are trying to accomplish, then it hits you, the reason you were working so hard to begin with.  Ask yourself, What are your dreams? What do you want to accomplish? How do you get there? Are you holding yourself back or is someone else? Are you afraid to step ou...

Flowers are like people, all are beautiful in their own way, and just like people some are dangerous. When flowers are given, most bouquets are a mixture of different types and colors of flowers. If we could all think of ourselves as flowers image how well we could coexist with one another, bringing out the beauty of each other instead of cutting each other down at the stem.  It is amazing that our children today can not grow up as innocent as we were able too. The world has changed so much, people have changed. I have noticed over the past 12 years that people choose to be victims rather then make their situation better, there are also those who add fuel to the flame. We are all human beings, when we are cut we all bleed red blood, ALL LIVES MATTER and it all starts with us parents, we have to teach our children how to treat others. If we teach them to hate, they will hate but if we teach them to love, they will love. Treat others the way you would want to be treated, no ma...

I picked up a pack of Yupo synthetic paper a couple of weeks ago, I wanted to give it a try. Iy feels like painting on plastic. This paper has a lot of benefits you can use a lot of water on this with out it buckling, use pretty much any medium and if you make a mistake you can wipe it of and start over, however I did notice mediums that have more pigment will stain it. I am still experimenting with this paper and this is one of them, by the time I finished I had myself a little galaxy. This is also one of those unpredictable tools of an artist. 

Some of my favorite treats. Watercolor, pen and white ink Trying to find my style has been a long and expensive process but I am pretty positive I know what I would like to do with my art and what medium is my go to medium. I know I am still in my baby years of getting started but I know I can make this happen. Honestly this surgery was a blessing, I was able to teach myself to create pretty much everyday and post at least every couple of days. I have also decided that I am going to challenge myself. First, it is time to get all my social media up to date, I know I could be missing out on valuable opportunities and I have 1 full week to get this done before I have to go back to the regular 9-5. Second, I will be participating in  World Watercolor month  that starts in July and was created by our fellow artist and blogger  Charlie O'Shields  ( World Watercolor Month July 2016 Trailer ). Third, I will be  participating in  Inktober  t...

With so much going on I have been a little slow in posting, We moved in March and also found out that I had a large mass in my belly. The mass was a Ovarian cyst, thankfully I was able to get this removed last week and everything was fine. So this has freed up some time for me to focus on me and my art. Of course I have to take things a little slow for now so I am not pushing myself to hard but I am getting a little stir crazy (I can't even drive).  So this leads me to what I have been thinking about for the past 4 days, What do I want to do with my art? Well, I would like to learn new techniques and try new things. I have been subscribed to " Skillshare " for a few years now and I find that there are a lot of helpful classes, more then just art. Definitely worth checking out. I recently enrolled in a class by Ana Victoria Calderón , in this class she was teaching about negative space with three different techniques, I did two of them with planes to finish the th...

Last weekend we rode our bikes with the kids to the park in the front of our neighborhood and I brought along my new little sketchbook and pens. I wanted to try my hand at drawing what was in front of me. Usually I draw or paint what comes to mind or on a photograph, so this was pretty new to me. I wish I would have taken a picture of it before I painted it, I like the color but I liked it in pen alone better.  We have been in our new house for 3 weeks and I of course thought we would be completely settled by now, boy was I wrong. We still have some boxes down the hallway and in the garage. I have my little one complaining that we can't have fun today. I wish I could make her understand we would rather be doing other stuff too. We received our new file cabinet and guess what I got to do last night: I did not want one of those metal ones so I splurged a little and purchased this one, of course the only down side, it has to be put together. I read the reviews on th...

 I am super happy with the way this one came out. Figuring out what all the little tools do is definitely a learning curve but having fun with it. The only problem I see with drawing on a tablet is sometimes you may have issues with the tablet, example, my stupid SD card keeps unmounting and mounting by itself, I even took everything off of it and re-formated it. It gets hot so I have to shut it off to let it cool. So there are pros and cons to both. Here is another drawing done on my tablet: On another note moving Day is only 3 weeks away and I am excited for a few reasons: New beginning Our own house My style (with compromise with the hubby) Kids will have their own room (finally) More focus on turning my art into a career Number 5 is going to take a lot of work, I'm not sure where to start, who to talk to, what to do. I have learned to take criticism, good and bad, I know that there will be rejection. If anyone has any pointer please leave a comment, I can use all ...

