Music survey and acrylics

"Moonwatch"

Acrylics mini-painting on 4" x 4" canvas board.

Yay, my Stars Fall Home Seanan McGuire CD arrived this week! I'll be posting about this album soon. This past week, I've been listening to Seanan's CD and the Hairspray soundtrack over and over again in the evenings, while I'm painting. I find I can't listen to words with music while I'm writing because I get too distracted.

When I'm drawing (on the computer or non-digitally), I tend to turn up the volume full-blast. Fortunately my office is two floors away from Jeff's home office.

A MUSIC SURVEY: What was the last CD you listened to, from start to finish?


"Ghosty Unicorn"

Acrylics mini-painting on 4" x 4" canvas board.

Wow, I'm SO ENJOYING acrylics painting. It reminds of what finger painting felt like when I was a little kid except the pictures end up somewhat nicer-looking and I don't try eating the paint.

I know I should probably take a course, but I lack the time and money (I'd rather spend the money and go to more writers' conferences right now). Instead, I ordered two books from Amazon:

The Acrylics Book: Materials and Techniques for Today's Artist by Barclay Sheaks
The New Acrylics by Rheni Tauchid

I also decided to be brave and try painting on a 6" x 6" stretched canvas rather than my usual (well...usual since I started last week) 4" x 4" canvas board:


"Nightmare Bunny"

Acrylics mini-painting on 6" x 6" stretched canvas.

Acrylics are amazing! If you add enough water, they almost look like watercolour. You acrylics painters out there are rolling your eyes, I'm sure, but hey -- this is all new to me. :-) For the background of this painting, I also experimented with adding texture by scrunching up some paper towel and dabbing it on the paint while it was still wet.

I did the unicorn painting as part of my Don't Ask Me To Draw A Horse effort. Ok, so a unicorn isn't exactly a horse. But hey...I wouldn't even have ATTEMPTED it a year ago, so at least I don't quite suck as much as I did last year:



All the paintings above are for sale in my shop as of this morning, by the way. Just click on any of the images for pricing and more info.

I've started exploring Etsy more thoroughly. GREAT place. I've already done some Christmas shopping on it. AND I found a fellow that sells mini-easels! I ordered a bunch and got a bulk discount.




Livejournal comments

Artsytalk

I forgot to mention earlier in the week that Will Write For Chocolate has been updated.

As I've mentioned before, my music group (Urban Tapestry) is the Music Guest Of Honor at Balticon next year. Connie Willis is the Author Guest Of Honor, and we've just found out that John Jude Palencar is the Artist Guest Of Honor.



You may not recognize his name, but I guarantee you've seen his artwork. He's done book covers and illustrations for works by Stephen King, Lovecraft, Connie Willis, Tolkien and many others, but is probably best known for his covers to the fantasy novels of Christopher Paolini.

For those that don't know, Balticon is a four day science fiction convention that with over 300 hours of multi-track programming featuring authors, publishers, editors, artists, scientists, musicians and other "creative sf luminaries." Date: May 23-26, 2008. Place: Marriott's Hunt Valley Inn in Baltimore, Maryland. You can download the Balticon 42 PDF flyer or see the Balticon Web site for more info.

My convention plans for next year are as follows:

GAfilk (Atlanta, GA - Jan. 11-13): Very much looking forward to this! Jeff & Maya Bohnhoff are the Guests of Honor, Brian Richardson is Toastmaster, and the Brobdingnagian Bards are the Interfilk Guests.

SCBWI Winter Conference (New York - Feb 8-10): The 9th Annual Winter Conference On Writing & Illustrating For Children.

FilKONtario (Toronto, Apr. 4-6): GoH-Michelle Dockrey and Tony Fabris, Filk Waif: Bill Roper, Interfilk Guest: Marilyn Miller, Special Guest: Heather Bruton. Urban Tapestry has a concert!

Balticon (Baltimore, May 23-26), of course. We'll be doing a concert and will also be involved in the children's programming.

SCBWI Summer Conference (Los Angeles, Aug. 3-6): Beckett Gladney and I are rooming together at this conference about children's book writing and illustrating.

And I'm hoping very hard to be able to make it to the Ohio Valley Filk Fest next year, where the Guests of Honor are Annie & Tim Walker, Toastmasters are Becca and Graham Leathers, Listener Guest is Jan di Masi, and the Interfilk Guest is Sibylle Machat. This convention will depend on finances, though, since going to the LA conference will be pretty pricey.


