Tennessee is in the midst of an acutal autumn this year. Unfortunately we had some strong enough windstorms that the beautifully colored leaves are mostly covering the ground (at least in my area) but that doesn't quiet the desire to try some plein air studies.
There's no attempt, though, as it's a week before the wedding and I'm not entirely sure everything is ready, heh. I will admit that almost every creative juice has been flowing into this, but a few sketches and preliminary ideas have surfaced. I have a small list of ideas to start on after Thanksgiving, including a list of owed art.

I feel like my art plans were put on hold for an unreasonable time, but honestly I've only been out of school a little more than a year, and most of that time was spent in local group shows, trying the crafty thing, and pulling a slightly-big wedding together. Not a bad use of time, but also not the most useful way to hone my skills for the demanding freelance world.

Just wanted to make a mark, say I hadn't dropped off the face of the Earth and that my plans are still in motion. Hope all is well with you.

Take a Moment to Breathe

When everyone was making their New Year's Resolutions to lose weight or save money, I was making social and art-oriented goals. To get more involved in the local art scene and to see my friends more often.
What I forgot to include was all the time that would need to be applied to making all the stuff I wanted to hand-craft for said art stuff, AND the stuff for the wedding. So we get to September, I feel a little behind on the stuff for the wedding, I feel a little overwhelmed with how much time I've put into the art shows, and Hobbit is feeling more than a little neglected at times (not to mention my friends....I'm pretty sure I've chased a few more off during the past summer.)

So, while driving down to the Starving Artists' Benefit, I told Hobbit that this would be the last show of the year so I could dedicate more time to him, friends, and wedding. Little did I know that said Benefit would be cancelled/possibly rescheduled to October. Ok, I can do that. Nor did I know that another group would contact me about a show in September.....ok....I can do that. THEN I realized Untitled's next show is in September.....Shit...I better think about this.
Which I did, and came to the conclusion to stick with my guns this month about my verdict, and participate in the rescheduled Benefit if it happens. See, even though I want to participate in Cadillac Tramp's show on September 25th VERY BADLY, there are already a ton of things that day: wedding with Hobbit's family mid-day and I'm not sure how long the reception is, there's another group of friends who are meeting up at another bar downtown, and it's technically Hobbit's birthday weekend, so he got to chose whether to really cram-pack that Saturday or not, and he wisely chose not to.
The Untitled Show came to the same demise in my plans, though I might be able to actually attend that one, just not as a participant. I shouldn't cough up the registration, even though it's a very, very reasonable amount, and though I'd possibly sell 5 small things, I just don't have the time to make one new large one (which I'm inclined to do for new shows. i don't have enough paintings to just haul one out at a given time.)

Instead of getting ready for these shows (even in the "psyche myself up" way) I'm pulling together things for the wedding. I'm hanging out with people and going on walks at Radnor Lake. I'm sketching for myself, and reading.
I figure I keep sketching and socializing I'll be ready to embrace both the local art scenes and the wonderous world of Freelance Spamming come January. November is full of wedding/honeymoon/Thanksgiving, and December is just rife with Family Things.

So forgive me for hunkering down and hiding in the Shire.

:poof:

I disappear from online posting for weeks at a time. It's as much a habit as, say, not calling you back when I say I will, or going Months without calling a friend. Luckily, once people get to know me they forgive this quirk and understand it's not them, it's me.
And sometimes I like being virtually silent in addition to physically silent.

Today I decided to just do a little meaningless sketch. Meaningless because it's not connected to a future art show. A client or friend didn't ask for it. There wasn't a deadline to it, but there was a purpose. Use water-soluable pencils, properly, and find a water-brush to smoosh it around.
I say properly because 6 or 7 years ago I came across watercolor pencils and instead of drawing with them THEN smooshing around with a brush, I dipped the pencils in water, directly in the water, and drew with the squishy pencil. It worked, but looked a little weird, and was definately not something that churned out successful pieces.



