Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Happy Halloween! Sale, Auctions and Giveaway Ending Today!


Happy Halloween everyone!! I wanted to tell  you all about a few things of mine that are ending today. It will be the last chance to take advantage of them, so be sure not to miss out!

Halloween Print Sale

I'm having a huge Halloween print sale and it ends today! I'm offering over 40% off a select group of Halloween prints. There are 18 different ones to choose from and you can also get them hand embellished! Just click here to read all the details! =)


Cassia 8x10 Print Giveaway

I'm giving away an 8x10" signed print of my Halloween witch, Cassia. The giveaway is super easy to enter. Just click here and follow the prompts. It takes less than 30 seconds! The giveaway runs through the end of today, October 31, 2012!


Sydney and Cheyanna Hand Embellished 8x10 Print Auction

This month I'm also participating in a fun new auction group started by the wonderful Lisa Cree! It's the "Monthly Fantasy Art Auctions" where many different fantasy artists offer up their lovely art for auction. I have two pieces up for auction this month. Both are hand embellished 8x10 prints. You can bid on Sydney here and Cheyanna here.



Creative Design Outlet Artist of the Week


While this sale doesn't end today, I thought I would take the opportunity to let you know that I am artist of the week over at Creative Design Outlet and they're offering 20% off my tubes and images! I am the artist of the week along with Delphine Demers whose art I really admire and love so be sure to check out her things as well because they're also on sale! Check out my sale here.



Monday, October 29, 2012

Hurricane Sandy

We are slightly in Hurricane Sandy's path and have high wind warnings through Tuesday. So there is a small chance we may lose power at some point. I am keeping my stores open, so feel free to order normally. But orders, digital file email delivery and correspondence may be delayed depending on what happens, so I appreciate your patience! =)

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Win an 8x10" Print of My Halloween Witch Cassia!

I'm having a new giveaway! This time I'm giving away an 8x10" signed print of my Halloween witch, Cassia. The giveaway is super easy to enter. Just click on this link and follow the prompts. It takes less than 30 seconds! The giveaway runs from now through Halloween, October 31. Good luck! =) 



New Zombie Painting - Lexy

I'm so excited to share this with you all!! Meet, Lexy, my sexy zombie rockabilly pinup girl! I just finished this painting today and it was just so much fun to work on. I loved working with all the fun, bright colors, the green skin, the roses and different textures.

This is a finished result of one of my "Adoptable Images" so the original painting is already sold. The person who "adopted" this image got to choose the colors. She made such wonderful choices and wanted to have the black hair with white streaks which was such an awesome idea. I wouldn't have thought of it myself! She also chose the different colored roses. If you're interested in one of my other images up for adoption, check out my website here: http://www.aurella-art.com/adoptable-images.html

Lexy will be available as prints very soon! I'll be sure to keep you all updated. =)
 
 

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Huge Halloween Print Sale - 18 Halloween Prints Over 40% Off!

From Tuesday 10/16/12 - Wednesday 10/31/12 I am offering over 40% off of my Halloween prints! You can choose from 18 different Halloween images!

You can purchase these Hallowee

n prints in the following sizes:

8x10" Prints = $7.00 (Regularly $13.00)
5x7" Prints = $4.00 (Regularly $8.00)
ACEO Prints (2.5x3.5") = $2.00 (Regularly $4.00)

I'm also offering a fun option! You can also choose to get your prints hand embellished! What I do is paint iridescent watercolor medium on each piece by accenting their clothes, hair, eyes, or other details in the piece to give them a soft shimmer. It really makes these prints so special! On the hand embellished prints, I will also sign, title and date the back of each one.

Hand embellished print prices are as follows:

8x10" Hand Embellished Print = $10.00
5x7" Hand Embellished Print = $6.00
ACEO Hand Embellished Print = $3.00

These prices are still below my retail print prices without hand embellishments! So this is really a great chance to get a fantastic deal on some one of a kind art.

All you need to do to purchase this special is send me an email to nikki@aurella-art.com and let me know what you'd like to buy! Please include the following information:

1. The "number" of each print you would like. (You can find this number located on each image in the attached photo)
2. The print size that you would like.
3. Let me know if you'd like the prints embellished or regular.
4. The country that you live in so I can factor shipping costs correctly.

