The Digital Fantasy Art of Nicole L Marques

Looking for distinct original paintings inspired by fantasy? Occitania's Store by Nicole Marques is that place. She is a digital artist among other things and she does it well. Her fantasy paintings bring magic to life and create a dreamlike atmosphere.

Capricorn, postcard by Occitania

I love this painting, in fact it is one of my favorites and it is a beautiful twist on the Sea Goat. The attention to detail is not at all lost here from the shiny pearls of her bodice to the clever hairstyle resembling horns.

Lady and Butterflies! by Occitania

This is another of my favorites depicting a woman rescuing some butterflies from a spiderweb. I love the contrast of the cold dark colors of her surroundings against the brightness of the butterfly wings.

Spring Equinox, postcard by Occitania

When I look at this painting I see a small fairy, on one side is winter, the other spring and she has met the hummingbird to transfer the seasons.

Dream Walk! by Occitania

Dream Walk is so full of detail it takes quite a while to notice everything. Hearts, butterflies, fairies and what I would like to imagine as millions of little fireflies are all tucked away as this lady walks through her dreams.

If you are a fan of fantasy art, you should definitely pay Nicole a visit. Nicole also has other shops on Zazzle.



.

New From Pen And Ink

Fun Florals Sticker

I just wanted to take a moment to show what is new over at Pen And Ink before I introduce you to the next artist coming in the next post.

Fun Florals is a new design I drew in Illustrator using custom brushes and swatches. This particular version is more of a muted tone but coming soon will be a bright more colorful version. Right now it is available on all kinds of supplies for your business or personal use, from order forms to recipe cards to handmade by stickers and presentation/recipe/photo binders.

Fun Floral Invitation

Fun Floral 1.5" Binder

Fun Florals Mousepad

.

Ruxique's Business & Special Occasions Shop

Ruxique's Business & Special Occasions Shop

Ruxique's store is business and special occasion store full of clean simple designs and beautiful colors. She offers a wide range of products for businesses, weddings, showers and baby items. There are many themed party invitations to be found here as well - all fully personalized right online.

Elegant Retro Lavender Flower Swirls business card 3

by Ruxique

This design stood out for me, it is beautifully done, simple and clean. The colors are very regal and sure to stand out in someone's wallet. It is designed for both the front and back and your information can be added with ease.

Elegant Bride Bridal Shower Party Invitation 6

by Ruxique

This must be Ruxique's most popular invitation and if it is not it should be. I have shown grey version here but it is available in several colors in her Bridal section of her store.

Daisy Garden Birthday Party Invitation

by Ruxique

I just think this is a fun design and daisies are always a favorite of mine. I have shown the Garden Party Invitation above but it is also available for other party invitations and also comes in a sunflower motif for more of an autumn feel.

Pink Birds & Flowers Photo Baby Girl Album 2

by Ruxique

A very sweet photo album for a new baby. Simply paste your baby's photo and personalize the name and you have a lasting keepsake to give as a gift or keep for your little one, of course a boys version is available too

I hope you take some time to look around Ruxique's store, She has some very unique items to make your special day one of a kind.


.

The Corrieweb Store

There is no mistaking the colorful fantastical art of Dutch artist and illustrator Corrie Kuipers. Her distinct style and her characters bring a smile when you look at them. Corrie often uses her talent to bring awareness to certain social issues like breast cancer, global warming and environmentalism. It was hard picking a few items to showcase here as she has so many endearing characters but I managed to narrow it down to these:

treehuggers by cfkaatje

I have to say it was very difficult choosing one of her cat designs, there are so many and they are all cute. Corrie's cats are many and they are always adorable. If you know someone that loves cats you are sure to find something here to delight them. (Oh and for those of you that love dogs she has plenty of them too!)

sky diving cow by cfkaatje

I am always amazed at Corrie's cows, she always manages to put them in the most ridiculous situations, from sky-diving to bungee jumping, there is even a scooter riding cow

yo! be green by cfkaatje

In all honesty I chose this design because of the look on the frogs face, it makes me laugh

fang kitty by cfkaatje

By far my favorite line of Corrie's, her Voodoodles, a collection of cute and creepy dollies with personality and an attitude.

