I have a brand new piece I want to introduce you to... Here's
Dashing Lads! This piece features two very handsome and very stylish kit-cats who apparently take their time-management skills —and accessories— very seriously.
:D
I wonder if kit cat on the left is thinking that it is TIME... to go shopping for another dapper hat!
And kit-cat on the right looks like he's hiding something... maybe his wallet? (Good intentions!)
The art is available on 100% rag
art prints (framed, if you want), museum-wrapped
canvas (nice, thick 1 1/2" cradle - no frame needed), American Apparel
t's in a variety of colors, note cards, laptop, iphone and ipad skins for both Mac and PC's, and hard iphone cases, made by Case Mate. (I have one. They're great quality.) See everything
here.
I designed certain items with revised lettering or removed the lettering altogether, so each item is designed specifically for the product's dimensions and in the best way to showcase the art!
YAY! Big news...
Popcorn Park is complete! Here are a few little snippets for your enjoyment. This is a large illustration with a lot of detail and a lot going on. I am learning to walk the fine line between having
lots of detail and
lots to look at, but not at the expense of building the special connection with the viewer. In other words, I want you to delight in the details and the story easily, but also
comfortably—no magnifying glass needed. (I think that I have achieved that balancing act well here!)
Want to see the entire thing? Popcorn Park is available as an art print in various sizes and on a few choice, super cool items in my Society 6 shop. It's also the only place where the entire piece can currently be seen. (Sooo... have I enticed you enough to take a look at the bigger picture?)
If you do check it out, and if you like it, please Tweet it, Pin it, Like it, share it with your doggie-loving friends in whatever way you prefer —there are share buttons right on the page in the shop. :D Hey, I'd love to do many many many more of these, and, if you'd love to see more of them too,
I'd love your help to get the word out! As always I am extremely grateful for your support, interest and enthusiasm for my work. I can't tell you how much it means to me. :D Couldn't do it without you!
XO Kathy
This weekend, I will be spending ample time with my four-year-old ballerina friend Solveig. I want to have plenty of fun creative things for us to do together, so I made this coloring book for her.
 |
| inside front page (color print) and first coloring page |
I used a ballet theme for most of the inside coloring pages. Since the recipient takes ballet classes, I am pretty sure we will be "on the same page" with the theme!
 |
| another coloring page |
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| Something personaized is always extra-special |
Everyone likes to "see their name in lights", so to speak! I included the recipient's name in some of the printed pages. It is a small detail and I know she will be delighted!
For a few of the pieces of art on the coloring pages, I tried different colored outlines instead of brown, just to punch things up a bit... and what young lady doesn't love pink and purple?
 |
| Back cover |
I covered the front and back covers, both inside and outside, with art prints I already had lying around. I picked out a few that I thought were just rig
Lately, I've been experimenting with making these spiral-bound notebooks (or journals, or sketchbooks). It's so much fun to have a new, FUNCTIONAL way to share my art work! I've
always wanted to have my art on note books and the like. So, while I work on finding a partner with larger manufacturing abilities than myself, with a wider distribution than I myself can provide, it's exciting to make it happen all by myself. I really love these books.
This one features bunches of pages of speckled paper alternating with bunches of pages of lavender paper. I also added several pages of 100# watercolor paper at the front of the book for extra variety! (Maybe I should add a lavender scent, too? Hmm...)
The cover and back are a very rigid, acid-free matte board in purple. On the front and back cover, I adhered my art prints, printed on an acid- free 100# fine invitation paper.
The place holder ribbon is recycled - cute, eh? I originally received it from my pet-art buddy Christine Throckmorton of
I Heart Dogs Studio. (We did a custom pet portrait trade awhile back, and I did her doggie Rosie. Check out all the process posts
here.)
I've been using them and it is SO MUCH FUN for me. I'm a notebook-a-holic and sketch book-a-holic, and I have been wanting to make them for such a long time, so I can't get enough of them. I'm experimenting with different ways to add variety, embellishments, separators, and different papers within the books. I hope you like them! Once I have the time to really get into it, I will be creating some to sell in my Etsy shop. As always, if you feel so inclined, I'd
love to hear what you think. :)
Here is a piece I recently did as part of a group of art I am working on. I turned these into ornaments (
you can see this one here). They are so much fun! I am going to be doing a mailing soon of these cute holiday keepsakes! Isn't that a neat idea?