This time I did the sketch on matt-board before smooshing around the water-brush. I might go back and digitally add color, just so I don't mess up the original sketch. Or maybe I will add it to the board itself to see how they react. Experimentation is the key here, folks. Experimentation on free materials, that is. All the matt-board are gifts from friends who work in a framing shop, and pretty much end up tossing all the "drops" that end up getting cut out of the larger matt for the frame. It's damn fine stuff to sketch on, and took the water pretty well, so I'm excited to keep working on it.

Now, I do have a 2 day art show/fair, The Starving Artists Benefit August 21-22, and below is the flyer for time/location. These little sketches, in addition to TONS of new heartworks, heartwork pendants, notecards featuring the Squiggles & Bible Series, prints and quite possibly other original art will all be on display for sale. There's a huge list of other artists on display, in addition to live music, oh, and IT'S A FREE ART EVENT. So, you should go.

Determined willpower

In the past few years I've noticed something that only the most recognized illustrators, artists and creatives share which I believe is their success; determined perseverance and willpower. They have the determination to be the best in their field, to spread their art into the world, or to create their little hearts out til the fingers lay still with satisfactoin. In order to do that, they need to do their "THING" almost constantly. Otherwise they'll never grow as artists or individuals.
They also have the willpower to not let the pesky things in life which try to bog you down keep them down.

A few artists can be named as immediate influences on my own craft, be they peer, uber-famous or passed onto the big studio in the sky. If I name them you have to promise to not be offended by the lack of mention of a certain so-and-so, cause it is late, I'm trying to get sleepy, I've had a rough couple of days, and most importantly My Brain Is Lame At Remembering!

Classmates moved me to try to push past my "Not enough hours in the day" rut did so by working 40 hour weeks while attending the same classes as I, by caring for their children, by being able to hold freelancing projects while doing some or all of the above, by making AMAZING pieces of work all while being social and great peer-artists who would answer any and all questions, no matter how retarded. I can always count on Baker, Hill, Seiberling or Semidei to take a moment and describe what they just did or just give a helping hand getting my own stuff. Whether I watched them push through a difficult course of classes for a semester, rock out the projects while holding down crazy work hours, or hold it together while life kept the punches coming, I could only sit back in wonder and ask myself "Why can't you handle the same problems with such grit?"
So I watched, and learned.

The living artists I look up to are always pushing their boundaries in the pieces they publish weekly and monthly. They work to master the anatomy, lighting and color designs that bring their images to six degrees from living flesh. They fight the two dimensional restrictions and pull the viewer into a world that, even after Centuries, still captivates and holds the viewer spellbound.
I had the honor to pester and recieve feedback from such instructors as Higgins-Bond, Von Hager and Preston-of-the-Jeff-Type. I looked over their shoulders at the perfect blades of grass, the morbidly perfect disfigurement of a Monster, or graceful pastels and recieved answers about all the questions of technique and where to find the supplies.
Ross has shown that anatomy isn't perfected in a computer (even though that's how I practice) and McKean shows me that you don't have to just draw one thing over and over, or hell, even just Draw. If and idea works better in film or sculpy, then you damn well better use that outlet or the idea will fall flat.
More watching, more learning.

The great artists of the past I look to, Frazetta and Kahlo, pushed past massive restrictions to continue their craft. They're kindof like my little art-saints to invoke when I'm in pain and try to throw little pity-parties for my hands and...well, every joint.
Frazetta had numerous strokes in his advanced years, and 3 times over he kick-started himself back into the artists' seat and re-taught himself to draw....sometimes with his submissive left hand. Kahlo suffered massive injuries in a bus accident when she was hardly 18 which left her with ill-healed bones, permenantly injured organs and a damned strong determination. She learned to paint her own portrait and casts while she recovered from this accident, but she was never free of it. She suffered massive pains from this accident throughout life, and had a slight morphine addiction to keep that pain at bay. She painted through that pain, always, and even through the morphine.

Now I'm watching myself and learning that if I push, I'll break though those invisible binds that feel so tight on the hands. That I can stretch, sketch a bit, get a little work done, and not feel self-pity about being a 27 year old artist with an unknown chronic inflammation which causes random bouts of pretty heavy pain.

