Tuesday Tidings

Mom has been very busy of late. She has been making and painting a ton of mugs! There are only 36 or so, but it is still a lot. And so, she has not been blogging about us. She completely missed Tockstober too! Bad Marlene!!!

We, on the other paw, have been very helpful.

 Chani and I sometimes share my new sleeping place to supervise the painting.

But, usually, I just take over the bed with my cuteness.

Chani has been sharing her space with Sheamus Popoki. She even shared the shelf space with Sheamus too. Mom has been very surprised.

Sheamus makes sure to check that Mom's brushes are properly taken care of.

Or he just looks handsome while monitoring the Blu-Ray player

Or, he keeps her seat warm when she gets up.

As for what she is working on:

Yes, she is making mugs and painting them like the Minions from Despicable Me. These were all orders as are the mugs on the table. All commissions and all sold. Makes for a busy, tired but happy Marlene.

And... Mom got to see Margaret the kitten again when she delivered some pieces to be fired.

Margaret is growing up into a pretty girl cat!

What Marlene has been doing...

Hi Everyone!

We are still here, but August has been quite the month for Mom. The last few months and weeks, Mom has been burned out at work and just plain tired. She's been drawing a lot, but somehow, she just wasn't as energetic as usual. So, last week, she went on vacation. First, she went to the Mojave Desert to view the Perseid meteor shower at the Integratron.

 She didn't get any pictures of the meteors themselves, but she did get some lovely shots of the Milky Way.

Next, she went to Scottsdale to stay at the W hotel.

Where she took photos of the pool. She said that the temperature was very hot, so it was nice to put her feet in the water.

On the way home, she went to Red Rock State Park near Sedona, AZ. She loves Sedona for its natural surroundings and the art scene there. She went to a few galleries and became very inspired and reinvigorated. So, when she came home, she finished another IBKC sketch (of the Lady Winifred)

AND she finished Chani's Om kitty painting... Well, Chani's paws are in prayer position, so we're not sure Om Kitty is quite the right title for this...

As you can see, Chani is unimpressed by her painting.

Finally, Mom hung up all 3 of our Om kitty portrait paintings. She is quite pleased with herself.

So, here's a summary of last week. Mom was gone for about 4 days. Her vacation was a road trip and to get back to us on the last day, she was on the road from 9 am on Tuesday morning and got back to us at 4:00 am Wednesday morning. (She and Fizgig's mom left Scottsdale, went to Red Rock State Park and Sedona, got gas in Flagstaff and then drove all the way back to Santa Cruz where Fizgig lives. Then, from there, Mom drove to us... she says she should have planned the return trip better). And so, on Wednesday, Mom slept for a few hours, got up and ran some errands. And then spent that night and the next day and half watching TV with us. She felt a little guilty about not producing any art during that time, but we made sure that she rested a lot. We think that is what she needed the most. Friday was her birthday, so she had to go out for dinner with some family friends and our grandparents. Saturday was an errand day and Sunday was an art day.

All we can say is that we are glad she is back AND we are glad that she is inspired by what she saw on her trip and re-energized.

Oh, she did take a number of photos of us during her 3 day rest and relaxation period.

Marlene's Drawings

Hello everyone. Marlene here.

Last month The Itty Bitty Kitty Committee ran a FUNDraiser for the Seattle/Tacoma Humane Society's Dog-a-Thon. All together, the site raised over $117,000 for homeless kitties. The fundraiser itself raised $234,000.

I helped a bit by offering to draw little sketches of donors' kitties for a donation of $25. The limit was 20. Donations #20 and #21 came within seconds of each other so I said that I would be happy to do 21. Now, before the offer was published on the IBKC website, Fizzgig and Oberon's mom donated $25. So, I have 22 sketches to do. Haha... it's all good.

The first 3 sketches are done.

 Belle

 India Rose and Zoubisou

 Meiga

India Rose and Zoubisou are drawn on cold press paper, so there is a lot more texture on it than I prefer, but their mommy likes it. So, that's all good.

The others are drawn on hot press paper. Much smoother results there.

And I needed a bit of a break from drawing kitties, so I drew a phoenix. Uploaded this to Zazzle as an iPhone 5 case.

9 spent time in my lap as I was working on Belle. Then, Chani. Sheamus Popoki headbutted my leg for attention.

A blatant mis-use of OUR blog

Mom wants to hijack the blog to shamelessly try to sell a few more cards. You see, she needs to sell 3 more Charlene Butterbean and her Motorcycle cards to be able to donate an even $100 to the Humane Society of Tacoma and Pierce County (where Charlene Butterbean was from and for whom Charlene and the Itty Bitty Kitty Committee fund raise)

And so, here is the link and a photo of the card.

