Author: Angela S.
Unlock with PatreonJordanCon Bound + Art Show Preview
I’m headed to JordanCon in ATL this weekend, which is one of my favorite local fantasy-centric conventions to attend. The Art Show there is so warm and welcoming and I’m excited to share more of my Birthstone Goddesses there this year!
My body of work grows and grows, this year’s showing at JordanCon now including a selection of the designs I created to be used as header images. I haven’t added prints of these designs to my online shop (yet), so in-person events are the only place to buy them until I have finished rolling their print offerings out (slowly, but surely!):
I’ll also be showing off the original painting of Lady of September as my centerpiece this year! She looks so stunning in the new frame that my Patreon Patrons helped me pick out last year.
I’ll also be displaying two of the limited edition masks I created for my Birthstone Goddesses, the mask of February and May! Here they are as photographed by the talented WinterWolf Studios.
Finally, you can see a video of some of the mats I’ve embellished with ink and gold here:
Convention Inventory
For those attending this show who may be considering adding something to your collection, here’s a rundown of what I’ll be offering at JordanCon this year:
In my gallery bay:
- The framed original of “Lady of September”
- Hand-Embellished Prints of 7 of the Goddesses
- 4 matted open edition prints of their header designs
- 2 of my hand-tooled Limited Edition leather masks
In the Print Shop:
- 8×16 prints, 5 prints per Goddess representing each month of the year!
Unfortunately, I will not have a dealer’s table this year, but the Art Show staff will be happy to help you out with purchasing my art.
You can also still come say hi to me in person at the panel on Livestreaming for Artists (Stream A Little Stream) which I will be co-hosting with fellow artists on Friday at 2:30 pm. Feel free to come join us and/or chat me up after the panel!
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If you cannot attend the show, I’ll be adding any unsold items to my Art Nouveau online shop, with the hand-embellished mats being made available exclusively through my Patreon Secret Shop.
I hope to see some of you there!
Re-branding the Ladies of the Months + Project Roadmap!
My astute fans may have noticed I’ve begun referring to my Ladies of the Months intermittently as Birthstone Goddesses over the past few weeks. I’ve had some major revelations happen while prepping my project for a wider arena (ie. Amazon).
“Ladies of the Months” as a title was getting a lot of strange looks! Some of the misunderstandings about the title have led to some interesting questions, including, but not limited to:
- Does this have to do with menstrual cycles?
- Does this have to do with erotic coloring books?
- Does this have to do with erotic calendars?
Silly, you may say, but if the title of a project requires a lot of further explanation, doesn’t make a good impression, and is too generic to be easily found via search engines, there is a problem! This is why I have opted for a couple of changes.
Re-Introducing the Birthstone Goddesses!
From this day forth, the LADIES OF THE MONTHS will be called the BIRTHSTONE GODDESSES. Each individual Lady will still be the Lady of January, etc., but the set of birthstone ladies as a whole will now be referred to as BIRTHSTONE GODDESSES so that it is easier to understand and put out there in the world.
Who are the Gemstone Goddesses?
I’ve had a great number of requests for Art Nouveau styled Ladies who do not correspond to any birthstone, which got me thinking. Why limit this series to only birthstones? I have renamed the entire series to Gemstone Goddesses so that at some point in the future I can come back and add more without restricting myself!
Wouldn’t you like to see a Lady of Sunstone or a Lady of Moonstone? I know I would!
The BIRTHSTONE GODDESSES will now be a subset of the GEMSTONE GODDESSES series as a whole! Wherever you see the Lady of Eternity pictured above, she now represents both of these series who are now ALL part of the same endeavor to bring the beauty of Art Nouveau to the world through these thematic creations!
Where to Find this Project?
Now that my project has been undergoing some title changes, my social media outlets dedicated specifically to this project have been changed to match. Please update your bookmarks:
- Main Website – gemgoddesses.angelicshades.com
- On Twitter – www.twitter.com/gemgoddesses
- On Facebook – www.facebook.com/gemgoddesses
- On Tumblr – https://gemgoddesses.tumblr.com/
- Use hashtags #gemgoddesses and #birthstonegoddesses
Where Do We Go From Here?
Now that we have a brand new name and a whole ambitious set of items on the horizon, it was time to get this project organized! Check out this roadmap I’ve created for the rest of the Birthstone Goddesses project in Trello.
