Gallery of Shadows and Reflections

So, today is my mother's birthday.  This means the majority of the day will be spent running all over creation.  We'll be going to Red Lobster for lunch, which sounds very good actually (cheesy biscuits!).  I wanted to bake her a cake (her favorite is coconut) but I forget to pick up a cake mix the other day, and every time I've tried to bake a cake from scratch it's wound up being rather brick-like.  Will have to pick on up when we're out today.  I hope to get a chance to work on some art this evening-- I have three more greyscale character portraits on the agenda, plus a color character illustration for Ellen Million's Portrait Adoption.

I'm going to be holding a vote this Monday to determine the next three crowdfunded pieces I'll be attacking.  I'm going to limit the voting to a single day's worth of sketches, though, to avoid the ratio of too many options to too few people that occurred in the last vote.

So, as I mentioned, the Rose and Bay Awards over at crowdfunding are open for voting, until February 29th.  Many, many thanks to laffingkat for nominating Free Sketch Day for the Art category!  There is seriously a lot of talent showcased there in a variety of ways.  I've voted for two categories so far, and will be paging through the nominees over the next several days to decide who to vote for in the remaining categories.

Anyway, we're going to be leaving soon, so I'll wrap this up.  Hope everyone has a good Thursday!

Hello, guys!  Just dropping a quick post to let you all know that voting is now open for certain categories in the Rose and Bay Awards over on crowdfunding

Voting is currently open for :  
Web Comic
Poetry
Fiction
Art

Go, take a look at the incredible talent spotlighted there, and vote for your favorites!

Here are the sketches from today's Free Sketch Day.


( Several large images under cut. )

So today, in a desperate attempt to hold on to a sliver of sanity, I've opted to work in a Starbucks.  Let me tell you, this is like heaven.  I haven't been out just on my own in ages.  It is a bit distracting, but that's to be expected.  Also, the sunlight coming through the windows is making it hard to see what I'm doing.  I may have to turn this thing around so I'm facing the window before I start working on art.

I'm unsure what to work on, to be honest.  I'm between crowdfunding projects, and event days aren't here yet.  Oh!  I know what to do-- some character portraits for ellenmillion's Portrait Adoption site. I may do something in color to put up for "adoption."
 

"Frozen" is now available in print form on Zazzle and ImageKind.  Prices on Zazzle for Kodak photo prints start at $0.80, and prices on ImageKind for gallery-quality prints start at $10.99.  Framing is also available.

In searching for projects to nominate for this year's Rose and Bay Awards, I stumbled on this little gem:

(From the Wikipedia article) "Pioneer One is a 2010 American web series produced by Josh Bernhard and Bracey Smith.[1][2][3] It has been funded purely through donations, and is the first series created for and released on BitTorrent networks.... A mysterious spaceship enters Earth's atmosphere, triggering a massive response from the American government."

Just watched the preview.  It looks extremely well done!  I would nominate it, but it was released in 2010 and so isn't eligible this year.

Here's a link to the official page with the preview and free download links (streaming is available for a small financial contribution as well):
http://vo.do/pioneerone

Where has the week gone?  It just sort of melts away.  

I have a couple of updates and reminders to post.

First, I've finished the flat colors for "Frozen"-- I still have to add varying hues, light and shadow, etc. I thought I'd post a cropped section of the image.   You can see where I powdered snow over the wings and body, which will be better blended to the rest of the snow when other colors are added.  It will still have that twilit look, but with a touch of color and a fading angelic glow.  It's currently standing at exactly half funded-- $20.  Another $20 will fully fund it so that the full sized completed image will be released to the public.  Upon completion, any contributors will receive a small print and the full sized color image in an email whether the project is fully funded or not.  It will also be available on ImageKind as a print either way.  

As always, click thumbnail for enlargement.  (Remember, this is just a detail crop, not the whole image)


If you would like to contribute to this project, click the Tip Jar icon.

Also!  I am still open for Discounted Character Portrait Days!  Follow the link to the main page to put in your requests.  Had a bit of a hiccup with the PayPal link, but it's all fixed now.

So, apparently all the PayPal buttons I've been using-- including my customized Tip Jar icon-- have been taking people to login pages rather than payment pages.  I made the buttons and deposited the html code into WordPad for easy access.  (sometimes.  The Tip Jar I'm using for my "Frozen" project is working right.  But the SAME code from the SAME WordPad isn't working on my Free Sketch Day post.  wtf?)

Based on what FIXES this problem, the fact that PayPal is linking to my "secure merchant ID" instead of my email address is what's causing the problem.  If I change the option to link to my email address, the link goes where it's supposed to.

I can't, however, figure out how to make that the default option.  So it looks like I may have to log into PayPal and fix it every time I post it.  Grrr. 

I'll have to start testing it every time I post it, just to make sure.  The icon on my Character Art Days post is fixed; going to fix the one from Free Sketch Day too just in case.

ETA:  Okay, I think, MAYBE, that I've fixed it.  

Here are the results of today's Free Sketch Day.

( Several large images under cut. )

Good morning to you, friends list, visitors, and lurkers.  :)  How is everyone today.

I'm... rather out of it.  Somehow I ended up sleeping late.  I usually wake up without an alarm but my brain was like, "No way, lady, you're sleeping!" this morning.   I suppose maybe I needed it.  I've been up for a little while now but have not yet had coffee; it's brewing as I write this.  (And my coffee-deprived brain tried to type "write" as "right," to give you an idea of how completely "with it" I am before I've had my first caffeine jolt of the day!)

However, the situation with my grandmother is calming quite a bit.  She's able to walk with her walker by herself most (not all) of the time, and her bathroom trips have also decreased in frequency, so I'm able to put more time to the things I'm working on.  Consequently, I'm going to hold Free Sketch Day today!  I'm not open for prompts yet, because I seriously need that coffee first, but I'll put up the FSD post in a little while.

"Frozen" is being colorized.  Flat colors are complete!  I'll be adding shadow and light... possibly this evening, or in between FSD prompts.  The finished artwork will be sent to everyone who contributed to the project in both a high resolution file (or link to the image) and in a small photo print from Zazzle.  I'll also put it up for sale as various sized prints on ImageKind.  I'll post a small watermarked preview and some detail shots here along with the ImageKind link when it's ready, unless it's fully funded by then, in which case I'll post a link to the full sized file as well for public use.  :)

Tomorrow is another Discounted Character Portrait Day!  I'll be offering black and white, head and shoulders portraits of your characters for $5.  Color portraits will also be heavily discounted, so gather your character descriptions and drop by tomorrow to request your artwork.

Anyway, I think that coffee's probably about ready, so I'm going to close this for now.  Stay tuned for FSD!