meeks: meeks and lorelei (Default)
So, [livejournal.com profile] ego_sideways, aka Toast was in Seattle for a few days, and we took advantage of his proximity to Vancouver to exchange some puppets and books! He'd originally planned to come up here to deliver them on Monday, but some of his travel companions thought the Memorial Day lineups at the US border would make a day trip unfeasible. Since it was easier to find overnight accommodations for a single person than for a family travelling with a young child, I got to go on a mini-vacation/business trip instead. :)

There's a shuttle bus that runs between downtown Vancouver and SeaTac airport with a few stops in between, so I took one of those, and was pleased to discover that the coach was equipped with wi-fi! That let me keep in touch via Facebook and e-mail without the usual roaming charges on the other side of the border, which was good, because it did turn out to be an unusually busy day, and I got to Seattle nearly an hour after the scheduled arrival time.

Toast and I had never actually met IRL, but I had my kitty hat on for maximum recognizability and he's tall enough not to disappear in a crowd, so we had no trouble finding each other at the bus stop. We walked a little under a mile from there to get to the hotel, and I think I laughed most of the way there. Those of you who have encountered Toast online will understand when I say he talks just like he types. Really. He says that stuff out loud. I found it both awesome and hilarious. XD

At the hotel, I was introduced to Mrs. Toast, and a happy, giggling Crouton before going to dinner. During which we actually spoke to each other — partly because lurking in an IRL conversation can be surprisingly difficult. :P It was getting late in Toastie's home timezone by the time we finished eating and got my sleeping arrangements sorted (which may or may not have involved some childish squeeing over the novelty of using a debit card with Elder Days Story Time written on it), so we settled in with our respective laptops...and chatted on Skype. The chatroom did have other people in it, but, yeah, we're geeks. :D

I was a bit worried about my ability to fall asleep and wake up at reasonable hours in an unfamiliar environment, but between the long day I'd had, my weighted blanket, and the sunlight streaming through the window the next morning, it fortunately wasn't a problem.

I met Mrs. Toast's parents at breakfast, and the whole family turned out to be mercifully weird. Weird is good; I prefer weird people. It's the ones that consider themselves normal and think everyone else should be too that are frightening. We went out all together to play tourist, and we got on better than I usually do with people I've just met. It may have helped that they were predisposed to like me after I presented them with this ;):

I may colour this and turn it into a promotional poster or something...as if I didn't have enough of a backlog to work on. :P

This couldn't decently be called a business trip unless I actually did some 'work', so Toast and I returned to the hotel after lunch to sort and sign the books for our Kickstarter backers. I had two other reward commissions that I gave to him along with the puppets, and he gave me a box of books to bring back to Canada.

A really big box of books.

The box took up considerably more space than the puppets had, and was a whole lot less squishy, so there was some concern over whether I'd be able to fit it into my suitcase, but thanks to the amazing space-bending abilities of Mrs. Toast, we got it in, blanket and all. :)

I took the monorail to the bus stop with Toast and the now much heavier suitcase, and arrived with a few minutes to spare. The return trip was uneventful, and the Canadian border guards barely glanced at my suitcase (as opposed to their US counterparts, who scanned every piece of luggage, and opened a few to examine the contents.) About the most exciting thing that happened on the way back was passing a field with llamas grazing in it a little after the border. We were moving too fast for me to get a picture of them, though.

In any case, I made it back intact, and more or less on time. And now I have books!
meeks: meeks and lorelei (Default)
Mother-Tongue is a poem by [personal profile] jjhunter about Beowulf's mother, and Grendel's. Skillfully crafted in the style of Seamus Heaney's modern english translation of the anglo saxon epic, it reads like an excerpt of the original poem.



detail:


previous versions:


This picture is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License, and may be freely used under the terms of that license with a link back to mikaspace.net Please see terms of use for details.
Creative Commons License

Click to sponsor this sketch and support the artist!
Feedback and contributions of any amount are greatly appreciated :)

Tips:$15
Linkbacks: 4
meeks: meeks and lorelei (Default)
[livejournal.com profile] the_vulture requested a picture of his travel companion, Teddy visiting South Australia. Here's a picture of Teddy at Rundle Mall in Adelaide, consulting with Truffles the pig about local tourist spots.



previous version:


value study:


detail:


detail:


detail:


detail:


previous versions:

 

This picture is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License, and may be freely used under the terms of that license with a link back to mikaspace.net Please see terms of use for details.
Creative Commons License

This image has been sponsored by [personal profile] the_vulture!
meeks: meeks and lorelei (Default)
Slowly building up colour...

