I was watching some of the kids from Parkland speaking out on TV and was really struck by it. One of them remarked that taking money from the NRA should be a “badge of shame.” I liked that idea, especially because the two Senators from NC have gotten a LOT of money from the NRA over the years.
So I made a badge of shame and decided to share it with everyone. Print it on cardstock, cut on the solid lines, and you have three badges to mail to the elected officials of your choice.
It is Valentine’s Day – time to keep up the tradition and post a holiday-themed page of color-able knotwork pattern. The page is sized to fit 8.5×11 paper. Click on the thumbnail for a full-size image. Feel free to share this page with those you love.
I’ve been cranking out a lot of knotwork patterns lately – nearly 3 dozen as a matter of fact. It’s all part of what I hope will be a coloring book that comes out in 2015. An element in one of the patterns I created reminded me of a wing. I started playing around with it tonight and worked up this design. I think it would make a nice pendant – what about you?
It has been a crazy busy season for me – I work part-time at a big box store unloading trucks and there has been literal tons of stuff to unload lately. I’ve also been doing some craft work for stuff over on my Etsy store and working on a whole bunch of knotwork style pictures for a coloring book project that I hope to pull together in the coming year.
But for right now I just want to wish everyone a happy holiday. I was up in the wee hours of the morning and put together this coloring page that you all can feel free to print out and share./ I hope the holidays and the new year find you and yours happy and healthy!
Here is another of what I call my “digital knotwork” pieces for you to print and color. I always find it very meditative to work on these pieces and I hope you enjoy them as well.
One of my goals for the year is to bring a more organic feel to my art. That’s not the easiest thing to do considering most of my art is created in vector programs. So I have been lugging a sketchbook around with me and trying to draw more during my lunch breaks. I have been drawing a lot of dragons lately and trying to model them after some of the animals in old Norse knotwork. (I can also see some Aztec/Mayan influence in there as well.) I did a quick color and ink job on one of the sketches and wanted to share it with you all. It is rough but I think I am heading in the right direction.
Alright, this is not accurate, let’s just get that out of the way from the start. Vikings didn’t go in for the whole winged helmet thing. I know that but the artist in me keeps pushing the researcher out of the way. However, this was a lot of fun to make and I wanted to share it with you all because of that.
Click on the image to the left for a larger version. If you scroll down you’ll find a black & white version in case you prefer to color it yourself. There is also one pre- sized for printing and folding so you can make your own card and give it to someone you love.
If you are looking for something a little more historical I would suggest reading this post about a 900 year old runic inscription that translates to “kiss me.” It is pretty cool and the pdf article that explains how they decoded the runes is fascinating as well. You could also check out the Valentine’s post I did in 2013.
Have a fun holiday. I hope everyone is keeping warm and safe as yet another winter storm stomps through the Eastern US. We got about 8 inches of snow with a nice layer of ice to top it off. Luckily we still have power, though. I really feel for the thousands of people having to face this in the dark and cold.
I don’t know how many of you are familiar with Pinterest. It is a social networking site that focuses on sharing cool images with other users. When you find an image or article that you like you can pin it – kind of like making a bookmark for it. The nice thing about Pinterest is you can then organize boards that collect together your pins based around a particular theme. Other people can then follow those boards and see what you’re up to.
As you can probably guess, I follow a lot of boards that feature Viking themes and Valkyrie artwork. There are some really stunning images out there that I would not have run across if I wasn’t on Pinterest. (Like the awesome picture I’m using for this post.)
My own boards feature my artwork or neat images I’ve found. I also like to start a board for whatever book project I am involved in (or just thinking about.) I pin stuff that I find inspirational or might want to use for reference at a later date.
Here are a few boards that I think you should check out:
I was watching some of the kids from Parkland speaking out on TV and was really struck by it. One of them remarked that taking money from the NRA should be a “badge of shame.” I liked that idea, especially because the two Senators from NC have gotten a LOT of money from the NRA over the years.
Mark Neumayer 