(Click here for a closer look at the Birthstone Goddesses roadmap)
The biggest change to the agenda is that the wall calendar has been moved up to next year so that I can create some of the fun add ons like Enamel Pins that can be bundled with it. I also wanted to make sure my Kickstarter launches were reasonably spaced out so as not to overwhelm everyone.
This Roadmap is subject to change, but we have a good place to start to make this huge endeavor more doable. We’re going to make great things this year!
Are you excited? I KNOW I AM! I’m especially hyped to get these pins out (I’ll have some sneak peeks of the designs I’ve been sketching soon!).
Coming next – I’ll be announcing the new streaming schedule so you can drop in on me while I’m working on making all this magic happen!
Thanks for hanging with me through thick and thin, Patrons and Followers. You are the best!
♥
– Ang
Re-branding the Ladies of the Months + Project Roadmap!
My astute fans may have noticed I’ve begun referring to my Ladies of the Months intermittently as Birthstone Goddesses over the past few weeks. I’ve had some major revelations happen while prepping my project for a wider arena (ie. Amazon).
“Ladies of the Months” as a title was getting a lot of strange looks! Some of the misunderstandings about the title have led to some interesting questions, including, but not limited to:
- Does this have to do with menstrual cycles?
- Does this have to do with erotic coloring books?
- Does this have to do with erotic calendars?
Silly, you may say, but if the title of a project requires a lot of further explanation, doesn’t make a good impression, and is too generic to be easily found via search engines, there is a problem! This is why I have opted for a couple of changes.
Re-Introducing the Birthstone Goddesses!
From this day forth, the LADIES OF THE MONTHS will be called the BIRTHSTONE GODDESSES. Each individual Lady will still be the Lady of January, etc., but the set of birthstone ladies as a whole will now be referred to as BIRTHSTONE GODDESSES so that it is easier to understand and put out there in the world.
Who are the Gemstone Goddesses?
I’ve had a great number of requests for Art Nouveau styled Ladies who do not correspond to any birthstone, which got me thinking. Why limit this series to only birthstones? I have renamed the entire series to Gemstone Goddesses so that at some point in the future I can come back and add more without restricting myself!
Wouldn’t you like to see a Lady of Sunstone or a Lady of Moonstone? I know I would!
The BIRTHSTONE GODDESSES will now be a subset of the GEMSTONE GODDESSES series as a whole! Wherever you see the Lady of Eternity pictured above, she now represents both of these series who are now ALL part of the same endeavor to bring the beauty of Art Nouveau to the world through these thematic creations!
Where to Find this Project?
Now that my project has been undergoing some title changes, my social media outlets dedicated specifically to this project have been changed to match. Please update your bookmarks:
- Main Website – gemgoddesses.angelicshades.com
- On Twitter – www.twitter.com/gemgoddesses
- On Facebook – www.facebook.com/gemgoddesses
- On Tumblr – https://gemgoddesses.tumblr.com/
- Use hashtags #gemgoddesses and #birthstonegoddesses
Where Do We Go From Here?
Now that we have a brand new name and a whole ambitious set of items on the horizon, it was time to get this project organized! Check out this roadmap I’ve created for the rest of the Birthstone Goddesses project in Trello.
(Click here for a closer look at the Birthstone Goddesses roadmap)
The biggest change to the agenda is that the wall calendar has been moved up to next year so that I can create some of the fun add ons like Enamel Pins that can be bundled with it. I also wanted to make sure my Kickstarter launches were reasonably spaced out so as not to overwhelm everyone.
This Roadmap is subject to change, but we have a good place to start to make this huge endeavor more doable. We’re going to make great things this year!
Are you excited? I KNOW I AM! I’m especially hyped to get these pins out (I’ll have some sneak peeks of the designs I’ve been sketching soon!).
Coming next – I’ll be announcing the new streaming schedule so you can drop in on me while I’m working on making all this magic happen!
Thanks for hanging with me through thick and thin, Patrons and Followers. You are the best!
♥
– Ang
March Wrap-Up: Health Updates, MOAR Coloring Book Updates, etc.
Happy weekend, all, and hello, hello to all the new folks who hopped on board my Patreon this month during my pledge drive! Here’s my monthly update post to sum up what’s been happening around here in March.
I have happy news that my husband finished his radiation treatments in March! His prognosis is a good one and in a few weeks we have a follow-up to learn how effective these treatments have been. For now, we’re just breathing a sigh of relief and hoping that things can start getting back to a boring state of normal around here! (If I keep saying it, it will happen, right?)
