Storenvy!

Last night I discovered Storenvy! I set up a store there because I was tired of waiting on my manufacturer to be approved by Etsy. So for now, anyone who wants to just download my images can do so at the etsy shop. If you want prints, you can order now from my shop on Storenvy. Click here for the link to my Storenvy shop.

Screenshot of the store:

They even had an app that I could install into my facebook page. That's pretty nifty.

That's all for now. I have artsy things to do and cleaning around the house.

Finished

Now in the shop for digital download is "Shade".

I finished her this evening while my old man took the kiddo out to do some grocery shopping. When he came home he surprised me with black cardstock! Little dude got huffy when I squeezed his daddy. He pushed a box of granola bars at me and said, "I got this for you too, MOM!" I kissed that cute little grumpy face and told him I appreciated it. Then he hugged me before running off to wreak havoc in his bedroom. Toys were just everywhere, as is per usual.

We had some friends over later in the day. Much fun was had with Key Lime cake and Diablo 3 while their kid and mine played. But now it's time for bed. Goodnight and interesting dreams!

Solace in Observation

I had a wild hair earlier and decided to rummage through my son's construction paper for a black sheet. I have a single white pastel pencil (chalk type) and I wanted to experiment with lightening instead of darkening. I drew out an outline of a face and some hair, a little bit of shoulder and the neck. Ooooh, it was fun! I think I found what type of paper I'll use for my Narcoleptic inspired drawings. Maybe something a little higher in quality. Perhaps even black matboard. I haven't finished this drawing yet, but it's close.

As you can see, I have a tendency to change things around as I work. Her eyes were terribly annoying to do. Part of my problem is that I am working at a regular old table, not anything I can tilt up to get a better view of what I'm doing. In fact, I wind up having to completely change a drawing because I will see it just fine from the angle I'm drawing in, but as soon as I stand up to stare straight down or pick it up to hold it in front of my face, I'm all streaming profanity and violently crinkled features. Just, no. One of these days I'll have a drafting table!

Overall, I'm happy with how she's turned out so far. I will definitely be exploring this way of drawing further. May just have to ask for pastels for Christmas.

I like posting these progressions of my artwork. It's crazy to see how something starts and how completely different it winds up by the finish. I like to watch others as well and because of my experiment today I searched youtube to find videos of just that. This soothed me as I watched:



It's interesting how at first, it's all just basic shapes and seemingly random lines and squiggles. I spent a lot of my time in the past focusing so much on the end result that I couldn't wrap my head around what goes into it to give it the depth I needed to produce the intended result. Nothing but frustration. Obsessing about how you think it should look can impede the whole process. Let it evolve if it wants to evolve! You'll be surprised by what you wind up with. 

Sleepy Hollow

I've been thinking a lot about doing drawings inspired by a condition I have. I have Narcolepsy/Cataplexy. I've come to grips with a good bit of it since childhood but there are still some aspects that bother me deeply. With medication and naps, I can somewhat deal with the loss of sleep at night and the excessive daytime sleepiness. I think it's been helping with how my body responds to stress as well, so much that my cataplexy seems under control for now. The thing that still effects me though, are the hallucinations. Auditory and visual. Hypnogogic hallucinations occur because of how close to sleep a person with narcolepsy (PWN- looks like I'm PWNING somebody, mehe) is most of the time. Dreaming while awake, you see.

So if I were to draw how it feels to be a PWN, I think it'd be a bit therapeutic. Putting my horrors on display in a creative format might change the way I look at my hallucinations. Might change how people view Narcolepsy. We'll see. 

I have a friend who's a nurse now, but some time ago she had to interview someone with a condition for her class in college. The one question I clearly remember is if I thought that Narcolepsy inspired my creativity. I'd never thought about it before that question but I'm inclined to believe that it does. With all the crazy dreams I have (mostly apocalyptic, post-apocalyptic in nature) it is hard to ignore what my subconscious wants to show me. Everything is so strange, vivid, and intense. It can also be horrific. Shadow creatures are what I see the most when I'm not actually sleeping. The more stressed out I get about it, the more of them I see until they solidify into terrifying clarity. 

Ever since I could remember and up until my late teens, I took to heart everything I saw. While most kids imagined a creep in the corner in the darkness, I was actually seeing that creep. That creep was moving around my bed, then touching me. But as an adult I came to realize that if I were to think through these experiences, become curious and analyze what's going on instead of running headlong into fear, that the hallucinations tended to recede some. So with this curiosity, comes the thought for artwork. 

