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"Drawing a Fine Line" - 5 new articles

1. The joy of prints
2. New scarves
3. NY Times Best Illustrated Childen's Books
4. Note cards, work
5. "white" almost done
6. More Recent Articles
7. Search Drawing a Fine Line

The joy of prints

I finally got around to successfully making a few prints of my art and putting them up in my new etsy shop.

But lemma tell ya ~
Making prints is not the "la la la, oh let's just print out a few little things and pop them up on etsy (or wherever)" kind of deal. Just so you know. At least not for me.

Oh, its not as bad as a lot of things I can think of. Its just not as simple as one would think. Here's what can go wrong:


Forget to select the right custom size for paper when you go to print. Here, instead of my special 6"x 8" inch size, I left it at 8.5 x 11, so my little bear printed like this on the paper ~



One sheet of paper wasted.

Then there are the times the printer decides to spit ink blobs on the paper. Not every time, mind you, just now and then, on certain images, just to be difficult. So you get this:



Another sheet down the drain.

Then there's the combination "need to adjust color" and "didn't print with even margins" example:



With some of my images, the color prints just fine. Others, it goes kind of dull or "bluish" and I really have to bump up the color or brightness in Photoshop.

Then there's my printer. I'm using an Epson C88 for these, which I think is a great little printer. But it tends to print the image starting about a quarter inch down from where its set on the page, leaving more white space on one end or the other. So I have to adjust the file for that before I print, and make I sure I know which end is going to get cut off or shifted down before I hit "print". (more paper wasted)


So its all a little fussy. When they do come out right, they're lovely! Its just the ones that don't make me pretty cranky.

On a more positive note, I'm really happy with the paper I'm using! Its Polar Satin from Red River Paper Co. They make really nice papers, cards, envelopes, everything, for every kind of printing job you can imagine. I highly recommend them. And this particular paper is like buttah. Its - well - satin finish, which isn't gloss or even semi-gloss - its just right. I'm printing mostly colored pencil work on it, and different "looks" of pencil (grainy, burnished, drawings on sanded paper, etc.) and they all look great. I've also done one pen and ink piece, and its perfect. I'm sure it would work well for watercolor or graphite too.

It also has a nice weight to it. The only thing is it doesn't take pencil on the front side if you want to sign the piece, for example. So I'm signing everything on the back. Which is OK. But if I was doing limited edition prints that I wanted to sign on the front, I'd have to figure something else out (ink probably works fine, I just don't happen to like to sign in ink, I'm odd.)


I'm doing all 8 x 10 or smaller prints for now, because I don't want waste money on bigger ones in case no one even buys them! I also want to keep the cost down to the buyer, and am thinking of these as little pieces someone might want to frame for themselves or give as a gift, rather than a big serious art investment. I wanted to be able to print them rather inexpensively on my smaller Epson printer, rather than my fancy 2200 one. The C88 uses Durabrite inks which are good and should last a long time. If I were using the 2200 I'd be technically doing "giclee" prints and would probably make them limited editions, and would be charging a lot more. But I can't deal with that (right now, with this art, anyway).

So after I make the print I'm putting it in a clear sealable bag, backed with a piece of white backing board, both of which I bought from Clear Bags. They're another great place! They have bags and backing boards and matts and stuff for everything, and good prices.


And the note cards. Well. I do have some done, but they're even fussier than the prints. Maybe its just me - some of you may have more patience for this kind of thing. It kind of makes me nuts. Funny - I can knit and do really finicky complicated patterns, or do endless layers of colored pencil to get just the right color or effect, but feeding little sheets of paper into the printer one at a time, just right, over and over and over and over makes me sort of crazy. I don't dare answer the phone {{"WHAT?!"}} or god help the cats if they paw my leg for a treat when I'm in the middle of a 'note card printing session'. Any other time I'm fine. I think I might have to ask Santa for a 'note card and print making assistant' for Christmas. That would make me very happy!

So there will probably be cards in the shop too, eventually, and I will certainly post about it and have a party, but until then, don't wait with baited breath.
I'd kind of like to put some originals in the shop too, but again, not sure which ones, or whether anyone will even care. "Etsy" is another whole topic for another post. Its a great place, but like everything else, you kind of have to 'work it' and I can't say I've figured out quite how to do that, nor do I have the time. I don't have a trendy hip thing to sell - just my art, which may or may not be appealing to some people. I just feel like I have all this art sitting around here that's just, well, sitting in a drawer. So if I make a few prints and they sell, that's a little extra money and maybe a nice little piece of affordable art for someone's wall, so hey, win win as they say.



I'm off to make dinner and do some cleaning up and start in on a new project.
Something that doesn't have anything to do with note cards or prints or uploading photos or figuring out shipping costs. Like, some new art.
Now there's an idea.

New scarves

Wow, has it really been a whole week? Geez.

I just put some new pieces up in my etsy knitting shop. I have a few more to add, but the light disappeared on me today before I was able to take photos of everything, so hopefully I'll get them done tomorrow.

I'm still doing scarves with cables, but I've also done a few simpler ones without cables, which are also a wee bit less expensive. They all have buttons though. I don't know what my 'thing' is about buttons all of a sudden, but I love them! I like how you can button these scarves up tight under your chin like a cowl, but unlike a cowl, you don't have to slip them over your head and mess up your 'do'. They can also be worn a little drapey-er, or tucked into a collar.




