Vigilant Unicorn

Vigilant Unicorn

available HERE for sale

I tell how to customize below

This piece is from 2012, and I still have the original ACEO (without the border) for sale HERE.

Here is another version:

CUSTOMIZING IT:

Here is how to do it:

On the right, click on prints, and then find framed prints.

Alternatively, go HERE where the framed prints are

click the arrow where it says framed prints on the right hand side

Then you'll see a tab come up just underneath it

You'll see a bunch of tabs running underneath the "framed prints" 

(and underneath the tab, you'll see the framing possibilities --

note: the frame defaults to a black frame -- yuck, but you can change that)

Anyway, up where the tabs are, click on 1. for the size print you want.

Then click on 2. for the frame.

You'll notice right before all the little square pictures of frames, you can choose a frame color.

*The first one is in the gold section (click on VN7).

*The second one is in the gold section too (click on 4VS).  

Then click on 3. for a mat color

*The first one is "Mist matte" which is in the second row towards the end.

*The second one is "moss green matte" -- in the fourth row all the way to the end of the row. 

I usually go for the Somerset Velvet paper. It has the best picture quality for my taste,

but if you want to save money and it is going in an area where sun will hit it part of the day,

or in a bedroom, then the archival matte paper is fine.

Here are some pillow possibilities using the same kinds of sliders and swatches
(pillows here):

using the customization colors and sliders it is:

R (105) G (98) B (58)

or #69623a

Here are some other possibilities you can get by playing around with colors:

The reason for all of these possibilities? To go with your decor.

Here is a greeting card with a light green background:

This background color is:

R (215) G (220) B (193)

or #d7dcc1

Here is how it looks as a tote bag

(tote bags are $19.98 for the smallest, and 

$24.25 for the largest):

Here is how it looks as a shower curtain (cool, yes?):

More products are available in this design HERE.

My continually growing on-line shop is HERE (note as of this writing it is a new shop).

Again, the original, a very tiny drawing, as of this writing, is for sale HERE for $25.

Thanks for looking!

Maple Witch

Maple Witch

© 2011

If you've been following me from my previous post, my intention is to produce more statement-oriented work in the future.

But in the meantime, I have "Maple Witch" to show you which is in my usual line of art work. She is part of a series of witches that fly through the sky with the autumn leaves. (The last one I made was "Oak Witch" which can be found on this blog post).

She is for sale in my Artfire shop year round as a greeting card (and possibly as a print in the near future) and in my Etsy shop during the Autumn months and in all of the usual brick and mortar stores listed on my website.

MY WEBSITE

MY ART IN ON-LINE STORES:

Artfire (widest selection)

Etsy

MY MUSIC LINKS (hear clips):

Music MYSPACE

My band, Saratoga Faire’s MYSPACE

My Renaissance band MYSPACE: The Spirites Consort

MY MUSIC IN ON-LINE STORES:

CD Baby

Amazon

InandOutRecords (Europe)

My band, Saratoga Faire, on CD Baby

treble clef greeting cards

Since I am a musician, I decided to do a series based on music. The treble clef is widely used. I painted the design in 2010, but this is the first time I am offering it as a greeting card.

Look in my on-line shops for it or follow the link HERE to a direct listing in my Artfire shop.

I already made matching tags last year. Here they are again:

That's it for now!

links:

MY WEBSITE

MY ART IN ON-LINE STORES:

Artfire -- widest selection

Etsy

MY MUSIC LINKS (hear clips):

Music MYSPACE

My band, Saratoga Faire’s MYSPACE

My Renaissance band MYSPACE: The Spirites Consort

MY MUSIC IN ON-LINE STORES:

CD Baby

Amazon

InandOutRecords (Europe)

My band, Saratoga Faire, on CD Baby



Joy in Spring

Joy in Spring

© 2011
original size: 7" x 10.5"

Available through my Artfire on-line shop through this link as a greeting card. Made just after my Mother's Day card (which is similar in many ways). The word "joy" is written in small letters in the center of the design.

