Ghost Girl!

I think she seems like a ghost, what do you think?

I think it turned out pretty good. She has a bit of that " big eyed girl" current look that I usually try to avoid, but I can live with that. I used my favorite colour combo, black purple and gray, and that alone makes me like it. If it doesn't sell in 4 months I am totally keeping it!

She is in the shop, and I put her at a competitive (is that the word I am looking for?) price for an original painting. :-) Cheap is what I mean.

I had planned to post two paintings, but it is too dreary a day to get good photos of the other one. Plus I might hate it, so I need to stare at it for another day. So tomorrow.

Painting progress...

I posted some line art last Thursday, and I am slowly turning it into some sort of actual painting.

Its coming along. She has "giant head" right now, but I can probably fix it. Or just burn it if I can't. ;-) I am liking it less the more I look at it, but I am trying to not be all Debbie Downer about it.

My dude switched to night shift this week and its making me all weird! I don't know when to eat my meals. A voice in my head says "When you're hungry dummy!" but that is easier said than done. Watching someone eat dinner hours after I ate mine is torture!!

Tomorrow I have finished paintings to post and list! Yay!

Today is pointless.

Its one of those days I can't make myself do anything worthwhile. I have some pouches to photograph, bookmarks to make, whatever, don't want to. I feel like moping today.

So I started a totally pointless painting. No plan, no direction, just paint and pencil on canvas. Its an exercise in uselessness. I am not trying to challenge myself or illustrate something. Its just because I want to do it...

It may be beautiful, it may be horrible and get painted over before 10pm tonight. But at very least, I am doing something. And today, that is a victory.

P.S. Hello 50 followers! (Thanks Rachel!!) Its such a cute little number. Makes me feel quaint. Maybe someday I will have 50 000 like some blogs. Maybe interesting content will go out of style and complaining and pictures of half finished artwork will come into vogue. YES.

Two new Loves.

After hinting I would create some new animal "Love" pin and sticker sets, I actually DID IT. *gasp.

Panda Love!

Bunny Love! (Its not even listed yet. I am a marketing genius.)

Panda was quite the leap for me. I intended the Love sets to be Canadian animals that I loved. I kind of changed the rules by adding a Red Squirrel (which Canada doesn't have, we only have brown and gray and black, which are cute but no big ears I love so much...) so after that the concept changed.

I do love Pandas, I somehow don't even believe they are a real animal. So weird. And Bunny Love just seemed natural. I did struggle to choose a bunny that represented every bunny. Its impossible! They all look so different. So screw that, I just did a mix of them all.

So the Love set got a bit bigger. I already have a few ideas for more, but I don't want to go nuts. Maybe in a while...

Today I have an appointment with a makeup artist friend who will make me gorgeous. No reason, just because its fun, and I am a good consumer. So I have an excuse to not work any more today. haha!

Lastly, I leave you with this little sneak peek at my work in progress.

It didn't start as fan art, but it became it as soon as I did the hair. I do so much work that I think is acceptable for people to hang in their homes, and then it doesn't sell. This one won't be as pretty. Sometimes you just need to nerd out and do something with blood splatter for yourself, Am I right? :-D

Get your fresh paintings! Right Here!

*eep*

Listed another original painting! (Two actually...)

"Sugar and Spice" and "Not Very Nice" are now for sale at my Etsy Shop.

Batcat is a moody beast. He can be both sweet and sour. I think I just wanted to have an excuse to paint night animals! This can serve as my Owl contribution to Etsy, as it seems that every hipster person on earth likes owls for some reason. *snark* Ok, I can't point fingers. I like bats just like every other gothy-girl out there. I think I just burned myself.

I feel a bit of that "OHNO...CAN'TSELLMYARTWORK!!" creeping back in. These two paintings are really cute in real life, and mid way through taking photos so I could list them I changed my mind. Then I changed it back last night. Haha.

So there. They are out there. I can't really take it back now. *cries*

Love the critters.

They are back.



The 'Love' sets are finally back in stock. I am updating the listings.

I have had these pin sets in my shop for a LONG time, and I am constantly thinking about discontinuing them. I think "People must be sick of seeing these things!" But then as soon as I sell out I get people asking and asking for them. So instead of discontinuing I might even expand.

