Naked Pixels

Recommended Reading: "The Fairy Artist's Figure Drawing Bible"

In July of last year (It feels a little odd still to call 2009 "last year".) I wrote about The Fantasy Artist's Figure Drawing Bible by Matt Dixon. This is a similar book, also published by Barron's... The Fairy Artist's Figure Drawing Bible by Linda Ravenscroft. It gives a lot of the same basic information about color and technique, as well as choosing your tools to work with, and is laid out in almost the same way. Instead of focusing on common races, creatures, and archetypes from general fantasy settings, however, this book focuses completely on drawing fairies.

(Note: For consistency, I will do my best to use "fairy" in this post. Should a "faerie" sneak in, though, that's not entirely a mistake... it's the way I normally spell the word.)

Like The Fantasy Artist's Figure Drawing Bible, this book is most useful to me as a reference book. I also think the two go well together. There are many artists who specialize in drawing fairies and close-up peeks into their world. Fairies are often very much a part of general fantasy settings, however, and the other book doesn't focus on them at all. This book can help you add fairies to your pieces that are already populated with ogres, dwarves, dragons, and wizards.

The section in the book on wings really got me thinking about how different wings on fairies can make or break a piece. An autumn piece done in reds and oranges, with falling leaves and plenty of acorns, isn't really where I'd picture butterfly-style wings. Styling the wings after those of a Monarch butterfly helps, but a fairy with wings inspired by leaves may actually look like more of a part of that world, rather than just being "at home" in that world.

Most of the fairies in the book are the popular happy, cheerful, flowery fairies. But hardcore folklore enthusiasts know of the Unseelie Court, as well, and the book does offer tips on drawing some of the fey who can be thought of as "going bump in the night". (Something to think about for drawing faeries when Halloween comes around again.)

My favorite thing about the book may be all the tips for drawing clothing. It's not that difficult for me to think of fairies wearing dresses made of leaves, or hats made of acorns or mushrooms, but I'm not sure I'd come up with some of the other ideas in the book on my own. I like pieces that have fairies almost, but not quite, blending into the world around them... making the eye search for them for just a second before seeing them. A lot of the clothing advice in this book would make drawing something like that a lot easier for me.

Whether you're learning to draw fairies as something other than simply tiny humans, or you just need an easy reference book to keep the details from becoming to generic and repetitive, I really do think The Fairy Artist's Figure Drawing Bible is worth taking a look at. Now that I've been pleased with two of these books, I'm going to be looking for others.

Binders for Photo Albums or Scrapbooks

After the Zazzle/Avery binders recipe binder contest, a new contest was announced. I wanted to enter this one, butjust wasn't able to find the time. I did take a look at the entries, though, and there are some really nice photo album/scrapbook binders!

I think the ones I like most, as far as theme of the design goes, may be the "family history" type binders.

averyphotobindercontest2009 8 Person Family Tree by jamierushad
Create a 3 ring binder online at zazzle.com

Family Genealogy Photo Album by spacedust
See other Averyphotobindercontest2009 Binders

I especially like the one with the family tree. That would make a great photo album, or binder for family history materials.

I also really love this one for making a baby book!

When I Was Little Photo Album averyphotobindercont by littlegoose
See other custom printed binders online at zazzle

Does anyone actually keep baby books for their kids anymore? That would make an adorable cover for one.

Great contest entries! Even though I didn't get in on the contest, I intend to create some photo album designs for binders. Not in the super-near future, though. (Still recovering from a very busy week last week.) So go ahead and buy one of these... I'll be jealous of your cute new photo album. ;-)

Art Challenge for the Holidays

Yesterday was the first day of November. The day after Halloween. I do my grocery shopping on Sunday afternoons, and the first thing I heard when I walked into the grocery store was Christmas music.

The day after Halloween!

Christmas just isn't what it was when I was a child. Some of that is the difference in perspective. Christmas just looks different when you're only about three or four feet tall. It's a time when ignorance truly is bliss, and you can enjoy the tree-decorating because you didn't have to haul the tree in or straighten out the lights, dance around while cookies and candy are being made because you didn't have to buy all the ingredients, and presents seem to magically appear because you didn't have to buy and wrap them all.