"Bunnylove" - original fridge art on 3"x5" canvas board.
Available on Etsy.

In addition to my regular writing, I'm working on two book projects right now: the graphic novel I mentioned before, plus putting together a book proposal for a compilation of some of my writing-related cartoons.

And I'm still getting huge enjoyment out of my DSLR camera. Since buying my Rebel XTi last July, I've been taking a ton of photos. Many are very, very bad and I end up deleting them. But I'm gradually learning more along the way.


"Sunjoy" - original fridge art on 3"x5" canvas board.
Available on Etsy.

Above: "Sunjoy" is all about embracing life. The girl in the picture is facing the sun, arms outstretched in the wind. In my mind's eye, she's smiling, her eyes closed.

Anyway, I'm thinking of revamping my online work portfolio to include photography. I'm not actively pursuing professional photography right now (I want to focus on my writing and illustration) but I have enough publishing credits anyway that it's about time I list them somewhere.

And just recently, an educational publisher contacted me about using one of my photos in a new textbook. In the old days, I would have been just thrilled. This time, I cautiously asked about how they were planning to use the photo (how much of the page it would take up) and they responded with detailed info plus their standard rate...which was more than three times the amount I was planning to ask for (!). Wow.

I've also had a family-owned garden centre in California pay a licensing fee to use one of my garden photos. Kudos to John from Clifton's Flower & Garden Center; he could have just scooped my photo and used it on his Web site (it would have been a violation of my copyright but would I ever find out?), but instead he was honest and asked permission.

So how many of you have started Christmas shopping? I actually started early this year, when I was in Calgary. If you're buying for a writer, librarian or bibliophile, by the way, don't forget to check my list of holiday gifts for writers.



Livejournal comments

Autumn, Strangolapreti and Nigel The Humming Cat

I love autumn. It's my favourite season. Spring's too wet, summer's too hot, winter's too cold. But the fall? Fall is exciting and blustery and bracing. Yes, white winter death is just around the corner but that just makes everything more vibrant. You appreciate the colours and smells and sounds that much more because you know it's all going to change drastically in a month or two.

Having burst forth in its fiery seasonal display, our Japanese maple is now shedding its leaves at an impressive rate. Jeff sweeps up the leaves almost daily but our front walk is crimson again by the next morning.

My herb garden is languishing. The basil is shrivelled from the cold. I'd take in the rosemary for the winter except that the neighbourhood squirrel killed it first, digging it up (maybe its pea-sized brain vaguely remembered burying a nut there in the spring) and heartlessly tossing it aside.

The sage seems hardier. I picked some for dinner the other night:



I felt like cooking something Italian, so chose an interesting-sounding recipe from my Basic Italian book. Strangolapreti literally means "Strangle The Priests" in Italian. The dish is actually ricotta dumplings with spinach, but it was the name that compelled me to try this recipe.

Jeff is very good about trying anything I cook; we're both fairly adventurous eaters. I've only had to throw dinner out once. Well, more than once if you count the number of times I burned dinner because I got too absorbed with work, but that was years ago. Now I use a kitchen timer with a loud and obnoxious ring to drag me out of my officecave.

Anyway, the dumplings were pretty messy and weird-looking before I cooked them:



In some parts of Italy, these are called malfatti, which means "badly made," and the cookbook warned that I shouldn't worry if they weren't shaped perfectly. I had never made dumplings before, so had to do several test dumplings (adding a bit more flour each time) before I found the right consistency; my dumplings kept falling apart as soon as I put them into the boiling water.



They were just as ugly when they came out of the pot, but they tasted great! I served them with a drizzle of sage butter (with the sage from our garden) and shaved pecorino (a hard Italian cheese made from sheep's milk). Jeff loved them.

Sold another painting yesterday. Here's one of the new mini-paintings that I've added to my Etsy store:



It's another tiny painting: acrylics on a 4" x 4" canvas board with a protective matte varnish. The cat's name is Nigel, by the way. You can re-name him if you'd like, but that's the name that jumped into my head as I was painting him. Wouldn't YOU love to have Nigel The Humming Cat on your fridge? Or washing machine? Or anything else where you can stick a fridge magnet?

In the past couple years I've realized that I like drawing cats. Ironic, really, because I'm allergic to them. But they still fascinate me with their complex personalities and neuroses...and especially their owners. :-)





Livejournal comments

Mimi's NaNoWriMo Pep Song and more paintings

"Ghosty Bunny": acrylics on 4" x 4" canvas board.

