Were did March go?!

Sorry, March post, I missed ye. Here; have April instead!

February Art Dump, just in time!

There was more junk but it's either not released yet (and covered under an NDA) or more silly SPN stuff which you guys are probably bored to death of by now! So this is whatcha git. BOOM.

Man, I can't wait until spring and the weather breaks. Gray slush makes my muse cranky. Later, taters!

Little wingedy doodle...

I decided to do a little Illustration Friday quickie (took me an hour, half the time spent watching a 'Castle' repeat. URGH, foreshortening.) I'm kinda playing with something I can use for a graphic novel I'm working on with a friend. Not easy to settle upon something that won't be too time-consuming, and I'm not sure I'm there yet. It's a process...

Prompt: WINGS

2013 Inaugural Art Dump

Happy New Year, rare and lovely visitor!

Here's December's last flurry of creative dust, the creme de la dust, accumulating with whatever gathered in January. A few paying gigs, a smidge of fanart. I'm dancing around many media in the hopes I'll get good at ONE. (Maybe that's not quite the way it works but I GET BORED. Clearly.)

Chin-chin, friends! I hope 2013 treats you with luck and profit. :D

Nov. Update! Just in time.

I'm gonna blame my lagging on the L-tryptophan. Anywho, a few recent thingies. All digital. BOOM.

First image, personal work. Second, a killed illustration for White Wolf and the last one, a new cover for Terry Ervin's anthology "Genre Shotgun." I don't know guns from laser blasters, but Terry provided some great refs. So thank you, sir! Many happy sales!

Updatery!

I've done a couple of cool book covers and a really fun bit of fan art for this month's update ... huzzah! Heather Massey's Steampunk romance will be available through Lyrical Press and The Black Knight Chronicles, an urban paranormal with humor, from Belle Bridge Books.

I'm really itching to fiddle with traditional media and do more conceptual art in the very near future. We'll see how that goes. Ciao, babies!

Time for my bi-monthly post?

New covers to flash at anyone still hanging on to this ol' thing!

The top two are from Dreamspinner Press, and the second two are courtesy of Belle Bridge Books. The first one is a watercolor, with some digital tweaking; the rest are straight digital. And there we go! Hope everyone had a divine summer but MAN, I can't wait for the kids to go back to school. Shoooooey.

Blarg, I'm a lousy updater!

I'm going to try to update my blogs a little more often, as warm-ups to my day instead of staring, mesmerized, at the internet. Man, the internet is a time-suck. A joyful one, albeit, but it doesn’t allow me to grow and accomplish like I wanna.
Okay, so here’s what I’ve done (professionally) lately:





But more imporatantly (to me, anyways) is my decision to work on the skills it takes to develop a graphic novel. To this end, I've joined up with a few of my art buds, and we're taking part in a communal blog, dedicated to bettering our artistic skills: Artist Ambition. So look for me there too! The stuff will be more experimental and study-ish, but art nonetheless. Have a great summer, gang...find direction!

When did the New Year happen?

Sorry, my few hallowed followers! I've been sorely neglecting this place. There are just TOO many sites for social networking and I hate repeating myself. So here's something up-and-coming, a preview just for the handful of youse guys who pay attention to this sad little blog.

Just released from BelleBooks, my latest cover ditty, White Witch.


Whoops, seems it's available! You can get the book here, if you're into YA urban fantasy: Belle Books/BellBridge Books

Happy March 1, babies!

Time for my monthly blather!

It's gonna be a little bit of a rant, here, so be prepared or go do something else, if you're not feeling up to my yammering.

About my so-called art career...I feel like I'm between a rock and a hard place, or more accurately, swimming up-stream. Art is all I know how to do with any sort of expertise, and even that's a bit dubious. My dilemma is the whole freelance set-up. I'm not a commercial arts person; I draw and paint. I can't figure out how to make that pay off, w/o committing massive amounts of time to creating the quality of work that will make me proud and lead to bigger projects, and still earn a fair wage. Why won't anyone pay more than $100 for quality book covers or ccg cards? I don't get it. I mean, I DO get it: if you can wrangle a great image for peanuts, why not? But it bites me in the ass and kills my spirit.

