State of the Artist 4/29/2013

View halloo, all!

Wow, this will be the last State of the Artist for April... where does the time go? O.o Honestly, it feels like just yesterday I was kicking off this year's Sketch-A-Day Project. Be that as it may, it is Monday (albeit a rather soggy Monday here,) and that means it's time for another State of the Artist update!


Weekly Words

Art is the most intense mode of individualism that the world has ever known.
- Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)



Current Project

I've just completed a couple of small, quick commissions (the client requested I not post them until the summer, when the project they were done for goes live) so that's actually taken most of my time this past week, hence no new art here, unfortunately.

I've got oodles of notes on new personal pieces I'd like to start that I just haven't had time to actually sketch out. The notes do help, though. If I can't sketch things out, at least I've got my major points for upcoming pieces. I find that even if I can take a few moments to jot down the idea for a project, I'm far more likely to actually start and finish it since there's a record of the inspiration. Often times, I find that when I finally get the time to go back to those notes, I end up being more thorough in their expansion, with a better grasp on what becomes the final product. If that makes any sense...

I don't know, really, every creative has their own process that is unique to them; that organic evolution of idea to rough to finished product. I'll dig some of my note pages up and post them if anyone is interested in seeing how that process happens for me.

I know a lot of people who follow this journal are extremely creative, what's YOUR process?


Shop Silvertales

Oh, goodness! After far too long a hiatus, there are New Products available in the Zazzle shop! *whew*

I've put up new products using some of this year's Work-a-Week pieces, namely the sleeping baby dragon and the seahorse merbabies! There are phone/tablet/ereader skins and cases, bags, mugs, cards, and many other products with these popular images on them!

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Just in time for the upcoming Mother's Day, Zazzle has a 15% of ALL products deal to get your mom (or any mom) something wonderful. If you'd like to take advantage of the 15% off in my shop, or any other, please be aware the offer ends on Wednesday.



Shop Silvertales - the Sequel

A number of the popular Sketch-A-Day pieces from the 2013 project (and 2012!) are still available for purchase. If you'd like to own an original piece of my artwork or give one as a gift, but have never been able to make it to a convention or get an open commission slot, here's the perfect opportunity to take advantage of some inexpensively priced original art!

The pieces still available can be found: HERE! Please, be aware that because these are originals they are sold on a first-come, first-served basis. If you'd like a piece, I suggest you request it as soon as possible. I'm happy to discuss payment plans if you'd like to pick up multiple pieces!


Near Future

The Near Future sees work on personal pieces (including the painting for the popular Sketch-A-Day 2013 Day 31 -otherwise known as the demon woman in the bat-dress) and mail-in convention preparation (for which, I am woefully behind.)

Unfortunately, there will be no Silvertales table at Otakon's Artist Alley this year. The AA is chosen by lottery system, and I just didn't get a table this year, so I am unable to attend. I am very sorry, as I know I meet a lot of you all at Otakon, and it is a convention I enjoy a great deal.

I'm always on the lookout for other convention appearance opportunities, though, so if you've got a favorite convention to attend or suggest, please let me know!

I should be able to open up some commission slots for three more Moleskine covers before the end of May for those who let me know of their interest, so keep an eye out for that!


So, that's all, folks! Thanks for joining me for another State of the Artist update!

If you enjoy seeing new project or sneak peeks at WIP photos, please consider a donation!

Become a patron of the arts!

State of the Artist 4/8/2013

View halloo, all!

It's Monday, so it's time for another State of the Artist update!


Weekly Words

There are always two people in every picture: the photographer and the viewer.

-Ansel Adams, 1902 - 1984

In every endeavor, the viewer is always a participant. Your experiences color the way you view the world, and the way you respond to every creative work; your likes and dislikes, your passions, your fantasies and fears.



Monthly Postcard Project

April's postcard painting is done and waiting to ship from the printer! (whew!) Every month subscribers to the postcard project get first crack at buying the monthly postcard project original painting, but now, February's card painting is now open to the general public.

February 2013 Monthly Postcard Painting


Our cheerful satyr coaxes magic from the very air as he plays his flute. The original painting measures 6x8" and is coffee, ink, and watercolor.

The original painting is $35 USD (+$6 for domestic US delivery or $10 for international delivery)


Current Project

Unfortunately, I didn't end up transferring Day 31 to paper for working on the final piece, but between random Real Life running around, making sure my taxes are all in order, and commission work, I was very busy this past week.

The Moleskine commissions I offered two weeks ago were snapped up, much to my surprise and pleasure, and I will definitely be offering them again! The books I'd found were the blank sketchbook type, but if more people prefer lined pages, I'll do my best to scout those out for future book cover commissions. Let me know!

Two of my Moleskine commission clients agreed to let me post pictures of their cover projects before they received them, while my third prefers I wait until she received it in the mail. I can totally understand the desire to be surprised, and as it takes a little longer to reach Australia from my home in the US, I hope to be posting that third and final cover soon.

First cover commission: request for Fili and Kili from The Hobbit (as played by Aidan Turner and Dean O'Gorman)



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Second cover commission: a 50th Anniversary-inspired Doctor Who wraparound cover



I have a series of 6 head/bust shots still on my commission list, but once those are done, it's on to painting Day 31 and opening up a few more commission slots!


Near Future

The Near Future finds the last of my current commission queue under way, along with preparing artwork for mail-in conventions and scouting out possible new convention venues for my work.

If you attend or know of a convention where you'd like to see my work, or think it might be well-received, please let me know! If I can, I'd like to attend more conventions, as opposed to mailing in, as I always love to talk with possible customers face to face and meet new artists!