Coloring Book Updates
Another major item I’ve been working on this past month is making a standard edition of my coloring book available to the masses! This has proven more challenging than I anticipated, however.
I was going to simply release a version of the book through Amazon’s printing service, but a good opportunity came up that would allow me to print a better quality version myself, so I’m currently negotiating this publishing path.
There’s a LOT that goes into applying to be a vendor on Amazon instead of merely applying to be an individual seller, as well as printing considerations you must abide by. Did you know that if your barcode isn’t scannable through your packaging or that if it is placed incorrectly that your book could be rejected and/or a vendor could be fined by Amazon? No? Me neither!
I’m still doing research so I can make sure I do this right! I’m hoping that when I’m done that it means my book will be available on Amazon for the easiest buying experience and that I would have even more reach than I would on my own!
Posts You May Have Missed This Month
- New, Improved Secret Shop + Last Chance Enamel Pins
- Secret Sketchbook: Rapunzel’s Healing Tears
- Verdant Muse Coloring Contest
- Inspiration Trip: Guo Pei
- Welcome New Patrons! + *IMPORTANT* Upgrades Coming to My Patreon
New Additions to My Digital Library
- Verdant Muse Coloring Page Release (For $5 and up Patrons)
Upcoming Appearances
April 26 – 28 – JordanCon 2019 – Come say hi to me in the dealer’s area and check out my original paintings in the Art Show!
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With a sick hubby still suffering from radiation after effects and other backend tasks (preparing for taxes, getting my Patreon ready for Backerkit integration, etc.) I don’t have a lot of art to show from March, but I’m hoping to change that in April!
Thanks to everyone who has been here even during the lean art times. It really makes a difference in our lives, especially during these trying times which we’re hopefully coming out of now!
Much love and inspiration!
♥ – Ang
Ang’s 2018 Summary of Art
The end of the year and the beginning of a new year is always an introspective time for me. It’s that time where I look back and take stock of where I’ve gone and look forward to where I’m going! I wanted to take you all on a tour of this year’s greatest hits. It’s been a pretty prolific year for me, artistically!
JANUARY – Anko’s Determination
Anko, my Warlock Tiefling who loves to bake, came onto the scene a few years ago for my husband’s Dungeons & Dragons campaign and I’ve loved watching her grow from meek young girl to a strong capable mage. This image represented a pivotal moment in her development where she and the party faced off with an enemy that had no regard for innocent lives. Anko learned to fight for what she thought was right and that she was more capable than she realized! The resulting drawing of this moment flowed out of my pencil without much effort and remains my favorite drawing of Anko.
FEBRUARY – Lady of October Thumbnail Sketches
The next few months were consumed with research and study for the Lady of October, starting with her thumbnail sketches. This Lady was a bit different from her sisters in that she was much more mystical. I agonized for a long time making a composition that was different enough from Lady of November, who also had a similar holiday theme in the Day of the Dead, while this Lady is more Samhain.
MARCH – Lady of October Fashion Design
More Lady of October! She was a unique challenge with her billowing sheer outfit and I deliberated a long time trying to nail down her look.
APRIL – Lady of October
The Lady of October finally arrived! I experimented with gray inks for the first time with this piece trying to find a way to create mist and subtlety with pen and ink. She also marked the completion of the Ladies of the Months main series of paintings, one of my major accomplishments for this year!
MAY – Ladies of the Months Headers
May was a prolific month! I Kickstarted the Ladies of the Months coloring book while feverishly creating all twelve header images to boost the campaign. It felt good to take the completed designs for the Ladies that I had agonized over for years and just have good fun with them! Lady of December’s header was my favorite from the bunch, but you can see all twelve here.
JUNE – The Lady of Slaughter
Created for a Patreon request, this sketch allowed me to draw on an old love for Egyptian mythology that I had never really expressed in art before. It felt good to return to these beloved stories from my childhood and indulge in that old love!
JULY – The One Who is Above
The Egyptian sketch requests from my Patreon Patron continued resulting in some of my unexpected favorites from this year! You can see the whole triptych of Egyptian gods here.
AUGUST – The Rose Seelie
This month saw the creation of the Rose Faeries, my pair of cards for the Olde Fae card game based on Old Maid. It also marked a glorious return to creating more fantastical images, which I had been sorely missing!