links:

WEBSITE

ARTFIRE ON-LINE STORE

MY MUSIC LINKS (hear clips):

Music MYSPACE

My band, Saratoga Faire’s MYSPACE

My Renaissance band MYSPACE: The Spirites Consort

MY MUSIC IN ON-LINE STORES:

CD Baby

Amazon

InandOutRecords (Europe)

My band, Saratoga Faire, on CD Baby

Mother's Day card with Spring flowers

"Spring Flowers and Mom"

card design for Mom or Mother's Day

© 2011

This is the last card I will make for Mother's Day this year. Out just in time! I've been out putting these in a number of stores and just listed it on-line in my Artfire store. The card is available directly through this link.

I have one more greeting card design to finish and then I will be taking a short break from card designing since there aren't any more major holidays until Halloween. Whew!

I am making something special for my mother.

I do have a lot more cards to list on-line, though, and I'll also keep you informed here. And also coming up are one of a kind folk art pieces-- stay tuned! But for my art-making time, I feel that I can finally get back to subjects that really ignite my creative passions (one is almost finished and has been neglected-- from November of last year!).  

WEBSITE
ARTFIRE ON-LINE STORE

MY MUSIC LINKS (hear clips):
Music MYSPACE
My band, Saratoga Faire’s MYSPACE
My Renaissance band MYSPACE: The Spirites Consort

MY MUSIC IN ON-LINE STORES:
CD Baby
Amazon
InandOutRecords (Europe)
My band, Saratoga Faire, on CD Baby

Spring Maiden

Spring Maiden

© 2000



In keeping with my last blog, I have uploaded another greeting card design from the old days, this one from 2000. I created this at the beginning of my greeting card-making days. Previously, my art-making was primarily about handthrown high fired pottery and large oil painting (though in my teaching days I had to teach a potpourri of arts from stained glass design to advertising design and everything inbetween).

In making this card (and the whole "season series"), I was still influenced by how I added drawings and designs to my pottery: I had no models or references and just created the image from my imagination (and remembrance for how things looked), in other words it was a spontaneous painting. I used classroom materials for the painting: drawing paper that wasn't acid-free (seriously yellowed now), markers, inexpensive non-archival student colored pencils, pilot pen, a bit of watercolor and student crayola crayons. The paper was 11 x 17, the typical size I gave students for their assignments. Luckily, I scanned the season ladies before the non-archival qualities of the materials started to degrade.

So, moral of the story is: use the best quality of materials. This particular series will never be anything other than greeting cards.

The card is available through this link through my Artfire on-line shop and through a number of local brick and mortar stores.

Here is a pic of the whole series:

the whole series

MY WEBSITE

ARTFIRE ON-LINE STORE

MY MUSIC LINKS (hear clips):

Music MYSPACE

My band, Saratoga Faire’s MYSPACE

My Renaissance band MYSPACE: The Spirites Consort

MY MUSIC IN ON-LINE STORES:

CD Baby

Amazon

InandOutRecords (Europe)

My band, Saratoga Faire, on CD Baby

card for Mom

Mom

© 2006

Now that Easter is over, I'm busy listing and making Mother's Day items.

This is an older design, but it is the first time I am selling it on-line (it has been in brick and mortar stores since 2006). It is a 5" x 7" greeting card on CS2 cover stock with a satin finish on the outside and mat finish on the inside. 

And you can get it directly through my Artfire on-line shop through this link.

MY WEBSITE

ARTIFE ON-LINE STORE

MY MUSIC LINKS (hear clips):

Music MYSPACE

My band, Saratoga Faire’s MYSPACE

My Renaissance band MYSPACE: The Spirites Consort

MY MUSIC IN ON-LINE STORES:

CD Baby

Amazon

InandOutRecords (Europe)

My band, Saratoga Faire, on CD Baby

new mother's and father's day greeting cards

Heart Flower for Mom
© 2011

Dad, Light of My Life

© 2011

These are my latest creations for Mother's Day and Father's Day (and probably the last for this year). They match (a bit) as I had symmetry in mind when designing them.