My NaNoWriMo Song is up on the NaNoWriMo site; it's near the end of WrimoRadio Episode 3 podcast. It's being sung by Jodi Krangle and Allison Durno, my music partners in Urban Tapestry, with musical accompaniment provided by Scott Snyder. Jodi (who sings lead on the song) has just started doing voice-over work, by the way. If you're looking for voice talent, do check out her voice over talent page.

Many thanks to Scott for the music. Because I was pressed for time (I KNOW I KNOW THIS IS NO EXCUSE) I had to do the recording in a hurry but realized too late that the voices were spiking (too loud) in a couple of places. Plus I forgot to turn off a clicking noisemaker-thingy that's supposed to (but failing) to keep the squirrels out of my walls. Anyway, I begged Scott to come up with some accompaniment that would downplay the problems -- THANK YOU, SCOTT!

Anyway, I've posted the lyrics to Mimi's NaNoWriMo Pep Song on Inkygirl, if you're interested.


"Smiley Fish": acrylics on 5" x 3" canvas board.

I did a few more mini-paintings last night, which I've posted on this page. The ones above are for sale in my Esty store as of this morning. If you click on either image, you'll be taken to the Etsy page of that particular image; I've added a description of how each was created.

The one below has already been sold; I call it "Moongazing." I like the moongazing idea, so may do a few more along that theme. I went to an art store last night and bought some 6" x 6" stretched canvases as well as more of the mini canvas boards. I *love* art stores...yes, even more than office supply stores! I also bought a small table easel so I don't have to hunch over at my craft table when I'm painting.



"Moongazing." Acrylics on 5" x 3" canvas board.

I've started a gallery page of acrylics paintings I've done so far. These pieces are WAY fun to do. To keep them fun, I've decided not to take commissions (at least for a while); a couple of you have inquired about that. Much of the joy for me is sitting down with a blank canvas and deciding what to paint on the spot.

The orange fish painting, for example, was because I wanted to try out a new orange paint I bought in the art store last night. I painted two orange blobs on the background blue, then decided to turn the blobs into fish.

Though I will continue to do most of my artwork digitally, I do admit that I get enormous satisfaction out of swirling REAL paint around on a canvas.

Any other artist-types out there? If so, what's your favourite medium or media? And do you prefer working digitally or with non-digital materials?

Livejournal comments

David Francey, Etsy, and Star Trek movie auditions

Above: David Francey demonstrates how he dances ("just plant your feet on the floor and make sure they don't move") during his concert with Craig Werth at Hugh's Room on Sunday night.

Jeff and I went to the David Francey concert at Hugh's Room with Tom, Sue, Walter and Trish. You can read my post about the concert on blogTO: David Francey: Story and Song at Hugh's Room. This is my first music-oriented post on blogTO; I was hired mainly for the Restaurants and Books/Lit section, but was told that it was ok if I occasionally posted in Music. BlogTO doesn't focus much on folk music, so we'll see how this goes over (fingers crossed).

Anyway, please do go over and take a look if you're interested; I know there are folk music fans out there. If this post gets enough traffic, then that'll help justify more folk music posts. :-)



I found out about David Francey from Dave Clement and Tom Jeffers. Dave and I perform "Torn Screen Door" in open filk sometimes, and Dave and Tom have been kind enough to invite me to do "Saints and Sinners" with them in concert from time to time.

David Francey, Sue and Tom:



The lighting in Hugh's Room was pretty dim; I never would have been able to get the following photo without flash if I didn't have a low-light lens like my Sigma 30/1.4:



Walter brought his Rebel, too, and you can see his photos in Flickr. Here's one I especially liked:




Thanks so much to Tom and Sue for organizing this outing!


Thanks, by the way, to the positive response to my new Etsy site. I put three items online and was floored when they all sold within 24 hours (!) of opening my little online shop. THANK YOU. I mailed them off yesterday and might work on a few more this weekend.

Links O' The Day:

JuicyFruits: Oh dear...another addictive webcomic. I love the whimsical style of this artwork! I only wish I could read Japanese so I could appreciate the blog entries. (thanks to aep for the link)

To you Californians out there: So how many of you tried out for the new Star Trek movie? (thanks to Nunscio.com for the link)

Rands In Repose: The Nerd Handbook: "A nerd needs a project because a nerd builds stuff. All the time. Those lulls in the conversation over dinner? That's the nerd working on his project in his head." (thanks to Jeff for the link)



Livejournal comments