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Itsy Mouse Book Released

My latest illustrated children’s book has been released! Both the print version and ebook are now available on Amazon!

Below is a preview of the book from YouTube:

From the book description:

Itsy Mouse is about a chocolate chip cookie chomping mouse who loves pink slippers! Itsy Mouse is a tidy little mouse, but will people welcome him? This first book in the Fur and Feather Tales series is a mouse adventure book for children.

Itsy Mouse is an adorable little field mouse who loves to eat! With a cozy little home in an old barn, he has the perfect life for a country mouse. This mouse book for children gives readers an illustrated view of Itsy’s home, a place filled with little things. His cute tiny home doesn’t stop him from thinking about a nearby farmhouse with a well-stocked kitchen.

With all the goodies inside, how can he resist? Itsy is risking it all for a late-night quest for food and luxury in a pink fuzzy slipper. This delightful animal adventure book is also a picture book written and illustrated by Patricia Arnold. The Fur and Feather Tales series is based on the adventures of animals living in the author’s yard.

The charming and humorous story and illustrations in this book will make you smile! This delightful book is a great choice for storytime. Parents, grandparents, teachers, educators, and caregivers looking for mouse books for kids will find the world of Itsy Mouse an unexpectedly fun place to visit.

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Draekkon’s Fire Released on Kindle Vella

Draekkon's Fire Cover Reveal Fantasy Fiction story Vella by Patti Arnold

My new fantasy fiction novel Draekkon’s Fire, is available on Kindle Vella starting today. Books will also be coming in print of this series. The first two episodes are available with new episodes to be added every week. Publishing this story as a Vella on KDP offers the opportunity for me to get to know the readers. The episodes will keep coming as the book is in the final stages at over 100k words.

Here is the new cover I created! Designing it myself gave me the opportunity to sharpen my digital and graphic design skills. The design features the main characters Datura, Aeve and Storm (from left to right). Cintarzia is a world I created at the beginning of the pandemic, when I was looking for something challenging to write. There isn’t a better genre than epic fantasy to distract me. I hope you enjoy it!

Draekkon's Fire Cover Reveal Fantasy Fiction story Vella by Patti Arnold
Cover Design by Patricia Arnold, ©2022.

A description of the series:

Cintarzians are enjoying a century of peace without dragons until someone upsets the balance. When a bitter queen goes all-in on revenge, a cruel king presses his advantage. Their foolish actions benefit Vellaine, a sorcerer conjuring a dragon. With the immortal witch Datura at his side, he can conquer Cintarzia if she wishes it.

Storm Crossley, and his allies race the clock to save a world on the edge. As the Crimson Guard and others prepare for battle, the druids use magic against sorcery.

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Draekkon’s Fire Available on Kindle Vella

Draekkon's Fire Cover Reveal Fantasy Fiction story Vella by Patti Arnold

Today my newest fantasy fiction novel Draekkon’s Fire, debuts as a Kindle Vella (before being published as an ebook and in print). The first two episodes are available with new episodes to be added weekly. This will be an ongoing series on Vella until a first book is published – it was already in the final stages with 50 chapters! Publishing this story as a Vella on KDP offers the opportunity for me to get to know the readers. I’ll include notes about each episode and a short poll for readers to participate in. I hope you enjoy the series!

In the meantime, here is the cover reveal! I created the book cover myself. Creating my own cover gave me the opportunity to sharpen my digital and graphic design skills. The design features the main characters (from left to right) Datura, Aeve and Storm. Cintarzia is a world I created at the beginning of the pandemic, when I was looking for something challenging to write. There isn’t a better genre than epic fantasy to distract me. I hope you enjoy it!

Draekkon's Fire Cover Reveal Fantasy Fiction story Vella by Patti Arnold
Cover Design by Patricia Arnold, ©2022.

A description of the series:

Cintarzians are enjoying a century of peace without dragons until someone upsets the balance. When a bitter queen goes all-in on revenge, a cruel king presses his advantage. Their foolish actions benefit Vellaine, a sorcerer conjuring a dragon. With the immortal witch Datura at his side, he can conquer Cintarzia if she wishes it.

Storm Crossley, and his allies race the clock to save a world on the edge. As the Crimson Guard and others prepare for battle, the druids use magic against sorcery.

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Art at Shrine of the Pines

Spring is here! In Michigan we’ve waited all winter for the sunshine. It’s time to share my new art creations at Shrine of the Pines in Baldwin, Michigan.

I’ve added some painted coasters to the mix. Each are made of or sealed with resin.

