Illustration Friday: Clandestine

The Owl and the Pussycat are an unlikely pair -- they must meet in secret to avoid the stares!

Sickies and New Paints

Ugh, I am sick. No painting today I'm afraid :(, I am fixing to watch Hulu tv and be a slug instead. How disappointing, I had just bought some new watercolor tubes AND a new palette and they are so pretty I want to try them out! I decided to go non-toxic with the watercolors.... my cat continually tries to drink the paint water and my niece has also been known to try and dig her little handsies into the bright colors. I think it will be better for all to get rid of the cadmiums, cobalts and leads! I found perfect replacements for the few toxic colors I cannot do without; switched my light cad yellow with Bismuth Yellow from Winsor & Newton, and also their Antwerp Blue is doing nicely for a Cerulean. I have always hated my cad red anyway -- it dries blotchy, so I found a Geranium Lake from Grumbacher that is beautiful. Also, I've had my old crusty palette since I was a teenager, so I thought it best to start fresh with a new one. It makes me want to paint really bad! But I am destined to be an ill sloth today.

My current palette colors, clockwise from middle top:

Chinese White - M. Graham
Dioxazine Purple - M. Graham
Payne's Gray - M. Graham
Antwerp Blue - Winsor & Newton
Ultramarine - Winsor & Newton
Winsor Blue - Winsor & Newton
Winsor Green - Winsor & Newton
Viridian - M. Graham
Sap Green - M. Graham
Hooker's Green - M. Graham
Permanent Green Light - M. Graham
Brilliant Pink - Holbein
Quinacridone Rose - M. Graham
Permanent Alizarin Crimson - Winsor & Newton
Winsor Red - Winsor & Newton
Naphthol Red - M. Graham
Geranium Lake - Grumbacher
Gamboge - M. Graham
Winsor Yellow - Winsor & Newton
Bismuth Yellow - Winsor & Newton
Yellow Ochre - Winsor & Newton
Raw Sienna - M. Graham
Burnt Sienna - M. Graham
Burnt Umber - M. Graham
Sepia - M. Graham

Christmas tidings to all

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday. :) Mine was lovely, went to my mommy's house and we had a mellow time watching movies with the fam minus the two middle siblings. My mom had rented 7 movies since she just had shoulder & wrist surgery and needed some entertainment, plus everyone got a movie or two for Christmas -- we were swimming in them! I had to continually shoo me poor mum out of the kitchen, she doesn't take the doctor's orders to "rest" very well! Her surgery was all on her right side and she is right-handed, so a lot of things have been a challenge.
I've been feeling very inspired since I got some childhood favorite movies and some new imaginative favorites for Christmas -- Labyrinth, The Neverending Story, Prince Caspian, Stardust, Tin Man, and MirrorMask! :) Note the continual theme running through all -- a person(s) from our ordinary world ends up in a totally strange and fantastical world. Granted, in MirrorMask the heroine is from a strange circus family in our world -- but the new world she ends up in is the most fantastical and strange of any movie I've seen! They are all transformed by these adventures and they are never the same again. It's my favorite theme of books, movies, and well... life in general. That truly is at the heart of my own life, not only as an artist who paints imaginary things, but also spiritually as a Christian. Which brings me to the best Christmas gift of all... Emmanuel, God With Us. I have really looked at this season with a lot of thankfulness, knowing what God has done by coming here clothed as humanity -- and knowing exactly what it is to be us. Even better, that He continually calls me with a magical strangeness and longing that I feel in the adventures of my favorite movies and books like the ones listed above. One day I'll be crossing into an extraordinary world as well. :)

Caroling

Tonight my mom and I went Christmas caroling with my church! We went to a convalescent home and it really choked me up to see how grateful all the elderly people were to have carolers. :) There was a very dapper fellow in a bow tie and polka dot suit, and he made us very grand Christmas and New Years wishes!
That was so fun -- totally want to do that again next year.

New Artlings and other info

I have two new 6x8 inch paintings to share.... yes they are FAIRIES again, and little girl fairies to boot!
On Ebay auction now:

Winter Wings
6x8in. Watercolor on hot press paper.
It is cold and snowing outside, but that does not stop this auburn-haired fairy child from dancing in it.

