Author: Angela S.

Introducing the Muses – Ry Phirunaden

Last week, you were introduced to my dark Hunter, Melakim Fahre, this week, I have the pleasure of introducing the gentleman thief, coinessuer of the female form in all its variations, and sometimes cross-dresser, Ry Phirunaden.

That ONE cross-dressing incident only happened because he needed a creative way to avoid the Law, honest!

Ry’s Artistic Evolution:

The Short Bio: Ry likes to play up being the mystery man by pretending his past is more complicated than it really is. He will often lie to sensationalize it, but what can be told of the truth is that he was a child of a destitute noble family. His family saw more potential in their heir, his sister Ciela, and so put his needs second to hers to the point of neglecting him utterly. He ran amok as a form of getting attention, womanizing and getting into fights around town until he was finally enlisted in the Elvish military by his parents as a way to somehow bring honor to the family. It was their hope also that he might be killed at the front lines as a way to be rid of him for good.

In the army, he found a family amongst the other misplaced grunts and descended into a world of drugs, women, and atrocities, returning home as a war criminal instead of a hero. He and his other comrades earned the name Wing Cutters from their habit of taking the dismembered wings of faeries as trophies. Each bares a tribal tattoo that marks them as a Cutter.

The Cutters were put on trial for their crimes, made scapegoats by their government, and Ry completely disowned by his family. Instead of dying at the gallows, however, he was offered a position by an up and coming duke as a secret mercenary for the Elvish government. Ry opted to live, though someone was sent to die in his place. There is not even a grave marker placed for him at his family tomb.

Now when not in the covert service of the government, he spends the long years of his Elvish lifespan in boredom doing whatever odd jobs come his way and whatever sparks his waning interest in life.

The Long Bio: Available Here

What Inspired This Character?

Ry started out as one of those background characters invented purely as a foil to the main character, who was in this case, Melakim. He was to be the thorn in Melakim’s side, his stalker, his rival as a fellow Hunter, and the culprit for getting poor naive Mae addicted to smoking weed. Since those days, however, he’s found a place in my heart as one of my all-time favorite characters to write for and has far surpassed status as merely ‘supporting cast’. Ry comes easily to me and I never have to think when he is on scene, which is perhaps a bit disturbing when I think about it overly much.

Ry is one of those characters that I can toss into a scene anywhere and something fun or unexpected will happen. In one story line, he returns to his home and slaughters his entire family, with the exception of his sister. While in another completely different storyline, he falls for a lovely lady strong enough to kick his butt who then inspires him to reform his ways (if only for a little while). Anything can and will happen when a character has the moral flexibility to be good or evil.

Again, I think he emerged as a reaction against all the wholesome characters I invented in the past and evolved into yet another hero with a skewed sense of morality, for as much as he enjoys playing the villain. A villain is never a villain without something in his past that made him want to kick the dog. Perhaps he was attacked by a dog and scarred as a child? That’s how I like my characters and what interests me in any story…finding out the why.

Unfortunately for Ry,the endless years of his near-immortal life have caused him to take on jobs solely out of boredom. He’s been a circus performer, a waiter, a deck hand, a bodyguard, and oft-times, a Hunter. His stories are endless, but there will always be that hint of his unspectacular past that haunts him and reminds him that his life isn’t really worth much at the end of the day, and he knows it.

Which is why I named him Phirunaden, an amalgamation of a name which means those who walk the rainy path with Ry being a spin on the Gypsy name Rye, meaning Gentleman. Ry is yet another character awaiting novelization.

How do you get inspired for this character?

For Ry, Afro Celt Sound System rings in my head channeling the Celtic feel Elves in my stories have. Not to mention that the lead singer sounds a lot like how I imagine him to sound. Anything with a smart, slippery gentleman thief in it (mainly fantasy novels and games like Thief) gets my gears going for him.

Ry’s Playlist: Available Here

Until the next Muse, who are your personal favorite characters of your own creation? Why do they inspire you? How do you prepare yourself to write or draw for them?

