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.