Ok, I know it’s hot out there, but Halloween will be here before you know it! Last pre-order was going to be my last for the year but I know some of you wanted me to do another in September, so here we go! The FINAL Halloween ornament pre-order of 2023 is on! Pre-sale will end on the 18th of September and ornaments will ship October 6th, or earlier depending on how many sell. If you missed out on the other pre-orders, now is the time to get your ornaments! 🧡🎃
Click here to head over to my Halloween Ornaments page to see all the different kitties dressed up for the holiday!
My original handmade clay ornaments, painted with acrylic paints, and glitter! These ornaments are based off of characters in my Halloween paintings. I wanted to bring them more to ‘life’ by creating ornaments to match with the paintings. I’ve been making these ornaments since 2006 and adding new ones every few years! Look below for a blast from the past or my original ornaments!
Today celebrates a lot of things, apparently! It’s World Photography Day, National Photography Day, World Honey Bee Day, National Potato Day, and many others. I couldn’t possibly paint something for everything, but I did merge some of the things.
The Bee Photographer
Once upon a time, I took countless photos of my children while they were growing up. I loved having them stand awkwardly, in little themes I’d made in my mind. They always were eager to participate!
I’m currently on my first glass of coffee, iced coffee, but the above picture is an accurate representation of how I currently am. If you’ve followed my art over the years, you’ll know there’s a very strong recurring theme of cats and coffee. Two things I cannot, and will not live without! I also love the spooky side of things. Though over the years my “spooky” has been more cute than boo, but I feel like with drawing on the iPad, maybe I can get a little closer to the spooky side. I tried to draw the white cat above as a ghostly kind of cat, surrounded by cobwebs, in the background hanging from the shelves and walls.
Not A Morning Ghost
Not a Morning Ghost was an idea for Twitch emotes, or rather updating my Twitch page emotes. Then I scrapped the idea but still liked the cat. Then I had the brilliant idea to try adding text again. What kind of text? Should I write it? Should I use a font? What font? I didn’t think any of the ideas worked so I scrapped the text. I need to buy some post-it notes so I can make a note to stick on a monitor, “NO TEXT.”
That’s a nope.
Cat and Jack
Another favorite theme of mine to paint is cats and autumn/Halloween. Trying a more muted approach with two kitties and pumpkins, I’m not sure I could actually paint these in acrylics, but I like the softness in the illustrations. Sometimes, I’ll illustrate things first, or doodle them, then later paint them. I’m not sure how many of my recent illustrations will make it to acrylic on wood, but there’s a chance some will be painted.
The Pumpkin Carver
As always, if you’re interested in prints of any of these illustrations, you can find them in my Teepublic Shop! Any and all feedback is welcome as well. What do you think about text on art shirts?
It’s our day! We get a day! Go forth and smear some ink, fellow lefties! Raise your left hand in the comments to let me know you’re out there celebrating today!
Like my lefty cat illustration? You can buy it over in my Teepublic shop!
Keeps the dentist away? LOL No, that’s not how it goes. No, this post isn’t for one doodle, it’s for a lot of doodles! I’ve been dealing with a broken tooth causing severe nerve pain over the right side of my face, and a lack of my normal 8×10 wood panels to paint on. So what’s an artist to do? Doodle. Familiarizing myself more with my iPad and Adobe Fresco, and just having fun-while also trying not to think about the pain. I finally found a dentist, about 40 minutes away, that takes Delta Dental. So, that’s something, but I don’t see them until the 18th, and since I’m a new patient they probably won’t even do anything that day. But hey, this whole experience has ramped up my creative process, so that is something!
Mushhead
So I keep doodling. I have a surplus of 9×12 wood panels, thanks to repeatedly being sent the wrong size (Arteza please, I love your product so much, but I need those 8×10’s!) but 9×12’s sell slower probably because of the price, but 9×12 uses more paint. They also take 6 scans because though my scanner bed is 9×12, it doesn’t scan the whole glass, so I have to move the painting around to get all the sides, and then photomerge them all in Photoshop. It’s just extra work I’d rather not have to deal with, you know? I’m thankful I made the decision to buy an iPad during times like this, and grateful for Adobe and the ease of using their products like Fresco. I taught myself how to use Photoshop over 20 years ago, so jumping into the Fresco app was super easy.
DJ Meows-A-Lot II
So doodle I do. I am currently addicted to looking at “What day is today” to see what holidays are happening/coming up. It is a nice bit of inspiration for what to paint, since somehow I found myself painting very seasonally, very holiday-oriented themes. Could I paint Halloween every day, all day, every year? Probably, but I think I might lose some people if I did. Honestly I think I’d get bored on the same thing repeatedly.
