Have you ever had one of those moments where you thought you couldn't get any stupider? And then you proved yourself wrong? Well, let me introduce you to my stupid.

I was drawing a lovely dragon today:



Got the pencil sketch down, laid the ink lines really neatly, was having a great time and enjoying myself. Well, as much as I can when I'm doing art. I've noticed I get really anxious when I'm doing art. Fidgety. I just can't keep still long. Anyway, I started putting the masking fluid down (that's the orange stuff). Once I finished that and was working on closing the jar up and cleaning the brush out, I noticed the lid had a huge glob of solid masking rubber on it and decided to peel it off.

I don't know the exacts of what happened next, but I do know that the lid went zipping out of my hand and landed on the floor. I angrily put the jar of fluid down on the desk and went down to fetch the annoying lid, and when I got back up, I noticed, to my horror, a HUGE puddle of fluid on the one corner of my piece. It was practically a lake. Annoyed but not discouraged, I knew that if I just spread it around a little and let it dry, I could just peel it off.

Unfortunately for me, I forgot that I'm impatient. I also forgot that masking fluid is wet. And, on top of all that, I forgot that wet paper is prone to tearing. So even though the corner had bubbled up despite being taped down, which I knew to mean that it was still damp, I peeled the masking fluid away. Along with the top layer of paper. Luckily I'm using Bristol board so it didn't tear the entire thing away, but nevertheless.

Argh.



So I don't really know what I'll do. It wouldn't be a problem if I was using colored pencils alone, except I had planned on making the background a watercolor wash of some sort. The finished surface absorbs the color differently from a torn surface, so that'll just look crazy. So maybe what I'll do is cut a piece of Bristol board and glue it down over the damaged part...

No one will notice, right?

I like to say that the main reason I haven't broken into the professional world of art is because I never knew where to start, who to contact, or even where to look to find this information. And that was all true, too. The art world has this thing with mystery and elusiveness, to the point where, if it was a person, you might think it had some mental problems or a weird fetish.

Well, the clouds have finally opened and the sun of happiness and delight is shining down on me! That's right, my friend. I finally got my hands on a real live copy of the 2009 Children's Writer's & Illustrator's Market book. I'd been eyeballing this book for about a year now, and had actually seen the 2009 Artist's & Graphic Designer's Market book while I was searching for the Children's book, but I decided that I'd probably be much happier as a children's book illustrator. Lord knows I'm almost mature enough to draw for children.

I just got the book this afternoon, but just flipping through it and reading the first couple of articles has convinced me that it was a really smart purchase. It tells you a lot of things other people skip over because they figure you already know it. Like, for instance, only about 50% of book publishers will accept your work if you don't have an agent/rep. However, since you don't generally make as much with magazine deals, reps/agents won't even bother with those so anyone and their brother can submit to them.

I'm pretty excited about the whole thing. Plus it's really warm outside today, and according to my body, warm sunny days = ambition and a go-get-em attitude. Hooray for natural cycles!

If I find out any other interesting tidbits, I'm sure I'll share. But only if you're nice to me.

....I think something is out to get me. I really do. I was just typing up a post about how I hadn't been around here much, and how I have a ton of art to show off when BAM! My post dissappeared!!!!

Well. I guess it was less dramatic than that. I accidentally hit the back button and, well, you know how that goes. But it's easier for me to blame it on mysterious forces than to recognize that I'm a silly.

Anyway, I have some art to show off that I'm just dying to put on here! I don't really know why I haven't been posting my art (that's slackerese for "I'm totally lazy and would rather be goofing off"), but at any rate, I have a few pieces that need to be shown to the world!

So let's get down to business, yo. I colored my IF picture for the word "fleeting", and I'm rather happy with the colors (though the skin could have had more contrast. Ah well!). I never did get around to posting it to IF, but then again, I've been very busy being lazy.

And she's still nude, of course.



Oh yeah, in case you hadn't noticed, there's two pictures there. I really like the sketch and the colored version as two separate pieces, and I thought I'd show them side by side. They just seem to have very different feels to them, and it's always fun to see a work in progress, yeah?