SEPTEMBER – Fury of the River Goddess
Sometimes those quick sketches just work out! This request for a Patreon Patron’s river goddess made me realize this is the kind of thing I want more of in my RPG/Game portfolio and also showed me what strong shapes and contrast can do in a composition. The rest of this month was spent converting the Ladies headers from the previous month into line art for the coloring books extra pages.
OCTOBER – The Little Ladies of the Months
October was another flurry of productivity creating extra art for the coloring book! Lady of September here was my favorite of the bunch as I felt had the best balance of a dynamic pose and filling up the space of the medallion in an interesting way. You can see the whole set of twelve Little Ladies I created during this month here.
NOVEMBER – Anko’s Determination (Colored)
I realized during this month that I had fallen into a slump. I was really burnt out after working on so much material for the book and it had been a very long stressful year with my husband’s cancer diagnosis in August and hospitalization for heart problems in February. Whenever my morale is low, I turn to games and original characters who always lift my mood. After spending several months ignored, Anko finally got her first ever colored portrait!
DECEMBER – Exalted Secret Santa
The burnout slump continued and I’ve been trying to take it easy this month to enjoy life and family! Doing the Exalted Secret Santa every year has been such a fun way to connect with one of my favorite fan communities and cool tabletop universes. It’s always exciting to see how my partner interprets my characters, as well! You can see what my Secret Santa partner did for me here.
Finally, here we have a montage of nearly all the art I created in 2018!
What’s Next?
It’s funny that while I was very productive this year, I still feel like I didn’t do enough! There were a lot of days spent forcing myself past those mental slumps feeling like everything was a disaster because it was supposed to be easier or finished long before it was or I wasn’t ‘strong’ enough to work past my mental blocks and tiredness to make more than I did.
I have to remind myself that I am not a machine and that sometimes life is going to get you down. It’s ok to spend your time with loved ones instead or work on a personal piece to make yourself feel better. In the end, well-being is more precious! A hard lesson for this workaholic who was always taught that my self-worth lies in my productivity levels.
Next year, I’m very much looking forward to exploring the more conceptual paintings I have planned for the Ladies and diving deep into that fantastical element I’ve been hankering for in my work! I also want to get back to studying more, as I feel I’ve really let my fundamental skills languish.
I have a lot of exciting art goals for 2019, but I’m going to save those for a New Years post!
I hope you enjoyed the tour of this year’s work! What was your favorite piece of mine this year? Did you create any favorite pieces of your own? Let me know in comments!
Much love and inspiration!
– Ang
[VIDEO] Studio Hangout OCT 2017 – Kickstart Art Review, Inktober, and My Favorite Author
Check out my latest wrap-up video for October. I fear with every video I share, the more of a dork I reveal myself to be!
Featuring the following things:
– My thoughts on the Kickstart Art seminar with Stephanie Pui-Mun Law and what revelations I had from it.
– An epic level geek out about Kushiel’s Dart which I was nearly hesitant to share online, but it’s on the internet now. Oh well!
– Pumpkin Spice shenanigans.
– Plus aaaaart!
Did You Know? Unknown Nouveau
If you’ve been enjoying my Ladies of the Months series thus far, you might also enjoy the series of articles I’ve been writing here on Patreon called Unknown Nouveau.
While Mucha is one of my strongest influences on this series, there are so many wonderful artists who emerged from the Art Nouveau movement during its prime between the 1880s and 1890’s.
The Unknown Nouveau articles focus on artists from the movement you might not have heard of, many who are also female artists who simply did not get the same attention as their male counterparts. I wanted to feature some of these lesser-known artists, as well as inspire and educate myself along the way.
You can start browsing my current Unknown Nouveau articles here.
Enjoy and let me know if you’ve heard of an unknown Art Nouveau artist who you think I should feature OR if you discover someone new from the articles who you think is amazing!
IP Development Mentorship Week 8
DISCLAIMER: I don’t mind you guys sharing my thoughts about the mentorship with others. However, if you don’t see the art or writing bits up at SongofExile.com, that means I’d prefer you keep it between us! Enjoy!:)
Final week! Sorta. SDCC has thrown a monkey wrench into things so that our guest critiquers are busy, so we have an extra week to work. That’s okay because I am totally taking advantage of the additional time to put extra polish on my art and finish up a color painting I wouldn’t have had finished by the end of this week, anyways.
