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[May. 30th, 2012|12:42 pm] |
I came home from China Painting, and saw what turned out to be a family of skunks. Two little babies and a mama. Awww cute! Now, I need to draw some. I whipped out my cell phone camera - but it was dark and far away.
I am putting up some of the native American skunk girl steps that I did for a bookmark a little while ago. I don't have all the steps documented, but here's a few anyway. Which reminds me to tweet my steps for the Steam Punk princess I am working on. |
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[May. 29th, 2012|11:02 am] |
Here's an old image I love. I remember showing to a lady at work who liked it, thought a moment and asked if flying squirrels come that way.
I intend to get to re-drawing it.
Of course, that confuses me. I have always been a 'move forward' sort of person. Once I've executed an image, I rarely feel the need to see what else there is to learn in that image.
I like the branch, but think I could do the leaves differently. I like the wings, but might want to work on them again. The face might be more expressive. I like the way the squirrel crosses the background element. |
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[May. 28th, 2012|10:58 am] |
While at Spectrum Live, they had a Jeffery Jones exhibit. Some lovely work and I really hadn't been exposed to a lot of his work. So, I enjoyed taking in the work.
Yesterday, I had a tree guy come over the the house. I have a lot of trees, and one is kinda laying down. I found him at the local comic book con. Turns out, he knew Jones! He has original art. He had fun sharing a few stories as we tromped around the trees.
Stories. Memories. The Past giving to the Future. |
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[May. 27th, 2012|11:10 am] |
Doing splashpages for stories for my D&D game fanzine. Perhaps I should be working on other art - but it's a holiday weekend. There are times you must to art to refresh your own pool of creative juices. That way, you tackle your next project with joy. So, I'm not goofing off - I'm recharging.
also posted at http://fathomblue.blogspot.com
I am generally switching to there - but slowly. They have no community and you have to build your own followers. Maybe I should put extra content there! Hmmm. I'll think on it. |
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[May. 26th, 2012|09:26 am] |
There! I finished a you tube video. That makes two total. Since I am watching Donato's video on painting Joan of Arc, I seem to be on the same page.
@YouTube video http://t.co/AWa17q5X |
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| You Tube on Inking |
[May. 25th, 2012|10:31 am] |
Since I am working on a picture for AnthroCon, I figured I wanted to do another of the You Tube Video. I did the big colored pencil techniques - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DDIQFwhCR8. So I figured I'd just do a little shorty.
Naturally, I am taking all sorts of scans as I go along. I figure I'll just have a pretty quick part where it all morphs together.
Dave and Sabrina are off to Anime North, and the house is mine for a couple of days. Art, D&D and more art... If I was smart, I would put my YouTube link on my web site -
also posted on http://fathomblue.blogspot.com/ |
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| The Con I Wasn't There |
[May. 24th, 2012|10:58 am] |
It's the first time I have had two cons on one weekend. Well, that happens a lot - there's always too many cons I want to go to. What I mean is that I had a table set out with my wares in two different places. I realized that Dave was going to the con anyway - so we got a table and he was there for me.
We had the same sort of stock I usually have - Cute, Furry, Fantasy, buttons, bookmarks - the works. The only real difference is that I wasn't there.
Sales were down. Not really completely noticeably down - but down. Could be the economy, but I think it's The Artist wasn't there. Dave did offer to draw things for people (If I were a customer, I'd thought that was hilarious and taken him up on it). It only goes to show how much more happens when the artist is there to make that face to face connection.
Not to worry, we did make profit. I'll be back next year (unless Spectrum is over it again).
If I have to do this again, I'll put Dave in a Hat with Horns.
also posted on my Blogger: http://fathomblue.blogspot.com/ |
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| Products and Projects |
[May. 23rd, 2012|11:14 am] |
Thank you for all the wonderful ideas and input! I've been dividing them all into products (which I can do now) and projects (which I can work on). Love the idea to making a list (I make lists all the time) and then work my way through the goals.
Canvas bags - excellent, I can do these right away. Images already finished would work great. I could put a furry on one side and something cute on the other - thus appealing to both kinds of cons.
T-Shirts - hmmmm. I knew someone who was licensing designs to a company. That way, there would be no huge pile of shirts that stick around in my back room. Someone suggested WOOT shirts to me. I know Miss Monster gets some wonderful bizness just by watching people go by and say 'hey, I did your shirt'.
Illustrated stories - huh. I always figured I was just forcing my gamers to read the darned things. Can't help but draw my guys. Is there a market for illustrated stories? I can't help but think 'young' when you need pictures to go with the words. Although - now that I think about it, I have seen some pretty graphic novels that are heavy into the words and have some pretty pretty pics.... huh. Uh oh - now I can see it.
Graphic Novels - love some of these. There's so much work in them. And I would need the right story.
Art Books - Retrospective or Yearly catalog - Yes. I suppose I should really pic a time of the year to declare the production of the yearly catalog. A total retrospective, I think I need some better works - yet I should pic a year and make a goal.
Art Book - Themed - like a mermaid book, or a dragon book. I think this is what I have been thinking about most. A Suburban Sylvan Spotting style collection with dragon birds, firebirds and griffakeets. I made a list of 18 sorts of things I could feature - so I'll get to work on this.
Sticker Book - I saw this web site, where they had a booklet of little stickers and I was in love. I might want to do some more of these. Got a web site for die-cut stickers too - since I love buying them myself.
Charms - Dave sold a buncha charms at the local comic con. I need to get some more done. This works out fine since they were the company with the stickers.
I'll make a list of 15 things.
OOooo... Tomorrow I will talk about the Motor City Comic Con that Dave did without me.
also posted on my Blogger http://fathomblue.blogspot.com/2012/05/products-and-projects.html |
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| Projects |
[May. 22nd, 2012|10:17 am] |
As a beginning artist, I worked hard on drawing. Refining my skills, learning everything I could and drawing, drawing, DRAWING. To this day, I tell people carry a sketchbook with you everywhere. Then, I started to be happy with what I could do.
Next came art shows. Getting art done for art shows. Seeing what I liked and what sold. Refining my skills. Making certain I could add color to the works I was doing. Getting 'out there' with many offerings.
I had a couple of shows recently where people asked me 'what are you working on?'. I blinked, and tried to remember. Oh yeah.... next show, commissions, comic... I've been so busy focused on what's loaded on my plate, that I think I have forgotten to imagine ahead. Charles Vess said that when he was young, he realized that no publishing company was going to beat the way to his door - so he made his own project.
Having just come back from Specrtum Live, I couldn't help but listen to 'the big guys' all talk about the projects they are involved in. It certainly made them seem exciting and even more successful. Perhaps, the next level beyond refining and practicing your skills is some project. A DVD, a book, graphic novel.... something.
So, I'm going to take part of the week to figure out a project to be working on. I have some ideas.
In the past, I've organized a bunch of projects with other artists - so I could totally add people to the mix if I wanted.
Now, what sort of things lend themselves to projects for artwork?
art books
comic / graphic novels
DVD's / You Tube
sculptures
T-shirts can be pretty normal, yet coats, bandanas, bags
Thinking hard. If anyone out there has some ideas - I'd be grateful. |
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dhstein's journal