Danielle Calabro

It's the 2nd day of December and the reality that Christmas is only a few weeks away is setting in. Since we live in Florida this is the closet I will ever come to building a snowman. I was 26 years old before I ever saw snow in person and I turned into a little girl for the short period it did snow, it was the week before Easter and we went up to Georgia but of course by the time we got up the next morning most of it had melted but I was in awe while it lasted. I'm not sure how I would fair up north but I would definitely like to take a vacation one year where it actually snows and it stays on the ground for at least a day or two. I don't want our children to have to wait until they are in their twenties before they see snow for the first time.  Here in Florida we have to make our own snow, we went to the tree lighting in our little town and they had an area where the kids could play in what looks like someone took big chunks of ice and put them through a giant...

It has been super busy lately, we got through Thanksgiving with flying colors and I was actually able to get most of this done before Family started to show up. My daughter entered a "Recycled Art Contest" at school so we have been working on that too. Along with getting ready for her Birthday and Christmas shopping, it has been an interesting couple of weeks. I would't mind finding a place like this to take a well needed vacation. I decided the other day I would go on "You Tube" and find some tutorials for using "Sketchbook Pro" and my new tablet. In the process I stumbled upon one that did a landscape like this. I changed it up some and used different tools in some spots but it was so beneficial to help me learn all the tools and how adjusting them just a little can change the image in a big way. I know I have a long way to go but I am happy with the way this turned out. I has been hard to find time, so I am looking forward to when things sl...

The reality is that a lot of things are going digital, and when it comes to art I have been putting it off. So last week I made the decision to purchase a Wacom Tablet, I am a beginner when it comes to digital drawing and it will take time to learn all the cool tools they have on the software. I choose a tablet that was the most cost effective for a beginner and I am happy with the results. I worked on this little tree for about 2 days, mostly because I was trying to find the right tool. I was a little worried about the size of the tablet but it matched the size of the work area on the computer. I originally purchased a cheap version of a graphics table years and years ago but I was never able to get the results I got with this one, honestly I never completely figured out how to use that one. since I am using a Mac I choose to use Sketchbook Pro, it is a hell of a lot cheaper then the Adobe Illustrator subscription, I am happy with the tools that Sketchbook Pro has to offer. So this...

 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!

Well it took me a little over a week and half but I have finally finished it. I wanted to put my tablet to good use for what I originally wanted it for, sketching. I was at a stand still, I have this huge piece of watercolor paper that I want to use for a large Zentangle™ project and I couldn't figure out what I wanted to do. I grabbed my tablet and just let it flow. I wanted to test out patterns and that is what I did.  I will admit, I think I would like this even more if I had added color. I am not advertising for Samsung, but I will say the Samsung Note Pro 12 is a great tablet. If you can not afford or just do not want to spend over a $1000 for an actual artist tablet (I am not talking about the once you use with your computer) then this is the next best thing in my eyes. I love traditional art, nothing is compares to it. There is so much in a piece of art that was created with a paint brush, pen, ink, etc. But the sad thing is a lot of things go digital. How long will...

I have a funny reoccurring story that happened to me just about every night when I am at my art table and I am going to share it with you. It may actually be frighting to some. The house we are in for the moment is very tight so my art table is in the computer room in front of the sliding glass door that never gets used. It usually starts like so, I am minding my own business just working hard on a drawing of some sort, listening to some music, when all of a sudden I hear this little buzzing noise, sometimes I hear the blinds move too. I look around, see nothing and go back to work. Then like clock work I hear it again, again I look around and see nothing. This happens a few times, then out of the blinds comes flying this crazy bug, scares the shit out of me, making me jump back in my chair and sometimes a little scream. What is this little culprit that tries to terrify me almost every night? It would be that crazy flying beetle called a "June Bug" Once...

This sketch was created on my tablet using Sketchbook Pro. If there is one thing I struggle with when it comes to art it is faces. It took me a couple of hours to create  but I like the finished product.

I get a newsletter emailed to me from " Skinny Artist ", the specific  blog was about "How to get more traffic to your website". They had mentioned a website called  stumbleupon.com , being the curious woman that I am I checked it out, signed up for it and now  I am hooked. What is it? Stumbleupon.com is a discovery engine that finds and recommends web content to its users.  You are able to personalize it to your taste and interest.  You chose some of your interests and it will bring up sites that contain those interest. It is great if you want to browse the internet but don't know what you are looking for. What I found Of course one of my interest was art and it brought up this pretty cool interactive art site called  weavesilk.com . It is interactive generative art that allows you to use your mouse to create whirls and transform beautiful designs right on your computer screen, it was created by Yuri Vishnevsky, a computer science and linguistics ...

I am finally starting to get the blending down a little better. This was done in Sketchbook Pro. This is one of my favorite apps, I also like art rage too.  Like I said before they both have different things to offer, to bad you can't combine both in one.

So my job gets the huge reels that have plastic on it, once we are finished with a reel it gets broken down and thrown out.  I decided one day that I wanted to see what I could do with one and this is what I came up with, this is going to be a table top for my wonderful grill master husband, of course this is an unfinished project at the moment, I am trying to find a base for the table and I will be covering it with an Epoxy Resin.