Carpe Diem Designs

08/31/2017

These are artwork I designed and created for Tom Carpenter, prolific and talented author of many books. These are web graphics for his upcoming website in which you will have to go to his page and get all the information about his work. I will be excited to see these in the future as possible t-shirt graphics or other fun printed material! Please follow Tom on Facebook and order some of his wildly riveting books under the name of Thomas K. Carpenter!

06/06/2017

Working on newest project. This is just an idea. Will be reworking...

02/13/2016

This is my Valentine's card that I made for my daughter, Sadie. I love the quote, " It's not happy people that are grateful, it's grateful people that are happy." I originally made the card with the black outlines NOT smeared and just the heart colored in. I wanted her to finish coloring it and the card looked pretty upbeat. Until I smeared the black marker and had a cool idea to take rubbing alcohol to fix it. Well, I used too much and totally smeared the marker. So I do what any self respecting artist does, I act like I MEANT to do that and go with the "mistake". The smearing gave it a somber mood, not at all what you want to convey for Valentine's Day. Then I noticed that I had drawn in budding hearts. And I thought, well, happiness is a choice and it is usually the hardest to conjure when the world outside is somber and not at all conducive to wanting to smile. And burgeoning hope, love and gratitude is sometimes what keeps us afloat on some days that just aren't love and hearts abound. So the message is of love on the hardest of days and I think that this card does convey this. Sometimes your art gives something better than what you had planned.

11/23/2015

This is the second flower in my Watercolor Lilies Series. I am thinking that I might finish it off with black pen to punch it up somewhat.

11/14/2015

Say hello to the new character, the mischievous wizard, of the book "Word Changer"! It is a project that I have woefully put on the back burner for quite awhile. I am now putting my attention back to now that I can spend more hours with it. I am now gimpy with my foot in a cast, on my ottoman, sketching away!

11/14/2015

Just wanted to tell all my family, friends, clients, and followers that my freelance graphic design is going good but I as of a few weeks ago, I had foot surgery so I am literally "chained to my computer for work". Ha! It seemed that I was having a lot pain exercising (OK my feet had been hurting for years but I thought that was just regular arthritis) and I want to the podiatrist. Seems I have real bad degenerative arthritis in both feet so I have FOUR months of surgery to rehab, THEN then next foot. That means I have crutches for eight months. Good thing, I have insurance, it is covered and my feet will be better, not perfect but better. I can live with this. And it means that I have more time for my watercolor painting and an illustrative book that I have noodled around with but need to put my serious attentions to.

I love the comedian Louis CK. This puts it all into perspective

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzEhoyXpqzQ

Here's a video bit from Louis CK on turning 40 and a bad ankle.

11/11/2015

This is a 5"x7" watercolor of a calla lily that I painted recently in my Watercolor Flower Series. I scanned the artwork and reworked the colors in Photoshop. If you are interested in a reproduction of this art, my giclee prints (Textured Water Color Paper, Bright White) are an affordable price in 5"x7" or 4"x6". As you can see, I can make certain color changes to suit your fancy. Please contact me via Facebook.