Danielle Calabro

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. 

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. 

I have been experimenting with Ph Martin inks lately, I like them.  They are pretty much like watercolors but seem to have a bit more pigment in them. The background on this was done with the inks, the clouds and the foreground was done using black and white gouache.  I feel like I am the middle tree, my dreams are on one side of me growing larger and larger, while my regular 9 to 5 is on the other getting smaller. I am reaching for the dream but I still have the 9 to 5 pulling at me. One day it will only be the two trees and I intend on it being the larger one. Dream big and don't give up, through all the fog there is a bright future.

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.

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...

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.

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. 

It was a very crazy weekend and week, Fathers day Sunday, my Huddy's birthday on Monday along with my kids Karate test, which I might add they did awesome. I also had to fix my computer, I wasn't paying attention to my son while he was trying to download a computer game and I got attacked by a crap load of malware, took me about a week and luckily only a $10.00 app to clean it out, so I was not able to dedicate myself completely with this one. I have still been experimenting with watercolors, I had fun with this one. I had left over paint left on my pallet so I added a bunch of water to my paper and to the paint. Then I just added paint and got the crazy effects by sprinkled it with rubbing alcohol. Once my paint was dry I outlined where the colors meet and made my tangle string. I am not crazy about this one but it was great practice. I would like to invite those of you that visit my blog to leave a comment, what you like or didn't like, an idea or two, new techniqu...

I really enjoyed creating the Zentangle™ inspired tree a couple of weeks ago so I decided to do another. This painting was created with watercolor, gouache, GellyRoll Pens and sharpie in a few areas. I am going to focus on the background for a little bit. I tried a couple of techniques I have read about and loved the way it came out. I stared with 140lb watercolor paper, I taped it down (which I believe they also call it stretching) so the paper would not buckle. I did things a little different this time, I did not draw outlines of what I was planing, I went straight to the backgound. I spread a layer of clean water across the paper, chose the colors I wanted to use and randomly painted the colors on the wet paper (wet-on-wet technique). Here is where it got interesting and fun, I took regular table salt and rubbing alcohol to the wet paint. The rubbing alcohol repealed the water and the salt absorbed the water, leaving what you see above, a pretty cool background. ...

I have been working more in watercolors lately and I am finding I am really starting to like them a lot more. I always thought watercolors were tougher to work with, with a little more practice I can see using them more and more. This little painting was done with mostly watercolor, I had to do the clouds in white gouache and of course the waves have tangles on them so I went over them with pen. I will be honest with you, there are a couple of things that I do not like about this painting. My birds ended up getting fatter when I tried to paint them and the tree looks to small to me or maybe it just needs more palms. I absolutely love the waves though, I had fun creating all the tangles on them and like the way they came out. Get involved, let me know what you think. I would love to get others opinions good or bad.

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...

"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...

o save a little money I purchased a linen canvas 12" x 16" from  Jerry's Artarama , great stuff! I have also purchased a few 24" x 36" canvas, a lot of paint and my pouring medium. This is definitely my go to place, the shipping is pretty fast, just a few days and the prices are great and even better when they have sales. If I am not in a hurry I will wait those few days.  I have been playing with the Linen canvas (which is actual canvas and not paper with a canvas feel), I got to the point where I was sitting looking at a blank canvas and nothing came to mind so I put some gold leaf on it and left it to play with the kids outside since nothing else was coming to mind. I came back and still nothing so I started adding color, i figured "what the hell, maybe a little color will help", nope, just spreading paint. ARGH!!! Damn painters block, I hate it. I got so pissed off at it I just took my tube of paints and just placed paint sporadically around the...

This is my latest addition, once again it has a couple of layer under the finished product. There is something another artist said once and to me it is so true; never skimp on the product you use, it makes a difference. Paint, canvas, paint brushes and all the other stuff we use to create our art can be expensive something; that is why gesso is my best friend. I can save a canvas if I screwed it up or just don't like what I created, just take my gesso and start with a new layer. It also helps to know where you can go to save money. She also said a good painting usually ends up have a few layers, couldn't agree with her more.

"Sunflower" This paint was created on a 24" x 36" x 1 1/2" Gallery wrapped canvas. I have a bad habit of becoming a perfectionist when it comes to my paintings, I had originally started with an idea and it wasn't working for me, I was trying too hard for what I was looking to create. So I started over and with a small idea of what I wanted I put paint on the canvas and created the background. Once the background was done, I stepped back and this is what I saw.  This painting is available for purchase in my Etsy store: https://www.etsy.com/shop/AcrylicsbyDanielle  

"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

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.