SO … here it goes … drum roll please …. drums banging away!!! And the WINNER IS …. Kate of HeronKate. HeronKate (known to me as Kate) is a fantastic artist that I know through may of my online ventures. Kate is a very lovely woman and a great artist. I hope you will check out her work .. and perhaps buy something. Kate’s Etsy Shop is here.
Congratulations, Kate!!
This is one of my very, very favorites!! I have featured it in many of my treasuries at Etsy.
The prize is one 6 pack of these cards. The size is 4.25 x 6″ and they are professionally printed. These are my cards - I am thrilled so many of you wanted to win these cards … I will have all the different images up so you can see them again. Near the top and at the bottom of the post there is an opportunity for you to purchase the cards (identical button) at a discount if you really want to take them home with you, but didn’t win.
To thank you for your interest and participation in the give-away of these cards, I am giving you a sale price of $12.99 which includes shipping and handling for these 6 cards. If you would like to purchase this pack of 6 cards (4.25 x 6), please use this PayPal button. PayPal accepts lots of credit cards - you do not have to have a PayPal account to purchase. Anyone can buy - you didn’t have to participate - you just got lucky!! ~ Thank you!!
Ok … Today is the big give-away …. I am going to collect names here in comments until at least 20 people have taken advantage of this give-away … then I will pick a number and the person whose comment corresponds will win this give-away! You may enter more than once, but I am going to wait to get at least at least 20 different people. I would also like your permission to add you to my e-mailing list for when I get a newsletter together to send out. Entering constitutes permission - I will not spam you and you can ALWAYS remove yourself - and no hard feelings.
You have until I end the give-away - at last 20 different people - to leave your name and join in this blog’s give-away. If you want to win the give-away, leave enough information for me in a comment to this post so I can get a hold of you.
Make sure your email address is a valid one and not one of the no-reply ones. Please do not leave sensitive info like your address or phone .. I can get your address when you win!
I would love to have you participate … I am excited to have something to give you to help build a mailing list so I can share what I have been doing with you and give you special promotions.
I am so glad you are signing that petition .. I am still looking into things about this (yesterday’s post). I worked with a client (friend) today for the first time in 2 months and walked around the block. Please tell me about you!!!
Here is one last Alice. I don’t know why I think of Alice in Wonderland … but I have always thought that looking at this painting. So much so, that I named it Alice. I think part of it is the bright colors .. and perhaps the other part is that it looks like entering a new world - as a very little person.
Sweet Irene has given me the Blog of Distinction Award. Thank you so much - it is also a wonderful award. Many of you have seen Irene’s great blog - go check it out if you haven’t. This award is for having a Blog of Distinction and I am thrilled! Thank you, Irene! Right now I am going to give this award to Neda Doany of Papiers Collés for her fantastic blog. More to come later.
Thank you for this award!! A brief update … the snow and ice are GONE!! The AWE (Artist Window Exhibit) is up - at least my part … and these things are good! Just taking more asthma medicine and accepting it - so I can breathe a little better again.
Today I have been preparing and printing bubblecapes for the AWE (Artists Windows Exhibit) Project. I am printing the 11 x14″. I think I have figured out how to blow up the bubbles large enough. I have started designing how my exhibits are going to look. You may want to check out my other blog - I created a new Treasury today.
This is an Acrylic painting - you know, not made on the computer… I hope you enjoy!! I hope you are well!! I appreciate so much that you are still commenting when I am so behind. I am hoping to catch up … thank you!! And I am so glad you are in my life.
Neda Doany has a challenge on her blog, PapiersCollés. Some people say they want to know the artist behind the art more … so I figure this is one good way. So here it goes.. I have no idea of the answers to most of these! Thanks, Neda.
1. If you owned a bookstore, what would you name it? Wings of Words
2. Which literary hero (male or female) would you like to be? Harry Potter
3. If you were given the chance to be born in a different decade, which one would you choose? perhaps the ’60s to get the advantage of them. Perhaps the ’30s for the roaring ’30s.
4. Who would play you in a movie? Lawrence of Arabia, Emma, Dr. Zhivago and lots and lots of others!!
5. What was your favorite toy of all of times? the computer
6. What do you like to collect? art supplies, books and movies
7. What is your guilty pleasure? This one is easy - chocolate
8. If you had the power the change one thing in this world, what would that be? that people would understand and feel that we are all connected - which would stop war and hurting the environment
9. What is the worst book/movie you have ever read/seen? I walked out of “Silence of the Lambs” and “Last Tango in Paris” - I don’t know if I would now
10. What is the worst kind of music, in your opinion? any music which promotes hate
11. What’s the only food you will not eat? probably lots. caviar looks gross.
12. Tell us 3 things about yourself (2 of them true, and 1 untrue) and let’s see if we can figure out which of these is fantasy.