Pretending to Forget

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I know a woman who, very much like myself, grew up reading comic books with starry eyes until her mom would come in and turn off the light. Like me, she was always a bit of tomboy who never backed down from being as fearless as the boys. Like me, she harbored a love for creating with her hands and soon found herself drawing portraits and exploring the potential that putting pencil to paper could create. She also had a knack for doing makeup and sewing. There was never a day she wasn’t wearing the latest fashion which she had lovingly sewn herself. She rocked out to Hendrix and the Beatles and had all the free spirit of someone full of inspiration and potential.

But a funny thing happened to this bright-eyed artist. Her mom threw her comic books away and she was taught that money was more important than this silly thing called art that could never support her. She was made to grow up in short order. She forgot her love of creation, or at the very least, pushed it deep down and pretended to forget.

Over this Mother’s Day weekend, I slipped a set of watercolors into my mom’s hands and watched a smile creep on her lips and her eyes close as if the lids were heavy with the memories of days when she could enjoy such things without being judged by others. Against all other forces, my mother has been there encouraging me and telling me what her parents didn’t tell her. That art is viable, that she accepts it as being a part of me, and that she will be there always to help me when the road is hard.

To this day, she has never thrown a single comic book away, though we have moved at least 20 times throughout my life.

Now, I can only hope to help her stop pretending, to tempt her with the empty canvas and the fresh paints and the feel of a brush in her hand. This gift of inspiration I inherited from her. I hope to give it back ten-fold.

So the next time you look at your parents and think that they are just boring old business folk, ask them what they used to do for fun when they were your age. I guarantee that there are many out there who have pretended to forget their inner artist or had a dream that faded with all the years of being told that they could not.

This one’s for you, mom.

Introducing the Muses – Melakim Fahre

It occurred to me recently that there are a repeating set of figures in my art that most of you may recognize, but only a handful really know. As a storyteller and an artist, my art is driven most strongly by character-centric work, particularly characters which I have been writing about for years, yet have never really shared with the general populace. I wanted to shed some light on some of these characters that have been featured in my art and who continue to inspire me to this day. More than merely sinking into the background, these characters have endured themselves to my imagination, tempting me to distraction when my mind should be occupied elsewhere.

Without further ado, I present one of my most recent muses: Melakim Fahre, the Shadow Hunter (or ‘Mae’ for short).

Melakim’s Artistic Evolution:

The Short Bio: The nihilistic bounty hunter with a distrust of people. As an infant, he was found birthed from the body of a dead woman, an inauspicious omen to the clerics who took him in, as well as his strange, seemingly blind right eye. He lived life as a servant before their fear of him drove them to extreme measures and a botched exorcism. He escaped and lived life on the rough streets of the city before being taken in by a rich patroness, Siin Fomori, who has since raised him as an assassin for her organization, Blood Meridian. He spends most of his time as far away from the organization as possible, much rather preferring the simple life of a woodsman hunter.

The Long Bio: Available Here

What inspired this character?

This particular character started with the simple flash of inspiration that began with the eyes. Even before I had a concept, I knew I wanted him to be devoid of an eye. In earlier versions of the character, he was burned by an angel who took his right eye in battle. I created him as a character to be roleplayed in a past online roleplaying game with nothing more than a wish to portray a character that was not likeable, and therefore a break from my general leanings towards charismatic, moralistic characters which were merely reflections of myself in the world of Dungeons and Dragons (which I played in high school and college). Melakim started out mean, tired of the world, and more apt to stop and help someone only if they offered him money. The one simple exception to this auger was that he could never resist that annoying urge to help a child in need, which is the origin of his namesake, Melakim, the guardian angel of children’s safety.

Melakim is and has always been one who lacks general faith in humanity, and yet at the same time, has a burning need to be accepted. He teeters on the edge of falling in to that darker side, while being tempted by the hope that perhaps everything is not as he has perceived it in his experience, a fact which has made him most intriguing for me. Perhaps he is a reflection of my own past? Moving around with my family for the military left me with many days by myself pondering if it was worth getting involved in emotional connections with people at all. It hurt so much to say goodbye, it hurt to have issues with others, and yet, oftentimes it is only by interacting with others that we learn just how beautiful the world really is.

Melakim also presents a way for me to examine the psychology of the half-breed, or one between worlds. In his early incarnations, he was half angel and half mortal, yet never quite accepted by both, a stigma I can empathize with, being half Puerto Rican and Caucasian. In his latest incarnation, he is plagued by being always half tuned in to the spirit world, and the feeling of never quite being part of the living or the dead, especially with the way he is ostracized by superstitious individuals who view his white eye and and extra-sensory perception as evil. Melakim in all incarnations often felt lost and confused with no place or people to call home.

