Building the Store, Brick by Brick

I've been working for three straight days adding items to my store. It still have lots of spitting and polishing to do, but all but two items are listed. In total I will have 42. I have a list of ideas and pieces that I want to do, so I'm sure that I will be able to reach my goal of 60 items within a reasonable amount of time. So, all the folks who have been asking to buy art and cards from me can now easily do so, and that makes me happy. All the money I earn will go into making more art, trying new techniques and branching out. Learning. And buying boring things like rigid mailing envelopes. *yawn*.

I'm looking forward to cutting the ribbon on Labor Day! Spock is unimpressed, but I'm excited.

Still Here

 

I have done a piece since completing the Hamlet poster, but no peeking for ya'll. Some pieces are personal, and one of a kind. So, you get a picture of linochad as a consolation prize. It was on my desk posing for this photo, but within days it had worked its way around the carpeted areas of our house.

I worked very hard today on inputing items into my Artfire store. I haven't made it to 60 items yet, but one year of hard work has resulted in 40 items. That's enough for me at this point. Since the art isn't flowing in a fast and furious manner that it once was, it's time for grunt work and search engine optimization. Ugh. Facebook. Ugh. There must be a better way. Somebody send me a Google+ invite, I implore you.

The perfect is the enemy of the good. I will be ready to cut the ribbon on my good store by September 5th.

Final Hamlet Poster

Here's the final artwork that I used for San Jose Youth Shakespeare's production of Hamlet. The play is halfway through it's run, and it's excellent. See it if you are in the area!

If you are with a non-profit Shakespeare company, and would like to use this image for your poster, please do. Just let me know, and I will send you a high res image.

Honor Upon Honor

Here are the hands of my friend. My friend who was the catalyst that lit the fuse that touched off the art inferno in my life. He is hanging a piece on his wall by the artist whose work made me choose linocut as a medium. Right next to that is a piece I made. I was bowled over by this moment. My memory of it will always be clearer than this photo... which I guess means that it might get rather blurry and yellow over time.

Here's the artwork:
http://www.etsy.com/listing/12713584/merman-original-linocut

And the hands:
http://www.harpmusic.com/

#29 - Hamlet Poster - In Which the Fountain Splits

Today was a long day in the studio. A bit grueling, but very successful. I did my first real split fountain, and I think it came out really well. Always trying to learn new things. The first step in the process was sort of ridiculous: I spent nearly two hours just mixing ink to get the right color. The rest of the process went like this:
Get the inks and brayers all raring to go...

Ink up the title...

Ink up the middle...

Ink up the gradation at the bottom...

Ink up the gradation at the top...

Press that sucker... Lather, rinse and repeat 28 times.

#29 - Welcome to Linochadia

I got the big OK from the director, and off we go! This should be a pretty straightforward piece. The only thing that will require a little futzing around will be the split fountain background.

Here's the first block, waiting in anticipation of the gouge:

And here it is, all done, waiting in anticipation of the ink:

I've made buckets of linochad already, and my studio is Linochadia. Ah, the feel of strips of lino stuck to the bottom of one's feet! Track it 'round, I say! Track it everywhere! Track it to the outskirts of our fair home!

#29 - Hamlet Is Finally Feeling Final, And That's That.

I really have drawn this to death. Even the guy in the mirror died, right? This piece feels ready to print. I just need to get feedback from the director of the play. I hope he gives me the thumbs up, but if not, his input is always excellent and helpful. All of his suggestions have led to better sketches. There's no reason not to improve on this, so I'm ready for whatever he says.

I've had to distill things down to be more basic so that the various parts of the composition harmonize rather than do battle with each other. Also, certain elements started looking like other things: the circle looked like an eyeball, the fleur de lis (which are now gone) looked like Dickensian lamp posts - things like that. Now everything looks like what it is supposed to be. I'm going for the look of nature growing up into the man made.