Danielle Calabro

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...

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.

My estimation was correct, I finished by the end of this weekend, actually Saturday night. I have had a few large sheets of watercolor paper for a couple of months and I wanted to put them to good use. I also have a set of water colors that I purchased a couple of weeks ago and have only used them once and on a very small project. As I said before  there is no rhyme or reason to this painting. I brought two things of nature that  I love into one painting. This was first drawn out in pencil, I changed it a few times but went over what I knew I was going to keep with my Copic Multiliner 1.0, so if I had to erase I didn't have to worry about it. Once done with that step I did the background in watercolor and everything else with gouache paint and went over the lines again to finish it off. Here are pictures of the individual flowers. the daffodils are my favorite. I love how opaque the gouache paint is, I wasn't exactly careful when painting the background an...

Sometimes creating art takes a little longer then expected. I have been working on this for a few days and of course by the title and pictures you can tell I am still working on it. I drew out and erased a couple of times. I finally settled on a drawing. I went over it with a Copic Multiliner. Once that was done it was time to decide on a background, I used watercolor, I was not worried about the ink, it is water proof, also I wasn't worried about painting over the flowers or branches because I will be painting them with gouache. This part was done last night, I was able to get the background and branches painted before I had to call it a night. Still had to go to the J-O-B in the morning. I was actually a little pissed off this morning because I had to go to work when all I wanted to do is keep painting. So after my wonderful husband left for work and the kids were busy doing their thing, I went back to painting. Headphones on, good music playing and me in my own l...

Zentangle™ Blooms Gouache and ink So What is Zentangle™? Zentangle™ is an art form that requires a pencil, pen and paper (no eraser). A focus on creating basic repeating patterns. There is no expectation and no mistakes, you let your imagination flow. You can find a lot of information online about Zentangle ™, there are a lot of resources available for someone that would like to learn.  I came across Zentagle™ about 8 months ago, I saw a book at one of the art stores I frequent and decided to give it a try. I can honestly say that I do really enjoy it, it can be very relaxing and gets you out of the creative block that you may be having. I have also found a lot of patterns on Pintrest. Just be careful that you don't mistake a doodle for a Zentangle™, Zentangle are structured patterns.  I do not follow all the rules to Zentangling, I do use an eraser some times, of course my design will sometimes change once I apply the ink. I did things a little different on t...

My goal today was to do a nice little Mothers Day painting with gouache. We had a busy day planned so I got started on it this morning before we went anywhere. I didn't draw it out, I wanted to go free brush. Part of me went into this thinking, "OK, I can do this", this other part of me said "you need more practice with the faces and the gouache."I figured what the hell, lets give it a try and see how it comes out, the only way we learn is through our mistakes, right? So this is what I started with before we started our day: I though, "Not a bad start, I can defiantly work with this", unfortunately, It was time to head out so I found a stoping point and we went about our day. Got home and went right back to work, and I can honestly say I am not happy with the end result. I am still trying to get past this learning curve with the blending of gouache. Sometimes I can get it to blend ok and other times I want to throw my paint brush across the ...

As I said before I really like to Zentangle®, it is definitely a good outlet. It really does helps with freeing your mind. Now, I will be very honest with you, I do not follow the directions of Zentangle®, I do use an eraser and sometimes I will fix my mistakes. This is just my way, if I do not like the way something looks I will fix it.  I started this about a week ago, I worked on it between work, play and sleep. I am still working on drawing faces, I can see myself getting better and I see were I could improve, but I was pretty darn impressed with myself on this face.  I also wanted to play with some new pens I just purchased (white Gelly roll pens).  I drew out the face and the Zentangle® hair then painted the background with jet black gouache. I then set out with a ruler and white gelly roll pen and this is what I came up with. It looks a little yellow because I had to use a camera instead of my scanner to get it on my computer.  I have finall...

Gouache and ink on paper As of October 2013, I stopped smoking real cigarettes and started using an e-cig. This was in attempt to start working out. My dad had talked me into signing my two kids up for karate (best choice I made) and they had a fitness class called "Cage Fitness." I had already decided I was going to stop but had not made the final decision, this made it for me. I knew there was no way I could do an intense work-out like this and still smoke. My sweet hubby is not a smoker, so me smelling like ciggy smoke kind of grossed him out, I can't blame him, even as a smoker I hated that stale smoke smell too. I am in no way saying that the e-cig is any better, I have heard it is just as bad. Where does that leave me? I now have two new addictions, one being my e-cig and the other my new found love of Starbucks® Coffee. Both, probably not the best for me, one is still full of nicotine and the other is full of caffeine and calories. Honestly I will probably ...