Today was one of those days, and even though it weighed my hands down at work, I worked through it once I got home. I'm about to sketch a little, time permitting before bed, and even though my fingers are stiff from whateverthehelliswrong, I will try to keep a positive outlook, try to keep a strong willpower to stay true to my artistic nature and persevere to create.
Let's see what happens.

Ohmigohh!

Ok, so if you've heard me make the noise spelled above, will you know what it says...thus I apologize to those out of the loop. But it's a noise I make when a little excited and pleasantly surprised and a little hyper.
But, the Testify! shadowcast poster was approved earlier, and then printed, and I'm really, really excited for two reasons.
1) I just illustrated people I know doing something they like for a public show.
2) I just did the above in record time (for me)

You see, the post on the....5th? was the first day of shading and about the second day of working on the project after it was concieved. Today's the 8th. I pretty much just did a poster of 15 figures (mostly half figures) in less than a week. This makes me happy cause that means I've grown as an artist since this time last year, when I would've taken a MONTH to do the same thing. I woke up early to work on it, was diligent about ONLY working on it, and completed a complex project with Time To Spare before the deadline.
That last part is a BIG thing I've been working on as a habitual Procrastinating Artist.

Between now and the showing of Repo: The Genetic Opera I'll be slaving away painting and glossing the 40+ new heartwork pendants and assembling displays for everything. Luckily, Saturday isn't the only show I need everything I planned on doing, so if it doesn't get done tomorrow I still need it for the 31st at Oblivion and in August for the Starving Artists' Benefit August 21 & 22.

Shiloh

Even though I push myself to work on the entire piece at all times, I break that rule while doing very complicated pieces or those with multiple figures. The Testify! Shadowcast Portrait has 15 figures, if you include the corpse, so I sketched the absolute darks and lights in before attacking one figure with the shading and colors. Below you can see essentially the finished idea for the foreground figures...the background figures will have varying degrees of detail based on their story importance.
I was going for a very pulp fiction-graphic novel style with personal detail mixed with slight abstracts.



The level of detail relies on well placed lines and proper shapes instead of number of lines. Hopefully Shiloh here looks as much like the shadow actress as I feel she does, but you'd have to know her to give good judgement.

Now, let's see if I can knock out at least 5 more today!

Trying to Define

two groups that I referenced to in the previous post: Hobby Artists and People Who Fantasize about the Romance of Art. There is Nothing wrong with belonging or not belonging to either catagory, I just figured to attempt a definition since I started rambling about it.

Hobby Artists are what the Tax Monsters call those artists who dabble in a little art outside of their main means of income and don't make more money than they spend on supplies. It's easy for any artist to be a hobby artist, you can be trained, have an education, or completely self-taught. To keep from being labeled "Hobby Artist" you have to dedicate time, energy and blood to hone your skills and Earn An Income. Hobby Artists still have a passion, but most aren't as focused with what to do with said passion.

People Who Fantasize about the Romance of Art actually kindof bug me. They're the ones who come up to me while I'm sketching in public, Oooh and Aaah about how "Wonderful it must be to be an artist" and how "Differently artists must see the world" and all that other blather. They aren't complimenting my style, subject or composition, they're simply amazed at the image coming out of my fingers and compare it to the fantasy realms of things that don't exist, like faeries, dragons and virgins. Mostly, they're male and using lines like that to pick me up, but I'll keep the generalization to one plane, cause women do it too.
These people don't usually see the time, dedication and neglected life that it takes to make such sketches.

Now, maybe there is something unique about the drive to create. And yes, I suppose something is wired differently in most artists' brains that make us see the world differently, but That Doesn't Mean we're a magical bunch of weirdos. We're just a different flavor of the same human race that accountants, chemists and engineers are crafted from.