I made a ton of them up. I wanted to shoot new photos of them but it was cloudy yesterday and its cloudy today. This is the kind of thing that needs natural light to really show is bright colours. So I will hold off on the new photos...

Now off to sketch some new 'love' set ideas...

This is the guy that killed her.

This guy. This is the sewing machine murderer.

Monogram pouches with a little bat frame.
Only the 'M' is currently listed for sale, but there are more letters available.

I actually made a little batch of them. Whenever I sew I try to do a bunch at once because I always loose my zeal for it halfway through and then don't want to sew again for months.

These are the letters that made it through to pouch form ('B' got screwed up and 'A' was somehow lost...) I will be posting them in the shop in a lazy and haphazard manner in the next day or so. I have to fight with every photo in Photoshop to try and make the black on black details show without washing out the blackness. Its *challenging.* Things always look fine on my screen then I upload to Etsy and it looks like crap.

I think I will try some more monogram items this weekend. I totally love how it looks. Expect some sort of monogram bookmark (yes!) or pin set (hmmm.) I will have to test drive a few designs.

What letters should I do?

She was only 39...

A horrible tragedy!

I mourn.

My hand-me-down sewing machine (from Grandma) might have just bit the big one. My 1970 Singer Touch and Sew 758 gave Gran years of service, and then got trucked down to Toronto with me a few years ago, along with its custom sewing table. For some reason I thought it was just immortal, and would go on working forever and ever...

Here it is in its skeleton making glory. *snifff*

I took it all apart and found that some gears have broken their teeth, and things are just wearing down. I use it to chug through serious fabric, thick felts and velvets and canvas, and hardly ever clean it, so I shouldn't be surprised. Plus Grandma sewed for a family of one billion. I bet if this machine had a notch for every pair of hemmed jeans it would blow your mind.

And it died exactly in the middle of me making a ton of new pouches. Argh! I almost went and got a garbage bag and just threw everything away. I was that annoyed.

So its back to my new sewing machine. I mean, its ok. I guess.

But its plastic, lightweight, small, has a foot pedal instead of knee pedal, a short ass cord, it jams and tangles, and its loud. I just really loved the solid heavy old machine that would sew through anything (including my entire finger!)

So I am grumpy. I should never have praised my grannie-machine on Twitter. I cursed myself!

I am going to see if the old one can be fixed, but gear replacement from a vintage machine shop is at least $70. I can get a whole new (1970) Touch and Sew on Ebay for $80. Will mull it over. Its not so much the money as the "this machine is ancient and must pass away" that is making me grouch.

That is the end of my complaining blog. Go about your business...

I have a blog?

Five times this week I went "I am gonna post some crap today." But then I realized that this week my life is dull and it would make the world a duller place to pollute it with more dullness.

But I got over it.

I made a Stuffy Skeleton this week!

He is a cute one. His squashy face makes me like him.

With all the craziness about the CPSIA (Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act) in the States taking effect soon, and what it will mean for anyone who makes kids toys or products it seemed like a good time to get him out there before he is horribly illegal. Even though I don't specifically make kids items, things like this stuffed skeleton could be making his last appearance in my shop because he is perceived as a kids toy. Unless something changes, most people who make kids stuff won't be able to pay for the new testing they will be required to have.

The rest of the word can still snorgle him, but I sell most of my toys to Americans. So it won't really be worth my while to make them. aww. :-( There is a possibililty he could be considered an "art doll" but that will need more researching before I can be sure. The issue is a hot topic on Etsy and all over the place. The US crafty community is seriously kicking butt fighting this. Props to you.

*EDIT * Pretty much right after I posted this the deadline that you would have to start testing some kids products was suspended for one year! Way to make waves! :-)

So, I also listed two original artworks this week!

.
So proud of me. Ok, it wasn't actually difficult. Ha.

Oh and I just have to post this last little pic from last weekend. It makes me laugh whenever I look at it...

Hahaha. We are such idiots.

Before going out to the clubs we were playing on our webcams for way longer than we should have been. (Three computers, one studio? Dork party!) It deteriorated into gang signs and photobooth special effects. So fun. Look how cool we think we are.

Now off to make pad thai and try not to make a fool of myself on the internet. ;-)

The dead rise and review....