Some of the changes to the Christmas season are a matter of other changes in life. My grandmother passed away a few years ago just before Thanksgiving, and we lost my grandfather earlier that same year. Christmas just hasn't been the same without them, and I especially feel my grandmother's absence in the kitchen. As difficult as it can be to make room for everyone around the table, that kitchen is just a lot emptier with one person missing.

It's still Christmas, though! My mom makes a great meal herself, and my sister's kids are now there to run around and tear into packages. And even if the exact names and position in the family of various family members has changed over the years, we all still go to the same house, sit around the same table, and spend that time together. It's different, but it's still worth it. It still matters.

That's something you really can't put a price tag on, and no store will ever have control over it, no matter how early they start the music or how many sales they have.

What does this have to do with art? I'm getting to that. Indulge me for another minute or two, though.

I've just explained why Christmas matters to me. You could give it any other name, though, and it would still matter. You could call it Hanukkah, Yule, Three Kings Day, or any number of other holiday names related to this season. I'm not too picky about the religious or cultural basis for the holiday, as that doesn't have much to do with what makes it, for me, "the most wonderful time of the year".

I know what's going to happen. It happens every year now. I'm going to get annoyed by the music. I'm going to want to start mowing down crowds of people with my shopping cart. I'm going to feel the burden of the financial balancing act. I'm going to feel the pressure to get everything done in time. I'm going to want to pay the bell ringers to stop ringing. (Which is a clear sign that it's all getting to me, because those bell ringers are doing a wonderful thing and even dropping a little change into their bucket matters.)

Then I'm going to get an email from my mom.

She puts a quote from Dr. Seuss at the end of her emails during the Christmas season, and it always seems to show up just in time for me. Just before I reach my holiday breaking point. The quote she uses is the last couple of sentences from this:

"And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow, stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so? It came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes or bags. And he puzzled and puzzled 'till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before. What if Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store? What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more?"

That gets me through the holiday stress until I can see Linus explain, once again, to Charlie Brown what the true meaning of Christmas is and that little tree gets some love. And that's not about the religion, but about having that one person who will remind you that there's more to this than the stress, rush, and marketing. It applies to whatever name you call the holiday.

Again... what does this have to do with art? I have a small challenge for each of you this year.

Get the jump on your inner-Scrooge by expressing what's good about this time through your creativity! It doesn't have to be something big. If your holidays are already full of things to do (as most people's are) it would probably be best for it not to be something big. But do something that will fill you with holiday cheer. If you like to bake, bake some gingerbread men for yourself one afternoon. Or spend a couple of hours one weekend helping your kids make some Christmas cards for a few of the people on your list. No kids? Make a card for someone special yourself. (One of my most prized possesions is a green and red crayon scribbled card my nephew made for me his first Christmas. Looks like chicken scratch, worth more than an entire museum.) If you have the time and like to knit or crochet, make one of the gifts on your list by hand.

I'd love emails and/or comments if you decide to do this. Share the holiday love! Feel free to wait a few weeks before you get started, though. After all, it was just Halloween!

My Work and The Near Future: Trust Me...

When I posted "Holiday Shopping and Coming Attractions" I talked about getting more content out in time for... well, holiday shopping... but not as much as one might expect at this time of year, and certainly not a flood of holiday designs. There are reasons for this that affect more than just the holiday shopping season, and I've given some thought to why I don't explain what's going on and what effect that might be having on the general perception of how serious I am about what I do. Even when I have addressed personal topics here, there's a lot I don't say. Honestly, my personal life isn't your problem, and this blog is about the art that I do. But my personal life is affecting my productivity, and I feel like I've strayed a bit from what I originally said I was going to do here. So before I make any changes to what passes for a "Mission Statement" on this blog, I want to explain things. It's a long post, and I won't be offended if you don't read it. (There is a "tl;dr" at the bottom of the post, though, if you'd like to skip down there.) But if you'd like an explanation for what's going on with Graphic Content by Rosa Amarilla, here it is.

What was this supposed to be "About", again?

When I started this blog, I put up an "About" page, both about the blog and me. Part of that page says,

"I didn't want to build a website to advertise my Zazzle gallery, and I didn't want to start what would essentially be a "spam blog". Nor do I want to Tweet myself to death about the gallery and lose all my Twitter followers. So I decided to start a blog where I could advertise my Zazzle designs and talk about what I've learned from doing this. I've made a lot of mistakes and learned from them. In fact, the whole "start a blog to improve your web presence" was one of the lessons I had to learn from having done this poorly for over a year. I also wanted to talk about the creative process... what inspires me, how I approach a project.

I want to strip down the personal aspects of how I do this and lay them out bare so others can see this is "real" work, but also very fulfilling work. You don't always see that when you only look at the finished product, all dressed up and pretty. What happens before that finished product is all... *drumroll*... naked pixels."

I don't feel like that's what I'm getting done anymore. At least not to the extent I meant to do that. There's a division where I talk about art and other artists, then I advertise that my stuff is in the store. I just don't seem to get around to talking about my own work as anything other than advertisements, though. And that is, obviously, not how I intended to do this.

So do it that way! What's stopping you?

This is where the personal issues come in, and I'm going to make this as brief as I can while still explaining how it's affecting my work. The two main things standing in the way are my own health, and my husband's health.

Due to a couple of chronic, yet manageable, health issues I keep a daily chart of things to help recognize larger patterns in my day-to-day health. Soon, I'll be going to the doctor to find out if some of the problems I've had with being able to "get caught up" this year are really due to slow recovery from psuedotumor cerebri, or if there is now something else affecting me. (Sometimes, one illness puts you in the risk group for another illness... ) Either way, it's something that can be managed, but we're going to need a different strategy. That's become apparent from going over the chart.

I am simply exhausted all the time. I'm eating well, getting an okay amount of activity, my blood pressure and blood sugar are good, and my doctor isn't unhappy with where my overall physical health is at this point and insists that I shouldn't be so hard on myself about my weight. I just can't get fully rested. I sleep well, and for a healthy length of time each night. Muscle aches won't fade, though, and even though I'm not sleepy I'm just always mentally tired. Depending on what I do in a day, physically tired goes with that. And it doesn't take much. Something as simple as doing my weekly grocery shopping becomes the one thing I can get done that day. Mowing my yard knocks me out for most of a week. Some days, I need to take an hour or so to sit down and rest after I get dressed for the day. Mental work does this to me, as well. My doctor already has me taking "rest time" every afternoon because I was stressing out to the point of chest pain over how much I'm unable to get done and how limited I feel.

Add to this my husband's health. He is a disabled Marine, and we've had a fight with the VA going on for a couple of years now. It's not so much a matter of proving our case, but being given an opportunity to prove our case. They've managed to completely avoid treating his condition, which has caused the condition to worsen over time. They've responded to inquiries from our Congressman with letters that essentially say they are aware that my husband has filed an appeal, they don't know when they'll be able to get to it, and our Congressman shouldn't bug them about it again for at least a few months. They've lost track of their copy of my husband's medical record from when he was active duty, so when they do address his condition they try to do so as if it were a new development. Then they realize it's not, that they don't have everything together, and that resets the entire process. They have him rated at a 20% disability level, even though at this point he goes through weeks at a time of being almost completely confined to bed, and he is severely limited in what he can do physically even when it isn't that bad.

In two years, because of the VA not treating him and making excuses for why it's not their fault that they haven't treated him, my husband's condition has gotten bad enough that, while we did expect he would eventually be this disabled, we had no reason to expect it to start getting this bad for at least another ten years.

