3rd knock at the door.

Hey fine feathered and fecund friendlies:

That's enough of that.

Are you in the Washington, DC area? Can you make it to the DC area? If the answer is yes, or you just discovered astral projection, come see art by Lisa Grabenstetter and myself at SOVA - Espresso & Wine on Sat. May 8th. The opening night of 3rd knock on the door. is bound to be a strange evening with music by Baltimore plucker James Von Lenz and fine foods & drinks available from the bar 'til 2 am.

From 6:00-9:00pm will run the opening, with a DJ set following for the rest of the evening. Artwork will be up for 6 weeks if you happen to miss it and be in the neighborhood later.  The new H St NE corridor is a funky place just by the Palace of Wonders and the Rock & Roll Hotel. It's a good place to spend a Saturday night, if I say so myself.

Here's the event page on Facebook.
And here it is on myspace.

May 8th at SOVA come join a strange crowd where Perchta and the Salamander envoys mingle over tea, street peddlers call out cantrips, and bluegrass pickers discuss Hegel with Krampus.

3rd knock on the door is the opening night of SOVA's newest exhibition featuring DC area illustrators Lisa Grabenstetter and Evan Jensen. Accompanying music provided from 6-9:00 by Baltimore musician James von Lenz, while drinks, food & espresso will be available from the bar.

Come early and stay late! SOVA has a chill vibe and there'll be a DJ set from 9:00 onward with the bar remaining open 'til 2.

SOVA - Espresso & Wine
1359 H Street, NE
Washington, DC 20002
(202) 397-3080‎

Tossed About

It's been a month since I last posted! ...and that is explicitly not acceptable. I promise to at least make an attempt to blog regularly and without the gaps I've thus far been leaving in between.

Today I spent 5 hours STRUCTURING AN AI FILE. Seriously. That's what I did for the dayjob today. Don't say I never told you about it. : ) ...Not to say I don't do more fun stuff for the dayjob, but that was today's requirement.

In the first moments after dropping Lisa off at work, and buckling down to the drastic and infinitesimally precise songs of Adobe Illustrator, I was privy to a lovely article on PhysOrg.com where I learned about the most amazing conjoining of awesome things next to the International Squid Calculator. Mushrooms. Mushrooms and LIGHTNING. Apparently, electricity shooting along the surface of the earth will make fungus multiply. Once again, science gives credence to the folk wisdom garnered through long observation. Not always, of course, but it happens often enough that I just wish scientists would set out to test as much folklore as possible for demonstrable results.

Some people might recall I mentioned a set of deadlines coming up over the the next 3 months! I can tell you all what they are now, and show you some sketches, though not specify which were chosen for final artwork in a few cases (NDAs are common in this business). The first project is the soon-to-be-delivered woodcut ex libris for a fellow down in Virginia, final sketch below:

The second project is for StarShipSofa Stories, a print collection by the fine folks at StarShipSofa Podcasts. The sketches I submitted below are for an interior illustration (hence, b&w) to accompany Tides by Tobias Buckell. I really enjoy Tobias' work, and this short story is a really cool one that I hope you all enjoy as much as I did when I read it. Not sure when this comes out in print.

Sadly, I missed the deadline for this latest ArtOrder challenge, though here are the sketches I had done for it (before I got swamped with stuff and couldn't do the final art). Oddly enough, in composing a wolf/rat/snake, I didn't realize how much Eastern dragons are based on similar animals, and it was turning out too close to one of those. So no wolf/rat/snake for me. A mantis shrimp/wombat was another idea but I couldn't get it to look right. In the end, I was going to go with the fungitoad in some sort of guard-dog position at a town gate/city docks, and I'll probably do that myself when I have a moment, since I really l like the image. : ) The small child gestures are from a day spent downtown watching people frolic in the sun.

And that's what I've been up to. I have more for you later, but this is enough for today, methinks. : ) Enjoy your evening! It's raining nicely here!

On freelancing variability

It's been a hectic, and rapaciously busy month, February has. That, and we got snowed in like the Winter Jack had taken an liking to the East Coast. After spending most of January sorta-working dead weeks at the dayjob, suddenly the work picked up again and I was locked in front of Adobe for most days. Funny, how working as much as you're paid to actually uses your time. I rather liked being on call without the actual calling... but yanno, responsibilities.

So I've had to put off finishing the Elephants' General painting. It's sitting in a more complete state than I last posted on here, but it's not finished yet, sadly. I have however, picked up four new projects I am contracted to do. One due in April, one in May, one in July. Woo! I'll let you in on a secret... the May one is absurdly amazing. I am agog with how awesome it is. The July is my first cover gig since working for ScrollQuest. More info as I get OKed to release it.

