Happy New Year !!

 In 2020, I was too busy to post many blog posts. But this year, I plan to have at least one blog post per month. So there will be plenty of updates. Possibly even another website makeover.

I've worked more on my plan for piggy toys. And I have a better idea of what they are going to be like now. I promise that the design will be very cute! ;)

For the first half of 2021, I have a heap of new piggy artworks planned. And I'm even going to add some other animals into the mix. Usually alongside the piggies of course.

I also plan to do some paintings. Mainly working with acrylic and possibly trying out some watercolour piggies. I will see how I go... but the acrylic paintings are some I definitely plan to do.

There will also be some additions to my studio. I hope to get a proper art desk, so I have something better for painting on. Possibly something that is larger and has a slight lean to it (almost like an easel).

So, stay tuned! I have a lot of plans for the new year, 2021.

Hope you all have a happy new year!!

~ CandiPiggy

Piggy Toys

I'm planning a variety of piggy toys. At the bottom of this post is a rough sketch of a toy design I'm working on. So far I'm not planning to sell them on Etsy (but I may change my mind), but local shops instead. As well as selling them at craft fairs.

These toys will be specially handmade and not very suitable for large numbers of wholesale (but maybe in the future they will be).

I'm hoping all these toys will be mostly similar to my usual fairy piggy design, except in toy form. Soon I'll also have some piggy colouring page samples (and who doesn't love freebies), that I'll be posting here on my site.

So in general, I have a lot of new stuff planned!

Where I buy my art supplies

Strangely enough, I buy my drawing paper from Officeworks. Yep, in this I'll show you all the odd places I source my art materials. And Officeworks is good for A5 sheets of paper. The paper is very smooth with not much texture. Good for smooth shading.

Another unusual place I get art supplies is from Shiploads. I get canvases from there, as well as my graphite pencils. I also use its scrapbooking supplies for my journals.

For any cute decorate supplies for my art studio, I go to Typo. These supplies can help make the studio look very nice. It also has cute writing journals.

The most important place I get art supplies of course, is the local art shop. It has the best quality brands of pencils (especially Prisma Color), art journals, paints, and brushes. These are all the stores I recommend as they are the places I use.

What I do recommend most of all though, is to search any applicable store. And see what works best for you (if you are an artist).


~CandiPiggy

Studio - Messy or Tidy??

My personal preference is to have a tidy studio because I don't want to be thinking of chores while doing art or business tasks.

I do a lot of digital art in my studio. But my whole house tends to be a studio. I sometimes draw piggies while watching Netflix.

The benefit of a tidy work space is that it can help with concentration. I tend to take it a step further though and decorate my workspace too. Decorated with a lot of piggies of course.

I've heard that some people find that being messy helps with creativity. As they find that perhaps chores disrupt their flow of creative thought.

The important thing to remember is whether you like messy or tidy doesn't matter. It's whatever works that counts.

A picture of my studio from my about page:

~CandiPiggy

An artist in the city

I started off my piggy style art when I lived in the country. There are good and bad things about living as an artist in the city.

In the city there are a lot more galleries to put art into. So from a business side of things, selling art is different. There is also more craft markets on offer. In small towns there is often access to only one or two.

In the country there is a lot more reliance of selling art online. That is mostly how I started out. But there is more to living in the city or country than the art.

In the city there is the nice convenience of shops. So many opportunities to buy nice clothes (and the best art supplies too). But I found that living in small towns can be very peaceful.

Really though, the most of all I miss about the country is the amount of pet piggies there are.

~CandiPiggy

Gardens and Piggies

Like many people I have a garden (except mine has piggies). My garden is fairly easy to maintain; I only have a small patch of lawn and the rest is concrete or pebbles. I have a few pot plants that I water every day.

My favourite plant in my garden has a beautiful vibrant pink flower (I can easily imagine a fairy piggy sitting on it). I don't know all the names for the plant I have, as many were gifts given to me.
My mum has helped me put together my garden. She helped plant the pot plants. It is useful to have someone to go to for advice when gardening. And she has such a beautiful garden herself.

One thing I really love though about my garden is the piggies I have decorating it!

Note: I completed my January goal of doing 30 digital painting piggies.

My favourite flowers:

Piggy decorating my garden:

Another piggy deccorating my garden:

~CandiPiggy

Exercise for the artist

Everyone needs exercise. Including sedentary careers like being a full time artist. I have something called a pedal exerciser (or mini exercise bike). It looks like the bottom half of an exercise bike. I set it on the floor in front of a chair and then start pedaling with my feet (they can apparently also be used with hands on a table).

A picture of a Pedal Exerciser:

Pedal exercisers are best used while watching Netflix, reading, playing games, or using a phone or tablet. I sometimes even do work while using it. In fact, I've heard of people using these under their desks while using a computer. 

I use mine for 2 hours a day, every day. These give such light exercise that it takes hours to feel any benefit. But it's easy to exercise for hours while watching TV anyway.

On top of that I do a small amount of strength training. I do 100 crunches and a 100 pushups every day. It's easy to do and only takes a full minutes. Although with pushups it takes a while to build up to doing 100 of them.

This is what I do to keep healthy as a full time artist.

~CandiPiggy