This does not mean we haven't had help! Someone from the Wounded Warrior Regiment has done everything he is able to in his position to help us, and continues to work on getting representation for my husband in his appeal. My parents loaned us what was not a small sum of money to be able to buy a mattress that has helped decrease the frequency of "confined to bed" days, and taken the edge off of the general pain level. My sister has been amazing in helping us make the trips we've needed to for VA appointments, since those drives aren't possible for me and my husband's condition has rendered him unable to drive at all. And my mom has spent extra days on "Grandma Duty" with my neice and nephew so that my sister could make those trips with us.

If you ever want to do something to show thanks and support for the men and women who should be held up as our Honored Warriors, please support the Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund. They also help those from other branches who become wounded while serving with Marines, and there is just no way my husband and I will ever be able to adequately repay the help, kindness, and respect we've gotten from them.

So life is slowing me down... what am I going to do about it?

Part of the problem around here is what I've been doing to try to compensate for how things are slowing me down... I've been trying to hide it. I'm trying to keep putting out content as regularly as I can, even when that means that I delay working on a new piece by choosing to write a post. Or I delay that "Mysterious Other Project" I keep teasing you all with by choosing to put out something that won't take as long to get ready. Or I delay getting things I need to catch up on at home done because I know doing them will set me back even further on my art, and I don't want anyone to think I'm burning out on this and end up taking my work less seriously. Not when what I have done is starting to get noticed more! Trying to cover up my shortcomings is making me fall further behind.

My solution to this is I'm going to ask you to trust me for a while.

Updates to my Zazzle store are about to become even less frequent, and they'll mostly be new items in already established product lines when they do happen. Trust me when I say this does not mean I'm running out of ideas, or running out of steam when it comes to the whole Zazzle thing.

I'm still not revealing what this "Other Project" is yet. If I say I'm taking time to work on it, please trust that it does exist. "Working on the 'Other Project'", is not code for, "Spending a day being lazy while pretending I'm working on something". :-) It's just not something I want to explain until it's ready to be made public, and while there is a lot of groundwork for it that I'm working on laying, it should really help condense the amount of work I need to do each week and allow me to keep pushing forward with my art and do the Zazzle thing. If I spend a little more time on that, and a little less on what I have been doing, I believe I can have this ready for January 2010.

I've always made an effort to explain why I'm not writing a full post on the days that I've had to skip here. If I start skipping days and not explaining, please trust that I'm not losing interest in writing this blog, and that regular posting will return. There will always be at least one post a week unless something happened to our internet, my computer, or me. If anything like that did happen, a way would be found to post a notice.

TL;DR (Too Long; Didn't Read)

I enjoy what I do, but I do also take it seriously as work. That means I'm not abandoning it, and I do feel I sometimes owe people an explanation when I need to cut back or change the way I do things. One of the strengths of doing this on my own, as opposed to traditional employment, is that I can adjust things when they need to be adjusted. If work and life are getting in each other's way, I have the power to move them around and get them to flow together again. And that's really what this post is all about... making sure that it's clear that this is an evolving thing, and that I sometimes need to make changes to keep it going. I'm not burning out or giving up. Trust me on that. :-)

Creatively stuck? Try a change in media!

A few days ago, I started to idly wonder if cross-stitch patterns could effectively be turned into quilting patterns. It was a stray thought, no plans for cross-stitiching or quilting, and I didn't give it enough attention to really come up with an answer. It seems to me that it could easily be done, but just what adjustments might need to happen for a workable end result... I don't know. It did get me thinking further, though, about borrowing from one medium when you work with another.

Back to the cross-stitich patterns... My grandmother used to crochet beautiful pieces that could be framed and hung in someone's house that showed their family name. She did this with filet crochet. As I recall (and I charted a few of these myself for her), the charts that she used as her patterns were cross-stitch patterns for letters that were charted out by hand onto graph paper.

Illustrators for children's books (just one example) borrow from a different medium all the time. That's really their job. Ernest Shepard's drawings are as much a part of the Winnie-the-Pooh books as Milne's writing. I think a large part of that is because Shepard did add little details not present in the story and descriptions, while also staying faithful to what Milne had written. It feels less like, "Here's a picture of what the words say," and more like, "Come see what I see when I read these words."