I'll then send you an invoice directly through Paypal to your email address for an easy and safe purchase. Once I receive the payment, I will package them up and ship them off to you. There will be a shipping charge added to each order (though I do combine shipping so this is not a charge per print! =) ) The charges will be as follows:

8x10 Prints

United States: $3.75
Canada: $4.75
Everywhere Else: $9.00

5x7 Prints

United States: $3.00
Canada: $3.75
Everywhere Else: $6.00

ACEO Prints

United States: $2.25
Canada: $3.25
Everywhere Else: $4.25

**Please note that this special is not being offered through my website store or my Etsy store. Though I will happily combine shipping with any orders purchased through my Etsy shop or website store. Just message me if you have any questions. =)
 
 

1,000 Sales on Etsy!

I reached 1000 sales in my Etsy shop this weekend!! I have been working so long and hard towards this milestone, but I could not have reached it without everyone's wonderful support of my artwork. I really can't thank you all enough for everything that you do to keep my dream alive!

To thank all of you I'm going to have some awesome Halloween sales coming up in the following weeks. So make sure to keep an eye on my Facebook page and my Etsy shop for all of the details. And THANK YOU again!! My fans, friends, and supporters are the BEST!! =)
 
 

Thursday, October 11, 2012

How I Draw Faces

I was watching an episode of Ink Masters the other day and tattoo artist Chris Nunez said something that really resonated with me. I don't remember his exact quote, but it was something like "Faces are one line away from greatness or failure." I couldn't agree more with this.

So many artists, me included, struggle with drawing faces and I think Chris Nunez's statement is the reason why. It really only takes one line just slightly off to throw off the whole feel of the face. I think this is especially true if your art style expresses the features of a face in lines instead of only values. Which is the case in most tattoo art and also the style that I draw. The struggle with most of the artists that draw in this similar style is to look at a face that is mostly different values and break that face down into simplistic lines.

Although I feel like drawing faces has gotten easier for me over the years, I still get a little nervous when I start sketching out the face. A face can totally make or break a piece so you could spend hours and have a beautiful painting, only to have a bad face because one of your lines was slightly off. The more you draw, the easier it gets of course, but I still don't think it's ever super easy.

So I thought I would share some tips and tricks that I've learned over the years that might hopefully help you out when you're drawing a face!

Here is a recent face that I drew that I was really happy with. This is my new zombie, rockabilly, pinup girl named Lexy.


This is a 3/4 view of the face which means you can see both eyes and sides of her face, but the right  side of her face and eye are more prominent and bigger than the left. It may seem pretty complex and hard to draw, but to get started the easiest thing is to break the face down to basic shapes and proportions. I'm going to show you my step by step process right over this sketch so you get an idea of an easy way to construct a face.


My first step is shown here in red. I draw a basic head shape. It's mostly just a circle at top with a pointy area for the chin at the bottom. I don't focus on any of the details of the face at this point. I just try to get the right size head and head position for the piece that I'm working on.


My next step is to draw some basic construction lines. There's a lot of different tutorials out there about the different measurements and proportions of a face. I really try not to get too fussy with exact measurements (though maybe I should!), I just try to go with what looks right. I trust my eye.

The first line I draw is a vertical halfway point of the face where the center of the nose, middle point in between the eyes and center of the mouth hits. Make sure to curve this line if you're doing a 3/4 view face. A face is 3 dimensional and not flat, so this line actually curves along almost the same curve as the outside of the face.

Next, I draw the line where the eyes will fall. This line is about midway down on the entire face shape. And again this line curves on the 3/4 view.

Lastly I draw the line where the bottom of the nose will hit and another where the center of the mouth hits. These follow the same curve as the line for the eyes that you drew.


Once you have those lines drawn, you can work more on refining the head shape as seen here in purple. You can see that I've pulled the line in a bit on her left eye and under her mouth. This gives her a pretty high cheek pone and chin. Then I also adjusted the line by her ear to give her a jaw line and an ear lobe. The face construction lines you draw should help you determine where to make the head shape adjustments.


