Thou Shalt Not Buy

I'm so tired of commercials trying to push us into buying bigger TV's, fancier cellphones, and cars 'we just can't live without'. So I made this sign.

New Hypno Kitty Logo

I've been playing around with a new logo today. I am learning to use Photoshop. It's frustrating because I'm used to paint shop pro.  For example, I couldn't find how to make a negative image so I had to look up a tutorial.  That's because on Photoshop it's called 'Invert' not 'Negative'. Anyway here are some of my attempts today. I also can't figure out how to meld two photos together to make a banner. So much to learn, so little time.

Up until now I've just been putting my photos on a Flickr account in a wild and abandoned fashion.  But in an effort to get people to take my photo skills a little more seriously, I made a whole new Flickr account where I'm only going to post photos that were my best effort. http://www.flickr.com/photos/hypnokitty/

I'm also watermarking them. I know, tedious, right? But I've had too many friends complaining of pilfered photos and I've had a few stolen off my other account as well.

Mixed Media Watercolor Bear Painting

Last Sunday at the archery range I drew a cute archer bear in my sketchbook. I wanted to add him to my collage so I traced him with a permanent pen on tracing paper, and glued the tracing paper right to the project with gel medium. Then I painted him with gouache. The funky birds were stamps I carved. I stamped them onto lined paper. Then I had them printed onto plastic. I glued the plastic to the watercolor base with the gel medium. If you look closely you can see the Korean text underneath the other images. It adds so many dimensions. To see the details, click on the photo. Then once it loads, click on it again. The shiny paint is some pearlescent watercolor that I picked up at Art Supply Warehouse.

Laguna Beach Sawdust Festival 2011

Last night we went to the Laguna Sawdust Festival. They are running specials, and Anaheim folks got in free last night, so we couldn't resist.

I had rather a strange night though. I admired one artist's chainmaile booth. She heard me say 'chainmaile' and rolled her eyes and then I got the big speech on how 'only idiots think it's chainmaile and they go to one Ren faire and think they are experts." I thought it best to just smile and nod and move on. I'm not sure how she expects to make any sales with that attitude.

I did look around for some of my favorite artists from years past and spotted some of their booths but they weren't in them. I'm sure Tuesday is a slow day and they might take that day off to take a break from the busy weekend crowds. You can buy stuff from their booth even if they aren't there. They have registers at the front.

The glass blowing demo is always one of the highlights. I'll share photos when I have time to get them off the memory card.

Cuteness Sign

I made this because I get so tired of everything being so 'cute' to the point that it's lost all meaning. It's like a steady diet of cotton candy.

Oil Pastels by FAYME

When using oil pastels I get effects and feelings that I don't get from other mediums. I'm not sure any of this is art anyone would actually bother to buy, but it makes me happy and I love to experiment.

Most of my art can be put up for sale. I have too many things to list so if you want something, just let me know in the comments.I can also add the images to items on Cafe Press or Zazzle, so if you can't afford the original, you can get it as a pin, magnet, t-shirt or something else.

Four New Pen and Ink Drawings

I posted all my new pen and ink drawings to a new site I joined called RTIST.com. I joined a couple of weeks ago and had nothing there for people to look at. I could have put them on Etsy, but Etsy is overrun with crafts and vintage items. Fine art doesn't seem to do all that well there. So I'm looking into new areas.

Pen and Ink Drawings

I worked on some pen and ink art tonight. I'm not sure if it would be classified as minimalist or abstract or what. All those labels get so confusing but come in handy when trying to market stuff. I'll love to show you photos, but I've never figured out how to take decent photos of white paper with black lines indoors. I'll have to wait for daytime to try for photos. Then I can take them outdoors.

Pyrography

Recently I joined a new web community called Rtist. I haven't posted anything yet but I got my first message from that site just now.

Here are photos of my current project.

Friends in the Arts

I just talked to some friends today and they got a pottery wheel. I've had college level pottery classes and hopefully I'll be able to help them out so they aren't reinventing the wheel.  They don't have a kiln yet. They are trying to get a used one that can handle pottery and glass. They also got an old loom that they are weaving on, and they said I can take photos next time I go out there. I just wish we lived closer. It's about a 45 minute drive to their place.

