Deeper, Deeper

I had hoped that my next post would be something new and different but it is being a bit harder to do than I had thought. So, here is another wet, merman picture. The scan is not the best but it's all I have as this sold fast. It was done on dark blue mattboard (if I remember right) and is in Prisma Color (with some white acrylic highlights, I think). The overall feel of this is very effective, I should do more like this. From 1994 "Deep Blue Sea".

Keeping it Wet

Looking at some of my older work that some of you may not have seen I have, "The Steel Koi". This is one of my more subtle works, and some think it should be more obvious that the one koi is metal. This is a mix of Acrylic and Prisma Colors. If I remember it was slightly smaller than 8 1/2 x 11 and it currently lives in Florida.

Well Dressed Merboy

99.9% 0f my Mermen/boys are nude or wearing only jewelry. This one was inspired by various works I had seen and I enjoyed doing the jewelry etc. Though I do still prefer silver to gold. This was done on Canson board in Acrylics with watercolor colored pencil. It's small only about 5 inches tall.

Twin Frame

This was done for the second of the unique shaped frames I found at Good Will. This time I decided to do the work vertical instead of horizontal. Most of my art just happens! I almost never have a clear idea of what I am going to paint before I start. Most often I have a photo that parks some idea or that has lighting or a face or a pose I like and my art grows from that. In this case the whole central part of the "story" of the picture and the title feature itself came last. I had the pose and even found a great picture that inspired the background but even after all that I had NO idea what he was holding! I tried many ideas and finally it hit me. I did the baby Leviathan and then encased him in the egg. While many of the details were obscured once I added the clear egg shell, it made it work how it had to. His armband and the drops of water are some of my favorite details in this one. The same size as "Dragon Hunter", on Canson board in Acrylic and watercolor colored pencil. "Leviathan's Egg"

Fun Shapes

I get most of my frames from Good Will and sometimes I find real gems. I found a frame that this picture fits (the picture was made to fit it) and it needed a bit of TLC, some sanding and re- staining and it looks fantastic! This is the first of 2 pictures done to fit the odd but wonderful little frames (I found another just like it but with a different bad print in it a week after finding the first one). I enjoyed doing this piece, while I love to do nudes, I decided this one should have clothes and in the end I was very happy with the outcome. The dragon is my first non fantasy dragon, he was created by close study of actual lizards and trying to make as realistic a creature as I could. I love his pointy little teeth! 9 1/2 x 12 1/2 on Canson board, Acrylics and watercolor colored pencil.

Older Feather

This is one of the early painted feathers I did. I started with animals which many of those who do feathers do and have tried to find new and different things to paint on them to be different from those other artists. I may eventually post some of the other older feathers. "Jaguar Cub feather".

Katrina Tribute

After Katrina hit New Orleans I thought I would do a picture to sell and give the proceeds to some charity to help the people there. It was 2 years later that I finished this picture. I finally sold it at a convention last year but did not give any money to anyone. It seems that the idea of doing art to raise money just didn't work as I had hoped. Also with all the problems and trouble of the different groups "helping" after the storm, I had no clue who to send it to.

This is about 16 x 20 on Canson board in acrylics, watercolor colored pencil and Prisma color. I wish I could have gotten a better scan/picture of it but this is about the best I could get. I may play with it some on the computer and try to clean it up more but that is not something I am very good at.

"New Orleans Defiant"

Because I Can

Since the "Never Sleep in a Fairy Ring" sequel is going to be awhile before it is finished and I can post it. I am posting older art and "stuff".

Here is my Coat of Arms in the SCA with all the bells and whistles that go with being a double Peer and a Baron etc. Originally done for inside a wonderful Henry the VIII style writing desk I was given, this is about 11 x 12 and is what is known as a full accomplishment of Arms.

Callum and the Faeries

Here is a picture with lots of detail in it. Callum is the son of friends of mine and I did this portrait for them. I tried to make it fit the child who I had only met a couple times. His mother was amazed that I had picked up on things that fit him as well as I had. He recognised himself when he saw it (his father told me) and his mother loved the picture. Thanks to Brian Froud for the concept and a few posses.

Magic in Wales

2 years ago my husband and I got to take a trip to Wales (Southern Wales specifically). It was cool and wet, and that was in June! They said it was NOT the normal weather and the news reported the wettest day on record while we were there ( and that is saying something for Wales). Northern Wales had very very bad flooding.

While at a spot called Snakehead (a spur of land sticking out into the bay) Don took this picture of a Fairy Ring. It was Huge, yards across not inches!