And the fourth is one whose sketches I just emailed off tonight. This particular commission is a custom bookplate! A personal ex libris for a fellow who found E.M. Jensen's Ex Libris Etc. on Etsy and wanted a series hand printed. This is just really nifty to have finally be hired to do a custom ex libris for a stranger. I've sold a few existing design sets, but custom work is the fun stuff! And, the shop is updated with some new items. Nothing you all haven't seen before if you follow me, but there's prints of "Plucking the Night Orchard" and the Arctic Explorer: Hogarth Merricule painting is up there.

Sometime in the last month I found time to join the SCBWI as well. I feel professional and snazzy, being a member of an organization... strange things happening. Speaking of professions, Lisa and I really want to go to IlluxCon in November. We'd love advice, anecdotes, horror stories, whatever, if you've been there.

The Gearwork Nest: A catalogue of recent personal events.

My mate Lisa crafts blogging goodness:

The Gearwork Nest: A catalogue of recent personal events.

Catherynne Valente on Valentines Day as told by Chaucer

Miss Valente has a really awesome post about the benefits of rituals, holidays, and Valentines Day in particular. This makes me re-examine my lack of fondness for the day.

One of my favorite bits:

Valentine's Day, boys and girls, entered the Western mind in Chaucer's Parlement of Foules, fully-realized as a day to celebrate love via an obscure saint, with red hearts and everything. Yes, celebrated in an allegorical bird-nation, but guess what? That makes it even more awesome. I will take a holiday my buddy Geoff invented over almost any other. If I had my way, we'd start exchanging bird-themed gifts and ditch Cupid.

This is a great holiday. It's pure physical, sensual pleasure, divorced from any dogma at this point. Saint whatever. Pass the sex and food.

That definitely makes it more awesome. Exponentially.

WIP - Elephants

So it knows I'm alive and working.

Big painting in the works. Not ready to show it yet. Be assured, you'll all see it soon. : )

I'm alive, just busy and been kinda bleh lately.

BLAST!

I had a great idea. It was an epiphany of artistic endeavor...

I was going to transfer the drawing from the previous post to the 20x13 Canson paper for painting with my archaic OVERHEAD PROJECTOR that I kept from my thesis installation. It was going to be put to USE. It was AN AWESOME IDEA.

...yep, not gonna work. Projector won't focus closely enough to keep it in size. If I needed a 36"-or-greater-width painting, it could do it, easy. But this is too small. Blast it all, I am at a relative loss for how to do this transfer. I usually don't do such a time-consuming sketch and instead work out the details on the WC paper itself... but I don't want to redraw the whole thing after spending all this time on working out the sketch...

Bugger. I need an opaque projector. Or a really big Epson printer.

The Elephants' General

Value study for new watercolor. Nothin' else doin'. Reference courtesy of the ever-kind Natalie Paquette, and a dozen photos of pachyderms.

Awesomeness of the Printmakery Sort

So if you follow me on twitter, you may have noticed me tweeting a lot about letterpress recently. If you follow closely, you might've heard mention that on Dec. 28th, Lisa and I became the accidental owners of our own Baltimore[an] 6x8 tabletop platen press. This is beyond amazing. It's an astounding little device that hasn't been manufactured since the first half of the last century, though other companies continued making presses like this till the 70s. So if yer nay on twitter-world, now you might learn about my latest obsession (though really it's just resurfaced... I wanted one of these in college).

The press is so, so pretty. And heavy-- 128 lbs. And dirty-- inkstained (as it damn well ought to be). Though you might need to be an odd one to appreciate antique cast iron that needs a cleaning as "pretty",  I dunno. Not sure when this particular press was cast, as the maker's mark is really hard to read... but an interesting tidbit of history: H.L. Mencken, Baltimore's famous journalist, learned to print on one of these that his father bought him during highschool. I'll find the link to that article shortly, if I can.

So... accidental ownership. This is 'cause I made an absurdly low bid on an eBay auction for this press, completely not expecting to win (check out ebay's press listings... they sell between 800 and 1800 dollars). So... I bid... and no one countered me. I was working on a design project and then suddenly saw the email notifier ping me with "You have won..." but the only thing I was bidding on was something impossible. Or so I thought! Ecstatic joy and amazement when I realized I'd actually got the dang thing.