As moving day is coming closer I have had to pack up most of my art supplies, which has limited me to 2 small sketch books, the pens I use the most and my handy, dandy tablet. I have turned to my tablet lately and have been pleasantly surprised by what I have been able to do. I had a very difficult time at first drawing on the tablet so I did more tradition, pen and paper drawings. Since I basically have no supplies for another 30 or so days I have made it a mission to keep creating what ever way I can in between, packing, children, work and life in general. This is how I have started my last 2 tablet drawings: Just a scribble across the entire screen, in the righthand side I saw a penguin and that was were I was going to started, then I on the bottom lefthand side I saw a duck and thats were I started. This is the cute little duck that came from this scribbly mess: I am finding many benefits of sketching on a tablet Layers - I can start a new layer and not...

As moving day is getting closer it is time to pack up most of the art supplies so I decided to give drawing on the tablet a try again. I am very happy with they way this came out. I started by scribbling all over the screen then staring at it until I found some shapes.I had no intention of drawing something baseball related but that's what happened. It was nice to go into this with absolutely no idea of what I was going to draw. So, LET'S PLAY BALL!

So I decided to step out of my comfort zone, someone I know asked me do do a dinosaur for their sons Teacher. My original response was, "I have never drawn a dinosaur before, but I will give it a try." To the computer I went to get some references to what I was to draw. The teacher did not want a "cute" dinosaur and she wanted it big. What kind of a dino did she want you ask? A big T-rex. As I grabbed some sketch paper the one thing that ran through my head was, "I can't do this"I wanted to give up before I even started. It took a few try and references before I came up with this: Not half bad, you could tell what is was and I thought it came out good. I got the go ahead and started the "BIG" one. Now if I would have had some kind of projector this process would have been much easier. The pictures make them look like the same size but the painted one is about 2 1/2 times bigger the size of the original sketch. As you can see, i...

I love some good coffee, I even splurge on a more expensive brand at the grocery store. I like my coffee to taste good and be strong (just like my man),  if I forget it at home, I am not a nice person for a couple of hours. On occasion I will stop at a popular coffee shop and pick up a coffee on my way home from work for my and my hubby, usually after payday, have to watch those pennies. Here is the latest idea for our soon to be coffee station. A little more then a sketch but definitely not a finished product. I wanted to play with color and see what I liked and didn't like. I used Ph Martin inks and watercolors. I think I will be changing the color of the bottom cup and making the table a little lighter and the cups a bit bigger. Other then that I am very happy with the way it came out. The lettering was added once I scanned the painting into the computer. There were a few changes I would have loved to make after I had it in the computer, but I don't have one of those...

It takes some time to find the right idea, then it takes some time to get it just the way you want it. This is a little look at me coming up with some ideas and sketching them out in pen, a few I did with pencil first. I like to do a lot of my doodles in pen, that way if I make a mistake I have to find a way to work with it or around it.

With the new house right around the corner we have decided to setup a coffee station to save counter space. With that in mind I have started to create some artwork for the area. This will be the first of four, drawn out and painted in gouache. The font was added on the computer, still have a lot more to learn on lettering.  I have seen a few coffee station/bars on Pintrest that I like, but I would love to hear other ideas too. I will be going to garage sales and thrift stores to see if I can find a small piece of furniture and refurbish it. Learning to be a little thriftier and why pay a big company when I can make it just the way I want, right? Here's to all my coffee lovers

I have never been a big reader, I hated reading until I picked up one book in particular. I had a friend tell me about a book that had been out for about 8 months at the time, "Fifty Shades of Grey." Yes I was one of those women that read them all, and I love Ellie Goulding song, "Love Me Like You Do," her newest album is great too. I will admit, I was not impressed by the movie, of course most book to movies rarely are as good as the book. So in one of my moments where I was having a block I played with some lettering and tangling, here is the finished result: I wanted to add a little color so I used watercolor pencils to add color to the word bubbles. I am very happy with the end results. I still find it amazing, you can finish one project and think it's just ok then go back to it a few days later and love it. 

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...

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.

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...