The freelance mindset

One of the dangers of setting your own schedule: it’s really easy to allow weeks to slip by without noticing. I’ve been pretty loose with scheduling lately, as a follow-up to a contract that had me pretty rigidly locked in for a few weeks, and it has not done good things for my timeliness.

For one, I forgot to blog a mention about my guest post over at Inkpunks, which outlines some basics of website design (applicable even to lazy folks like me who rely upon blogs and premade themes to do the bulk of our work).

Today Evan’s guest post went live on Inkpunks, in which he talks about his struggles in finding a comfortable space he can feel creative in, even in cramped living situations.

And this past weekend, my little brother graduated from JMU! In an outdoor stadium, in the pouring rain! Congrats Warren! I’m so proud of you. I hope your celebratory 3 day, 50-mile canoe and camping trip in the pouring rain still manages to be extremely enjoyable despite everything.

And just for fun, something new from my sketchbook:

Happy agenda management, everyone!

Oh look what I found

I was cleaning my desk cubbies yesterday, and found these.

The moth creature I remember abandoning, because I realized that I’d accidentally used water-soluble walnut ink on a piece I’d intended to watercolor. The dragon I remember drawing (it was around the same time as this piece), but I can’t for the life of me recall why I put it down.

Artist secret: we give up on a lot of things. Though now that I’ve found these, who knows. I might clean them up and use them for digital coloring practice.

In other news, I recently revived my Dribbble account. If you’re a member, be sure to drop by and say hello! I need more folks to follow.

 

Prismatic Art

If you’ve missed the news that I’m a huge nerd, you haven’t been following me too closely. I’m a huge. Nerd. Also a huge proponent of equal rights and representation for everyone, even in fantasy settings. So when Prismatic Art Collection put out a call for artists, you can imagine my feelings. I threw in my contributor hat immediately.

What is it? Well, right now it’s a Kickstarter project with the aim of commissioning a bunch of art from illustrators of diverse backgrounds of fantasy characters with diverse backgrounds. It’s hard to miss that the worlds of D&D and most of its cousins are peopled by a jarringly homogenous cast. The aim of Prismatic Art is to compile a selection of stock illustrations that add a little (racial, gender, ability) diversity to the mix.

If this sounds as encouraging to you as it did to me, go take a gander at the project! Even if you can’t afford to contribute, spreading the word is a great way to help too!

 

Literary influences

Do you remember the first book that really grabbed you? The one that fell apart in your hands from constant rereading and spring-boarded you off into your career as an obsessive lifetime reader? (I’m assuming you’re a reader here, because I most certainly am and who would visit my blog if they’re not like me at least a little? Right?)

Well, mine was A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. LeGuin. I have no idea why my mom decided to bring it home from the library for me that day. To the best of my knowledge, she’s never read it herself (though she can feel free to contradict me if I’m wrong, or fill in the story if she remembers) and it certainly wasn’t a new release in 1992 when I was 7.

But whatever the reason, there it was. And that story, of a young and talented wizard whose life and career nearly end at the hands of his own hubris, really got to me. I remember carrying around laminated bookmarks I’d made myself, painstakingly copying out the poem and runes from the front of the book. I hunted down the trilogy, the copies with my favorite cover art of course (these ones), and still have them on my shelf to this day.

Yet for some reason, I think this might be the first illustration I’ve ever done of Ged.

(Bigger, better view here)

An aside

Watercolor and ink on bristol

 

Brooklyn in the springtime

Folks who keep up with me on social media might have noticed how quiet I’ve been for the past few days. I’ve been in New York! In Brooklyn mostly, though there was a nice hike across Brooklyn and over the bridge to Manhattan.

Which ended in highline park just as it was closing on Sunday. What a beautiful way to reclaim obsolete architecture. Seattle? You hear me?