The name of this digital painting says it all - “Overload”! I created and named this yesterday and it didn’t feel very personal, but now it does … so here is the painting! In the next town over - Turners Falls - we are going to put up yet another window show in the morning unexpectedly … that is part of the extra today I hadn’t planned on.
And I hope you will take time to look at yesterday’s post - I thought my questions about creativity would get people commenting … but maybe you will today.
Yesterday I started a shop at Imagekind …. my shop is DianeClancysArt. There is always so much work to set up something like this. It looks like a good shop (Imagekind) … it is new and it is very reasonably priced. They do matting and framing besides printing prints if someone wants. It is easy enough to start a shop and you can have a basic gallery for free (unless you make less than $5 a year and then they charge you that … something like that). I have one image up - take a guess which one!
This social networking is all a little strange to me. I mentioned that yesterday I started a My Space page … but haven’t put anything (except my icon) on it. So I set up for the You Tube thing too - my You Tube … There is nothing on these things yet … but I have started.
All the marketing advice I am reading talks about using these social networks. I don’t really know what I am doing … but who knows what will happen if I put one foot in front of the other.
And it is time to get back to working on this Fanciful Animal Images website and learn how to do shopping carts and such. At least I can accept both PayPal and I think I signed up for the Google Checkout too.
I’m back … I am now signed up with Google Checkout - I wasn’t before. The amount of small print with all these things is a little overwhelming. But I skim them looking for red flags … and more importantly, hear from people beforehand which are trustworthy. The nice thing about the Google Checkout, until the end of the year, there are no fees for sellers. It is hard when many of these places (like Etsy) have a listing fee, take a percentage and then PayPal takes a percentage too and has a fee. It eats into the profit margin which isn’t that large to begin with.
But I feel guided to keep moving ahead. Thanks for witnessing this process - and thank you for your encouragement … this blogging community has become quite important to me.
There was high demand for our new business cards once one person saw them at the doctor’s office today. Very exciting!! This is the first time anyone else has seen them. I had only about 20 in my pocket … and most were gone quickly. They saw the different kinds and several people wanted most of them. The people tended to want the 3 image card instead of the one … so I am glad I had that printed up. Perhaps there will be a new wave of business card collecting!
As part of the AWE (Artists Window Exhibit), we had the opportunity to put more artwork in the downtown windows. One artist fell through and there was a half hour (time) window - so we jumped up and put up 10 pieces between the 2 of us. We had taken down one show this morning and carried it to the third floor, basically turned around (after a phone call), and carried it back out to set it (and some other pieces) back up in a new place.
Fun to see work up. And in each place the same work looks very different. I figure that you never know when some happening will come together from a person seeing our work. And it was so much fun at the doctor’s office hearing people try to prove how much they love our art work. There was an ownership of us as artists that was very exciting! It feels so validating of how we can build our businesses as we figure out how to nurture and expand this feeling.
Looking down on London Square with all the traffic whizzing by … You can see the theaters off to one side, and all the traffic swirling around. What do you think and feel about this digital painting ~ or any of the other topics we have been discussing … or raise a new topic.
I have been very busy with the local Artists Group of Franklin County as we prepare for our next AWE - Artists Window Exhibit. My window has been taken down since that business wanted only a short exhibit. Hopefully, Susan will find some more windows so I can get my work up too.
The talk around town is that even this couple of weeks with the work of some artists in a handful of store windows has picked up the mood of the town. There is a lot of evidence that building the creative economy helps build the whole economy.
Susan has posted tonight on her blog! I wonder where Soul Fish has disappeared to? I think a lot of regular commenters must be on summer vacation. I hope it is that and not that I have gotten way too boring.
The business cards arrived! They look good. I am so pleased that I printed the one with the 3 images also - I actually much prefer it to the other. I love it - for me the sizes of the images are just fine. But all 4 came today - a day early.
I figure you have enough to read in yesterday’s post on the Studio Artist demo, so I will keep this short. Some of you are off playing with Rima’s challenge - that is being great fun. Check out this post if you want details.
