Lots of Work

As the title says, I have been busy the last week or so with a bunch of new commissions, most of them from Chris Field for his Otherverse stuff. Here's a little preview of what I am working on:


I don't normally post sketches, as I tend to look upon my own with disdain for the looseness and overall messiness, but I know people sometimes like to see the "works in progress." I've always wanted to do a Mucha-style illustration, and Chris's "neo-Witch Midwife" commission gave me a perfect opportunity to do so. I'll try to post the finished images as I get them done.

On top of commissions, I've got the impending artprize 2010 to work on. I'm feeling nervous already, since I haven't started any of the drawing yet, even though I have, technically, until September. I know how stressed out I was last year scrambling to finish all of my Tarot cards, and I definitely don't want a repeat. Hopefully fully illustrating a fantasy fairy tale won't be as crazy as an entire deck of Tarot cards ... riiiiiight. At least I KNOW that I can finish these huge projects; it makes me feel better knowing I've got that going for me, at least.

In non-art related news, Fiona is growing SO FAST and is a little girl all of a sudden. When did this happen? She's almost 19 months old. We went to the Grand Rapids Children's Museum yesterday with my best friends, Kate and Brad, and their son James, who is two and a half months older than the Fij and who I babysit once a week. (It's so cute that they are growing up together. Kate watches Ona once a week as well.) They had a BLAST and I realized how old I was when I was tired after an hour of chasing after a running around little girl!
She loved those Legos. Dad will be pleased!

I'm done!

Yes! I finished my Tarot card set this week! The work isn't over, however; I have to get them printed (and based on my first quote, it will be quite costly) into decks. I also have to find someone on the artprize venue list who is willing to host me. :( I'm getting depressed thinking that all of this work will be for naught ...
Anyways, I won't bore you with the sad details of my life. I'll save that for a later date, hehe. Firstly, here's a "Christmas face" shot of Ona as she got her birthday present, a light up, music playing shopping cart for her to walk around with.
And here's the last of the major arcana cards. Next week I'll post the Aces, then the Twos, etc. If you really want to see them all in their colorful glory, however, click here.

Grumpy

The title says it all. I'm having a Monday for sure. I'll post some more tarot cards to make up for my lack of posts last week. I'm getting a little burnt out, but I only have 7 more cards to go! Full speed ahead, I say. Lots of personal stuff has been making me sad, thus the crankiness. Needless to say, the last three weeks have been dragging on and on.
But, to help cheer me up, I'm gonna post a more current picture of my beautiful daughter Fiona. She'll be a year old July 19! I can't believe it!