I've been off the blogging radar for the last couple of weeks! My major apologies to followers of my "Rosie my last pet portrait" project and my "schoolgirls" from-sketch-to-final project. Those will be picked back up after Dec. 6th!
I've been laying low for good reason - I am furiously getting prepared to vend at the upcoming
Bazaar Bizarre Boston! This is one of THE annual premiere holiday art markets in Boston. I am so excited to be a part of it this year. It will be my first time at the Bazaar Bizarre. I will proudly be vending with the fabulous local group of Etsy artists,
Boston Handmade.
Each item in these photos is handmade, and all of the illustrations used on the ornaments is of my own original illustrations, including the hand-drawn lettering.
Just for fun, here are some of the pencil sketches of the lettering... so you can see my process a bit..
I've only made a handful of each ornament design (labor intensive!) and once they are gone, they are gone -- so if you see something you like... you know the rest. ;)
Hope you enjoy!
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Congratulations to the winner of my Party Animals book giveaway: Kristen Muscat! In addition to the book, Kirsten has also won a WellerWishes "doggie prize pack" consisting of:
A set of four (4) WellerWishes "Garden Pug" art magnets
(Art detail above)
And, last but not least, a hand-painted, original art wood ring featuring a cute little doggie! Modern palette of black, white and red! (Silver-plated adjustable ring base.)
Congratulations to Kirsten, and Thank EVERYONE for Tweeting and Facebooking and commenting up a storm! Wish everyone could win!
But don't fret - you can still get a copy of the Party Animals book here, and every penny of the proceeds goes to A Place To Bark. That is totally cool and totally worth it!
October 15 will see the start of the Party animals original art auctions on EBAY! Please check it out and if you are so moved, please bid. And remember that 100% of the proceeds from the original art auctions are going towards helping stray and abandoned animals have a NEW LIFE, thanks to A Place To Bark's hard work and all - around amazingness.
You can sign up to get auction updates here (bottom of page).
Here's a Shrinky-Dink keychain I made while goofing off a few weeks ago. I just downloaded pics from my camera, and there it was. Fun little cat!
By:
Kathy Weller,
on 8/9/2009
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Fun and (I am happy to report :) ) busy day today at the
South End Open Market. I tell you I LOVE this side of town! Lived in Boston or Cambridge for most of my life. Now WHY have I not spent time in this vibrant little shoebox-cozy part of town? Let's look forward shall we! I'm going to drag Matt out of Cambridge for a leisurely
South End Saturday one of these weekends. The dog count ALONE here is worth the trip -- so many adorable, sweet, big, tiny, licky-friendly and then also of course the non-chalant, stand-offish doggies, and I love to meet every last one! It's like a big dog party! :)
Weather was nice today -- very warm but not too sticky with intermittent sun and overcast skies. The a.m. was just a little bit harried because we did not have a lot of time to set up our tent and area. It was a race but it all worked out just fine in the end.
The crowds were intermittently thick or moderate at any given moment. We had an aisle spot, so there were a couple of "Now you see them, now you DON'T" types of moments, but in reverse: "Now you don't see them, now you DO!" That was fun and kept us on our toes!
Today, SOWA hosted a group of NYC artisans called
"The {New New}". (The {New New} group is similar in philosophy and concept as the group to which I belong,
Boston Handmade.) I think that having The {New New} here today may have helped to increase foot traffic over a typical summer Sunday. In general, the overall number of vendors was high as well, so it was a very good day to be here,whether vending or shopping or just hanging out! I was not able to do a good walk through, greet our NYC guests and see what kind of cool stuff they were making and selling. I was too busy today. with my own booth, which is a good thing, I can't complain about that but I sure would like to meet the NYC artists some time. For now, I will have to depend on their
Flickr photostream to check out how the day went from their end!
I also did not take too many pics today (
see the photos I did take HERE). I just didn't have many chances. I was able to take a few of my table and a few of my booth mate / sister / jewelry designer
NancyRosetta's. (Those did not require that I leave the booth. It's no wonder I could get a few pics!)
Well,that's my
SOWA report for Sunday, August 9, 2009. I might do one more SOWA date this month ( Aug. 30) . It's not certain yet but I promise to keep you in the loop!
Tilda in the Burbs blog has featured my
"Adorable Pug" ACEO art card. How fun!
Here is my latest offering: a hand-painted-and-distressed one of a kind Funny Bunnies™ ornament. I've never had anything like this available for sale -- this is the Bunnies' first foray into the world beyond paper.Click here to visit the listing and see front/back/entire ornament
I have completed work on the most recent version of my picture book dummy!
I've taken some photos of it for you so you can see how it came out as well as some of the steps I took in creating it.
In the above photo, I am pasting the cover art paper to a piece of chip board. I glue-stick one side of the chip board, then carefully line up the cover at on it. I then lay a sheet of parchment or wax paper on top of the cover art and I apply pressure to the board from center to edge, using the bone folder. This helps to avoid any air pockets. I prefer to use glue stick, because it is easy to apply and less messy than other forms of glue. It's easier to control for this type of a project. Plus, if you accidentally apply too much, it will not seep through the paper like a liquid glue might. It would probably just squish out the side while I'm bone-foldering.
Here is a photo of three printed copies of the dummy, along with the tools I used to create a nice, solid cover. (The copies of the dummies above are before assembly.)
The "grey matter" above consists of pages which are titles "copyright/dedication page" and "half-title page". They are place holders for where that actual information would go. It's probably not entirely necessary that my dummy have these blank pages but it's good to show that I'm thinking about it.
Here is a copy of one unssembled dummy. I printed it myself on my Epson R1800 printer, using Staples matte brochure/flyer paper (for ink jets).
This paper is a very good option if you prefer to print on both sides of the paper, as I do (instead of printing on only one side of a piece of lighter-weight paper and then pasting them together). The brochure paper is hefty enough to withstand printing on both sides. I don't know the weight of the paper, bit it's 8 mil thick.
I included two pages of finished art in the dummy books -- one finished piece for the cover, one for an interior page. These two color pieces were printed on Epson Enhanced Matte paper and then, in the case of the cover it was pasted to the chip board, in the case of the interior page, it was pasted to another page. So, the color inside page is extra thick since it's two pages pasted together, but the Epson paper is better for color art than the Staples brochure paper.
In this photo, I'm trimming a bit of the paper from the chipboard. The chipboard is slightly smaller than the paper I printed the art on, so I had to do this for every front and back cover.
On the inside of the front and back covers, I pasted a page which says "end papers" to explain what will go there (part of the grey matter").
Here is a copy of the dummy, back from the copy shop. I chose the "Tape" binding option. Earlier I planned to use the "Velo" binding option but I changed my mind. I'm happy with the "Tape" binding. Came out great!
Here is a picture of an inside spread. See how nice the binding came out from this photo. The "Tape" binding leaves the gutter pretty visible.
©Jill McDougall 2007
Remember the dashing hero in Gone with the Wind?
What a rugged manly hero. And what a rugged manly name to match.
Rhett Butler.
Imagine if he’d been named something else - Percy Sprong perhaps, or Hubert Gribble.
Would his character be just as convincing?
And what if Scarlett O’Hara had been Enid Snirke or Maisie Brittlebanger?
Character names matter. They convey rhythm and flavour and shape. They evoke memories and reinforce the reader’s response.
Inexperienced writers tend to pick names that appeal to them. If Jack and Chloe are top choices in the birth notices, you can bet a lot of characters will be Jack and Chloe.
This is a wasted opportunity.
Why name your antagonist Pete when he can be Slade or Odin?
Who sounds more like a victim - Calvin or Brad?
And who would you rather meet in a dark alley - Gareth or Goober?
Why not call an energetic character Dasha or Mehira rather than something that disappears on the page like Sara?
And isn’t Jinx more evocative than Ruth?
Roald Dahl was a master at naming characters. You can tell he had a lot of fun with it. Augustus Gloop is a gluttonous child. Aunt Spiker is mean and vindictive. Professor Foulbody is dubious. And Miss Honey? Naturally she’s very sweet.
Nicknames create powerful images without an adjective in sight. Who would you prefer on the basketball team– Lofty or Limpy? And who would you rather have in your study group - Crusty’s Gang or the Swot Team?
It really is worth spending some time thinking about your characters’ names to get the right ‘fit.’
***************************
Jill McDougall is the author of over 100 books for children. You can find more writing tips on her website as well as links to hundreds of publishers’ guidelines through her ebook Become a Children’s Writer: Insider Secrets. Visit her website at http://www.jillmcdougall.com.au
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Writing For Kids,
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Hi Kathy! Thanks for reaching out on LinkedIn...hope to see you in May at Surtex....love your art! Blessings your way, Caroline
Hi Caroline! Yes, I am looking forward to Surtex 2012! I will be there (exhibiting). I will see you there! and, likewise~ I love your art too! :D :D (Thank you!)
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