Seattle and Old sketches…

Back from my Seattle art show, really enjoyed it. However Seattle is a whole new adventure while pregnant- suddenly everything is uphill no matter what direction you seem to go. Anyway I sold 3 pieces- Diana and the Moon, Sweet Decending and Driving Fire. Which I’m happy about because I really thought Diana and the Moon is a beautiful piece.

ALSO! I was going the through the unrelenting maze that is my artwork folder (I seriously need and external hard drive. If you have digital art- GET ONE.) and found some work that may not have seen the light of day… or at least this blog. So, onward to the pictures!

My first experience with Ambien went something like this. Don’t do drugs, kids.

A cute Satyr from my 30/30 show last year, the original sold but reprints are possible.

A sketch from sadder days.

sketching out concepts.

more concept sketching

From my 30/30 show last year. Original sold, but reprints possible.

Okay, I’m about o do something horrible that I know some of you will resent me for. But it’s beyond my control. I hope you’ll forgive my saccharine mushy gushing but…

I know. I’m sorry. It’s just too awesome for me not to freak out and show everyone. Get used to this, folks.

ISH MAH BAYBEH! EEEE!!! It’s got a head and arms and everything- with moveable parts!! OWMAHGOD. I love this little person so much! =^.^=

Apparently the Earth DOES have an edge

If it seems like I fell off the face of the Earth, it’s because I did.

 

I’m sorry for the long absence but I got hired- no wait, entangled- in a local alternative newspaper. Who? What? Why? I’m still trying to figure that out. But in the meantime I’ve been writing articles for The Corvallis Advocate. This has drastically altered the way I create art and content overall. For starters my review show- Silver Screen Reviews -is on hiatus indefinitely. I love doing my show, I really do, but it’s a commitment I unfortunately no longer have time to make. That being said- there have been some calls for a more informal show style, vlogs perhaps. And that is a definitely possibility. I would love to be able to continue the show in some capacity.

As for my art, I’m still finishing pieces from previous clients, after that I may have to close commissions. If you already have an agreement with me to do an ongoing set of commissions, this does not apply to you. Just to new commission requests. I’m sorry guys, we’re just a baby newspaper right now (only 4 weeks old) , and it’s going to take a lot of work to get us established. Once we’ve set into a comfortable groove and everyone’s found their sea legs, I hope to return to my show and to my commissions.

 

On the art show front, I am scheduled for the May 11th art show at Avanti Art and Design. More on that later :3

 

The Corvallis Advocate

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RAW Natural Born Artists: Interview at FUSION 08/11/11

 

Behold me awkwardly stumbling through my interview at FUSION! I am truly blessed with massive… talents. *emabarassed*

Back from Seattle

New Etsy shop

I was sitting in my friend’s car earlier this week, wallowing in a vat of impoverished self pity. I know that’s an attractive image, but stick with me. Anxiety is always at it’s peak right before a big show, will they like it? Will they hate it? Will it sell? What if I’m the worst artist there and everyone feels sorry for me. But like everyone is really nice to you? Like the mentally handicapped kid they let sing the national anthem at school. It’s a lot of pressure. I’m getting off track and I haven’t even written a paragraph yet.

The point is I have an Etsy account now. Don’t ask me how those two trains of thought are linked, I’m not sure myself. I’ll be selling prints of my artwork, but also cards and hopefully stickers, bookmarks, and all sorts of stuff. It’s in it’s infancy right now, send requests if you want something specific. <3

Here are the cards I have up right now

My Etsy Shop

Art show prints

Hey guys! Just a few updates about my two upcoming shows.

August 11th , FUSION Raw artist showcase: IMusic Ultra Lounge, Seattle

Live music
Fashion Show
Independent film screening
Art gallery
Cash bar

I still need to sell tickets to this event, it should be a lot of fun so buy a ticket and check it out! Get a ticket! 

August 12th, Avanti Art a Design VERSUS show

This a much more casual event- smaller venue, but there’s great food, wine… and y’know art and stuff.

My “versus” collection, Girl V World will revolve around women and girls, their perceptions of themselves and society’s reflection of that.

Prints

This collection is completely digital, so I’ll be doing a limited run of prints for both shows. I’ll also be selling postcards, and by postcards I mean small postcard shaped pictures you can do whatever the Hell you want with. Let me know if you want something signed, I promise to remember my pen this time!  <3

Raw Artist showcase fundraising- tickets on sale!

Okay guys, I’ve been invited to go to Seattle to be at FUSION: Raw Artist showcase for August 11th 2011. It’s a huge venue with live music, a fashion show, and a group of other selected artists. It’s an awesome opportunity! I have to sell 20 tickets at $10.00 a piece to afford my showcase fee. So if you can make it- or Hell even if you can’t!- buy a ticket to support my art habit!

