A Mystery & the Changing of the Blog

Well, it's a start!

I've begun changing colors on my blog to brighten it up some. It's difficult for me to go with an all white setting, baby steps. :) I'm not too sure I like the light greenish color as a background for my posts, but after toying with it for the past hour or so, this is what I settled on...for now. It's a work in progress.

This photo on the right is of a painting I've done entirely in coffee. It is one I did to demonstrate my latest article on Empty Easel, "Give Your Next Painting a Caffeine Boost - and Paint with Coffee!" It is not finished yet, but will be soon enough.
______________
I've been filling up my Etsy shop again and now have 25 items listed. I haven't done much with it or the other one over the summer. I basically just let it go on its own. There will be some brand new things coming out soon. I'm just not too sure where I am going to list them, ArtFire or Etsy, or a combination of the two.
_______________
Lately, I've been very inspired by space. I watch the skies quite often these days, there is so much to see. There's been a lot of very strange activity taking place up there that I've managed to catch since mid-June through the present time. I only wish I had a decent camera, recorder, and even a night vision set up in order to show you all what we've been seeing. My digital camera is a Kodak Easy Share 4.0 Mega Pixels. I have no idea how to be able to catch these at night with the camera I own.

One thing I noticed though, is that during the day if I zoom it in and point it at the sky, it sometimes catches things that I can't see with my eyes. For instance, here is a photo I took just like I described:
I couldn't see anything on the screen when I shot this photo (above). It just looked like clear blue sky.

Five minutes after taking that photo, I took another the same way, and in the same place. This next photo is the second one:


When I uploaded them to the computer, the white dot appeared in both pictures.

That white dot did not move in the time between the first and second photo, so it is not a plane. Also, we do not get a lot of air traffic up here and when we do, they rarely fly over in this area. The flight path is behind me.

I stare at this photo a lot and don't know what to make of it at all. The strange activity we've been seeing late at night however, is also in the direction I'm shooting these photos. It's very frustrating being able to see these strange things and have no way to record them so someone else can investigate this. I do have witnesses though that have watched these things with me.

The blurriness is from the zoom. In case you're wondering why I chose to take those photos there in the first place is because that is the area where we keep seeing strange things (mostly at night).

If anyone has any tips on how I can take pictures (or even a short video) in the future, please let me know. I'm very open to suggestions. :)

'Till later...

Have a wonderful weekend!

Read more...

The New Journal

A new journal for my daughter!

My daughter used up her old journal recently so I made her a new one out of an old school, two-pocket folder and the collar of an old shirt. It turned out great!


I made 7 signatures of 10 folios each to sew into the spine, which gives her 140 pages total!



The reason for the collar was to create the spine and also to cover the cut edges of the folder.
The paper I used for her journal is just 20 lb., bright white, copy paper.
The one I made myself last year, was made with 140lb. watercolor paper, but my journal is an art journal and hers is more of a diary.

I'm going to make and attach a strap to it to keep it closed when she isn't writing in it.

Still sitting on my big news, but you'll read about it pretty soon, sometime in the next week.
I'm so psyched and excited!

Have a great weekend!

Read more...

Almost Finished!

Only about an hour left to go! Eyes are going to be burned in and background tweaked a bit.

So excited!

Read more...

Whitetail Buck Progress shot 5

Worked some more on this late last night. It's really coming along beautifully. I am very happy with him so far.

Today, we'll be going through and throwing out a lot of things in the basement, Oh joy. I can hardly contain myself from being too excited. :/

One of my shops is back online, the other will be back up today (or tonight) sometime.

Speaking of tonight, this is my favorite night for TV--Lost (8pm), UFO Hunters (9pm), Ghost Hunters (10pm). I especially Love LOST and have watched it from the very first episode!

If you are a LOST fan and are on Twitter, join in the LOST discussion during and after the show by typing #lost in your post about LOST. I use Tweet Deck and type in a search for #lost (in a new column), then I can follow the whole discussion and any @replies at the same time without having to change windows or tabs. :) Click here to follow me on Twitter .

All for now, hope to see you all tonight on Twitter.

Read more...

Visualizing Mother Earth

This is the latest update, the section of my table where I am painting Mother Earth.

Off and on I post about my dining room table and the progress that I've made. Since I'm making it just for me, I only paint on it when I can and share a photo or two of it here on my blog.

---

I'm in the middle of baking and making my famous Chicken Noodle Soup which I must get back to now. :)

Enjoy your day!

Read more...

Whitetail Buck Progress shot 4

I've been reworking the face and neck as I go. The eyes in the first sketch were too big and need to be redone. It was late as I was working on them and as you can see, they still need a bit more work before I begin to burn those areas.

