Pigeonholes

Two of Cups

Medium: Ink

Size: 5.5x7 inches

This one's not for my own tarot project, but yes it is yet another tarot piece. It's funny how once you do a style or a theme, you become That kind of artist and people keep coming to you for more of it.

Pigeonholes.

But I'm not really complaining. This is a rather roomy pigeonhole that has plenty of freedom for interpretation and variation of themes within the structure, and I'm enjoying it still. And this is not a whole deck, just a few spot illustrations for Liveperson tarot newsletter.

Back in 2000 I remember thinking how I wanted to avoid being a "Fairy Artist" and yet somehow I landed smack dab into that label. It's just that "fairy" sometimes has connotations of pretty, fluff, twee-ness, and being devoid of meaning. Things that my detractors would probably find it hard to believe I do try to avoid!

I don't deny them the right to that opinion though. I've learned since my Fine Art days at Berkeley how subjective all art is, and how to accept the criticism along with the praise. As an artist, one puts oneself out there for the judging. What I find meaning in, may be quite different from what another may see (or not see).

Or there's "Symbolist Artist" which seems to be the fine art equivalent of "Fantasy Artist", but eminently more gallery acceptable terminology.

It's the power of Names. Just as true names have power in the world of fairy tales, they do in this world as well. The right name gives validation, acceptance to one community or another, and commands monetary renumeration. We swim through the sea of labels, trying them out, finding the one that suits, the one that can feels right, to clothe that core of expression inside.

And really one wants to just ignore all that and just Be.

Improvement Meme Bandwagon

"Me too!"

Someone started this over at DeviantArt, and it looked like fun, so here goes.

I think if this were to go back to 2000 there would be much more drastic change. But for the most part it's a gradual anatomy improvement and richer colors, with some branching out in recent years. The ink work shows a lot more change in the 2003-2009 period than my watercolors.

If you're interested in looking at the full paintings, you can do a title search at Shadowscapes for these:

2003: Sparks, Catknot, Green Witch, Fyre Hair

2004: Blue Rose, Harbinger, Fool

2005: Dangerous Other, World

2006: Muse, Page of Wands, Five of Swords

2007: Eight of Pentacles, Plum Blossoms, Surge

2008: The Storm, Changeling: Dusk, Dragon Pearl, Slumber

2009: Potential, Offerings, Nautilus

Unfortunately, most of the ink drawings are no longer online, and are only viewable in Inklings or Inklings II

Minor Arcana Book Borders - Rest of the Cups

Happy 2010!

The rest of the cups borders, 8 through King. These were a good opportunity to dig up those photos I took while in Maui, San Francisco Academy of Sciences, and at the Monterey Bay Aquarium several months back. Aquariums and such are great sources for reference photos. Nautilus, jellyfish, seahorses, leafy seadragons, sea turtles!

Queen of Night and Magic

Queen of Night & Magic

Medium: Watercolor

Size: 12x15 inches

-Details, prints, original painting, click here-

A cover for Kobold Quarterly Magazine. The fey queen, who rules of the faery Shadow Realm. Being presented with an entrapped firebird that she has long craved to possess.

First chance to do a painting in nearly two months. This has probably been the longest period of time I've gone without taking a brush to hand in the past decade.

And while we're bringing up the past decade, about halfway through this piece, it occurred to me that it looked familiar. I couldn't figure out how at first, but then I remembered an old painting that I had long removed from my website to make way for newer (better) work. "The Dreamweaver", from June 2000. Unconsciously I had echoed the color, composition, and even the shape of the tree and the figure's pose, right down to the angle of her body! Funny how the mind has patterns and concepts that one revisits over the years.

I'd like to think that this new painting is much better than the old one! It's a decade's worth of painting experience and practice after all that has filled the interim.

Queen of the Night Sketch

For an upcoming painting, a cover for Kobold Quarterly Magazine.

First painting I've done in nearly two months now! Time to dig out the brushes and watercolors.

MInor Arcana Book Borders - More Cups

Shadowscapes has been shut down for holiday shipping as of this past Friday. It's a nice break for me. I decided years ago that it was hard enough dealing with my own stress of trying to buy Christmas gifts for people, without having to also deal with other peoples' stress as they try to purchase last minute gifts from the site. It's just easier this way for me to have a chance to enjoy the holidays! Also, I get to avoid the horror of the post office lines as Christmas creeps closer.

A bit of an update about the deck that Llewellyn is publishing. I worked with the graphic designer, and we really tried very hard to make the cards borderless as many people requested. But unfortunately it was finally decided to have a minimal border. The reason being that all other solutions of just putting the text onto the images either looked bad, or covered up important aspects in the images. With a borderless card, this would necessitate a bleed around all 4 edges that would further crop out even more of the art! Many of the pieces have interesting elements that go right up to the edges of the piece. So I think in the end that this will be the best solution.

* * *

Next installment of border images for the Minor Arcana book, for cups 3 through 7:

The distant birds here were Claire's contribution. She decided to swat at my drawing hand while in my lap as I did this one.* * *

Probably no more posts before Christmas, so happy holidays everyone!

MInor Arcana Book Borders - Fish!

I did mention I felt like drawing "some fish" in that last entry right?
Ace and two of cups borders here.

"Creepy," says Dana.