Alright, the next piece is a naked man. Just... a guy that's nude. Chad mentioned that I hadn't drawn any men in a while, and after thinking back and realizing that, yes, it has been like a year or more, I decided that I should probably start with the basics. So after searching around DeviantArt for naked man models, and blushing a bit along the way, I decided on a model and just drew him. It was fun. I feel like I learned a lot, too. Like that I usually draw men as skinny women.

You can look at the reference photo and then my drawing . Or you can look at my drawing first, whichever. But I decided that I wouldn't post that one in plain sight, in case there are any heterosexual guys looking through my blog. I don't want to frighten them off with questions about their sexuality. Guys can be like that, you know.

And! One more picture, and I'm pretty happy with this one. I decided that it was time to create myself a deviantID, which is a little picture you can have on your DeviantArt profile page that... I dunno, is you? Most people don't actually have pictures of themselves, though. So I decided to break the mold and actually draw me!

Except it's a much cuter version of me, but nevertheless 99% pure Julie.



I cheated a bit by taking a picture then tracing the lines for the table, chair and lamp, as well as getting a skeleton down before drawing the rest of the girl. But I really feel that, by imitating real life, I'm learning a lot about how to represent it better. I don't want to have a really realistic style, but I don't want my anatomy to look off and wrong, either. So I'm trying to reeducate myself on the basics so I can incorporate it into my style. Plus, I've always thought that people need to practice drawing realistic anatomy before moving their style to something less realistic. Otherwise, you start creating your own anatomy in your head, and it looks so right to you that you don't understand when someone tells you that it's wrong.

Anyway, I hope this is the beginning of a lot more art!

So IF's word this week is Fleeting. I wasn't going to do it... until my muse came to visit me one night. He hasn't been coming around so much lately, but I guess he decided there was nothing better to do. Plus I guess I was in the mood to finally listen to him... and I'm extremely glad that I did.

I don't think I'm done with this piece quite yet, but just getting the sketch out of my system felt really nice. It's amazing how easy it is to forget what it feels like when you haven't done it in a while.

I can tell I'm starting to ramble emotionally, so I'll just post the picture and run along now. Some nudity, but hell, it's my blog after all. And besides, it's not like disgusting nudity, like the naked girls men tend to draw. With cannon ball breasts. You know what I'm talking about.

So this week's illustration Friday is Poise, and as it just so happens, I recently did a pretty little piece of pixel art.... Well, I think you'll agree with me that she just oozes poise. If you can ooze while being poised.



She's a Water Fairy, and I just like her. She's really shiny, but on the other hand, so is water. I plan on using her in my cyberpet website, in a maze that I've been working for what seems like 10 years. She'll have three sisters, too; Air, Fire and Earth, but they're not done yet. Soon!

So you know what's annoying? December comes along, and I'm totally full of the creative juices. I'm making cookies and bread and Christmas presents by the bucketful, and I think, "Wow, this is fun! I'm really creative and inspired! I bet things will only get better from here!" Then January gets here, and it's like someone dumped a big bucket of icy cold reality on me and all I want to do is huddle up on the couch with a book or a video game. I don't even look at my art desk.

Then, ah, the fresh air of spring hits my lungs, and all of a sudden it's creativity city once again. I have all these grand ideas for my blog, the dessert that once was my Etsy shop, my art, my websites... you name it. I even have plans to start an aquarium in my front room, have some fishes to watch and keep me company, and drive my cats crazy.

And it's not that I'm upset that I suddenly have this energy again, it's just frustrating having to live through two or three months of hibernation. I don't understand why I do it, but I do and nothing I do can change that. I think I just have to accept that as a part of who I am and just get over it. Or possibly move tho Florida. I bet learning to live with it is cheaper and easier though.

So I do have some pictures to share. I know it's been a while, but bah, I'm tired of explaining myself. I'm sure you all love me, so I won't even start.

First, some art!



I actually did this piece a few weeks ago, but I rather like it. Well, except for the fact that I can't transfer from pencil to inked lines without messing something up. Unfortunately, that's usually the eyes that I mess up, which totally ruins the whole piece for me since I put most of the emotion in the eyes. Ah well. This is what I get for enjoying small pictures so much, right?

