Gearing up for the holidays!

I've been busy the last couple days putting up Christmas decorations, and have a few commissions lined up to finish by the Holiday.  Busy as I have been, I still have an itch to do some Christmas paintings.  I loved drawing pictures of Santa as a kid- I even went so far as writing and illustrating a young reader book when I was about ten called Doppy the Christmas Elf- which will never see the light of day again! I love the Coca-Cola vision of Santa created by  Haddon Sundblom.

I eventually would like to do series paintings for my other favorite holiday too- Halloween, and some classic fairy tales like Snow White and Hansel and Gretel.   One thing at a time I guess.


Yesterday I finished reading The Peach Keeper by Sarah Addison Allen.  Loved it!  It was also nice to have a cameo of Claire and Bay from Sarah's first book, Garden Spells, which has the honor of being my first Nook Book purchase before my deployment, and which I got a bunch of my fellow soldiers to read after a generous donation made by Sarah herself last year for our company book club.  I hope many more soldiers overseas have enjoyed them as much as we did as we donated them to the camp MWR before heading home. Hmm, maybe I could do some paintings inspired by some of my favorite books.  This is why I have such a hard time getting projects done- always so excited to start the next one!  Yes, one thing at a time.  :/

putting on my game face

So, I have some up with my New Year's resolution early.  Next year I will gather up my courage and participate in at least one art festival. If nothing else, there is the fair in my home town that I never missed as a kid.  If none other, I will definitely be there, especially since it falls on my Mom's birthday weekend and I had planned on being up there anyway.  This is a big step for me since the first and last time I participated in any type of art show it was a complete disaster- horrible turn out and stuck all night with the worst violinists ever!
Since my main focus has become doing custom portraits, I really don't have much in the way of original paintings to offer.  I have through June to build up my print inventory and some more paintings.
I have been doing some hefty research and found a great site to find lots of venues throughout the year.  Flourish canopies are the best I've seen so far that offer what I really envision as a professional, functional, and appealing booth to display my art.
Now that I am back to work full time, I look back at the month I had to work on my art, wanting to work on my art, but was still struggling with the whole reintegration after my year overseas.  I am only just now really getting myself back into the swing of day to day life, and find myself without the amount of time I really need to focus on painting.  2012 is going to be a rough year, but I am determined to come through it as more the the artist I've always wanted to be.  Being committed full time to my art is currently just a dream, but I am hopeful that the effort I put in over the next year gets me that much closer to the dream becoming reality.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Things are going great in the new studio.  I finished a new piece yesterday and have a few more lined up to finish by Christmas.  A friend of mine had wanted a painting for a long time, but never requested one due to finances. Well, I did one for her anyway, and was inspired to off up one free painting every month.  Some periods are slow or I just don't know what I want to paint, and this will keep me busy during those times as well.  Since I currently can only claim painting as a hobby, I don't always have something on my easel.  I want to share my work with everyone, and this is an awesome way to do it.
On my website is a simple entry form for the contest.

This is "Make A Wish"  inspired by Olivia.

It's kinda late for this year, but I've wanted to do a classic horror series for Halloween  Dracula, Frankenstein, Wolf Man, ect.  Oh well, Christmas is right around the corner though...!!!

Everything is ready to go!

Lots to update!  Since I have finally been back home the past two months, two main things have gone down.
1)  The studio is finished!
2)  I've got new projects finished and under way!

For the studio, I went with adjustable shelves to fit my canvases and supplies, and just an mdf desk because I make a mess :)

The wall color is Behr's "Buzz Blaster Blue"  It is a Disney color- I picked it to match the colors in the rest of the garage where my girlfriend grows african violets.

 I went cheep with the curtains and used pieces of black felt I bought at Michael's. These are great for blocking out the light.

My rock chick corner, including a cross made by Cherrie Currie that I got for my birthday.

 Now that it's all set up,  I am ready to paint!  I did finish a couple of pieces when I first got home though.  Also, I've come up with a fun project to keep me busy on slow days.  On the last Friday of every month I will be drawing a name of people that enter throughout the month to win a free painting.  The only rule is that no one person can win more that once every twelve months.  Enter to win!