Stop by Corrie's store and take a look at all of the wonderful characters that live in her world, I can assure you that you will enjoy your look around. Corrie also sells her art on Greeting Card Universe.

.

Tiger Head Designs

I thought perhaps for a change of pace I would show all of you some very talanted artists and friends that make a home on Zazzle. With the holidays coming up and you are thinking of gifts for family and friends I figured I would point you in the direction of some truly talented people.

The first one I would like to feature is Tiger Head Designs by Lora Shelley

Lora is a multi-talented artist who paints, sews, carves, weaves, makes jewelry, throws clay and sculpts felt into delightful little creatures.

Owl at Night
by TigerHeadDesigns

Owl at Night is one of the little puppets she has sewn and photographed for this fantastic card. She has a menagerie of creatures in her zoo. Two of my other favorites are a little Boston Terrier and a Kangaroo with her babies.

Oliver J. Cat
by TigerHeadDesigns

Oliver J. Cat is a portrait of her friend's feline. Oliver is a very large cat and can often be found sprawled out on the picnic table as flat as a pancake. He has a very regal quality to him and Lora captured it perfectly

Diner - Scrambled, Eggs And Bacon
by TigerHeadDesigns

Of course animals are not the only thing Lora captures in her art. Her Diner series and other paintings of women are just as beautiful. Every time I look at her portraits I can see something different. Today I look at the above portrait and see a woman that has made one too many breakfasts and is just quite going through the motions of her life where as another time I saw a woman daydreaming, perhaps of making it big and is stuck for the moment in this diner. That is the great thing about Lora's art, there are so many stories in one painting depending on how one looks at it.

Lora's store is relativly new and I encourage you to take a look. Lora also sells her handmade items on Etsy and has a main website too.

.

Save BIG on Holiday Cards

THIS WEEK ONLY!!!

40% off all Cards and Photocards!

get a head start on the holidays (or an occasion)

Use coupon code HOLIDAYCARD4

* 40% of the net photo card, greeting card and note card sale price will be deducted when the coupon code HOLIDAYCARD4 is applied at checkout. For most products, the net sale price is the price of the product (excluding shipping and taxes). Offer is valid from November 2, 2009 at 12:01am PT through November 12, 2009 at 11:59pm PT. This promotional offer may not combine with any other Zazzle promotional or discount offers. Offer valid on Zazzle.com only.

.

Have A Safe And Blesssed Samhain

And Happy Halloween Everyone!

When Life Gives You Gloppy Frisket...

Use Illustrator

I love the idea of frisket, my problem is that it glops up too fast and buying it is a waste of money. Even though I seal the bottle in two zip lock bags and carefully clean the lid and lip of the jar the cap still manages to seal itself shut like a vice grip. After about ten minutes of working at the cap and finally getting the darn thing open I found that my frisket was a gloppy mess as usual. After having removed most of the gooey-ness I began a painting that I woke up with in my head of a little fish.

I love batik and I used to do it all of the time in high school way back when, I love the way it looks and at first I was going to create my very first design of a stork among tropical foliage. Painting a sort of faux batik using watercolor and friskit but somewhere in between it turned into a tropical fish that I must have dreamed about the night before.

Now the original painting was good with exception of the above mentioned friskit. The lines were just too much of a mess to fix and I found myself getting annoyed beyond anything. I was about to scrap the whole idea when I thought "Why not take it into Illustrator and make the lines there and add the painting to it afterwards?"

That is exactly what I did and I think it came out successful. I scanned the original painting into Illustrator and cleaned up the lines by drawing them from scratch. I then moved it into Photoshop and scanned in four sheets of hand-painted watercolor, one each of yellow, green, ocean blue colors and purple. I placed the appropriate color behind the different sections of my new drawing and digitally cut it out. The end result is very close to the original painting only much cleaner. Maybe I shall recreate my very first batik just for the fun of it

Batik Fishy Print