Buy a ticket!   ** Be sure to choose which artist you are buying a ticket to sponsor in the drop down menu.

	Thursday, August 11, 2011 @ 8:00PM
	iMusic | 332 5th Avenue | Seattle, WA 98109
	21+ event. Cocktail attire. Tickets are $10 via presale.

PaintTool SAI – A quick review

I’ve used Photoshop for many years now. I still have my copy of 7.0, but I also use CS5. There have been moments when I look at another person’s drawing and think, “How the Hell do they get their lines so smooth?!” The answer for a lot of digital comic artists is PaintTool SAI. So I picked it up and gave it a whirl.

The first thing to remember is that PaintTool SAI is based purely in digital drawing rather than graphic design as a whole. So it lacks a lot of the graphical manipulation tools that Photoshop has. But if you’re just doing digital painting, odds are you’re not using a lot of those tools anyway. And PaintTool SAI is only $65.00.

Upon installing, the biggest difference is the size. The entire program only requires about 512 MB of free space. That’s smaller than a feature length movie. And it boots up immediately without having to load a ton of graphical options.

PaintTool SAI is popular with Japanese comic artists. One thing it’s really got going for it is line art. It has a stabilizer ability that slows down and smooths out the motion of your hand. It’s a little awkward at first, but I found it to be really helpful. Here’s an example I did today…

PaintTool SAI also has a lot of the coloring capabilities of Photoshop, as it is tailored much more specifically for digital art. You can save any color for later use on a swatch board, so things like skin tones, hair color, and clothing can remain totally consistent for picture to picture. There are many different styles of coloring and shading, one of my favorite being the watercolor function. It basically adds a texture to the layer, and gives it a painted look. Here’s the same line art painted with this layer…

 

On one hand, SAI definitely has Photoshop beat for the price point. On the other, you don’t get as many features as you would with Adobe. Overall I really like PaintTool SAI, I recommend it for those who do a lot of digital illustration. But I still find myself needing to transfer things into Photoshop for tweaking every once in a while. You can check out PaintTool SAI for a 30 day free trial here.

May 13th show aftermath

I’m back from Seattle! The first show at Avanti Art and Design in behind me and I have a better grasp of what I’m dealing with. Like any large event, the anticipation is worst part. Waiting and making sure everything was prepared was completely nerve-wracking. I was so frazzled, I completely forgot to take photographs of the traditional work. I’ll try and snag some from the gallery owners. Once everything was done, all there was to do was stand around and attempt to be friendly without sounding like a  sleazy used car salesman. There were a TON of people there, the gallery was shoulder to shoulder people for most of the night, which was great. The next show in July is supposed to be busier- which I can barely imagine.

Next show: 30 Pieces in 30 Days – July 9th. Hope to see you all there <3

Maybe Next Year… a cautionary tale

My circumstances were as such that I needed to go to college directly out of high school. My first instinct was to major in art. And so I did, and quickly came to the conclusion that it would get me nowhere. It’s a fair assumption, no art teacher ever lectures in class about how lucrative charcoal drawing is, or the monetary benefits of painting. This is coupled by my first interactions with a few terrifying words, “RENT” being the scariest quickly followed by “LATE”. For the first time there was a very real sense that if I didn’t learn a marketable skill- and fast- I would be stuck at a job I hated for the rest of my life.

So I didn’t want to work a minimum wage job forever. Financial security needed to come before lofty dreams of being an artist. Not even security, just… not being verbally abused by the elderly, really. So I spent my time in college bouncing between different majors, all the while gravitating further and further away from art. I went through the education major for a year and became horribly disillusioned with education in America. I majored in Psychology only to learn that to ever practice I would need a Masters degree, something I had no money for or interest in acquiring. But here’s what it really comes down to: my school has a great Graphics Design program, and if I could do things over I would have applied for that in the beginning. It’s what I should have done. (shoulda, coulda, woulda.) I didn’t think I had what it took to be a Graphic Designer, and damnit, this has got to be the worst insecurity I ever had. Of course you’re not going to be good enough in the beginning! If you were they’d just hand you the fucking diploma on the first day. I had the loans and financial aid and spent all of it clambering to find a safer route that I could tolerate. Not enjoy, just be good at and not hate my life. I should have gone when I had the money and the time. Now that window of opportunity is gone, the money is gone and all I have to show for it is barely an Associates degree.

It’s come to my attention that I am an artist whether I like it or not. And try as I might, I’m not very good at anything else. If you want to go- GO. Stop worrying if you’re good enough or whether or not you’ll get paid. Resources can be found, money can be made. I know that now, I wish I had known it then.