Despite his moral lack of faith in people, he still has compassion buried deep down, though it is a question of how long this compassion will remain. Roleplaying games have come and gone since his inception and now he exists in my imagination, beckoning me with the thought of novelization.

How do you get inspired to create art and writing for this character?

Music is a large part of my artistic process. Certain chords and lyrics strike a certain vivid image in my mind’s eye which helps me when I’m in the mood to create. I listen to a lot of music by VAST, Jon Crosby’s dulcet, soulful tones being as close to how I imagine Melakim sounding than anyone I’ve ever heard.

EDIT: Now that Melakim has undergone a gender switch for novel purposes, I’ve been drawn to different vocalists, including Florence+The Machine and Ellie Goulding. Funny how that works!

I must also admit an affinity for other long haired hunters, such as the Vampire Hunter D and Yasha, the demon slayer from RG Veda. Watching these anime flicks always get my juices flowing for Melakim.

Playlist for Melakim: Available here

Until the next Muse, who are your muses? Why do they inspire you? How do you prepare yourself to write or draw for them?

Confessions of an Artist Part 4

On the last “Confessions” post, we talked about the merits and downfalls of tracing. Many of you revealed that I am not the only one to start out in art with early tracing books. It was also interesting to hear about how I am not the only one to suffer Dragonball and Sailor Moon anime influenced phases. I do wonder sometimes what the next influential phase of infectious art styles will be for the future generations of artists? Perhaps Avatar: The Last Airbender, Naruto, or Inuyasha styles?

This week I’d like to make yet another confession.

I have only in recent years learned that piling artwork under my bed is not the best practice for storing original art. Even worse, there was a point during my high school days where I was storing art with….cardboard and plastic wrap. Yes, the plastic wrap from your kitchen. (Don’t try this at home, kiddies!)

Oh sure, it is easy when we start out to believe that art is just for fun, so why not toss it under the bed or on the next most convenient pile on your desk? It will be fine until we dig it out again, right? Eventually, we graduate to stuffing them in trapper keepers and accrue piles of shiny notebooks, folders, and trapper keepers with papers sticking out of them. Things like pH balance don’t exist for us when we’re young and naive and, like our art, we view ourselves as immortal. The art will always be there when we need it.

I learned my lesson the hard way when I went to dig out old work, seeking something to display for a student show, and found that most of my work was yellow, stained with cat puke, or torn and ripped at the corners. Lesson being, don’t store your art under your bed if you can help it. So, I’m here to implore you to please, as early as possible, form good storage habits for art if it really means something to you.

Some basic things to remember for storing your art properly:

  • Paper, especially newsprint, is prone to yellowing. Store it out of the sun where possible. Use higher quality thicker paper like Bristol board or illustration board when you can instead of cheap drawing paper from drawing pads which is easier to damage. Drawing pads are great for practice sketches, but higher quality paper will make your masterpieces last longer.

  • Masking tape, scotch tape, and certain types of mat board contain acid, which can cause staining and yellowing. General rule of thumb: If it’s physically touching your artwork, it needs to be acid free (archival)!

  • Cardboard is NOT archival unless you special order archival backing board or cut your own backing from acid free board.

  • Certain media such as pastel, charcoal, and color pencil need to be sprayed with fixative to preserve their color and to insure that they do not rub off. Acrylics do not need to be sprayed, though they will benefit from being sealed with a protective layer of varnish. Oils, on the other hand, require a layer of varnish to set the colors.

Some simple storage solutions for your art:

  • Storage & Display Portfolios – Buy storage portfolios instead of trapper keepers. I recommend Itoya portfolios. They are fairly affordable and come in multiple sizes to suit all needs. Their pages and mounting paper are archival/acid free and the portfolios look tons more professional than your shiny hot pink Lisa Frank trapper keeper. You can also customize the spine to show your name by sliding the paper out and replacing it with your own like this.

  • Carrying Cases & Large Portfolios – Storing larger work over 14×17 inches can be problematic. If you can store them in a carrying case portfolio or keep them in their original art pad binders, that is better than piling large work loose somewhere where they are easy to damage. Another alternative is to properly mat and frame the large work and hang it up on the wall

  • Plastic Bins & Paper Copy Boxes – Storing larger framed work can be tricky. If you can’t put it on the wall, it is best to store frames upright in copy paper boxes or large plastic bins with protective styrofoam sheets or cardboard in-between. If you stack your frames with protective sheets between, just don’t stack them too high or the weight could damage the frames on the bottom. For additional protection, you may want to wrap each frame individually with bubble wrap. Most times, you can go to large stores like Sam’s, or other department stores, and get handy cardboard bins or paper copy boxes for free or low cost.

  • Plastic Storage Drawers – For storing smaller framed works and stacks of portfolios, you might want to invest in good plastic storage shelves. I prefer shelves which have closed walls as this helps to keep dust from gathering on your work. Be warned! Don’t skimp on buying good plastic shelves, as the cheap ones will bow and are only useful for storing very light objects. A general indicator of a good quality plastic storage unit is that the plastic is opaque instead of clear.

    • – A Good Plastic Bin
    – A Bad Plastic Bin

My Home Setup

Just about all of my supplies and materials are kept in the opaque plastic shelves on the bottom with lightweight portfolios, mailing envelopes, and small originals kept in the crappy clear drawers sitting on top of the ‘nice’ plastic shelf. I still have art piled under my bed, but it’s generally the stuff which I don’t mind being damaged or it is still snuggly attached in its original art pad.

I have tons of copy boxes and over the shoulder carrying case portfolios in my room and basement which store framed art, scraps, large art, and other supplies. My setup isn’t perfect yet, as my large canvas work still sits relatively unprotected and leaning against a wall, but it’s a start!

My final word of advice is to start storing your stuff properly as early as possible. You don’t want a possible masterpiece to be ruined by carelessness and trust me that cat puke is the most horrible permanent yellow you will ever see.

Those of you who are already practicing good habits, how do you store your art? Do you have anything to add to this list of suggestions? Feel free to share photos of your storage space!

Work at Home Blues

And so I enter the 4th or so week of working a day job as an illustrator who works at a home studio (if indeed a desk and drawers stuffed with art supplies constitute as a studio), and I’m beginning to learn the glories and downfalls of what that really means. It’s so wonderful to be at this point in my career finally, but I am finding myself growing a little odd from spending so much time alone.

I’ve started talking to paintings and humming musical renditions of Ultramarine and Alizaran Crimson. I’ve probably seen Jurassic Park six times, since that seems to be what’s showing in the background on tv whenever I work at the desk these days. Coming from previous professions that involved social interaction with students and co-workers, it’s been an interesting transition. Being able to concentrate on art has been lovely, but I find I miss the social interaction just a little.

Now I just have my dog and my paints.

Contrary to popular belief, working at home is not as simple as it seems. It is far too easy to get distracted by the shiny, shiny net and not get your work quota done for the day. Like most jobs, there are deadlines involved and if things go wrong and you’re late, it’s nobody’s fault but your own. There is no bureaucracy to blame for your own mistakes. If you’re a work-o-holic like me, you might end up working too late, like I commonly do, being the night owl that I am. I still haven’t quite found a way to balance a schedule with creating a social life. I must learn how to put the paintbrush down and to stop worrying about deadlines! For when the current deadline ends, there will (hopefully) always be yet another and another!

So I am curious, you artists, writers, or work-at-home masterminds who run your own businesses, how do you keep yourself motivated? How do you cut down on distraction? How do you balance having a social life with trying to meet quotas? How do you prevent yourself from going just a little batty from being alone?

Inquiring minds who are currently distracted by blog writing would like to know!

Ang’s Vault of Horrors: Gargoyles

…or more commonly called the pile of ages old artwork stuffed under my bed which I have never dared to share before! There was a time when I was obsessed with an old Disney cartoon series called Gargoyles. Throw faerie myths, Shakespeare, and King Arthur into a blender with modern mythologies and you have a combination for win in my book. I loved this series, and STILL love it. The animation still beats all the half-arsed cartoon series I see on tv today.

I was fascinated by the glowing eyes, proud demeanor, and aerial prowess of these gorgeous creatures and drew them ALL the time. To say that they influenced my early artistic development, both as an artist and a writer, would be an understatement.

Enjoy this peek into my early obsession with winged creatures. Many of these characters evolved from gargoyle wanna-be’s to the main characters of my obligatory never-ending fantasy epic (more on that later). Just about all of this work is from the 1990’s.

Just goes to show that we all start somewhere!

This was the very first image I did of the gargoyles sort featuring an ooold character named Nava. Done in cheap crappy marker and Precision pens! I miss those pens sometimes. Notice the crappy Photoshopped spliced photo background. I did that a lot in the old days till I learned better.

Here’s Nava and her boyfriend, Matayo. I had a thing for Spanish names and tragic couples back then. By this time, I’d finally discovered Prismacolor marker.

This one’s from middle school! Egads, the bad comic book anatomy.

This red gal here (Natalia), became my main obsession after awhile. She’s gained a few fingers since that last picture!

Natalia’s daughter, Helena. How we get blue from red is thanks to her very blue daddy. I recall drawing and coloring this particular pic entirely during a high school algebra class (and somehow still passing the class). Discovered Prismacolor Color Pencils around this point.

More evolution of Natalia and my anatomy skills. It seems I loved complicated tattoo and jewelry designs even back then. I still love her little wing arms in this one. Even they have blades!

Last one for now! This is Natalia’s red daughter, Coronada (wee more Spanish names!). She was the mean one who could use the little ribbons around her arms as weapons with moon blades on the ends. Still loving this design. I will have to do something new with it sometime!

And that’s all for this peek into my artwork chamber of horrors. Stay tuned for more as the excavation under my bed continues!

Do you all have any old work or ideas you’d like to share? I would love to see that I’m not the only one who made up strange tales of red and blue people when they were a kid.

The Need to Fly

Quickie Updates:

  • Just finished writing half of Chapter 1 of the semi-secret book project, now begins the illustrating!

  • Working on entering more shows this year, including Mobicon, Dragoncon, and San Diego Comic Con. Cross your fingers for passing dcon jury! I may have a table this year, if all goes to plan.

  • Dabbling with new tile pendants and jewelry designs (keep an eye on my jewelry sketchbook and Etsy Updates for more)

  • Working on a possible entry for the Good vs Evil contest

  • Trying to repress the project fairy so I can get work done!

    • More ramblings about angels in art…

    This weekend, I had the great pleasure of riding with Windfalcon to visit the birds of prey wildlife center at Georgia Southern University. Besides getting some wonderful reference shots of these graceful creatures, I found myself thinking on the meaning of wings. With angels on my mind lately for several projects I’m working on, I’ve been pondering the reason why so many artists and poets decided to meld these feathery appendages with the human form throughout the ages.

    What is it about the inclusion of wings that has marked these beings as divine? Perhaps the ability to fly , an unprecedented thing for early man, makes them boundless? Perhaps the untouchable beauty of watching a bird in flight inspired these artists to try and recapture that awe within the human figure? If ancient man was so fascinated by the impossible prospect of flight that they reflected this need upon angels, why, then, does modern man still find it so fascinating? We have long been capable of flight thanks to the Wright brothers, and yet, most angels are still drawn with wings.

    What might an angel look like in modern imagery if we try to reflect what we are incapable of achieving in the depiction of their form, just as ancient man did in adding wings? Instead of a fiery sword, would an archangel carry an AK-47? A dragonscale bulletproof bodysuit over a set of Roman plate mail? These days, instead of wings, most angels in modern movies and books seem to wear long black trench coats and sashay dramatically with long, gorgeous locks of hair. Even more, these seemingly pure creatures have become sensual and human in a way that has added an edgy fascination for many.

    Whatever the reason, I can personally see why early man might have chosen to give a human the grace of a bird, just from peeking into that world of birds of prey and watching these lightweight hunters float soundlessly on the air, or fly so fast they barely leave an imprint in my vision. Birds really are wondrous creatures…a pity we mainly ignore them because we’re simply too used to them being around us.

    I suppose we should thank/blame Windfalcon for this post. She bit me with her bird fever. If anyone’s interested, I’ll be posting up some of the reference footage I shot while at the raptor center at my YouTube page sometime soon once I get permission to do so.

    Until next post, enjoy this contemporary take on a classical archangel.

    Are You a Sellout?

