ellenmillion

Woke up weirdly and am not exactly on top of things yet. Should be coding or writing while the young wookie is asleep, but my brain is really not moving yet.

Sketch Fest was great fun this weekend. I did four sketches and a GIANT painting. I put down a wet coat of paint from Guppy's nursery walls and planned to do a fast abstract with the prompt 'Water Dragon,' but lo, one of the spots of paint turned into an actual dragon, and I sat down and picked out details for the rest of the hour allotted to me:


(Not for sale - would not want to ship it, and Jake really likes it and wants to hang it in our house!)

It's actually the second piece I did for that same prompt - the first was this one:

I plan to finish this one in ink. (Click for sale details)

This is my favorite of the sketches - 'Wonderland Laundromat.' I plan to finish this in ink:

(Click for sale details)

The new bits of code at Sketch Fest seem to have functioned all correctly. I added a 'cancel' function to my admin page for dangling sales that never come through (which will change the count on the product correctly, too), and set it up so I can assign a sale to a registered user, in case they weren't logged in. Working on a 'pay by credits instead' function for buyers who accidentally picked the wrong kind payment method. I have some more sales to approve and some payments to send today - I'll do those as soon as I'm finished here.

A bit stalled on writing. Got big chunks of the LAST two installments written, then got some feedback on one of the bits in the queue that it really didn't work, so I may have to go back and fill in a scene that I was hoping I wouldn't have to (equal parts laziness and wanting to do a reveal from a specific POV). So now I have TWO parts of story that I really really need to go write before I finish, and my muse (and bruised ego) is digging in her heels.

It was coooold this weekend, about -30 most of the time, and that following a big dump of snow (18-20 inches). We got the driveway cleared before the it cooled down too badly, and uncovered the wood. So, we're perfectly cozy inside, at least. I got orders out, and Christmas cards printed (but not yet mailed), and generally had a nice weekend.

Here's a photo of snow:

In the lower right hand corner is the weather station, piled high with snow, and Norway is the dark speck by the tree in the back.

Guppy is doing awesome. We added lettuce to her diet last night, and she thought that was great fun and ate it all. I gave her some of my pork the day before, and she gobbled that up, too. I'm a big fan of these finger foods where she feeds and entertains herself all at once. Her fine motor skills are doing great and the faces she makes are wonderful. (Didn't have my camera handy, you'll have to imagine them.) I LOVE being able to eat while she does.

Alright, brain may be working now, ought to do something productive while Guppy is still sleeping.

Painted yesterday. People may or may not have tried to talk to me while I was doing so, and I think I may have changed a few diapers. Did not end up with too much paint on the baby. This is what I made:

Scanned last night's Sketch Fest pieces, including the 5 minute piece I did to the prompt 'The Pregnant Void.' It was too apt to pass up. This is my favorite, however:



Went dutifully to prenatal yoga, and feel better for it. Also made it to the post office, where Elsa got a box of blankets and a second box of toys and books and clothing. Came home and ate All The Food. Star-Gate now, some comments at Sketch Fest (because artists thrive on comments!) and maybe some more sketching. And maybe More Food. I have chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream...

http://www.ellenmilliongraphics.com/abstracts2-finishedabstracts.php

Here are the first 24 paintings! A viewing tip: ctrl+ and ctrl- will shrink and expand the images in most Windows browsers! (Apple users, is there a similar command for your platform?)

Much left to do! But I'm thinking a nap is in order for now...

Yes, 30 below! (That's -34 for you Celsius people)

I love chopping wood at this temperature. There was a birch log that gave me trouble a few days ago - I actually gave up on it after wrestling it in half (with a wedge and much cursing and pounding of the maul). This morning? One *thunk* with the axe and it split neatly into two. The ones I love best are when you give it one hit and it doesn't quiiiite split, so you rotate it 90 degress and *bang*! Perfect quarters fall away effortlessly.

(And yes, I'm very careful, don't do it when exhausted, don't do too much at one time, and am thinking of Guppy first! Like basketball, it may not be a typical pregnancy exercise, but it keeps me in shape and I do it thoughtfully, knowing that at some point I WILL have to give it up. I'm not pushing it. But I'm enjoying it while I can.)

ETA: Jake would like it clarified that he has offered to chop the wood, and that I raspberried him and told him I wanted to do it.

The cat is currently eyeing the woodpile in a fashion that makes me suspect there is a beetle alive somewhere in there... (sometimes they defrost when I bring the logs in.)

In factory news, still doing great. Occasional discomfort, and my skin is sometimes itchy, thanks in part to the 2% humidity while running the woodstove. I've been slathering on the Mama Bee belly balm and absolutely loving it. Thank you Jenny! I hadn't ever seen this, and my skin LOVES it. My scar is still super angry, and my belly button is still missing, but I'm hoping they will make up with me in a few months.

