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Nyan Cats in Love
Dear Nyan Cat,
I think I have a love affair with you. I can’t help it. You’ve got everything that I want: you’re a cat, first of all, and that’s pretty awesome. But you also poop rainbows. Or trail rainbows. Whatever. Rainbows seem to come out of your butt, and I think that’s awesome. Plus you’ve got the best Pop Tart costume. Either that, or you’re made out of Pop Tarts, and if that’s the case, you rock even harder because I want to eat you. And don’t even get me started on that song of yours.
But really, I thought that if one Nyan Cat was already so awesome, then two Nyan Cats would have to be amazingly awesome. And so I painted two Nyan Cats soaring the starry skies and celebrating their love. This was quite a little journey, particularly all of the rainbows I ended up painting, but I think it all worked out. I always grumble about how much work painting rainbows are.. and yet I can’t stop painting them. I think that’s the power of the Nyan Cat.
Shadows
I’ve got every painting, every image and photograph organized on my computer, and when I had scanned this one in and made a new folder for it, I wasn’t really sure what to call the folder. Rabbit shadow? Galaxy something-or-other?? Bwuh???
I ended up calling it simply “Shadows”. I had this image as a drawing or two in my sketchbook (sans stars) and I wondered what I could do with it as a full painting. I just liked the imagery of these long shadows that become greater than the actual person (or in this case, bunny) casting it. So that little sketch slowly worked its way into a full painting.
I wanted to continue on from Letting Go and create more imagery with a little more emotion, a little more abstract, something with a little more meaning than what I’ve painted in the past. I feel like I’m taking baby steps, but I’m slowly getting there. I really like this painting, like Letting Go, it’s something that’s just kinda cute and a little pretty but can have a lot more meaning behind it than from first glance. I actually was a bit stuck when I was painting this. I pictured the rabbit sitting in different settings. Should it be on grass? On a ground of dirt? On a blank, white canvas? I decided to go with a more abstract, textured background with a neutral brown, and let the galaxy and the stars, the purples and faint pinks stand out more.
With this image, well, I feel like it represents a time when you feel like you’re present, you’re here. You may even be alone, but your true self is far, far away, somewhere as far as another planet or even another galaxy. It’s kind of hard to describe what was going through my head at the time; I’m not very good at explaining my own imagery, but that’s a bit of a glimpse of where I wanted to go with this one.
Do Crazy Artists Make More Money? Lets Hope So.
After the Nerdy Yorkshire Terrier and the Nerdy Tortoise, I had a request on deviantart for a Nerdy Axolotl and you just can’t say no to that!
I need a little break from photos and treasuries and tags before I go a bit crazy.. okay, I admit I’m already a bit crazy – I remember one day when I was hanging out with a friend.. this huge bright light made me want to grab my tablet pen, go to the Photoshop window and adjust the exposure.. tweak the gamma a bit, perhaps, maybe the saturation..
Except that I was actually outside.
Away from any computer.
And the bright light I was seeing was actually the sun.
I spent the next few minutes muttering that real life really needs some tweaking in Photoshop.
.. I think I might be sitting in front of the computer a bit too much.
Anyway.
Some more updates, perhaps?
I’ve been slowly getting into the groove of the tarot cards again. I think a (crazy) goal of mine is to ultimately paint the entire tarot deck.. it’s only, well.. *mutter – 78 cards – mutter* and I know I won’t reach that goal anytime soon. It’s a far away dream, and I plan on taking my time, but I am enjoying the ride! I have the next tarot card in mind, and I think I’m definitely going to be having a lot of fun with that one. (Also, this is probably just slightly more attainable then when I decided to paint all the pokemon.. we’re at what now, 649 pokemon? Eek.)
The Six of Wands was first, and I almost chose to paint a lynx but decided on the sleek looking caracal. I wanted a powerful cat to represent the victory of the Six of Wands card, but not a common choice like a lion or tiger. Playing with the caracal’s fur and the gradients in the background was especially fun, as well as the fluffy ear bits. Fluffy ear bits make me happy!
