Memories are a good way of bringing light back into your life, even for a moment. This poor dragon seems to have lost his love somewhere along the way, but at least he can still call back those memories.

Alright! I finally managed to get an Illustration Friday piece done before Thursday I have mixed feelings about this one, though. I like the idea of it, but I'm not sure I like how it actually turned out. BUT, I learned something from it, at any rate.


Click for larger view

Size: 9x12
Media: Prismacolor markers, pencils, white gel pen and watercolors
Status: For Sale

Cat and I took a trip to Erie the other day, to pick up his car after getting it fixed. After we got the car back, we headed over to Michael's so I could get some hard to find art crap (in particular, my lovely new masking fluid and organic cotton yarn), and then over to Borders.

I read PostSecret faithfully. I love how open people are when they get the chance to be anonymous, and I've loved the stories of people leaving their secrets in the PostSecret books in stores and libraries across the country. So I decided it was time to see if I could find any secrets.

I got into Borders and instantly wondered where on earth the books would be. A quick check on the computer told me they were in Art and Architecture. Which was worth at least a small laugh. I got over to the little section and got rid of Cat so I could start my search.

The first book I looked in contained this secret:

"My exboyfriend said I never told him anything. I bought the postsecret book, wrote down every secret I ever had on the pages, and sent him the book. I hope he takes me back."

I felt like I was looking at something sacred. It was almost like hearing someone's prayers and secret hopes. On the one hand I wanted to keep it because it was special and beautiful, but on the other hand I didn't feel like I had the right to. I set the secret aside and continued to look.

I went a couple more books deep and found this one:

"Sometimes I sit and wonder, why do they love me when I'm so horrible to them."

Again, I felt a little ashamed at looking at this piece of crinkled paper. I never had any problems reading the secrets on the website. But the physical papers, the torn edges and messy writing, made me realize that these are actual people leaving these notes.

I looked through a lot of the rest of the books until I dropped one rather noisily, and a few minutes later a lady came and sat down in the chair in my section. I was sure she was there to make sure I wasn't molesting the books. I didn't find any more secrets, but I was happy that I had found the ones I had, and took them off to the computer geek section where I knew I'd find Cat.

I sat down at one of the tables and demanded that he hand over his pen. I then wrote down a response to each secret, snuck back up to the Art and Architecture section, and put the secrets back where I found them. My responses?

"Even if he doesn't take you back, I hope you've learned to love yourself for who you are."

"Maybe they know how special and wonderful you are under there."

This wasn't a routine rest stop for the little bird, let me tell you. He was so scared that he dropped over backwards and just remembered to open his wings and fly away before he hit the pavement. The dragon, on the other hand, was a little embarrassed and a touch guilty, as well.

I finally got my hands on some masking fluid, and I had fun experimenting a little bit with this piece.


Click for larger view


Size: 9x12
Media: Prismacolor markers, pencils, white gel pen and watercolors
Status: For Sale

But only because it's so bright and cute. I just loved making this bag! This is actually my second attempt at this pattern, but the last time I made it, I followed the instructions exactly. I used cotton yarn and made both the bag and the handle longer. Well, when I actually went to use the bag, it stretched so far that it was like three feet long when I was holding it with stuff in it. That wouldn't do.

So I shortened it a bit and tried using acrylic yarn, and of course I had to make it cute in the process It's currently for sale at my Etsy Shop, if anyone's interested.

So I've been taking a nice long unofficial hiatus lately. I left because I felt alone and like my efforts were totally worthless, and instead went off to play with my old pals from the cyberpet community. And although I've gotten a lot of commissions lately, I've remembered now why I broke out and went off on my own.

My cyberpet community is a safe place for me, I've realized. It's a place of friendly people that I've known for years. I love the atmosphere and I love, most of all, that people love me. In that community, my art is fantastic, and that's a huge thrill to me. I want to be recognized and praised for all of my hard work, and it's so easy with them. They're all generally young and less experienced that I am, so it's almost a given that I'm going to be seen as good. And the community as a whole is only a few hundred people wide, and my own personal forum only has about 25 active people on it, so it's not like I have much competition anyway.

But that's the problem, I think. I have nothing to push me forward, nothing to really challenge me. Before, when I was working on my blog and my art over at DeviantArt, I felt like I had a lot still to learn (which I do!), but with the cyberpet people, I feel pretty good with the skills I have now and I don't see any reason to advance. And somewhere inside of me, I know that's wrong.

I don't want to give up my community, though. My forum feels like my family, and now that I have my girls back, I don't want to let them all down again. Besides, they're great inspirations to me, and help me feel like I'm not such a failure. But I know that I need to deviate from them a little and start working on my art career again. I need to focus on improving my art and getting it out there for others to buy! That's my dream, and I can't let that go now. I'm still full of potential and I'm ready to show the world that I have a lot to offer.

And in other news, I finally opened my Etsy shop. I was a little whimsical, as usual, and named it Mother Nature's Child. I was inspired by Paul McCartney's "Mother Nature's Son", which is a really sweet song. I also named it that in part because I plan on selling some of my crafts that take the place of disposable everyday items, like makeup pads, shopping bags, vegetable bags, swiffer-style mop pads, as well as pot scrubbies that don't fall apart with two uses and dish cloths. I'm excited. Now I just need to get some good photos of all those things so I can start selling them.

But yeah. My hiatus is over, and I've learned a valuable lesson.

I'm not dead, honest. I just don't want to work on this blog right now. As much as I know I should, I can't get myself to.

When I decided to be an artist and to do the traditional artist thing, I gave up the community I had before that. And I know it's going to sound crazy, but that community was a cyberpet community that I've been part of since I was about 14. In case you're wondering, cyberpets are little pieces of pixel art (usually) that people "adopt" and put on their webpage. And although I love the people and the imagination and fun of cyberpets, I was always slightly embarrassed about this because it seems so very childish.

So I gave it up, and tried to strike out as an artist in the art community. But I'm not used to not being known. Being in the cyberpet community for almost ten years now, everyone knows who Jewel is and that she's a pretty talented, pretty nice person. But the art people know nothing about be and don't care to know about me, because there are millions of other people that they don't know and care about. I'm just a face in the crowd, lost in the ocean of paint and pencils. And it was a very lonely place, being solely an artist.

But a random conversation with one of my old fans gave me the desire to bring my cyberpet website and forum back to life, and since I've done that, I just can't bring myself to work on my blog. I'm fairly certain no one reads it, so it's not like it would matter much if I just quit updating it. And it's depressing to me to think that no one is paying a speck of attention to what I'm doing.

And that's all.

Per usual, this is extremely late. I mean, another hour and it will be Friday again and there will be another word. But I just had to get this picture out, because it was extremely adorable.

And although she looks very sweet, she's actually sour.


Click for larger view

Media: Photoshop Elements

I have been keeping my eye on this next artist for a while now. There's something extremely magical and wonderful about his art that I hope you'll enjoy as much as I do. I know it's late, again, but I'll try harder to get it on time next week. Promise! Until them, I'm sure you'll enjoy looking at Shinya's art!

I'm also not completely sure how to put his name here on my blog (in the Japanese culture, the family name comes first), but since he has his name ordered in the English fashion on his Deviant Art page, and that's the page I'll be pointing you to the most, I'll keep it that way.

Name: Shinya Okayama
Style: Classic Fairytale
Galleries: Okayama Shinya, Deviant Art

As with my last review, it's extremely hard to pin down a style for Shinya's beautiful, surreal and dreamy art. On the one hand, it has such a lovely, innocent feeling to it that I instantly know that it belongs in books for children. It has those charms of the classic fairtales. But on the other hand, his art is also wonderful and beautiful on its own, and needs no words to explain it. Whatever style this art happens to be, I feel that I have fallen very much in love with it.

What I love most about all of the pieces I see of Shinya's art is the amount of innocent wonder and joy. These pieces bring me back to the place of Goldylocks and the Three Bears, to Snow White and all her little animal friends, and The Wind in the Willows. That animals talk and laugh and love is something that children never question; they simply believe and know, and Shinya has captured this belief beautifully in his work. For example, his Fishes Consulting:



The little girl looks so intent on her conversation with the fishes, but what amuses me the most with this piece is the expression of the boy. He looks so very surprised that this girl is talking to fish, and yet, it looks like he himself has a little rat friend by his side. The whole picture is so well balanced visually that I find my eyes wandering down to the little girl with the fish, back up to the boy and his rat, over to that beautiful white creature in the back (deer? sheep?), and back down along those roots to the girl.

Shinya has a keen ability to add detail to his pieces without adding too much. There's enough to make the picture interesting, but not so much as to be overwhelming. The best example that I can find of this sort of detailing is his The Ancient Switch:



In a very efficient way, he shows form, volume and space in this drawing, as well as much lovely detail. Those vines and roots look so real. It makes you wonder what the switch was for and what it could possible do. I love how there are trees growing on trees, adding roots on roots. The small stone statue in the corner is a fun little surprise, and the expression on the girl's face is priceless.

