Closing My LITDigitalPaintings Etsy Shop

I started my Etsy shop back in 2012. I rediscovered my love for watercolors and pastels on my iPad. I started to paint pet portraits and thought I would give it a go on Etsy. I spent a lot of time and energy on this website. I literally self taught my way on two art apps - most recently Procreate. I had 341 sales over the years and still get requests from returning customers. Digital art has changed a lot in the last twelve years. And with AI anything is the limit. But each portrait takes a lot of time first sketching and then hand painting every speck of the canvas. There are also fees for every image and over time the revenues just didn’t match the expenses. So yesterday I decided to close my Etsy Shop. It was rather an easy process. I didn’t take the final step of actually deleting it - yet, but probably will once I feel more up to it. I still have my website and other sites that showcase all of my work - Redbubble, TeePublic, Amazon Merch, Zazzle, and Fine Art America/Pixels. On top of that Pinterest, Facebook, Tumblr, and Instagram are also maintained. I want to thank all of my Etsy customers for the enjoyable experiences I have had painting beloved pet portraits. My Etsy shop was a small business venture and I learned a lot. Now I’ve moved on to taking photos for the 52Frames weekly challenges and create composite images as projects. Some of those images are being used as uploads to my other websites. It’s an evolving process just like everything else. It’s sort of sad to say good bye, but the pressure of turning around portraits isn’t worth the effort like it used to be. I still love painting portraits - I’ll just do on my own schedule. 

Agriculture and Farm Equipment on the National Mall

It was the last thing we expected to see. When we drove in to town on Monday in search of photos for the 52Frames weekly challenge, the National mall was very congested. Only when we found a parking spot by the Capitol and walked over to where all the hubbub was did we realize what was going on. Apparently it was “ag on the mall” week where the latest farm equipment and agricultural innovation was being touted. It was meant for both the public and policymakers - specifically for the farm bill. I don’t know much  about it, and it’s almost a sad statement. Walking through the event just brings to life the types of things that make a farm work. The equipment is unbelievable! The combines were so huge I don’t know how they even made their way to the National mall. The photos just don’t do it justice. The tires on these things are taller than anyone who passed by. The funniest thing was to see a police dog being scared of a fake cow. Unfortunately I don’t think the event was held over the weekend - just three workdays. It was a very interesting morning walk that not o it took is there, b it also to the Hirshhorn museum and back to the botanic garden. You never know what you are going to run in to in town. This was a very interesting sight to see. 

Central Virginia Scenery

Every few months we take a ride to visit our family in central Virginia. We used to live just a few houses down the street from them on Capitol Hill - until our son retired from the army after three deployments and twenty plus years. At least we had the chance to see our grandson grow to about ten years old and have kept connected all along. The family now has a home on the James River in a renovated warehouse as well as a “cabin” in the next city over. Whenever we visit we always take a ride to the cabin - about twenty minutes away and hang out for awhile. This also includes a walk around the grounds which are very hilly and also very scenic. Each season has something new to offer and our son keeps making changes to the land and has new stories to tell. This place is also on the James River and does have some connection to George Washington. Neither my husband nor I are outdoorsy kinds and really don’t care for the ticks and critters that abound in the wilderness. Our DIL has friends that join her there regularly for canoe rides or paddle boarding in the morning before work. We watched both of these structures become real homes over the years. They are very unique - just like their owners. 

52Frames Something I Made Photo Challenge

I knew as soon as I saw the subject for the 52Frames photo challenge this week what it would be - my custom pet  portrait digital art of some sort. I started taking photos of my tshirts and then took a few with me in them using a timer to capture the image. Then the editing began. I really didn’t know how I would use the photos but started to play around. Three tshirts were grouped together and then the idea struck me to use the art as the head as well. It would be fun to have a dog with a dog image on his shirt. But it was looking much too busy. So I isolated one and used the art from the shirt as the head - but then thought it might look better using an actual photo of the portrait. First it was the black and white Shetland sheepdog. Then our beautiful Borzoi just didn’t look right. But then the goofy looking hound just looked just right. So I played around with that for a while and spent even more time figuring a complimentary background. The solid colors looked too overwhelming. Then I finally found a paint brush backdrop that looked like wrinkles and dog hair to match the shirt. Then the yellow of the shirt was lightened up and it seemed to look better. My husband liked that one the most. It was a fun project this week. So I could say something I made was not only the pet portrait, but also the composite photo for the submission this week. 

The Need for Protein

There comes a time when an older person just starts to lose weight. It doesn’t really matter what they eat. After ruling out any terrible reason for this weight loss, we had to come up with some ways to increase protein in my husband’s diet. His doctor recommended ensure. So my husband reluctantly tried the vanilla flavor. Unfortunately he also thought that the same ensure was contributing to his other medical condition. He is restricted in eating tomatoes, chocolate, spicy food, citrus, carbonated drinks, coffee, tea, wine…. Just about everything he likes. And it’s still been very difficult to determine the culprits. While visiting with our family in central Virginia last weekend our son recommended that he try Muscle Milk. Our son found that to be the only thing tolerable when his jaw was broken and then wired while having his wisdom teeth removed before he was deployed many years ago. So we picked up a bottle of vanilla flavor muscle milk when we were grocery shopping at Giant. My husband hasn’t tried it yet. I thought maybe he could try it while having breakfast because it can ruin your appetite. In the meantime we were also reminded that peanut butter is also good for this purpose. So he’s been having a bit of peanut butter on some bread in the morning and a bit while we have a late breakfast after our walk. My husband’s appetite is still quite good in spite of the dietary restriction. We are just not used to thinking about any of this and it has changed how we eat. I suppose things could be much worse. 

Iwo Jima Memorial, Netherlands Carillon, and Arlington Cemetery

There is a photo of DC taken from the Iwo Jima Memorial and the Netherlands Carillon. I was hoping to take one for the “leading lines” photo challenge. We haven’t been back to this site since before we moved to DC - sometime in the 80’s. So we decided to take our morning walk there and see what we could find. We parked right near the Iwo Jima memorial and found a few areas where the Lincoln Memorial, Washington Monument, the Capitol, and the Library of Congress are in alignment. The rear of the Iwo Jima statue actually looks better because it’s not sitting on the pedestal. Then we saw the Netherlands Carillon and it chimed once on the half hour. There was another great view of the city from this vantage point - but unfortunately the tulips weren’t at their best. It still makes for a great image. There were plenty of tour buses coming and going but the area was easy to navigate. Then we followed the bike path towards Arlington Cemetery. Along the way you could see the sprawling white head stones as far as the eye could see. We walked as far as Memorial Bridge and to the front entrance where there were even more visitors waiting in line to get in. It was a great day for the walk and was even more interesting because all of it was a new path. I didn’t use the images for the photo challenge, but it was a great excuse to visit.