Probably a little damp....and dark,

...so, I don't think I would choose to build my studio inside a mushroom, although I bet the walls provide great insulation.  Quiet, ya know...peaceful.  Not sure how I would deal with the lack of sunshine. It'd be handy to have  my pet deer truck art supplies from the city though.  Save on gas.  It's a thought.   Happy Weekend all!

Studio'shroom

Digital Illustration

Copyright 2012 TwoDressesStudio

All Rights Reserved

Image Credits with thanks to Holliewood Studios (deer, saddle, room,  grasses, suspension bridge,

Tumble Fish Studio - legs and clouds, Finecrafted Designs - figure, easel.  Mushroom

Starter image

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It's been a little smokey here this week :0)

"When a lovely flame dies, smoke gets in yours eyes"

 10 x 10 inch Digital Illustration

Copyright 2012 TwoDressesStudio

All Rights Reserved

Image credits with thanks to:  Holliewood Studios Light My Fire and Totally Wild Dezinez, 

figure from the public domain Lyrics:  Otto Harbach 1933 for the operatta - Roberta (source:Wikipedia)

 

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The Blog Hop, Help Me Choose a Moo, and Enter to Win a Copy of Seth Apter's New Book!

 

THE BLOG HOP

Today it's my pleasure  to introduce you to a new art book that recently  hit the bookshelves titled The Pulse of Mixed Media.   Authored by Seth Apter, a mixed media artist, and now published author,    I was first introduced to Seth  four years ago by another artist, Debbie Mihalick, a fellow Western Canadian. 

As Seth 'hops' around the countryside, promoting his new book "The Pulse of Mixed Media"  he invited  us to hop around a few blogs within the community of mixed media and altered art enthusiasts as well as answer a few questions  also answered by artists  featured in his book.  

My responses - 

Is creativity built-in, learned, or both? Without an ounce of doubt, I believe we are all born with creative abilities and it is our individual experiences as we grow and develop that determine   how often  and in what genre we seek creative expression. 

How has the Internet changed your artistic practice?  The internet has given me an unlimited  free admission pass to travel world wide through this century and several recorded before it, to access material I could never have  hoped to  enjoyed in dozens of lifetimes otherwise. My life is enriched by it daily and my creative processes continually influenced in ways too lengthy to list.

Do you enjoy working more intuitively or by carefully thinking through your process? Although I  enjoy working both intuitively and cognitively, I prefer the little surprises that are often tucked away within my subconscious.  I think when anyone manages to escape the 'shoulds' and the 'musts' in any exercise, what transpires is the unique essence of one's soul.

I invite you to 'hop' around some of the blogs featured in Seth's mini-tour.  "Hop" links provided below by clicking on each name -

April 2 - Rice Freeman-Zachary

April 3 - Stephanie Lee 

April 4 - Ali Edwards

April 5 - Ro Bruhn

April 6 - Roben-Marie Smith

April 7 - Nancy Lefko

April 8 - Kelly Kilmer

April 9 - Trudi Sissons

April 10 - Melody Nunez

April 11 - Dina Wakley

April 12 - Stephanie Hilvitz

 And if you missed my post yesterday, it's not too late to Help Me Choose My Moos, and sign up to my newsletter to enter a chance to win your own copy of Seth's new book!   Details here

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Will you help me choose my MOOS ? Vote for your top five choices and in turn

you will be entered to win, not once, but potentially four times!

Here's the scoop: 

Last week, Marsha (Tumble Fish Studio) created an amazing little invention called "The Moo Finder".  It's an easy to use,  digital PNG device that allows you to frame  vignettes within your own pieces of art, sized precisely to fit the dimensions of a Moo Card! And the best part, is that it's free in the April 2012  free zine "The Deviant Muse" available  here. 

Lucky for me, Marsha's timing was perfect and I immediately began to use "The Tumble Fish Moo Finder' to create a new set of business  cards since I only a handful left from my last order.  Time flew, and before I knew it I had created 24 moos....!    The only problem  now is the challenge of paring them down to perhaps an even dozen.