Go vote in my Poll! Even if you aren't active or interested in Torn World, you can weigh in on which story I tackle next for NotMoWriMo, and I love getting feedback. (And no, I never take it personally if you aren't all as in love with every one of my projects as I am...)

I have three new pieces of artwork up at Portrait Adoption!

( Read more... )

These are pieces started at older Sketch Fests, and if you get standard adoption, I'll send you the original. :)

A bunch of paid programming finished this morning, plus a token amount of writing. I've got a graphics job lined up next, then either some more writing, or some EMG programming. *flips a coin*

I'm also considering a load of laundry - it would be dry by this evening, given the heat and humidity in here...

But first! Lunch!

Join us at Sketch Fest! http://www.ellenmilliongraphics.com/sketchfest/index.php

I've done three paintings and two sketches so far... Super Guppy is my favorite so far. :)

http://www.ellenmilliongraphics.com/sketchfest/sketchfestartist.php?id=9

Dinner was spaghetti with leftover roast and various vegetables, mmm. And sinful, delicious brownie bites that I failed to resist. They were on sale! I have sanded and drywalled, and cleaned, though I still have dinner dishes to wash, and watched about a dozen episodes of StarGate SG-1 (I can have them on while I work, because I'm familiar enough with them), and packed up part of the bale of straw that I got, and spread the rest in the dog house. Chopped wood and made a fire, that I almost let go out while painting. Whoops!

I am still loving acrylics, but I have so much to learn still! I like being able to do these fast pieces in color.

Tired. Rambling. Too early for bed, rats!

I was able to draw for a while yesterday before my finger gave out (did I sprain it drawing? What a horrifying idea..); I had an old sketchbook with me at gaming and worked on these pieces:



This is a town I sketched roughly a loooong time ago, that seemed like a good fit for a town Deirdre worked into a story for the Sea Monster month in May. I decided to clean it up and see about writing a city description for it.

And, with another donation towards this piece, I did some more refining on Skykittens:



You may sponsor more work on this for $5.00. The person who sponsors the most receives the original, worldwide shipping included. (By random draw, if there is a tie) And, Torn World members may also sponsor using credits: 1 credit is 3 minutes. :) (5 credits/dollars is 15 minutes, 10 credits/dollars is 30 minutes, etc.) Current high sponsorship is tied at $5! This piece has received three rounds of sponsorship, two by donation and one because a story is being written about it. The next donation takes it into inking, which is sort of an all-or-nothing step (so it's a great deal even if you go to $10 and ensure you win the original!). I'd like to wrap this sucker up soon, so I'm going to call it done it I don't receive another sponsorship for it this week.

Finger is wrapped up in a dog bandage (a self-clinging sport bandage that is the same as the ones they make for humans, but about half the cost at a vet store and comes in Bright Red) and it works okay, though still complains if I hit a key wrong or try to grab something I shouldn't. I got my freelance programming finished and may tackle the EMG-Zine abstracts fundraiser next, though I haven't entirely given up on tackling another Muse Fusion prompt, either.

First, though, I want to vacuum! (I know how to have fun...)

On Friday, Jake and I got up early and went to the airport to catch an Era flight to Anchorage. The museum there had an exhibit from the Chicago Field Institute on Mammoths and Mastodons, which are a topic I have a lot of interest in, and I've been wanting to go to this since I first heard about it. The exhibit closes next Friday, so this was pretty much our last chance to catch it. We got a lovely hotel room, and spent a fantastic two days not being at home where things still need finished. The exhibit was worth the trip, and the rest of the museum was quite nice, too; we spent a while in the aimed-at-kids Imaginarium playing with the physics toys. We bought a stuffed mammoth, supposedly for guppy, but I think Jake had more fun playing with it than it will for several years...

We flew back Saturday evening. It was nice that it was only overnight; we packed very light and were able to put everything in backpacks, so it was like being in Europe again. I read the Princess of Mars on my iPad while flying, and enjoyed it quite a lot (when I wasn't groaning over the bad science). I'm curious to see how the new movie stacks up.


I have some artwork currently in crowdfunding!

( Old versions )


You may sponsor 15 more minutes of work on this for $5.00. The person who sponsors the most receives the original, worldwide shipping included. (By random draw, if there is a tie) And, Torn World members may also sponsor using credits: 1 credit is 3 minutes. :) (5 credits/dollars is 15 minutes, 10 credits/dollars is 30 minutes, etc.) Current high sponsorship is $5! This piece has received two rounds of sponsorship, one by donation and one because a story is being written about it.

( Old version )


You may sponsor more work on this for $2.00 increments. The person who sponsors the most receives the original, worldwide shipping included. (By random draw, if there is a tie) And, Torn World members may also sponsor using credits. Current high sponsorship is $2! $2 gets you a 50-50 chance of owning this original, and $4 gets you the original, at this point (though you may get overbid. :P)

All sponsors of either piece (who don't win the original) will get an ACEO print of the finished piece.

