Happy New Year!!!

More Bins

WIP Bins. Charcoal and conte on watercolor paper.

The past two months here have been short of horrific when it comes to the digital world.  My website is still down, have no idea why it's experiencing a 503 error, and the internet here at the house has been sketchy at best.

But, today we gave up after trying to do another firmware update on the older modem and two hours later we finally decided it was time for a new modem.  Nirvana!  Internet Bliss!!!

Have a good one!

Studio Sale!!! 25% Off Everything!

25% OFF Everything!!!

Studio Sale

Take 25% OFF Everything NOW through January 1st!!!

Sale Code: WINTER2015

Mark Making with Nature Surface Design with Natural Dyes

Figures in Motion

Figure in motion, charcoal on gesso'd watercolor paper.

Figure No. 2 in motion.  Figure No. 1 slightly gesso'd out and then No. 2 added on top of the wet gesso.

Figure No. 3, done same as No. 2.  I may have enough space to add another figure.  Taken from Muybridge's photo series of back side shots of a nude male throwing a ball.

Hello Monday Thoughts on Licensing Fear and Adobe Illustrator

The past few years in art licensing have been interesting to say the least.  I think it was sometime late 2013 I had decided that I really wanted to learn how to use Adobe Illustrator for repeat pattern design and for everything else one would use it for creating licensable designs.

My long suffering and very loving husband gave me the money for what was at that time to me an expensive class.  Yay me, I'm going to master Illustrator.  Not!!!  By week three I was so damned terrified of the program it'd be almost a year and a half before I'd even open the program on my computer again.

You see it turns out that while the instructor knows gobs about creating repeat patterns, designs, icons from one's original artwork and the like she didn't know jack shit about Illustrator and to be honest should have never have been teaching a course on illustrator!

Roll in Bonnie Christine and Elizabeth Olwen via Skillshare.  While not promising me that I would master Illustrator, like the last instructor had, they did tell me that I would at least know how to turn the program on and with lots of practice I too could create a vector, and most importantly create images that could be translated into a repeat pattern.  And they delivered on what they had promised.

Curious I decided to sign up for Brad Woodard's Adobe Illustrator classes.  Brad where have you been the past three years!!! I learned more about Illustrator from him in one week than I had in three years elsewhere, most importantly which tools inside of Illustrator that would make my work flow efficient, no more doing things the hard way!

So curiosity got the better of me and I went back to the original class, started at the beginning thinking that well now that I understand the terminology and some of the tools now maybe, just maybe...

Oh hell I didn't even last five minutes before I was screaming at my computer monitor telling the instructor that she was doing it wrong, all wrong, she was using the wrong tools, making things way harder than they had to be... and then it dawned on me.  She sucked!  I had been living in fear of a computer program for well over a  year because this woman had NO business teaching a class on illustrator! This is some instructors super power by the way, they teach fear, they don't teach skill, confidence, etc, no they teach fear.  Walk away, NO RUN AWAY from these people they are toxic!

Sooooo, are you still there?  This fall I was invited to participate in an interview about art licensing and my studio habits/life.  I was excited, ecstatic, it's a REALLY good thing Annie told me she wanted my interview information on November 25th instead of the actual deadline of November 29th because I probably would have found a reason to say No!

Why you ask?  Even though I've been licensing my stencil designs with StencilGirl Products I have yet to get up the courage to send my portfolio out to agents for representation. Because I'm afraid.  What am I afraid of you might ask?  To be honest nothing in particular, other than being accepted... Yes I'm nuts, I think I may have stated this before.

But looking at the sheets I put together for Annie's interview I see now that being afraid of being rejected is just as lame as being afraid of being accepted.  I'd like to spend more time pondering this topic but I have some drawing to do and will then digitize those images in Illustrator for creating licensable art.  

Blackbirds in Trees Stencil from StencilGirl Products

So this is where I've been the past three years, hiding in my studio creating work like a mad woman and too afraid to submit it because "what if they want more and I can't deliver"???

Inky Figures

Am finally getting to the inky figures portion of the online drawing class I'm currently taking. The hardest part is waiting for the layers of ink to dry.

Waiting for the layer of white ink to dry so I can add more figures to this piece.

Art Licensing from My Seat on the Bus: Artist Spotlight - Kimberly Baxter Packwood

Art Licensing from My Seat on the Bus: Artist Spotlight - Kimberly Baxter Packwood: Tell us a bit about yourself: Did you go to school for art? Are you self-taught? A little bit of both actually.  My aunt taught me ho...

Pastel & Charcoal Heaven

I ordered a couple of more pan pastels when I placed my order for the Derwent XL Charcoal sticks.  I have two tints and maybe a half dozen shades to extra dark shades I want and my palette will be completed.

Two at Once Sketch

A five minute sketch of John's father with a charcoal pencil taped to a sepia conte pencil.

Bumble Bee

Black mark it all pencil and charcoal smudge bag on newsprint.