I think maybe I'm just getting old and jaded and running out of steam. I'm becoming far less patient. This is my one life, yanno? Why can't I make myself happy? Part of it is certainly my husband's attitude. He asserts that art is decorative and subjective, therefore it's not serious. It's not important. It's not worth paying for. He doesn't see why I can't just get some office job for $15/hour tomorrow and earn my keep. (I know he wouldn't put it that way TO MY FACE, but I feel it.) He's not creative in the least, but he IS a very hard worker; he's a mechanical designer--heating, cooling, plumbing, that sort of thing. In fact, here it is, Sunday, and he's at work because we need the money. And I'm practicing my art and writing. Making not a dime.

Guilty conscience, thy name is Cris.

How do you guys make it work? How do you keep creative, whilst cranking out low-paying work subject to someone else's approval and still keep your spirits up? I need some virtual pick-me-upping, gang.

More Traditional Portraiture

The last of Team Free Will, or rather the actor that plays him. ;) It's fun to see them all together and extra special fun to work with traditional media. Once again, charcoal and white chalk on toned paper. Wee!

September post!

Yay, autumn! The weather is turning cool, leaves slipping into Technicolor ochres and reds. I love Ohio. Oh, and have an art dump, babies! Yeah, yeah, still SPN junk but hey, that's where my head's at these days. There will be other projects in the offing because, well, nothing gold stays. And a girl's gotta earn her keep. *ahem* Anywho, el dumpo.

More SPNishness!

It's rather befuddling to me how infatuated I became with this fandom. Why? God only knows, and He's not telling. Maybe I'll save this rumination for my writing blog. Annnnyway, more Supernatural fanart. Okay, so I can't sell it. But it has coaxed me into arting and writing far more passionately than I have in years. Again I say, befuddling.


There is a detail shot at my dA gallery: http://quickreaver.deviantart.com/art/On-a-Clear-Day-detail-252837888

Welcome back to school, kids!

Make a Wish...

Been a while since I updated diddly. I blame summer. And while I'm at it, I'll blame summer for this too:



Don't judge.

Here Comes the Sun, Doot'n Do Do...

Summer is right around the corner, thank gawd! LOVE the heat; I'd far sooner sweat than shiver. Makes me miss Florida. BUT! We'll be heading for the beach in early July, so I fully intend to soak up as much sun and sweat as possible, get sand in places sand was never meant to be, and drink copious amounts of fruited beer. And hopefully, get a little writing and doodling in.

And speaking of doodles, my Supernatural Summer gets a kick-off today. Here's a piece I posted all over DA and LJ, so I figure I'll slap it here too. I tried to be more stylized, less literal. Gotta work on that, honestly. Anywho, enjoy, my babies...paint on!



(For attribution--the lovely monicawoe--and other versions of this image, check out my LJ Supernatural SummerShack: http://quickreaver.livejournal.com/7424.html )

Conglomeration Nation!

I almost forgot about this poor thing! *pets blog*

Haven't been doing much lately except catching up with old client projects but I certainly hope this changes soon.

First con of the season! Con, being CONvention...Conglomeration, specifically. (www.conglomeration.info.com) If you're in the Louisville, KY area this upcoming weekend, stop by! It's seriously inexpensive and low-key, with a little art, a little gaming, a little larping, and shopping. Something for everyone! It always re-energizes me, this wee con.

Okay, off to oggle my prints (courtesy of Ellen Million Graphics) and decide what to frame. Ta!

In praise of giving the Muse full run of the house...

First, my latest bit of Art For Me. Doesn't happen often enough, truly.


(For the full 411, you can read all about it on my DA page.

This was interesting for me on about 19 different fronts. I haven't felt truly joyful doing art in a loooong time. Why? Because it hasn't been my own passion, my own baby. It's been someone else's. You never love someone else's kid as much as your own, right? Art is a conundrum. You get into it to bring your own visions to life, but we all want to get paid to do what we're good at. It's a love/hate relationship. I think I need a little more 'love' in my life.

