Carving as a part time job

The other day I decided to get very serious about trying to make my art earn its keep around here and maybe pay some bills.

First I made a schedule and a chart for dates, projects, and outlined a day once a week for posting new material on my online sites.  Then, I followed that schedule and added more hours to it as I did so.

So far it has been an inspiring and a busy time!  This week at my day job I worked 35 hours.  If I add up my hours so far for trying to make art a part time job, it adds up to six.  For this week those six hours include carving, braiding hemp for the necklaces, taking photos of the items for sale, and marketing them on squareup and deviantart.

I hope to streamline every process from carving to selling so that 6+ hours a week means I have at least one more finished product for sale.

The items I finished this week were already in the process of being complete.  These three I braided and wrapped with hemp:

Anchor
Armadillo
Seal

I use snood lashing, and knotted ridge lashing plus a simple braid in most of my hemp jewelry. 

Ideas that quickly fade

I had so many ideas almost a year ago.

Gangnam dancing fox with some chicks:



To bring an old drawing back to fruition with reviewed anatomy:


A smiling werewolf lady:


These old sketches were done on a very rough blended paper labeled specifically for sketching.  They were not my best work.  Soon after I switched to a smoother sketch paper and instantly noticed an improvement in my drawings.  The rough paper, I feel, was holding me back.

A long time ago my highschool art teacher commented on a talented classmate's artwork and was shocked to know that it was all done in Crayola Crayons.  She raved on how great artists used whatever tools they had at hand.  But in my experience just over a year ago, sometimes it pays to reconsider the tools we use.  Sometimes we don't know how they are limiting us.  I certainly had no idea how the rough paper, when I prefer smooth, was holding me back.

These were some of the last things  from the rough sketch paper that I transferred to Bristol Board and inked:


Stay tuned here for new inked art from the newer sketch pad.

My Little Dalek

I am currently poking my big toe into waters unknown.  I hope I go far with the current idea, but I never really know how much my sticktoitness will stick when I get a wild hair to do something I've never done before.

What I am saying is, I have an idea for a series of drawings here.  I was lucky that the first came together so very nicely.  I hope the other drawings in the series go just as smoothly. 

I want to draw My Little Ponies for Doctor Who in a way that has yet to be done by most.  Staying true as I can to both fandoms in design, in my style. 

So, let us start with a basic pony.  The Pony style is so very basic and simple... until you try to draw it yourself.  Then you realize the tiny nuances that make the pony forms so cute and pleasing.  I am such a detailed artist that the simple pony body was a challenge for me.  This form was altered several times until I thought it aesthetically pleasing:


I started on the dalek-like hooves already.

Then, let us add things to the form that make it Dalek:



I think it is nearly ready to be transferred to my favorite inking paper, cleaned up, and then inked.  First though, I think I'll attempt the other ponies I want to target in the series so I know if this will be my first series since college art classes... or just another one time drawing.  Stay tuned.

Getting to know an idea: flying elk

I have come to realize that in order to do some drawings, I first need ot get to know my subject.  At age 32 this seems a bit late to be understanding this idea, but we all bloom at different rates I guess.

I was asked to draw a flying elk.  So, I started to research wings and elk and got a few references in order and I did this sketch:
 

Then I did this sketch:


Clearly the second one is the better of the two and it happened because I first got to know and became comfortable with elks and wings via the first sketch.  This is the one I want to transfer to good paper and make a finished piece of art.

The elk is not flying per se, but it does have wings now and that counts well enough, doesn't it?