I was working on this piece shortly before (I think) and then some time after taking reiki 1 classes, and it was just such a neat experience that this piece came out because of it.

Ok, next up! I hope this picture makes you drool.



Well, maybe they won't make you drool, exactly, but they make me drool anyway. What these are supposed to be are teeny tiny mint meringue cookies. I accidentally stumbled across the recipe from Joy the Baker, and they just looked so cool that I had to give them a try!

But man, I have to tell you!!! These things were a sticky mess. I ended up with meringue everywhere (which dries hard as a rock) and green tinted finger tips for..... well, they're still green tinted, actually. Mmmm... but they're so good! They're peppermint and they melt in your mouth and they're just so creamy and airy and crunchy and good! Not to mention cute.

I did, however, not read the recipe correctly. Instead of attaching the whisk attachment, I used the normal beater attachments. I was wondering why the heck my meringue wasn't getting very stiff, but figured what I had was just going to have to work. They turned out kind of droopy looking compared to Joy's cuties, but I'm not worried about it. I plan on trying the recipe again, this time with LESS peppermint extract. And maybe even an orange flavored version. Possibly maple? No, that would be just weird. Probably. Maybe it would be good...... or just weird.



Anyway, that's the important artsy stuff going on in my life right now. I know it's probably not really important in the grand scheme of things, but it keeps me busy.

There really isn't anything like pixel art. The closest thing is counted cross-stitch, but that takes about 50 times longer to do. And I'm way too impatient for that. Pixel art is just so relaxing.

I'm still slowly working on my cyberpet website, though not nearly as much as I used to. I have about 20 creatures I need to finish before I can open a new section, and I figure at this rate it'll take me the rest of the year. But it's fun. I did this cute little dragon yesterday:



He's not the most impressive piece of pixel art I've ever done, but I enjoyed it, and I know my cyberpet friends will as well.

Oh, but I've been having so much wrist pain lately that I know I shouldn't do any more for a while. Or any crafts, for that matter. It's even hard to be on my computer for any length of time. I'm not sure why I'm in so much pain, though, except maybe I haven't given myself enough time to fully heal. So maybe I'll take a couple of days and just goof off. The problem with that is that I don't know what to do when I'm trying to give my wrists a rest. I mean, you use your hands for almost everything. The only thing that makes my wrists feel better is walking, and I can't exactly do that for three days.

Ah well, I'm sure I'll think of something.

Here are some more great Etsians to check out!



LillyQueen is a shop of really lovely, elegant jewelry. She offers really nice, classic designs that will never go out of style. I just love the photos she takes, too!




Wallexpress's shop is full of really fun and funky original art. Like she says in her shop, it's like nothing you've seen before! I really love that she uses nontraditional ways of creating her art; it gives it real character.

I've decided that I'm just plain weird. And not just the normal flavor of weird, either, but really truly weird, and that's the reason I can't break into the business of selling my art/crafts.

The problem I have, that I just recently found out, is that I enjoy the thrill of the chase way more than whatever it is I'm chasing. It's so romantic, for instance, to say that I'm an aspiring artist and that I'm trying to break into the world of art. Or that I'm struggling to get my craft business off the ground.

And how did I find out that I have this problem? Well, last weekend, after selling five items in my Etsy shop in four days, I caught myself thinking, "Wow, I'm doing really well. I should stop." WHAT??!!? What the...??!!? WHY AM I STABBING MYSELF IN THE BACK?! ........

I just don't know. It's almost as if I'm addicted to the drama of starting something new. The work of actually keeping a business running is so boring and, frankly, hard for me to do. I can't focus on it at all. I'll get a sale and be like, "YEAH! ...time to play video games for three days and forget to send the package!" which is not a good way to get more sales, let me tell you.

But I think I'm improving. It makes me cocky when I get a spurt of sales all at once, and then I start panicking after that if I don't get any sales right away. Which in turns makes me feel like a failure, and I work less on the shop than I should. Oh, this is so difficult.