This was also a tasty opportunity to explore a style/technique I haven't used before, and it was AWE.SOME. I've always loved Drew Struzan's movie posters. He works traditionally but with some cagey PS brushes, I aped his style to decent effect. I'm gonna work this way more often. It was a stone blast, but I never would've tried it had I not been working on my own project.

Most clients don't want Something New. They want More Of The Same. Hate to say it, but it's true. Now, this isn't a bad thing, per se! You know you're doing something right if lots of folks request it, but...still...you know where I'm going with this. An artist stagnates if he does the same thing, over and over and over. He becomes something of an artisan. Bob Ross-ish. Formulaic. A charicature of himself. Static. And stasis is one step away from atrophy. (The previous statement was brought to you by Arrogant Artist Is Arrogant. Feel free to ignore at your own druthers.)

I make the bulk of my money these days at my dayjob, not to mention I get bennies that insure me and my fam. Freelancing is woefully underfunding me. I'm 46. It's time to pursue my own creative yakkity-smack because if not now, when? I know, I know. I've said it all before. It just takes me a loooong time to commit to putting my money where my mouth is. But now is the day. I feel brave and stupid, all at once. Welcome to my world...

Eeesh, falling behind...

...in my bloggery! January is finding me very busy, with older projects, new ones popping up, and personal pieces screaming to find release. I should be a very wealthy woman, for all the work on my plate. But that just isn't the way, for us creatives, is it? Sad but true.

Despite my lack of posts, I have been working. Proof, you say? Here are a few digitally painted images that have made it through the bowels of my imagination to 'publication' (many other covers were photomanips but that's not really what this blog is about.)



Detail:



But wait! There's more!



And another detail:



Looking back at these, I find the experience a blend of "Hey, aspects of these paintings are pretty darned cool!" and "Ugh, Christine, you're such a hack." (But there again, isn't this just the way with us creative types? Annnnyway, back to my self-loathing...) There's this easy, air-brushed banality to my recent paintings that has left me a bit, well, empty. Okay, a LOT empty. Everything has become over-simplified and buffed to appeal to the idealization of the romance/erotic genre. I remember, back in early college, I used to pause by ramshackle abandoned buildings and marvel at their texture, their complexity, their ennui. I love things in distress. The more holey and faded my jeans, the better I like 'em. (Same goes for my men, but that's a tale for another time. Heh.) I don't want my world shiny and new! I want grit and nuance and dark-underbellies. I live in Suburbia; I get White Picket Fence every stinkin' day. But it's not where my muse lies; it's where practicality dwells. (I should give my muse a name someday, as much as I refer to him. Yeah, I've decided it's a 'him'.)

Okay, enough yakkity. Got work to do. But if it's any consolation, I appreciate you being here to share my woe, dear reader! Since you've made it this far, you deserve my sincerest, heartfelt commiseration. And distress.

Bookcoverpaloooooza!

A very cool author contacted me a while ago, and we collaborated on two covers for his self-published e-book. I was jazzed to do some other genres. So cruising through Amazon.com, I found one of 'em:

http://www.amazon.com/CRO-MAGNON-ebook/dp/B0048ELM2Y/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1291854744&sr=1-2

Robert Stimson kindly threw my name in there too. Nice guy! Sounds like a good read. If an archaeological technothriller is up your alley, give it a whirl. Seacrest out.

Stupid art blog with no stupid art! How...stupid...

Yeah, so maybe I should stop whining so much and do art, eh? There are still too few hours in a day, and too few dollars in the pocket, but we create because we must. There's just no other way to put it. I want to write, I want to paint, I want to bring characters to life. That being said, I also want to be more organized, make better use of my time, and get some damn thing accomplished! Guh, whining again. Must be part of the package. Maybe I should swap that whine for wine. Hmmm...now there's a fruitful thought...

And on the note of more art/less whine, a steampunky cover I did for an e-publisher: (clickity) It was a fun, fast bit of work. Now, for that wine. The good sort of wine. Cheers!