Valentine card

It is a common misconception that Christians hate gays. It is also a common misconception that gays hate Christians. I have a revelation for you, many gays are Christians! Shocking! Actually I happen to know a few very good Christian gay guys. Now, keep this concept in mind for a moment… I will come back to it.

Every year I make my Valentine card with my husband in mind, when the card is not too personal I also offer it to the public in Zazzle. One year I used a quote from 1 Corinthians, which is one of the readings I included in my wedding, a beautiful reading about what love is not, and most importantly what it is. Later that year a friend of mine, Alejandro, married his partner, Chris; In Argentina same sex marriage is legal, and I thought I would love to give him a card for his wedding, most of the cards that are geared to gay people are funny or naughty, there are very few that are tasteful and even less that are Christian. It was with Ale and Chris in mind that I redesigned the card I had made for my husband using the silhouette of two males. I kept the quote, though, because regardless of faith, that quote from 1 Corinthians is beautiful and perfect.

Every year this card sells for Valentine’s day, and it makes me so happy and proud, that I get giddy each time I receive a notification saying that I sold that design. It makes me very happy to think that somewhere some guy browsing through countless tasteless cards finally smiles warmly thinking that this is the perfect one for his partner. Because in this world of loud words and seemingly “them against us” mentality, me and the people that buy it know that Love is Truth, and Jesus was all about that.

Embellished postcards for the seasons

You can now order the Joyful Penguins postcard as is or hand embellished. Each embellished card is unique, not two are the same. Contact me if you are interested.

Joyful Penguins, Christmas card 2012

This year, thank you to being part of the wonderful PSP Tube Stop team I am aware of the holidays before the happen. I am normally so busy and involved into whatever is going on with my life that suddenly I look at the calendar and thin “Hey, it is already Valentine’s day next week!?” Christmas is very different and I normally start preparing and thinking of friend’s and family’s presents in November, but I get so much into it that I end up thinking “I should make a card!… oh, wait, that would leave me ten days to design it, post it up and… forget about it” so I never post anything for sale.

However, this year I have been herded over and again through the months with the ideas of making kits and submitting our seasonal work two months before the holiday itself. The Christmas kit for this year is just lovely and the palette very calm and relaxing (just wait until you see it!) and I decided to work on my Christmas cards inspired by it. So here it is! The Joyful Penguins are ready to say Merry Christmas!

Joyful penguins for this seasons!

This is available through DeviantArt, Zazzle, and in a few days there will be available as postcards through me.

Digistamps of my art in Printabubble

So, remember that I was talking about something I was waiting for to go through? Well, it did! I am licensing my work to Printabubble, a digital stamp company.

“But, what is a digistamp?” you may ask. That is a good question. A digistamp is a digital outline of artwork that can be used to “stamp” an image in a piece of paper (i.e. print it) for personal use. You can then use this for coloring pages, making postcards, scrapbooking, etc. You can choose to paint it digitally or traditionally, doing a collage, adding glitter, special effects, etc. Your imagination is the limit.

Chamaness (c) Constanza Ehrenhaus

So you know, my work is being offered for you to play with it! Go by, have fun, and please show me your end product! I always like to see different interpretations on the same topic!

Personal Challenge: Complementary palette.

My return to drawing is marked by a piece drawn for the Enchanted Visions‘ October theme: Spooky Eyes. This is the first piece I made for the deadline, yay! 😀

I wanted to keep exploring my Personal Challenge list, and having recently seen a post by Dan dos Santos, and having always been very inspired by the great palettes that Chris Malidore uses, I decided to go for a complementary color scheme. I have to admit that blue/orange is a duo that works really well, and though it’s been overdone, since the theme was centered around eyes and I am mostly into real flesh colored beings, I went for it.

Spooky Eyes (c) Constanza Ehrenhaus 2012

For this project I wanted the eyes to pop a lot, so I used not only the complementary blue to all that orange in the skin and hair, but I also played with the lightness and saturation to make the eyes the focal point, by using a very light blue for the eyes and darker, less saturated oranges for the rest of the image, it is easy to focus on the eyes. One more thing I tried to play with in this image was to use a more textured skin, I’ve been trying to improve my skin tones, which I think I am doing (though there is a long way to go still!) but so fat I’ve never really been happy with the textures of my skin. This time it looks a little better. I think there is a lot to improve and I hope to some day find the delicate balance between subtlety and texture. As my first try with this technique, I guess I’ll have to settle in order not to neglect my other projects.