Nestalgia

Sorry to post so much, but a friend just made me think about my son. He is 24 now, possibly in trouble with the law and we haven't seen or heard from him in 4 years. When he was little every minute with him was a joy for me and I could not believe how lucky I was to have a husband and a son who loved me so much. I guess you only get so much joy in your life. I appreciate what I had and I miss it but the love is still there and will never change, even if pain, time and distance make it hard.

I did this picture back when Joe was 8 or 9. He was a real tosser and turner in his sleep and his pajamas always ended up half off him. I took a photo of him asleep one morning and did this picture from it. I love you son wherever you are.

Oh My God, It's Full of....Grass?

Paraphrasing 2001 A Space Odyssey, this is how I feel. I have been painting what is just the first step in a multiple step process for the majority of the background of "Never Sleep in a Fairy Ring II; Gathering the Elixir of Priapis". If I had remembered how much of a pain it was to do the grass this way in the first one, I would have charged the person who commissioned this ALOT more money! I am seeing grass leaves in my sleep now and I am only about 2/3rds done with this first step! ARRGGGHHH!

This is a slightly blurry detail of what I am doing. This is about a 3 inch square of a 16 x 20 inch picture.

Spelling Error?

It has come to my attention that I may be spelling Weble wrong. As someone who knows that he is a very bad speller, I am willing to accept that I may have misspelled a word I made up. So, anyone who reads this gets a vote, should Weble be spelled "Weble" or "Webl"? Either way is fine by me, but as I said, others have pointed out that maybe Webl would be better as it stands for Web Log and there is no "e" in log.

Let me know what you all think.

Lost Chair

I painted this for my nephew Benjamin and gave it to him on his 4th birthday (he will be 8 soon). His parents apparently did not like it because I have never seen it again and they won't answer any questions about it. I was very pleased with how it came out and wish I had it back. If I can ever find another little chair (or even a big one) like this again I will paint another one. I had the chair from way back when I was in college and had started painting it but didn't finish it or like how it was going. So when Benjamin came along I redid it and it came out perfect. Very influenced by the work of Froud.

And Now For Something Compleatly Different...A Stone Lion

Looking at my pictures for something I was not finding where I thought it would be, I found my pictures from our trip to Wales 2 years ago. At Cardiff Castle we saw many great things but the park connected to the castle had a wall around it, and on the wall were stone animals. We got pictures of them all. This is one of the 2 male lion that actually connected to the castle.

Troublesome Fairy Captured

I have started the "Never Sleep in a Fairy Ring" sequel 3 times so far (I really hope this 3rd one will be the last one). It seems I was being thwarted in my efforts and so I waited and finally captured this fairy. I hope he is the one who has been causing the problems (the brush in his hands makes me think it is him). I will let you know for sure if this solves the problem (by posting the finished "Fairy Ring Sequel" when it is done. 26

Decending into Madness

So, if you write a Weble and you are the only one who reads it, is that like talking to yourself? And if so, does it mean your crazy? And if you ask questions like this knowing only you will respond to it (maybe you will), is that crazy also? This picture is from 1992 "Peliquin" from the Movie "Nightbreed".

Elven Portrait; But Wait, There's More!

Back in February I did a portrait of my friend Dawn. She is a big Tolkien fan and I did it from a bad photo of her. No, I didn't get a better photo to do a better picture from. Being who I am and liking lots of detail etc. I could not leave the simple portrait as it was. So here is the same picture but now with a bit more detail. Dawn, I hope you like the changes.

Huge Work

OK, this is old but I just got a good picture of it last weekend. I did this when my SCA group became a Barony (about 15 years ago). It was done on a Queen size sheet, light blue. I just added the arms of everyone who has served as Baron or Baroness (those are the Shields on the central column). It looks great in a dimly lit hall at an event.

Trouble Commenting?

Since I have heard from a few of you that you have had trouble commenting to my Weble I will try to give you a way around the problem. Email me and I will post it for you so it is on the Weble and others can see it and I can see it in context better. I do understand, I have trouble trying to reply to people's Live Journals at times.
email your comments with the entry title and it will be added to the comments of the appropriate posting. tristan@vampyre-nmp.com

Weble Whipped, New Work

Gee, it has been 2 days since I posted anything and I feel like I am failing or falling behind. I wonder if this Weble is part of the reason I have been so productive this year...we will see.

OK, now to the new picture. I found this face and had to paint it. He is just so cute! Oddly enough while trying to find butterfly wings that I liked I found a site with butterflies of Northern Illinois (I was born in Illinois). The wings used are based on one of those butterflies. His name/the title comes from the drop of dew on his finger. I considered having him wearing a necklace or arm band of dew but settled for the one drop on his finger. This is 9 x 10 on Moonstone Canson board. Picture 25 of this year. Comments etc welcome.