In my Etsy shop:

Flutter
6x8in. Watercolor on cold press paper.
This fairy child loves to flutter about with moths and butterflies.

LOVELY NEWS: I have a brand-new mailing list if anyone would rather keep up with new artwork, prints & products etc that way! Sign up for it here:
http://www.carmenkeys.com/mailinglist.html

IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT PRINTS for everyone who has not seen the announcement on my blog or website yet:
I've had art printer disaster a couple of months ago with the death of my Windows operating system and subsequent switch to Linux, so ALL of my art print orders are now being entirely handled by ArtWanted.com! That means they will do all of the making of the prints, shipping of the prints, handling the transactions and payment etc -- totally separate from my studio. Sadly that means I cannot sign them or combine them with Original Art purchases any more since they will not pass through my hands at all, but the GREAT news is that ArtWanted offers many more sizes and paper choices than I can, and also offers all kinds of cool stuff with my art on it like notecards, coffee mugs, t-shirts, mouse pads and more! Many folks have asked me about greeting cards for some time now, so if you've ever wanted some of my art on greeting cards that one of my licensors does not already carry, this will be fantastic for you! So -- on my website under each image there are links to go directly to that painting's page on ArtWanted, or you can see everything HERE.
Also I will still be handling all purchases of Original Art and of course commissions myself, just like before.
Just wanted to clear that up as there has been some confusion with all these changes!

Thanks so much everyone and I hope you all are having a joyous holiday season...

More whimsical stuff

Well good morning! I have a couple more ACEOs put up in my Etsy shop today.... just some quick little whimsies.


One for my Love ACEO


A Cheerful Giver ACEO

I thought it was time for another silly rabbit. ;)

I haven't been posting much about life in this blog yet, but I would like that to change! I guess it feels kind of alien after having spent so much time on LiveJournal and being rather comfortable there. I wanted this blog to not only be about art updates but about the life of an artist, so I'd better get cracking.

Cuteness!

Heheh, I'm having way too much fun doing these little animal characters lately...
These are in my Etsy shop -- things were looking quite empty because I pulled everything for my gallery show! The gallery is opening up any day now... it's brand new you see. Anyway, on to the ACEOs!

It's Snowing! ACEO


Francesca ACEO

Whimsical Bunnies

Heheh, we're watching The Grinch Who Stole Christmas right now!
I made these little bunnies today -- sketched one in my sketchbook last night and thought it was super cute, so I just had to make some more. These ACEOs are on auction currently:

Lucy


Tom

And a Victorian rabbit in the usual style...

Victorian Lady

My mom brought me a little 4 foot Christmas tree today :) (yay!), I am going to decorate it with crochet snowflakes. It already has its new LED lights on it, which are shaped a bit like pine cones. Cute!
And now on to my cup of Bengal Spice tea.

Illustration Friday: Balloon

Ugly Rabbit Floats

I'm swamped with work right now, so y'all get one of my crazy rabbits from '07!

Post-Thanksgiving Updates

I hope everyone had a grand time of it this Thanksgiving, my friends in the USA! Mine was very nice, and it was awesome to visit my brother for a whole week. I think we just finished up the last of the turkey today, and the pies as well. Hm, I might have to make more pie -- it's just so good!
Anyhow, I have a couple of little ACEO illustrations up on Ebay right now:

Snow Journey ACEO


Squirrel Masque

I also have some new prints/products up at ArtWanted:

Phineas Nut
By the Sea
Secret of the Marsh

...including a never seen before painting, Acorn Baby!


I made a brief detour to fairies again for a project. :) Thanks for looking!

Squirrely Goodness

I'm digging out the paints again... right now I am on a squirrel kick. This little guy is on auction at Ebay:

Phineas Nut ACEO

My brother Travis is in town this week and we are having fun hanging out with him! We've spent the morning jamming on guitars, banjos, flutes, and a makeshift stew pot drum. :) We haven't seen him in three years!
I have another squirrel ACEO in the works -- things are pretty busy though of course with all of the Thanksgiving prep. I'm in charge of making desserts.

Better late than never...

So I liked the "Pretend" idea so much from Illustration Friday that here is my take on it! I just got a new sketchbook and I decided a nice entry page was in order...