This past week, I’ve continued my feverish working on panels for the book trailer! It was a week of learning that if something just isn’t working right, I needed to learn to let go of it. It’s a tough lesson to learn, as it meant redoing two of my total panels!
The truth is I wasted a lot of time trying to make the original ideas work when starting over would have been quicker. Lesson learned! Onwards and upwards!
Last week, I mentioned photo collaging as a technique I’ve been experimenting with to speed up my workflow. Here’s an example of the photo reference I cobbled together from bits of hair, cloth, various model references from DeviantART, and desert photos.
The trick really is in bringing it all together at the end through lighting and values, making your own creative changes, and knowing when to deviate from your photo reference so you can create the most elegant final image. I’ll be notifying the model stock providers of the use of their photos once the images go public, while the reference of Jaipur fort I used for the palace will need to be changed later, since it’s only a placeholder for my presentation right now. Generally, dA stock providers are a kind bunch who allow commercial usage for free or low cost, which makes it one of my favorite places to find stock.
I’m currently working on the final color painting of the opening image. I’m planning to post the final color painting with a step by step to Patreon once it’s finished, so keep an eye out!
So here I am at the final push. I still have a color painting to finish and a video mockup I’d like to throw together for my final presentation. Wish me luck!
Week 8 Art Wrap-Up
Read about the rest of my journey with the IP Development Mentorship here:
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Week 5
Week 6
Week 7
Week 8
Final Week
Final Critique
IP Development Mentorship Week 7
DISCLAIMER: I don’t mind you guys sharing my thoughts about the mentorship with others. However, if you don’t see the art or writing bits up at SongofExile.com, that means I’d prefer you keep it between us! Enjoy!:)
It was another sleepless week spent on making illustrations for my pitch! I’m still only a little past the midpoint with 8 of 15 total illustrations completed in grayscale, with the initial illustration of the duel pegged for completion to fully painted color.
I also got to practice pitch once more, this time to Kalan Ray, a visdev artist with a history as a linguist, which gave him some insight on the historical sources I’ve been drawing on for my story (the Mongols, kings and succession, etc.). This was the first time I’ve actually had a chance to pitch my revised book trailer script with the new POV and it was a huge success! Kalan gave me the great complement that he would totally read my book when it’s done, since it was right up his alley of interests. Best. Feedback. Ever!
There’s really nothing like validation from a pro to motivate a person! I’m just going to enjoy my ego fluffing for a small bit before I realize that after this course is over, I’ll actually need to Write The Thing.
Another awesome thing that happened this week is that my boyfriend gifted me with this TrueType male figure! We found a great price for him on Amazon. It may just look like an overpriced doll, but its extreme points of articulation allow for it to be posed in ways the usual artist mannequins can’t and make for great photo reference, especially for seeing how lighting works, draping of clothing, and placement of cast shadows.
The female TrueType figure is also in the mail right now. I’m so excited! My boyfriend is best boyfriend. These figures are going to be invaluable to my workflow. Thanks to this mentorship, I’m also planning to add 3D modeling with Daz Studio (a free 3D program) to my repertoire so I can light scenes and have more fine control over lighting and camera placement, but the program was a little too much for me to try to learn this week. I did manage to create a reference photo with Daz for the illustration I need to work to color, but it could definitely use improvement. Beware the naked manbutt if you want to see it! It’s here.
Another technique I’ve added to my workflow this week is photo tracing. I feel like a cheater doing this thanks to strict gallery schooling in college where true skill meant you could draw everything from scratch, but since I have so little time to get these done, I’ve been playing fast and loose with photos.
As you can see above, I pretty much traced my photo reference of the figure, then altered it to suit my needs. I also used two different photos of Blood Dragon Trees spliced together for the background. Photo manipulation creates a base quickly that I can refine for later, a technique I was introduced to by Rebecca Guay, actually! It can save a lot of time and also help your art feel more grounded, though you must also know when to deviate from your reference, which is a hard skill to master, in and of itself.
Next week is my last week of the mentorship! Can I finish all of the illustrations and face the final critique of Max Landis, who gave me such great crit before? Will my changes be improvements? Stay tuned, Bat-fans!
Week 7 Art Wrap-Up
Read about the rest of my journey with the IP Development Mentorship here:
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Week 5
Week 6
Week 7
Week 8
Final Week
Final Critique