Ollerina

Printers?

The hunt is on for a really good printer. I had got it into my head that a laser printer was what I needed.

Luckily I had the inspired idea to cheekily ask a handful of other artists selling on Etsy who's work was detailed and figurative like mine what they were using. I only expected one or two people to reply but everyone I asked took the time to offer some really useful information. What a lovely bunch of people!

I want an A3 printer that can produce excellent quality archival standard fine art prints. I think I have narrowed the search to the Epson Stylus R1900 or the Epson Stylus 2400 Inkjet printers these both use pigment inks but then Ian suggested the Cannon Pixma pro 9000 which sounds great except it uses dye based inks which don't last as long for archival purposes. 

I am spending quite a few evenings reading reviews on the really useful Photo-i.

"My head hurts" any information on the subject will be greatefully received !

Lazy lately

I've been a bad lazy blogger lately! I am busy planning lots of cool things to sell in my Etsy shop when I give it an overhaul, to be continued soon...

The Pixie Carnival Parade photoshoped

I have done a bit of post production work in Photoshop on this painting to harmonise the colours and add a little more atmosphere.

The Pixie Carnival Parade

I have finished painting this one I am now going to do a bit of tatting in Photoshop and see what I can do with it.

Close up pixie girl

Here's a close up of my sweet pixie girl!

My first Etsy swap!

This is super exciting. I have completed my first etsy swap transaction with Nel at La Fee crochette. She  wanted to use one of my little fairy people for her blog and her etsy banner, so I whipped her a couple up. In return I get to put a little advert for my blog on her banner which is very generous.

 

And I am getting a super cute Amigurumi Cool Bear up for adoption, I hear he is quite the ladies man so we will get on just fine, me being a lady and all!

Handsome isn't he!

Check out Nels little creatures at... Nel's blog at www.lafeecrochette.blogspot.com or   La Fee Crochette Etsy shop

writing again

Artwork isn't going up on these pages as quick as it should be. Since my last writers crit group I have been busy revising Three chapters and writing another four!
If I had known how useful being part of a crit group would be (even if I have to put up with my brother saying la-di-da) I would have joined one sooner.
You get your manuscript marked just like at school it's ace. Joking aside people put a lot of effort into it and there are many talented people there that know a lot more about writing than me. Other people always spot things that you have over looked I had forgotten to describe my characters because I had drawn them.  I know what they look like but no one else did!
My latest homework is changing my point of view so it's all coming from the same character, my book is aimed at younger readers 7-9 and it might be confusing with more than one point of view. I thought this would be a nightmare but it's forced me to turn much of the text into dialogue. This makes it a lot snappier and adds more to the characters. I'm very pleeeesed!

Two of the people from my group have got extracts of their books in The SCBWI's Undiscovered voices anthology, brilliant writing, me and Ollie especially liked An Alien Ate My Homework by Mariam Vossough. We laughed our heads off!

"I is dancing man!"

Ollie saw Fat Boy Slims, Weapon of choice music video yesterday the one where Christopher Walken is dancing on it.

It must have made quite an impression on him because today he is spending the day playing playing "I is dancing man!" He's dancing on the stairs (escalator) and dancing in the fireplaces (lifts.)

His dad's so proud!

Finished

I have finished my first  attempt at a traditional painting combined with Photoshop painting. It has taken me twice as long but I  quite like it.  I'm ready for the next one now.

If anyone has thoughts on my Photoshop work verse my traditional let me know, or any other comments!

The dragon parade

This is the latest painting I'm  working on, The dragon parade. It's not finished yet but I thought I would put it up in stages again. I'll be doing a bit of painting in photoshop on it once it's at an appropriate stage.

I have this little problem, this new work is intended for cards and I just can't keep it simple! God knows  what this will look like shrunk down, it might make three or four cards. It's not good for production time either, my mini opus's as Ian calls them (I don't think he approves.)