Two of my favorite movies are Fantasia and Fantasia 2000. The former is how I learned to appreciate purely instrumental pieces. I could let my mind wander and create a whole world with the music as a soundtrack, without having that world influenced by the ideas communicated through someone else's lyrics. (Not that I don't like that, too. Most music I listen to does have lyrics. I usually expect them to be meaningful, not just sound good, though.) Sure, the music itself is someone else's influence on what you imagine that way, but an influence that can leave more wiggle room for the listener's imagination. Music can be a gentle nudge when the imagination isn't sure where to go.

If you get stuck in creative quicksand, try reaching for another medium as a lifeline. Don't feel like music can't help because you aren't a musician, or sewing isn't what you do so there's no reason to look at the patterns. Take it in, and find a way to make it your own. Then get back to creating!

Art on a Budget: Tools of the Trade

There are a lot of really great computer programs for art, cameras, scanners, and other tools out there... and I just can't afford most of them. That's not as hopeless as it used to seem. I used to think the lack of money for top-of-the-line tools was going to prevent me from being able to do much.

I was mistaken. I was missing a few facts when I reached that conclusion. Okay... I was wrong.

It has taken me some time to put together the tools I use, so if you're starting from scratch and don't have at least a few hundred dollars to spend, don't try to buy everything at once. You just may not need to spend as much as you once feared.

Here are the tools I use...

Adobe Photoshop CS : Yes, I use the one from 2003. I've been using it since 2007, and before that I was using Photoshop 5.0... from 1998. This may not work for everyone. There are some things new in each release that may be truly vital to what another artist does. For what I do, though, it can take several releases before changes become significant enough that it's worth upgrading.

If you just can't get Photoshop at all, GIMP is free. I tried it at one time, and the results were so good that I figured if I was getting the same results either way, I may as well just keep using Photoshop since I'm already comfortable with it. If I didn't have Photoshop, GIMP would be my choice.

ArtRage : I picked this program up for about ten bucks in a local store and wasn't expecting much out of it. It just didn't seem complex enough to do much with, and why else would they be selling it for only ten bucks? It turned out to be one of my favorite programs! I've never become super comfortable with the interface, but that's probably because I only use the program for certain types of projects. (I still end up using Photoshop more frequently.) If the Corel Painter programs aren't a financial option for you, ArtRage has great features for digital painting. It's beginner friendly, and they aren't the same features you'd find in Corel's products (I wouldn't call one a substitute for the other... just a different tool), but I've also seen some amazing work done with ArtRage. Most things I do that look like they were done on paper were actually done with this program.

Corel Painter Essentials : This is the hobbyist version of Corel Painter. I use it in cases where neither Photoshop nor ArtRage is the right program for the job, and usually that means as some sort of "finishing up" after using one of those two programs for the bulk of the work. The results are great, and I think my biggest problem with the program may actually be that I'm trying to figure out how to do things that I'd be better off using Corel Painter for. And I certainly love their magazine!

Wacom Bamboo Fun : I will use this tablet until I have enough money to buy a different Wacom! I cannot say enough about how wonderful a Wacom tablet is! They make several models that can go a lot further in functionality (The Cintiq makes me drool!) but also cost a lot more. I'd say the Bamboo Fun is better than trying to draw by holding down your mouse button and dragging, but that's really just an insult to how much better than that it is. It's a very natural drawing experience, and I didn't even have trouble adjusting to looking at my screen while using the stylus on the tablet. I thought I would... the idea of not looking where I'm "drawing" was just so weird to me until I plugged it in.

The medium sized Bamboo Fun can still run over one hundred dollars, depending on where you get it, but I just wouldn't advise going with a cheaper tablet from another company. I've seen tablets that retail for thirty to fifty dollars, but lack many features of the Wacom tablets. Features like whatever it is that makes the Wacom only need to plug into your USB port and then not need any kind of extra power source for the pen and mouse. (Not your regular mouse... it comes with a mouse. Which you could replace your regular mouse with and do everything with the tablet, really.) These other tablets pushed the "wireless pen and mouse" thing, but you had to put batteries in them. Depending on how much you use it, or how fast it sucks the life out of the batteries, you might end up spending more that way in the long run.

