Diane Clancy’s Art Blog

Some of you have bought work of mine and others have said you plan to. So, as my customers, I have a question for you. Last night I brought some of my cups tiles, postcards and more from my CafePress Shop to my art business class. They loved the merchandise and thought it looked great! But they has one problem with it - my name is not on the mugs and all at all.

All Directions at Once, Digital © Diane Clancy

When I ship from my Etsy Shop, I send a business card and they know it is from me. I can also sign the print or card if they would like me to.

I explained to the class that with the merchandise from CafePress there was no way to put my name with the products. They get shipped directly to the customer. They then wanted me to put my name on the image itself that I upload for CafePress to print from.

That is the only way to have my name associated with the image. I want to know what you think. I am of mixed minds. In one way I can understand their concerns - sure it would be great for people to know the work was mine
and come looking for more!

But in another way, I am concerned with anything that could take away from the painting itself. I am not sure my name as it would be on a picture in a way that didn’t take away from the painting would be clear enough to come looking for me and then find me.

So, I just don’t know! I am turning to you to ask your opinion. Which way would you prefer? I hope you will really take the time and be truthful. Thank you in advance for all your help!!

~ Diane Clancy

Technorati Tags: customers, merchandise, CafePress, Etsy Shop, signing work

I am very moved by the outpouring of kindness and understanding that you have given me in your comments! You have touched me in a deep place in my soul with your connecting to me … and letting me know about it! This is an added bonus I did not expect when I started blogging!

Happy Dog, ACEO © Diane Clancy

I promised I would give you the link to the World Card Making Day (WCMD)- which was yesterday, October 6, 2007. If I had known earlier, I would have shared this so all of you could have the chance to play too. It is a little like Rima’s challenges … different blogs set up a kind of card to make and then details were posted during different times of the day and then people went to town creating cards!

ACEO (Art Card Editions and Originals) and ATC ( Art Trading Cards) are 2.5 x 3.5″ cards (made of many different materials) that people trade and collect. They are the same size as a baseball card (at least baseball cards in the US - I don’t know about other countries) and people often keep them in plastic sleeves that people use for baseball cards.

I have had a request to make some of these ACEOs and so I saw an opportunity that would force me to push myself fast and furious without worrying about quality .. sort of like it was for me when I took art classes. I produced tons of work because there was a deadline without the pressure of having to be perfect … I am sure many of you understand what I mean.

If you want to see the ACEOs I made yesterday they are posted at my other blogs here and here. I posted until 2 am my time last night so there may be some you didn’t catch. There are no duplicate ACEO images between the 2 blogs. And I hadn’t posted on either since I posted about the Blog Action Day - so that is when you will know you have seen all the ACEOs.

For me it was a great chance to get the brush going again without worrying about meaning or what it looked like. I need to do my environmental challenge so hopefully the brush got loosened up so now there is just the brain (or heart and soul) that need loosening.

The other thing I wanted to share is about this painting. I just was putting paint down and I thought it looked terrible - so I almost threw it aside. But I am very conscious of the earth and thriftiness. So I put a little more on it. Then I wiped a brush on it. Then put a bunch of marks in the back. Then, magically, at one moment, it showed itself as a dog. A pretty cool dog too I think. So I went back and reworked it a bunch more times … I thought you would be interested to know about its history. I think it is one of the strongest images from yesterday .. and it almost got thrown out!

I want you to remember that persevering is important. Things may not go quite right at the moment, in life and in painting, but keep stick with your process. You helped me persevere yesterday with painting and painting when it all looked like total junk to me .. then it gelled. So I want to pass this along to you!

~ Diane Clancy

Technorati Tags: kindness, blogging, WCMD, ACEO, ATC, art classes

One thing that has been great for me in blogging is getting back into creating paintings again. I had gone on quite a digital image binge a couple of years ago and then slowed way down (except for animal pictures). I have not done that much new painting with traditional materials except for working on a couple of series that I knew I wanted to work out to four in each series. And I have spent a lot of time marketing and doing graphic design and web design for clients.

Above the Race Track, Digital © Diane Clancy

Coming here and having you want a new painting every day, I worried if I would have enough. I am sure I had enough for maybe a year (or 2 depending on what I use), but I am very conservative in a certain way (not politically), and I didn’t want to use up all my paintings.

So I started creating new digital ones to hopefully delight you. And it has been great - because you have helped me go past what I was doing before in working with Studio Artist. In Photoshop I am probably working very much similarly. But your comments have pushed me past where I was working with SA. To a bunch more steps and taking images and working and reworking and reworking again.

Then - about the names - you pushed me to get more creative when I was going on and on with the Beyonds - since I was working with the same base image. That was how I was naming before - using one name for all 4 or so images I would make from one source image.

Right now I have over 300 images in a folder from one painting. Almost all the images I have created the last couple of months have been from the one base painting. So, obviously, Beyond 301 doesn’t cut it.

The Confession - for my Blog Action Day painting, I want to use traditional mediums - which means physical paints, physical collages, physical pastels, etc. Now … here is the confession really - I am scared! I feel I can never do anything worthwhile and that it just won’t look that good … and I can’t do it. I am nervous to so this!

The Appreciation - I want to thank you all for helping me develop into another stage in digital painting and also naming of paintings. Having to come up with a new name every day has made it much easier to be creative in names.

Thank you for sharing my process and please feel free to share yours!

~ Diane Clancy

Technorati Tags: marketing, graphic design, Studio Artist, Photoshop, Blog Action Day, traditional mediums, creative process, digital painting

Here is one of my special images on merchandise in my CafePress Shop (www.cafepress.com/dianeclancy)  Susan took photos today that will hopefully be good enough to make into more “Fanciful Animal Images.”  Thank you for your comments about the forms and email from yesterday’s posts.  Famous last words of getting the other section done - almost nada.

Freckles in Flowers II, Digital © Diane Clancy

This little baby was my companion for 18 wonderful years!! One of my best friends ever!!  But, on the bright side, I commented on many posts today from around the web, and read lots more than I commented on! So I hope I got them all caught up!!

~ Diane Clancy

Technorati Tags: Fanciful Animal Images, CafePress

This painting is also a tip of the hat to Harry Potter. It took me about 10 tries before I got the “eye” how I wanted it. It is amazing to me how the name of an image can change the whole way I look at it.

Behind the Mirror, Digital © Diane Clancy

Answering some comments from previous posts … Sue O’Kieffe, to answer your question, I am looking at the blog (and particularly the paintings) on my CRT monitor, and I see a bit of a color difference, but not much at all. With all my files they are a little different on the large monitor upstairs versus my laptop. Mac vs PC can come into it too.

I am ready to print “In the Cathedral” but waiting for Susan to come home to put her image into the file too to save paper … but it looks good on the screen and usually it prints pretty closely … except the purples are usually too reddish when printed from Photoshop files … so I may need to work on that … We shall see!

Sue, it is neat the way we work so similarly!! I enjoy working and painting when I feel that I am at least as much as vehicle as a creator. For me it is so much more fun!

~ Diane Clancy

Technorati Tags: Sue O’Kieffe, color difference, printing

Update - the purple printed redder than I see on the screen.  I think I should have chosen all the purple and shifted that color somehow to a more bluer purple.  But this is the consistent off-printing that happens.  It is pretty close but not exact.  And I tried to adjust the saturation on certain colors, but I couldn’t get it how I wanted … so I printed to see what happened - but it looks great!

Time to look upward and be inspired! Day to day can result in so much getting lost in the details … and then there is stepping back and looking at the big picture. I figure a cathedral that was designed and built to direct our attention to the lofty and to the uplifting was a good place to start. So here is my offer to help each of us be reminded of the whole awesome the whole life force truly is.

In the Cathedral, Digital © Diane Clancy

In answer to your question … I heard it out there in the stratosphere … I usually start by working with the image itself (particularly in digital) and then ask the painting what it is wanting to communicate. I listen the best I can and then give it a name to call attention to the purpose it was letting me know about. I am directing attention to what I hear the image is expressing.

Any thoughts on any of this?

~ Diane Clancy

One of the things I am particularly enjoying about this process of digital painting is my sense of being silly and having fun. Sometimes my silliness gets separated from my painting because I want to make sure I am reverent. But with the digital, somehow it seems ok to just be silly with the paintings and with the names.

Deadlines Looming, Digital © Diane Clancy

Many of this last series of images the last month or two, I would never do in paper or canvas and paint. For me, there is something about this medium … partly the immediacy with the tools I am using … that really bring out my silliness.

So many of them look like silly little creatures. Sue O’Kieffe also had mentioned a quote from a famous person about painting from the unconscious (or subconscious) caused figures to emerge. Somehow that also helps me feel good about these silly little beings that are emerging.

How about you? What happens when you let yourself be silly when creating?

~ Diane Clancy

Technorati Tags: digital painting, Sue O’Kieffe, creative process

It is delightful that we are talking with each other about these issues of creativity and supporting each other as artists. For me, it is much different doing things digitally than with paper or canvas and paint. Lately I have been sitting down with an image and just saying - “go ahead and change it.”

