Blog - The Colorful Engineer

It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas…

November 22, 2016

I’m trying to get ahead of Christmas this year. However Thanksgiving is only days away now so I’m not sure I’m meeting my goal. On my list of accomplishments are:
1) started thinking about Christmas cards.

And that’s about it.

Actually I did line up the kids for a photoshoot. So I suppose that’s some concrete action.

I also got festive with some watercolors. I think I will be using this in our holiday cards this year.

serafinas-christmas-willow-card

We have multiple Weeping Willow trees around our property. They are apparently good for wet areas (which is our yard). I just love them in the summer time when their branches are full of drooping leaves. They are kind of eh in the winter time but one day I got to imagining what they might look like dressed for the holidays.

If you’re interested in holiday cards of your own, you can purchase them here.

A New Look

November 9, 2016

Stating the obvious- my blog has a new look! I finally made the switch to develop a whole new website. My old blog (colorfulengineer.blogspot.com) has been transferred over here to the new site too. I’ve just had a couple hiccups along the way (namely with images transferring over). So at least for the time being I’m keeping my old blog up over at Blogger.

I’m still working on uploading some content but I’m excited to get the new site up and going. I’m also excited to take a break from website development for a bit and get back to some art projects.

Take a look around and let me know what you think! Definitely let me know if you catch any major errors or typos 🙂

Also because it’s Election Day, this:

serafinas-vote

I hope everyone voted.

The Blue Monarch

November 4, 2016

Turns out, I’ve been on a bit of an insect kick. Perhaps it was the summer season. Or maybe it’s just that we live in the country and are constantly surrounded by bugs.

Let me veer off on a tangent for a moment and just share this right here:

That, my friends, is a caterpillar. He has shaggy fur-hair that reminds me of pipe cleaners. I found him eating our milkweed late in the summer. After much research I learned that he is (very appropriately named) a milkweed caterpillar.

But back to my latest painting.

8″x8″
Oil on board

This, along with the praying mantis I just finished, have been fun little paintings. I don’t normally work on these smaller sizes but somehow I’ve accumulated quite a few of these small canvases. They are perfect for painting little insects like this butterfly 🙂

I also did some experimenting here with the board. I’ve had issues using store-bought boards in the past where they seem to absorb the paint inconsistently. So before starting, I coated the board with gesso… which I’ve never used before. I’m amazed by how smooth the surface was! Almost too slick. But I do like the effect it has and I can see preferring the appearance over canvas for certain projects.

So why did I choose blue? No good reason except that, as I stared at my paint options, blue seemed more fun than orange.

Mantis

September 24, 2016

I almost forgot to post this little guy:

5″x7″
Oil on Canvas

This is sort of an end of summer painting. This praying mantis was hanging out on our deck one day. I can remember being a kid and thinking it was such a special thing to see one. But now we see them all. the. time. They’re still neat little bugs though.

Prints are available here: http://fineartamerica.com/featured/praying-mantis-caroline-serafinas.html?viewall=true

Sketches of the Month

September 24, 2016

I made a new resolution.

I wanted to create more art. But time is hard to find around here. So I bought myself a small sketchbook and a travel pack of drawing pencil. So now when I’m sitting on the couch watching tv I can multitask.

And so far it seems to be working.

Baby M passed out on my chest

A toy marble

Baby M in her toy glasses

This last one if my favorite <3 It took me a bit longer than planned. (But people are hard to draw!) But I’m pretty satisfied with how it turned out.

Three drawings in the last three weeks ain’t bad. Although funny story… I first titled this post “Sketches of the Week” before realizing my mistake. Ha ha ha…

My true goal would be to get back to painting more. So if someone knows how to make oil painting more portable, please share!

A Painting for a Cause (Please Help Me Raise Money!)

May 19, 2016

Posting on the blog has been slow these days. (I blame the babies.) But conveniently, the last thing I posted about was this painting I did to raise money for a charity. So you only need to scroll down to the previous post to view 🙂

To recap:

I finished this painting last year with the intent of using it to raise money to support the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network. In the past I’ve walked in PurpleStride Washington DC to help raise money. The team, Team Hammertime, was started after pancreatic cancer took my best friend’s dad- a man I had known pretty much my whole life.

There are babies in those bellies!

So this year I’m doing something a little different. I am a virtual walker (because I have a conflict that weekend). To raise money for the team I’m going to raffle off this original painting:

HERE’S HOW TO ENTER:

1) Simply go to my page to donate: Click Here

2) Make a donation!

**Make sure you donate to my personal page and fill out all required information. This is the only way I can track your name, donation amount, and have an email address with which to contact you later should you win.**

You will receive one entry in my virtual raffle for each $25 you donate.

$25=1 entry. $50=2 entries. $75=3entries. etc…

This is my first time attempting something like this, so let’s hope it goes smoothly! The DC walk is on June 11th. So after that date I will randomly select a winner for the painting and contact the winner via email. I can ship (within the contiguous U.S)! So please share with your friends.