I might actually revisit the complementary colors topic. I actually envisioned something more eye catching like this, but Chris’s mastery of values is far beyond mine for right now 😉

So, how my list is looking like?

Palettes:
Monochrome
Limited (Circe)
Complementary (Spooky Eyes)
Primary
Secondary (Enchanted Visions)
Tertiary
Split complementary
Analogous
Multicolor
Warm
Cold

Composition:
Pyramidal
Spiral
Big group of people
Architecture
one point perspective
two points perspective

Halloween Kit: Nevermore

At PSP Tube Stop we are always thinking of ways to give the best to our costumers. Lisa was thinking and squeezing her brains screaming “Enough of orange and purple! This is supposed to be a ‘scary’ thing!” when she came up with a Gothic theme for this Halloween’s kit. The palette was inspired on this piece:

By W.D. Noble

So off we went to work on this creepy scrapkit including tombs, witches, Gothic frames, creepy trees and scary backgrounds.

As an anecdote, this time around Lisa was going through some difficult times so she trusted me the honor of taking care of this one. I have to say I have a new found respect for Lisa’s work, it is difficult, time consuming and mentally taxing to be the person in charge of coordinating artists, editing their work, tubing, changing colors and pushing to meet the deadline in a nice manner. She is an awesome person for many reasons, and now I get a glimpse into what a hard worker she is, given that she is the one taking care of all this in a regular fashion. Lisa, you are wonderful!

And so, without further ado I’ll leave you with this beautiful scrapkit:

Nevermore.

 

This scrapkit comes with 15 backgrounds, 13 frames, and 37 objects. Contributing artists are Constanza Ehrenhaus, Katerina Koukiotis, Jenny Heidewald and Lisa Cree.

Tattoo design: The Salmon of Knowledge

It has been a while since I’ve had the energy for doing art. My first trimester of pregnancy is exhausting and a toddler at home, as good and sweet and well behaved as he is, also demands a lot of attention, so it is just now that I can sit and draw some. Because I am not still 100% back (will I ever?) I decided to dig up some sketches for tattoos I’ve made in the past that never made it to the final stages, I chose one that I really liked and started tweaking until I got the design nailed.

So here it is my Salmon of Knowledge. I like it a lot because of the way it flows, because of the symbols included, and because I really like the legend.

Constanza Ehrenhaus (c) 2012

The salmon of Knowledge.
Wisdom, eternity, water, flow, dynamic equilibrium.

As I was working on it all the time I could hear in my head the song Listen to the River by Luka Bloom.

Interview with Aaron Pocock

Copyrighted to Aaron Pocock

Hi Aaron, can you please tell our readers about your artistic formation?

Like the story goes… I’ve been drawing from a very young age. I was a very shy little boy who mumbled and stumbled over my words, I found it a lot easier to communicate visually and so developed a great love of drawing and it kind of went from there. I used to copy my favourite pictures from comics and annuals and from picture books I loved. I’m totally self-taught, every now and again I wish my ability would have come a lot quicker (which I’m sure it does when you have instruction) but as a Taurean, I think teaching myself has made the lessons sink in a lot deeper, I’m a self-taught musician also, if I love to do something I intend to take it as far as I possibly can, to do what I love for a living is fabulous.

Copyrighted to Aaron Pocock

Who have been your inspirations?

Goodness, too many… Nature always inspires me, the writings of my favourite author Charles De Lint always inspire me, he’s so visual, I’m not sure if he plucks images from out of my head or places them there, but his work is tangible, living magic-I was very fortunate to have him allow me the use of some very kind comments he made about my art for my latest book ‘Touched By Magic’. (very blessed fellow I am…)
I’d love to list all the artists that inspire me but it’d take too long, from the top of my head I’d list: David Wyatt (an old pal from my 20’s), Charles Vess, Michael Hague, Michael Wm. Kaluta, Arthur Rackham, Frank Frazetta, Alan Lee, John Howe… there are so many more…

What are your tools of choice?

Pencils, pens, dip pens, brushes, watercolours, acrylics, oils and photoshop, and sometimes all of the above.

What is the importance of daily sketching? How do you keep up with this practice?

