The Potbelly Pixie

Zetti Tarot -- The Excitement Builds!

We're approaching the due date for artwork on the Zetti Tarot project at IllustratedATCs.  Today we were asked to submit ideas for backgrounds and borders.  I spent some time today whipping up a concept for people to vote on which I quite like, which is hopefully okay to admit aloud!  I dropped my own art, as well as art from my friends Dana (adriayna, "Seven of Cups") and Brittany (artyiagirl, "Star"), into the space where our art will go, just to get a quick peek at what this deck might look like once it's finished. 

Even if no one votes for my border art, I'm getting super excited about what a cool, beautiful deck this is gonna be.  And I don't really even know, or "do," Tarot!  I just think tarot decks are gorgeous.

Anyhoos... I thought I'd tempt you all with a sneak peek at this exciting project.  And remember; we're making a full tarot deck, not just the major arcana!  There will be fully SEVENTY EIGHT cards when we're done.  What a heaping load of eye candy that will be.  Yum!

Exciting...!!!

Queen of Wands -- REDO

I wasn't entirely satisfied with my QUEEN OF WANDS tarot art and it turns out, I wasn't paying attention, either, because for the suit of wands, we were supposed to be working in red.  Oops!  Luckily, when a painting is digital, there's a lot of room for editing.  So here's my new take on the QUEEN OF WANDS, all warmed up in shades of red, russet, and maroon.  Fiery!

Quote of the Day

When you're a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

The Process

I really enjoy when artists post process, or in-progress, snapshots of their work, with descriptions of what motivated them; how they formed the image in their head; how they got that image onto the canvas.  Every once in a while I indulge myself in taking such snapshots of my own schtuff.  Like now!  In the hopes, of course, that it will be enjoyable for someone else, reading this blog. 

Last week I finished my most involved digital painting to date by far, the QUEEN OF WANDS card for the iATC tarot deck project, which took me just about an entire eight hour day to complete from start to finish. It was a super fun, super intense, super FRUSTRATING learning experience, and totally exhausting, and different from anything I'd ever done previously.  All of which was great, and growthful, and an awesome good time. 

I had a very specific idea in my head of what I wanted to create with this card, but I lacked a good model of the image in my head, or real-life people to pose for me.  And of course, ya know... tigers are awfully hard to come by here in Chico!  Even if I could get ahold of one, it's likely I'd have a hard time getting it to sit  still for the eight or more hours it took me to finish my painting anyway. :)~  So photo references are a good thing.

I've been so inspired in my portrait art by the proportions of ball jointed dolls lately, so I started by finding a picture of a ball jointed doll that appealed to me and based the Queen's face and body on that.   If I could remember where I found this image, or the ones that follow, I'd for sure credit the owner/photographer, but I can't.  No copyright infringement is intended!

Then, I found an image online of a woman holding a spear; I think I actually Googled "woman holding stick" and up popped just the right thing!  That image became my photo reference for the Queen's hand; in particular, for how the hand might wrap around a wand.

Last, I Googled "tiger" and "dogwood" and came up with some images for those subjects just as I had for the main figure, her hand, and the wand.  I found these:

Using the magic of Photoshop, I assembled these images into a pleasing arrangement.  Photoshop is really useful for this step of the process, because you can move things around easily without having "committed" to them like you would on paper.  After I achieved a nice balance in my piece in Photoshop, I used that composition as the basis for a hand-drawn pencil sketch.  This one, in fact,which I drew on Bristol board.  It measures 5x7 inches.

Last, I scanned my sketch into Photoshop and used it as the basis for my digital painting.  Most of what I did was hand-drawn using my pen and tablet, but I did use a filter or two, plus some brushes, to create the effects I achieved.  I tend to layer color over my original sketch and then reduce the opacity so that I retain a good amount of my hand-drawn work, rather than coloring OVER it and eradicating it completely. 

I'm really proud of the image overall, but I'm especially proud of the tiger, which felt like a real challenge at the outset, but ended up being one of the most fun things I've ever drawn, all of which was made possible by the very cool airbrush and eraser functions that Photoshop offers, and which wouldn't be available to me in "real life."

Ornate Marie

Digitally painted in Photoshop and available as a print, for trade.  Please contact me if you're interested, especially if you have 18th Century France cards to swap!  I'm looking to expand my collection on that theme.

Please Lend a Hand

I've decided to sell a limited edition of 16 prints of my ALICE, REVISITED artwork as ACEO's -- Artist Card Editions and Originals, or the "for sale" version of Artist Trading Cards (also known as "ATC's.")  Whee!

Yes, normally I just swap these playing-card-size bits of work.  But in this case, 100% of proceeds from the sale of these ACEO's will go to a great cause: The Elliot Sylvester ATCA Fund. I think I spoke in an earlier post here on my blog about Elliot, who's the son of one of my oldest and dearest friends, Laura.  He's autistic, and pretty severely affected, and his family is doing all kinds of fundraising so that they might attend a week-long intensive autism training program all the way across the country, at the Autism Treatment Center of America (ATCA.)  The training costs an absolutely staggering $17,500.  Who wouldn't need to fundraise, to pay for that?!? :)~

If I do say so myself, this is one prrrrrrrretty art card.  I think the fact that this card was painted digitally lends it BEAUTIFULLY to printing.  The prints are so vibrant, with vivid blue, red, and yellow tones that positively *pop* off the page!  I've laminated the card, front and back, for a scratch-free, long life.  This card, like all my art cards, is thick and sturdy and fully finished with a full-color backing titled, dated, numbered, and signed by me.  This ACEO will also arrive protected by a clear plastic sleeve, and will be mailed inside a greeting card featuring art created by Elliot Sylvester himself. Elliot's family has printed a set of these cards, featuring his artwork, as part of their ongoing effort to finance his considerable medical and treatment expenses.  If you'd like a closer look or are interested in buying a set of these cards for yourself, please visit www.autissey.com/elliotart, the Sylvester family's Elliot art site.

