Greetings visitors and others who follow my blog...or former people who do. Sigh...I know I haven't posted in ages. But if you are new to my website, welcome! I am happy that you took the time to explore my portfolio. If you do not follow me already, you should follow me on the Grams...the gram grams......Instagram. Yeah, I know I'm lame. :P My handle is LizCraftIllustrations. So if you like what you see, be sure to follow me there. I post regularly and share more process work and more. Thanks for the support! But I will try to keep my website up to date as best as I can. Anyways, I've been living in Chihuahua Mexico and it has been wonderful. I have been keeping myself busy by creating new work. I've been practicing my hand lettering skills and expanding my knowledge in watercolor painting. I have also been volunteering with LOCO Ministries and their program, Restore. It is a wonderful organization that helps families who are at risk of their children being placed in orphanages. They do so much for the children and their families. I have been teaching art one day a week and loving it. To learn more, click here. <3 I will probably write a post about living in Chihuahua soon. And you can hold me to that! I would like to share more about Chihuahua and what it's like living in Mexico. If you haven't already, be sure to check out my shop! I have just posted a handful of illustrations, paintings, and drawings for you to purchase and take home. :D I would love to hear what you think and what you would love for me to create/paint next. Thanks for your support! Peace!
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I know it seemed like I fell of the face of the earth. I kind of did. Not literally of course but I have been busy with so many life changed. For one, I'm married now. =D It's pretty awesome. Even though I am now "Liz Donoghue" I decided to keep my name "Liz Craft" in the art world (I'm still trying to figure out if that's a good idea). I enjoy being married to my husband, Ben, who has been supporting me in my art endeavors.
I am still living in Detroit but I soon will be living In Chihuahua Mexico (Yes it's a real place). I am very excited but nervous. I will be spending a lot of time at home so that just means that I can crack down on creating a boat load of work. I am looking forward to literally have all the time in the world to paint and draw all day and eating authentic Mexican food. I am currently teaching a couple art classes for the fall semester. It is going okay... At the same time I have been working hard at creating more work for my portfolio, being more active on Instagram, and I finally made my own Facebook artist's page. My goal is to get out there as much as possible. The last couple years I have self-published my own adult coloring book, created a brand for a small candle business, and did a variety of commissioned pieces. I hope to find a solid job while I am in Mexico that I can hopefully continue when I return to the States (that is if Trump lets me back in). Oh! I also gave my webpage a makeover. So go ahead and explore the new pages. Also, be sure to check out my store. There is more to come and I am very excited to share it all with you! Peace, Liz I'ts been a long time since my last post. It's all because I've been working on a project that I am super excited about. Some of you may be familiar with my digital illustrations of the girl and her friend, the giraffe that I did a few years ago. Well, I decided to expand that idea into a collection of illustrations. I would like you to meet Jen the Giraffe and Janice the little girl. Some may think that giraffes don't make good friends. But to Janice, Jen is the perfect companion! She tells Jen secrets, they go on adventures, and play together. They are a cute little pair that I am growing more attached to with every illustration I create. For the Jen and Janice series, I am in currently creating three books: Seasons, Pretend, and Travel. The books are going to be geared toward the early reader audience. I want these books to be a friendly introduction to reading and be a treasure to children everywhere. I hope to create plush stuff animals, pillows, and blankets. This is a big project and I am excited to get this ship a sailing. To see all the Jen and Janice illustrations click here. Don't miss a post! Peace! Finally, I am back to the drawing board. I am excited to get cracking on pulling some ideas from the old noggin. I've been thinking about the life goals that I hope achieve. Get my teaching certificate, get married, grow a family, go on a hot air balloon ride, travel the U.S, travel to other countries, go backpacking, camp in the wilderness, paint on a huge canvas, to just name a few. I've been trying to explore new things and see what inspires me. I don't want to sit still. I want to DO SOMETHING! There is so many people out there doing incredible things and I want to have at least one big adventure in my life. I want to be able to look back in my life and think about everything I did and all the places I went to. I don't want to look back and think about all the times I played it safe or think about all the days just sitting at home watching time float on by. But I'm getting ahead of myself. This is not what this post is about. Haha Anyways, i started sketching a couple of those goals. I like to illustrate my ideas with cute animals and such. It's just what I do. =] The two sketches are the goals of having a family and going on a hot air balloon ride. I'm thinking of creating these as watercolor spot illustrations. keep a look out for the final paintings!
Have a great week, y'all! Peace! Yes, that's correct. I designed a ceramic cup that is shaped like a wedge of Swiss cheese, that is functionable. I created the cup using the slipcast method I learned from my slipcasting class. This was my favorite, and the most successful product that I created out of the whole class. Yes, it has been awhile since I've posted artwork and/or posted a blog post. I've been busy with life and school and as you know, being awesome brings its heavy burden as well.