This squirrel is going to a masqued ball pretending to be a bird. And, a sketchbook is a nice place to escape reality for awhile as well.

Prints!

So the change is now fully implemented, ArtWanted.com is now handling all my print orders! They offer all manner of neat stuff like mugs, tote bags, greeting cards etc so that will be nice also. People have asked me numerous times about greeting cards, so here they are!
This is my portfolio there:
http://www.artwanted.com/carmenkeys
It has the same images that are on my website, and you can still browse from my website for the same things if you like. I just won't be the one filling the orders, unless it is an original painting.
I sadly discovered a couple of casualties from all of this computer doom that's been going on. I lost "Visit to a Neighbor" and possibly also "Susie". Sad!! The backup files I had for them are corrupted. I MUST start making several copies of my backups, because even two can go bad. I really loved the squirrel one to pieces, so I am disappointed about that.
I didn't get around to Illustration Friday last week, though it is a subject I would have liked to do ("pretend"). Maybe I'll do one anyway, just for fun. I've been swamped this week trying to get all of my files uploaded for the ArtWanted prints program. And, extra sadly, packing up my little niece to go back to live with her Pa. I've had her for so long now, I really feel like her mom. But she loves her Pa too, and they ought to have a chance at doing life together I suppose. Not easy for me though, I can't even bring myself to put her toys away from the living room today as it will seem so final.
So! I am going to throw myself into working. It's time to get those illustration samples sent out, high time.

Change in print fulfillment is imminent...

I am currently uploading oodles of files to ArtWanted.com. Why, you ask? Well, I've decided to have them take over my print making services for the time being! I have had so many innumerable computer problems for the past few months and the subsequent switch to Linux (and thus its learning curve) I am just pulling my hair out about prints right now. I would dearly love for someone else to take care of them for me... and so I shall. :) I might have shipped my last home-printed print order out today, we shall see. I still have to change the image links on my website which will take some time.
The good news for customers is, ArtWanted can offer bigger sizes and more choices of paper than I can -- plus I believe they can do cards and such. People are always asking me about cards so this could be a very good thing! The not so good part is that I obviously can't sign them since I won't be handling them at all. I'm thinking perhaps when things are not so stressful around here I can do some sort of limited edition thing that I can print myself and sign, like on watercolor paper. That will be awhile yet!
Oh yes, I wanted to share this little sketch:

"Devotion"
This little girl is reading her Bible, in Psalms. I never used to "get" Psalms until I started really digging into it. Now I absolutely love them, I can find my every mood in them and just about every need. No matter how many times I read the same passages, some new insight always comes.
It really is getting late, I must be off to bed!

Illustration Friday: Wise

It is wise to sock away your pennies for something you'd really like!

Somebody loves me!

Aw, I've been tagged with this by the lovely Jenna Nilsson of Crafty Goodness:

Thank you so much Jenna!! :)

Also, I'm featured in Marie's blog over at Mytutorlist! Thank you, Marie! She's hunted down some other awesomely cool Etsy shops as well... like those nesting owls (love).

I've just taken pictures of all of my sketch journal I've been keeping for almost exactly one year. I am wondering whether to post it bit by bit here, or if I should put it on my website somewhere?

Moving In

I am in the process of moving my main bloggishness over here to this Blogger account! So it will not only be Illustration Friday, but all of my art/illustration endeavors, sketches, works in progress, general life. I need to condense everything into one journal. :) If anyone wants to read/see paintings from the past 3 years, my old blog is here:
http://carmensylph.livejournal.com. Now, onto the new!
Vacant is currently on Ebay auction here.
Also I have a new ACEO card to show! It is currently in my Etsy shop:

Tea for Polly ACEO

Illustration Friday: Vacant

A little girl doing homework on a rainy day! This was me far too often in elementary school ;) -- imagining unicorns and cartoon dogs instead of studying.

Illustration Friday: Late

IF: Strings

The purpose of this blog for now

Well hello! I am going to be putting my illustrations for Illustration Friday on this blog for the time being.... my usual online art journal can be found here:
http://carmensylph.livejournal.com

Illustration Friday: Sugary