From the Sea!

I've been on a sealife kick for a bit now. I suppose living down the block from the bay and being an avid aquarium fan will do that.

With the opening of my Etsy store, I've been trying to create more physical paintings that I might be able to offer for sale.

The painting on the left (Tentacles) sold recently, so I was hoping to make a few prints of it. Unfortunately, my love affair with gloss gel seems to have made this task rather difficult. The glossy brush strokes scan *terribly*. They look like little white hairs all over the image, and ruin the feeling of the painting. While it looks nice in real life, I may need to abandon the gloss texture I've come to adore if I want to reliably scan any new work.

The painting on the right (Octopus) is a work-in-progress shot, which will NOT have the thick coat of gloss gel. I had a professor at MSU who abhorred the use of gloss medium, and I may need to channel her hatred for it if I want to leave it out!

In other news, I am still working on The Sketchbook Project sketchbook. It is still in pieces scattered by my desk, easel and work table. The due date is quickly approaching, so I am going to need to spend some serious time finishing it relatively soon. I'd like to create a time-lapse video of the project too, but that will probably fall by the wayside as the holidays approach.

And speaking of the holidays, I printed my Christmas cards with moo.com again this year!

I love, love, love their paper stock. The outside has such a soft velvety sheen to it --- perfect for Christmas cards! I've got them up on Etsy in packs of 10 (with matching envelopes of course!).

With so many things to work on, I have been running around a bit crazy. In the words of my favorite Companion, "Eyes on the prey, not the horizon".

...and yes, Skyrim is amazing :)

Grand Opening on Etsy!

I've had "create Etsy store" on my to-do list for almost a year now. I finally got to cross that item of my list! I feel like I should bake a cake or something...

I'll skip the baked goods for now (had enough over Thanksgiving anyway) and go with a coupon code to celebrate instead! From now until Friday, use "OPEN2011" for free shipping on any item in my store :)

New work wednesday!

Wood, acrylics, gloss medium and a spray bottle. I love these things right now.

I am pretty interested in exploring this new process. I've always loved drawing lesser-celebrated animals (hello possum portrait!) and the method of layering the pigment with gloss has me pretty much entranced. I've started a few more pieces with heavy india ink application as well, but I've had to lessen my reliance on the spray bottle.

In other news, I am about 30% done with my sketchbook for the Sketchbook Project and am really excited to visit one of the tour locations. My theme is 'Time Travel' which has made for quite a few headaches thus far. Oh the paradoxes!

I am also trying to finally get my Etsy store up. I removed the store section of my website back in the summer while we were travelling and I have yet to find the time to put it back up again. I'm thinking Etsy might be an easier route at this point.

Moral of the story: So many things to do, so little coffee to be had!

Jon Snow sketch... in the snow

I finished season 1 of Game of Thrones and had some time to sketch a bit before heading off to bed. I'm about halfway through A Clash of Kings and I am so hoping Jon makes it out of the series alive!

On a sidenote, will the whole show be called Game of Thrones? Or will they change the title to match the subsequent books?

Creation

I finally got a chance to finish an image I started back in the summer. Originally I had titled it 'The Sorceress' but as I worked, I felt the image was less about the woman and more about the process (hers and mine.) I finished the piece a few nights ago and changed the title to 'Creation'.

Inking my sketches from Europe

We got back from our 2 week trip around Europe on Tuesday. Now that I have adjusted back to eastern time again (and not just falling asleep at my desk) I am starting to play with the sketches I collected.
I found myself pretty well enraptured with the buildings in the areas we stayed in and spent a lot of time sitting outside pen in hand drawing cityscapes. (Or in most cases, villagescapes!) I loved the closeness of Bruges, the colors of Munich and of course, the canals in Amsterdam. Each city had so many beautiful squares, streets and hidden corners that it would have been impossible to draw everything that struck me. For this reason, I brought 2 cameras :)

I am starting to ink a few of the sketches I made in Munich (might as well go in chronological order) and am hoping to throw a few washes over each one. This one in particular was created at Marienplatz, a medieval square in the middle of the city.

Added Kimbra to the Gotye Painting

I've had Kimbra's 'Settle Down' on repeat all evening. I love it. The Barbie, Ken and Barbie v.2 motif is killer. I meant to paint both her and Gotye into the piece I did a few weeks ago - and finished adding her tonight.