And I hate how my words sound so cold, calculated and jaded, but I swear they aren't the tones I'd use verbally. I do appreciate that what comes as second nature and driven will to me is a foreign language to others. Really :) I love it when people look through my sketches and leave feedback or their interpretation of what I've done. I LOVE feedback and insight from the viewer.
But I don't like feeling like someone is verbally patting my head like a small child when they look into my sketchbook.

Does this make any sense, or am I being "unapproachable" again?

Studio

is word that should conjure a place of quite solitude and inspiration, and probably does if you are a hobby-artist or someone who has fantasies about the romantic aspect of art. But to a professional, the word "Studio" means the same as "Home Office", only with a feeling of pride and accomplishment since you are able to dedicate a spot in your home to your life-blood's passion.

I mentioned Hobby-Artists and People Who Fantasize About Romantic Art. There is nothing wrong with belonging to either catagory, and I'll try to define them in the next post, just to keep this one about my studio. But remember, I'm a visual thinker and general blather on without ever making coherent points. So, don't take offense if you think I'm insulting, cause I'm not.
I strive to be a professional. I strive to not wait for inspiration, but to just knock out the illustration, the pendants, the sculptures, the squiggles. I strive to work on a deadline-based world, which some people wouldn't consider "creative" and a "characteristic trait of an artist." Well, that's why I'm not part of the above groups.

I see my studio as a morphing office where I currently store all my reference, supplies and equipment. I generally use my laptop on the sofa next to Hobbit, to minimize the neglect that hours and hours of brainstorming, researching and creating will lead to, but everything else is in that tiny 12'x12' place. Well, everything plus both our book collections.
Needless to say, this is the best studio I can smash together til we get a bigger house :)


Here is the little work-corner, with the current project of Heartwork Pendants in the creation stage. I generally make as many pendants as I have clay for (currently this is nearly 2 boxes worth) and bake after stabbing, molding and sculpting each into a satisfactory shape.

Right now they all look like malformed pieces of flesh, that's the awesomely organic super sculpy shade of pink, but soon I'll pack up all the random bits and lay out the painting supplies and bleed life into them.


I have my inventory sitting out within eyeshot so I can make sure to make replacements of old designs or stretch the heartworks to new territories.


The last step is to affix all the pieces that could possibly come loose then to paint them with a gloss coat. I'm still experimenting with glosses that do what I want, but right now I have a pretty strong favorite that leaves an amazing shine to it all.

So, there's the mess and all that makes up my official play-area, my studio. Since I work in so many mediums I have to keep it pretty flexible to work in. And the small amount of space I have keeps things looking pretty random. I'll prolly post the next stage of creation with the heartworks, but I have sketching to get onto!

A record has been set

for the quickest and non-messy comps in the world.



The way most of my illustrations start are as photos which I "photo-chop" into my basic composition and vaugely layer in the warms, cools, highs and lows. I didn't sketch over anything yet or even show the highlights since I haven't been able to ask the client/aquaintence about the composition. I need to make sure that I didn't leave any cast members out, and I'm debating on adding little comic-book style name boxes to each character...similar to the running comic style in most of the "Repo:" promos.

The colors will be very pulp-fictiony, with stylized realism enhancing very little but keeping true to the likenesses.

I hope they like it! Now I must run to get ready for the movies :) The Hobbit and I are going with a friend to see Megadeth, Metallica, Slayer and someone else in a theatre-shown concert.

And one leads to another

The Untitled show went really well and I was able to sell the pendant I brought and recieve great feedback and social time. The buyer of my pendant, someone who has apparently been jonesing for it, also offered for me to make/sell at the grand opening night for Testify! the shadowcast of Repo:The Genetic Opera, also at Ave 9!



Head here for more information and links to get tickets in advance.

W00T!