If you want to get a tablet and could get your hands on someone's Wacom just to try it out, do so. Then if you can only come up with the money to buy a medium sized Bamboo Fun, that should keep you comfortably going until you can upgrade.

One more tool...

Google : Or whatever search engine you like. Some books and magazines are so helpful I end up buying them, but I wouldn't be able to keep that up for long if I needed to buy something every time I needed a tutorial or reference material. Most things I need can be found for free by simply searching for "how to" do this or that, or using Image Search for reference pictures. If you suddenly can't figure out how high up on the walls you should draw the windows for this castle you've spent the last 16 hours drawing, there are plenty of pictures out there to give you an idea of what would look best. It might be a little more difficult to get artistic nudes without getting... let's call them "entertainment nudes", but you're in the privacy of your own home and you are drawing people with no clothes on, after all!

The best tools available just aren't a reality for everyone. But that doesn't mean you have to use crappy tools, or go without. The really good news is, digital art doesn't consume supplies! You don't have to keep going back for more paper, more canvas, more paints, more pencils. Make your financial investments wisely, and they'll stretch a long way.

Quiet Time for the Mind and Soul

I had a debate with myself over whether or not I should make a post today. It's 9/11, and something inside of me says that my work and, as part of that, promoting my work can take a back seat to a day of remembrance. I'm also one of those people who'd rather observe Memorial Day quietly than with store sales... it's not just 9/11.

On the other hand, I don't spend all of Memorial Day weekend refusing to show any signs of life, and so I don't think I should spend this day like that, either. This has really been something of an on-going discussion in our house... how to handle 9/11... as it is still a very personal pain for my husband, who lost several members of his family due to the World Trade Center attacks. I'll tell you what I told him :

I think it's just as disrespectful to the dead to stop living one day a year as it would be to forget that day. Those who have loved us would want to see us live, not be stuck in permanent mourning. I cannot imagine expecting those who love me to feel obligated to mourn when they could be enjoying life. (This doesn't count those who really are still mourning, and I think my wish would be that someone would help them through that process because it would mean my loved-one is in pain.) I would expect them not to forget me, though. Taking a little time to simply think of me, to mention to someone else that I would have hated/loved the weather that day, have my favorite food for dinner... something. Remember, but keep living.

That's why I decided to go ahead and make a post today. But the only thing I'm promoting with today's post is quiet time. Time to think, and time to heal. Which still makes sense within the context of this blog, as quiet time can be very important for an artist. Artists are people who take in a lot from the world around them and then churn it all back out transformed. That can really wear a person down.

I'm taking a little quiet time for myself. Daily worries have been weighing on me, things in the news are weighing on me, and my desire for socialization has been low because it is increasing the weight of things, rather than giving any relief through connecting with others who are weighed down. Sometimes the best thing to do is to seek others out. Sometimes the best thing to do is retreat, quiet your mind, and know that the time to seek out others will return. (Don't become a complete hermit!)

Take that time to heal when you need to. It doesn't have to be a "hiding from the world" type of hibernation. Personally, I'm looking forward to a productive quiet time, as I'm simply clearing some of the mental and emotional clutter out of my daily space until I can handle it again. We live in a very connected world, as far as technology goes. But I sometimes think it actually results in people being less connected to each other emotionally. Sometimes it's a good thing to only have a few conversations a day, be able to devote time and attention to each one, and actually be able to hear the voice of the person you're talking to. Or see their face. Or simply take in the energy of having that person near you. Every now and then, walking out into your own yard is what a person needs more than they need pictures of beautiful far-away places. The internet is an amazing tool for education, communication, entertainment, and discovery. There are just some things that words and pictures (even video) on a screen just can't provide, though. Quiet time can be about getting back in touch with what's not to be found on the computer.