Black conte, oiled black charcoal, and charcoal smudge bag on sketch paper.  The stippling is due to my sketching this on my drawing table which has a rough surface.

white mark it all pencil, white conte, and white charcoal, on black sketch paper.

Drawing

I finally have my easel adjusted to a height that is comfortable for drawing, and this was no small feat because every adjustment required me to sketch to see if the height was correct or not.

I'm also using my drawing table for what I intended it to be used for, drawing.

Experimenting with a variety of charcoals and pastels.

I have a new affliction, it's called charcoal!

Portrait Time

Getting ready to create some 30 second and one minute portrait drawings for a class I'm taking.  I spent the better part of today scanning in images of dead relatives, mostly because the images were in black and white, for this assignment.

Inspiration

Turkey's Tail Fungus growing on an old pear stump in my back yard. It yields a gorgeous natural dye color onto wool and silk fabrics.

Bring the Bling

So far I've added washi tape and glitter glue and I named her Calliope! 

Next up some googlie eyes, rhinestones, bells, and more glitter! 

Color Inspiration Fall 2015

My neighbors maple tree is a brilliant orange color this year, last year it was a brilliant red.

New Easel

Really pleased with my new Soho H Frame Mahogany Easel.  It took us over two hours to assemble the silly thing, now to start painting again!

A Place to Perch

Ideal place to perch, because every sewing machine needs a cat as ornamentation.

Pepper sitting atop my Janome 6500S.

Totally Tomato

Color inspiration from my garden.

Love the distinct color bands.

Yes, joy really can be found from something as simple as a tri-colored tomato from my own garden.

On My Sewing Table Tonight

Not sure what Pepper was thinking but apparently felt the need to perch on my sewing machine.

Pumpkin Season has Arrived

Typically I buy quite a variety of pumpkins and squash each year, this year I decided to buy a bunch of fake pumpkins and squash.  I'm still looking for a really large fake pumpkin that looks "authentic".
Why would I buy fakes instead of real ones?

Simple.

I'm setting up a still life in my studio for painting, drawing, etc., and the real ones don't last into March, about the time when I'll be designing  collections for next Fall.

I have a ton of  photos for color and texture references (taken at a local pumpkin farm), but there's nothing as nice as working from a real 3D object.

And don't worry my designs won't look anything like these in the photos, they are just a starting point to work from.

Now to find a decent looking fake pomegranate and all will be well in the world of studio props.

Autumn is Coming!!!

Fall is my favorite time of the year, not just because tomorrow is my 49th birthday, but also because I love pumpkin, scary kitties, ghosts, goblins, and haunting apple orchards!  Enjoy!!!

Studio Purge Continues

Well the good news is I've made a lot of progress in the studio.  The bad news is now I'm cleaning, purging, and organizing about seven different things at once and it wasn't intentional but its a necessary evil.

I'm at the point where I moved my thread cabinets off of the big shelves and onto the cubbies, this is temporary until the place where I really want to live is freed up, but that space is currently occupied with stuff that either needed to go onto the big shelves or be given away.

I'm getting there, thank heavens!  When all is said and done the artwork right there in front of the cubbies, you know living on my studio floor, will soon have a home on the big shelves.  But first I must move my massive paint collection out of the blue dresser and onto the carts, and then the fabric living on the big shelves, well most of it anyway, can go live in the blue dresser.

Make sense?  Me neither.  I hope to have an update by this coming weekend.  The only thing standing in my way at the moment is the fact that the studio floor needs vacuuming before I can proceed any further.  And there is a huge dog sleeping in the middle of said floor.

Oliver, my faithful studio assistant who doubles as a paper weight.

Today's Studio Help

Pepper keeping my sketchbooks organized.

Oliver keeping my feet company.

And birds at the bird feeders this afternoon.

Cooler temps, fall has arrived.

Design Wall

The design wall has been hung, finally.  Studio is still a wreck but my design wall has been hung!

Just a  partial view of the disaster area known as my studio.  

The temps are supposed to drop  here, as is the humidity, I anticipate lots of cleaning, purging, and organizing happening before the next heat wave sets in.

The Drawing Table

The drawing table is finally in front of the coveted window!!!

Next up is repairing my drafting table chair, which should happen sometime tonight.  Calligraphy tools found, cart stocked with ink at the ready.  It's time to create!

In the meantime I'm still shoveling stuff out of my studio work space and will continue to sort, purge, and pitch stuff that no longer serves me.  I will be hosting a huge online sale here and soon, I thought that was going to happen last week and boy did I ever miss the mark on that one!

Where Have I Been Part 2

Yes there will be a design wall in this new space!

No more chicken coop wall, now it's a wall of cubbies pushed back a good eight feet for more space!

My drawing table is going in front of that big window there to the left, sewing table will be pushed at an angle further back once everything blocking it is gone.  The end of August cannot come soon enough!

I put it all into  well labeled boxes!!! I will be sorting and purging most of this through the month of August,  I'm hoping to have a huge artist yard sale towards the end of August when the students return.