    Every artist hears this at one point in their development. The worries of becoming what others call a ‘sell out’ enter into our artistic lives much like the recognition of what death is for children who are innocent of the pain of such knowledge.

    What is a sellout, exactly?

    According to some who are too free with the term, it can be the fan artist, the merchandising artist, the faerie artist. The term sellout is attached to many types, particularly certain genres like fantasy.

    sell·out (slout)n. – One who has betrayed one’s principles or an espoused cause.

    That is the dictionary definition of the slang, but I have heard this term thrown around for something as simple as drawing fan art, which is a gross misinterpretation. If you draw something like fan art, or any form of art, and enjoy it thoroughly, why should this be labeled negatively? Why should our enjoyment of art be ruined just because what we enjoy drawing happens to be popular?

    I have also heard this term thrown at artists who have reached a level of success where their art can be found in popular venues on a variety of products. Amy Brown and Thomas Kinkade are two of the more hotly debated artists considered ‘sellouts’ by many.

    Amy Brown is an artist most popularly known for the stripy socked variety of fairies which are featured on an endless amount of products, from journals to candles to stickers and beyond. The question of whether she is a sellout because she has found such a successful niche is not the important one. Rather, the question should be, does she love what she does? Even if she doesn’t, is it wrong for an artist to make money doing something in their field that’s at least more satisfying than mopping floors at the nearest grocery mart?

    Without knowing Brown personally, I cannot say whether she loves what she does or not. I will admit, I am not innocent in that I did, at one point, think of her as a sellout. I got called out on this once by my boyfriend who said “Well maybe she’s just trying to make a living? That’s harder than a lot of people realize. Maybe she hates her artwork just as much as some others do, but she’s just trying to get by. There’s nothing wrong with that.”

    No, I still do not like the gothy brand of stripy socked faeries, but coming of age as an artist trying to make it professionally has softened my heart to people I may have been too judgmental about when I had others paying my way and wasn’t trying to make a living off of my art. Who am I to tell others what to like? I’m entitled to my individual likes and dislikes as much as anyone else. Just as Amy Brown, or any artist, has a right to make a living.

    Who knows? One day people might look at my stuff and say my angel art is ‘selling out’. I know I’ve not escaped the gothy label myself. In which case, I’ll just shrug and keep drawing. Why stop doing what I enjoy doing? People are inclined to label you no matter who you are and all anyone can do is be a professional and keep going, keep seeking out inspiration, keep experimenting, especially if you feel their labels are true to any degree.

    Thomas Kinkade is another hotly debated figure. The afamed “Painter of Light” has a worldwide corporate reach for his depictions of brightly colored paintings of houses and landscapes. I have sat with many discussions with my mother, who is an avid fan of Kinkade’s, and pondered about what the appeal is. I have asked her if she thought he was a sellout for being as widespread as he is and for using studio assistants to paint in his work, and she shook her head, smiling. The enjoyment of his art had nothing to do with the process, according to my mother, who has collected miniature houses since I was young. Anybody who said differently was someone who was jealous of his success, in her eyes.

    And herein lies the difference between many of us. Most normal everyday folks are enamored by the seemingly mystical end-product of art. They recognize it for what it is to the naked eye and marvel at the artist’s skill, while others, particularly artists, get to the heart of the matter, which is the artist’s intentions behind creating the work. Does Kinkade paint houses now ONLY to sell or does he enjoy it as well? It’s impossible to tell just as it is for Brown without knowing him personally.

    Again, I still think all his houses look the same, but my mother is completely and totally in love with them, and I would never seek to deprive her of that. Kinkade is a genius in her eyes and just because I don’t like him doesn’t mean she can’t enjoy it.

    In the end, there is one thing I am certain of in this area of gray that is ‘selling out’. If you do not love what you do, it is going to show in your artwork. Art has a habit of losing that special something that we are all tuned into subconsciously when the artist becomes uninspired. Does this automatically mean you are a sellout if you keep going? Perhaps…but whose right is it to tell an artist, even an uninspired one, to stop creating and go do something else? We all go through these waxing and waning phases of inspiration and sometimes it takes a jolt of epiphany to get us back on track again.