I know I keep saying there will be a post regarding the sale of Sketch-A-Day 2013 originals, and there will be... promise! Soon! Along with new Work-A-Week 2013 new Zazzle products. So, keep an eye out. :)


Thanks again for joining me for another State of the Artist update!

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 4

View halloo, all! Cutting it close, I know, but I still have 50 minutes of Monday left in my time zone. :)

Well, here we are, at the end of the February (into March) 2013 Work-A-Week Project!

That's right, this is the final weekly painting to come out of the 2013 Sketch-A-Day Project for now. Next week should see the first of the regular State of the Artist updates for 2013. This is definitely not going to be the last of the Sketch-A-Day Project pieces to be completed, but it marks the end of the month-long project. I have a handful of other sketches from January that I am looking forward to finishing, but March sees the gear-up for my first major convention of the year, MegaCon, in Orlando, FL March 13-15.

So, how about I just quit my yammering and get on with the art!

 

For the last completed painting of the 2013 Work-A-Week Project, I chose a very popular piece in the poll: the seahorse dad and kids, and whooo, was this one ever a challenge!

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Here are the first few light washes for the background, made up mostly of: cerulean blue, ultramarine blue, cobalt blue, and ultramarine violet. I discovered, while working on the background throughout the course of the painting, that the blues I chose to use lift *extremely* easily. Depending on what you're doing, that can be very useful or very frustrating. When applying multiple layers... it becomes very frustrating.

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Mostly finished with the predominant background features (the seaweed, bubbles, and rock formations) I started laying down washes for the seahorse family. Dad and the kiddies are comprised of layers of cadmium reds, cadmium orange, naples yellow, and alizarin crimson.

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Deepening up dad and the kids (mostly dad) and darkening his tones from waist to tip from orange-reds to red-violet/purples...

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Details of the dad and the two top seahorse mer-babies.

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Clean size 1 brush and clean water to lift some of the reds for the spines of dad's tail.

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Adding pale cool blue tones to dad and kiddies for shadows... another place where easily lifting blues became rather frustrating once I started putting down more layers for the skin tones.

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Skin tones added for dad and mer-babies, mostly made up of: naples yellow, cadmium red pale, and a teeny touch of alizarin crimson.

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... and DONE!

*whew*

 

So, that's all, folks! This installment of the Work-A-Week Project is over, thank you for joining me and for voting on the pieces you'd like to see finished. I hope you've enjoyed the project, and stay tuned for more new artwork, convention updates, and upcoming 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.

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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.

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... 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 2

View halloo, all!

Rolling right along with the 2013 Work-A-Week Project #2!

Unfortunately, I forgot to take more wip pictures as I was working, so I only have 2 for you this time, but the process is very similar to last week's Work-A-Week.

 

I'd forgotten to take progress pictures of the stage before this one, where in the washes of greens and blues were *very* light and there was alcohol pooling for texture in the sky. But, this is the next layer of washes of: sap green, viridian green, and hooker's green for the grasses and cerulean blue, ultramarine, blue, and cobalt blue for the sky.

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Third layer of washes for both sky and grasses, starting to add details and refine the stalks of grass and the clouds.

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And... DONE! Teeny, dragonfly-winged fae perches on a stalk of long grass and takes a rest.

Prints: (8x10) $12 $6 for US shipping/$12 for international shipping Original: (9x12" watercolor) $175 $6 for US shipping/$12 for international shipping

Prints won't ship until early March, but if you're interested in either a print or the original, please go ahead and let me know! Layaway and installment plans are available for the original painting.

 

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.

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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.

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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!

Work-A-Week Poll Results In!

View halloo, all!

We have winners!

The Sketch-A-Day poll to determine the choices for the upcoming Work-A-Week pieces is now closed and the results have been tabulated. Thank you all very much for taking the time to vote in the poll, it was very interesting to see which pieces came out on top. :)

There are a few of the pieces I planned to finish regardless amongst the winners, and some of these are the ones I will need more than the week I've alloted myself to complete them, but, that's not to say they won't show up during the Work-A-Week Project, perhaps has WIPs...

Anyway, on to the results!

In descending order of votes:

   

TIED:  

TIED:  

TIED:  

 

The next 4 completed pieces will be coming from this list, so stay tuned! Please let me know if you'd be interested in seeing progress pics of the pieces as I work on them. (They'll be posted with the final piece, so there will just be one post with multiple images.)

POLL: Work-A-Week Voting open!

Hi!

Now that the January 2013 Sketch-A-Day Project is done (and it feels really weird not to have a sketch “due” today) it’s time to vote for the pieces you’d most like to see finished.

If you enjoyed the Sketch-A-Day Project, I”d appreciate if you could take a few moments and cast your votes at the poll for which pieces you’d like to see completed. I’ll choose 4 from the top 7 pieces and complete them, one a week, and post the finished pieces!

Poll linked here!

(A Livejournal account is not necessary to cast a vote, or to comment on any of the Sketch-A-Day posts)

Also, please let me know if you’d like to see WIP pictures of them pieces! :)

Thank you, in advance, for your time!

POLL: Work-A-Week 2013 Project!

View halloo!!

I'm gearing up for the 2013 Work-A-Week Project, but I need YOUR help to do it!

If you have a minute, I'd greatly appreciate it if you could take a moment to vote in the poll linked below. LiveJournal accounts are not necessary to vote.

Thank you!

Work-A-Week Project Poll!

 

Thank You!