Anyway... It's just a very small thing, of course... but if I can sell all sixteen cards at $9.00 each and contribute that entire total to Elliot's ATCA fun, that's almost $150.00 I can donate... with your help.  I am personally contributing all postage costs both domestically and internationally, so there is zero shipping cost to the buyers of this card.

If you're of the mind to assist such a big-hearted effort, please visit my POTBELLY ARTS Etsy shop, where you can view and purchase these cards directly.

And if you'd like to learn more about Elliot, his journey through autism, his family, or ATCA, please visit the Sylvester family website at www.elliotsroom.com.  He's such a beautiful, sweet souled boy.

Oh, and PS:  The reason only eight of the cards are currently available is that I somehow stupidly managed to laminate little tiny fuzzies under fully HALF of them, after I printed and assembled them.  AARGH!  So they're not perfect and thus, not sellable.  Maddening, I tell you.  Hmph!  I will be reprinting the remaining eight cards and also listing them for sale just as soon as I can.

Queen of Wands

Here's the QUEEN OF WANDS, my second card for the Zetti Tarot deck, currently under construction by the artists of www.illustratedATCs.com.

She's been painted digitally in Photoshop, from a pencil sketch.  5x7

Alice... and Autism

I'm on an Alice in Wonderland kick lately, artistically speaking.  I think it's the femininity and weirdness of it all that appeals to me so much.  This time, I'm working on a very special project that's personal to me on several fronts -- a custom child's chair, for the NIGHT OF MUSICAL CHAIRS event, to benefit the Elliot Sylvester ATCA Fund.  Here's the backstory...

First of all... Autism is close to my heart.  In the 80's, while an undergrad at UCLA, I had the honor to work in one of the country's at-the-time leading autism treatment programs -- The UCLA Autism Project, led by Ivar Lovass, PhD -- as first a volunteer, and then a paid, junior therapist.  I took lecture classes and seminars, trained in behavior modification techniques, and spent hours one-on-one with two special clients over the course of many months, both of them under five years of age, and came to know and love and in some ways, become a part of, their families.  The things families deal with when a member is severely autistic are deep and difficult and draining, and I learned that more first-hand than most.

Second... One of my best and oldest friends in the world, Laura, has a son who's autistic -- Elliot.  He's charming and beautiful, and he's pretty severely affected with a very limited vocabulary and many of the "typical" signs and symptoms of autism.  The Sylvester family is trying to get to Massachusetts for an intensive training/treatment program called Son-Rise, offered by the Autism Treatment Center of America.  The whole shebang costs a huge amount of money -- $17.500.   Can you say, Ouch... ?

Being "normal" folk without the spare change for such a pricey venture, Laura and her husband Rick are fundraising like mad to finance their trip.  For some time, they've been selling "Elliot Art" -- greeting cards and original canvases featuring art by their son, Elliot.  But it'll take a lot of greeting cards to cover that pricetag!

Recently, Laura invited me and several of our other college friends to participate in their newest fundraiser, a silent auction to be held at Hensley's Flying Elephant Pub in Carlsbad, California (near San Diego) this July 12. (The Flying Elephant, by the way, is owned by Matt Hensley of the band FLOGGING MOLLY.  Kewl!) 

Anyhoos... me and Laura and many of her family and friends have in hand an unfinished children's IKEA chair (like the one shown below) to paint, decoupage, or otherwise customize, to be sold at the auction.  There will be music and great company and it promises to be a grand time, for a terrific, worthy cause.

And this is where my newest Alice in Wonderland piece enters the conversation! :)  Today, I completed my first EVER digital painting -- of Alice.  Yeah, I've played around before manipulating photos digitally.  But today is the first time I've scanned a pencil sketch and then fully colored and finished it with my pen and tablet (versus "polishing" an existing picture.)  And woohoo, what great (if time consuming) fun it was!  This image of a funkified, more hip/adult version of Alice is for my Alice-themed chair, and will  be printed onto fabric paper... then attached to a backing fabric, all of that to be covered by clear protective vinyl, ultimately becoming a permanent seat cushion for the otherwise wood-slatted chair seat I was given to work with.

I have lots of other plans in store for this chair -- the Alice image is just a small part of the overall theme -- all of them designed to benefit the Elliot Sylvester ATCA Fund.  Whee!!!  I'm soooooooo excited about this project.  More pictures will follow, as I work my way through this multi-step process.

For more information on Elliot, his diagnosis and treatment, Autism Treatment Center of America, the Son-Rise program for which the Sylvester family are raising funds, and/or on this special summer event -- A NIGHT OF MUSICAL CHAIRS -- please, please check out these links:

Elliot's Room
Son-Rise
Fundraising -- The Elliot Sylvester ATCA Fund
Elliot Art -- Notecards
Elliot Art -- Originals
A Night of Musical Chairs