And just to make us feel better, here are some kitten pictures of the 3 of us:

Sunday Sunday

Mom finished the Cheshire Cat. She's pretty happy with it, but decided not to make cards of it. She much prefers to use paint. In fact, now that her sale is over, she's planning on just finishing up some of her drawings and then concentrate on painting again. She likes the finished look of acrylic paint.

Here is her display. As you can see, she didn't have much to sell. She didn't make much money at all (less than $100), but she sold a lot of cards. We think Mom needs to somehow spread the word about her artwork. Maybe that way, she can make more money for our treats and such. At any rate, Mom won't sell at this venue again, but she will look for some weekend markets where she can sell her art. She's also working on making some cute acrylic charms of the Yin Yang Kitties.

Even though Mom isn't all that depressed about how little she made, we made sure she was feeling OK by cuddling with her. Since her feet were hurting from standing all day, Chani and I made sure she  put her feet up and stayed there for a whole evening.

I believe she was quite comforted by us. Who wouldn't be?

We hope you had a wonderful weekend!

Cheshire Cat in Pencil

I started on the Cheshire Cat. Hope to finish it tonight!

I should really not do my art in bed. Chani wants to sit in my lap because the bed is our 'cuddle place' and I can't let her because the paper is in my lap. I do make it up to her later, but I also hate disappointing her at the time. Not that she is deprived of affection or anything!

But yes, I am forgetting that my Chan-chan girl is much more important than some silly old paper and pigment

Boys in Boxes

I bought some boxes to hold my greeting cards at the next sale. Of course, Box Boy, 9, had to check them out. In fact, all 3 cats checked them out and sat in them.

9: I say, this is a lovely box. It fits me quite purrrfectly, if you'll pardon the pun.

Sheamus: I like the bigger box. It's much easier to contain my floof in this one.

Chani didn't stay in a box long enough for me to get a photo. She did sit in the same one that 9 did. But she's not as much of a box lover as he is.

And here are two pencil drawings of kitties.

I needed to do some quick drawings to fill up some frames for my sale this weekend. I already drew the Yin/Yang Kitties and then decided to do a feline face.These are not going to be reproduced as cards, so they're one offs. Now, I'm wondering how much to charge for them. The frame cost $15. So that plus whatever I want for the drawing. Oh these details are too boring for the kitties, but they try to help by inspiring me to draw more.

Oh, and I thought about drawing a Medusa for the last frame, but then decided a purple cat would be better. THEN, I thought: Cheshire cat! And there you go, the sketch. I will post the finished one when I'm done.

Happy Wednesday everyone!

Drawing time!

Mom has a sale coming up (April 27 and 28). Usually she would be selling pottery, but lately, she hasn't been feeling the clay bug. So, she's been painting (the Om Kitties) and drawing (Q and the Moon - see below) .

the original Q and the Moon image... way back when Mom was learning Photoshop

Now, one of Mom's favorite (and repeatable with many variations) images that she's come up with is the Yin Yang Kitties. She's painted these before on plates and platters. This time, she decided that she wanted to do them in colored pencil. Eventually, she will paint them with acrylic paint, but for now, she's using colored pencil and trying to get better at using them.

Here's her first attempt.

It's pretty tiny. Only 3.5 inches in diameter or so. It's meant to fit in this 5x5 frame that she's had hanging around the condo forever and ever.

Here's what it looks like framed. And another drawing that she made and is willing to part with.

Mom hopes to get 2 more Yin Yang Kitties done up. AND she needs to start putting together all the Om Kitty cards with price tags. So, she will definitely be busy this weekend. We'll make sure that she gives us as much attention as we desire. And we'll also be sure to keep her on task. She keeps muttering something about painting up 4 little acrylic paintings of feline faces and fish, but we're not sure she'll be able to do that.

OH! And taking Sparkle's human's suggestion about signing up for a 5K race, Mom has signed up for the Color Me Rad race on September 14th. Mom better start training hard so she won't be too messy hahah!

Chani-chan

Hello Furiends,

I've been giving Mom the look of Doom lately. She hasn't been very good about posting these last few weeks. Yes, she says that she has been busy setting up her ETSY shop where you can buy the cards she has been making of the Om Kitties and the Cat God of Mischief (or Loki-cat. Mom wasn't sure she could get away with titling the image with that name) and the Charlene Butterbean and Her Motorcycle. But seriously, I think she is forgetting what or who is most important.

Me.

She is endeavoring to remedy this situation. And she has been giving us treats and attention. So, I'm not quite sure what to do. What do you think? Should I forgive her and give her a break?

