• January 10: Thanks to K in OH for choosing a Dragon Reader Magnet!

I also received my notecards from Zazzle. I like the print quality and the way I can put a logo and the picture title on the back.

The picture is noticeably more purple than the original; I think that's partly Zazzle (it was apparent on some other products I bought from them) and probably partly my scanner, which doesn't pick up blues so well, and there are a lot of blues in this: metasilk.deviantart.com/art/Snowstorm-AC... (this image is slightly more purple and black than the original). I'm tickled by how well the painting reproduced; the card is decidedly larger than the original!

By and large I like the prints from deviantArt, so I think I should buy a few cards from there for comparison.

www.schleich-s.com/en/playground/elfenwe...

Thought lots of y'all might enjoy a visit to Bayala...

... catching up slowly with a few reposts from my main blog, metasilk.livejournal.com/

Dec. 28th, 2009

• 15:34 I still might manage somehow to go see "Avatar" -- Na'vi is one reason why: languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=1977
• 15:45 I'm very happy with the quality of the minipins and travel mugs from #CafePress: bit.ly/5ZdTWY
  and bit.ly/5nLYSk
• 23:04 Thanks to T out west for choosing a Dragon Reader magnet! www.cafepress.com/whimsicaldreams.180461728

Dec. 14th, 2009

• 17:58 R & M got our tree this afternoon. The smell of balsam is filling the house. Lovely!
• 21:40 Thanks, buyer in NY, for choosing the Parade print! www.cafepress.com/whimsicaldreams.27285886

Dec. 18th, 2009

• 00:39 Ordered 1 of my own cards from @Zazzle; curious what prints are like - www.zazzle.com/137380252727892820?rf=238248367253009980

Dec. 6th, 2009

• 05:54 Thanks to D in LA and E in MA for liking and buying Dragon Reader gear from www.cafepress.com/whimsicaldreams/3888037 ! #cafepress

Dec. 4th, 2009

• 08:02 One thing I like about @cafepress is that I can manage prices store-wide by product type. (Can't do this in my other outlets - yet?)
• 08:06 On thing I like about @zazzle is that they retweet their members' sales tweets.
• 08:07 One thing I like about @deviantArt is the artist's prices. And they don't put their logo on the backsides of cards ASFAIK.
• 08:10 New: "Unexpected" (aka "Dragon Tail") metasilk.deviantart.com/art/Unexpected-145668786
  Thanks, KH, for encouraging framed prints!
• 12:10 Bit frittery; researching referral-to-Art (eh) and building FB Pages. Kid is online (SciAm Frontiers then PBS Kids Island). Baby sleeping.
• 14:09 > Get coffee.
  IT'S IN MUG.
  > Go outside with kid and bike.
  DON'T FORGET BABY IN BJORN.
  
  Right.

Nov. 30th, 2009

• 22:22 Another Dragon Reader Journal sold! That sells best, but there are more blank books from Whimsical Dreams

I must have picked (guessed) the right tags for this one; it comes up in the CafePress marketplace searches, I think. Or perhaps it's because there's an affiliate store that lists it.

New art in Whimsical Dreams, plus holiday designs and a revised 2010 calendar. Enjoy!


Yuletide Dragon and Snow Fleas are also up.

Hope to get them up at my Zazzle shop and deviantArt prints in addition to the CafePress one... if anyone has preferences as to which outlet they like the most, I'd love some feedback.

One of the things that impresses me about Jessica Douglas's work is her use of references in wings, and her ability to work large and fine enough to get just about every darn feather. Not to mention what David Sibley can do (have you seen his bird guides??!!)

I was noodling about on a 4"x6" piece of paper meant actually for printing cards on inkjet printers. As such, it moderately sucks for watercolors, but once I laid in a background (while vaguely thinking I might work at some of Linda Kemp's techniques), I switched to mixing colored pencils and gouache and thicker watercolors, and kept thinking of Ursula Vernon's advice that people will "believe" any lighting and skin tones if you get the shadows right.

Well, I'm not in their class, on any of those counts. I'm not even sure there are enough shadows (there often aren't, in my stuff). And I know I'm working too small and too impatiently to even get halfway to some of their techniques, let alone toward their deeply practiced skills and cool creativity.

On the other hand, they're all teaching me stuff, I keep going when I can find some damn time, and I'm grateful, and pleased with this as a step towards their levels (say, as of a couple years ago; I may never catch up and that's OK too).

It was a sooty shearwater, by the way.

On gear: Shirts and gifts through cafepress; different mugs and totes and doodads at zazzle; and various print sizes at deviantArt.