Weird Animals

Wednesday, May 2nd, 2012 12:00 pm
meeks: meeks and lorelei (Default)
Duck unicorns from a ficlet by [personal profile] aldersprig. Duck. Unicorns. How could I not draw them? XD




This, I am told, is called a Peabit. It was requested by a good friend of mine from The Basement.




The Fang Deer are a new Torn World species created by [livejournal.com profile] ellenmillion for the Amazing Critters of Torn World contest. Look out for an article about them soon!

story sketch: no evidence

Wednesday, May 2nd, 2012 11:46 am
meeks: meeks and lorelei (Default)
In the latest vignette from [livejournal.com profile] robling_t's Hiraeth, Trevor, the youthful looking, but not actually underage vampire attends a stag party for his werewolf roommate's future brother-in-law, and his friends find themselves having to explain why he should not be photographed.



This picture is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License, and may be freely used under the terms of that license with a link back to mikaspace.net Please see terms of use for details.
Creative Commons License


Click to sponsor this sketch and support the artist!
Feedback and contributions of any amount are greatly appreciated :)
meeks: meeks and lorelei (Default)
This is a sketch of what was voted by readers of Karen Wehrstein's Philosopher in Arms to be Chevenga's coolest move in the Arkan war. After another battle lost to Chevenga's army, a fleeing Mahid has thrown a Fehinnan weapon, a delicate sphere which, if shattered would release a deadly gas, killing rider, horse, and anyone else unfortunate enough to to be close enough. Chevenga barely manages to catch it intact when his horse helpfully rears up and throws him off...



previous version:


This picture is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License, and may be freely used under the terms of that license with a link back to mikaspace.net Please see terms of use for details.
Creative Commons License


Click to sponsor this sketch and support the artist!
Feedback and contributions of any amount are greatly appreciated :)

signal boost!

Tuesday, May 1st, 2012 10:56 am
meeks: meeks and lorelei (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith is hosting her monthly Poetry Fishbowl today! This months theme is "anti-heroes and anti-villains".

[livejournal.com profile] haikujaguar has launched an indiegogo fundraising campaign to publish an art business book based on her Three Micahs series of blog posts. I want to read this book, so I really hope she reaches her goal!

end of a busy day

Monday, April 30th, 2012 09:06 pm
meeks: meeks and lorelei (Default)
I got back home on Saturday night after an unexpectedly long trip. My flight from Montreal was cancelled, and I was moved to a later one, which caused me to miss my connection from Toronto to Vancouver. The airline found me a spot on the next flight, so I was really only delayed by a couple of hours — not a major disaster, but I was tired by the time I made it home. Because I was added to the Toronto-Vancouver flight at the last minute, my suitcase did not arrive with me, and I was waken up the next morning by the airport delivery person knocking on my door. I think I managed to scribble something resembling my signature on the receipt before stumbling back to bed for another three hours of sleep.

Surprisingly, the day wasn't a total loss: I got some grocery shopping done, made a loaf of chocolate-chip banana bread, and cleaned the condensation spots off my bathroom ceiling (this always leaves me with a sore neck, so I try to do it shortly before my chiropractic appointments).