What I would do for someone to compete with right now! That always makes me try harder!

So. I bet a lot of you artist types that read my blog are getting pretty upset with all the crafty stuff I've been doing. I know, I know. My mind wanders all over the place, and you can never be sure what I'll get into next.

Well, I'm going to make you a little more angry with this post.

I've been thinking a while about Swiffer mops. I don't use a Swiffer, but rather a Clorox readymop (because I have some weird prejudice in their favor), but nevertheless, I've been wondering; is there a better way of doing things? I mean, Swiffer and Clorox offer those expensive little mop pads that already have the chemicals in them and you can throw away once you're done, but is that the best way to go?

Honestly, since I've been using a readymop, I've been using old rags in place of the store-bought pads. And the rags work. I mean, they do about as well a job as the store-bought kind do, but then how much can a thin little piece of stuff do on a large kitchen floor? Well, let me tell you, not as much as you might think.

I decided to make up some crocheted mop pads for my readymop (which fits most standard Swiffer mops; I did my homework), and then tried them out. Holy monkeys, was I surprised! Not only is it ten times better at picking up hair and lint than my expensive hardwood floor microfiber cleaner thingy, but it also is a much more absorbent mop head. And it's heavily textured, so it gets a lot more dirt and scrubs away those stains without needing as much elbow grease. Here's some pictures I got of it:




And if you don't have a Swiffer or a readymop, you can always use it to decorate your cats:



And not only that, but it's currently for sale! And with a special introductory price, too.

There's a reason they tell you to fill the jars within a 1/4th inch of the top when you're canning. If you fill them to the very top, and your contents weren't hot when you put them into the jars... well, let's just say that it's explosively fun.

I was processing some apples that I wanted to preserve. Like canned peaches, only apples. Well, Cat and I had so much fun packing the apples into the jars that I think we got too vigorous and forgot our brains somewhere. We packed the jars so tightly that we had to push on the lids to get the contents to stay in.

And then you process (or boil) for 8 minutes.

When they come out, the lids should be kind of sucked downward in a bowl shape. That's when you know that they're sealed, and that you should have no problem with air getting in. Well... when I pulled these jars out, the lids were push way out, like a ball rather than a bowl. That didn't look too happy, but I decided to let them cool a little to see if they'd go down.

No luck. Then I got a little smarter and decided to let the pressure off and reprocess them. That was kind of dumb right there. Two of them sprayed sticky sweet apple juice across the kitchen, and the third one just kind of gurgled at me.

So I've learned a pretty valuable lesson. This is what I get for not buying a canning book.

So I've been working pretty steadily on the plarn mesh bag, and it's been going pretty well. The only thing that's holding me up is the obscene amount of bags this thing is taking. I'm about 3/4 of the way through it and I think I've already gone through upwards of 30 bags. I've drained our bag supply, as wall as gone through two or three trips to the store (which I purposefully forgot our cloth shopping bags at home so I could get more plastic bags).

The problem, I think, is that I made the plarn too thick and I'm using a hook that's way too small. So the crochets end up being tight and close together, and use up more plarn. This especially stuck in my mind after seeing and handling a plarn bag at a local craft show. It was looser and not nearly as sturdy as my bag.

But anyway, here's the picture of how it's going! I actually made a little change purse while waiting for more bags for this monster, but I'll have to post pictures of that later.



I have a fresh supply of bags now, so hopefully this thing should be done in a couple more days. I plan on selling this one and donating some of the money toward a good cause. I'm just not sure which cause yet, though. One would think something involving the environment or plastic bags would be appropriate.

I decided it would be fun to feature a couple Etsian artists and sellers that I think are just great! To get a little practice, I decided to start with the ones I've been talking with in the Etsy forums They're great people and I think you should check out their shops.




Enyaeire is an Irish born and raised lady who has lots of beautiful knitted and crocheted hats, scarves and wraps, along with some beautiful brooches, purses, and really fun things like water bottle carriers and cell phone carriers. All of her items have a fun Celtic feel to them, and I personally think they have a warm old fashioned look to them that makes them very charming.

