Lilly

I drew this White Lilly years ago when I was trying to get back into drawing. I've always loved white lillys, although I still don't know why after all these years. There is just a simplistic beauty about them that resembles purity and youth to me that I love and am absolutley mesmerized by. Maybe one day ill figure out the symbolism in my life that draws me to this gorgeous flower and makes me feel no others will ever match up to the White Lillys beauty and essence. When that comes I am going to create a work of art using this flower that looks much more amazing than this one. I cannot wait :) Enjoy and please leave a comment.  

Hand Painted Giant Wine Glass

It took a few hours but I did it! I painted this giant wine glass for my best friends wedding. Its a some what odd tradition I've done for her. Coincidently she broke the one I made her for her 21st birthday, which was supposed to be a joke but she refused to get rid of it, even after she broke it. So I made her a new one years later in hopes she would quit using her old one to display her cowboy hat. I'm not sure if she did in fact get rid of it, but I'd like to think so. The newer one isn't too bad of an eye sore. I  painted the dress to resemble her wedding dress and even put swarovski crystals on it. She is a red head just like the woman on the glass, but aside from being thin, really looks nothing like my friend lol. I kinda just followed my hand and that's what came out, but I am happy with it. The wedding colors were purple and silver so I incorporated that into the glass along with personalizing it with her name on the stem. I also made each of the bridesmaids one of their own as a thank you in helping me plan my friends bachelorette party. The set for the bridal party was my first attempt at painting glass. I didn't know how it would turn out. I think in the end they turned out better then some others I've seen. So thus, I have made it into a hobby, only getting better each time :) I've done many others so if you would like to see more please let me know. The giant wine glass, although hard to drink from lol is a working piece of art and holds I want to say almost 3-4 bottles of wine. They have a multi purpose as well. They are great for a fish habitat and center pieces. The possibilities are endless and apparebtly so am I :) thanks for taking a look. Leave a comment if you wish!

Ariel

"The seaweed is always greener in some body elses lake. You dream about goin up der, dat is a big mistake. Just look at the world around you right on the ocean floor, such wonderful things around you. What more is you lookin for? Under duh sea..."

How can you not jam to that it is a classic and it's also on my running play list :) gets me pumped! Haha

Well obviously I am a huuuuuuge fan of the Disney movie, The Little Mermaid. I can find tons of inspiration when it comes to her personality and I can relate. She looks at our world in awe and amazement, not caring about the danger or the consequences that developes from ignorance or carelessness. Shes driven by passion amd knowledge and well eventually, love. Shes amusing, kind, and predictable. Shes also careless in her quest, much like the rest of us with life. But imagine if you will...looking at the world not knowing any of its things and not caring because your engulfed in its knowledge and beauty that your utterly amazed and astonished by it and it's occupants that your willing to take any risks to experience it...its a fresh perspective on life completely. Its mesmerizing. Id envy her if she were real. I feel its how we should all look at life, but then again it does help to know what your getting yourself into. And well having good friends to do it with is just a bonus. This is a great Disney movie and my favorite. So I felt the need to capture this character when she was most astonished.

This painting took a few months, but realistically it was probably only a few hours because I only paint when compelled...In  this scene she's soaked and wringing out her hair. It may be when she first really notices Eric. I started with a sketch, then moved to water color. I used cheap paints at first so it did not come out to my liking. I fixed that mistake by using prisma watercolor pencils over what I originally painted. Its a high pigment pencil that blends rather well. It was my first attempt at using them. I'm not sure I nailed it, but it definately came out much better then what I previously tried and a big difference at that. So after I penciled/colored everything in, I painted water over the whole picture (You can pencil then paint or you can dip the pencils in water then draw and paint. Its rather cool). And voila! This Is the end product. I hope you like it.

Feel free to leave comments,  constructive critcism, or whatever your heart desires. Thanks for taking the time to look :)

Repurposed File Cabinet

Last year many things happened, but one important thing that NEEDED to happen was to completely redo my bedroom. I wanted to change it from a grey scale with splashes of maroon to splashes of yellow and black. The darkness needed to be lightened up...well just a bit, I prefer dark colors:)

The one thing about my room is that is small and I fill it with a lot of crap! Soooo the need to stay organized is vital to my sanity.  When I changed everything to match my age (finally) and the colors all worked harmoniously together, I had an eye sore of a filing cabinet. It was burnt orange and was most definately the ugly step child that behaved so badly that you had to march  them to the corner only to later forget you put them there in the first place. Loved the color but it had to go. It didn't match at all! (P.s. I dont believe children are ugly, it's a joke people)

So I was thinking I could do chalk board paint on the whole thing...then I thought naaah chalk is messy. Turns out I repurposed my old childhood dresser into a bench and completely repainted it :) it also just so happened that I bought drawer liner for it (which was silly because I store shoes in it so what would be the point in trying to keep it clean or pretty lol) in a floral patten with greys and yellows. So I grabbed that and started cutting it to fit each side of the file cabinet.

It took some smoothing out with a putty knife but I was surprised that the paper stuck so well. I also had to redo a side, but mistakes in cutting are very easy to make :/ Anyway, so when all was said and done I took a step back I realized it just didn't pop how I'd hoped, sooooo I grabbed my black duck tape (I make wallets from various patterns out of duck tape, ugh yes its been done but hey I'm good at it. Pics to come soon) and went to town on making an edge or border I guess to give it some extra pizzaz. Voila!  Not only did I not have to throw out my old eye sore of a file cabinet and lose all my important documents but it also doubles as a cute night stand and all I needed was a razor blade, one-in-a-half rolls of drawer liner, and duck tape. No purchasing required (these are the best kind of projects).

It was a last minute idea that actually worked out well for me, which doesn't always happen. Plus ill have it for years to come. Bonus! So as you can probablly tell I'm happy about it :)

Thanks for taking the time to read my short novel about a once mismatched file cabinet repurposed into a fabulously functional bedroom piece. ;) feel free to comment!

About heArt by hand

heArt by hand  is a company I created to showcase my many artistic talents. Its basically an idea or momento from your heart transformed into something by my hand, whatever that may be...

I free hand EVRYTHING if I am painting/drawing. No stencils or shortcuts. I don't beleive in them and take great pride in doing it by hand. It means more to me and when people know that,  I think they take pride in the creation a little more too.

So what I am goung to do is post something new each week that I've created along with the inspiration behind it. So it would mean a great deal to me if you, the viewer, would let me know exactly what you think. Criticism and/or compliments are welcome along with suggestions. I can pretty much do almost anything so if you would like to see something in particular please feel free to comment.

Thank you and enjoy :)

-Rachel