ABOUT THE PAINTING:

It’s a 16×20″ oil on canvas. I hope you’re a Ravens fan. See this post for details.

And if you do not win you can still feel good about yourself. From the PanCan website:

“It is estimated that more than 53,000 Americans will be diagnosed with pancreatic cancer this year, and more than 41,700 will die from the disease. In 2016 it will be the third leading cause of cancer death, with a five-year relative survival rate of just 8%. Pancreatic cancer has the lowest five-year relative survival rate of any major cancer.
Historically, pancreatic cancer research has been underfunded. Only approximately 2 percent of the National Cancer Institute’s (NCI) budget is allocated to this leading killer. We know from the relatively high survival rates associated with breast cancer and HIV/AIDS that federal research funding levels matter in the fight to find new cures and directly relate to improved survival rates.
Your donations will help to change these dismal statistics by funding research grants, advocacy efforts, patient support, and awareness activities coordinated by the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network.”

Painting the Purple

November 20, 2015

16″x20″
Oil on canvas

I finished up another one…. probably my last painting of the year. I started this painting earlier in the year… like March/April… and never finished.

So, obviously there’s a Raven’s theme going on here… the raven… the football… the purple.

But I actually painted this with something else in mind. For the past couple of years I’ve walked in the PurpleStride to raise money for pancreatic cancer. The walk in DC is usually around the June time frame. Purple is their color. My original intent was to sell or raffle off the original painting or do something to raise money. But then I had a conflict and couldn’t do the walk this year. So then the painting never got finished. Until just a few weeks ago.

I’d still like to keep my plan. Even if it’s a year later. So once I get my act together and figure out what I want to do, I’ll post about that. Stay tuned.

A Portrait of Toy Cars

November 15, 2015

I finally finished up M’s painting!

Completed 2015
24″x48″
Oil on Canvas

I had no shame hanging it unfinished in his room, but it is nice to finally finish. All that’s been lingering was the window for the bus. I first posted about his painting back in September. I think ultimately it took me about three months. For some reason I initially thought things would go much faster. But let’s be honest… they never do. I can remember making fun of my mother for projects that would seemingly last her forever. Now I completely understand 🙂

I guess next up I’ll owe a painting to the baby girl. But I figure I have at least two years before I need to worry about that 🙂

I’m on a bit of a streak here finishing up projects, and even have another painting that I’ve finally finished and signed. (That will be three for the year!) Pictures of that one will be coming sometime soon.

Baby Girl’s Argyle Nursery

November 10, 2015

Continuing with the room decorating….

I think I’m about done with the nursery. Like everything else, it’s been a work in progress. This weekend we bought replacement hardware for the crib hardware that we lost. So from a functional standpoint, the nursery is now ready to go! And tonight my butterflies arrived. Mike rolled his eyes. I however was super excited and hung them immediately 🙂

I do have a couple details to clean up still. Like finding some art for the picture frames on the ledge. Not a big rush though. The pictures of Baby M are still cute 🙂

I didn’t really have any plans going into this project. All I knew was that I wanted to keep the original argyle pattern but change out the colors.

Here’s a little before and after:

I also decided to get rid of the accent wall:

From there I found the hot air balloon idea on Pinterest (of course). Then saw the world map print on Etsy and thought it was a good match. You know… hot air balloons… travel… maps…

So that’s that.
I have at least one fan…

A New Room for the Big Boy

November 6, 2015

I finally finished the car painting!! But I haven’t taken pictures yet so instead I’ll share pictures of M’s big boy room.

It feels like I just finished decorating the nursery for him. It’s hard to believe it has been more than two years! And now we have moved our little guy into a big boy room. <tears>

With the impending arrival of baby #2 we decided to move M out of the nursery and into the former guest room. And luckily we had already painted the guest room a blue color, so the move didn’t involve much painting 🙂 (I’m patting myself on the back for that one.) I did end up painting a white border along the ceiling of the room. The room doesn’t get much sun during the day so I thought this would lighten things up a bit.

As you can see I’ve already hung the car painting. It’s actually not quite complete in these pictures but I was using it as a place holder.

It seems like this transition took a couple months. Between moving out the guest room furniture, painting, acquiring a bed, and adding some accessories it took me awhile. I’m moving slowly these days…

The dresser was recycled from me. It’s actually a piece that I bought second hand about two years ago. We decided that rather than buying the kid new furniture we would finally buy ourselves some adult bedroom furniture 🙂 Actually a lot of things in this room are recycled. The dresser. The bed we got from M’s cousin. The orange side tables are recycled and painted Ikea tables. And the little desk and rocking chair came from M’s grandparents. Pretty much the only thing we moved out of the nursery was the rug.

And what’s a room without a tribute to our favorite dog breed?

I bought the print from Etsy and had it printed. The only thing missing is a blue eye 😉

Up next is the new nursery. Then I can take a break from redecorating!

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