Planning My Death

Don't panic, this is not about me dieing or anything. Almost 30 years ago I made a Tarot deck and I am currently selling a signed and numbered limited edition of 100 for $100 each. Because of how this is being produced for sale I have been looking at the art closely again. My Death card is unique and it has appealed to many people over the years. I am very happy with the design and concept and am now considering doing a real painting based on it. I plan to gather certain photo references to be sure I get every detail as perfect as I can. My main quandary right now is what to do with the background? The original (as seen here) has a simple colored background and that worked OK but I just wonder if something more would be better for a real painting of it? Questions, ideas, comments all are welcome. Oh, just to explain the image, one of the meanings of the Death card in Tarot is "The removing of masks, the revealing of the truth".

The Whole Picture

Trying (and failing) to make a header that fills the frame given on this page I have added art to either side of my lettering. Pyracantha commented on that art and said it reminded her of Mayan art. Well I guess when you get only a small cropped version of a picture it takes on different aspects than when you see the whole thing. So, just so you can all see where it came from, here is the original picture that the header side art was taken from. I cropped it and mirrored it to get the look on the header.

"Valentene in the Sanctuary" full version, done in 2003.

Thank You Theddy

I admit I have unrealistic expectations for this Weble thing. If I don't get comments on something I feel it was a wasted post or no one liked it or something is wrong. Theddy, you have consistently commented and I know you do it so I don't get to discouraged. THANK YOU!

This is one of Theddy's pictures.

Oh Bats!!

Blogs, Webles, Live Journals (do those die if you don't feed them?) all have connections and through one of my friends LJ I found this on someone elses; "My favorite tidbit was that more people die of food poisoning at church picnics every YEAR than have died of contact with bats in all of human history." Now, I don't know the person who wrote this but I LOVE Bats and it drives me nuts when idiots make stupid statements about them being bad, getting in your hair, carrying diseases etc. So I love this quote and I believe it also! Support Bats, buy a Bat House (mine never attracted any :( but I tried). The picture is an older one of my Vampyre, Valentene with some friends.

And Yet Another Feather

This will be the last feather I suspect for a while, have to find more to work on and get my glue to work better. You can't see it in the scan but there is a silver line from the Fairies hands to the bee. I like the pose a lot and doing the face so tiny was hard. The feather is about 2 x 7 inches. Picture 24.

From Soft to Hard

No, this isn't sexual! I just thought the difference between feathers and tile was soft to hard. I have done a few tiles in the past and people seem to like them. This was going to have more of a fantasy element (cicada wing) but after doing just the frog, I liked him to much to do anything else to it. This is on a 4 x 4 inch stone tile. Picture 23.

Good idea, Bad feather

Well, yet again I am having feather problems. I used to have lots of feathers to paint on and can't find many of them right now. The ones I have are not great and the last 2 split more than I am used to. I will undoubtedly try this one again since it's not bad but could be better on a less problematic feather. Obama Feather, 22nd picture this year.

When Good Feathers Go Bad

Normally I would just throw this away and no one would ever see it. One of the pitfalls of working on feathers is that they are delicate and split easily. This one did that and right in the middle of the koi, so I tried to repair it but was not very successful. It may end up in the garbage as I hate imperfection in my art and feel it is wrong to sell work I am not happy with for whatever reason. It would have been picture 22 but I am not sure it should count. The feather is 5 1/2 x 2 inches.

Mountains of Madness...er Fairyland

This is the second idea I had for a feather recently. I have done figures and animals but other people do those and I wanted to try something different. Again, I am not sure just how well it really works, but it was an interesting exorcise. I did end up using an iridescent tenting medium to give some sparkle to the water. The feather is 2 x 4 inches. Picture 21.

Fish Feathers

It has been a while since I painted on a feather. I had this idea and another for a feather and while I like it I am not sure if it worked as well as I wanted. What does anyone else think? The feather is about 9 x 2 inches, this is picture number 20 for 2009.

Inspiration Strikes...sorta

I just saw a movie caller "Miss Potter" it was about Beatrix Potter and how she got her children's books published and her life etc. It was very sweet, very interesting and inspiring. Now, I know I am not going to create the next big children's book crazy or anything like that but it made me really want to write a little story and illustrate it and print some small books. With my art printer I could do a nice 5 1/2 x 8 book with full page illustrations in color. I just need to do a story that I can use for this. Lots of partial ideas but nothing that really grabs me and wants to be made yet. We will see if anything comes of this "inspiration". Someday I want to do a story for my two "Little Bat" pictures, each looks like a children's book illustration, but I don't think this is what I want to do right now. I include one of the "Little Bat" pictures just cause I hate posting without art.