As another example of his dreamy imagination and visual story telling, let me show you his The Raven's Story:



The small, unnoticed details of this piece are what make it special to me, along, of course, with the lovely raven telling a story. The rocks in the background look as if they're sparkling or shimmering. Are they just wet with dew, or is that a little magic? The lovely little mushroom in the foreground is so adorable and whimsical that it really adds life to the whole piece. And don't forget the look on the chlidren's eyes as they listen sleepily to Mr. Raven's tale.

My favorite piece to date has to be Shinya's wonderful The Change of Clothes:



I get the feeling that his art work has a lot more meaning than I'll ever get out of it, most evidently with this piece (it is the year of the rat, isn't it?). Somehow, though I don't quite understand his art or this piece as much as he does, it still makes me smile and remember when I was a young girl still, full of dreams and potential.

I'm not sure which path Mr. Okayama is taking with his art, but I know that where ever he takes it and to whomever he shares it with, he will leave behind big smiles and soft hearts.

Art © Shinya Okayama and posted with his permission.

I know I didn't post a Saturday artist review, and it's not because I'm lazy. I just couldn't find any artists that were interested. And this week, I even asked a couple of artists if I could review their work, so that I'd have at least one lined up for next week. I was trying to be smart!

Thankfully, though, I finally heard from one of them today and I plan on reviewing their work tomorrow. So hold on to your horses!

I've realized recently that, somewhere along the way, I've made up a lot of my own anatomy. I've always been the type to draw creatures, people and plants from my mind rather than looking at them (despite the fact that I have a canny ability to replicate what I see), and in doing so, I've kind of messed up some anatomy. Shoulders don't go as high as they should. Heads are usually a little larger that they would be in nature. Breasts are higher, legs are longer, and eyes are larger.

Now, I know a ton of artists who would argue with you if you told them these things about themselves because they, too, have picked up bad anatomy along the way and to them, it looks perfectly natural. And even if they knew about the defects, a lot of artists would find it hard to resist excusing the faults by calling them stylistic. But I've decided to take the high road with this subject and start sketching pieces drawn from life (or pictures of life, at any rate).

I've always admired the artists who could seamlessly blend their style into a figure and yet still make it look life-like and very real. The artist who comes to mind most is Julie Dilon. Although her art is stylistic and artsy, it's also incredibly full of life and detail.

After trying to acquire this skill by practicing and somehow just developing it, and failing, of course, I discovered that, to be able to make your art stylistically realistic, you have to start with life and then add style. I've been trying to do it the other way around for so long that I totally messed myself up.

So my advice to you all is, if you want to add real life and realistic detail to your pieces, study real life instead of depending on your own imagination. Sketch still-lives, nude models, pets and people at the park. Anything you can think of and anything you can get your hands on. And sketch often, because that's what keeps your mind limber.

Now let's see if I can follow my own advice.

They say she was fiercely cute : D Yeah, so this is a cheap recycling of the critter I drew today, but I was thinking the whole time while I was making her, "Man, she's fiercely cute,". Or maybe it's just me.



And yes, I love pixel art.

I'm wondering suddenly; am I the only artist out there who gets totally distracted every now and again? And in that distraction takes a totally different path than they were taking a minute ago? I'd feel pretty lonely if I was.

It seems like every time I come up with a pretty good idea, before long I either get bored with it or get distracted, and start working on something else. I can feel this happening with the plans I've set before myself. Or at least, I've picked up another project along the way and I worry that I'll drop my regular art and my blog to follow that path.

No wonder I can never get anywhere!!!!

But yeah, in case you're wondering, my interests have wondered back toward pixel art again. Silly me. Won't I ever get it through my head that I won't make money doing pixel art? ...And yet I say this despite the fact that I've made more money with my pixel art than I have my regular art. Hmm... But the one thing about pixel art that I can't say about my colored pencil pieces is that I can't make and sell prints of my pixel art.

Well, I could, but that would just be weird.

But I will try to keep up with the blog and working on my regular art even if I'm falling in love with my pixels again, because, even though I give advice to stick with one kind of art, I love being a rounded person and a jack of all trades.

Another piece of obvious advice? Find your niche. Yes, that's the most obvious thing I could probably tell artists, but, you know, it's surprising how often people happily try to be Jacks of all trade and wonder why they're failing to find a place for themselves in the art world.