So the last two or three months I've been a substitute teacher along with taking some extra classes at College for Creative Studies. I love being a sub! It's fun to be a teacher for a day and be able to run a classroom full of children. For those who know about my endeavors to be a future art teacher, being a sub was a great opportunity to get my feet wet in being in a classroom setting, in control of a class, presenting lessons to students, and being able to think on my toes when I have 30 minutes of extra time and I'm all alone with a room full of 20 something kids who could be running around the room if they become the least bit bored! Being a teacher is a blast! Love it. Anyways, I've been trying to study and pass the Michigan State Readiness Exam so I can be a certified art teacher. And it hasn't been a trip to Disney World. Let's just say the test is kicking my butt, and others' as well, and I'm getting a little frustrated. But I'm not throwing in the towel just yet (nor will I ever). So, I've been drying to get back to the drawing board, literally, and create some new spot illustrations. But I've been looking for some inspiration...I've been so focused on math and writing and this test that I haven't spent time being creative. I have a spark of inspiration for some illustrations that come from my ideal bucket list that I might pull from. Or maybe I will carve out some marketing ideas for some possible illustrations that are the blueprints for possible products (after speaking with a spokesperson from American Greetings). Well, that's the news of what has been going on in the "Life and Times of Liz Craft". I hope to get cracking on some art and updating my page. Keep a look out! Now excuse my while I go snack on some Christmas cookies =P Peace!
Hello!
So there is a lot of craziness going on in the "Life and Times of Liz Craft." I am trying to get everything prepared for Artprize! Gahhhh I am so excited. I am excited to handout biz cards, talk with people, explore the art there, and talk with other artists. So stoked! I am in the process of giving this website a make-over. I've decided to have a separate webpage for my portfolio and my art education career. So if you are interested in seeing my journey as an art teacher, you can now view and read about it at arteducatorlizcraft.weebly.com. Thank you for all who support me and for being part of my journey as an artist, a teacher, and a friend. ~Peace I've never seen so much tiny colorful squares! All these little squares were in a giant pile just waiting to be turned into something awesome, like a mosaic! If the wind didn't blow it all away first. I had tracers available for the kids to trace if they had trouble drawing animals or people. I showed them my example and gave them pretty simple instructions. Maybe too simple of instructions. I left out some details that I should have said to make the project run smoother and have more acceptable results. The kids started on the right foot with their pencil drawings. But some kids became a little bored and began to just pile on glue and take handfuls of the colored squares and just dump them on their paper. I encouraged them to try to make the mosaic but I didn't want to "fight" with the kids that were not into it. After all, this is just a craft camp. It's just for having fun! And as long as the kids are having fun, then I reached my goal. But until I have my own classroom, the child can pile on as much squares they want. =] Overall, the kids loved the craft camp. Their favorite project was making the hard cover books. I had a very enjoyable week running the craft camp. I believed this was a great opportunity to get my hands dirty before I am totally in charge of my own art room. I planned lessons, I delivered lessons, I assisted students, I prep all the supplies for each day, and did necessary research for the projects. And this camp also helped me learn that things don't always go as you plan. It gave me a chance to learn from mistakes and figure out how I can adjust the projects to make them better. This was a great week and I am so glad I did this. And none of this would have been possible if it wasn't for my years at College for Creative Studies and all the donations of art supplies from friends. Thank you! Peace! What a day! I thought that book making would have been the most difficult project this week but today was more of a challenge for them. But I am happy that they didn't give up right away. All the kids did a great job at being open to the project and trying their very best. This was a challenge for me as well. How well I explained the instructions and how I assisted the students. Today the kids designed their own greeting cards by designing a print. Using a pen or pencil, the kids embossed a design on styrofoam trays to create their print. Next, the kids used a brush to ink their prints. Then the kids pressed the print onto card stock. The kids also had the chance to practice on scraps sheets of paper until they achieved the desired relief. The challenges the kids faced was adding too much, or too little of paint to their prints, and not embossing well enough. Some kids became frustrated and I tried my best to encourage them. I encourage them to try a few times to create their prints, until I let them paint freely on paper. I explained that printmaking takes practice just like everything else, and I assured them that I was happy that they tried. The results were still acceptable considering all factors. So great job everyone! =D I am proud that you all tried your best at this printmaking project. *applause* Tomorrow is the last day of Craft Camp so be sure to check back to see what the last project is all about. Peace! |
AuthorI am an artist who enjoys the outdoors and living in Michigan where I can live in all four seasons in one day. I love cake or anything that is sweet! Archives
April 2018
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