At any rate, I'm going back to my beauty sleep.

purrs,
Chani
 

First painting of the New Year

 

Sheamus Popoki checks out the latest Om Kitty painting. He was the model for this particular painting.

I've sold out of all my previous cards (Blue, Pink and Purple) and I've had to reorder more.

Oh! And I ordered cards of the Loki cat and an angel that I painted for a friend.

And I remembered something I created for work ages ago that we never used. So, I asked and I'm allowed to use them for my own personal use now. Hooray!

Yes, cats in hats, based on the cats in hats that was so popular years ago. I'm not sure what kind of stationary I'll make out of these... any ideas out there in blog land?

 

At any rate, I hope to set up a website for all my illustrations tomorrow. We'll see if I can get to it. Lots to do tomorrow, including yoga and the opening of the latest wood soda kiln.

Hope you enjoy this!

Purple Meditating Kitty

After over a month of putting painting off because of other commitments, Mom was finally able finish her Purple Meditating Kitty. She says that it was not very easy to paint an all black cat and still have the details show up well. But, she is happy with the result and cannot wait to get started on the versions that star the three of us.

9 will have an aqua background. Chani will have a burnt orange background and Sheamus Popoki will have a lovely green background. She's already started painting the eyes on Chani's and Sheamus'.




After that, she has one more sketched out that is based on Meow Meow of Kittitas.








Mom just needs some free time to paint them all.

Oh and if you're interested. She is having cards printed out of the Purple Meditating Kitty and has a few leftover of the Blue and Pink Om Kitties.

Both of these as well as the Purple kitty are painted on boards with acrylic paint. Then, they were scanned and formatted onto a notecard with the symbol for Om underneath them.

And finally, Mom has a bunch of postcards printed up of the above image. This was the first time Mom tried to illustrate one of us all on the computer. Well, the initial sketch was on paper, but then the color and outlining and such were all done in Flash. Then, she put all the parts in Photoshop to make the final image.

Drop us an email and marlene_hirose at yahoo dot com, if you would like any of these either to purchase or just for Mom to send you a note using them.

Pottery on a Thursday

Hi All, Marlene here. Just wanted to share some of my kitty pottery. The meditating kitty on the right in the picture above sold. As did a few collections of the kitty cards you see below the plates.

I also painted a platter with my yin yang kitties. This platter did not sell, so I donated it to a local rescue for their fundraiser along with another small dessert plate with the yin yang kitties on them

And the above plate also did not sell, so I donated it to The Cat House on the Kings 20th Anniversary Celebration.  The rescue from which I adopted 9 and Chani is loosely affiliated with the Cat House on the Kings and I just felt the need to give a little back to them.

Anyhow, I hope you enjoyed this little side trip of mine. Thank you to 9, Chani and Sheamus Popoki for letting me take over the blog today!

Marlene's been painting...

I think I might have shown off some of my yin/yang kitty plates. I've been painting these for the past year or so. Each plate is different (so many types of kitities out there!) and I have a hard time keeping these in stock. In fact, the one above is the last one in my stock and I have promised it to a charity auction that will be coming up. I used to paint back in the day and stopped.  Pottery sort of took over my artistic endeavors. However, recently, I started on painting on canvas again. Which led me to paint on boards.

I really like the finish that comes with that medium.

Originally, my goal was to build a body of work large enough to start selling at my local farmer's market in August. I just need time and of course, subject matter.

Cats were definitely the main focus. Imagine that! ha!  At any rate, I knew I could paint cute cats, but I wanted something more. The images had to be simple and yet show off that I can, in fact, paint and draw.

Now, during a manic phase where I was posting a sketch a night, I drew one based on a friend's cat who had crossed the Bridge (she had sent me a photo of her darling Phantom). She told me that if I ever did anything with that sketch, she wanted it. And so, I did the above for her. So, my style of cat was basically set.

After a conversation with another friend about my painting as well as how much I was enjoying hot yoga (yes, Bikram yoga... I'm no where near the point where I can do all the poses, but I am starting to enjoy the heat), plus seeing little wood carvings of kitties meditating, my friend suggested combining them all. After all, cats and yoga... they sort of go together.

And so you see the first two paintings. I haven't been able to do more because of time constraints. But, I do have plans for a few more. I'm thinking a Rainbow of Meditating Lotus kitties. Eventually, 9, Chani and Sheamus Popoki will make appearances in these (Chani will be on an orange background, Sheamus Popoki on green... I haven't decided on 9 yet. Purple, perhaps).

I have created a few as cards on Zazzle, but those are kind of expensive per card. And so, I'm looking into other print options and opening up an Etsy store. I'll keep you all informed with how that goes!