Nibblefest Art Contest: Mushrooms

Amanita 1, image: 4x4"  paper: 8x8"

As promised here are images of the digital illustrations I created for the Nibblefest Art Contest ebay challenge.

Amanita 2, image: 4x4"  paper: 8x8"

You can scroll through an ebay search for NFAC to see more works by other artists based on the December theme of "Mushrooms"

Amanita 3, image: 4x4"  paper: 8x8"

These works are inspired by the Nibblefest theme and by the warholizing project I did for my son.

Latest Projects and IF

This week's theme for Illustration Friday is "Snow." My hand printed Christmas card fits the theme most excellent.

I worked on a couple of projects for one of my best clients, my son.  He asked me to Warholize some photos for him...

 

They're formatted for 16x20" paper with the images sized to fit within an 11x14" mat opening.  I'll be printing the giclees out today so I can ship them to him on Monday.

The Warholizing project gave me an idea of what to do for this month's ebay Nibblefest contest.  The theme for Nibblefest this month is "mushroom."  I'll update in a new blog with photos of my mushroom printouts on the 20th, when the contest starts...

Holiday Cards Are Printed

 So the holiday cards are now printed!  I printed 50 cards with 45 going out to family and 5 to sell, three will be listed on the 22nd for the ebay Nibblefest contest. One will be listed in my etsy shop and the other in my artfire shop.  I will also list the two proofs, one in etsy the other in artfire.

Here you can see the rainbow roll.  I decided not to use silver as it was too dark for what I had envisioned.  So the roll is pink, violet and indigo.  I used Graphic Chemical Water Soluble Relief Inks Carnation Red, Opaque White, Purple and Blue.  I mixed Flamingo and  Pearl White shimmer pigment powder into the pink ink; Violet shimmer powder into the purple ink and blue into the blue ink.

Here you can see the plate.  I glued 3 layers of foam sheets together and adhered 3 wooden snowflake tree ornaments to the foam using double tack then cut around the snowflakes.  I then used double tack to adhere the cut outs to a prepared sheet of plexiglass.  I then decided the design needed some variety in size so I arranged some self adhesive snowflake rubber stamps onto the plexi.  I then rolled the rainbow roll in two directions onto the printing plate, layed the tone on tone cards tone side down onto the inked plate, burnished the back, pulled the paper away and...

Wa-La! Exactly what I had in mind!  

The finished cards will be embellished with a sparkly little jeweled snowflake and mailed out sometime in the next few weeks.  

Sorry but you'll have to go to one of my cyber shops or my ebay listing if you want to see the finished cards...

the first printing of the 2012 Holiday Cards

Started printing my holiday cards yesterday. Here you can see my set up.  There's a clear mat under the plate to protect the countertop.

I had in mind to print pearl white pigment mixed into white ink on top of ivory paper so that I have a pearl white field with ivory border that I can next print a rainbow roll of  silver to blue to violet to pink  snowflakes on top with some flakes breaking the border.

Unfortunately my Graphic Chemical water soluble white ink has yellowed so I got shimmery ivory on ivory...

I even tried mixing in some blue pigment to get a slightly bluish white and though the ink is clearly bluish it still printed ivory...

oh well I like the way the woodgrain printed with a tone on tone thing happenin' so I decided to go with it.  I think the rainbow roll will look cool on top...that's today's step...

to be continued...

Artworks Made for "Artists For the Cure"

I've been working on some artworks for "Artists For The Cure" a charitable event's silent auction.  I got stuck in kitty cat land from the Nibblefest Contest earlier this month and did a couple of larger cutesy cat collages with lots of pink in them. 

"Kitty Love" is made using a wooden plaque for a substrate embellished with decorative scrap-booking papers, sharpie markers, pink ribbon and fairy dust.

"Tickled Pink" is made using decorative scrap-booking paper, pink mulberry paper enhanced with pink glitter, pink thread, plastic gems and fairy dust on a wooden plaque substrate.