I spent the weekend catching up with my good college chum Eve, meeting her cat and her local friends. Finally seeing Teresa Galus and Babette Daniels in person. There was also a very nice (though cold, and too brief!) dinner with Zelda Devon and Kurt Huggins, the dynamic duo behind Teetering Bulb studio and their gorgeous and prolific output. Also a tour of their studio, which has made me feel like a complete slacker. The illustration chops on those two! (though Zelda definitely needs to work on more watercolors and personal work… :3)

On a tangent, our respective art school experiences were a repeated topic of conversation. None of us were very satisfied with our formal illustration educations. Technical skill has been almost completely subsumed by the nebulous blanket of “concept”, which is really of pretty limited application to most of us. Perhaps I’d advise burgeoning illustrators to spend the money on illustration master classes, figure drawing sessions, and tickets to illuxcon instead. If I could do it again, this might have been my strategy. If I could have convinced my parents to endorse it.

All that aside: my feelings about New York have always been mixed. I get so easily lost in cities, and in one so big I feel lost almost by default. Yet the people there are wonderful, and the art scene so much more relevant to my ambitions than DC’s. It’s a wonderful place, and I hope I can get back there soon. Who knows, next time I might even make it to the Way station to drink some beer and see their Tardis.

Outdoor drawing days

Spring, waiting just around the corner all winter long, has truly sprung on us here in the Mid-Atlantic. We’ve had highs above 70°F for most of the week which — while troubling in what it might mean for the coming summer — makes for good outdoor sketching weather.

So here… some sketches!

This poor be-mited chap's been getting progressively more pathetic looking every time he visits our feeder. He's doing good otherwise, though. Has a mate, is king cardinal of the territory. Just... has a tonsure.

I've been noodling around with this image for weeks now, playing with colored pencil shading and blending techniques.

Was considering possible mermaid types while sitting and watching Evan fix the weather stripping on his old volvo. Doodled this in the process.

If you’d like more art, go take a peek at my website. I just updated it. :)

Process, on a small watercolor

I actually remembered to document my stages on a watercolor! A small watercolor sketch, but it’s something.

Those who follow me on twitter might recall this one! I was extremely unhappy with it for a while, though I’ve since grown a little more at ease. After the jump, I’ll talk a little about the process that goes into watercolors like these.

Owls

I’m just going to leave that there for you.

Something in the mail

I’ve realized lately that the key to productivity, for me, is to avoid turning on my computer unless absolutely necessary. Meaning I’m a little behind on things that involve scanning or photographing art to show people.

This is actually the second penpal letter of mail art I’ve received from Jessica Gowling, fellow printmaker and nature lover! The last one was a year ago, because I am terrible at responding to things in a timely manner (and maybe perhaps because I’ve been overbooking myself a little). We were also mutually involved in a traveling sketchbook project initiated by the wonderful Valeria Poropat (which I similarly forgot to blog about… or even scan before I mailed it! You can see my governess with a leashed dragon in Jessica’s photos of it).

Here is the latest envelope full of goodies:

Just look at that tiny Mot-mot card! We have several in the National zoo, and they are so lovely and inquisitive.

Jessica has figured out the important thing about me: I love birds.

I cannot remember whether I ever told her that I lived in Hungary for several years when I was small, which is when I had my first penpal. Who happened to love ducks. If not, the presence of all those (incredibly nostalgia inducing) Magyar posta stamps are just the most incredible coincidence… Or perhaps a product of the fact that Hungarians have some of the loveliest bird-related stamps ever. Though the envelope was mailed with beautiful Canadian bird stamps, too, which I sadly cannot get a good shot of without revealing someone’s home address. Alas! They are wonderful and I love them.

There’s a typewritten (as in typewriter-written) letter on the back of the brown leaf stationary also. Another odd coincidence, considering how I recently started using my own typewriter again…

I am determined to be more timely in my response this round! The truth is: I had my reply almost entirely assembled within a week of getting the previous mail art from Jessica, but dawdled because I felt like it needed one more thing. Needless to say, as Evan and I are finally getting our letterpress cleaned and put together, I am tempted to do this again. Setting myself a deadline of one month from today, or this could be a repeat!