Here We Are, Digital © Diane Clancy

First, actually I cruise a bunch of images and see who speaks to me. Someone jumps out and yells, “me, me me!” So I say, “OK.” I don’t have anything in mind … I work from the process before me with the Studio Artist program. That is how I have made most of these images lately … and often gone into Photoshop for while too.

It is much scarier for me with paper and paint. Though I used a similar technique for using paper and tempera for awhile and 2 of those images are very popular ones of mine. With paint I feel I have to create something “special” to justify using resources and stuff .. so it is much harder to create.

Also, with paint and paper or canvas, sometimes I do sit down with a specific idea - like to create another image in a series. Allowing myself to play obviously works much better. And I absolutely agree with Sue - don’t worry too much about being original.

Start with something that you want to do and constantly stretch yourself. Hard as it is, try to compare yourself to you - not to anyone else. Though that is easier to say than to do!  I know!  What else are you thinking?

~ Diane Clancy

Technorati Tags: Studio Artist, Photoshop, tempera, creative process

Some of you have been asking how I come up with these digital paintings. I start with something and twist and turn and play … constantly ready to “undo” the last action. The undo’s happen frequently - because each step feels like it is moving me in a direction that nourishes me … or it pulls at me in a negative way - in which case I immediately “undo.”

Above the Expressway, Digital © Diane Clancy

The other part that I keep a careful eye on is a lot of “saves” … often things look sort of interesting but not complete … so I save them and then continue on with my journey. I learned this part the hard way by having images I really liked, pushing on, and then losing anything good. Just being left with so-so stuff.

I have never had such a long run before on creating so many paintings out of one image. But it feels excellent! People here pushed me to go another level and that next step opened a whole lot of doors with my methods. The last time I did a lot of digital images was using many base images, one after another. So the exploration was broad rather than deep. I am enjoying this greatly!

Thank you for giving me an audience - you push me to create something for you … I want to delight you! Do you have any techniques or processes or … that you would like to share?

~ Diane Clancy

Technorati Tags: digital painting, creative process

Periodically Susan Borgas of Arts & Stuff blog has a Carnival post where she features links to different artists’ significant blog articles. This time this blog was listed in this Carnival!!  Different blogs have this feature and I am very excited that an article from this blog was chosen!! Thank you, Susan. I encourage you to go check out the interesting Carnival Susan has.  Thank you to all of you who have asked me to write about things ~ you share in this honor!

Coming in for a Landing, Digital © Diane Clancy

As we have moved to late summer (or late winter in the southern hemisphere), change is in the air. It is time for shifting gears and beginning to land. Please share your thoughts!

~ Diane Clancy

Technorati Tags: Susan Borgas, Carnival

Rima Koleilat has issued another challenge for anyone to play the game of changing an image. Details are here. So I have taken up playing this game too. Here is my first image - with a tip of the hat to Aldous Huxley (who wrote “Doors of Perception”).

Doors of Reflection, Digital © Diane Clancy

Part of the game is sharing how you got from the original (see Rima’s post) to the final image. I decided to start out in Studio Artist. As before, I started with Translating the image - which moves it in the direction you pull and then doubles as one moves. Because I wanted to keep a sense of realism, while adding mystery and a sense of otherworldliness at the same time, I only pulled in one direction at a time.

After pulling left to right horizontally, I Translated downward vertically. I wanted to continue this process but as I tried it, I was losing the main elements of the image that I wanted to keep. So I used Scale Uniform to just make everything smaller to give me room to fool around.

Then I Translated from right to left to double the door and and Translated from top to bottom to add to the upper stories. After that, I Translated from bottom to top to double the shop and doors to deepen the sense of mystery established with the doubled sign on the shop awning.

I wanted to differentiate the bottom shop and doors from the top to make it look like a reflection. I made a selection in Studio Artist to choose just the bottom reflections and was struck by the striking nature of the inverse color that showed up as I was highlighting it.

I couldn’t figure out how to make things work from there in Studio Artist so I switched to Photoshop since I know certain things much better in that program. Again, I choose just the bottom reflection and tried a few things like watercolor filters and such. But that inverse color was stuck in my mind. So I did a simple inverting the color in the reflection part.

There is an article that I have written about “Art that Changed Me” - it is the topic of the current and next issue of the People’s Voice which is a local newsletter of which I am the editor. There wasn’t room for me in the current issue so we are going to run the topic again. It is now quarterly - it used to be monthly and was way too much work! In that article, I talk about how the reflective surfaces of the bathroom window sills and bathtub walls of my childhood impacted my perception and expanded my viewpoint. This image reminds me of the mirroring wall quality.