I really had a lot of fun making these dripping with cuteness mixed media works.  I love working this way, takes only a little planning followed by a lot of creative fun. And allowing myself to be a little kitschy sets me free to be over the top.  I think that in honor of cancer awareness month I'll make a few more of these over the top cats to sell in ebay, artfire and etsy, donating half of all the sales to the cause...  so if you buy from any one of my online shops in October and November and and buy an artwork with any pink in it or if no pink in it type PINK in a message to me and I will contribute half of the sale to Planned Parenthood with stipulation that it goes only toward their free mammogram program.  Why not Komen?  For two reasons, when I was young, uninsured and vulnerable Planned Parenthood saw me through a pregnancy, provided pro-rated medical care & birth control, and eliminated pre-cancerous cell growth.  Planned Parenthood is a most awesome organization that gets a lot of bad flack...just like my mix breed pit bull...

aaaannnnd I've already donated 100% of the above two artworks to Komen through "Artists for the Cure!"  Do click the link to get tickets to this sure to be fun event to show your support for Komen.  You'll have a fun evening with good food, music, beverages, plus get a chance to buy some great local art!

Happy Cats Bringin' Their Mojo to Ebay

Today I had fun making these teeny little collages for this month's Nibblefest Art Contest (NFAC).  A big part of the contest involves listing them in ebay for 99 cents each...the contest is to see which of us gets the highest number of bidders competing for one item.  You can click on the title of the artworks below if you want to see the ebay listing for them,

 Happy Cat 1

Happy Cat 2

Each of these collages are ACEOs (Artist Cards Editioned or Original).  I really enjoy the challenge of working in this traditional small format.

"Artist trading cards (or ATCs) are miniature works of art about the same size as modern baseball cards,^[1] or 2¹⁄₂by 3¹⁄₂ inches (63 × 89 mm),^[2] small enough to fit inside standard card-collector pockets, sleeves or sheets.^[3] The ATC movement developed out of the mail art movement and has its origins in Switzerland.^[4] Cards are produced in various media, including dry media (pencils, pens, markers, etc.), wet media (watercolor, acrylic paints, etc.), paper media (in the form of collage, papercuts, found objects, etc.) or even metals or cloth. The cards are usually traded or exchanged. When sold, they are usually referred to as art card editions and originals (ACEOs)."  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artist_trading_cards)

When I do these I start with a printout of an original sketch reduced to fit the small format.  I then grab a bunch of decorative papers in the colors I feel like working in for the day.  I also gather tools: scissors, xacto knife, glue stick, old phonebook (for gluing surfaces), cutting mat, sharpies, matte medium, paint brush, transfer paper and bone folder for burnishing.  I decide what papers I will use in different parts of the artwork then trace the parts onto the papers, cut the parts out, assemble like a jigsaw puzzle and glue them onto the substrate.  When the glue has had time to adhere firmly I make embellishing marks with sharpie pens then seal with acrylic matte medium.

If you want to see more artworks cleverly built around this month's theme and very afford-ably listed with starting prices of just 99 cents then go to ebay and do a search for NFAC.  You can also see a cool little Nibblefest widget in their blog right here in blogspot:  

http://nibblefest.blogspot.com/

Artists Beware!!!

I just have to comment on those little "terms of use" agreements that we accept without reading when we sign up for websites, especially the business and social networking kind.  These sites can be great places for us to meet artists and encourage collectors so they do provide a service but what is the cost?

So I get an email from someone at bizspeaking.com who was looking at my ArtFire.com shop. The email invited me to post images of my work within their business networking site...I was considering this until I read the terms of use...

"You retain your rights to any Content you submit, post or display on or through the Services. By submitting, posting or displaying Content on or through the Services, you grant us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license (with the right to sublicense) to use, copy, reproduce, process, adapt, modify, publish, transmit, display and distribute such Content in any and all media or distribution methods (now known or later developed).