Today I have been experimenting with starting a timer as I begin each task, and I think I'm having some success. In the last 12 hours I have:
  • cropped and uploaded thumbnails for ~3 months of artwork
  • added the paintings from Sketchfest 22 to the database
  • actually had breakfast and remembered to eat lunch at lunchtime instead of mid-afternoon
  • done the dishes
  • finished two loads of laundry
  • vacuumed and got rid of most of the dust that accumulated while I was away
  • gone to my chiro appointment and run some errands on the way home
  • given myself a haircut
  • made stew for dinner and
  • started a new Story Sketch while waiting for it to cook
Using a timer seems to help me stay on task because I know I will be free a few minutes later to pursue whatever new item has attracted my attention. Something interesting that I've discovered is that my internal clock seems to run fast. I consistently found myself thinking that 20-30% more time had elapsed than actually had. That's probably a good thing in that I am able to accomplish more than I expected to in the time allotted — as long as I can maintain my focus.

I think I'm going to try working on more art tomorrow, with the goal of making at least one Story Sketch post or update and one book post per week, and finishing at least one painting per month. I'm also slowly moving some of the snippets and random notes I have floating around into Evernote, so I won't be struggling to remember eg. where I filed the description of a character that I need to draw again.

A pile of puppets

Tuesday, April 24th, 2012 04:21 pm
meeks: meeks and lorelei (Default)
meeks: meeks and lorelei (Default)
April 11th marked the first anniversary of my crowdfunding debut, and it was probably the most consistently busy year I've ever had. I've posted over 150 paintings and sketches, received thousands of feedback comments, unexpectedly won a Rose and Bay award, and met a lot of really creative people. I've sold prints, done private commissions, and received tips from over a dozen generous patrons, including three K-fans, each of whom contributed over $120 to my various art projects over the last year. The Kickstarter campaign for my first picture book exceeded it's funding goal and raised over $11000. Your support and enthusiasm has far surpassed my expectations. Thank you all!

As you have undoubtedly noticed by now, the Story Sketches project has been largely dormant for a couple of months, but fear not! I have no intention of abandoning it. I've been sort of waiting for my workload to lighten, but after taking stock of my plans for the next year, it's become clear that that isn't really going to happen. The challenge is to figure out how to manage more than one ongoing project at a time, and I appreciate the patience you've all shown while I try to work out a solution.

I know that several of you are balancing multiple projects and/or offline jobs and families, and it's encouraging to know that it can be done — I just have to come up with a better workflow than
  • start working on something

  • receive message about another thing to be done, start working on it

  • get distracted by a third thing

  • belatedly remember what I was working on in the first place

  • repeat :P
The best approach for me will probably be to divide tasks by project (e.g. Story Sketches, EDST, Torn World, self-promotion, one-shot commission) and/or by type (e.g. research, drawing, technical, writing, design) and pick one category to focus on at the beginning of each work day, depending on the relative urgency of each and the number and type of spoons I wake up with. This could result in more image-only posts (with text to be added later), or making several posts at once instead of uploading each picture as I finish it.

Participating in SketchFest (run by champion multitasker [livejournal.com profile] ellenmillion —Thanks, Ellen!) has shown that I can be very productive within a limited time period, so I may try to apply this model to other types of activity. Setting a timer while I work on posts like this, for instance, will hopefully stop me from spending days on composing and editing an informal piece of text that my writer friends probably wouldn't spend more than a few minutes on. :P I'm sure I had more to say, but this post has been in-progress for nearly a week(!) which is long even for me, and I expect to be afk for most of tomorrow, so, ah...consider it a 'sketch'? ^_^;

If those of you who are more organized than I am have any advice, I would certainly appreciate it!

Signal boost!

Sunday, April 22nd, 2012 12:49 pm
meeks: meeks and lorelei (Default)
I've had a post in-progress for several days now, that I'm struggling to get done amidst all the distractions (planets! pie! IRL people!) but here's some stuff to check out in the meantime!

It's Muse Fusion weekend at [livejournal.com profile] torn_world.

[personal profile] ariestess is hosting a free one-card draw until 1800 PDT.

The sixth Crowdfunding Creative Jam is open on LiveJournal and Dreamwidth, with a theme of "blood".
meeks: meeks and lorelei (Default)
I spent a busy but enjoyable weekend in NJ, attending my cousin's wedding, and visiting with relatives in the area. Now that I'm back, I can finally share a couple of my big projects from the past couple of months.

