Decided to add a boat to the scene to cover up some of the water. Not quite done tweaking it yet, but like the addition.

Canvas Samples

While I've been surfing around for canvas, I came across a company that offers a one time sample roll of inkjet canvas (17"x 20') for $23.95....a great deal. It came yesterday. My printer only prints 13" wide, but I don't mind trimming the canvas down at that price.
I was really impressed with the presentation folder that came with it. There were several samples of their paper and canvas offerings, which really helps when you're trying to learn about printing material. There was even a pair of white gloves...cool.
I especially like the sample of Elegance Velvet a 310GSM Vellum textured fine art paper made from 100% cotton....very nice texture. I think I even prefer it over the canvas.
Anyway, just thought some of you who do your own prints may want to take advantage of the sample offer.

I decided to pull out the canvases that I used for the mural lessons dvds and do some more work on them in preparation to sell them, they've just been sitting rolled up in a corner.
I'm working on the Tropical Mural one right now.
Here's how it ended as a lesson for beginner mural artists...
And these are some of the changes/additions I've made to it so far.....
I also plan to photograph them for future prints.

No Focus

I'm having trouble staying focused on anything right now. I still haven't received the 'painted' print I had done in Florida, so I can't move forward with promoting that.
I've decided because of the waiting and the lack of communication from the printer that using him for this project is not going to work. If I am able to sell prints of this piece, I want assurance that my orders are delivered in a timely matter. I will switch to archival ink prints on canvas, and have them done locally. When the print does arrive I have a wall that I want to attach it to, and below is the way I will frame it out....similar to this photo.
I'm rethinking the childrens prints I want to do...changing the size to a bit larger, and with less matting, and I'm waiting for the canvas to arrive so I can work on those. I also want to re-photograph them in bright colorful frames....the black just doesn't work.
Can you tell .......... I'm not very good at waiting.
I did receive the porthole window with my artwork in it,
and it is cute, but decided there isn't much room for a mark up. With shipping it was $52. and personally I wouldn't pay more than that for a laminated print, it has the same feel as those laminated place mats, so I'm going to let that idea go. You can see I also used the porthole idea to order some 2.5" magnets, too cute. After ordering these, I found another place to order from that was almost half the price!!.... an Etsy shop no less! So if you're thinking about magnets check em out. O, and if you know of an even cheaper place....please let me know.
Speaking of magnets, I found some really clever, funny ones on this site. by Anne Taintor.
Think I'll go and try to reach the Florida printer again...sigh.

Its been a cold grey (now white) winter and I needed some color!!

Absolutely Nothing To Do With Art

Just thought it was cool..... when you get there click on a letter.

Working on some prints

Mural work is pretty much non-existent right now so I've been busy working on some prints of some of my favorite mural projects that I will personalize for clients.....they're for kids rooms :-)
I've been spending hours looking online for, who offers the best deals on printing, on matting, canvas, frames, etc.....all til my head spins. I finally decided to print them myself so I can control the quality and I will offer then for sale with a mat (no frame). I decided to offer 5"x 7" and 8"x 10" canvas prints, just sweet small images, but with nice size mats to make them more substantial, more 'important'. And personalizing them with the children's names makes them even more special. This is about offering an alternative to people who love art for their kids, but still need to watch their budget.
You'll probably recognize these images from my portfolio. The framed prints here are 8"x 10" prints.
The Farm Mural (which I love, love, love)
The child's name and birth date (optional/customizable) will be written on the barn in either black or white lettering (your choice).
The Backyard Mural (another one of my favorites)
The child's name will be 'carved' into the tree. Custom wording is absolutely fine, ie.....Grandma Loves....Aunt Sue Loves....whatever.
I think these would look great with colorful frames on them, and make great baby/kid gifts for the new mom and dad.
I will add these to the side bar with prices and a purchase link in a day or two.
Meanwhile, I'd love any feedback.

The Masters versus Cat Mats....lol

This is a painting I did when I was 'teaching' myself to paint.
How did I get from there to painting pet food mats?....sigh.
Why am I asking myself this question?...let me share :-)
I've seen Kurt Wenner's work many times, people send me pictures of his sidewalk paintings all the time, but I've never visited his website before.
Even though these are available on Youtube, I'm going to link you right to his website video page (so you can see all his other work too while you're there) where I just watched the 3 part videos that were made I'm assuming when he first started out, these were done in the eighties....they're the second row of videos. It just made me want to pack up what little I have (or hey, just leave it) and go to Italy.....sigh. Kurt, you are amazing....Enjoy.