Genghis Tron - Board Up the House

Well, I'm not sure that Tara and Rocko (The cat!) will be totally on-board with this one, but "Board Up the House" was certainly MY favorite heavy album of 2008. Genghis Tron produce a terrific racket for a 3-piece band, but aggressive noise isn't the only thing that they bring to the party. Over the course of 43 minutes, the 'Tron moves between punishing metalcore riffs and screamed vocals on the one hand, and mellow (if ominous) synths and glitchtronica on the other ("Recursion" is particularly pretty). This may be on the more experimental end of the current spectrum of metal music, so it probably isn't for folks who really need sing-a-long choruses in their listening material (or choruses at all for that matter). This is music that is both intense and interesting. Play it loud!

N. Zombie will be reviewing only zombie approved awesome albums, to brighten your dreary existence. Or the opposite. Or whatever. :-)

Give Batcat a Face!

The new item I sneak peeked a little while ago is ready and in the shop!

A little Batcat dry erase memo body! I am totally a "write it down or I will forget about it" kind of person. Maybe that is why I really like the idea of dry erase memo boards. Leave a little note, reminding, noting or maybe even teasing. I love finding notes to me from people, its super fun!

Like check this out...

This is a blackboard in my bathroom that people can write cute stuff on. Washroom graffiti! It needs desperately to be repainted due to the humidity of my crappy washroom, but that has to be done outside. I will have to wait until spring.

My dad made this "dog" for my brother when was a little kid, in the shape of his imaginary friend/dog. Imaginary dogs don't have to be dog shaped you know. I bet it you its over 20 years old now. HOLY.

If I had my way I would have note leaving places all over my house. You never know when you have to draw a taco cat, or remind people about Halloween.

In fast I have a few notes in front of me that say "butternut squash," and "wallz" (No idea what that one is) and "new bloggitude." Life is sweet.

Power problems...

Thursday, I had a power outage and it was cold and totally sucky.

But it could have been worse, I was only without power overnight. And even though it was super cold outside, it never got to the the "see your breath indoors" stage many other unfortunate Torontonians had to live though. Thank god for cell phones! I have never been so happy to have one.

Once the power came back on, we went to a friends house for a home cooked dinner. We arrived to see that THEIR power had jut went out in a totally unrelated power outage!! Like, what are the odds? The dinner was awesome anyway. Maybe we appreciated it more because of their hardship.

Then had a family dinner, didn't get any work done and let the house descend into utter squalor. Its was a pretty shameful waste of a weekend. A lot of eating and sitting on my rear.

But at least I have this....

A tiny little vampire girl painting! Its in the shop...

Phew. I can totally pretend I accomplished finishing this painting on the weekend. In reality I just varnished it, then let it sit there...

The blog makeover I previously mentioned is in progress, I am working on new graphics and its coming! I am going to try and choose another original painting from my collection to list this week too. You know, my regular Monday power positive outlook... haha

*UPDATE* I know the blog is a mismatched mess right now. I keep changing my mind after I make the new graphics! Grumble...

Another Original for sale.

Look! I am following though with my resolution to sell more original artwork!

Remember this?

Now its for sale in my shop. *EDIT* Its now sold! :-)

I think its splattered edge is nice, but it might be a challenge to mat it. But that is what framers do right? (Not like I ever take anything to the framers.) I should just break down and buy a mat cutter. Yes.

So the Batcat project I sneak peeked yesterday is complete, BUT I am missing a crucial component to the photo shoot. ARG! Must wait another day, since I am hermiting due to crazy Canadian cold temperatures. *types with mitten on* I am a baby when it comes to cold. My friends make fun of me mercilessly.

Finally, the next thing I am working on is redoing this blog. I get so bored of it so fast. So new banner and colour scheme coming soon. Yay! Even my blog makes me cold, so I have to change it. heh heh....

New Lino Print

I finally got around to signing, numbering and packaging a lino print I did before Christmas!

Wild Child is now available in the shop.

These are very hand printed looking prints. Haha. They all have their quirks, but that is what makes printmaking charming right? The idea that each print is an original. I used water based ink, which dried too quickly for my slow and shaky printing skills. Its a limited edition of 12.

I already have a new lino block carved and waiting for printing! Just need supplies and I am ready to go nuts.

To mix it up a bit, I am working on a little Batcat project. Here is a little look at it I screen grabbed yesterday.

Click here for the huge one... Its not a complicated little thing, its already printed and in "production" mode right now. Sometimes drawing Batcat is more relaxing than work. And this simple little shape might be used for a bunch of different items. He had a bit of tweaking after this screen grab...