I already have quite a few pieces  that I have yet to even start, so the first drawing won't be held until November 25.  Prices have dropped on all of my paintings, so if you definitely would like something by Christmas, there is the regular order form also on my website.

Dust Jacket Studios is now on Facebook!

Dust Jacket Studios is now on Facebook!

Thievery and copyrights

Finally home, finally back in the studio- and now I have about  a week before I go back to my regular job.  With so much going on this past month I really haven't gotten the studio time I had hoped for, though I did finish a portrait of my best friend's beautiful daughter.

Elliott Quinn

I had a 16x20 canvas sprayed silver, then sketched the portrait with charcoal before finishing it off with acrylic.

In other good news, I have a new site up!  Dust Jacket Studios is up and running online at an, albeit temporary, spot that at least gets the job done.  There is a gallery, spot to order, links to merchandise, and some good info.       It's not all of DJS, but so far encompasses my own art.  I am still working on a logo.  A problem I have been running into lately is  "rights to celebrity."  What this is doing is pulling any merchandise or prints I post using my paintings because they are recognized as celebrity portraits and companies like CafePress don't want to be held responsible in case someone wants to sue for using their face.  I guess I will just have to make these items personal and just offer them exclusively through my website, which kind of sucks since I won't have all the exposure of CafePress users, but I suppose it's better than nothing.  I did an awesome mug for The Legend of Billie Jean that I wanted for myself anyway. hehe.

Awesome, so, in looking for a link to just use, I came across another LOBJ item using my painting.  This is kind of like the whole rights to celebrity thing, only here is my argument.  If you are a celebrity, you expect your image to be everywhere, you even want it out there for advertisement.  The difference being, artistic interpretation belongs to an artist, and stealing that image is just that- stealing.  It would be different it the image was once again artistically interpreted, then it would no longer be my own interpretation.  The problem I keep running into here is that people just slap the image of my painting on their own products without giving credit to me or asking my permission.   All I did with the original movie poster image was Photoshop it until I got the look I wanted, then I painted that altered image.  I have found my painting on half a dozen unauthorized products the past few years when all these people ever had to do was Photoshop the movie poster the same way I initially did and leave my painting out of it.  Ugh.
omg, so I spent the better part of the past hour searching around and found two culprits- one on fanpop.com and the other on photobucket, where the other supposedly was linked from.  The original Photobucket image was one I had put up at least 6 years ago and forgot all about since I no longer use the site.  I rock. Well, hopefully it will now be taken care of and I will no longer see such thievery of my images.  Phew!

R&R

I am proving to be very inconsistent with my blogging.  In the last couple of months I haven't finished any new artwork, but have managed to make some good headway in my book project.  I have also been home on R&R and finally got to see my finished studio!  While I still have to make an actual studio out of it when I get home for good, I did make it a little cozy for the two weeks I was home.

backgrounds ready to go

working with what I got. 

working on a new home portrait using grid method

I love how the wall color came out, and plan on doing my desk and shelving with that same rosewood stain as the windows.

Also while back in the states, I came across this amazing artist in an unlikely place.  While visiting Olympia Candy Kitchen in Chambersburg, PA, I fell in love with the prints throughout the store by Ray Hendershot.  All I had was my phone to take pics, but I took one of every print in the store.

I actually liked how the lights on the Christmas tree reflected off the glass

so much to chose from!

Definitely making it a point to go back to make a purchase.  Actually, I already ordered a copy of his out of print book on Ebay.  I was, however, disappointed to find that the building I had been using to base my model of Dust Jacket Studios off of has been sold and will be turned into a parking garage.  It made me slightly ill.  Seeing it in person there were parts that would have been amazing as far as turning it into a gallery, but there was some structural damage that explained the low sale price.   Nevertheless, I always hate to see history torn down to "make way for progress."  Yuck.

Instead of a recipe, I suggest some chocolate therapy via the Candy Kitchen online store.  Mmm... their turtles are my favorite!