I'm in!

That did not take as long to hear back as I thought it would. This is exciting. I am a little more nervous now than I was before. But holy cow.... I've been accepted into a gallery with a brick and mortar store. And with that... I think that I should be able to market myself more easily locally.

The physical store is in Scottsdale Arizona.

Might be a reason to go visit some friends and relatives.

Creating in new Media

You all know I don't do digital. I have this thing about getting my hands dirty. It doesn't really seem like artwork if it isn't messy. Well today I discovered that you can make a right fine mess with the computer. While checking out blogs for things that I was missing out on (hilarity ensues without my constant attention) I found some interesting computer advice. And then I went bat shit crazy.

Four hours, three whiney comments on various forums and two snotty "stupid technology" rants on Facebook late I was rockin' a new header. And the more I looked at this fabulous new creation the more I thought to myself "Houston. We have a problem." That is after the problem of not knowing how to get it onto my blogger blog. Guess what. They make that easy for 5 year olds like me without the patience to dig through forums full of opinions from people who know of what they speak. The real problem came when I got done.... it was awful once it was on the site.

I started with this

and got this

I thought about it for a couple of hours, listened to Sting's new album (AWESOME!!!!!) and it hit me. When I resized it to fit across the space that blogger allows for a header I did it when I was done adding special effects. So when I resized it to stretch it out the typography stretched along with all the design elements. Oy! I ended up starting over.

Thankfully the site, picmonkey, is really easy to learn, easy to use and fairly simple to remember where everything is. So I uploaded the picture again and went to work. And then I crashed the site. Well I crashed my page. I did not save frequently so the pic monkey in the barrel had a conniption fit like someone said its brain would be chilled for dessert. So that makes take five. Annnnnnnnnnnnd cut!

If you use any software editor to make a banner for your website size your first layer (the picture you chose to edit) according to what fits with blogger. I ended up using 3900x1800 or something like that. Your first number (at least in picmonkey) is the length (duh! but it took me a while to remember that) and that is the key. Then you size the height so that your picture doesn't look too squishy. Then you can add all the frills & furbelows you like without worries.

The final result is soooooo much better than the crap that was up for a couple of hours. I could not have done it without http://www.blogguidebook.com and a very helpful gent at blogger forums who granted me my request and talked to me like I was five.

and this is the new header over on the geek blog.

 

 

So much better this way. And I decided to add a copyright to the banner this time around. Of course now that I have played with a digital version I am anxious to go back and finish the canvas. The only problem is that the canvas is much taller and the base photo is only the bottom 5th of the panel.

Ta Daaaaa!

I am so excited. Finally have some cards in print! And they are so nice... like professional printed Hallmark. But more reasonably priced. The cards are a matte finish. Postcards are glossy. The way I did these won't work for mailing. I didn't want to mail them. I wanted to just be able to hand out some postcards with a clever note on the back.

And I intend to embellish the postcards. But today I have some jewelry to design and get in the bag. I start a secondary job tomorrow so I want to be in bed at a descent time. Stayed up to late anticipating working on some cool new projects. And playing with this monster of a machine. In tech terms I am behind the keyboard of a hot rod. And just like with cars... its a little more machine than I can handle.

 

Tootles!

Edits

wash of Hookers Green over the original gourd color
 

There was something that bothered me about the nearly completed painting. It is the same problem that I had with the first house. Not enough black. And, while inspired by the work of Antoni Guadi, I had rather missed something in my work that I appreciate in his.


India ink detail above the green base

Chiefly, I did not have my spaces broken up quite enough. And the undulating lines of his work were missing in mine.When I washed the Hooker's Green over the gourd and gave it some flowing lines I realized the that eaves were what were missing in my gourd. I also realized that the stained glass transom over the entry was just hanging out. It wasn't really tied into the design for the entire entry in any sensible way, though it is tied to the entire aesthetic by virtue of its motif. So bring out the India ink. AGAIN!
And what I like about how this turned out is that it now more closely resembles the spiny ornamental gourds you see out for the holidays. I also enjoy the fact that the lines are more serpentine and less abrupt than my hand usually draws. Not sure if that is fatigue in my hands or just the nature of being heavy handed with the pencil. Though... now that I am blogging and only looking at the picture on the right instead of the whole thing I see that the spires in the valley are not as smoothly transitioned as I would like. And I could join the eaves to the doorframe...

You'll also notice that at this stage I have removed all of the masking fluid and the formerly white spots now have an eerie green appearance. Later in this session the top of the gourd got a good dose of Indian Yellow that really makes everything pop. And that sloppy swash of green is now fully integrated. I have an idea of how this is all going to work out so that I have a great holiday ornament for a desk or childs dresser that uses my rubber stamping techiniques.


cut from the background with more details added though that
bat on the door is still giving me fits of pique. I may have
the problem solved, but it is going to require some trickery.

