Toulouse-Lautrec's ouvre was the inspiration for this kit.

Last week Lisa Cree approached the artists at PSP TubeStop and asked who wanted to work in a collaborative effort to make a scrapkit, the deadline was tight, but we needed to get it done in time for Valentine’s. I decided to give it a try, I had never worked on making elements and I really wanted to be part of this. The theme was “A Weekend in Paris” and the palette, elements and style were inspired by Toulouse-Lautrec’s oeuvre, especially those with a high red/yellow/black theme. So off we went and in less than a week this awesome kit was put together!

The kit was made by Joanna Bromley, Mitzi Sato Wiuff, Kim Turner, Katerina Koukiotis, Lisa Cree and me, and it includes 64 Elements, 25 Frames, and 15 Papers. It includes hats, corsets, black cats, the tour Eiffel, a table for two, and many other things that make a romantic and unique set, different from just bows and hearts. The kit is valued at $3.50 (not all elements are shown in the preview).

I feel honored to have worked together with such a wonderful and talented bunch of artists, their work rocks and raises the bar for my future efforts! I thought that making “elements”

Weekend in Paris kit preview

would be easier than it was, and I have learned some things by working on this and seeing the work progresses of other artists. If I had to do it again, I would do a lot of things differently and I hope I have the chance to practice some more in the future.

In the meanwhile I have accepted the challenge to make a tube with this kit, just for the fun of it and to see how hard it really is to make tubes, which I have never done The great thing of this kit is that it has so many elements and so different that you really could use it in itself to make a piece, no need to get a “main figure”!

If any of you does make a tube from this, me and the other artists would love to see it! Don’t forget that you can find us in Facebook too! You can always upload your work to the group for all of us to enjoy!

Sea Goddess, unfinished (c) Constanza Ehrenhaus 2011

Last year was really a dry year for me and my art (you can also see the lack of blog updates!). The lack of sleep affected how much I actually wanted to work, or how much I could tolerate it, really. Plus the lack of sleep implies that the baby is not sleeping so he is needing me, leaving close to no time for art. However, I think I have improved some. I keep working hard in improving values, composition and have a more interesting palette, I also am trying to improve anatomy and skin tones, and have interesting backgrounds too (as in, look, there actually is a background!).

This year I really want to put more time into my work. Ignacio is sleeping rather well (when he is not teething) up until midnight, so I can fit in a couple of hours of work each evening, I would love to consistently take advantage of them. Also I would like to expand my rather lonely Zazzle store, and I have signed a contract to license my work to PSP TubeStop, I wouldn’t mind having a small but predictable income from smaller venues like those. It would be great to take up on some commission work too, but I have so little time that I feel I need to get paid more than what I was asking for, especially since my time with my husband has become precious, if I am going to take time away from him and my baby, it should be better paid. One more thing I would love to do is to work really hard to help one or two charities I have in mind, I would love to have a sort of ongoing art for charity thing going on, where I could sell or auction my work and donate all the proceedings to them… in that case I don’t mind to work for free, it is my way of thanking God for my life to be blessed with health and love.

Here is a toast to 2012 and the year of the Dragon! I hope it is a wonderful one for all of you!

So thrilled! I am normally the one asking questions, so this was a nice change!

One of the challenges I always face is “What do I draw!?” so this year I just faced it differently: If I was to give a card to the love of my life, what would it be? And this is what I would give him, and this is what it would say:

This year's Valentine's card.

Both my husband and I can be really goofy, but we also have this deep serious vein, and I liked this more sober approach. Inside the card there is a fragment of one of the readings from our wedding: 1 Corinthians, which is lovely and powerful.

This card is up for sale in my zazzle store, so if you like it you can buy it!

Some of my tubes that are up for the giveaway!

Lisa and the artists are just go go go go go at PSP TubeStop! And all about keeping this site growing! Expect great news from me in the near future (hint: one of them includes an amazing scrapkit designed especially for V day by all of us!)

In the meanwhile you can win a free tube by me! Just vote for your favourite tube, which one would be the one of your choice by commenting in our Facebook page and a winner will be selected randomly! Head over there and let the fun begin!

Some time ago I told to myself that I was not going to license my art for tubes. Why do that? Why put your art at risk when it is perfectly safe with the copyright label screaming “don’t reuse me!!”?  Well, yeah… I am doing that right now Soon you should be able to find my art in Lisa Cree’s PSP Tubes Stop page. Thing is, I really trust Lisa. She is a friend and she is a very hard-working woman. I trust she will not take my work and rape me with commission prices or redistribute it illegally… or unethically. There are other great artist friends there now, as Jenny Heidewald and Katerina Koukiotis, and I will be happy to share that space with them.

For some time now I have been wanting to diversify a bit and make some income from items not as expensive as commissions but with a more constant flow, and when Lisa contacted me and sent me the contract to review it made sense to give it a try. So, soon my art will be available as a resource for people who feel that they cannot draw themselves but that want to do the right thing and reward the artist for their work instead of ripping it off of the internet, and I respect that so much!