Anyway, here is today's drawing. I've been bitten by the drawing bug lately and wore out my hands. Drawing can be so tedious and frustrating, so I'm constantly reminding myself to have fun and do my best and if I screw it up it's not the end of the world.

Painted Wooden Frames

Sometimes it is hard to sell art that doesn't have a practical application. That really bugs me but to a degree I have to cater to what people will buy, so I've started painting wooden picture frames. I hope my sales pick up when I start offering something people can use in their homes.

 

I started four yesterday but only got one finished. So today I'm working on the other 3.

Need Help Drawing?

This looks like fun. Learn to draw: http://www.drawspace.com/ No matter how well you draw you can always improve, right?

Illumination and Diapering

Pyramid Diapering Practice

Diapering Class Practice

I didn't realize I had followers over here. My apologies for not posting more often.

I've been working on illumination and scrolls for the SCA lately. That is to say, I'm learning how to do it so I can offer my services and help out. I took a class on it at the Collegium in Fullerton a few weeks ago and if I can get to the next meeting I can show them where I am and get some tips on how to proceed. I need to know what kind of ink to use that is compatible with the gouache I'm using. And I couldn't even afford the $10 a tube gouache they recommended, so I hope what I have won't be a disappointment.  They aren't paying me to do art, and they sure expect an awfully lot for free. But on the other hand, it's good practice for me and will help my social life I hope. I never set out to be a hermit. And they do appreciate you when the moment of glory comes and you hand them their scroll. Some members have been waiting for years for their awards scroll.

Slideshow

I thought I'd add a new slideshow of some of the arts and crafts I've done.



Find more photos like this on Do You Etsy?

Miniature Paintings

As you can see, I was a painting fiend today. I only stopped because my wrist started to ache, and I'm supposed to be letting it heal up.

1000 Paintings

Sometimes when I'm tired I forget my ideas of things I'd like to do. So today after going to an art festival I had the idea to paint 1000 5x7 paintings on canvas. Each one will be numbered and retail for about $50. I'm not sure if I want to do nudes, or landscapes or flowers or animals or a mixture of things.

Update: I am once again working on this idea. Only now I'm doing square foot paintings at the rate of one a day. I opened a new Etsy shop just for this project. I called it the Square Foot Art Gallery, because people can go there to see all the paintings, even if they don't play to buy anything just yet.

Follower

Yay I have a follower. Thanks evilcraftlab.
Etsy sellers have been really supportive of my blogs lately. I think everyone just about on Etsy has discovered the value of social networking on sites like blogger, gather.com, ning and Twitter. Everytime I'm in a chatroom within minutes someone will ask if anyone has a blog, and then the url trading begins. I blog every day and I use Twitter.com every day. Those are the two big ones for me.

Photo Challenge

I'm working on a photo challenge for Gather.com. Instead of a simple alphabetical list like taking a photo of A for Apple, I'd like it to be a bit more intellectual, like A for asymmetrical. So I need to come up with a list.

A: Asymmetrical
B: Bulbous
C: Convoluted
D: Diabolical
E: Ephemera
F: Frantic
G: Global
H: Homogeneous
I: Illusion
J: Jocular
K: Kinetic
L: Loquacious
M: Meandering
N: Nubile
O: Olfactory
P: Pretentious
Q: Quixotic
R: Rambling
S: Stairway
T: Trapezoid
U: Urgent
V: Void
W: Walkabout
X: X-ray
Y: Yucky
Z: Zealous

That looks like a pretty good list. Let's see what I can do with it.

Update on Thanksgiving weekend 2008

Just wanted to talk about my current projects. David Brunetta is still working on my dagger. He should have the cabachon by now which came from etsy artist Spikestoneworks. But David is also super busy with commissioned work so I'm sure he'll get to it when he gets to it.

Etsy sales are non existant for me right now, so I'm not focusing on Etsy much. I did go by my three etsy shops yesterday and renew some items and change the feature items at the top of the page. I spent an hour an in the Etsy chatroom assuring people I didn't drop off the face of the earth.

I'm working on some archery gear. I want to finish some arrows and make a new bracer and quiver. I love leatherwork but I just can't seem to get around to it.
Every time I do it it is like learning all over again.

I finished a knitted headband this morning and started in on another one.
I better go eat breakfast before my food gets cold.