Paintings

Landscape art, surrealist art, it’s all here!

Adorable Dollies

Illustrations, Paintings

Dolly the purple dolphin and Walter the Meg Shark are so cute together! They’re good friends.

Walter wasn’t easy to make, I’ll admit. In fact, I didn’t intend to make him myself. I asked Budsies and even some giant plush manufacturers.

But, the response was always the same.

“We don’t make dolls over 3 feet long”.

“Oh, our Chinese factories are closed for the Chinese New Year, but they’ll be open soon!”

How soon was soon?

Me being me, I got sick of waiting and decided to make him myself. I watched endless videos of giant doll and shark doll making videos and all over YouTube.

Finally, I was ready!

Oh, but there’s no fabric store near me! And, I don’t know how to sew…

Joann’s Fabric Stores saved the day, as did Walmart. Got some fabric from Joann’s; bought some Aleene’s fabric fusion glue and Poly Fil stuffing from Walmart.

NOW, I was ready.

Construction paper on which I drew the template
Finally cut out the doll template
Cutting out the sides using the doll template
Both sides of him
Created a separate doll template for the underbelly
Cut a slit to make the mouth

Making him required:

  • 9 feet x 30 yard construction paper for the doll pattern
  • Scissors to cut out the trace pattern into the fabric
  • 3 twenty-lb boxes of Poly Fill stuffing
  • 9 yards of yellow fabric for the dorsal side
  • 2 yards of white Blizzard fleece fabric for his teeth and the ventral side (underbelly)
  • 1 yard of black Blizzard fleece fabric for his eyes, snout holes, and eyebrows
  • 1 yard of pink Blizzard fleece fabric for the inside of his mouth and tongue
  • 6 inch x 22 yard red satin fabric for his red bow tie ribbon that I tied around his “neck” (fish don’t have necks, but yeah. You get my point)
  • 5 eight-fluid oz bottles of Aleene’s fabrics fusion glue to glue his body, eyes, eyebrows, teeth, and tongue together (yup, I don’t know how to sew yet, so he’s a no-sew doll)
  • Some patchwork to reinforce the strength of the fabric and fusing glue

I realized his caudal fin was too short, so I made his tail slightly longer to make it more proportional to his big body.

Finally, I started feeding him stuffing.

And more.

And still more.

As you can see, Walter became rather… eh… bloated and plump. At about 10-12 feet long, he’s quite a monster, which is an appropriate name for a giant prehistoric shark.

But, he became so cute and cuddly, too.

The end result of 6 months of work was another sea creature as a bedside buddy. My dolphin was itching for another roommate, and a megalodon like Walter made the perfect company.

In the future, I’ll probably glue on his spots. In the meantime, I’ll look into some sewing classes around Atlanta.

Let me just say this: If you really put your mind to something, you can create anything.

Purple Starlings

Paintings
Purple Starlings

When I made this picture I was imagining a time when I was in Savannah, GA and watching a gorgeous sunset at a pier.

This particular picture is set in Africa, of course, hence why two purple starlings are enjoying this sunset.

Pastel African Violets

Paintings

Of course, I couldn’t leave out the opportunity to paint some flowers for this bed and breakfast! I bet this would make a nice blanket design.

Fun fact: The African violet is a floral species native to East African countries like Tanzania. You can find them in the Usambra Mountains, according to The NY Times

Read more here: https://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/03/travel/where-the-wild-african-violets-are.html

Part of the Roscade Guesthosue series

The Pride of the Savanna

Paintings
The Pride of the Savanna

There are 3 major parts to allure of the male African lion: his size, his dominance, and his mane. You can’t miss him.

Hard to believe these guys are related to everyone’s favorite pet Fluffy. These giant cats are an impressive sight to behold and, personally, my favorite big cat ever.

Part of the Roscade Guesthouse series

Biomimicry 2

Paintings
Biomimicry 2

It’s common knowledge that birds inspired the appearance of airplanes, but what about spaceships? Eh, I don’t really know if they did.

But, it’s probably fair to say that the concept of flight came from birds. Therefore, the concept of flying outside of our atmosphere was inspired by birds, probably.

That thought inspired this picture, along with the fact that snow geese remind me of space shuttles. It’s the white body and black wing tips that do it for me.

Biomimicry 1

Paintings

If you take a close look at a shark, does it look like an airplane? I’d say it does. The pectoral fins are the wings of an airplane, the dorsal fin is the top wing of the airplane.

Quite simply, sharks are fine-tuned water airplanes. It makes sense for a hydrodynamic fish to inspire an aerodynamic vehicle.

The end result of this observation is this Salvador Dali-inspired painting before you.