And, I've got a recently finished piece that is already sold:


(Begun two Sketch Fests ago! And yes, I totally killed an ink pen getting all that texture.)

Thanks to a magnificent patron, I have an order of acrylics winging its way to me so that I can start painting on the next Torn World cover (plus a few new brushes and a case for my pencils! GLEE!). I still have some refinement needed on one of the figures in particular, and I've posted enough artwork in this entry already, so you get to wait a bit to get a look at that progress. (Unless you a Torn World creative contributor, in which case you can already see it in the forums.)


In other exciting news, a new issue of EMG-Zine is up! I have a very short, very silly story in this issue, At the Gates of Valhalla.


In factory news, I am 20 weeks! Halfway to probably there! (Full term is anything between 37 and 42 weeks, though new moms tend to run late. But does it count as halfway if I didn't even know for the first 4 weeks? ...And technically those first two weeks aren't even pregnant weeks, though they count them.) Still feeling fine. The heartburn seems to have decided not to stick around. Fatigue is minor. Some minor intermittent ligament pain - I still have to be careful getting up and stretching weirdly and overeating and sitting wrong. The wiggling is becoming stronger and more regular, and is no less weird and awesome. Definitely starting to show, especially in certain shirts. I got a reminder for an eye appointment that I forgot I had this week, and called back to cancel it, since your eyes go all wonky throughout pregnancy and it's pretty pointless to have them checked.


Looking ahead at this week: programming stuff, including freelance, SF, EMG-Zine, PA and general credits stuff. Art. Finish the darned bedroom (a hiatus for mammoths was worth it!). Coloring book and card deck orders. Follow up on new coloring books that haven't been sent yet... fidget.

All for now! :)

I did another batch of paintings last night, and will be scanning some more today:



These have a few more geometric designs than the last batches, but I liked them, and they seemed appropriate to the prompts.

I confess, I have been very nervous about these paintings - I am fairly confident in my ability to render things in graphite or ink that look like things they're supposed to look like, but color has always been much harder and when I take away my safety net of representation and try to express without set structure? It's like sky-diving. (Except that I can paint over my failures.)

On the plus side - and it's a big plus - I am not as terrified of color anymore. This has been a tremendously excellent exercise in putting aside my fear and gaining comfort with the medium. Squeezing a lump of paint onto the pallet has become more 'let's see what this does!' and less 'ohgodohgodohgodI'mgoingtoRUINthis.' I'm eager to do more in color. (If you have a favorite black and white piece you'd like to see in color, you might want to mention it...)

And, speaking of color, I have a new (actually rather old...) painting up at Torn World:



Deirdre wrote a story set in this location, so it can be posted as canon artwork!

Coloring books update:

Now, the bad news: I did not receive enough work to put out an Arabian Nights coloring book. I am bummed, but I needed at least five more pieces, would have preferred seven or eight so I had some choices when I went to lay it out, and I'm not willing to to provide that many myself (I already had three to contribute myself). No one asked for an extension, and I'm tired of nagging. You guys that got work in, you are amazing and wonderful and I am so grateful for your efforts. I'm sorry it didn't work out, and maybe it will later!

Please let me know if you are generally not interested in doing coloring books, or if this was simply a difficult theme. The next book I'm considering is one based on Fairy Tales, and if you think you're more likely to submit work for that, that will factor in on whether I move forward with it or not.

Reminder to submit 'Scandinavian Mythology' artwork and stories to EMG-Zine for October: http://emg-zine.com/guidelines.php

Now, I need to make bread, start laundry, find a password so I can fix a website, get some orders ready to mail and do some more scanning and painting.

Family Ties and Torn Skies is now available at Amazon! Also, Smashwords has approved the title for distribution, so it will become available (within 2 weeks) at Barnes and Noble, Amazon, Apple, and a bunch of other places. Woot! I also now have an author page at Amazon, although not all of my work is listed there yet because they've got author-limits on most titles, and I usually put other authors in before me.

There are free e-copies available if you are interested in reviewing this for me (on Smashwords, Amazon, or on your own blog), and I will be ridiculously grateful if you would! Request a copy here: http://www.tornworld.net/familyties.php

Likewise with the EMG-Zine anthology. I have already decided to make PDF copies available. They will not be available through Smashwords/ebooks, because they are SO visual and stripping to text would be pretty crazy-making, but I will have pdfs with pictures available soon, and would love to trade those for reviews.

In plans for the day:

MAIL BOOKS!!
write some words
Mail art.
Babysit for Nephew E.
Pick up husband (truck tire still flat, carpooling!)
Gym?
Programming (some emails out to clients now...)
Improve my elance portfolio (like, actually add things to it...)

And I leave you with two finished pieces from this last Sketch Fest: