Cris Kober Art

08/27/2024

One of the things I enjoy doing is typing on my clickety keyboard. So, instead of texting my husband incessantly, I wrote a blog. Do you have a list of activities or things that you would like to for those times you feel stuck?

Things to do when you feel like you have nothing to do.

12/31/2022

I hope that in 2023 I am able to hire a social media manager and a house cleaner. 🤣 I still do art, I just forget to share it. My house gets cleaned as often as I share my art 🤭. Things have to change!

Happy New Year!!

06/11/2022

It's LIVE! Come see my new website 😊 www.criskober.com

02/17/2022

A quick project this week. These are table numbers for a wedding. I ended up making 2 versions of them - brush pen and pointed pen. This is such a simple and fun project to make. If you love handling paper, you know how satisfying prepping the paper is. From cutting to the right size to smoothing the edges and stacking them. So good. And the writing process is a completely different set of joyful activities. Making the lines, writing with ink, then erasing everything and brushing the residue off the paper with the brush.

01/05/2022

Lighthouse and Teepott

This little painting is traveling across the ocean to wish one of my best friends a happy birthday. In a normal time, I would fly over and deliver it in person. This is a big milestone for her, and we would be visiting this exact location to celebrate it. Maybe things will be better by her next birthday.

This is Warnemünde in Rostock, Germany. It's a beautiful place by the Baltic Sea and is always hopping even in the dead of winter. There is where I learned about Glühwein and Christmas Markets.

Happy Wednesday friends.

12/28/2021

Time to update. What do you think of this new logo?
This image represents where I am currently in my art journey. The happy colors, the layers, the simplicity of the lettering and the circle shape.

For a long time, I looked at my current logo (at criskober.com) and wasn't happy with it. I made that several years ago and my art has evolved so much since then. That one is no longer who I am as an artist. It hasn't been for a while.

After some brainstorming I decided to use this piece as a background. I think it works, and it's pleasing to the eye. I tend to keep overthink the details, and it was a bit of struggle to get myself to use something that already existed instead of creating a completely new piece. I set out to find something that felt like a good representation of myself, and this one fit the bill nicely.

The new website is in the works! I hope it before Spring 2022. :)

12/20/2021

These little squares are botanical studies. It may not look like much, you can't really see what they are. However, this is a powerful exercise in observation. It allows you take a deep look and see what makes something look the way it does - oh, the colors you can find in one leaf!

When was the last time you slowed down and really looked intently at something? Observing all of its colors, lines and shapes? I have to confess, that's not something I do as often as I should as an artist. I take inspiration from the things around me, but rarely take the time to truly observe and take in the wonders of my surroundings.

I am not anti-technology, but I feel we could afford to stare at our devices less and stare at nature around us more. Take a moment now, I know you are looking at this on your device. Take a moment, and look to your right. What's there? If it's a wall, what can you observe on it? If it is a window, what beautiful think can you see?

12/07/2021

Made a birthday card for a sweet little boy we got to meet not too long ago.

While the pandemic caused us to be isolated, it also caused us to meet new friends! This wonderful family has lived in our neighborhood for a long time but we didn't meet until last year. It's kind of strange to think that isolation brought new people into our lives, but it makes sense in a way. Now we were all working from home, the most we could do was to take walks around the block. That resulted in seeing more of our neighbors that we never got the chance to see before.

It turns out that these neighbors are also immigrants from Brazil, and we were instantly connected by our common roots.

And I also got make a video - it's rough since I am so rusty with the entire video making process, but it's done! LOL, link in comments.

09/08/2021

Sketchbook pages – Painting these flowers is so satisfying. I especially like the colors I got here. I can paint these all day.

08/31/2021

The watercolor and ink combo never gets old. I like how delicate these look and think they would do great on a card.

Every once in a while when I am not sure what to make, I will just lay some color on the paper and see what happens. Lately I have been feeling quite stuck,. With some changes in our daily lives and restarting homeschool, my creativity (for making art) goes out on vacation.

I can't believe summer is over, and we are heading to the cold months again. I feel summer is always too short.

08/23/2021

I made this piece for a friend. I was supposed to meet her on Saturday, but something came up and we ended up having to postpone it.

I knew I wanted to write something meaningful in the banner. I felt the word "trust" would be appropriate.

Many times in life, we feel that we have no place to go, and that everything is very uncertain. Stopping for a moment, and trusting your gut and ability to figuring things out is all there is.

This ended up being true for myself too after all. Some tough decisions have to be made, and all you have is the gut feeling that whatever you decide is the right thing to do. Trust your gut, and that little voice telling you that the hard choice is the right one to take. That little voice, that gut feeling is there for a reason.

Listen to it.

I used the tutorial to create this beautiful banner.

08/18/2021

Here's a little cottage I started on Saturday.

I would love to stay at a little house like this one for a long weekend, probably late spring time when everything is blooming and the air is pleasant.

I hadn't made a house portrait just for fun in ages. I ended up making this one in short bursts since last Saturday.

The last and final step started last night. I stretched the painting (made the paper flat again) using that technique I demoed on one of my IGTV posts.

That technique totally changed my workflow! I was never too patient to stretch it before hand and found the processes I tried too messy and somewhat time consuming.

Stretching at the end works just as well - if not better! And there is no waiting to start the work!!