For the next two weeks I hope to finish more heart pendants, some awesome new designs inspired by the Repo:The Genetic Opera movie, and multiple portraits featuring both movie characters and the shadowcast itself.
I'll be posting the sketches and such if there's time, but there might not be since there is SOooo much to do!
Alright! Back to pulling my references together.
Forgive any absenses outside of plans already made! :)

Magnets now available

Friday, June 18th I'll be selling magnets at Untitled's show "Sorry I Arted" featuring a few Bible Series images and others (if there's time.) I'll also have the four new framed Squiggles on display, untitled but representing something that people will get to guess at ;)

Now, back to last minute details and getting things in gear. Hopefully The Hobbit doesn't mind such neglect ;)

Whenever I'm not looking for it

Work always comes my way :)

Granted, they are small jobs, and most are on the horizon, but the little things feel nice.

I was filling in for a friend at his sign shop when an opportunity to develop a slightly bizarre logo landed on my plate. I ran with it. Instead of looking for the best font to cut out of vinyl, I asked the shop manager how much art time I had and the client if they minded me sketching the letters. I ended up making a bastardized mish-mash of about five fonts and came up with something the client was severely happy about. Granted, everyone else thinks it's a little too weird, but honestly, it's going to look really sweet on this guy's sweet black Mustang. In green, bright green. But you'd really have to see the car to understand.

The pinstriping was designed and applied by someone else, and my text on the back hasn't been approved yet, but I wanted to post before I forgot.
The client was interested in using my skills for a few more personal projects and spreading my availablity to his car club friends. Just a little something in the wind, nothing huge.


But, there is a possible book illustration gig in the air and the author is hoping to come to town sometime next month to discuss in person. Until then we're going to exchange emails about ideas and inspiration as I'll be helping him build the whole style and feel on this story he has in outline form. This came through a mutual friend, and from what they both say he's self-published successfully a few times.
Then again, considering one of his favorite illustrators is Dave McDean I'd do this job if only to see if I could push myself to those levels.

Soon I'll get a few illustrations completed, but for now I have a few other non-commercial things to focus on.

Speaking of Shows!

My next showing will be the next Untitled's show "Sorry I Arted" on June 18th at Avenue 9 (312 9th Ave South) link to the Facebook event page if my interwebs linkage language isn't too rusty.
And then for non-FBers is the link to Untitled's site

Only one piece will be up, but it will be a matted and framed collection of four new squiggles. You may have run across me working on one during my random social times or at lunch, but one will be so new it might not get done!
Come, though. It's a free show and will have over 50 other local artists who are Massively talented.


I'm looking at a small group showing for a night in July, but I won't go into detail til it's solidified.

See, I like shows, but maybe I'll stick to two a month, at least til next year. I do have the wedding to plan, a honeymoon to entertain myself with and then the holidays to do.
In the meantime, I'll just do little things and keep to myself. The things I do best :)

Art Shows

They should be the one thing I treasure and seek to fill my months with. Well, that and lists upon lists of freelance clients, but that's another face of my art world we'll address later.
Art shows help get you exposure and let the world know who you are and what you do and what you'd do for them. It gets your work "Out There" and in the hands of possible buyers. They help you meet new people, make connections, make new friends, all that great jazz.

But, they also shove you in a room full of strangers who you're supposed to "sell to" without making that so obvious and be social. I am not a social cat. Never have been, even as a veryvery small child, and it takes a serious amount of energy for me to be the social cat.

Not to mention the stress you feel, as an artist, to create new and exciting work for each show. Cause, even though Nashville is a larger city, it's art community is pretty small and the chances that the entire crowd from Show X will be at Show Y are high....and I still have that mentality to "Do something Big, New and Ground Breaking!"


Another "But" to the art show thing is that I balance on the dividing art ling like a trapeeze artist:

I am not a Fine Gallery Artist. Not a Craft Artist. Not a Graphic Designer.

I do it all. Maybe I'm not the best, not the most inspiring or the most ground-breaking, but people seem to like what I do. Most importantly, though, I Love what I do, no matter the style. My drive to art is to Make Something. Anything. I joke about making art from whatever doesn't move fast enough out of my grasp, which is a bit of truth.