I am doing pretty well on my resolutions too. I think eating healthier is much easier now that my Dude pointed out that watching the Food Network all day doesn't help my resolve. Back to crime and murder. Ha ha. I even *gasp* exercised. Plus I have some other original artwork photographed and ready to list. I might even touch outdoor air today. Maybe.

Original Painting for sale!

Ok, so here we go.

My first original artwork for sale in 2009.

Halloween Ball is for sale in my Etsy shop!

Ok, I cheated a bit. It was pretty easy to sell this painting because it scanned so well that I feel its a really accurate representation of the original artwork. I hardly did any digital work to make it salable as a print. So I know it will look good in someones collection.

Plus its on watercolour paper with no varnish or anything, so its more fragile than many of my other artworks, so it has to fine a home before it gets wrecked (in my mess of a studio!)

Phew. That wasn't so hard. I got a ton of feedback from sweet people urging me to list originals, and that really helped me get going. Thanks everyone!!

More to come soon...

Selling.

I guess this could be another of my New Years resolutions. Sell original artwork.

I often get requests to buy originals of prints and commissions on new work. I get squirmy in both situations.

I like to keep my originals. Its a bit of a "what if I lost the scans", a bit of "what if I wanted to look at them" and a lot of "I digitally rework a ton of my paintings."

But its also kind of crazy to have a huge stash of artwork people want to buy and just letting it sit in a drawer.

So I grabbed a stack of paintings that I will try to force myself to sell this year.

See how carefully I treat them? Most of them don't even have covers!! My university profs would be smacking their foreheads.

A lot of them are ones I sell as prints in my Etsy shop, some are batcat stuff, and works that never really saw the light of day. Nothing is written in stone yet though. Sorry!

I am not going to just throw them up online. I have to retouch a ton of them, get custom mats for others and make sure I have about 10 scans of each one (paranoid much?)I just got a cute new external hard drive, so that makes this process easier. (Thanks mom and dad!)

Ask me again in 24 hours and I will be like "What blog post about selling paintings? I never made a post like that. LIAR" and run away clutching a pile of illustration boards.

Ughhnn...

Ok, so that power-positive post I made on December 31st might have been a nail in my resolution coffin.

I have never ate so much crap food (like dessert for breakfast!), drank so much booze, slept so little and wasted so much time!! It was kind of entirely awesome. A friend came and spread his bad influence over at our place and it was great.

BUT my clothes don't fit, my shop is neglected and I have a to do list that won't even fit on a standard lined paper. I am foolscap territory! (<--Its long paper people, come on now.) So uh, that New Year was a practice. I get a do-over!

I did manage to list my new block print! Its Batcat Chow, an edition of 15 is available.

I am going to do a very limited run of this image with full colour hand tinting too. Maybe only 4 or 5, I will have to see how they turn out...

So Happy Tara New Year! *chomps on broccoli in festive manner* WOOO!

Already the New Year

Even though tonight is New Years, I already feel like it has happened.

Why? I ate a real breakfast not consisting of just chocolate and cookies and listed a new item in my shop, which is open again!

The Winterwoods.

I have plans for these two. The Winterwoods may return in other prints or items. They already have a back story in my head.

And I have a few pictures from my Christmas visit to my home town, Capreol. (In Ontario, Canada) Prepare to be cold.

Isn't it flat and that special kind of bright cold? Eep.

My parents house all tucked into snow. We had just arrived and I wanted to take pics before getting my Christmas on.

Had to climb it!

I got a bit snowy. Good thing I had just bought boots when I got to town. Go kids boots!

Most of my pictures of actual Christmas are blurred with the excitement of opening gifts and lauging and family. Plus no one wants to be in their pjs on the internet. :-) Let me sum up my Christmas for you...

Eat, visit, eat, Christmas eve, gifts, snow, photos, garage doors, stuck cars, kitty litter, Finnish exchange students, wii battles, gift exchange games, cookies, sweaters, lost cell phones, chasing cats, Levack, thickest fog ever, gravy, shovelling, and cheesecake.

I have big plans for the New Year. Most of which include bat wings. :-)

Off we go!

Its time to visit, eat and hug your parents!

