Hello! It has been quite a while since I last did a blog post, or any kind of post really. I am finally in a state of mind to start working on a posting schedule.
Like pretty much everyone else I am finally starting to recover from a year of working from home and being in "lockdown." There is also that phase where you think you are in a good spot, ready to start adding a few things to your work week, and BAM! you are smacked back down. There has been a lot of that.
I am pretty sure I am past the worst of it, and ready to add a weekly social media update via my Ko-fi site, and a twice a month longer blog post on this blog. Facebook and IG posts are going to be sporadic for a bit longer as I get some of my projects to places I am ready to share.
What have I been up to since February?
I have been working on a "secret" project for almost a year. Which is ALMOST done.
I finished the painting part last week. This week I have been cutting out backing fabric and prepping the backs and trim. I also scanned them and have been working on a way to create functional prints out of them. They are on wood rounds. I need to figure out something that makes sense for rectangular prints, since those are the easiest (and cheapest) frames to get.
The next big part is coating them in resin. I have to wait for the weather to cooperate on this front. Living in the PNW and trying to do stuff that needs decent weather can be a bit annoying. The resin I am using is meant for furniture and counter tops, so I need to do the work outside. I need to have decent weather without to much humidity. I am aiming to have these done by mid April though, weather permitting.
I have been streaming twice a week on Twitch.
I recently decided to dedicate Tuesdays to digital art. I have been working on a fan art of a terrible horribly wonderful movie called "The Green Slime." I am doing a digital version of the primary monster. There is at least one more Tuesday's worth of work to do on this guy.
Thursdays are traditional art, which is painting day for me. I finished the "secret" project painting last week, on stream. This week, and the next few weeks, I am working on a gouache painting inspired by a card story creation system call "The Story Engine." This painting is an alien looking at another alien through a possessed portal. I hope that we can use the story cards to create more illustrative paintings in the future.
I started the planning phase for a Chinese Zodiac series and a more western Zodiac series. They are going to contain lots of bright and even neon colors. I am starting these digitally to create a color map. Then I can transfer that knowledge to the small 6in rounds. That way I will not mess up as much, and be able to create the final originals a little bit quicker than the last large project. Doing the digital first is also going to make it easy to offer stickers, prints, and other fun products.
One of the reasons I have not updated Facebook and Instagram as often is I have been spending more time on each creation, so they are not as ready as fast. I am not cranking things out in a 3-4 hour session daily. They are taking 8-12 hours or more each. The quality of my work is improving, but the quantity is slightly less.
I have also been working on my house. Being a home owner provides me with seemingly endless distractions and things that NEED to be taken care of. The distractions often make a large dent in my budget so buying art supplies is not high on my list.
In summary or TL:DR
I have been working on things behind the scene. If you want to see what is going on catch my Twitch stream Tuesday and Thursday.