My shops are being taken out of vacation mode, hopefully by the end of tonight.

Read more...

Sharing Progress #3

I've done just a little bit more since the last time. Deepened the foreground, added a few more trees (they will have more detail burned in tonight). I'm closer to burning the buck! :)

I wish you all a very Happy Easter and Passover weekend!

One more thing to note: My shops will be open again by Monday. :)

Read more...

WIP the Second Step

The background has been lightly sketched in and I've begun burning it in. This is a relatively slow process. I burn at a pretty low setting and go over areas until they are the shade I want.

The woodburning unit I am using is a dual pen Nibsburner (Blue Ribbon), and a shading tip.

All for now, it's a beautiful sunny day and 38 degrees! I'm continuing on with spring cleaning and will be back to work burning tonight.

Have a great day!

Read more...

Current Burn

Here is what will soon be my latest burn!

I sketched this buck out last night and will begin burning it this evening, starting with the background, which will not be sketched out first. This beautiful wood oval is 5.5" x 7" so it is a relatively small piece. This is a gift for my daughter's boyfriend's parents. :)

Why it's been so quiet here lately is because this past week I started spring cleaning and have been painting my living/dining room. Not anything spectacular at all--just white. :( (That's one problem with renting) It has really affected my hands, wrists, and arms a lot. Thankfully, wearing my braces at night helps ease some of the pain and swelling.

On the slate for today is more of the same. I know the day just started, but I am already looking forward to this evening when I can relax and burn this piece. :)

Have a great day!

Read more...

Taking It Back

Have you ever lost sight of why you started creating in the first place? When was the last time you created something Just For You? Honestly, I cannot remember the last time I painted something just for me.

Sometimes we have to take it back. You know, to reflect on past works and old methods. Of course, the older we are, the more reflecting we can do. :D (I, myself, am able to do a lot of reflecting, shhhh.)

The weekly challenges from "Thursday Sweet Treat" have been an amazing way for me to fan the fire which has only a month ago been found to be only smoldering. I finished this piece enough yesterday for this weeks challenge "Vibrant, Chaotic Rainbows"(which will be posted on the TST blog sometime today. I still want to add something to this painting, although I'm not sure just what yet.

Relax for a bit with me and let your inner child loose to play around for awhile. We just might find new directions for our art and without any pressure to just get it done from outside sources. I find it inspiring, uplifting, and the perfect solution for when I find myself in a slump or when I just need to take a break.

Have a great day!

Read more...

Burning Up the Home Stretch

I've reached the home stretch now! I didn't work on this since Sunday but I did fire up my burners tonight and got a little bit more done.

Now, I just have a tiny bit more to do.

I will be working on another piece today that is due by the end of today for tomorrow. I wont reveal it until it is finished and the post is up.
________
Remember this post about the Blogspot Comment Areas?

Thanks to "SimplyTwisted" It seems that the problem can be solved by going to: Settings/Comments/Comment Form Placement/Then choose pop up window or full page, do not select "embedded below post".

The embedded part seems to be the culprit. So, if you have that type of comment area set up on your blog and haven't seen any replies for awhile, check your settings to see if you have that selected. If you do, select either full page or pop up and see if that makes a difference. I believe it will. :)

All for now, tons to do! Have a great day!

Read more...

Burnt Paper Progress

Last night I burned for a few hours and this is where we're at now, Sunday morning.

I decided against just having her hair hanging down and instead have started to put a crown of twigs and little flowers on her head. She is also wearing two feathers.

Once the burning is complete on this card, I'll be adding light touches of color here and there in about the same way as I did "Serendipity" below.

All for now! Have a great day everyone!

Read more...

Ghosts Maybe?

ACEO Pyro Progress, originally uploaded by avision4.

I don't know how it happened...but, I'm so thrilled to have found it again! The art card I was working on around 10 months ago, according to Flickr dates, showed up on, actually, in my desk yesterday!

Somewhere along the line I put it on the small shelf with my CDs, just above my burning system. Then it vanished! *GASP* Of course, I forgot all about it, since I have AADD (Artist Attention Deficit Disorder) and have so many different projects going at once.

I was looking for something else and found it inside the desk's cupboard along with my copier paper. I had totally forgotten about this card! I'm going to try and finish burnng it this weekend. So excited!

Read more...

Being Selfish?

Do you ever feel the need to just pick up your paints and brushes and paint something, anything, just for you? I do. I need to let myself go and paint without boundries and time constraints. It may seem selfish, but I find it to be comforting. Also, as I paint away, it brings inspiration for other projects in the future, which I note in my art journal.