To me, it’s all important. I draw for a living and I’ve found that if I slack-off for even a day or two, my work becomes stiff and lifeless, I’ve been on month long holidays and it’s like a nightmare if I haven’t drawn to then try and get back into the swing of things… Nowadays, even when I’m on holiday I’ll sketch, at least one thing, or get at least one idea down, on a normal day though, I’ll sketch 3-4 things or see an idea take shape  just to keep my eye and my hand loose, there’s no shortcut I’m afraid.

Copyrighted to Aaron Pocock

What are your best assets? And weaknesses?

My best? I believe I’ve somehow harnessed the ability to make people nostalgic, and to wonder.
My worst? Impatience. I’m terribly impatient (for a taurean).

How would you like to see your art grow?

Well, in a number of ways… I think I’d like to see it become more well-known, I’d like to actually ‘master’ a medium, like most artists, I just want to get better and better, I think that’s a thread we (artists) all share, not to strive for perfection as such, but to develop as best we can.

What attracts you to take part in SketchFest every month?

I would love to take part every month, but I get so busy with commissions and things that it’s hard to find the time so I do it when I can. The camaraderie from all participants is incredible, Ellen has done a wonderful job promoting and maintaining the sketch fest. I’ve made some lovely friends from my time there. I believe it promotes growth as an artist and more importantly, it’s great for people to bounce ideas and receive praise from their peers.

Where can our readers find your art?

My blog:
aaronpocock.wordpress.com

My website:
www.pocockillustration.com

my youtube channel:
http://www.youtube.com/user/thatspaceinbetween

Copyrighted to Aaron Pocock

Personal Challenge: Secondary Triad

To tackle my second palette challenge I used again the Enchanted Visions Project, I have had in mind for a while this image and I decided to work with a secondary palette: Green, violet and orange. It really proved to be harder than what I originally thought, and I don’t know how well I did honor the secondary theme, but the final image has the energy I was looking for. It, of course, ended up not being like what I had in mind int he first place, but when I envisioned it I was not thinking of limiting my palette choices, so I allowed myself to depart from the original idea in that respect.  It does however show the ecstatic feel that I wanted, the artist envisioning the art in her mind, as in rapture.

That puts my list down by two themes! Yay!

Palettes:
Monochrome
Limited (Circe)
Complementary
Primary
Secondary (Enchanted Visions)
Tertiary
Split complementary
Analogous
Multicolor
Warm
Cold

Composition:
Pyramidal
Spiral
Big group of people
Architecture
one point perspective
two points perspective

Interview with Mitsi Sato-Wiuff

Copyrighted to Mitzi Sato-Wiuff

Mitzi your art has a clear manga style, how did it evolve into that?

Although I’ve done realism in the past, my current fantasy art style is a result of my years of doodling from my school days (elementary and junior high school).  I was born in Japan, and like most kids there, I grew up reading manga a lot, though I probably had an early start on that even among my peers.  So my doodles were influenced by the vintage shoujo manga of the late 70s and 80s —  very clean, tediously done with lots of details.  I also think that the manga style of art is generally influenced by the traditional Japanese art such as woodblock prints and tattoo art where the line art is an important, integral part of the whole look.  I do feel that my current style reflects my personal approach and taste, and therefore more authentic to me, compared to the works I used to do for fine art exhibitions.

Who are the artists that inspire you?

I find something to inspire myself in most anyone’s work and enjoy a wide variety of genre and media.  I’m usually inspired by originality of vision and uniqueness of style more than technical skills.  Any art that presents a new way of looking at things or a truly magical, personal vision always catches my attention.  But I’ve found much inspiration in the works of the following artists and they’re my favorite: Aubrey Beardsley, Gustav Klimt, John Singer Sargent, Louis Comfort Tiffany, Reiko Okano (my favorite manga artist), and Waki Yamato (also a manga artist).

Even when you work digital, your work has a softness that is more characteristic of watercolors, how do you achieve that look?

I’ve always liked the transparent colors where you can see layers of different colors rather than flat, opaque colors filling an area.  I tend to go for this look whether I’m working in watercolor, colored pencils, or digital.  In my digital work, I use Corel Painter program.  First, my line art is done traditionally in pen on paper.  I’ve experimented with different approaches, and I found that this is what I like the most — mixed media of traditional pen work with digital coloring.  I scan the line art, then color the work free hand on my Intuos 3 tablet.  I use ‘tools’ in the wet media selections with opacity set at very low percentage.  The colors are gradually built up by repeated application of light ‘washes’.  My digital coloring technique is just about the exact copy of the way I do traditional watercolor.  Many washes of colors are used to build up the desired colors, while giving the whole thing the look of transparency.  Layers I use are utilized much like traditional masking steps, so most of my works only have 6 or so layers, which I believe is very low in digital art.  You can see a simplified demonstration of my method in a progressive showing of works-in-progress in one of the psuedo-tutorials I’ve made.