Off to visit family and friends who live in Northern Ontario, where its not just cold but "DAMN that is COLD." Presents are wrapped (well, the ones that arrived by mail in time. grr!) Cookies are baked (and mostly eaten) and batteries charged for dorky family photos. See you in the new year!

Downloadable

Tah Dah!



This year I made little digital artwork of Rocko the Cat (my cat) in a stocking! I backed the artwork in green and white striped paper and then laminated it. I included the flat little ornaments in my Christmas cards to my friends and family.


You can get the original from my flickr HERE.


If you aren't the ornament type, I also made a half page of gift tags you can print out on sticker paper for your gifts.


Yes, I am one of those people who includes their pets name on Christmas cards.

Still alive!

Not having to tend my Etsy Shop is weird! When I hear the email ping I don't feel like I have to run in the room and check right away. I am so unpopular.

I have been busy this week but I can't show much as they are gifts...What if the giftee saw it?? Horror.
- I finished up a gift for new bundle of baby!! Its SO not my usual colour scheme.
- did a little Christmas illustration decoration, which I guess I could make downloadable later this week...yes.
-sketched up a *ton* of new print ideas. Its a sheaf.
-and printed up a new lino print (Which I can show you!)

I had this stamp carved for a year or two, and have used it a few times on paper for tags and things, a few times on fabric. But it was time for a proper print run. These teeny little prints are oil based ink on thick and smooth watercolour paper. They will be listed in my shop when I return on December 30th.

The oil based ink works so much better for me than the water based did. I think I may have to switch permanently. Sure I risk brain damage when cleaning it up...

So even though I have orders from my dude to "not work and watch movies," I don't feel that happening today. Its a day to produce! Vampire boys don't draw themselves you know.

Christmas hobo

Its that time of year!I closed my Etsy shop! Not forever, just for the Holidays.

Its a bit like a vacation, in that I don't get up every morning and get to work emailing and packing and making stuff. But its a weird busy time of year for me. I make Christmas gifts, have baby's and birthdays and all sorts of projects on the go for launch in the new year. Its crazy busy, but I still don't have to answer to the man. I guess the man is really just my inbox...

Its just a weird time of year, where I am loosing money and spending money and being busy and not having a job all at the same time. PHEW. :-) But its nice to have a change, and I always end up making some cool stuff this time of year, so I can't complain.

I have the tree up and I cannot take a nice picture of it.
Its a black tree with only a few pink and white lights and purple and silver decorations. Add heavily patterned curtains and carpet and you get a mess. It looks nice in real life, but its just a blurry blob in all the million photos I took of it. I don't think we *tried* too hard to decorate it this year, we just threw the decorations at it. It shows. Its shows how awesome we are.

Once the tree is up its all holiday around here. No meal shall be cookie free.

It comes from the diaphragm. OF HELL.

Sometimes I get a laugh out of myself.

I am sitting in my studio, dancing around to dudes screaming about eternal suffering or something about life being a deep pit of horrible despair, while photoshopping bright pink backgrounds of the adorable kitty stickers I drew.

If I ever get my own house I am going to build a soundproof room in the basement where I can perfect my metal guy scream. And paint it piiiiink.

Twilight remorse, Jonny Lee Miller recollection

I feel a bit bad about trashing Twilight. Maybe if I had thought the dude from the movie was cuter I could have been won over to the dark side (or the Mormon side, or whatever...) Ok, the feeling passed, its still lame.

My lino printing is also kinda lame. Its not a disaster by any means, but its not as perfect as I envisioned it.

I made a LOT of prints and most of them are too "quirky" for me to be happy with. The ones that are good are good. I want to try some different inks before listing anything. I also want a printing press now. There is one at the art supply store I go to all the time. Its only like $500. :-(

Here is a new product I just listed. Stickers!

I am a label person. I just like them. Plus its useful, cheap and cheerful. (ok, maybe not quite cheerful, but they could be if I wasn't such a freaking closet GAWTH.)

I think a lot of stickers will be in my future. I have approximately one billion ideas for sets to draw. Most of them include gravestones. Ha! Next up is a Batcat set. I have the sketches complete, now I just have to draw them in Illustrator.

So its Cyber Monday (in the states). Today. Yep.
*crickets*
Pretty much what I expected. I hate being told when people are supposed to shop. Who says Cyber anyway? Welcome to the 90's. *Runs off to watch Hackers.*