Brown trout themed coasters by Patti Arnold.
Tree of life coasters by Patti Arnold.

I’m also sending along more painted birch jewelry. Be sure to stop by The Shrine of the Pines in Baldwin. It’s a beautiful place with amazing artistry in wood. My art and the work of local artists will be at the Shrine of the Pines gift shop.

An example of my painted birch and resin jewelry.

Enjoy the Michigan sunshine this year!

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March Watercolor Videos

This month I began to paint some illustrations for a children’s book I’m writing. The book is going to be a short story anthology. The characters are based on animals I watched at my new window bird feeder all winter. At first, my new friends included woodpeckers of all varieties, sweet little chickadees, and the occasional cardinal.

After a couple of weeks, I made a new friend, a cute little charcoal-colored squirrel. He began to expect “his share” of the bird feed every week. He was determined and clever in his approach. He tried to use the screen as a launchpad to catch onto the bird feeder, but he kept missing it. I would watch him slide down my window, wondering if he’d ever reach the feeder. This became a daily thing. First, I heard knocks on the window from the woodpeckers as they ate the birdseed, followed by the antics of the acrobatic squirrel.

Sometimes, he would pause on the screen and look at me in frustration. He didn’t seem to care when I pressed my finger against the windowpane where he was on the other side. It’s amazing how he clung to the screen on the outside of the window looking at me. I haven’t named my new little friend yet, but one of the main characters in my book is a squirrel called Nimblefoot. He has the same determined personality.

The squirrel and his friends inspired me to write a new children’s book. Check out a short 30-second preview of the book on my YouTube channel.

Also new to my YouTube channel is my most recent painting video. You can see all three parts at once here. In addition to watching it (and other art videos) on my channel, you can see segments of the video on my TikTok. In the video, you’ll see much of my technique for watercolor. The paints I’m using are Windsor Newton. They’re great for the children’s book illustrations I’m creating. 

This watercolor was meant as an exercise to get inspired. With many things going on in the world, I realize that it’s important to take a deep breath and just make some art. Painting is great for relaxation.

I was satisfied with the result, and I may find a place for it in a book project. 

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Winter Art and Writing

I’ve started new projects while trying to complete what I’ve been working on for over a year. My upcoming fantasy fiction novel, Draekkon’s Fire is still in the editing phases. The cover design is still ongoing. This book is looking more and more like an epic fantasy, but I’m nearing the goals I’ve set for myself.

With over 100,000 words, this is my longest novel. I’ve considered dividing it into more than one volume, but I want it to be a stand alone book.  Creating the story as a Vella through Amazon KDP is a consideration. Before deciding on this option, the cover is in need of finishing. This is easier said than done. I’m not using stock photography, making the cover design quite a task. The cover design began as an illustration I made that evolved into digital art. It features four of the main characters from the story.

36 minute night sky painting from a new tutorial on YouTube. Scroll down to see the video on the page.

In the meantime, I have midway through a new illustrated children’s book or series inspired by the animals that live in my own yard. It’s been years since I released a children’s book, so I felt this was the perfect time. I’ve been working on the illustrations myself, with an introduction to the book posted on YouTube as a short. With a cute little squirrel pressing his nose to my window pane, how can I not write a story?

With all this going on, I’m also working on an animation project to be revealed later! I’ve continued releasing art tutorials on my YouTube channel and on Tiktok.
I’ve been working in watercolor. I find it to be an amazing medium that’s very portable and perfect for children’s books. I often use it as the first layer in my work, adding mediums such as color pencils, pastel and even alcohol marker. In the tutorial below, I’ve demonstrated a 36 minute painting I made of the night sky – all compressed into to ten minutes of video.

 

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Self-Portrait from a Selfie Videos

As I continue my portrait series, my goal for the project is to create art inspired by the people I know. The first portrait I created was in pastel pencil and watercolor. A New Day is a portrait of Lisa at a Lake Huron beach. The second portrait, Bill’s World is a watercolor and pastel of my father fishing one of his favorite spots near Lake City, Michigan.

For this new portrait, I decided to go with a selfie that I took of myself. I tried to make it as simple as possible, focusing on my features including all my wrinkles, sloppy clothing and free of makeup. When I began the project, I was inspired by Andrew Wyeth and his realistic style. The subject of his paintings are people in settings that surrounded him.

Like myself, Andrew Wyeth came from a family of artists. With the addition working in the realistic style, that is probably where the comparison ends. It’s not my intent to attempt the precision he used in his art, but to simply choose subjects I know in settings I see every day in the spirit of his work.

