Doing Things!

I haven't actually been a giant slacker for the last...nearly year...since I last posted, I promise. But I haven't been working on the Wild Swans project. I have been working on an etching commission which is three etchings based on Frank Lloyd Wright houses.
I also have been working on starting a business and buying a new etching press. Obviously, I want to edition all my new prints on the new press because yay new press. Also because my current one doesn't work so well. But that means I have to wait until I get the press to finish the project. But it shouldn't be too much longer. :D

In related news, I opened an Etsy shop to sell my prints. It's right here!
There should be even more things added soon!

Second of the Swans

I finished the second illustration for my Wild Swans project, the original version of which is in my last post. 

"The light of hundreds of glow-worms shown amidst the grass and the moss, like green fire..."

 I do love gold Gouache. So shinyyy.

The printmaking project I mentioned last time is still in the works, and I got a new job that will start in about a month. It's an actual 9-5 type job, and I'm hoping that will help me structure my time instead of interfering with these projects.

Return to Days of Yore

Well, mostly projects of days of Yore. (Does that word have to be capitalized? Probably not, but I like it that way (Also Yore is a fun word to use, especially during the holiday season.).) [I'm feeling creative with punctuation. Be warned.]

I started this project illustrating The Wild Swans by Hans Christian Anderson almost five years ago when I was recovering from major surgery, because I felt I needed a huge project to take up some of the hours I was spending sitting around otherwise staring at the computer or reading for months. Turns out the project was too large though, and I didn't even really get that far into it. So I decided to finish it now.
The project currently entails about 15 ink and watercolor illustrations, which I may cut down to 12 or so. These will then be used in my illustration portfolio. About 8 of these are somewhere in the sketch -> full blown drawing stage currently. One is (probably) finished and one more is currently in progress.

The finishedish piece:

The probably-needs-a-major-overhaul-because-i-hated-it-and-ended-up-playing-around-with-it piece. Obviously, unfinished:

Both of these drawings reached the "full blown drawing" stage when I originally started the project, and I'm trying to balance that with the artistic progress I've made since. There are some things I really like about them, but sometimes, as with the original version of the unfinished image (in which she looked like she was in a park rather than a forest. I still think it looks more like a park after a bad thunderstorm), I'm realizing that they don't translate very well to paint, or don't fit my current style or vision or could be better executed. Or all of the above. So even the things which I felt before were mostly finished need tweaking or even overhauling. Luckily, because I don't have a deadline I'm feeling pretty free to use this as an opportunity for play.

Also It's becoming more and more clear to me how dearly I need a better camera. That's not going to happen any time soon, however.

I'm hoping I can keep this project going steadily and am trying to develop good work habits around it. I have another printing project creeping into my brain also so hopefully I can balance them. The printing project also depends on another person, however, so it's going to remain vague for now.

The Art Show is Opened

And I have some pictures that other people took!

Loose prints

 I also have framed prints, of course.

The newest embroidery is all the way to the right. I will post better pictures of it later. It was a fun surprise for my fab friend who is the subject

The artists

Fun with energy drinks

This man liked my embroideries enough that he went home and brought back a piece his grandmother made for me to look at. It was beautiful, and he was awesome!

Art Show Opening Next Week

My next art show is opening next week. I'll be showing my etchings and the embroidery series - there's one more finished one but I want to debut it at the show so no sneak peaks here!
It's a group show with two other fabulous local artists. I'm getting excited!

 

I also cranked out two new small linoleum prints to sell as cards, and may get a third done before the show. If so, the design will be a surprise. ;)  Here are the two I have ready:

 

Not all the detail comes out in the scan, as the embossing is an important part of the images. So these need to be seen in person.

I spent today getting labels and displays figured out, and generally getting pumped. :)

Portrait the Fourth

This one is of a friend, from a few years ago. Aww he looks so young ^_^

Once again, 18x24 inches hand embroidered on unbleached muslin.

Portrait #3

I'm not quite sure if this is finished, but I've moved on to the next one so for now I'm going to say that it is.

Embroidered portrait of my mother and cousin, 18x24 on unbleached muslin.

Embroidered Trio

I finished the second piece in the series of embroidered portraits I'm working on!

For most of the graffiti in the background I used an old shirt (yay recycling), appliqued using my sewing machine I got for christmas. The rest is hand embroidered.

I'm currently working on #3.

Print Swap! Pt. 2

I received the lovely box of amazing prints (it's actually been a few weeks now...) which I had been waiting impatiently for since I sent off my box of prints to the Pussy Cat Press Print Exchange back in September, which I posted about here . I am blown away by the prints I received, I want to frame them all and cover my walls with them. :)

I said I would post the print I contributed to the exchange when it was all over, so here it is.