~ Diane Clancy

Technorati Tags: Rima Koleilat, Aldous Huxley, Studio Artist, mystery, Photoshop, People’s Voice, creative process

This is a painting that I find hard to believe is digital!  To me this is luscious and luxurious.  And why am I so bold to sit here and say that about something I created?  Because it doesn’t feel like I created it - I was just the vehicle.

Liquid Elegance, Digital © Diane Clancy

Often when I am painting (and writing) it feels if something much greater than Diane the personality - my muse?  my spirit?  the life force?  something else? - is the one who is doing the creating.

What do you think?  How is it for you creating? Do you get different results when you are in that kind of flow or not?  Please share your own thoughts and experiences.

~ Diane Clancy

Technorati Tags: digital painting, flow, muse, creative process

Colors on computer are so complex and just plain weird. Tonight I have used this image in 4 different programs. I created the image in Studio Artist, added an adjustment layer in Adobe Photoshop to change the hue, looked at this and several other versions in Adobe Bridge and then finally working on this post in Firefox.

Coral Liquid Light, Digital © Diane Clancy

The reddish/orange hue in the Bridge looked very very orange and extremely elegant! Then when I was resizing it in Photoshop, all of a sudden it looks much pinker than orange. Hence the name “coral.”

I remember looking at a post in Lisa Call’s quilting blog and she was writing about being very distressed because the color didn’t come out right on a photograph she was putting on the web. I think I must have had 2 browsers open - Firefox and also Safari - probably to look at the image and post in one browser and comment in the other. The color difference was amazing - like 2 different pieces. So I am not going to be in too much angst right now over this color difference.

In the comments to this post a few days ago Chris made an anoucement about changes he is going to make in his art marketing blog.  You might want to check out these comments and definitely check out his blog as he makes these changes.  I will point you to his blog as he does make this change.

Thank you again for all your support and encouragement!

~ Diane Clancy

Technorati Tags: Studio Artist, Photoshop, hue, Bridge, Firefox, Safari

You guys have pushed me over the edge to do different things and this is coming out … who IS this person? Although I am concerned that I may need to change my slogan and whole business plan and orientation, actually I am pretty excited about these last several digital paintings I have done. I am having mucho fun playing!  Are these uplifting at all?

Bad Day at the Office, Digital © Diane Clancy

Who knows - these may be the images that some licensing company want to produce. That would be an irony - no? Sigh … “they” say that you are supposed to choose a style and stick with it to succeed. But I like to do different things - even if it means I am not as financially successful. Maybe posthumously my daughter will get rich from my work - that’s good enough. Or maybe they will all go in the trash heap!

Needed to work today on paperwork - you know the offline kind - physical paper and pen - remember the old days? Also, trying to get things finalized for the AWE (Artist Window Exhibit) that is happening this week and formalized for the next and hopefully periodic AWE’s that will be coming up. It has all been fun - and a lot of work!

Tomorrow I am hoping to make a decision about whether to set up a pro shop at CafePress. I so prefer to keep things low-budget .. but sometimes I think one just has to spring for things. I think this might be one of those times. I will let you know.

Thank you for stopping by and/or reading … hope your summer (winter in the southern hemisphere) is going extremely well!

~ Diane Clancy

Technorati Tags: digital paintings, licensing, AWE, CafePress

I have been having so much fun playing with Studio Artist! But I decided I.better use a different base image to keep you interested. This is from the “Water and Earth” shown in this post here. These colors still aren’t my usual colors I tend to paint in (but they are somewhat closer than the colors I have been using) … but I think it is good I am stretching myself. Also you have all been part of my making more complex digital paintings and I think that is a really good thing. It also feels great to be thinking of names each time I create a painting rather than a daunting task of coming up with lots of names at once.

Whirling Dervish Umbrellas, Digital © Diane Clancy

Last night and today I worked on setting up 2 CafePress shops. I think I am going to have to go to the pro version to make marketing these shops manageable. They are …. cafepress.com/dianeclancy where right now there are some items with “Conundrum” on them. I also made a shop of http://cafepress.com/fancifulanimals where so far I am selling “Bambi with Butterflies.” It sure has taken me a lot of work to get these things set up and understand how to do it.

And I followed Sue O’Kieffe’s advice and set up a Xanga place xanga.com/DianeClancy. And I did the Facebook that Chris O’Byrne suggested I join. But so far I am totally lost there and at those other big ones … they will have to wait.

But it is kind of exciting that I feel I am making some real progress on figuring how to connect up to go to another level. Thank you again for the help everyone has been here. I hope all is well with each of you.

~ Diane Clancy

Technorati Tags: Studio Artist, digital painting, CafePress, Sue O’Kieffe, Chris O’Byrne