Some artists have gone through their most productive periods after what could be seen as a "forced quiet time". Accidents or illness that leave them out of touch with daily routine for a while have resulted in artists throughout history suddenly being able to do their best work after the healing time. But who wants to wait for an accident or severe illness?

So if I don't answer an email, or my Twitter is only showing updates of things posted here for a while, I'm just taking some quiet time. I'm not completely disconnecting from things, but certainly scaling it down for a while.

There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven— A time to give birth and a time to die; A time to plant and a time to uproot what is planted. A time to kill and a time to heal; A time to tear down and a time to build up. A time to weep and a time to laugh; A time to mourn and a time to dance. A time to throw stones and a time to gather stones; A time to embrace and a time to shun embracing. A time to search and a time to give up as lost; A time to keep and a time to throw away. A time to tear apart and a time to sew together; A time to be silent and a time to speak. A time to love and a time to hate; A time for war and a time for peace.

-- Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

From Quilts to Pointy Hats: Witches Stitches

Witches Stitches Tote Bag by rosaamarilla
Create a tote bag from Zazzle

The entire Witches Stitches line can be seen here.

I mentioned in a post last week that I was working on getting this line up well before Halloween. I originally thought of the design as more of a crafting joke than a Halloween design, but that is the time of year when everything with a pointed hat is a hot seller!

It was all inspired by a quilting term... "quilt binding". Even when I was spending time sewing, I'm just not much of a quilter. I enjoyed choosing patterns and material, and I even enjoyed the piecing, but I just don't enjoy the actual quilting part (where the layers are sewn together with eleventy miles of stitiching, for those of you who aren't sure what the "actual quilting part" is). I really wanted to give it a try, though, and thought maybe I could get more "into it" with time.

My inner voice would start making sarcastic comments and jokes when I was doing this. "Quilt binding" was a perfect opening for that. "Why are you going to bind it? Is it dangerous? Should you even be making a quilt so dangerous it needs to be bound?" Ah, the joy of words having multiple meanings that have nothing to do with each other!

The idea of witches doing regular sewing and magically binding quilts (of all things!) stuck in my head. At some point, "cross-stitching" was added to that with a slight change to make it "curse-stitching". Poppets ("voodoo dolls", for example) seemed to round things out, since children have always played with dolls but they used to all be made at home.

That was really the long, drawn-out part of the creation process. Once the idea was in place, imagining it as a visual representation was the easy part. The hat was a no-brainer, and putting it in the shape of an old fashioned shop sign made sense. It looked a bit boring that way, though, so I intended to add a needle and thread. The whole thing is based on fantasy depictions of witches, though, so why not go for something a little more fantastical? The needle ended up as a magic wand.

It's one of my favorite designs that I've done, and I really like how it looks on the tote bag, as pictured at the top of the post. I will, most likely, expand the line in the future. I can imagine a few other ways to word things that will work with the hat, thread, and wand... with or without the sign. It's definitely a line I'd like to do more with.

New Art Project

I've mentioned several times recently that I'm starting a new project - one that will allow me to work with some techniques I haven't done much with in the past. Monday's post was about some of the loose ends I was tying up before starting this new project, and I promised to explain more today. It was important to finish up a few other things first, but to be perfectly honest I have to admit that I would have preferred to get started on it a couple of weeks ago. I'm just looking forward to the project that much!

Okay... so what is "the project"?

I'm going to be taking some time to do bigger pieces. I hestitate to say "real art" because I feel like a lot of what I usually do is "real art". What I usually do leans more toward "commercial art" in it's purpose, and even though a lot of work goes into many of those designs they are intended to be seen on a product, not simply as a piece of art. What I'm going to be working on for a while now is art that only really needs to be seen, not seen as a marketable design.

These pieces will take longer for me to complete than the pieces I usually create. Instead of a week being a long time to work on one, I fully expect the average time put into each of these would be somewhere between a week and two weeks.

Does this mean abandoning what you already do to make "art for art's sake"?