    Now are you a sellout if you create artwork and slap it onto a thong, even though your art doesn’t really fit the products you’re putting it on? Yes, but if you can actually SELL that thong to someone who enjoys it, than more power to you! Generally, however, it’s much harder to sell a product you don’t believe in or that you are not inspired for. With the number of artists increasing every day, it is becoming harder and harder to stand out from the crowd, meaning the less inspiration you have, the less chance you’ll have to be noticed and to succeed.

    My advice is this: Throw the nay-sayers to the wind and do what you enjoy. Experiment! Have fun! Learn! Create! The next time you think about calling someone a sellout, bare this in mind:

    Are you only doing so because you’re jealous, deep down?
    Are you quite sure that they don’t love what they do?
    More importantly, is it so bad to make a living?

    Save yourself the drama and go do some art instead! Take a moment and judge yourself first before you go labeling others.

    What Moves You? Exploring Artistic Inspiration

    I remember a time when I was first learning about art that I found myself amazed at how the play of light, shadow, and emotion could be created from a simple stroke of the brush. In particular, I was drawn to the Renaissance masters and the religious art meant to teach an illiterate populace the lessons of the bible without ever having to read a word. The lesson was in the compassionate pose of the hands, the elegant sweep of hair, the blush of divine light. Artists made a living from telling epic stories meant to move the soul.

    Today, and many days previous, I find myself wondering how, as an artist, I can bring that same kind of emotion to my work. Like any mystery, it starts with the self and what affects you, personally. Have you ever found yourself staring at a piece of art? What causes you to stare at it longer than a simple glance? What grips your soul? What makes you think?

    For me, there are a few particular pieces that make me stare in awe and trigger an unnameable emotion. The first would be the painting Saint Eulalia by John William Waterhouse.


    Before I knew her story, I was fascinated by the delicacy of her skin and the gentle fall of snow. Not only was this piece visually stunning to me, but the contrast of such a violent act as the murder of a child with the soft fall of snow jarred me in some unidentifiable way. I went on to learn that Eulalia was a Christian child who taunted the Romans, and was later tortured with hooks and burnt at the stake, where she died of smoke inhalation. At the moment of death, a dove symbolizing the holy spirit flew from her mouth. A miraculous fall of white snow appeared to cover her naked form.

    The next piece is one of my all-time favorite works of art and also my favorite sculpture. I hope to one day make a pilgrimage to the Louvre to see it in person. If you don’t know it already, it is the Pieta by Michelangelo.


    Again, the subject of death, self sacrifice, and those who are left behind seems to be one that strikes me at the core. What greater pain could there be than for a mother to lose her child? And yet, there’s something endearing and brave in Mary’s gentle expression. Even in such a moment of pain, her serenity expresses nothing but pure love in the face of such sorrow.

    I could go on about Millias’ Ophelia and Waterhouse’s Lady of Shalott, but I want to hear from you. I seem to be firmly ensconced in works depicting the ecstasy and passion of martyrs. What this says about my work, I’m not quite sure yet, but it seems like I still have some exploration with subject matter to do beyond my current fair of ‘pretty things’.

    What paintings or works of art move you and why? How has this inspired your own work?

    Forsythia Walkthrough & Angelic Inspiration

    After so many serious business posts, I thought I might air out this journal with a glimpse into a walkthrough I’ve been working on lately to stretch my legs at writing instructional art direction. The first blossoms of Spring have sprung and everywhere the Forsythia have blossomed in bunches of yellow splendor. This awakening of color has inspired my latest little miniature piece, Forsythia.

    Why I chose to make such a detailed piece a mini, I’ll never know.

    I’ve found a good deal of inspiration as well in reading Angels: Celestial Spirits in Legend and Art by Jacqueline Carey which has brought my eye back to such old forgotten favorites as Botticelli and Weyden, among others. There are so many angels with bright multi-colored wings, gleaming peacock eyes, and other peculiar details that I never would have noticed if I hadn’t come back to these artists with a new perspective. The ol tried and true formula of the angel with white wings and a ring halo is definitely one I’m seeking to break.

    Without further ado, here’s an excerpt of the first few steps of my latest work. You can view the entire walkthrough as it happens here. I’m currently about to begin the watercoloring phase.

    Are my instructions easy to understand? Do you have any suggestions for how I might improve? Let me know! These tutorials are for you. I want to know what you want.