A Couple of Other Helpful Sites

More stuff you can do yourself.
1. tutorial
1a. on this same site a cool perspective exercise using circles in photoshop. There's a lot of good stuff on this site, so check it out.
2. tutorial
3. And this site is just for fun especially if you don't have a photoshop type application (to print captions on your pictures)....I think there is also a way you can upload your own pictures to this site and put captions on them.
If you don't have them print your created image for you, a digital image download is only $4.95. Then you can print them out yourself :-)

AND HERE'S ANOTHER REALLY GREAT ARTICLE FROM THE FIRST SITE LISTED ABOVE....This is a must read for artists....it has to do with ownership of your work versus work for hire....a highly debated topic among artists.

Canvas Printing and Framing - part 2 of 2

As promised....part 2 framing

Canvas - Printing and Framing - part 1 of 2

I've been spending hours (yes, again) on google looking for tips on printing reproductions of some of my work at home on my home printer. I have two printers, both HP, one the HP Photosmart C4180 (All-in-One) and the other the HP Deskjet 9800 that prints 13'x 19". Neither of which are the feature of this video, but I still found useful information here......so I'm sharing :-) This is part one...part two is about framing and I'll add that here too in a bit.

I met with the photographer today to talk about having him print a copy of one of my murals onto canvas.....nice guy, very helpful.
Problem is that I can't get them as large as I wanted because they're old photos from before I had a digital camera or even knew anything about shooting photos that you're going to want to enlarge.
But I gave him this image and with a little tweaking he's going to print it at about 36"x 42 or 45". Some others I'll be able to have printed a little larger (up to 44" wide).
You can see here that my idea is to offer customers personalized prints on canvas as a mini mural. Still working on ideas for that....maybe put the child's name on the barn, or on the tractor? I'm not crazy about it the way I have it now. I'm anxious to see how this turns/prints out. Its hard having to spend money to see if something will work, but I won't offer something for sale until I know the quality is good.
I'm also looking at offering this option,
laminated prints that you adhere to the wall just with double stick tape.....a more affordable alternative (but still kind of cool) for folks during these trying times.
Remember this guy :-)? He's from the hospital mural I did last summer. How cute is that!
Even though moneys tight, you still want your kids room to feel special, and I think these are fun for kids rooms. This company offers the ability to use your own artwork with their window designs. You can get these in a matte or glossy finish......I think I'd prefer the matte. The top design is offered at 36"x 42", the porthole 20"x 20". Again, even though they give you the ability to see a (resolution) snippet of how the mural will print out, its still hard to really see how it will look.....seems the little snippets are never of an area that I'd want to be sure is turning out well.............I'll have to order one before I can offer them.
I also heard from the 'paint' printing guy in Florida.......the paints drying.

Jeepers....not one mention

I realized today that the grand unveiling had passed of the Frank McKinney $29,000,000.00 mansion that I painted the mural for, so I went to his website to look for any press about it.....his unveilings are always theatrical, and this one was no different. You can see a short video of it here.
I was happy to find an image that included part of the mural in a couple of the newspaper articles, a little disappointed though that it wasn't mentioned. It would have been a nice gesture (and a nice little career boost perhaps) if a list of the artisans involved in the project were given recognition.

Just a short post today. I've been spending time at craftzine.com and wanted to share their page/s on video rentals. There are several on there on painting and even some on faux finishing. Here's one from Pascal Amblard on cloud painting. And one from Sean Crosby on fresco mural painting. These are artists whose videos I always wanted to purchase (never stop learning:-) but found them to be a bit pricey, so I was happy to see them available as rentals. Tania Seabock also has several videos there, like this one on gold leaf gilding. These were listed under misc. painting. Take some time to go through their other sections though because you can find dvds on things like how to paint birds which would also be helpful for mural artists.

I had time to do both

I seem to have a mouse theme going on. I managed another mat, and was able to look through the jewelry book. Playing with jewelry is going to have to wait....I'll be on the prowl for used tools, seems you need a lot of em.