"Palm Trees at Sunset" 16" x 20" Acrylic on Gallery wrapped canvas painted be me One of my favorite places to go is the beach, it is so relaxing listening to the waves break and taking a nice night walk and letting the wind blow in your hair. We live in Central Florida so we have our pick from the East or West coast. I have put together my favorites. My Top Florida East Coast Beaches: These are the beaches  that we go to for a day trip nothing to far away Cocoa Beach Cocoa Beach - Very close only about 30 - 45min away, No parking on the beach. You have Ron Jon Surf Shop and they have a great little Pizza joint too, you can actually get a 26" pizza it was huge. Best parking in my opinion is across from the Air Force Base, there are no life guards so you need to be careful. Not as many people either, so you don't have to walk another half mile to find the perfect spot because if you are like us, we bring the lunches, towel, cano...

Still feeling like crap today, actually took the day off from work because I have lost my voice, I am on the phone all day so it made no since to go in anyways.  This is an update from the last post I did, I have finally finished my little Zentangle® art.  It only took me about 3 days because I was sick but I am trying to make sure I make time everyday to create, even if it is as small as finishing a small painting. I have learned over the course of a year (when I first started to get back into art) that I can not get any better with out the practice and that is the one thing I have not been giving myself time for.  I am still having some difficulties with the blending, of course I don't think this was the right piece of art to test it on, the areas were to small. Well I hope you all enjoy. 

As I have said before when I have painters block I will doodle, sketch or Zeltangle®. Well I have had painters block for a few days because I have been under the weather, of course that doesn't mean I haven't try to throw some paint on canvas, just means I don't like whats on that canvas...:) So between the coughing, sneezing and everything else that goes with a nasty Florida Cold I have been working on this: As you can see it is unfinished, I am using gouache to put color in it. I love Zentangle® it is a great outlet when painting isn't going my way. I would really love to incorporate it in an actual drawing of a landscape or something along that lines.  At the moment the only thing that is finished is the orange going around the outside. I am hopping a feel a little better today to at least get half of it painted. I can't wait to update this when it is finished.  Tell me what you think? 

With two kids (7 & 9) we have seen our share of Disney Movies, I'm not complaining, most of them are good movies. One that is not too old is "Wreck It Ralph", this is a cute movie. Vanellope Van Schweets is adorable, she reminds me of our daughter. I decided I wanted to sketch her and use my new set of Gouache paint, so I did. I am finding that there is a larger learning curve then I thought, so much different than acrylic paint. I think my biggest problem is the blending, this paint dries so fast. I have decided I will continue to work on my sketching for the time being until a painting idea comes to mind. I figure I have to keep the creative juices flowing, even if it is sketching something from a movie. I am having such a hard time with painters block. I am pretty sure it has a lot to do with stress but I can't do anything about that, A full time job and 2 children will drain you. I will give props to my husband once again, he is a trooper, when he sees I ...

I received my new gouache paint and paint brushes today and of course I couldn't wait to try them out. This was a small set as you can see to the right of the painting it is only 5 mixing colors. I have never been one for mixing colors unless it was a color I didn't have but this is a nice set to start with, the paint brushes I also ordered are great, a set of 6 Red Sable (Wesel Hair) mix filbert brushes by  magic touch , I got both of these off  Amazon.  However I have some  Turner Acryl Gouache  coming on Tuesday from one of my favorit places to shop,  Jerry's Artarama,  they had an awesome sale on their site. I love doing large paintings but it does get a little price to keep buying the canvases so I have desided to take a little break from the larger paintings and scale it down a bit. I am not one for creating realistic art, I plan on working on faces for awhile in my quest to creat more artwork and as you can tell it is not proportionate, I...

"Mountain Sunrise" This painting is on a 10" x 20" x 1 1/2" gallery wrapped canvas This is proof that sometimes out of pure frustration and painters block, good things can happen.  This small painting took me about 2 days to do, I would start one thing only to cover it because I didn't like the way it looked. In the end I dropped the paint brush and just used my hands and let it take me away.  This painting is available for purchase at my Etsy store: https://www.etsy.com/shop/AcrylicsbyDanielle

One of my favorite trees is a Cherry Blossom Tree, they are beautiful in any scene.  This is a 24" x 24" canvas done in Acrylics, I am happy to say I had this one sold before I finished and it is off to a great home.

This painting was done with pages from an old book then covered with a thin layer of acrylic paint mixed with an airbrush medium to thin it out.  I then used Pebeo Fantasy paint then covered with resin.  Mixing the Vitrail and the Fantasy moon gave the tree its bark look. Then I used the Fantasy Prisme and moon to the foliage. Looking forward to see what I can do next with this medium.

This is a 12" x 24" acrylic painting, I was playing with a new technique for the background a new type of blending. 

Keeping true to myself, I kept up with my painting. As all artist know, canvas is not cheap so this was done on a canvas board. This is the point we're it was time to invest money on the proper materials to let myself grow more. Needless to say, I think I went again little crazy but hey, you can never have too many paint brushes and paint. Cala Lily painted in acrylic paint

I love the beach even if my fair toned skin does not. I figured what better to paint then the one place we love to go during the summer.  This is my first acrylic painting I did since I have started painting again last year. I made the promise to myself after I finished this painting.  This was one dream I am not giving up on again.  Palm Tree by the Ocean Painted with acrylic paints