Somedays...

For some reason today has just been crazy! I think I just woke up and realized I have one month to prep for A-Kon. This may seem like tons of time for people who don't stay home with a rambunctious one year old :P However, I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed. I can guarantee anyone coming to the show though that I will have TONS of goodies to sell, as well as raffle giveaways, and other fun things.

Today I'm cutting decals for orders and for the show, and later I'll be working on inking another 5x7 painting.

If you look at the right hand collumn, you notice a poll. I'd love if everyone took the time to answer it for me! I'm working on the info for myself and several other interested artists.

Drabardi

This is the other 5x7 I was working on. I was playing with depth in the background, and I'm not sure it shows terribly well on screen, but the print and the original painting show all of the detail and I'm tickled pink about the results. I was working on something similar with the wood sprite I posted the other day, but the intent there was to have a well layered, soft background. On both of them I was playing around with masking fluid. I really like the depth it gives the background without me having to overwork the paint.


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Wood Sprite

I've got a new print available in my shop!



Buy a Print

Library

Well, after a few days at the coffee shop, I decided to give me caffiene levels a break and head over to the library to work instead.



I've been getting out of the house to work when my husband gets home at night, hoping it would encourage me to relax and be more productive. So far so good. Not sure where I'll be headed tonight, most likely the library again. After A-Kon I'll be able to relax and take my time with painting again, as well as start on some new projects. In the mean time I'm working on a few new Victoria paintings and giving the coloring book a little break.

I'm having fun with the picture posts. Once I move into a larger studio space I'm planning on doing some video posts. Wee!

Hard at work

I've been hard at work - drinking coffee and inking coloring pages. One day I'll come off this caffiene high...

There's been a lot on my mind

I've been incredibly busy recently, and my mind has been running 1000 miles a minute. I've got A-Kon in a month and a half, and I bought my pass yesterday. I've been getting merchandice ready slowly over time, which was the plan. I'm working on that coloring book, and my goal is to have it done at the end of this week. I hope to have the Fairy Tales and either a Gothic Lolita or Mermaid book in time.

There's another line of merch I'd like to have there, but I'm still working on all of that.

Other things that have been on my mind? Well, there has been some talk of someone wanting me to paint a mural, which I'm really excited about. I would love to do something like that, and have been thinking of advertising to do it after A-Kon.

Also, we're talking about moving some time soon, and I'm dreaming big about having a separate room for my studio, instead of painting in a corner of the living room. I think that I'll set up a work cam, to give me something more to blog with, because I know I love to watch other artists while they work.

Ah well, enough going on here. I've got work to do!

Coloring book, update 2

I've got the main image for all five coloring pages sketched, and have sketched out the border for Snow White. I really love it, I think it's a great expression of as much of the story as possible.

Tomorrow I'll be working on Red Riding Hood's border, and transfering both pictures to my bristol paper to carry to Houston this weekend. My sister's engagement party is in Galveston Saturday, so the whole day will be visiting with 100+ relatives, friends, and soon to be relatives, drinking beer, eating BBQ and crawfish, and having a good time before coming home and getting back to work.

Next update will be on monday. Please continue to vote, and I'll be checking in on you!

Coloring books

As everyone who's visited my page recently has no doubt noticed, I've got a poll over in the right hand collumn that everyone's wellcome to take part in. I have been playing around with making some coloring books for grown ups for awhile, and I thought A-Kon would be a great place to carry some. I will be doing work on all of those over time, but I'm looking for the ones that have more draw to put out first. I really think that when I introduce my cute little witches people are going to go nuts (I love them so much) but for the time being I started sketching out some fairy tales, since that is what's ahead.

Right now I'm working on the most common fairy tales, though I may do another set down the road that's a bit darker and more of a Grimm's take on things.

Basically, each coloring "book" is going to consist of 5 detailed 8x10 lineart drawings. They will be printed on the same 8.5x11 heavy bristol vellum that I do my line drawings on, since it's a beautiful smooth paper to work on. They'll be packaged together in a resealable plastic bag (like you find comic books in) with an acid free card board backing. I decided not to bind them so they're easy to pull out and work on one at a time, and can be framed without any hassle.

I've got the sketches for four of the five Fairy Tale pages mostly finished. Tomorrow I'll work on the last, and start refining them, and transfer them to nicer paper to be inked. The first package will be Snow White, Red Riding Hood, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, and Rappunzel. The way I've drawn them is really very neat, since each page tells quite a bit about the story. There is a focal 5x7 image that shows one of the most memorable moments in the story (oddly, I chose scenes that are all at a moment of change, something I didn't notice until now) then around the central image is a wide boarder that will be filled with other symbols that you'll find in each story. Two of the drawings are heavily influenced by two paintings I did over a year ago that I never did much with. I've gone back and redrawn them and really like the way they're going. I think we're all going to have a blast coloring these together!

What a week!

After Aggiecon (which was a lot of fun by the way) I decided that I needed a week off before I got to work for my next convention (and last for the year). I spent the week playing with Morrigan, and setting up my new shop. Yeah, I know that's still working, but it was something that needed to be done.

I'm now offering custom cut vinyl decals. I've got two on my car now, one for each of my shops, and have already started to get a response. I'm doing custom decals for one band, and a few small groups. I'd love to take on several more large jobs, and as many small jobs as you guys can throw at me:

http://stickerella.etsy.com

In the meantime, I'm back in the studio. This week I'll be working on coloring book pages for a fantasy themed coloring book meant for grown ups. It will be rated G, but there will be a lot of detail, and it will be printed on nice paper, meant for relaxing and coloring by adults. I love to color still, and I know there have to be others out there like me.

It's good to be back, and I'll be posting regularly for awhile now!