That's why I'm going through the effort of making and putting my own wedding together. Sure, I might save a bunch of time buying two boxes of invitations and crap, but it's WAAAAY cooler to say "I designed and made alllllllll of that." When the save-the-date postcards went out I got compliments on them and felt a little pride saying "yeah, I designed those." I'm really enjoying putting the invites together too even though the time I need to design, print and assemble is more than just printing on store bought or ordering everything from a supplier.
I'm betting that in the long run I'll be spending less money, but that hasn't been calculated yet. But, hey, I know at the least that 500 sheets of paper for $12 is definately a savings that wouldn't happen if I outsourced the printing. That's enough paper for Everything I could possibly print.

But I digress, sorry, bride-brain takeover.

My trapeeze analogy is that I don't fit very neatly into one type of art. I have a little fine art stuff worthy of gallery shows, but not much outside of the Bible Series. I've heard that the Heartwork stuffs are more crafty and not so much "art show" material, which I can understand. (see, I would rather not be social and be able to eavesdrop and hear the honest opinion of the viewer. the person I heard this from didn't realize they were speaking to the artist. sorry :) I'm not upset, just collecting critizism.) I do a little graphic design to make ends meet, but I'm definately not going to be breaking ground in that feild either.

I want to do more shows, yes, but the time and cost combined with the constant back-and-forth with feeling like I don't fit in keeps me holed up in my Shire with Future Hobbit Husband doing my own art thing. Maybe I'll be like an Emily Dickinson of the Art World and have post-humus fame after a life of seculsion. Either way....I have a home full of art, which I would love to make my Bread & Butter of life, but without having to be Social Cat :)

Hobby

One thing I really like doing is smashing random bits of metal, glass and bone into polymer clay shaped vaguely like hearts. Out of this mishmash comes little sculptures and jewelry bits.
My last show at Divergence showed a big lean towards the pendants, especially a new design which is paler, less grotesque and with broze or brass metals. So, today I'm mashing together a few of the most requested nail/heart combo along with the stone/bone look with brass pieces I was able to find on Etsy.

Luckily I've been able to trade secrets with more experienced sculptors and they've all said "Ignore the baking instructions on the back of the Super Sculpy. Set the oven to warm or lower, pop those suckers in and give it an hour or so."

Now, the hour or so is still a bit iffy and hard to determine, epecially since every oven is different (and mine is sooo wonky that you really have to know it's tricks.)
So far I've found that an hour is great for those pieces that are about 1/2" or smaller. Give 15 minute intervals for the thicker pieces. And if you think the piece will be more than an inch, just go ahead and pop the clay around a ball of aluminum foil, as the thick clay probably won't fully cook in the center.
I've gotten the "feel" of when a piece is almost done, though, and it seems like when the clay is firm but not hard (when your nail doesn't leave a mark but also doesn't look brittle) you're ready to take it out.
I'm about 20 minutes into baking the crossed nail pieces, and I really should get back to the bone/brass pieces.

Maybe I'll drag out Adam's digi-cam and share the makeshift workspace and steps of my process.
Some of these hearts are to fill pre-orders, but I'll be posting them, along with the unsold from Divergence, on my Etsy account......which is in a horrible need of STUFF....which means a lot of time to POST. heh.

Back to smashing. Images might come later ;)

Another step

To hopefully opening my art and the creative processes to the public view for sharpening interests.

As with any other artist's blog I'll be posting verbal musings about my projects along with the visual tidbits and final pieces. All the creative process, actually, including the movies and music that inspires me, the social outings that I get into and the shows I'll be involved in.
I do have Facebook, Myspace and Livejournal extensions, but this will be the sole Art Outlet for me. Livejournal is a pure personal outlet, so it's unlikely I'll ever link that here (or add whomever happens to find me. My apologies but I will enjoy a small bit of online privacy) but Facebook and Myspace are open to the public if you feel a need to catch those pages too. (Though the Myspace is all but obsolete when it comes to being up-to-date.)

I'm still very new to posting verbal and image entries, so give me some time to make this space all spiffy and eye catching.

For now, I'll continue watching this amazing movie "Changeling" and try not to be too creeped out :)