Thank you, President Obama for standing up for education and students...and what is the right thing to do...

Hunting 301 - Home, Work, Art

I've been in Westminster, Colorado since Monday, looking for the essentials - a place to live, a place to work, and places to market my art.

One down - place to live - two more to go...

On today's agenda:  t-shirt design, calls to staffing agencies, and sending job applications this morning, followed by venturing to Pearl Street in Boulder this afternoon. Next week, I plan to visit my brother & sister-in-law in Fort Collins and inquire at galleries there, too.

I am reminded of another favorite quote:  "Life is not about finding yourself - it is about CREATING yourself."

Here's to CREATING my life!

Ready to Deliver

The wedding certificate is complete and ready to go to its new home later today.

This project took me a lot longer than I anticipated but I also learned a lot during the process:

• A little planning goes a LONG way. I am usually much more free-form in my work, but this forced me to be methodical and very careful with planning the layout.
• Work to whatever music moves me at the moment. It just so happens that I was listening to Prince, which had me grooving and relaxed, just enjoying laying down the ink and paint.
• Patio doors make great light boxes - especially for full-size watercolor sheets!
• Commissioned work is best when it relates to the one commissioning it. The floral design was adapted from a motif in a stained glass window in the bungalow of this couple. Granted, whatever I create will reflect me inherently, but it is important to me that the client feels a connection to the piece, too.

I am always to see a client's reaction, and hopefully today's will keep my record going...

(Click on the image for a larger view; use your browser's "Back" button to return to blog).

Commission in Progress

Having my morning joe while mentally-gearing up for painting the border and decorated initials on a wedding certificate. It's the first time I've ever created one of these, and I'm enjoying the process.

I spent the better part of the day yesterday, lettering a rough, determining spacing of text and lines for witnesses' signatures, then actually penciling in all the guidelines. It took more time than I had estimated, but that's okay, as this is a first, and experience is a great teacher!

I used my patio window as my light box, tracing the border I had drawn on sketch paper. This certificate is a full page of 22x30" hot-press Fabriano watercolor paper, 150# weight. I used a heavier paper, because it will be signed after the ceremony, meaning it will get handled somewhat.

Here it is so far, with the calligraphy done in walnut ink with 1.5 mm and 2.5 mm Brause nibs.

More CD Cover Designs...

...a continuation from the previous post...

I ended up deviating from the plan - imagine that - me, deviating from a plan?! Hard to believe, I know, but I did - and enjoyed every minute of it. (Like usual, too!) I still used the random Wikipedia articles for band names and random quotations for the album titles. As I "let the chips fall where they may", some fun combinations grew.

I used several of my own photos from India, as well as an adorable photo of my sister, Heidi, when she was just a small fry. (I would call it a "vintage" photo, but only at the risk of incurring the wrath of an older sister. I think I had better practice my sprinting technique...) Several photos of rust, water ripples, cement, and others that I took last fall were used for textures and "grunging".

I hope you enjoy looking at them as much as I had fun playing with various effects and layers...
(Remember, you can click on the images for a larger view - get clicking!)

Could Not Resist

A fun challenge was posted by a friend on Facebook today:

1. Go to wikipedia and hit random. The first random wikipedia article you get is the name of your band.
2. Go to quotationspage.com and hit random. The last four or five words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your first album.
3. Go to flickr and click on “explore the last seven days”. Third picture no matter what it is, will be your album cover.
4. Use photoshop or similar (picnik.com is a free online photo editor) to put it all together.
5. Post it with this text in the "caption" and TAG the friends you want to join in.

I thought, "Hey, that sounds like fun - let's see what can happen in a totally random project!"

So here it is - my album cover. 

I grunged the band name, "Gower Report", weathered the photo with a photo of rust that I had shot last fall, and just plain had some fun with the layers. I think I may have to do some more for a portfolio project!

I Love Commissions

Some calligraphers I know will not take on commissions - it scares the bejeebers out of them. While I admit that some requests have induced a certain level of fear in me, it is usually only when I am requested to do something I've never done before - e.g. lettering on a motorcycle (turned out to be an OCC, so good thing I didn't know!), working with Native American pigments on deer hide, lettering on pottery, etc.

I like to bring happiness to people - and it's no different with clients. I want them to be more than pleased - I go for the "Wow!" reaction, but will settle for the speechless tears of happiness, too. It's those moments that make life as an artist so rewarding.

Enough drabble...here's my latest commission, waiting for matting and framing...