Enyaerie also has a blog.




MonkeyThreads has a really fun idea; why not make removable stickers you can put on your walls, laptop, mirrors and lots of other hard surfaces? That's exactly what she did, and they're just lovely. Not only are they cute and creative, but there are so many designs that you're bound to find something that fits you. And if you don't, she's probably more than happy to make something just for you.




Shelialk makes really cute and fresh jewelry. As she states in her shop a couple of times, her photos aren't the best but her jewelry is still wonderful, and I agree! It has such a playful feeling to it, and so many wonderful colors and charms. And I love how many pieces she has available. There are so many to choose from that it's almost too hard to pick just one.




Indigoarts has a beautiful collection of really wonderful and unique jewelry. There's something so special about the magnificent colors she gets in her little clay charms that instantly makes me go, "Oooh!". And the designs are so fun and whimsical.




Sarahinflorida has really funky, big and bold jewelry and accessories in her shop, and they're so much fun. She also has a bunch of items in her shop that are being sold to help pink ribbon charities, and I think that's just great.


That's my list of Etsians for the week. Enjoy!

I've known this bit of advice all of my internet life, but it's only been recently that I've stopped listening to myself. I'll be sitting around, asking, "Why doesn't anyone pay attention to my blog/gallery/shop?" Well, somewhere down the road I just stopped applying the advice and kernel of wisdom that I know works best.

You see, when I started out as a pixel artist and cyberpet person way back in '99, I was pretty unknown. But because of my continued participation in all sorts of things in the community, from forums to email lists and taking part in other people's websites (it was the 90s, for goodness sake; you didn't have much socializing options. Blogs were brand spanking new, and I didn't get my very first one until 2000). But I was very active, and I made sure to interact with all the well known people of the community. So after a while, I no longer needed to advertise my website. It was just known. People knew about me, and that was it.

And today I'm a legend because I'm older than dirt in that community. But I digress.

The point is that you need to network and socialize in order to get your name out there, and I've been totally ignoring that fact for several months now. It's just so much easier to sit around and do nothing. But trust me, it really does help.

The last two days, I've been talking on a continuing thread in one of the Etsy forums. It's nothing too special, but it's fun. A bunch of people chatting and promoting their wares. Well, I haven't gotten a sale in weeks now, it seems (which, since I've only been there a month, isn't surprising). But after two days of socializing, my views have gone up, people who are hearting my shop have gone up steeply, and I got a sale tonight on these cuties:



And it's not just the conversation I've been taking part in, but I also joined an Etsy team (EtsyVeg, baby!), I joined some Flickr groups, as well as the EtsyVeg google group. It's exciting stuff, and it all helps bring people into my blog, my art gallery, and my shop.

I could advertise with real life money, but why not use a little bit of energy (and have fun doing it) and advertise for free? Start with the free advertising, and then work your way up.

So I discovered "plarn" about a week ago, and was instantly interested. I mean, there's all these plastic bags laying around with no real use other than taking up space and using as a garbage bag for the bathroom trash basket. We were just recycling the extras that we couldn't use, but I knew that, in the end, plastic bags are hard to recycle and cost the recyclers more to recycle them than they actually get out of it.

So I thought, what the heck? Let's give this plarn thing a try and see what it's like! I decided to start with the same design as my pink bag of death, because it's a good, easy pattern and it's also a useful item! Imagine the irony of using a reusable bag at the store, made from plastic grocery bags, instead of plastic grocery bags.

And it's actually really easy to make the plarn. It's a little hard to work with, but that might be because I made the plarn too thick and am using a hook too small, but my bag is surprisingly pretty so far and really tough and sturdy. I'm excited to start using other bags to see what they'll look like as plarn. Walmart bags would be especially pretty, with their blue and white coloration.

Here's what I have done so far, using Wegmans bags.



I've already started the mesh part of the bag, and it looks great. I'm thinking about decorating it with brown ribbon when I'm done, to dress it up a little bit.

But I'll tell you one thing. We have cats who are afraid to death of plastic bags, and they'll be really happy when I'm done making this thing.