Of course, I'm the biggest offender of this little piece of advice. My art styles and interests always seem to be floating out in space somewhere, mostly because I don't like pinning myself down to anything in particular. Mostly because I get bored of certain types of art after a while and need something else to take its place. But I wholeheartedly agree with myself here, especially since I know I've mentioned it before; find something that pleases you and then go out and find the community that corresponds to said something.

For instance, I've decided that I really love drawing carefree fantasy type illustrations. The best niche for me, that I've found so far? Childrens' book illustration. Not only is there a lot of places for me to make a profit doing this work, but there are a load of other people doing the same thing who could give me advice and generally be helpful and friendly. If I was just floating around without any direction, I'd be pretty lonely and pretty broke.

And that's all. I hope it wasn't too obvious.

Have you ever had a bad art day? Just find that everything you do is crappy, everyone keeps criticizing your art and no one seems to understand? When you're feeling that down, imagine for a moment if one of your most prized and treasured pieces of art, that you knew was painted by a famous artist, actually ended up being done by one of his students instead.

"Francisco de Goya's arresting image of a brooding giant rising above a stampede of terrified people and animals has held pride of place for decades in Madrid's Prado museum.

But in an announcement set to raise a storm in the art world, the museum said yesterday that the celebrated El Coloso was not by the Spanish master after all, and was probably painted by a pupil in his studio." --The Independent

Can you just imagine what that would feel like? To one minute having a piece of art that's worth more than likely several million dollars, to having a pretty piece of junk? I think I would be devastated. And I think therein lies the problem.

Why is art so much more valuable depending on the artist who created it? Why should the value and opinion of this piece of art go down dramatically once people figure out it was created by a different artist? If they've loved it and felt pride for it for all these years, one would hope that they would have courage enough to stand against society and still love it.

I don't know what they plan on doing with the painting, if anything, but I truly hope that they continue to display it. It would be a shame and injustice if they removed it simply because its creator is one that doesn't have a big name.

Yes, I did skip last week's review, in case anyone was paying attention. I was off camping in the wilds of Pennsylvania with my husband, and loving it. And although I talked to Pia early in the week, I decided to wait until today to do my review. But you'll be satisfied you waited!

Name: Pia Van Ravenstein
Style: Spiritual Realistic/Stylized Animal
Galleries: The Artwork of Pia Van Ravenstein, Deviant Art

The most striking thing about Pia's art is simply the fact that it's so very different, beautiful and unique that you almost have to create a whole new category for it. I feel that there is something out there, some name for her art, but I can't find it, and somehow this makes her artwork even more beautiful.

Another wonderful thing about this artist is that she's so closely ground to her motherland and with nature and all that is around her. You can almost feel the spirit of the creatures in her pieces, as if they're truly alive and breathing, because she's brought in their essence so very well. And her lovely style whispers of art from natives of her Australian home, and remind me of my own native heritage and the desire to pay it homage.

Pia does very spiritual work, focusing on animal totems drawn with much life. But what I like most about her art is that she combines very life-like animal renditions with vibrant colors and striking patterns. Take, for example, her Virginia Opossum as Totem:



The colors are the first thing to strike me; they're so vibrant and so well balanced. But the eye is automatically drawn to the serene figure of the opossum with those bright eyes. And there's something very hypnotic and maybe a little soothing about the repeated swirling designs incorporated into the background; they add so much interest and texture without being overbearing.

It's not just the colors and the well-drawn animals that bring these pieces to life, either. The geometric elements added both show movement and really take your mind to a deeper place, somewhere nature is worshiped and revered. Such as her Australian Magpie - Totem:



Notice how colors, shapes and line all work together to bring drama and tension through to the viewer and make them feel like they're moving with the magpie. Doesn't it just set you free?

My favorite (I think; it's so hard to choose just one) to date has to be her Wild Horse as Totem. It simply speaks to my soul.



The gentle wind blowing through the leaves and tossing the horse's mane; those serene eyes watching the world before it; the specks of color and light between the darkness. All of these things draw me in and makes my spirit feel like dancing. I don't think I can even explain what it is exactly that makes this piece so beautiful; you simply have to see it to experience it, and I feel that this is true of all of Pia's work.

Pia does a lot of totem pieces, and if you're in to that sort of thing, you should really look at her art and see if any of her animals make your spirit dance as well. Although it looks like she most enjoys doing animals from her homeland of Australia, she also does creatures from other parts of the world as well, so give her website a look. You never know what you'll find.

I feel that Pia's work has improved and really gotten a character and feel all of it's own within the couple of years that she's been on Deviant Art, and I just know that it will continue to change and grow and really stand out among other artists.

Art © Pia Van Ravenstein and posted with her permission.