I sometimes wonder if I would have such a vivid imagination if it weren't for Narcolepsy. But then, I think it's irrelevant. Even if they came up with a cure for it, I'm sure that it's been so embedded in my psyche that I wouldn't forget how to tap into my creative side. 

For now I'm going to go work on Autumn so I can finish her and put her up in the store. Pictures soon.

In the meantime, if you're curious about Narcolepsy/Cataplexy check out this. And don't ever ask me to pronounce hypnogogic. Just can't wrap my brain around it. 

Updated My Shop

Original drawings of my owls are now available for instant download in my etsy store, along with updated versions of my digitally altered owls. Each altered owl (Night, Black, and Vivid Red) has files for sizes 4x5 inch and 8x10 inch for printing. Each original owl (Stout, Machine, and Masked) has the same sizes but also comes with slightly darker versions. All are 300 DPI. Prices have been lowered to $1.99 for all digital images including Druantia.

These owls were drawn for a friend for tattoo ideas. I wound up drawing 3 with Machine being the last and that was the one she picked! I may eventually sell the physical originals but I have such a hard time letting go of things like that. Do you?

So Satisfied

So here's the rundown on White House Custom Color:

The samples they sent of their textures and finishes along with different types of paper were shown with photos. The test prints were mailed with a document mailer (they said boxes would be used next time along with document mailers) and a transparent plastic magazine bag with a flap that adheres to the bag for secure closing, holding the contents within. The prints were also held in a folder with a sheet talking about their services. Sample photos were in their own individual bag.

When I took my prints out, I was pretty impressed. It looked just like it did on my monitor (they ask you to assign color profiles to your images to ensure this) and then the Lustre finish is more than I could have possibly accomplished with my home printer. I definitely find the paper worthy of being sold.

Here are my owls, blown up beside the originals.

I tried to get the texture/finish as best I could with my tablet's camera. I love it. I'm talking to etsy right now about using WHCC as my manufacturer. Hope they approve! Here's Dru as an 8x10 print. Original is on the right, print on the left.

We'll see what happens. Thanks for stopping by!

Thought Interrupting a Thought

Kidneythieves' Zerospace album is stuck in my head tonight as I patiently wait for my child to slip off to sleep. He hasn't been feeling well so I let him nap when I normally wouldn't. Kind of paying for it now! Oh, well. When you need rest, it must happen.
I've been thinking of other things to draw. Not that I'm finished with what I'm currently working on, I'm just wanting to make a note of potential future projects. Like maybe doing portraits in a fantasy type setting. THAT could be endlessly fun and entertaining. A friend's mom suggested that I draw covers for self-publishing book sites at some point, too. Gather more people to my art.
I get my test prints in from White House Custom Color tomorrow (today, technically) and I'm all kinds of elated over that. This initial order of 8x10 inch test prints was completely free and it should be coming with samples of finishes and different types of paper. I will post when I get them in. Too tired to post much else and I think the little one has finally nodded off. Ciao and as always, thanks for stopping by!
"Mistake in the belief that all I see is with my eyes" - Kidneythieves, Song "Take a Train (Awakening)"

Portraits

Last month a friend of mine wanted some portraits done for her birthday. I hadn't picked up a pencil in a while and wondered how rusty I'd gotten. This was the result:

I didn't have a scanner at the time so some of the details are lost or there's a glare in weird places. Also I used watercolor paper as that was the thickest I had at the time. I decided that I would try again today using the pencils I found last night.

A practice in narcissism! Without my glasses. I used charcoal for the eyeliner and the turquoise graphite for the rest. In some places I went back over with an eraser pencil. I didn't know they made such things. Pretty cool for tiny mistakes in tight spots. Pretty smooth drawing.

Well, I'm about to take the kiddo outside. As always, thanks for stopping by.

The Things You Find

I got to talking with a friend today about supplies for my shop and artwork. Etsy now allows you to work with a manufacturer as long as they fall under their guidelines and after looking at what I'd have to pay for matte photo paper, packaging to protect said paper, shipping labels, and ink, I went looking around online today to compare some professional printers. So far I've focused on one. White House Custom Color. I'm going to test them out since they let you do up to 5 8x10 inch test prints at no cost and that includes examples of what they have to offer. I'm not sure I'll do it, but it doesn't hurt to see what they can do.