You agree that this license includes the right for Bizspeaking to make such Content available to other companies, organizations or individuals who partner with Bizspeaking for the syndication, broadcast, distribution or publication of such Content on other media and services, subject to our terms and conditions for such Content use.

Such additional uses by Bizspeaking, or other companies, organizations or individuals who partner with Bizspeaking, may be made with no compensation paid to you with respect to the Content that you submit, post, transmit or otherwise make available through the Services."

REALLY!!! By using your site I agree to give you and 3rd party subcontractors the royalty free right to PUBLISH my images without compensating me for such use? Hello this is our bread and butter!!!  Do they think artists are stupid!!!  Well I guess we are if we check the little box accepting internet “terms of use/service/etc without reading all that legal “mumbo jumbo.”

We ARTISTS must be very wary of sites like this and before you post your images online make sure to watermark the heck out of them first. You may also want to make sure they are very small low resolution images as well... It’s a difficult choice and a fine line to walk, post images that make our artwork shine in the best possible light or protect our artwork from copyright infringement by making it unusable for illicit reproduction…

An American Dragon in London, Barenforum exchange 51

An American Dragon in London

Artist:   Patricia B. Phare-Camp

Paper:   10 x 15” Mulberry Paper

Image:  13 x 8”

Ink:      Graphic Chemical Water Soluble Ink. Silver and Black mixed to make Graphite.

Inspired by the historically significant rubbings of Merle Green Robertson.  The imagery in this woodcut print is from an appropriated work of art located at the British Museum.  Rubbings from historic sites eliminate the need to desecrate another culture’s sacred temples to display them in museums…

Yaxchilan Lintel #15 is a 23.25” x 34.5” Mayan bas relief carving dated from AD 755.  It depicts a noble lady performing a blood letting ritual to call in a vision.  Wisps of smoke from the basket of burning blood soaked paper take the form of a “Plumed Vision Serpent.”  A god emerges from its mouth to give spiritual guidance to the lady Wak Tuun.  Mayan nobles often used hallucinogenic herbs to initiate religious vision and dull the pain of auto sacrifice.

FOR MORE INFO SEE:

Merle Green Robertson:

http://www.archaeology.org/0205/abstracts/merlegreene.html

http://www.sunofmexico.com/photos_galerie_mexique.php?action=affiche&galerie=22723562@N05&server=6081&photo=6064350386&tof=6064350386_4be39bedfb&mcle=yucatan&PHPSESSID=fd7a32b88e7d304045e0603d147ec768

http://www.metmuseum.org/Collections/search-the-collections/50011098?rpp=20&pg=6&ao=on&ft=*&who=Maya&pos=111

YaxchilanLintel 15

http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_objects/aoa/y/yaxchil%C3%A1n_lintel_15.aspx

Latest Projects, Grandson's First Relief Print, Year of the Dragon Cards & Baren Forum Exchange #51

This is the first printing plate of 2012 for me; a 6x4" piece of battleship linoleum.  I've yet to print it.  Its said to be Quetzalcoatle, this bas relief is from the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico.  Full size photo can be seen at: http://www.mesoweb.com/features/jpl/34.html.

This detail of a 10x15" woodcut printing plate I'm currently carving is Mayan.  Its Lady Xloc Lintel #25 at the British Museum.  I used an image from http://www.ancientsites.com/aw/Post/1229630.  There is a cool video about Mayan bloodletting ceremony at: http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/2004/maya/womenatcourt-p2.htm

This is a scan of my grandson Austin's first relief print.  He carved an "Easy Cut" plate, its a soft rubber material much like the smaller white drafting erasures.  The image is 5.75x6" on 8.25x8.5" cotton rag paper.

Well I've blogged long enough, I'm behind on the making of my American Dragons...They're both due 1st of February and I've barely begun the carving of the larger woodblock and school starts next week!