About Me:Mother by day; Web Developer and Illustrator by night.
You can find stuff I've done by cruising by the following sites (and please do!):
ArtStuff
Kir's at Ellen Million Graphics -- Ellen is terrific, and I prefer this shop, despite the competition and that I have too little stuff there (my fault, not hers!)
Whimsical Dreams -- my CafePress Shop, which has the most variety of both items and images.
Metasilk at deviantArt -- primarily prints, using high-quality photo-like paper (last I checked) than anything else I've had done so far
Whimsy at Zazzle -- another shop. Products may overlap with the first Whimsical Dreams, but I've not had the time to get everything up on both. I hope to just add traffic and get lucky (that's why these extra places).
WebStuff
Metasilk Webworks -- my usually slightly-out-of-date business site. (between work, art, and mothering, who has time to update her own stuff? *chuckle*)
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.
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.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009, 07:08 AM EST
[Art Added]
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).
Send Message
Add Friend
Block User
Invite to Group
Report User 
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!
I'm very happy with the quality of the minipins and travel mugs from #CafePress: 
and 
Thanks to T out west for choosing a Dragon Reader magnet! 
Thanks, buyer in NY, for choosing the Parade print! 
New: "Unexpected" (aka "Dragon Tail") 