One of my personal projects has been to paint my dining room table. It needed to be refinished badly or junked so I decided to paint it--it is, after all, a blank canvas. :) I work on it off and on since there is no real hurry to get it done. So, because there is another snowstorm creeping up on us (it should hit tomorrow), I decided to dedicate tomorrow to working some more on it.

I worked a bit on it late last night till 2:30 a.m. and had a great time! I'm tempted to haul my airbrushing equipment upstairs from my shop to do some detailing. I'm still undecided on that as my compressor is very loud.

Read more...

Burning

Here are some progression shots of a custom ordered gourd ornament that I just completed.

The first two are in grey scale. Look at all those teeny, tiny dots! I love stippling! :)





Here all of the little details are burned in and finished, the stem cut, and the eye screw put in place.








I added a transparent red on the large hearts and a lighter shade of transparent red on the outer rim. At the time of these last two photos the ornament has been given 2 coats of finish. I didn't take these in a light box, so forgive me for the glare.



This is it for today's post. I'm still fighting that broken, abscess tooth--can't wait to get it pulled on the 18th..

Read more...

New Gourd Art in Progress

group in progress, originally uploaded by avision4.

Just a quick post here to show you what I've been working on lately. The largest gourd in the photo is one that is going to take the longest. I'm having a lot of fun with this one though!

I'll be posting later today, the details of the Giveaway!

I've been trying to figure out how to go about adding a "Follow this Blog" widget to my sidebar without much luck. I am using a classic template, which is where the problem starts. I sure wish blogger would offer a three column template so I wouldn't have to use the classic option. It would make life a lot easier!

All for now...

Read more...

Still Burning

Progress Day 2 , originally uploaded by avision4.

Here is the board as it is now after about 6 more hours of burning.

The castle is nearly complete, the moon is pretty much finished, and I added some arrow-head leaves in the background of the flowers (which I may remove. since they are very hard to see and the addition of them just makes it look too cluttered (?).

In this photo of the board, you can see that I had loosely sketched a couple trees in place on the left. Late last night, after this photo was taken, I erased them and sketched a different one.

It's funny really, no matter what I am working on, it can (and usually does) look a lot different than what I had originally started out to do.

I'm off now to do laundry, ironing, make marshmallows, and clean the house. It is Monday after all. Will be burning some more later today.

Have a wonderful day everyone!

Read more...

Burn, Burn, Burn

new burn1, originally uploaded by avision4.

I'm not posting a video today. Instead, I am showing you the new wood plaque I'm burning this weekend. At the time of this photo, I have 12 hours of burning alone, into it. As you can see by the loose sketches I made on the wood, I still have a lot more to do.

This will be finished in time for the next shop update. I was going to update this weekend however, I decided to do the update at the end of this week near the 16th. :)

If you'd like to see a close-up of the flowers or the castle tower, just click on the picture to go to my Flickr account--there is a picture of each of those uploaded there. :)

Have a great Sunday!

Read more...

Lost & Confused in My Own Web

(Above: my web as it is now)

I was checking out a lot of my old bookmarks, saved emails, and things like that and found that I really am quite scattered all over the web. This is, for me anyway, both good AND bad.

It's good because it is a great idea to be visible in many places.

It is bad because some of these places I have completely forgotten about.

I haven't updated my info in some places in a long, long time, haven't posted to the forums I used to be a regular on, and for the forum that I own...well, it's in a sad state and it's actually about last on the list of places that I will update. I'm not even sure if I will keep it up just for information purposes or do away with it. Believe it or not, that forum still has people that go there.
(Above: my web after quite a bit of work)

Between now and the end of next week (maybe longer), I am working to pull myself together web-wise and will be documenting exactly where I am located and putting together a schedule that will help me to keep these other places updated on, at least, a monthly basis. This is definitely something that needs to be done.

I've been online since 1998 -- Basically, this means I have a lot of work to do!
(Below: my web when the work is finished...isn't it nice!)
TaDaaaa!

Read more...

Gimme Steam (80s Flashback)

I've been so into listening to Peter Gabriel and watching his videos again. Boy, it's been awhile! I would love to meet the art director behind his videos someday, they are fabulous!

Anyway, on the subject of Steam...

Day 2 Steampunk gourd, originally uploaded by avision4.

I will be picking up where I left off on this gourd over the weekend. In my flickr album, you can see the progress shots up to this point here. After Sunday, I will post a couple more to show how much I got done this weekend.

Hope you enjoy the video as much as I do :)

Read more...