Caution:Artist at Play-Artwork by Shana Rowe Jackson

Do you have an artist that you know and love? Or perhaps you are an artist who is looking to treat yourself? Here are some fun gift ideas for artists!!  P LEASE NOTE : Most of the things on this list are things that I have bought myself or that have been gifted to me, this blog post is not sponsored in any way. All the photos were taken by me and remain under my copyright. Click on the photos and links to be connected to the gift you are interested in, or to a place where you can find something similar! Also, please see my wish list below for other fun ideas!      We all know that the best gift for an artist is usually a specific art supply they have asked for, or a gift card to their favorite art supply store, but sometimes it is fun to give (or receive) gifts that celebrate the person as an artist. Here are some of my favorite gifts ideas!  Inspirational sketchbooks or journals and fun pens : Every artist I know loves paper and writing utensils! Sketchbooks and journals ar

Hello everybody and Happy 2017!! I have had a lot of questions lately about how long I have been an artist, and how I decided to get into art. I started saving my artwork and scrapbooking it by the time I was 8 or 9 years old, and since it is a new year, I thought it would be fun to share some of that artwork with all of you. I decided to choose one piece for each year that I have been creating. Even though I have created everything from landscapes, to portraits to animals, I decided to keep the theme to people to keep it more cohesive. There were some years that I did not have a lot of artwork depicting people to choose from, so I decided to share whatever I had, even if it was not my best . Here is my newest YouTube video, I hope you enjoy!!  For more on my artwork or for prints feel free to visit my website!

 " Nature's Confetti " in Blick Studio Artists' Colored Pencils- "Nature's Confetti" 8"x10" Blick Studio Artist's and Black Derwent Drawing Colored Pencils on Canson Mi Teintes (Pearl) Paper. My own reference photo. © Shana L Rowe Jackson 2016 Before reading- please note that I am in no way sponsored by Blick, nor did they ask me to review their product. This is just my personal experience with these colored pencils. First Impressions: Pencils come in a tin case and are organized by color (They also offer a wooden cased set that costs a bit more.) Pencils have wood casing that are color coated to match lead Come pre-sharpened The butt end of the pencil is open which is great for checking if the lead is centered. Good range of blues, greens, grays and browns (These are the first colors I check for) Wax based 72 count set (largest set they offer at this time) From Blick’s Website- “Blick Artis

As an artist I am faced with many choices of tools with which express myself. New mediums become available frequently, each with their own set of unique qualities. I love experimenting with new mediums and incorporating what I have learned into my work. In order to grow as an artist, I think that it is part of my job to study techniques and mediums to see what works best for me. While I get some information from “how-to” books and by speaking to other artists, I find that nothing compares to good old fashioned hands on experimentation. Two of my favorite mediums are oil and acrylic; oil, being known in the art world as “The medium of the Masters” has been around for centuries, whereas acrylic is fairly new in comparison having only been around since the late 1940s. Oil paint is often the preferred medium among professionals, because it has a long history to back up its quality and many of the famed artists such as Claude Monet and Leonardo Da Vinci once painted their masterpi