 

Once I have the mechanics worked out I should have a marketable item. The first one is going to Jesse with another for her to auction at her kids' school fundraiser this year. The third one is going to go to etsy. We'll see how that goes before I get crazy about building these things enmasse. Of course, with the way the Internet works and the fact that we "live in the future" I can always build on demand and not worry about the overhead of stocking product. So now that I have some of the bugs worked out of this one I feel a bit more confident about that Venetian Peacock house.

A bit. 

Guadi for the Holidays

India ink and watercolor on Bristol board

Have I mentioned that I love the architect Guadi's work? And that when I get to Europe, the only place in Spain I want to go is Barcelona to look at the buildings that he designed? One of his buildings, a church, is still under construction... an over 100 year old project. It is gorgeous, wild and fantastical.

After Kurbisshaus, that I posted earlier I wanted to make more houses. I've been drawing and redrawing and burning through erasers like crazy. There was something that wouldn't work about it. And no matter what I did it didn't work until I took a day off and decided on a plan.

Instead of cramming a bunch of halloween motifs into one house, I decided that each house should have a theme. And this one, because I fell in love with my spiderweb stainded glass windows, would be just the spiderwebs. The gourd suggested a Guadi influence when I got to the top and put a 70's styled bump out. After cruising through some pumpkins on Google the turban squash seemed the best topper which then suggested the entry way. In keeping with the theme the grille is either a web or a spider with a problem; stuck in his own creation.

As with the other one, this is watercolor on Bristol board. It does not have Radiant pearls... yet. Instead, I used another technique to add interest. Liquid masking is a wonderful tool. When you have your drawing rendered you can use a pen or a paint brush to apply the liquid to areas that you want to remain white. When dry you can paint right over the top of it. The mask resists the pigments. The result is rather stunning. Just look at the next photo.

Add caption

The red mushroomy poof is washed in three or four shades of red over the liquid mask. Here the mask is removed. You can see the white is pure. Could you imagine how hard it would be to have to paint around all those shapes? And the horrible thing about having to work that way is that it leaves ring marks instead of the smoothness of a wash. I had shaken the liquid mask so that I got bubbles and was hoping that the micro dots would have left tiny little dots of color inside the white marks. But alas... I didn't get them.

The only problem that I have now that it is mostly colored the way that I want it is how to landscape this one. I could do the whole curly tree thing. But I don't really want to lock myself into a pattern. Then again a forest of oak trees is going to be a bit redundant. Still....

Oh and when it comes to scale, I screwed up and the house takes up the whole page. So there is not a lot of room for landscaping. And this is most likely not going to be the last version of this one. I really enjoy this house. I said to a co-worker today that I would live in a house like this.

To a show after a trip down memory lane

Well, I am sending my first submission to an artshow. Did I mention that already? If I did I apologize. I have not entered anything in a show since high school (coughs into hand) years ago. And I am a bit nervous. It is not juried so I am not the slightest bit worried that it would be rejected.

I talked to the young woman who sent me the invite yesterday. I only have to chose which piece, figure out a price, and then ship it. And she is sending me a photo of a piece I did for her based on a Star Trek character that we made up for a script we wrote to amuse ourselves one week in a hot Summer. She and her sister are the first kids that I babysat on a long term basis. I am excited to see the piece.

I remember the character. It has the Enterprise whooshing off into space behind her. I remember the tiara, almost remember the dress. And I loosely remember the plot of the story. She is one of three pieces I did in that era that I really wish that I had copies of. The other was my interpretation of a Romulan Warrior Goddess. What? Well why on Romulus wouldn't they have some kind of deity? At any rate it was color pencil and india ink and on a standard posterboard sized sheet. It took weeks to do. It was inspired by an illustrator who did The Weaving of Dreams, Marilee Heyer.

And the other piece was a Chinese figurine inspired lady that I did for my sister for her college apartment.

I also wish that I had my high school portfolio. But I won't even go there. I still hate my mothers cat for destroying it. Of all the interesting things in the house to eat of my sisters or brothers... nevermind. Two phone calls interrupted me while I was writing this post and my mind went into a dark place that it doesn't want to come out of without the gnashing of pincers and the chomping of pirahnna jaws. There are art shows to look forward too and consequently happier thoughts to focus on. But I have a vision of a Romaulan Warrior Goddess in my head. That's a mighty scimitar she wields and an awfully purdy costume. The poor planet under her feet will never know what hit it... beauty in tragedy?