“Lady of the Forest”

“Shades of Blue”

Copyrighted to Mitzi Sato-Wiuff

Why do you favor monochromes, as opposed to more variable palettes?

I think the more accurate term to describe my works is ‘limited palette’ rather than ‘monochromatic’.  There’s a predominant color, but there are also subdued hues of colors from other groups thrown in.  I’ve never been a big fan of the rainbow, technicolor artwork that utilizes every color on a color wheel.  I like to stay with a limited palette for the overall feeling of serenity and unity that it evokes.  It’s also a result of my approach.  At the beginning of the coloring phase, I always set a ‘paper color’ — something in the mid to light range of the values within a piece –, which is just like working with a colored paper.   That’s something I used to do a lot working with colored pencils when I was a signature member of the Colored Pencil Society of America back in the late 90s and early 2000s.   Because all the colors I use are transparent, the ‘paper color’ will show through to varying degrees throughout a piece of work and give that harmonizing effect that keeps everything “together”.

I see you speak Japanese, is that your mother tongue or learned later in life?

I was born in Japan to Japanese parents, so it’s my mother tongue.  Mitzi is a nickname derived from my Japanese name, Mutsumi, which most non-Japanese people have a hard time pronouncing correctly.

It is not a usual language to know, do you find it helped you with your career?

I can’t say that it’s been particularly helpful in my current art career.  It’s been quite irrelevant for the most part.  If anything, it gives me maybe a slightly varied perspective on things to fall back on occasionally, like when I’m trying to come up with an idea for a given theme or prompt.  I can always look for inspirations in my Japanese culture and/or Eastern traditions to come up with something what my fantasy art peers would think quite original and unique.   I am a foreign language teacher to American students (private tutoring), just happy to share what I know with those students that are looking for something different to learn.

How did you decide to join PSP Tube Stop?

I originally had a licensing agreement with another PSP tubes company that went out of business several months before my contract term was up.   I was approached by several companies, one of which was PSP Tube Stop.  I have an adventurous streak in me, so I was delighted by the fresh opportunity and the approach to the business the owner brought to the table, not to mention the artist-friendly contract.  When I signed the contract, the site wasn’t live yet, but I felt really good about the whole thing and never worried about going with the ‘unproven’ company at all.  In fact, my tubes are doing better than ever with PSP Tube Stop, so I’m very happy with my decision.  I’m also grateful for PSP Tube Stop for taking a chance on me, a relative newcomer.

Copyrighted to Mitzi Sato-Wiuff

What do you like about tubes?

I like the legitimacy of them the most!  These tube companies legitimately provide the art for people to use, while respecting copyright of the artists and increasing awareness of the right way to obtain and use art for personal enjoyment.  In the age of easy art theft and rampant use of found images online from graphics on web site to outright illegal business such as selling prints for profit, I think the tubes and tube businesses do it right.  The royalty is also generally the highest for any licensed products.  It’s also fun to see what creative tags people come up with using your tubes and other elements available from scrapkits, etc.  I also enjoy the interaction on places like Facebook where taggers would post their tags for everyone to see and comment on.

Where can out readers find your art?

My official web site is http://www.aurorawings.com/

where all my fantasy artwork and related links can be found, including my shop at Zazzle and my Blogger blog.
My home on the web is my deviantART account at  http://aruarian-dancer.deviantart.com/

where I interact the most with people and the largest variety of prints are sold.
My Facebook fan page is  http://www.facebook.com/FantasyArtofMitzi
where I hold giveaways of my merchandise periodically.

My line art for digital download and rubber stamps are available from  http://scrapbookstampsociety.com/index.php
and their Etsy shop.

My fabric blocks are available from  http://www.fantasyfabricblocks.com/catalog.php?category=195
where you’ll also find other products like color-me-sheets and cards.

My coloring book, published by Ellen Million Graphics, can be found on Amazon.com.