I have them for sale in my on-line Artfire shop. The mother's day card is through this link and the father's day card is through this link. I will also have them for sale in a number of brick and mortar stores in my area after the Easter holiday has passed.

WEBSITE

ARTFIRE ON-LINE STORE

MY MUSIC LINKS (hear clips):

Music MYSPACE

My band, Saratoga Faire’s MYSPACE

My Renaissance band MYSPACE: The Spirites Consort

MY MUSIC IN ON-LINE STORES:

CD Baby

Amazon

InandOutRecords (Europe)

My band, Saratoga Faire, on CD Baby

Shamrock with Knotted Background plus What Happens When You Spend Too Much Time on Etsy

note: copyright watermarks do not appear in actual image.

I was uploading the above image on Etsy last night after a full, exhausting day. It is a greeting card on off white, vanilla colored card stock. Then I went to bed. This is what happened:

I dreamt that Etsy charged me $85 to upload the image of the shamrock. I contacted them on the phone and said: "My understanding is that a listing is 20 cents, not 85 dollars!"

The woman on the phone told me that there was nothing she could do and that I needed to talk to my bank representative. So I waited in line at the bank and finally talked to a teller. I was passed off to a number of bank employeees. Every time I was passed off, I got more and more angry (as if they were doing it on purpose to make my life miserable... which is about how I feel about banks these days, especially the ones that have been bailed out, that they create circumstances to keep/make the general populace in debt in any possible way, especially through deregulation and through convincing the government that they are too big to fail).

Finally when I got to an employee that could give me some answers (an employee in a tight business suit... it was so tight, in fact, that it hugged her knees together so that she couldn't move them apart at all: not even sit in a natural way, but off to one side). She got on her computer and told me that the reason that the listing was 85 dollars was because I had uploaded a huge picture.

"But, it's a greeting card! And I can't make 85 dollars on a greeting card! I just wouldn't upload such a huge image when the product itself is so small!"

And then she turned her monitor around to show me. Just one pixel of the image took up the whole screen and you had to scroll like mad to see the whole image. In fact, you couldn't see that it was a shamrock at all because all you saw was one huge pixel after another.

Of course, I was laughing when I awoke and so was everyone else in my life. "That'll cost you at least $1,000 in postage to send that shamrock!" someone said. "Also, you'll need a tractor trailer truck to move that shamrock!"

My Website

Music MYSPACE (hear clips)

My Etsy on-line store and Artfire on-line store for purchasing some of my CDs and some of my art

My band site: Saratoga Faire

My Renaissance band MYSPACE: The Spirites Consort (hear clips)

Purchasing our Saratoga Faire CD on CD Baby

A Good Witch Encourages a Blue Jay

Note: the embedded copyrights in the online image do not appear in the actual product.

This is a greeting card design I completed a couple of weeks ago. It is now up in my Etsy shop.

Each card is signed and is on linen paper and is printed with archival inks rated to last 100 years, thus they are suitable for framing. I print this way for a limited period of time to test the design, to decipher whether I really like the colors, to get the design out to the market right away so I don’t have to wait through match prints & readjusting colors to CMYK and to see what customers reactions will be before I commit the design to a big press run with a barcode. So, they are special.

I usually charge $3.75 a card at the few galleries and shops I take these designs to (the cost of ink, paper and gallery commission justifies the higher cost), but I am selling them online for under $3 a piece (of course, there is a $1.50 shipping and handling charge, but this is still a good deal!).

As for the design: yes, the witch has pumpkin wings and she is perhaps more related to the faerie species than the witch species as she is somewhat ethereal with her wings, her dress of vines that one can see through and her love of the blue jay (nature).

 My Website

Music MYSPACE (hear clips)

My Etsy on-line store for some of my CDs and some of my art

My band site: Saratoga Faire