My Epson XP-310 Printer is pretty good though. I've printed several copies of my "Druantia" drawing to test it out and it looks like it's been drawn on, except of course for the graphite glare I see on my original. I'm troubled, though, because after six or seven 8.5x11 inch prints on photo matte paper the black ink is already starting to run out. It's ink that came with the printer so I don't know if it's just a small sample of the ink or if all of their ink is like that. I sure hope not. Here's an example:

Believe it or not, the one on the left is the original. Without the glare from the graphite and grayscaling the image before printing, this is what you get on the right. Do you think I should do grayscale or keep it RGB?

I will never sell the original drawing. One, because my old man pretty much commissioned it and loves it, two because I had to tear the page out of a sketchbook and you can tell along one side, three... it's mine. I'm not sure about this printing paper, folks. It looks fantastic but nowhere on the packaging does it say acid free, archival type paper. I will be looking for another brand of paper to go with my next ink cartridge if White House Custom Color doesn't work out.

Other things I searched for today was a set of graphite lead that a friend gave to me years ago. I've moved around a lot and some of my art boxes have been taped up for a really long time. I finally moved into a house that I intend to never move from so I thought I'd bust out every bit of my art supplies and works while my kiddo slept. I have 3 boxes (BIG boxes) downstairs and it took looking through all of them to find what I just knew I had. I did think that I lost the ProArt lead holder, though.

Turquoise Eagle Drawing Leads. I looked up this particular lead a little bit ago because I didn't know much about it when I got it. It seems to be "vintage" now. I also found some charcoal pencils I never messed with and an ebony pencil. I'm going to experiment tomorrow with all of this. Fun times! Will post pictures of whatever I do, be they epic failures or not.

By the way, with all of this drawing I've been doing lately, my kiddo seems to have taken an interest in messing with my pencils (dubbed "Mommy's special-don't-you-dare-drop-them-and-break-the-lead-or-a-terrible-and-ominous-glare-in-your-particular-direction-will-befall-you pencils"). Here's how I found him earlier, tampering with a drawing I started this afternoon. He was drawing leaves on the bottom of the paper. 

I let him get away with it just this once because he was so determined. I told him later that he needs to ask before he goes drawing on other people's artwork. He seemed to understand. I tested him to see if he remembered an hour later when I gave him his own paper and pencils. I came in beside him, picked up a colored pencil and acted like I was going to draw something on his paper. The glare I received.... Yup, he got it. Oh, and now he wants me to scan his artwork like I've been doing with mine. He wants to show off! Heh. 

Well, it's super late AGAIN! As always, thanks for stopping by.

DRUANTIA!

Druantia is available in my store for instant download!

My printer came in today and I was able to scan a few images, which includes my original drawn owls. When I get some packaging supplies I will be printing these babies out! I'll put up digital downloads for the original owls tomorrow. I mean, it's already past 3 am here. I'm just a wee obsessive about getting things done. Zombie me is taking over... noooommmm. Well, goodnight people and have interesting dreams!

When Dream is on the Horizon

Unlooked for inspiration flows easier into my mind when I'm halfway between awake and dreaming. The night is soothing to me for that reason. The day feels so chaotic, so busy, that I can't properly focus with all that light glaring at me. All the things that have to be done during the day is rushing your life forward so fast that you can't even grasp who and what you are for a comprehensible length of time. The night is a time of reflection for me, of slowing down life enough so that I can drink in my existence and contemplate the existence of others in a greater scope. So quiet. Ah, but I over think.

I'm becoming more "conscious" of that moment right before I drift off. Where my dreams are but shades swirling and attempting to come to life, forming fleeting shapes that I can remember when I wake in the morning. Last night, an image came to me. It was a visual culmination of all the thoughts that had flitted through my brain before I decided to give up and go to bed. This image begs to be drawn but how I'm seeing it, I'm not sure I could pull it off.

A woman screaming with pain, tearing her bright button up shirt open to reveal dark hands reaching out of her chest. Then a moment later the genderless dark figure discards the woman, now a heap of flesh and clothing, onto the ground. It looks relieved. I realize then that it is the woman truly unclothed. I understand what I saw. I mean, wouldn't it be nice to do away with the trivialities of the day to day and get in touch with what's really inside? Like the shadow of ourselves that lives deep within, desperate to be seen? It speaks of a certain degree of spirituality, I think. Breaking away from the material. But it's hard and it's painful to try. So much easier to live in the here and now. (Sigh)

Perhaps I need to put Carl Jung back up on the shelf. And also back away from the astral projection books.

