Blog Archives
Flying Black Cat Revisted
It’s fun to look back on artwork from the past and finding inspiration there. I was inspired by a painting with flying black cats that I made about a year ago, and decided to create more imagery with these cats because I remember having so much fun with them. Instead of a warmer palette, I pictured darker, cooler painting with a cat perched up high in front of a big bright full moon. The moon has found its way into a lot of my paintings already but I don’t think I can tire of it!
Project 365: Day 191-193: Cooking, Cleaning, and Flying Pandas
Day 191 – Pork chops and cauliflower
Day 192 – House cleaning.. wonderful.
Cooking.. cleaning.. I am totally winning at this housekeeping thing! Course I failed at actually finishing at cleaning up, but.. you know.. I’ll get there. (Also, vinegar and water is amazing at removing carpet stains! High five!)
Day 193 – Matte prints.. huzzah!
I’ve always sold my prints using luster paper, which has this subtle sheen to it. I found it’s wonderful to get those really black blacks and vibrant colours, but I started to offer matte paper as an option to listings now. I’ve experimented a few times with matte paper, and the black tends to be a bit softer than on luster paper, but otherwise the prints came out really well. I’ve also had a few inquiries for larger sized prints, and I’m looking to offer 11×14 prints next – I have the right paper for it now … but I just need the right packaging supplies now. That to-do list just likes to get longer and longer!
Project 365: Day 86-88: Daily Deviation and More Bunnies
Day 86 - Daily Deviation!
I noticed I was getting more views than normal coming in from deviantART and found out that one of my pendants had made it as a Daily Deviation! My autumn swing pendant got to be featured on their site, and the views on my DA gallery poured in all day. I was on Cloud 9! Bonus too was that the pendant finally sold earlier this month. (:
Day 87 - Moon Tarot work in progress
Day 88 - Let Go work in progress
- Here are a few more work in progress shots of the Moon Tarot and the Dissociation painting. The Moon Tarot was pretty close to being done at this point, minus a few sparkly stars in the sky and a few other details. The “Let Go” painting was in the beginning stages. I don’t know why I choose to draw everything and then paint the background around the characters.. rather than the easier way of painting the entire background first, and then draw the characters on top. The brain works in weird ways.
Hermit Tarot Card – No Crabs Allowed!
I had hit the wall. The tarot card wall, that is.
I had no idea which animal would be my hermit in my hermit card. The most obvious choice was the hermit crab, but the most obvious choice is not necessarily the perfect choice, right? So I was stuck with this card and my mystery hermit for over a week or two. I even thought of maybe skipping this card and working on the next card on my list because it seemed to be that hard to decide on.
But then I started seeing this as a challenge that I couldn’t back down from. I decided to stop over thinking this card. Instead, I tried to relax and started sketching out the animals that would look and feel ‘right’. I had a list of animals that were potential Hermits: the fox, cougar, mountain goat, even the Arctic Tern. I tried to pick out more solitary animals to suit this tarot, but the red panda ended up winning this one. I liked that instead of this dark kinda dreary coloured hermit card, I got to work on this card with a bright coloured animal. In the usual hermit card, he is standing and looking down, holding a staff in one hand and a lantern in the other. I tend to not make my illustrations look anything like the original cards, but to me, these elements were important; so I took the staff and it became a tree supporting my red panda, and the shining light from the lantern became a firefly.
The hermit has taken himself away from the company of others and is on this journey of discovery, without outside distractions. To me, the hermit speaks about introspection, finding solace in solitude, and the journey. Creating this card was definitely a journey and now I’m glad that it’s finally finished. Now I have the next couple of cards planned out and I’m hoping they’ll be a breeze compared to this one. The next card on the list? Death. (Dun dunnn.)