Not exactly. I feel like I need to push myself a little closer to the edge of my "comfort zone" with what I do. I need to try some new things, learn some new skills, and show myself what I can really do. Which means I want to do this even if no one else ever sees the work.

On the other hand, I also know I'm going to want to show others what I've done, and if the work is already done and someone wants to buy it I'm not going to say, "Oh no, I did that just for myself. It's not for sale." Since I do digital work, it's not like I lose the original piece by making it available for purchase. These pieces won't all be well-suited for things like T-shirts and bumper stickers, but I see no reason not to make them available as prints, posters, cards, etc. If I do enough of these pieces, putting them together in a calender is also a possibility.

I'm also going to be able to use these pieces to build my portfolio. I've been working on that, and it's difficult to do when I find myself wanting to excuse how lacking it is by saying, "This is just a little of what I can do." A portfolio is a place to show the best of what I can do, and I just make my work sound like glorified doodles if I put any less than that in there.

So what happens to your Zazzle store?

It will stay right where it is, and it will still be updated. The updates will just become a lot less frequent while I'm working on these other pieces. I keep a list of ideas for quick designs, in addition to my project list. I've also noticed the layout of the store is getting kind of stale. There are some changes I could make a little at a time to freshen it up without it being a major re-do on the design. I'm sure there will be points while working on these larger pieces that I just need to look at something other than the same half-finished picture for an afternoon, and that sounds like a perfect time for little updates.

Blog content will also continue. Since this is going to be a learning and growing experience for me, I'm sure there will be plenty to share along the way.

Old Designs are New Again!

Dirigible Bumper Sticker by Gregordyne
Create custom bumper stickers on zazzle.com

Steampunk seems to fit well with the "Everything old is new again" idea, and that's a bumper sticker I wish I had designed.

While I don't have any steampunk bumper stickers to offer this week, I do have quite a few new products in my Zazzle store! Not new designs, but the good news here is that it means those of you who have looked at some of the old designs and wished you could get them on a different product might be able to find what you're looking for now.

After getting a few items up with the sugar skull design at the end of last week, I went back and added a few more things.

The "Quilting Keeps Me SANE!" design has only been available on tote bags and mugs for a long time. It's now also available on keychains, magnets, buttons, shirts, and mousepads. And the text on that design is customizable. If you like it, but are more into general sewing than quilting, you can change it to say "Sewing Keeps Me SANE!"

For reasons I still don't entirely understand, the Spanish name tag with "Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die." on it really is one of my best sellers. I've moved it out of the Miscellaneous line and given the design it's own product line! I've also made the design available on magnets and mugs, in addition to the original shirts and buttons. I was going to make it available on a few other things, as well, but the graphic needs to be re-done to the proper dimensions before I can do that. Making it available on more products as it is would result in very poor quality.

There are also new small posters and postcards available in the Discordian line with a design that was previously only available on a folded card.

Why old designs? Have you run out of ideas already?

I've mentioned several times recently that I'm going to be working on a new project, including some experimenting with different technique. (Different for me... nothing "cutting edge", just personal growth in my art.) That new project isn't just going to be one piece, and I'm going to be writing more on Wednesday on what the project really is. But it means a lot of my ideas and time are going to be spent on a project that won't be finished in just a few days or a week. While the work from that project will be available for purchase in the end, it's going to take me away from putting out new designs for a while.

I'm also still working to correct some of the mistakes I made when I started putting things on Zazzle. One of those mistakes was not making my work available on enough products. I would start with an idea for a bumper sticker and neglect to put it on a mug or mousepad, if appropriate. I've gone back through my work a few times over the past several months and expanded the number of items something is available on, but from time to time I still notice something that could be made more widely available.

I have one more design I've been working on that I want to finish up in the next couple of days and get my "Witches Stitches" line up. It's a humorous "arts and crafts" or "crafts and hobbies" type of design that I want out there well before Halloween comes around. Beyond that, I decided now was a good time for making some of the old designs more available so I can start working on this longer project.