This was the painting I made as a wedding present:

It was inspired by the library scene in Disney's Beauty and the Beast, which my cousin and I once watched together over twenty times in a single week, and is set in the Barnes and Noble store where she and her husband met for their first date. Eagle-eyed viewers may notice a bit of subtle advertising on one of the tables in the background ;) I had this printed on the same watercolour paper as the Salt and Pepper painting that I did for my aunt and uncle last year, and presented it to the new couple in a frame 'wrapped' with a translucent overlay that I also decorated with a Beauty and the Beast inspired image, and the words "May you live happily ever after..."

The wedding, of course, presented me with the recurring problem of finding sensory-friendly formalwear...and this time I decided to solve the issue once and for all by sewing my own dress!

fabric & lace detail:


Unsurprisingly, my sensibilities lie more toward costume design than fashion design, so the pattern was heavily influenced by renaissance gowns and Disney princess movies. In a stroke of pure luck, the fabric I found happened to be an exact colour match for a shirt I already had, so I didn't have to sew the sleeves. I'm quite pleased that the full skirt allowed me to add unobtrusive in-seam pockets, and let me walk without getting tangled around my legs, but the best part is what you can't see in the photo. The bodice is lined with plain cotton cut from a bed sheet that I got at the local thrift store, so I can wear it sleeveless without irritating my skin, and under the skirt is a hybrid petticoat with a skirt made from the same cotton bed sheet attached to the waistline of a pair of short pants! I think this was the first time in my life that I've been able to wear a dress all day without squirming.

In EDST news, we've begun distributing rewards to our Kickstarter backers! I took advantage of my visit to the US to pick up the puppets for those backers who chose them as rewards, and I will be adding eyeglasses to them over the next few weeks. [livejournal.com profile] ego_sideways also sent me a few copies of the book to give to my family, and everyone who has seen them so far has been impressed with the quality. :) We are still working on arranging large-scale distribution, but in the meantime, copies can be ordered from Elder Days Story Time (Only US addresses for now, sorry! Still working out the details for international shipping.) My sample set of cards from moo.com arrived as well, and I'm very happy with it, so I'll probably be placing an order with them soon.

state of the meeks

Saturday, April 7th, 2012 04:15 pm
meeks: meeks and lorelei (Default)
I'm at YVR waiting for my flight to start boarding, which gives me a bit tof time to just sit and breathe for the first time in a month. With the print run for Lorelei done months ahead of our original schedule, I've found myself thinking about sending out both the kickstarter backer rewards and a promotional mailer for publishers a lot sooner than I expected. Combined with the stuff I had to get done before this trip, it's been an exhausting reminder of how poorly suited I am to multitasking. It seems that the busier I get, the less inclined I am to talk about what I'm doing, so as the first anniversary of my crowdfunding efforts approaches, I'll be looking at ways to structure my time better to avoid becoming overwhelmed.

More later...have to put my phone in airplane mode.

book day!

Friday, March 30th, 2012 02:44 pm
meeks: meeks and lorelei (Default)
I got a message from [livejournal.com profile] ego_sideways saying that he's picking up two tons of books from the printer today. EEEEEE!
meeks: meeks and lorelei (Default)
Or maybe I should have just written 'month' in my last post? I'm nearly done...this is probably a good time to stop looking at this painting for a couple of days and try to get a full nightmorning's sleep. At least the days are long enough now that I don't have to worry about my nocturnal tendencies causing me to miss the brief appearance of the sun :P

quick note

Tuesday, March 13th, 2012 01:49 am
meeks: meeks and lorelei (Default)
Just wanted to let you all know that this may be the only post I have time to make this week...I'm working on a big painting, an equally big sewing project, and J has asked me to help with a design job. We had a power outage that lasted all morning, so I'm already a bit behind with what I wanted to get done today, but I did make a successful trip to the sewing notions shop, so at least I have all the stuff I need now :)

Most Popular Tags

Syndicate

RSS Atom
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags