Keyword Sketch Cards

It's been a while since I uploaded any of these keyword sketch cards. So here's a big batch of them!

clockwise: amber, protection, ivy, Parisian, humility, angel, leopard, Odin, love, inspiration
left to right: accelerate, chronology, growing, mystery, turtles
left to right: feline, cantabile, help, passion
clockwise: melody, phoenix, phoenix, within, cat, miracle, octopus, breakthrough, whimsy
clockwise: dust, serenity, trust, Weatherwax, wise, healing, daughter
clockwise: limnal, solitude, respect, lotus, fiddle, energy

More sale prints

Cleaning things out a bit to make room for new work. Lots of older prints for sale here. I've just added about 20 items to it. Please be aware though that these are limited supply. When they run out, they are gone. They will be retired and I will not be printing any more of them in the future!

Under the Moon

Under the Moon

Size: 10x15 inches

Medium: Watercolors
Prints & closeup detail views available -here-
sketches -here-

One of these days, I need to get myself a Japanese Lantern plant for my garden. I've always loved how those pods look!

Magical Menagerie

Magical Menagerie is finally released! My usual custom sketch option is available on this (it'll be on the inside back cover because there's no endsheets on softcover books).

Finished the manuscript in early 2011, so it's been a while getting from there to print and bookstores. I remember how anxious I was when I did my first Dreamscapes book about how long the publication process is. Generally it takes about a year. That is time enough to feel like a kid counting down the endless days until Christmas!

These days though, with book 3 out the door, as well as the Shadowscapes tarot, I've had more practice at being patient. Just try to forget about it once it leaves my hands. That's the best as an artist anyway, isn't it? For each painting, each drawing, each sketch. The satisfaction of a finished piece shouldn't be the goal. It's the process that's paramount, always. The moment of creating, itself. And then - It Is Done. What comes next is the most important, not what came before. Always moving, always growing, always exploring, always creating.

Here's a peek inside the book!
Managed to fit in some really nice two-page spread showcase pieces as well, so in addition to the techniques and tutorials and sketches, there's a lot of finished art to look at.

3 Pure Ones & Kannon

Some ink drawings, done on japanese tanzaku and shikishi, a thick card that is used for calligraphy and small paintings, that is then hung onto a scroll for display. This was a commission for Nyoirin Kannon, and the Three Pure Ones.

* * *

Nyoirin Kannon. Gwanyin takes on many forms. Bodhisattva of compassion, hearing the cries of the world. In China she is most often known as the Goddess of Mercy. And she is most often believed to have originated as Avalokitesvara in Sanskrit. Guanyin is depicted as male or female.

Nyoirin Kannon is a Japanese form of this bodhisattva/deity. She has six hands, and she is always depicted as holding the sacred wheel in one, and a wish-fulfilling gem.

* * *
The Three Pure Ones are a Taoist Trinity, pure manifestation of the Tao. Yuanshi Tianzun saw the creation of the universe. Lingbao Tianzun classified and gave order. And Daode Tianzun brought about civilization.

White Fox Sketches

A commissioned piece in progress. Sketch phase. Client wants white fox(es), and beyond that it's fairly open ended.

Initial sketches:

Composition thumbnail.

Another composition thumbnail. I really like this one, but she wants something zoomed in tighter. I'll probably go forward with this sketch as well, sometime in the future on my own.

More thumbnailing.

Final detailed sketch on the board, ready to be painted.

Dragoncon preparation

This past week has been occupied with matting and preparing things for the DragonCon Art show (September, in Atlanta). I'll have some original paintings as well, but for the prints, I like to customize them a little bit. Instead of a plain frame, I do ink drawings on the mat. So here are some of the pieces I'll be offering this year. Still have a few more to do this next week and will post when those are done too!