Funny story - I have a white pitcher collection, and can never resist a new one if it catches my eye. I have tall ones, little mini ones, fancy expensive ones, plain simple ones, you name it. They're all either white or cream colored, and I love them all.
So a while back I'm browsing through One King's Lane, and see this to die for pitcher, had to have it, clicked "buy" before I even read the whole description of the thing.
Then one day a couple of weeks later the UPS man deposits this HUGE box on my front porch. What the ...? Well, guess what's in it. My pitcher. No excuse me, my URN. I'm not kidding, this thing is huge. And wonderful and gorgeous and fabulous and heavy. And I just had to laugh.

So today I used it as a prop for some of the scarves.




I'm still working on prints and note cards too. I should have those up later this week. Trying to decide which pieces to use, and how exactly to do them, then fiddling with them in Photoshop to get them to print well, then second-guessing every decision you've made and leaving it all sit while you go make more coffee or rifle through the Halloween candy for a bit takes a lot out of a person. And my studio is a disaster. No, really. But its all good, as they say. Or something.

And I'm babbling.

Signing off ~

NY Times Best Illustrated Childen's Books

Its always interesting to see what they pick and to read why.
They also publish a more comprehensive list.

Amazing, the range of art styles and talent, writing styles, types of stories, themes, etc. etc. Lots of creativity going on here! And lots of inspiration if you're a fellow children's book illustrator.

~~~~~
I've been a childen's book illustrator as well lately, but the "educational publishing" kind. Which means I can't show any of the art. (sad face) I've been having fun though!

Also just finished a building rendering, but don't think I should share until its safely in the art director's hands. Dontcha just hate when you're busy making art, but can't show any of it?

I'm itching to get back into doing children's book work full time. I've been off on a 'colored pencil' tangent for a while, which is fine, but I can't neglect the other halves of myself for too long or they get cranky. Actually, I'd like to put together a whole new fresh children's book portfolio. I KNOW. How many times have we all said that, then laughed. But seriously.

I'd like to develop a digital style in addition to my colored pencil style. These days, if you want to have steady work, it really helps to be able to work digitally. I can, with Photoshop, but its pretty basic stuff. I would in no way consider myself at this point to be a "digital illustrator" (although this most recent piece I'm working on and can't show has largely been done with Photoshop.)

I downloaded a free trial version of Corel Painter a few days ago, and am really impressed! Painter's strength is that it can mimic lots of traditional media, and comes with loads of brushes and special effects. Of course the first thing I tried was the "colored pencil" thing, and it was pretty good. I was just using a mouse, and think that if I was using my Wacom and pen I could have done a lot more. There are pencil tools, palette knives, watercolor brushes (wet & dry) and even a "salt" special effect (you know, where you sprinkle salt over watercolor to make a texture). Its super cool!!!! So I just may have to ask Santa for this for Christmas.

I'm still working on making note cards. Oy. I visited my local paper shop, The Paper Garden, for some card stock, then ordered clear bags to package everything in from Clear Bags. I've done some, but its a slow, "feed each card through the printer one. at. a. time" kind of operation. I'll get there, its just s l o w.

Mad Men is over for the season. I'm already going through withdrawal. But what a great last episode, eh what? Wow.

Note cards, work

I tweaked the "white" piece a bit, and its done. And it is now officially titled "Once Upon a Time".
I'm happy with how it turned out. I will not be doing a "Pearls" series anytime soon, however. :~) If Barbara Bush calls and wants her portrait done, of course I won't say no. But otherwise, don't be looking for any more 'pearl' art from me in the foreseeable future.



I decided to make note cards and prints. Have you ever made note cards? Its not as simple as one would think. You have to choose paper and envelopes (white? ivory? smooth? textured? deckled edge? open side to side (like a greeting card) or lift up?), then there are clear envelopes or bags or boxes to put them in, deciding how many in a 'set', some labeling, wrapping up (ribbon?), and finally, pricing. Whew.



I'd like to make cards out of the Twix piece too, and quite a few other pieces as well. The Twix piece looks best printed out on glossy stock. The food pieces look better on matte. Once Upon a Time looks nice on deckled paper, but the deckle seems to pick up extra ink and makes little hair-like draggy marks on the card as it prints out. I have wasted quite a few nice deckled cards just trying to make ONE set! Paula not happy. So I may have to revise my plan a bit for those.



I hope to have prints and cards ready to go in my etsy shop next week. I'll let you know!

But for now, today, I'm back to being a 'regular' illustrator. A children's book illustrator, to be more specific. A new project came through this morning, so I'm shifting gears a bit. That's what I love about being an illustrator - you never know what you're going to be doing next!

"white" almost done

I lit a fire under myself and got this almost done today. Its done except for a few tweaks. I just couldn't look at it anymore today!

After those first couple of tedious layers where I carefully plotted in the shapes and shadows in grey, then grey green, I decided to just go for it with the color and have some fun! All those colors really are in the reference. And everything in the still life is a shade of white, although the boots are a very French vanilla cream (I lightened them), and so is one strand of the pearls.

I lightly burnished the boots with Ivory, and the flowers with White, but left everything else "dry". The embroidered cloth is the white of the paper. The background is a mixture of all the colors I used in all the shadows, plus some warm grey. In the reference I had some drapery, but decided to do more of an atmospheric thing with it instead.

There are a couple of hot spots I see that I need to adjust (that shadow to the right of that very bottom pearl, for example), but I need 'fresh eyes'. Maybe tomorrow!

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