State of the Artist 12/16/2013

View halloo!!

It's yet another Monday here on Planet Kit, and so it's time for another State of the Artist update!


Weekly Words

A child's attitude toward everything is an artist's attitude.

-Willa Cather, 1873 - 1947



Current Project

Current project, now that the Holiday Cards are in the mail (on their way to me) is gearing up for January's Sketch-A-Day project, and some tiny thumbnail doodles for two commission projects.

But, I do have a small doodle that I worked up while sitting in the doctor's office waiting room.



I'd started the lines for this doodle a while ago, but never got around to finishing it, but sitting in a waiting room is the perfect place to get half-done doodles finished! I was also delighted when I met the new Physician's Assistant, before seeing my doctor, to find he was a huge comics/sci-fi/fantasy fan... and during the routine Q&A and taking vitals and all, we watched movie trailers on YouTube on the exam room computer. I love my doctor's office. :)




Shop Silvertales

Christmas is right around the corner, and there's still time to take advantage of the deals and discounts available on Zazzle for products featuring original artwork! Pick up a Coffeeeee Zombieeees" mug for a friend, or a Polar Bears in SPAAACE tshirt for yourself, all for 15% off!

Use code LASTCHANCE15 at check out to take advantage of the offer, valid through 11:59pm, Pacific Time, December 16th.

Shop Silvertales



Monthly Postcard Project

The December postcards for the inaugural year of the Monthly Postcard Project have all been mailed, and so that marks the end of the first year of the Monthly Postcard Project experiment! Whew!

I enjoyed the project, and had some wonderful feedback from subscribers, that I'll be continuing the project for 2014.

If you'd like more information, or to sign up for the project, please check out the info page: HERE. Subscriptions are available in 12, 6, and 3 month options, both domestic US and international.



Near Future

We're coming up on the end of another year, and so, as we approach January, that means I'm preparing for the Sketch-A-Day project for 2014! There's 31 sketches in 31 days to get done, so if you have any themes you'd like to see me try to tackle, please leave them in the comments!



Well, I think that's all for this week's State of the Artist update here on Planet Kit.

I thank you for joining me again this week! Feedback is the food which fuels the creative discussion between Artist and Audience, please, feel free to comment or leave suggestions for new projects!


If you enjoy seeing posts of new or in-progress artwork, please consider a donation.

Become a patron of the arts!

Feel free to post links to this journal/community if you feel there might be interest in my artwork!

Work-a-Week 2013: Project 3

View halloo, all!

**Quick note to my Monthly Postcard Subscribers: there was an unforeseen delay in postcard production and shipping, so the cards didn't mail out until Saturday, February 23rd. To my subscribers in the US, you should have your cards no later than the end of the week. Unfortunately, for my lovely international subscribers, yours probably won't arrive until after the beginning of March.**

I'm so sorry for the delay!

For those of you interested in the Monthly Postcard Subscription Service, you can read all about it here: on the Monthly Subscription Service information page!

 

Rolling right along with the 3rd of the Work-A-Week Projects, which means there's only one more to go!

This particular piece didn't actually make the vote cut (but, oddly enough, received a great many comments,) but it was one I wanted to do anyway, so I decided to tackle it.

 

As I said, this piece didn't actually make the vote cut, in spite of being on of the images with the most comments left, but I wanted to do it anyway. This is the start of the fourth attempt at completing this piece.... I don't know what it was about this piece, but it just did *not* want to cooperate as I worked on previous attempts... but, this is 4 washes of a burnt sienna/raw umber glaze that finally came out mostly even.

I liked the toned paper quality of this sketch, in particular, and I wanted to replicate that warm surface... hence, the repeated glazes of warm browns.

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Panda, my Quality Control Supervisor, demonstrating how he handles unsuccessful paintings... he's a pretty strict taskmaster.

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Stage 2 is about 4 more glazes of the same burnt sienna/raw umber mix where I want shadows and depth. The hair, twigs, beak (and later, horns) get a few transparent glazes of payne's gray/ultramarine blue.

***

Color exploded all over the place at this point! It's really just red, yellow, and blue, but a lot of variations in terms of color mixes to make the specific shades and intensities of reds, yellows, and blues I wanted. :)

Let's see... reds: Alizarin crimson/cadmium red, blues: ultramarine blue/payne's gray/teeniest bits of viridian green/hooker's green/sap green, yellows: naples yellow/yellow ochre/lemon yellow.

***

... and the final product:

DONE!

Original: 9x12" mixed media $225 + shipping   Prints: 8.5x11" archival print (shipping in March) $12 + shipping

 

Next week should see the last of the official Work-A-Week Projects before getting back into the normal swing of State of the Artist updates, which should include convention appearance updates and Zazzle store updates.

 

If you enjoy seeing posts of new or in-progress artwork, please consider a donation.

Become a patron of the arts!

Feel free to post links to this journal/community if you feel there might be interest in my artwork!

Work-A-Week 2013: Project 1

View halloo, all!

Welcome to the 2013 Work-A-Week Project! Thanks to all your votes and input, I've chosen the handful of pieces I'll be finishing in the upcoming weeks (with more to be completed as the year progresses.)

Many of you indicated an interest in seeing the work-in-progress photos.

My set up and supplies: A set of half-pan Winsor & Newton artist paints in an old Cotman field kit, Yarka watecolors, and palette.

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Panda making sure my supplies are all up to snuff and that I'm on task. :)

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Preliminary washes laid down: burn umber, burnt sienna, raw sienna for the background, with liberal sprinkles of salt and rubbing alcohol for texture. Sap green, viridian green, ultramarine blue, and cobalt blue for the dragon skin with drips of rubbing alcohol. Burnt Sienna, Naples yellow, and Cadmium Red were mixed in a very pale wash for the skin.

***

Laying in another wash of mixed and mottled colors to intensify the background (but not *too* much,) along with adding more concentrated blues and greens for the dragon and red-violet and the *teensiest* amount of dioxazine purple for the shadows.

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Starting to work in more concentrated blues/greens/purples for the scales, shadows, claws, and horns.

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More intensity in the colors for the dragon, and laying in a few really wet washes of cadmium red and burnt sienna to up the contrast the background.

***

And... the finished piece!

Prints (8x10", available in March) $12 + $6 shipping US/$10 international Original (9x12" watercolor) $250 + $10 shipping US/$18 international

Layaway or payment plans for the original painting are available.

 

If you enjoy seeing posts of new or in-progress artwork, please consider a donation.

Become a patron of the arts!

Feel free to post links to this journal/community if you feel there might be interest in my artwork!

State of the Artist Supplemental

View halloo, all!

First off, the Holiday Card artwork is DONE, including layout for the card, and everything! The Request post is now closed, and the order is off to the printer! *whew!*

Thank you to the generous souls who donated in the last few days, it is a tremendous help and every donation goes to the cost of producing the cards, and postage. If you'd still like to donate towards the cost of card production and postage, I'll include my donation button at the end of the post.

 

In Monday's State of the Artist post (here) I mentioned that populating my Zazzle store was addictive...

... so much so that I spent about an hour creating a rather obnoxious number of products with a little-known image, my very FIRST Holiday Card artwork image from years ago! I don't think I made more than about 20 of these cards (and they were done by hand!) but it was also the very first time Panda appeared in any of my artwork. It was the year I adopted him, 2004 (and, yes, he was a surly little thing even then!)

 

The very first little winged Panda now appears on everything from cards to mugs to iPad skins to postcards to onesies (I couldn't resist!) If there's anything you'd like to see him on (or anything else) let me know!

Shop Silvertales

*Zazzle also has a current 15% off ALL orders offer valid through November 19 at 11:59pm PT. Be sure to use code SANTASAVINGS in the coupon box when placing your order to take advantage of the sale.*

If the rest of the week, and into the weekend, goes as planned, Monday's State of the Artist should see the launch of a new project!

 

Become a patron of the arts!

State of the Artist 11/12/2012

View halloo, all! It's Monday, which means it's time for another State of the Artist update! :) Weekly Words Nothing is more apt to deceive us than our own judgement of our work. We derive more benefit from having our faults pointed out by our enemies than from hearing the opinions of friends. - Leonardo da Vinci, 1452 - 1519 In a creative field, in particular, little is more useless than glowing praise. Don't get me wrong, glowing praise gives you those warm fuzzies that always feel so good, but it does little for creative advancement. If all you ever hear is "it's perfect," especially if you hear it often enough, you will come to rest on that. Herein lies stagnation, the end for anyone intent on honing their craft. In truth, we gain more in the long run from criticism of a constructive nature. Key word there is, of course, constructive. Just as no one ever improved by hearing "it's perfect," no one ever learned anything from "I don't like it." It's not enough to declare, one must tell you WHY they don't like it. Sometimes, it's as simple as "it's not to my particular taste," and that's fine, but there is nothing to be done with that. But, sometimes, it's not that easy to explain. Sometimes, it's a more visceral response, but those kinds of responses always have a why. Without that all important WHY, there is no room to see where something might not be working. Current Project Still at work on this year's Holiday Card artwork, but pretty sure I'm nearing completion! Nothing like cutting it close to a deadline... >.< And yet, my Quality Control Supervisor (Panda) is keeping a close eye on my progress... the other day, he interrupted my work to enforce a Mandatory Cuddle Break. Beyond Panda, you can see my Tools of the Trade, otherwise known as my collection of Copic markers, which I'm using after the ink stage. Shop Silvertales If you've ever thought that my art would look great on a tote bag or a t-shirt, or you've ever wanted postcards or note cards with that certain piece on them, well, you're in luck! I've opened up a Zazzle store which features my artwork on all kinds of goods, perfect for gift-giving, or just keeping for yourself! :) http://www.zazzle.com/silvertales If there's any particular pieces you think would look great as a postcard, bag, t-shirt (or anything else you can think of!) let me know! I'll be populating the store with more products over the next few days (week/months/etc ... it's rather addictive,) and Zazzle constantly has deals and coupons to redeem, so check back often! In fact, today is the last day to take advantage of Zazzle's Verteran's Day Sale of up to 50% off cards, 30% off mugs, and 15% off all other products! I'll also be sure to post any coupons or codes Zazzle offers as they become available. Holiday Card Project This will be the last post regarding this year's Holiday Card Project Request, as the post will be closed to new replies on November 15th (this Thursday.) This is so the art can be sent to the printers and the cards shipped to me in time to mail them by early December. If you'd like to get a holiday postcard in your mailbox, please leave a mailing address HERE. Please only reply to the linked post, as comments there are screened for your privacy. This may also have to be the last year I offer Holiday Cards. This year has seen an incredible jump in the number of responses to the Request Post. While it is extremely gratifying to see such an overwhelming response to receiving these cards, many from people who've never commented in this journal before, it has also resulted in a prohibitively expensive proposition. I put forth this project as something I pay for out of my own pocket (and those kind souls who donate) in order to provide something small and special in people's mailboxes over the holiday season. That worked out fine when I was fielding up to 60-65 requests a year, but I am now sitting at over 350 (!!) responses to be mailed all over the world and, as an independent artist, I can no longer afford to continue sending out professionally produced materials for free. Please understand that while I love working on this project, and truly wish I could continue doing this, it's just not economically feasible for me anymore. If you wish, donations to the aid with the cost of production and postage are greatly appreciated:

Become a patron of the arts!

Thank you for joining me for another State of the Artist update.