Here is a snapshot of my current progress. There are many things left to fix and finishing, notably the right eye, more shading on the shirt and the blank spaces (the list goes on). I will post an update with the completed work in the future. I’ve been using Daniel Smith Watercolor Ground to fix my happy mistakes, and it’s been a helpful product. One of the reasons I moved to canvas was to have the freedom to rework the surface easier when compared to paper. The watercolor ground and random gel pens have been a gamechanger for my portrait series.

Work in progress, Patti’s Selfie.

I intended on making this a color pencil piece, but after seeing how long it was taking to lay down color, I have opted to fill in large areas with alcohol markers and apply color pencil on top.

The softness of the color pencil was perfect for hair and in the places I want the solid areas to shine. Fabric textures and highlights have been ideal for the color pencils thus far. I have yet to add any watercolor pencils, watercolor paint or pastel to this artwork, but as I like to mix things up, I can’t rule it out!

I’ve posted 5 videos on my YouTube channel showing the beginning process of the work. I began creating videos of my work as a way to demonstrate how I create art. Part 1 is below, and each video covers the entire process. In the future, I probably will just go with the highlights. If you have any questions about my work, have an idea for my next art work, feel free to comment or send my a message.

 

 

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Woodburning Wednesdays: Morel Mushroom Maple Cutting Board

This winter, I realized I had too many art projects. After giving it some thought, I decided to give each medium its own day. I’ll make videos on at least one of those days.

In addition to sharing a first consonant with Wednesday, woodburning is great fit for the middle of the week. I hope to post videos each time I create something new. It took me until Thursday to post the Wednesday video, and of course, Friday I will continue the self-portrait I’m working on.

For my first Woodburning Wednesday, I thought I would create a morel mushroom cutting board. After investing in a bottle of cutting board oil, I was ready to get started.

  1. Buy on Etsy

 

The cutting board oil performed well, was completely scent-free as advertised and made the surface of the wood smooth. I could see this oil as a solution for sealing coasters and other kitchen related items.

As an amateur mushroom hunter, morels are often what I’m looking for. Future cutting boards will feature other food favorites.

I decided to woodburn just a portion of the board so it could be functional for cutting things on. Maple is such a beautiful wood, perfect for cutting boards. I wanted the natural wood to take center stage.

You can view the video of me working on this project below. This cutting board is available on Etsy. My art is available for purchase in my Etsy shop.

I also accept custom orders, direct or on Etsy. I can create just about any design, including personalization. Thinking of the perfect wedding or housewarming gift? Cutting boards are perfect! Message me with questions and requests.

Materials used:

  • Razertip SS D-10 Pyrography Pen
  • 8.5″ Maple Wood Slice
  • Howard Cutting Board Oil – Food grade mineral oil.

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New Watercolor and Pastel Art Bill’s World

Fishing art by Patricia Arnold

My new landscape painting Bill’s World is complete. The setting is a small lake (called Goose Lake) in Lake City, MI.

This park was often our family camping destination. Our old canvas tent, Grandma fishing, boat rides and lazy days spent swimming with my cousins are among my dearest childhood memories.

This painting has my father Bill fishing at sunset as he often does. Love you, Dad.

Fishing art by Patricia Arnold

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2 Days Only! Get my Newest Christmas Story Anthology Ebook for Free!

Free Ebook Promotion: December 13, 2021 – December 14, 2021

Download my new Christmas short story and poem anthology, Enchanted Christmas and add it to your Christmas reading list free! Two days only! Get it for your reading device on  Amazon.

Description of the Book: Enchanted Christmas Short Stories and Poems by Patricia Arnold has four heartwarming stories of Christmas magic and adventure. The author’s second Christmas short story anthology, (the first one was Christmas Poems and Short Stories) this collection of short stories and poems are written especially for 2021.

The first story, The Christmas Play set in the late 1970’s, is about a child excited about being in the school Christmas play. A second story, The Magic Christmas Card features a reluctant Christmas time traveler who must decide if he should live in the past or follow his friend’s advice.

The Case of the Missing Christmas Tree is about a father’s mission to determine what happened to his family’s missing Christmas tree. Clues lead to the eccentric artificial tree manufacturer who produced it. The last story, Double the Recipe is a tale about an heirloom family recipe box capable of surprising things.

These touching, at times humorous and enchanting stories will transform your Christmas story telling tradition. Included in this volume are two poems by the author, Christmas at Grandmas and Snow World. This book is the perfect addition to your holiday reading list, offering Christmas miracles blended with a serving of hope and adventure!

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