This is the Studio Artist demo that some of you have been asking me to create. This is a 22 step creation of a digital painting in Studio Artist to show you a demonstration of how to use this innovative art program. I have decided to use the same size images I usually use. I want to give you a better flow than I think you will get from going back and forth between thumbnails and enlargements. But for the workspace and the final image I am providing the thumbnails so you can look at the enlargement if you want. Of course any of the other enlargements are available on request.
This is what the workspace looks like. Here is a screen shot of the program after I have already done some steps so you can see which part of the workspace is the source image and which is the canvas. Studio Artist always has a source image, but there are many ways to use this source image including use of the colors, the image to manipulate and not at all.
Workspace
I am putting in a thumbnail that you can look at full size in case you want to see more of a closeup of the controls of the program. This is the identical image but it will blow up larger.
I use the acrylic painting “Fire and Air” (that I have been using for the series of digital paintings in posts the last couple of weeks) for the source image. I bring the source image onto the canvas to start this creative process. In other words, I tell the program to place this image on to the working canvas so that I may begin to manipulate this image.
Then using the “interactive warp” operation with the “translate” tool (as opposed to the “translate local” tool), I grab the curvaceous yellow curve in the upper right hand corner and pull the image a little down and to the left. You can see the reflecting, both vertically and horizontally, of the yellow curve. If I had dragged in only one direction, it would have reflected in only that direction.
Using the same tool I again grab the upper right hand corner with the yellow curves and drag them a little to the left and substantially down. Notice that the doubled curve doubled again. If I had originally kept dragging, it would not have doubled again. Each time I stop, the whole operation starts anew with the new resulting image. Notice the way we have pretty much lost the green. But the striped reefs (I think someone called them) have also expanded and doubled.
Looks like I then repeat the process … I couldn’t duplicate it. There are many subtle decisions – just like in traditional painting – that are hard to exactly duplicate. (At least for me.) Fortuitous happenings happen here too.
I translate this image again moving to the right and upward, this time to try to bring more of the stripped reef back in. The yellow curves got a little dominating so I wanted to bring back more contrast. In the process the little pieces of the reef at the top and bottom left get more substance.
Using the interactive warp operation with the “rotate” tool (as opposed to the “rotate local,” “rotate scale,” or “rotate3symmetry” tools), I grab the reef and work to keep it prominent but at a tilt.
Then I rotate it again to give it more tilt since many of you like that off-symmetry. Now we move to a different kind of technique. The new base canvas has basically been set up for more of a dissimilar kind of movement.
I use the interactive warp operation of “sphere” (as opposed to “sphere1” or “sphere2”). If you look to the center and then a little up and to the right, you will see this swirl … or umbrella as it has been called. This is where doing a video would be very effective.
All these tools are “interactive” – you can use them and create and see changes in real time. These spheres are something else though – they are gorgeous in the way they move and ebb and flow, right before your very eyes. But if I stop to take a screen shot, then I cannot get back the same image. It is extremely interactive – it is not sequential, but live time!
For the next few shots I go in for close-ups to try to give the feel of the fluidity. We are working near the center, near the first sphere. This tool of the interactive warp operation is “sphere2.” I make a move with the tool, take a screen shot and repeat the process a couple of times to show you the movement.
I make another shape or umbrella with sphere 2 near the left edge of the image, just over halfway up. To me it is starting to look like a street scene as someone mentioned about another painting.
Then there is another swirl (technically named “sphere”) or umbrella, basically between these last 2 spheres and down a little. That’s starting to look like a street corner to me.
Going back to the top of this painting, I use the interactive warp operation with the sphere1 tool to create another movement there on the left. With all of these sphere tools, there is an incredible amount of interactivity while using these tools. I wouldn’t call it a lot of control, but certainly a lot of choice and possibility!
I rotate the whole image again a little to the left and up to get more movement in the painting. It breaks up the upper right hand corner that I think was a little too static and adds some interest to the bottom left corner.
I decide another umbrella is needed near the bottom right corner. This is sphere2 that creates the “eye” looking spheres. The sphere tool creates translucent looking spheres and sphere2 creates more circular, more regular spheres.
One last umbrella is created above and slightly to the right of the last umbrella. It is odd - things start out as shapes for me and then become specific things as I keep playing with a painting. This happens in both traditional and digital medium paintings.
OK - now that we have created this painting, we still have to name it. Some ideas I have are Streetscape I (because surely there will be more like this), Umbrellas in the Rain, Looking Down from Floor 25, Theater Square … do you have any to add?