Attempted Murder
One thing I’m trying is text on designs for t-shirts. It is NOT my forte. Like, at all. I don’t get along with fonts or text. I have access to a library of fonts, thanks to Adobe subs, but I just don’t have the eye for it. I’m not sure if it’s because personally I would never wear a shirt with text on it, or a t-shirt other than to sleep in. I don’t like the look, and maybe that’s partially why I am not great at it? I was watching this video Teepublic suggested not too long ago by a designer Michael Essek, and his thing is text, funny text on art tees. Yeah I learned nothing from it, but I really wanted to.
Not Today
When I make little doodles for a day, like National Lazy Day, I give up with fonts and just write it with my janky lefthanded handwriting. ha! Though, to be fair I did use the same font I used for the crows on this one saying, “Not Today.” I hate it. I don’t know if other people like it, or if they’ll buy it, or if it would just be better without the text. What do you think? I super appreciate any feedback, btw. I think that’s all the doodles I’ll share today, will make another post tomorrow with more that I’ve recently worked on. Don’t forget, click the photos to go the my Teepublic shop if you’re interested in a print or shirt with my art! Thanks <3
Ornament Pre-Order! Pre-order ends August 21st, and orders ship by September 4th. (dates are subject to if they sell out before the end date.) This will most likely be my last Halloween ornament pre-order for the year so I can focus on new Halloween paintings! I’ve added in three different road trip ornaments as well-a bit earlier than normal for those. Numbers are very limited so I can control how many I will make. I’ll be enlisting my mom and my youngest to help me squish the clay this time, so my wrist isn’t sad.
If there is an ornament you absolutely want but it isn’t available, send me a message before you order and I’ll make it available.
Two kitties telling ghost stories by the campfire! It’s more fun with creepy guitar noises and dressing up as a ghost!
Do you have any ghost stories, any experiences? Do you believe in ghosts? I’ve had quiet a few experiences over the years, things that I can’t explain. One of the earliest memories was in a big old house we lived in in Inglewood, California. My brother and I shared a room (even though we had guest rooms…) and one day our two Doberman Pinschers, Max and Chief, started fighting. My mom and stepdad sent us up to our room to stay out of the way. We both sat on my brother’s bed which was next to the wall with a window. With our legs dangling between the bed and the wall, we sat there watching out the window to the yard below, as my mom, stepdad, and a couple of my mom’s workers tried to separate the dogs with water from a hose.
The Eternal Dance, Ⓒ Ryan Conners
Suddenly I felt hands on my legs and they were pulling, like trying to pull me under the bed. I started panicking and crying, my brother sat next to me looking at me like I’m losing my mind. I scream out that someone is pulling my legs, and scream for my mom. All the adults come running into the house, upstairs to our room, because I’m screaming bloody murder, holding on to the bed. My stepdad grabs me and pulls me off the bed, asking what is going on. I tell him and there’s confusion like, what? What do you mean? They look under the bed, nothing. Look in the closet, and then start looking around the house for someone. They didn’t find anyone. My legs had marks all over that they couldn’t explain. To this day, I refuse to have my bed alongside a wall.
A new little series of illustrations for Halloween! Zombie Cats! Something I started doodling a zombie cat as I was waiting for an order of acrylic paint to arrive, and also while putting off de-glittering my workspace. I figured I needed to play on the iPad a bit. I cracked open my preferred app, Adobe Fresco, and started doodling. That’s how this little series came about! (I should point out that as I was working on the first two, I was staring at an empty glass of iced coffee, so maybe *I’m* the zombie cat?!)
Braaaaaains! Fiiiiiish braaaaains!
Cooooffeeee!
Zombie cat wants noooooodles!
The last one I finished is the lumberjack, which was a request from a great friend of mine. I have made him with and without the axe, but currently the axe version is up on my Teepublic shop! I hope you enjoy these creepy little kitties. Click on the image to go to my TeePublic Shop where you can purchase prints or t-shirts!
Fish braaaaaaains! Better watch out, zombie cat is coming!
Oh, and a bonus ghosty cat with some iced coffee because it’s honestly all I drink these days and it’s iced coffee season! Jk, it’s iced coffee season all year!
Just because you’re a ghost, doesn’t mean you can’t still enjoy that iced coffee!
To celebrate my birthday, let’s have a Big Birthday Bash Sale! 50% off ALL original paintings! Yes, 50%!!! Coupon code: BIRTHDAY at checkout! Thank you to all of my fans, old and new. I appreciate you all so much, and I hope you enjoy my birthday gift to you! <3
