Change of plan....

After a few more commissions~ I'm gonna change up how I've been creating. Instead of trying to create 'works to sell' - I'm going to try to create 'works-for-me' as my little dolls~ love them though I do~ are created at an unsustainable loss. And so I shall take this time of unmitigated freedom and create fully for myself~

This little faun in my hand was my last attempt to create something simple - something that I could maybe - just maybe produce a few of in a day~ this~ it seems~ I am not capable of. I can not seem to speed myself up or lower the detail on my dolls - each one becomes more and more elaborate. I've conflicting goals~


1. To create works to sell on Etsy
2. To sell at prices that would allow people to buy
3. To add detail, emotion, story, individuality + quality to each subsequent work.

As I feel unwilling to change my tact on #2 and incapable of dumbing down myself on #3 ~ I must conclude that a change is in order.

New Year = a new focus!

Oh! And if you are one of the lovely lovely people that have taken one of my creations home~ thank you! Dear goodness~ thank you <3 I'm sure I'd have gone utterly mad creating for others and finding them non-exisitant! There were many many days that I sat back and looked at my work and wondered 'who in the world will want to take this little creature home?' and I was always answered with them sailing off to France or Poland or Italy or Ohio, California, Canada, or down the street... or to a friend back home.

I am so grateful and honored~ this has been a wonderful experiment and I'm always open for commissions from friends~ and anyone that took home one of my little creations~ is a friend in my book!

Sunshine and Spreading Chaos

Gonna have to go with an 'image update' - happy with the creations - want to start those bright colorful characters I've been meaning to make - AND then I want to work on more 'Eden-like' creatures.. you know, masks and horns and semi-creepy-strange-cuteness.

Piles of paper!

I think I'm done... well, one away from done - the show will be 33 images + title sheet. ;) Have to have one of those, yeah? I bet it's going to look great... I hope it will - I will it to be -etc etc and back to work!

Poster - Circles - Back to work!

Whipped up a poster for the show - and now I have a date to go with it! Wheeee!

Can I just toss out an: Ug - ? I've been looking around at other doll makers and the ones that seem truly successful at it are making creep'tastic half rotted children (but no where as cool as Hela - but she was no kid- nor some exhumed circus performer) or mostly naked fairy chicks. <-- they're about as much 'faerie' as I am German - way back in the day - sure - some of my family was German - and maybe - long ago - the naked fairy dolls family might have been supernatural and awesome - but she's as good as a pinup girl with wings.

Of course - I could just be jaded. Wait, no I am jaded. And confused... I am certainly aware that what I create is probably for a very niche group of people - but I worry - does this group even exist? You, my 6 (maybe) 7 readers... you'll back me up here ;)

I do sell a few things and many many many thanks for those out there that make this silly little artist stop running in her circles of self doubt.

I'll just go back to making monsters and creatures and strange little friends... Oh! and those illustrations I should have been working on ;)

June... already?

I'm not sure if I'm one for words today... how about a image of one of my new dolls? I hope to get to make a few more by the end of the week - but I might finish up a few more images for the show - I've 29 finished images at the moment.

I wish I could recall how many I've had up in this space before... I had various sizes in the past - but not this time - I'd best make some more, eh? Well - back to work!

considering restructuring...

So I've made a few changes to the form of the show - if not the theme. I had planned to create dolls - a book - and illustrations - all to be shown at the lovely Webster's Bookstore Café this July... but along the way the prospect of less than 30 illustrations all 8x10 - became, to my mind, insufficient. So now I've plans to make no less than 33 - maybe more. I'm not showing dolls - not the right location... and a strange item anyway.... and I don't think I'll have the little book/booklet either.

Firstly - between all the words sketches and illustrations - we're not looking at a little thing any longer. And sure - I could just edit it down... but I don't honestly have very good printing options... and I'm a brat. If I make 100 images - I want to at least have 60 in there - and we're looking more like 20 might fit with the words - which, again, I could cut down - but why - when the end result won't even look that good - at lot of work for something that people may have no interest in...

And with that thought - what if they do? They HAVE to buy my little silly book to find out whats going on in the illustrations? Not really my style. I hadn't really thought about it at the time. Granted I doubt more than half a dozen people - mostly friends - will have their interest even slightly piqued and they probably wouldn't begrudge me the 5 dollars I was thinking of asking - it will have taken me a good few months to have put together! And I was going to illustrate every cover - or make a really big stamp and print each cover...

I really am an economic dead end... but I digress...

So now my plan - and I think it's a good one - is to create either a webpage or a pdf... probably both - for people to download - if they want. The show is in a web friendly location after all! What better thing to do? Heck! Might get people to go to my site! Wheee! And then they can see the dolls - and other stuff I do - and maybe read my rambling blogs. I mean - I love to know what my favorite artists are doing. Oh! Look - see - there goes my head again. Well - allow me a little conceit (though I've only 23 penciled images done at the moment) the show is looking good!

fragment of the Fragments of Nineveh

I think that this project is going to work out well - it'll take a good deal of sketching, painting and such - but I'm able - and then I'll have a book(ish thing)! Words that go with my pictures... It's kinda wonderful!

Will keep you updated!

Back soon!

An Eden Edict

Okay - so I stick to this I am putting it in words and posting it to all seven of you lovely followers!

I hereby relinquish the solid black line... too long have I used it. Too long have I loved it. We must part ways - so: goodbye black outline - and hello new way of drawing.

egads.

back to work!

A strange lot...

And now off to the post office with me!

Of imps and sunshine and written things

I had wanted to set up an elaborate set up for my Etsy photos... but I think I like the sunshine more than I could ever care for a stark fully lit corner... that - and we simply don't have the space for setting up something properly... but I think I did justice to my work with these little images.

My sense of time is a wee bit off as I've been busy finishing up the first draft of my story!!!!!!!! <--- really. I'm allowed.

I've been working on this one in my head for ages... I know people say that sort of stuff. And I know now how they feel... I've hundreds and hundreds of pages of failed attempts to take on the story... I feel like it's one of my first attempts to paint in colors with oils... true monsters of paint and over worked failures.... I just get carried away and fail to make something worth looking at or, in this case, reading. I guess what I'm saying is - I had to learn how to edit. And I AM GOING TO FINISH~ Oh. So happy! It's nothing amazing - I assure you... the story itself... but the finishing. The having all these ideas and characters and places and things fall in words onto the paper - start to finish.... I am giddy... and often find myself writing when I meant to be doing something else.... like, updating my blog. <___< or my Etsy... on to which I just added a few new things - including this imp: E'oh.

Back to work I go!