The next step is to break the actual facial features into basic shapes. I always start with the eyes as sort of pointy oval shapes. On the 3/4 view her right eye is going to be bigger while her left eye is smaller. They are still the same shape though and should fall along that construction line that you made with the middle of the pupils hitting the line.

Then I make the nose. I always break the nose into 3 circles. A large circle for the middle of the nose and two little circles on either side. For 3/4 view, the circle on her left side will be smaller than the one on her right side. This gives her nose a dainty pointy upturned nose which I prefer on my faces. The bottom of the circles should hit the nose construction line.

Then I just draw a line for the mouth where the lips would part. This should curve along the same construction line that you drew and the left side of the line should match up with the middle of her left eye and the right side of the line should match up with the middle of her right eye. This is how you determine how wide to make the line.

I also throw on some lines for the eyebrows at this point. These follow the same curve as your construction lines. Depending on the style and look you're going for they can be different shapes and sizes. Usually a longer high arched brow is what I tend to go for because it gives the face a sexier look.

And when you get to that point, the hardest part is done! Because everything is in the right place, so next you just have to finish sketching out the features which I think is the easiest part. Getting everything in the right areas is the biggest battle.


I thicken the brows, add eyelashes, finish drawing out the nose and add an upper and lower lip. I try to work from simplistic shapes to complex shapes. So instead of drawing the eye like it's shown above from the beginning, I start with the basic pointy oval shape and add more and more detail as I go along, building up the entire face at the same rate so that it's easier to make adjustments and see mistakes from the beginning.

But I really think the key is to practice, practice practice! If you struggle with faces, try to set a goal to draw a certain amount of faces per week. Try different angles, shapes, styles, etc... until it becomes second nature to you. When I first got started there was no way I could draw a face without looking at some sort of a reference. Now, it just comes so much more naturally to me and I no longer have to look at a reference to guide me. But it's still a never ending learning experience and something I hope that I will continue to get better at!

Friday, October 5, 2012

NEW Adoptable Images!

I have been having a lot of fun lately creating quick sketches that I offer up for a "Quick Sale" on my Facebook Fan Page. These quick sketches are so enjoyable for me because they allow me to explore all different sorts of styles and techniques. These sketches have all been claimed and have found homes, but I've had a lot of questions as to whether or not I would turn these images into finished paintings.

So I thought it would be really fun to offer these images up for "adoption"! What you do is purchase the image you would like a finished, original watercolor painting of. Then I will turn the image into a completed, fully shaded, 5x7" watercolor and ink painting. And the really fun part is, you get to decide what colors I use!

My usual starting price for a 5x7" commissioned piece is $150, but all of these images are available at a reduced rate of only $100 each! I really hope you enjoy this new original painting option from me. Be sure to check back regularly because I add new sketches every week! And if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me at nikki@aurella-art.com.

I currently have 15 different images to choose from! Be sure to visit my website here to adopt one of the images and receive an original Nikki Burnette watercolor painting for only $100!



Thursday, October 4, 2012

On the Drawing Board

Good news! I was commissioned to work on a full set of paintings of this cute steampunk piece, so you'll be seeing a lot more of her! I know of a lot of you liked her, so I wanted to let you know that she will eventually be a full, finished painting done in my normal style. I'm also doing a lineart version of her which is what I'm working on now and also a lineart plus a watercolor wash. It will sort of be a whole series done in all the different styles that I offer. I think it will be really fun!

I'm also planning on opening a section of my website called "Adoptables" or something similar where I will have all my Quick Sketches. I've done 17 of them at this point! And I have gotten a lot of questions as to whether they will become finished paintings at some point. So what I was thinking of doing is placing all these sketches up on my website where you can "Adopt" one of the images and commission me to complete a finished painting done in my usual style! The best part is, I think I will be able to offer these original paintings at a slightly reduced rate because a lot of the legwork is already done for the piece at that point. I'll be sure to keep you all up to date on how this project evolves! I would also love to hear your feedback on this project and if it's something you would be interested in seeing from me. =)