[art] New "Mewse" Spotted In Studio … on Caturday

2993.

I don't make a habit of Caturday posts, but if I did, this would be one of them.

I'm going to cast 2014, the 'year' being the human artifact and overlay on the natural world that it is, as an 'art-healing' time. I have only the barest of inklings as to what that means, but I've a sense, and some years I get very little right, but I've never failed if I find something happy like that and just rolled with it.

So, art-healing it is.

We have a recent addition to the cat company at home base; we rescued her a couple of years back. She started out very anti-social but has warmed considerably.

Encouragingly, she has condescended (trust me on this … as all of us cat-people know, cats, by default, consider themselves a higher form of life, but this girl walks and talks it) to share time in what I call my studio space with me. More often than not she'll be circling my chair while I'm diarizing or writing blog postings.

She started out as an aloof Ice Princess, and is still standoffish in most of the rest of the house … but in the studio, she's one cool kitten.

Allow me to introduce KiKi.

She also disdains the paparazzo, which, in case you didn't know, is the singular of paparazzi, which by the ending -o, would be male, in this case, would be me.

Just one more purrson I'll disappoint if I don't get off my artistic assets, already.

Which reminds, we'll be going to I've Been Framed today. Since my work sked has been rejiggered, we don't get round to there nearly  enough.

[art] What To Do With Your Uncalendar™ If You Aren't Really Collecting Clients Right Now

2973.The Uncalendar is my favoritist paper toy right now. It takes a head full of buzz and fuzz and tempts me to create order. Me and discipline have never been the best of friends.

But right now I'm back in Finnegan* mode, and am not exactly trying to crowd it with events and clients. So what to do? Well, since anything goes, and it's a nifty frame to hang things on

… idea scrapbook!

… a parking stub from OryCon 35, some randome thoughts pinned down and stunned with formaldehyde and displayed, and 2 versions of a logo concept.

… Samantha Phillips' SIG image, and some more notes.

The little graph about 2/3s of the way down the left-hand margin of the verso is serving as a checkmark. If the idea to create can be quantified, I can sum the number of checks in three activities: "Write" (diary primarily right now), "Blog" (you're looking at it, I can check it off!) and "Draw" (still trying to negate inertia there. Number of checmarks/21 gives a decimal fraction that will increase as I push myself to do more.

Get you some Uncalendar (why don't you guys have a FB? I'd like that so hard!)

* Finnegan mode: Beginning again.

[art] Is Your Signature Style Killing Your Art?

2830.Being an aspiring artist, I read ere and oft about the importance of finding your individual "voice", mostly expressed as distilling a signature style that can make your work recognizable and then developing that personal métier. This is marketed as a laudable goal on the way to becoming an accomplished artist and, to the beginner and the aspirant, makes some sense.


Eugenia Loli, however, prefers not to:

In my opinion, “finding your personal style” is ARTISTIC DEATH. It doesn’t show maturation, it shows old age. The artist, unable to think differently anymore. The artist, stuck in seeing the world in one way. The artist, doing art for art’s sake without further exploration. The artist, becomes single-dimensional, no matter how complex his artwork is.

She makes a good case in very few words. At least it deserves some consideration, I think: the idea of doing one thing in a certain way for so long that it becomes second nature seems to imply a lack of further development so prima-facie obvious that it requires no proving.

However, I think there is some advantage to having a signature style to go-to, where you can let your inspiration just flow onto the page without thinking about some new way of doing something. Eugenia makes a good point, complete with chewy food for thought, but I think I'll probably stand somewhere between the extremes. I don't think any tool is worth ignoring or disregarding, and I regard a signature style as a tool in the tool box.

Perhaps a third way to think of this is to be ready to lay down your 'personal' style, to keep a watchful eye on what one does as an artist, and if the idea of sameness creeps in to your work, and it becomes more of a chore than a joy, then it's time to do something different for a while. Put away your signature style for a while and come back to it when you're refreshed. What you've found out in the meantime will feed back into that style, and make it more fleshed out, more deep and interesting.

[comic_art] The Donna Barr Trade School

2495.Heavens, I wish I could take advantage of this &

If you give any sort of a care about comics, you've got to love Donna Barr's work. She's someone I'm going to cite as an influence when I finally get famous.

This, as far as I'm concerned, is a non-negotiable. Her work - Stinz and The Desert Peach - are legends and if you don't know them, chummie, you have some amazing and excellent comic reading ahead of you. Intellectually and emotionally challenging, which characters you'll never forget. Do as I say and go get them, thanks.

If you ever wanted to learn how to do it from the master, or a master, it's hard to get an introduction. Well, chummie, here's your chance.

Donna will, if I read the linked post correctly, teach you what she knows about story, art, making and selling fantastic comics for $4500. That's the whole tuition. And if you think that's too much, my friend, then you haven't priced an art school lately. Anything like this worth having is worth paying for, and if I had $4.5K, I'd already be there. At $4.5 Kilobucks, it's a freakin bargain.

It's like having Stephen Hawking teach you physics in return for a nice dinner, if the price/value thing still hasn't sunk in.

And anybody can do it, really ... she'll teach you in person or via intartube.

If I had the money, I'd be doing it, If you have the money, well ... you go do it, you lucky primate. The link is here:

THE MIDNIGHT LIBRARY: The Donna Barr Trade School

Now, you know what to do!

If you don't have the scratch, just go to to http://www.desert-peach.com/ to view the art and get that inspiration.

Technorati Tags: donna barr, stinz, the desert peach

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[liff] Walter Mosley's "This Year You Write Your Novel"

2492.

This brilliant little book is what I'm cruising through right now.

I have long fancied myself a writer of some sort. So far, it's just a diary, but I've thought I could write science fiction.

I'm not ashamed of being a genre reader. I read what pleases me.

I don't know if I have a novel in me, but if I do, this just might coax it out of me. Less than 25,000 words, conversationally-written (but not too familiar), frank without being blunt, no nonsense. And it suggests just what the title says; a program through which you can produce a solid, durable if not spectacular (and no guarantees that it'll sell - it's how to write your novel, not how to sell it) mid-size novel.

I highly recommend it. If it don't get the novel out of you, it'll make you a better reader, anyway.

Technorati Tags: writing, writing manuals, Walter Mosley

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[pdx art] An Artist A Day Back In April At Muse Art+Design

2474.

Continuing to be historically late-to-the-party, I wanted to share something that I stumbled on back in April before life became a bit sucky and distracting. But it involves Muse Art+Design, and watching artists work, which are two things I'm big fans of.

The other year, when we first got acquainted with Muse, it was April and we noticed they had put up spots all around the shop announcing something called An Artist A Day. It is, as it turns out, more than just a cool and canny bit of promotion. AAAD gathers thirty artists, one per day, who work in the front window of Muse, creating one piece per day, which is then hung about the shop and silent-auctioned.

Here's the best part: the proceeds of the auction are used to buy Art Supplies for the Schoolhouse Supplies store, which is a free classroom-supply store for teachers. The value of access to art supplies for schoolteachers should be self-evident. And it's supported by great local art supply companies, M. Graham and Art Alternatives, so you know it's good.

Muse does this once per year, and according to the AAAD website, they'll be accepting applications to particpate in the 2011 edition starting in January.

Here's the hip:

• An Artist A Day: http://anartistaday.com
• Muse Art+Design: http://museartanddesign.com
• Read All About AAAD at Hungry Eyeball here: http://hungryeyeball.com/2010/03/30-portland-artists-participate-in-live-art-making-fundraiser-everyday-in-april/

Technorati Tags: Muse Art+Design, An Artist A Day, PDX art, art

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[art] An Heraldic Chimera (Great Authentic Heraldic Art!)

2469.

Now, latterly, I've been sharing some heraldic artwork I've been doing for my colleagues and cher cousins in the SCA. And one may rightly wonder to what end we are emulating the "real world" (or, as we somewhat tirelessly say, "Mundania").

I've been busy crawling the web page of The XXVII Congress of Genealogical and Heraldic Sciences, held in 2006 at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. This would have been a wonderful thing to have seen first-hand (I don't doubt that some of my more prosperous acquaintances were fortunate enough to have been afforded the chance (we are, actually, that in love with Heraldry)) but thankfully, they took pictures and shared them with the world.

The feeling I got looking at them was not too unlike my reviewing the experiences at the recent Known World Heraldic and Scribal Symposium (KHWSS 2010) that we held locally - except, of course, it was kicked up to a Who'. Nuvva. Level.

Here's an example of the displays on at the Heraldic Artists Workshop, which I would have travelled in steerage just for the chance to see:

But the requirement for fantastic beasties is a verity, and for the true example of this I give you the "UniDragLyon", credited to the artist Marco Foppoli:

Combining parts of animals to create other animals is a long and beloved tradition in heraldic art; the Griffin (heraldically sometimes spelt Gryphon), as in "Merv", is a creature with the head and wings of an eagle and the body of a lion (or lyon). In this case, the head and foreparts of a unicorn sprout the wings and tail of a dragon and the hindquarters of a lion (or, again, lyon).. Thus, Uni ... Drag ... Lyon, unidraglyon.

The painting, most likely done with gouache (opaque watercolors) exhibits a sensitivity to detail and masterful control of materials of a true master-of-the-form. If the artist didn't get an award for this delightful beast, well, he ought to have!

This is the acme to which all of us who are interested in heraldic art must aspire to. Because, even if we miss this mark, we'll still create amazingly excellent pieces along the way.

(Nota Bene: The creators retain all rights to the above work. Permission to use as illustration has been requested some time ago but so far no reply has been recieved. Apologies to the creators for my impatience, but this was too good to resist sharing any longer. Please feel free to contact me at samuel.klein@gmail.com if you wish the images removed, but I'm hoping you will allow them to stay)

For the curious, here's the requisite link:

• Pictures of the heraldic art and the heraldic art workshop can be seen in full at http://www.congress2006.com/Heraldicart.html .
  

Technorati Tags: heraldry, heraldic art, heraldic beasts

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[art] Where To Get Your Art Supplies In PDX (Updated)

(Updated 0300Z 27 June 2010 with a listing for Utrecht. Thanks to Ben Lukoff for the tip!)

2461.

As an extension on the last chapter, since one of the reasons I do a blog is to share the nifty things that I do find sometimes, this being a very human thing to do, I've created a list of art stores that I know I'll find what I'm looking for in PDX, and which I believe readers will have a good time simply going to. It's on the sidebar down under "My Favorite Designers and Illustrators", or just do a search for Where to get your art supplies in PDX and the browser should take you right there.

Right now there are five members to the list. They are listed in the order we usually look. When it comes to Muse/I've Been Framed, we usually go first to whichever one we're closer to. Either one is a great experience, though I've Been Framed has a lot of closeouts and their prices aren't better 100% of the time - only about 98% of the time. But they'll give you good value for money. Anyway! On with the show (visit websites for info, call for hours. Most are open until about 6:30 pm):

1. Muse Art + Design, 4227 SE Hawthorne Blvd, PDX, http://museartanddesign.com. Good little shop, good selection, run by artists for artists and for those who want to do art, reasonable prices, great selection of paints.  503.231.8704
   
2. I've Been Framed,  4950 SE Foster Rd, PDX. Good selection of paints and graphite media, marvelous prices on paper, wonderful selection of good-priced papers and canvases, Good quality closeouts. You'll never know what you'll find here some days. 503.775.6651
3. Art Media, two locations-downtown and Clackamas, http://artmediaonline.com. This is the grandaddy of local art supply stores. Between the two locations, they got a lot - if you can't find it, you probably don't need it. Best selection of art instruction books outside Powells or your nearby megachain. Online ordering available! 1.800.990.3364 x4
4. Utrecht Art Supply, 1122 NW Everett St, PDX, http://utrechtart.com. (reviews via Google) PDXers can feel fortunate that they are in the good geographic luck to be near one of the 38 nationwide locations of this art supply company. It's been a while since we
   personally have visited, but I recall the shopping experience there was a nice one, and it comes highly recommended by art acquaintaces. (Thanks to Ben Lukoff from Seattle for pointing this one out)
5. Aaron Brothers Art and Framing. Two locations-Tigard and Beaverton. http://aaronbrothers.com. Plan B if you can't get to any of the other three because it's open like a chain store, at least until about 8pm. They really market to people looking for frames, but they have a Good selection of mass-market materials, prices about what you'd expect.
6. Michael's Art and Craft, http://michaels.com, various PDX locations - check the websites. If all the others have closed you can always hit Michaels. Though the market to primarily the crafty sorts, the art supplies are unexpectedly plentiful and feature brands that you'd use seriously - Grumbacher, Winsor & Newton, good selection of graphite media, worth checking out if you work on the lower-quality end too.

About the only place the quality gradient really matters is in those last two, but if you're shopping at Aaron Brothers or Michael's, your probably just looking for a place to get "some paint and a brush". This is not necessarily a bad thing, just one of scale; those two stores market to the craft community as a whole, and it's hard to be and "artist's" store when you spread your net that wide. We find unexpected good things in those two stores, so they're worth the stop.

Technorati Tags: art, art supplies, art resources, art in PDX, PDX liff

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[pdx, art] Singin' More Of The Praises Of Muse Art + Design

2460.

I know I've written about Muse Art + Design before, but every time we go in I find my happy place with regards to east side art supplies, and I just want to tell more people about it.

The east side of Portland (and regardless of what your local alt-weekly may or may not say, deep eastside PDX - and by that I mean east of I-205, is in Portland) is sadly lacking in any real artist-centered art stores. So, when we go westward in search of art supplies, we like finding places that make our art-store dollar count for something.

Muse, at 4224 SE Hawthorne Blvd, is located near the ironic end of the Hawthorne trend zone, but its prices are just as reasonable as you could want. My favorite non-Pilot Precise V5 pens, which are now the Copic Multiliners, are 7 bucks a throw (but they're refillable and the points are replacable, just like any good Copic markers. Great selection of paint at great prices. Less elite pens and markers are priced accordingly.

The thing I like the most about Muse is that it, in its way, and like I've Been Framed over at Foster and Powell, is by artists, for artists, and all about artists. Each April, they have "An Artist A Day", a fundraiser when each day of the month an artist works in the front window, producing one piece, which is then hung above the product in an impromptu gallery show and silent auction.

They even have Testors enamel paint! How many art stores stock that? I haven't used Testors since I was ruining model rockets and polystyrene model kits as a kid.

I've noticed that Muse is Twitter enabled - http://twitter.com/MuseArtDesign -  and of course they have an elegantly designed web page, http://MuseArtAndDesign.com. Between them and I've Been Framed, you pretty much have your east side art material needs nailed down.

Technorati Tags: muse art and design, art supplies, PDX art, art supplies in PDX

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