I also wanted to let you all know that Lisa will have two new and unpublished pieces in PSP Tubes Stop, I will publish them later here, but for right now, I am giving her that privilege! If you are curious, go take a look!

I miss you all, I am working hard in some commissions that I cannot show yet, but I am dying to showcase. Till then not much around here!

Take care!!!

Remember that post about Pixie, the chihuahua? Nora Blansett found that Pixie had tumors and heart problems and she needed to bring her dog to surgery, Pixie is more than just a dog for her, so she was heart-broken thinking that she could not afford the expensive surgery plus medications to save Pixie. She started an auction on her Facebook page, but because artists are a very nice community with a great sense of camaraderie, soon Lisa Cree had opened another Facebook Page and artists started to pour donating their work for auctions.

The response was fantastic, people were buying pieces so fast that in less than a week the money was gathered for Pixie’s surgery and during the next subsequent days more money was gathered for medications and vet bills. There was such a sense of love and companionship that people spontaneously started to send more that what the buyers bid for! I sent two cards when one was purchased, and was gladly surprised when I bought one bracelet and received two! Somehow we all were feeling that we just wanted to give more to those that were pushing together for Pixie to live and Nora be happy. I sent a thank you note to the artisan that sent me the bracelets (one is going to my sister, she is going to love it!) and a few days later I got a thank you card from another person that got art cards from me.

I am happy to conclude this little story saying that Pixie got her surgery and is recovering really well. I hope she continues to do so and that both Pixie and Nora know now how much they mean for a bunch of friends, colleagues and strangers, that pulled together in times of adversity to make a little miracle happen.

Artists Nora Blansett has a dear chihuahua, Pixie, who is in need of surgery to remove cancerous tumors. Because the economy is rough the surgery is not possible at the moment so she reached out by putting up for auction several of her pieces and crafts. This generated an incredible response from the art community, people started to donate their own pieces to Save Pixie prompted by the ever generous Lisa Cree. So, if you are in search of art, crafts, prints, holiday cards, one of a kind jewelry, etc. pass by the Facebook auction and consider buying something original, unique and know it will make someone and her dog very, very happy.

Argentinean politicians are trying to make abortion legal. So far it is only legal under certain circumstances, but there is a push for making it legal and free for all. Because the law is being treated right now I went to check the news and browsed until I got to their blog… and I found this:

Banner for legalization of abortion in Argentina. Seriously...?

Now, is there any need for me to mention that this is the Starbucks Mermaid? This looks like someone liked Starbucks’ logo, I and slapped arms and very clumsily hips, then copied and pasted and voila! Insta-banner! f you are not familiar with the Starbucks logo, here it is for you:

The new (and more modest) Starbucks mermaid.

I was rather dismayed… or maybe I should not have been. After all, the whole abortion issue is a mess because Argentina has signed the Pacto de San Jose de Costa Rica, in which the adhering countries are committed to defend life from conception. And I am not giving my opinion on abortion yay or nay  (this is not the right place) but there is a right way of doing things and that is to *first* rectify this situation and opt out of the pact, then you can have a law for abortion. As it stands, if this law is passed it will be non constitutional because international agreements are above national laws.
Why do I mention this? Because if they so nonchalantly violate an international agreement… why not another one? Argentina *is* part of the Berne Convention, which protects artistic works.

If I was Starbucks, or any business, I would be dismayed to find the logo of my company used for such a controversial cause, especially in a country that is mostly Catholic.

A message to the abortion project campaign was not immediately returned, but I really am eager to know what they have to say.

My family lives in Argentina so I promised that I was going to send them photos of the baby every day, consequently, I am taking a crap load of photos. During my last photoshot I had the luck to witness what we always read about in the books, but in real life is hard to see.

In theory, the shadow cast by an object is the complementary color of the light that bathes that object, and when light bounces off of an object the color of said object is reflected in another surface. The problem is that rarely light is one color (white light being the sum of all colors) so the shadows are not the complementary too obviously, and we perceive them rather gray. However, in art, a gray shadow makes things look flat and boring. Additionally, there is usually so much noise that the reflections of colors is not quite clearly seen most of the times.

Well, I had a Dr. Seuss book on my coffee table, a party edition of One Fish Two Fish Blue Fish Red Fish (yes, my readings have turned very cultural!) and the cover is a metallic yellow, the sun was coming in, bouncing off of the book, projecting the light onto the ceiling. This was perfect to generate the purple shadow that in theory should be there:

Yellow light casts a purple shadow (pay attention to the translucent edges).

I was so excited that I had to take a photo!

Later, while shooting photos of Ignacio I saw that one of his toys was reflecting beautifully on him!

Ignacio in his Charlie Banana Blackbeary photoshot.

If you notice the light is coming from the left, it bounces on the vertical face of the cubes (the one we barely see) and it is reflected onto his skin. Notice that the reflection happens only in this direction because of the path of light, and also because of the texture of the surfaces. If instead of his skin we would have a shiny surface (like metal) the light might bounce off again in the opposite direction.

In light blue I have represented the beams of light.

Look at the first photo and notice how saturated the reflected light is! This is always important to keep in mind to make your paintings vibrant and life-like.