Using this program is like using any creative tool. Each little step can look obvious and manageable, but each step involves choice and techniques. If you start with the same tools, similar ideas, the same source image, you will get a different result than I will. This is because we each bring all our vision and experience to bear on each decision we make - including the artistic ones.
First off, am I to assume the thumbnails work for the Studio Artist demo?
Rima Koleilat of MaraZine blog (marayagalleries.blogspot.com) has issued a digital challenge in this post here. Rima is asking anyone interested to download the same digital image and make an painting with it. You can download it from this post, here on my blog … then the thumbnail will expand and you can download the file. There are a few simple rules you can read in Rima’s post - and a deadline!! I am joining in with the fun and I hope you will too. Anyone may play!
Rima adds about this challenge “It would be nice to have more people try their hand at interpreting the same picture, with varying degrees of know-how. I think for a lot of our readers and fellow bloggers, it would be a little push in a different direction - always good for creativity muscles. ” Sue, I can’t wait to see the mandala you make - though you can make another picture too.
Lily Pad for Rima’s Challenge
Rima also wrote in a comment on this blog,”I do enjoy your “unsymmetrical” work, I find it more expressive of your gentleness.” I asked Rima for elaboration to better understand what she is meaning. This is what Rima answered, “I like all of your work, but I do like the “looser” designs most: like “Expansion” (it blew my mind, I loved that one) - very profound, and pieces like “In the Garden” with the Buddha in the flowers ) - so gentle and beautiful.”
Rima continues, “In the more “designy” series, works like in these posts: Castles in the Air and Can this be a Circus (my “umbrellas”!) still have some symmetry … but … it’s like you decided to play instead of painting, and the result is more energetic.”
With these thoughts in mind, I decided to push to go to a different place with Studio Artist today to create a painting for this post. When I have an actual paint brush in my hand, unless I am using masking tape for the straight edge “Luminous Angles” series, you probably never see a really straight line. But the way I have been using this program, I am generating lots and lots of straight lines. It is a little funny, odd funny. Here is one the Luminous Angles, “Dance of Life” if you want to check it out.
But, then again, Rima is really talking about symmetry rather than straight lines. And I guess it is symmetry rather than straight lines that Studio Artist generates so easily with the tools I have been using lately. So funny, Rima says symmetry and I hear straight lines. I will have to think why that is. I was going to edit out a chunk of my writing once I realized that straight lines were never even being mentioned, but I thought it might be interesting to follow where and how my mind travels.
Giving me lots to think about as I create. Thank you so much, Rima, for taking the time to think and write about my work!! But the best news is … I have been creating lots of new work lately! And one big reason I have been painting digitally is to show you some ideas. So, a big thank you!!
What do you think of this? Also, below, I have put one thumbnail to test if this is going to work for the Studio Artist demo I have prepared. Is this big enough? I randomly gave you “Step 6″ as a preview.
I don’t feel well too well again so I am going to keep this very brief. Instead I caught up on reading and posting on your blogs today. All the business cards are coming on Tuesday - I am very excited. Those who wanted real life copies, please email me your name and address. Thank you again for being in my life!
That kitty with the blue whiskers is at the controls again! Green leaves, structure, pillars, yellow and blue, deep blue sky, Star Wars faces, green bow-tie, the mothership is landing, bridges over the river, towers into the sky, arms embracing, reefs, fish, divers, theater, curtains, masks … what do you see, think or feel?
I have created a 22 step demonstration of Studio Artist. I have written the text and also prepared the images. So you WILL see it very soon! There will be a total of 24 images with the post … so hopefully, I can use thumbnails and have you able to go bigger if you want to look at some them more closely. I am pretty excited!
Just got back home … going to bed. Our muffler started dragging on the highway and we pulled over. Eventually an angel came by and helped us! He got off the next exit and came all the way around again to help us!! He was a kind young man who went under the car with a chain and tied up the muffler to we could get home. We are both VERY grateful!
Diane Clancy creates vibrant paintings that feature color and vision to inspire and uplift people. Says Diane, "I feel very blessed to have this opportunity to express myself through painting. I love that people say my artwork enhances their lives."
Diane belongs to Worldwide Women Artists Online, an international collective of women artists showing and selling our work online. For more original art direct from the women who create it, search WWAO.
Diane Clancy creates vibrant paintings that feature color and vision to inspire and uplift people. Says Diane, "I feel very blessed to have this opportunity to express myself through painting. I love that people say my artwork enhances their lives."