And, that's why I need your help, because I can't decide!  Please?

Will  you help me by spending a few moments to  cast  your vote for your top five choices  in order of preference?  I've numbered each card  above in my  blog header hopefully making  the choices easy to see and read.  I hope you find it "a-moo-sing." 

 

 In turn,   I've tried to create some hopefully enticing  incentives  - three sets of the final twelve moo cards, along with a chance to win a copy of Seth Apter's new book "The Pulse of Mixed Media."

There are  several  ways to enter a chance to win -

1.  Vote for your top five by leaving a comment on this blog post, or to increase your chances of winning, 

2.  Grab the poster above, (right click>Save As) and  post it on your blog with a link back to this post and your name will be entered three more times for a chance to win, or complete 1 and 2 above, and then

3.  Sign up to my newsletter (where I plan to keep readers abreast of upcoming contests, and giveaways)  by leaving your email address in the above right sidebar of my blog and your name will  also be entered to win a copy of Seth Apter's new art book "The Pulse of Mixed Media."

Winners will be announced May 12th, 2012

Thanks for your help and Good Luck~!

(ps - as always, I'll add in a few other surprises)

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A new take on old stories and a twist on a new story

I doubt I'll ever really know why my brain seems hardwired to recall storytales, songs, and rhymes from my childhood, nor do I  have the ability to willfully end these thoughts from surfacing.    They seem to happily pop out of my consciousness, evoked by images (like a red hood) or a pig....  Suffice is to say, I'm grateful these recollections are never anything but pleasant and indicative of my magical childhood, rich with love and laughter, thanks to my dear parents.  

Ah yes, I could decide to supress their expression in my artwork, but why would I?  Instead, I enjoy the smiles they elicit personally  combined with the hope you may find a way to curve the corners of your lips or of others who may stop for a glance!

Volume Two - Little Red Riding Hood
( oh, the chase continues, but Red is always triumphant of course)
Copyright 2012 TwoDressesStudio
All Rights Reserved
Image Credits:  Finecrafted Designs, Hidden Vintage Studios, Holliewood Studios MizzD Stock

New Ending

 And this little piggy cried "Hee Hee Hee", all the way home

(never much cared for the original ending, much less, the piggy who had none - found it quite distressing)

Copyright 2012 TwoDressesStudio

All Rights Reserved

Image Credits:  Tumble Fish Studio (Pig), Holliewood Studios and Art by January

 *********

Over the last week I've had the honor of  daily visits from a  male ring-necked pheasant. The first few sightings I chalked up to coincidence.  But, these aren't binocular dependent sightings - he has been precocious enough so as to walk right up to the backdoor of the house, less than 4 feet away.   After four days of this,  I started to research pheasant habitats and nesting habits, fingers crossed I may shed new light on  the possible  motivations behind my daily visitors' behavior.  Much to my delight, I am now optimistic (but guardedly so) we have pheasants nesting in the back of our yard under a Russian Olive tree. 

 After showing up for the sixth straight day over the past weekend,  I ventured out the back door,  hoping to gather more clues.  As I approached the area at the back of our yard, between the coulees and a row of poplar trees, I inadvertently flushed out the male pheasant and his mate from the grassland area below the Russian Olive tree.  They took to the air  in a series of loud flutters and flaps.  I confess, this was the most exciting part of my weekend, and even today, I remain fascinated and fixated on keeping one eye focused on the tree, hoping for another sighting.   And that, is my preamble to 'explain' this new work - 

Pheasant Under Grass - The Mystery Continues

(stay tuned)

Copyright 2012 TwoDressesStudio

All Rights Reserved

Image Credits:  Holliewood Studios, Tumble Fish Studio, SJD Designs, Art by January

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Beasts of Burden

Good Monday Morning again!