So the perspective of the image I want to draw (the woman screaming) I find a bit daunting, I'm used to the straight on looks, as if we're standing right in front of them, but this woman I'm looking at from above while she has her head tilted down at the hands reaching, her eyes closed. If only I could take a photo. I find it so hard to translate what is in my head onto paper the way I see it. With meditation, it is getting better to keep a grasp on these images for longer periods of time but I don't know if it's going to be long enough. I have so many wild and beautiful things come from my head... agh. But I will attempt it. I found a few images for painful faces for reference. I won't post them here since they are not my images. I'll start on it after I'm finished with project Autumn. I spent too many years bouncing between projects which left so much unfinished.

As always, thanks for stopping by.

"Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes." - Carl Jung

“Loneliness does not come from having no people about one, but from being unable to communicate the things that seem important to oneself, or from holding certain views which others find inadmissible.” - Carl Jung

Project Autumn

After last night's fiasco with watercolor (grumble, grumble) I resolved that I wouldn't swing the hammer down on myself too hard and instead started drawing earlier this evening on THIS!

Oh, I know. Not much there to see just yet, but there will be. There will be all sorts of autumn flowers surrounding this lady and that right there will be the major challenge. I mean, all those petals. Alas, there will be no color unless I do it digitally at a later date. Oh, but the oranges, and reds... yellows... (pout). Honestly, though, I'm too indecisive about things to physically put color to my drawings. There's a lot of erasing that goes on when I work. 

While I was looking for references for the piece I'm working on, I stumbled across this nifty website called posemaniacs.com. So many poses for people! Now I don't have to slough through google images trying to find the position I'm looking for. Sometimes I just have a hard time getting an arm or a leg to look right, you know? What I find so awesome is that not only is it a picture of the position, but you can move the image around if you don't want to have someone looking dead-on at you. Also, if you have issues eyeballing things, they have a grid option. It's all well categorized too, which drastically reduces the search.  Cool, right?

Alright, folks. So I have some questions for you. What do you like to work with? Oils, pastels, etc.?  Is there another art form you'd like to try for which you are too apprehensive to attempt? How about epic fails? Do you have a hard time throwing those away? 

That's all for today! Thanks for stopping by!

Watercolor! >:(

Watercolor is not my friend. I'm not sure if it was the paper, or maybe I used too much water but I was halfway through with this person I was painting when half of her face peeled off! See? Heartbreak!

I'm so very irritated right now. I suppose in the morning I'll have to draw something else. 3 hours wasted unless I can scan her later and try to salvage her digitally. I won't be able to do that until my printer/scanner comes in, though. Thanks to my father, I can stop using my crappy tablet camera to transfer my drawings to Gimp.

I am terribly excited despite this hiccup! With the printer coming in that means I can start planning for physical prints of my art. I have a drawing that's dying to be seen in the Etsy shop. Oh, you just wait and see!

Howdy!

I'm starting this blog so you can see behind the scenes while I'm constructing my artwork. Whatever frustrates me, or inspires me, it will be posted here.

Now to introduce myself:
I am Aimee Workman. I've been an artist all my life. I don't consider myself the highest caliber, and often you'll find that I'm totally lacking in self-confidence. However, it has been repeatedly brought to my attention that I'm good and that I should do something with my talent (thank you, kind peoples). So, here I am shamelessly advertising myself to all of you good people who happen upon this blog or any of the my other sites.

I write, I draw, I dabble in sculpting and jewelry work, knit, crochet, and I even sing from time to time with some good friends. You might even find me plucking on a mandolin here and there. I'm a stay-at-home mama with 1 little dude and an old goat for a husband (not literally, although he does eat everything he sees because of his crazy metabolism, and his facial hair kind of resembles one, not to mention his stubborness!). There's also a lovely dog that now inhabits my front porch; a recent addition to our family who we've named Rikku. A stray she was when I found her at my gate. I said hello and off she went to plant herself on my porch. Despite my allergies, we had to keep her. It seemed destined. Ha.

Now about my shop:
All I have for now are some digital images for instant downloading. You can put them on transfer paper, or print them out to frame (I try to size things for typical frames), or whatever you like as long as you do not resell my images in any form. In the near future, I will be putting up pieces of homemade jewelry, physical drawings, or prints, possibly paintings, knitted items, patterns for knits, and more. It's going to take some time to get the proper materials needed for packaging and whatnot. But for now, take a look. Tell me what you think! And if you have any questions, feel free to ask.

You can find links to my shop and facebook page under the "About Me" section of my blog. Thanks for stopping by!

"The Powder Blue Owl" 2014 by me, Aimee S. Workman. Originally a pencil and paper drawing, but then I ran it through an art program on my computer to alter it to how you see it now. One version of the final product. Digital Art Instant Download in my Etsy shop.