So long Ink Tree, but maybe I'll make some more of you...

Someone bought my tree of light drawing today! It's exciting when someone buys something, but that means it's the last time I'll see it (if it's an original work anyways...). I find it very satisfying when someone buys something, especially an original piece. Since my sales are really quite low, I love it when I sell something that I was really proud of. This time my work is heading over to Ontario. My first Canadian buyer!

Concerning Matters of the Heart

I made this today. I drew the heart with an ink pen, and then added the background and the text in photoshop. Sometimes I need to make things that don't have animals or creatures in them. Sometimes it feels good to make something that isn't as silly as a shark teacher. I don't feel like elaborating on any reasoning behind this.

Summer hasn't left yet!

Today I wasn't working, so I decided to take avantage of the fact that it is the third week of September and the weather is actually nicer than it was in August. I did some painting outside today, which is an altogether lovely thing to do. My backyard is large and green, and it makes it extra satisfying to be out there in shorts when it is nearly the end of September.

Deviant Art- Why Not?

I started up a Deviant art account. I mainly wanted to just check it out and see how I like it. I decided to post photos, instead of artwork. I have a lot of photographs, many of them I love, but have too many really to do anything with other than post on facebook. So I'm going to try out Deviant art, and am considering an etsy photography shop, though I am not that great at promoting my original shop, and I imagine I'd be even worse at promoting more than one.
Here it is, I still have to upload more photos.
www.juliamark.deviantart.com

Mrs. Shark

I went back to school today. For the time being I am a substitute teacher. This means at times that there's nothing for me to do other than make sure I'm in the room (this will ONLY happen with certain high school classes). It is a great contrast to last year where I had a term position, and there was always something that I needed to be doing. So while my students were working away at their assignments, I drew. I felt quite productive actually, this is just one drawing that I did today. I think I may colour it, as it needs something extra. I felt slightly self conscious about drawing, and sort of half hoped that the students wouldn't notice, even though I think if I ever had a substitute teacher that I saw drawing shark people, it would probably pique my interest. She looks perhaps a little more whale like than shark like...

The Elephant Gentleman Continued...

Here is the hand coloured version of the Elephant Gentleman. I think I prefer this version actually, anyone want to comment to offer an opinion? It was coloured using red inks and a brush.

Trying out ARtfire.

I have heard of Artfire, and decided to see what it's all about. I started an account, and so far only have one piece posted. It is similar to Etsy, but I don't like the layout as much, and there are aspects of it that are appealing, but I don't think I'll venture very far from my etsy shop. I wanted to see if there was a major difference in the kind of traffic get through Artfire versus Etsy, and so far it appears to be similar. I think the main difference is that Artfire deals more do with Art whereas Etsy has a whole variety. I find etsy more intiutive, though naturally there are benefits to Artfire as well.
I finally finished my Tree Drawing. I don't feel completely satisfied with it, I'm not sure what it is. Something about it is too calm. This is the one I posted on Artfire. You can go to it here.

The Elephant Gentleman

I coloured another drawing using photoshop. I think I like the results, but I'm going to also hand-colour the original as I'm not sure entirely if the photoshopped version is what I want out of the drawing.
This print is now available on etsy.

What is Gocco?

I have been purusing Etsy, as is normal for me at any time of the day, and I have been coming accross these artpieces called Gocco prints. I didn't know what a Gocco was, so I looked it up, and now really want to buy one! Gocco is a simple, easy and compact printing system that originated in Japan. It allows users to create multiple card-size prints without re-inking.

The prints shown above are by artist Olivia Jeffries who regularly re-uses paper in her art-making process. Visit her etsy shop called Restless Things, and I'm sure you'll appreciate her somewhat delicate and subtle hues that her drawings and prints have.
I found a site called save gocco, as the company who was manufacturing it had decided to stop making it and there was a surge of Gocco users who petitioned to keep up the gocco production. Unfortunately, my research has told me that they have closed the doors to production in 2009 which means that Gocco supplies will be hard to come by. I may try to find one on Ebay...

Here is a link to a Gocco tutorial video, which explains how the system works.http://www.savegocco.com/what-is-gocco/

Colouring Drawings with Photoshop

I digitially added colour to a drawing yesterday, and I am quite pleased with the results! I've never altered any of my work digitally before, besides photographs, but I decided to see what I could do with photoshop. Even though I was only using photoshop at a very basic level, it served its purpose well, and will certainly go back with other drawings to alter them, as I found it very satisfying to work this way. The two pictures I have posted show the image before and after.

Please check out my new creation, I've decided to sell him as a greeting card, but certainly would also sell it as a larger print in my etsy shop if there is an interest in it.

Here is the link to the new card:

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=30295866