After a couple days of communication with the seller, (who lived in Pittsburgh, thank the fates) Lisa and I drove out to western PA to pick up the iron beast. Shipping is iffy on cast iron. Tends to crack. And it costs more than gas did to just drive out and get it. ; )

It blizzarded on us during the 5 hour trip out and the longer night drive home, though. Appalachians, you are so awesome, but you pick the damnedest times to drop snow.

And, photos, since it DID happen:



After a week of this in its packing box, we finally sat down the other night and did the onerous "packing peanut shuffle" and set the press free, dusted it off, and checked out the parts to all be there and workin'. Which they are! I kept finding lead type among the peanuts, which was odd, considering the type it came with was in another box altogether. Um, that's the other thing: it came with a huge amount of type, photoplates and leading. 2 chases, a set of quoins and keys, and 4 rollers that need serious replacement, which thankfully, can be made new for cheap-ish.

I cannot WAIT to start printing!

Sketchies!

New sketch sampling from December. Notice a trend in weird animals? I'm thinking the goat and the lions are ideas for blockprints, while the portraits are oil or WC ideas. For portraits. 'Cause I haven't done enough of those.

Art Directors a-knockin?

Ye gods, querying art directors and submitting portfolio links take a long time when you sit down to do... *counting spreadsheet cells* ... 19 of them at once. Because you can't sleep. Because you drank hot cocoa too late. And you're stressed out over deadlines. As well as over cashflow.

So, you do something productive. It takes 2 hours to properly execute and doublecheck requirements and send out emails and copy down addresses. Anyway. Done! Thank tea I got the website cleaned up over this last month.

Now, during NORMAL hours, I'll do my dayjob work and then put together tearsheet packets for mail-in-requirement art departments. Maybe my spreadsheet will be all checked off before New Years? That'd rock. Then I just haveta be nervous while I awaits replieses.

Oh! And we might be getting a kitten to keep our roomie's cat company. If our friend's cat is pregnant after all. If not... might have to adopt.

The defilement of a respected tradition

So I got me an etsy shop, finally. It was a very long time coming, especially in these days when it seems every crafter and artisan in the universe has one. Took a few hours yesterday, when we were snowed in, and built the store:




And that's mostly what's there now: my ex libris/bookplate designs that are usable. I take on one of the bibliophile's most treasured traditions and make it as weird, freakish, or appropriate as I wish.

Or whatever strange disasters and arcane imagery YOU wish, even. Since I take custom ex libris orders as well as sell the array of personalizable designs. And of course, in the way of bookplates, any commissioned ex libris designs will never be sold to anyone besides the patron.

If you like books, or art, or both, you can't go wrong with bookplates in your library.

Glorying in icy grasses

Here again, after a weekend in colonial Williamsburg, VA.  Sister-in-law's graduation attended, fife-and-drum redcoat marching seen. Cold endured.

And, it's been on my (newly retouched) website and dA since just before I left, but for anyone who doesn't trawl the muck of my web presence (and serious, there's a lot of it... I understand), here's the newest painting off my drafting table. Part two in the Tailspinning series, in a different mood than the first:

Harlequin Romance Sucks Something Else Entirely, or why you can't pay to play.

Harlequin Romance and their publishing house have taken the short step into the worst of the vanity presses, scamming aspiring authors out of money and pretending to provide a service.

One which Lulu.com has provided on equitable terms for years, I might add.

Post over on Seanan McGuire's LJ about this travesty.

Thankfully the RWA, SFWA, and MWA have all come out against this shite with fervor.

Crossed Genres for YOU.

This is a great speculative fiction magazine, and it needs help. Go support Crossed Genres if you have $1.59 to spare. Preorder an anthology. Or just buy a few issues. $1.59 an issue, in pdf form.

It will be good for you. And print issues are cheap, and make great gifts for someone who needs some culture.

Blog post about CG:
http://sandykidd.livejournal.com/345174.html

Crossed Genres:
http://crossedgenres.com/

A: Popple / B: Not a Popple

Hey, guess what? I'm not a Popple. Our roomie's cat, on the other hand... as yet undecided.

The past few weeks have been filled with book reading, feeling sick with seasonal colds, and being sorta bleh about things. I've been doing dayjob work, and thinking a lot about this painting (read: stressed about this painting). But you saw the sketch, if you follow this blog... it's been a while since that part was done, and today was the first serious day of watercoloring after staring at a light wash for a week. In celebration of my (about time, you slacker!) diving in, I'm uploading the first photo of it in progress.

...I mean me celebrating, you can feel whatever you like about this moment.

Squidlingtime

Squid entered in VanderMeer's contest over at RevolutionSF.

Yupo paper. Weird stuff.

Happy Hallowe'en!

May your evening be full of ghoulish grandeur.