9x12'' linoleum print, "On/Off"

In other news, I was working on some quilting-type stuff for a while. Everything I've made so far though is practice and will end up as garbage. I'm taking a break from that (and my other couple projects..) to work on a series of reduction lino cuts of sunsets. I've never done reduction prints before now, and it's an interesting thing to try to wrap my brain around. Kind of like stencils but with completely blind registration.

Embroidered Selves

I finished this right before the art show a few weeks ago, just in time to slip it in. It's hand embroidered, 18x24 inches on unbleached muslin.

My intention is for it to be the first in a series of embroideries. My brain has already moved on to trying to wrap itself around quilts, though, so it might be a while...

Prints Are Done!

I finally finished all the intaglio prints I've been working on since January, just in time for the art show I'm in next week at Thread Space. :)

The prints:

Diversions

One of my friends broke the screen on his phone a few days ago, and made a passing comment about wanting a rotary cell phone. The idea took root in my head and almost without planning it I made him one.

Embroidered dial and ear/mouth piece.
It's a little crude, but it's the first thing I've ever sewn! Which I didn't even realize until after I had started sewing. 

 

It has a pocket. To keep phone numbers in or something.

I'm really bad at representing myself. I hadn't told my friend anything about making this, I just handed it to him at a time when he was distracted, and walked away. Then I had to ask him later what he thought of it and he was pretty confused until I explained myself fully. 

I really am making progress on my prints, too. I'll post more about them when I have more to show.

Finsh Fix

I got antsy yesterday and had to do something different. Something short, so I could say I'd finished something.

So I did some blind contour drawings of nearby things and just had fun with it. I liked one of them enough that I refined it and decided to do a quick and simple embroidery of it. I had also been curious about embroidery on paper for a while. The result:

I don't know what I'm going to do with it, but I feel better and can now get on with my long, slow projects.

Print Swap!

I just sent off my print edition to the Pussy Cat Press print exchange. I'm super excited about it and can't wait to see what I get in return! I'll post my print when the exchange is over.

Ah, So Close...

But not quite done yet.
The darkest shade on the Cave print didn't turn out. So now I have to re-aquatint the plate and etch it again. Here's hoping I don't muck it up.


I realized that my video on This is Handmade is going to become harder to find as more videos get added to the site, and I should post it here also. So here it is in all it's 5 minutes of tedious glory:



There has been some internet dramas over the message behind This is Handmade. People not getting it, being put off by the presentation, etc. For me, it was a great way to blow off steam over the people who have in the past offered me $15-20 for something I worked for days, weeks, or even months on, as though they were doing me a favor. I can make that in an hour waiting tables on a decent night. I would rather hold onto something I spent that much time and love on than to give it away for so little, because it's obvious I care more about it than they do. And who wants their art to wind up with people who don't care about it?

This is Handmade

I've submitted a video to This is Handmade, a video blog by the great Penny Nickels, of me stopping out an intaglio plate.

I'm kind of amazed - its up there next to videos of crafters I've admired for a long time.  :)

I'm almost done with the aquatint on the Cave print from my last post, and started on a new one, the Mesa print, today for the third time. :P  Things just keep going wrong with it.
This will be #3 in a series of 5 prints. The Cave is #4. 

I've been airbrushing Z*Acryl hardground onto the copper plates for my hardground. It was humid today so it didn't dry as fast as I'm used to, and I ended up with it dripping down the plate the first time. Z*Acryl works best if applied in several very thin layers and will chip if it's too thick, leaving you with a blobby open-bitten line, which is why I like to airbrush it on. It means I had to wait patiently for it to dry between applying each layer, however.

In the end I did get it nice and even and matte. Sweet.
The color variations in the photo are from me sanding the plate in different directions. I sanded it with 400 grit sandpaper to give it a little tooth for the hardground to stick to. 

While cleaning the airbrush my air hose broke. It's lame but at least it waited to break until I was pretty much done with it. 

I transferred the image to the plate by laying it over a piece of embroidery tracing paper and tracing through both papers. I originally got the tracing paper for an embroidery project but found that it didn't work well for transferring images to the fabric I was using. It works great for this though. It comes in bright shades of yellow and blue and the colors show up very well against the hardground. It also actually sticks to it, unlike graphite.

I then traced the image AGAIN with the scribe, which is a pointy piece of metal, to scratch though the hardground. Considering I've done this whole process three times now and drew the image several times before that, I've lost track of how many times I've drawn this same image. o_0

The plate has now been etching in the ferric bath for 5 hours. I think it's time to take it out and go to bed.

Joining In

I've been lurking on so many art and crafts related websites for so long now, I've decided it's time to join in. I'm starting here. 

My current project - an intaglio print on copper. I've done the line etch and am working on the aquatint. This photo is after I etched the first shade, the shiny parts are what will turn out to be white. 

I forgot to take a picture for the second etch, so this is before the third. I kind of just like the way the plate looks.