The Star was a bit of a challenge as well. If you ever look at the original card, you can tell that there’s a LOT of stuff going on, and every aspect of the card has a meaning: the number of stars in the sky, even the number of points on the stars mean something. I didn’t want to overload my painting too much, but decided to paint an American White Ibis. The ibis is actually the bird in the original card and seemed like the best choice in the end.
Here’s a bit of the rambly side of being a seller on Etsy. (You have been warned!)
I’ve probably spent a good several solid days tweaking all of my listings in my Etsy shop, but not because of this whole ‘relevency’ thing (more on that another day, perhaps), but because of all the photos I’ve been adding.. I have 200+ listings in my shop now, and that means 200+ photographs to add!
Here’s a link to the ‘before‘ shot of the shop. Kinda.. static? Repetitive? Weird?
Here’s how it looks as of today:
I think the variety of display shots is at least a bit of improvement.. I still have a few more listings to go through and photographs to add – WHEW. This feels like it never ends! And I still want to tackle improving descriptions and tags even further.. not to mention making a shop banner that’s um, a little.. better? The one I have up there was really one I just slapped together for the sake of having a banner up. I think I gotta dig up the digital art side of me again. It feels like it’s been a long time!
I also added some new sale items: customizable listings for multiple prints.
Hopefully August isn’t as slow as people say it is. If anything, I’ll have the rest of the month to draw and paint more, and to enjoy that blinding ball of light in the sky before it stops being so bright.
Once winter comes, I’ll probably be complaining about how I need to open up Photoshop and bump up the levels and contrast of the sky..
Do To-Do Lists Help? Lets Publish It And See.
I feel like I really need to get into gear. There are soo many things I want to work on, things I want to look into, new ideas I want to start on. I figure that maybe if I list some things here, it’ll make me work faster!
- I’ve painted three different tarot cards so far, but it feels like I’ve practically abandoned series already! But really, coming up with ideas for them so far has been pretty exhausting. So I’ve been taking a break from it. I would like to start a new card soon.. just waiting for the right inspiration to hit.
- I’ve painted two constellations; the next one will probably be Cetus the sea monster. I don’t think I’ve drawn up a sea monster before so even I’m curious as to what the heck will happen with this one!
- The next nerdy animal by request is the Yorkshire Terrier, which is already so insanely cute that putting a pair of glasses on its tiny little face will probably cause my brain to not only explode, but implode… all at once… somehow.
- I remember getting a suggestion to turn the “O Canada” print into a series featuring different countries. I’ve put this idea on the backburner so far but would like to start it up soon! Painting an ode to Canada was easy when you’re Canadian, but other countries sound like a fun challenge to me. (*cough-help!!-cough*)
Here are a few awesome animals that might be painted in the near future..
- There are other mediums I want to try, but that will probably take some time to look into. The weekend looks like it might be a busier one but I hope to get at least a little painting done.
Anyone else have a to-do list? Mine should probably be a LOT longer than this.. this is just an art list. My actual shop to-do list is probably miles long! But here’s hoping a published to-do list helps me stay on track. (And not fall into the “Oh well, one more Supernatural episode can’t hurt” trap…)
.. I also just found a ‘forgotten’ folder with even more animals to paint. EEK. Where the heck did that come from? >_>
On another note, I think I slept too long and now my neck hurts a lot more than usual. *weep*
Why I’m A New Etsy Treasury Fan – or – Where Did My Afternoon Just Go?!
I never really ‘got’ Etsy treasuries. There are endless amounts of teams on etsy dedicated to them; people talk about how important treasuries can be for connecting with other sellers, getting more exposure, and maybe even get some sales. (Well, maybe if you cross all your fingers and toes and pray to the Etsy gods!) Now I have nothing against treasuries, but I’ve already felt pretty overwhelmed with all the aspects of having an Etsy shop. With painting, scanning items, prepping listings, taking photos, editing photos, keeping a page on twitter, facebook, a blog, tumblr, etc, etc, well now geez, now treasuries? After having a to-do list a mile long, I should also sift through hundreds of thousands of items on the site and make this treasury thing? Regularly? Are you SERIOUS??