Time flies having the weekend alone to play with this incredibly rich new collection of images from Holliewood Studios titled Beasts of Burden - (get it here)  If you enjoy creating digital illustrations, then I guarantee for $5.60, you'll have hours of entertainment.  I did!

These still need a bit of tweaking, but I thought I'd get the word out!  Enjoy! (See credits below)

The Big Apple

The Cherry Picker Fashionista

Bed Head

Twilight Mirage

Note:  All images from the Beasts of Burden - Holliewood Studios

(Exceptions: 1,3,4 - figures- Cranach, 2 - figure - magazine cut out)

Copyright 2012 TwoDressesStudio

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Borrowing from Rupert Bunny...

To start the week, I thought I would share a couple of  "before and afters"   originating  from a painting by Rupert Bunny,  (29 September 1864 – 25 May 1947) an Australian painter as well as by Skylite's Muse - a Deviant Art photographer/artist.

Digital Composition - figure - Rupert Bunny, background - mine.

A Summer Morning c. 1897

 Rupert Bunny

"To Give Her Poor Dog a Bone..."

Digital Composition

Image Credits - Rupert Bunny (figure)

All other images by Art by January - Little Red Hen

And below,  just for fun,  two 'narratives' I created with "Chicken Little" in mind :0)  an old folk tale that came to mind when I went to work creating some digitals for January to highlight her new kit "Little Red Hen"

 "The Sky is Falling"

Image Credits:  Art by January for the fox, dog, mouse and background

Holliewood Studios - truck, and figure(body) from Twilite's Muse (Deviant Art)

Photograph by Twilite's Muse - Deviant Art

Finally, from Tumble Fish Studio and Hidden Vintage Studios, this one...

"And I say to myself, what a wonderful world..." - Louis Armstrong

Image Credits - as above plus buildings in background - Tangie Baxter

Have a wonderfully creative week!

NB - All above digitals copyright 2012 TwoDressesStudio

All Rights Reserved

Please do not redistribute or copy without permission

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WanderLust Digital Collage

The figure and many of the background elements come from Finecrafted Designs "Journaling Tiles" - Happy Sunday!

"WanderLust"

8 x 8 inch digital collage

Copyright 2012 TwoDressesStudio

All Rights Reserved

Image Credits:

Finecrafted Designs Journaling Tiles

 plus images from my own archives and bits from a map

by Nick Bantock (10% is OK!)

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In between uploading more butterflies...

...I've been creating a few new digitals for Tumble Fish Studio and a new designer - Hidden Vintage Studios.

The first one below I decided to name "Middle Space" - sort of that spot half way through the day when I take a break and dream of what is and what could be! 

Middle Space

Copyright 2012 TwoDressesStudio

All Rights Reserved

Image Credits - Tumble Fish Studio

Ten

Copyright 2012 TwoDressesStudio

All Rights Reserved

Image Credits - Figure - Hidden Vintage Studios, all other images - Tumble Fish Studio

Stay tuned for more butterflies and thanks for your visit and comments!

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take to the air

February already? No.   Say it isn't so.  This just may be at some level, a self-portrait as I run around, trying to organize myself to leave for a change of scenery for a few weeks.  Packing.  ug.  It falls in the same category as d e n t i s t.  Having spent years in a job that had me on planes regularly, I came to loathe having to leave home and I'm afraid I've generalized this to include packing for a vacation.    And having developed a mixed media habit, it's not so much the choosing of clothes to pack as it is trying to decide which art supplies to take.  I suppose digital art has its advantages as far as packing is concerned and yet, this time 'round, I'm hoping my muse may cooperate with some acrylic paint and canvases, oh and maybe some,, and ok I can fit that... well, just in case... will my new printer fit?  Critical decisions...not.

Does the drill sound familiar?  

Like a - with its--off  Mail Art

Copyright 2012 TwoDressesStudio

All Rights Reserved

Image Credits with thanks to 

Tumble Fish Studio, CrowAbout StudioB, Holliewood Studios, K. Pertiet and

other creative commons findings

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