this project is about to go live ..........

gees i am exhausted,
i am going to try and redo that vid tomorrow with the audio a bit louder.... (which when you all read this will be today.....

and i am working on the 'rewards' for the kickstarter backers....
no reward can be more then ten of an item, so does that mean i can't have card sets of 12?
well tarot card decks are funded and that's 72 cards per deck
so i guess i can do double sets?
i think my head hurts
but i will figure this out
i also need to figure packaging, i had my heart set on kraft paper and jute twine.....
which folks can recycle, compost or even start the woodstove with...
we'll see
i realized that if i have to tie 500 bows in jute twine, i may not be painting for a few months while my fingers heal...........
i am sure i can figure a compromise
i also need to get figures for overseas sales, for shipping, as i know there are a few people that are overseas that want these cards.
and i have to have separate rewards for them!

this is a LOT of work, it's a huge project, and i am thankful that the bulk of the paintings (ok the goldfinch and indigo bunting were after) were done months ago
i would not want to be sitting down now to do the paintings for a project of this size.

most of the work for this was mental work, since the paintings were done. decisions about how many, what kind of paper.... which paintings to keep and which to leave out.
how to write what you folks read here on the blog and what will be on the kickstarter project page.

i sort of learned a bit about video too.
now about that video.......
i don't actually have access to a video camera.
my little camera does take video but it's sort of shaky and a lot grainy.
so i had to work with what i had.....and that was still photos
a slide show maker software
a mic on the laptop (we discovered the laptop has a web cam...it's even worse then my little camera!)
and my sort of learning on the fly to put it all together

add that to the budgies that NEVER SHUT UP, while i was trying to record my voice over....

so here i am, almost on the eve of going live.......i feel like life may never be the same again.
and in a way it won't be, as the entire world ( or at least the people that kickstarter reaches) will see my paintings.

ok now this will post in the AM- but i am about to go to sleep for the night.....
take good care everyone......
and please wish me and the project luck

a short discussion about......our birds!

i was asked recently, why birds?
why nests?
the answer is, because i love birds, and i have a few of my own!
i have 5 ducks
4 chickens
and 4 budgies
(also 3 laperm cats but that's another story for another time)
everyone is got a name, which they respond to......... all, with the exception of the budgies, are tame and love to be carried around like babies.

so back to the question, i am of the school where you draw, or write what you know, and i am surrounded by birds.
completely by choice.
we don't have a lot of pet birds compared to the amount of wild birds that share the property with us.  they love it here!
we have plenty of cover for them, food, water..........
lots of trees and wild spaces

and they seem to really really LOVE duck and chicken food. the cardinals alone must go through a pound or two a week of duck and chicken food.....they swoop into the duck/chicken pens and help themselves. it's gotten so bad that the ducks ignore the wild birds!
but i love them all, they make our world so much happier with their chirping and their flying around out there.
we put out nesting materials for them in spring but really there is so much out there, dead dried grass, duck and chicken feathers.... etc that they just happily stay here and raise family after family.

they're happy
we're happy
and i get to paint them!

so that's the answer of 'why birds'

things are better with drum scanning?

i spoke to another fine art scanner company..... and drum scanning is the way to go for art prints
(or so folks think)

soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
that would add a whole buncha money to the kickstarter project
but may be worth it

(and i have a fast rough draft and voice over that sucks but progress is being made)


now there are a few points i know i need to make with the video.....one being that this project is the first really big one that i've done on my own.
and that i had a 'godwink' happen to push me into this back in january when the lady in the bookstore descended the ladder and asked me about what type of studio i had.... then when i told her about the book i was working on, insisted on there being cards....

another point would be how much joy painting these birds and these nests gave me, as well as the people watching them develop

and how many people are anxiously waiting for these to be printed and available

wow

AND we got goal! (from yesterday)

this nest is so magical for me

although the voice over was not usable as i started to cough again!!

today all i need to do is finish the video and we can go live ASAP
everything else is done!
and i mean EVERYTHING

i love the colors

i did the merchant's account
finished verifications
etc





so today's goals are

1. call the fine art printer down the valley and see about a deal on professional scans 
2. try another voice over, without coughing
3. finish piecing together this video

today my goals are:

starting the head of
the house finch

1. to open the amazon account that i need to start the kickstarter 
2. to record at least draft 1 on the voice over

i had a lot of person set backs with this project, not as much with the paintings, more with the 'fly the nest' part of it....where i try and get it out into the world
i think that part of that is me

goldfinch

it's pretty scary out in the big world and they are all such YOUNG paintings...( ok humor me, i do spend a LOT of time over them)

but today is another step closer to them going out into the world.

while waiting for my voice to return

house finch on rough press paper

so i can record this voice over...... (i am wondering if, perhaps i should just do it with music and insert black frames with type, like old timey silent movies)
i figured i would talk a bit about watercolor paper and a bit about the differences etc.
watercolor paper is usually 100% cotton, and is specified by weight, and surface finish


i tend to use 140# hp (hot press) some folks use lighter 90# and some use heavier
a lot of artists like the texture of rough press paper, and i do too but it doesn't lend itself to easy reproduction of my paintings - see that house finch...look at the sky closely.....see the texture? now in person that texture just sparkles....... but i don't truly like it in scans as well..... and i have to correct for it.
(when the originals go up for sale though, someone is going to love it, i would bet on it)

cardinal on hot press paper

now here on the other hand is a cardinal..... he's done on hot press paper and the surface is smooth... it's easier to get fine crisp lines and better, i think, for reproduction...but in person, it is my opinion that he doesn't quite sparkle as much as he could. (that is my opinion, as my husband thinks he does)

my favorite brand of paper is twinrocker, hands down the top of the line paper.
i do also use fabriano artistico
i do NOT use arches, i don't like it.
i do however like canson100, which is also part of the arches family..... but for some reason canson works better for me then arches does.

there are other papers out there and others that i have tried but these work the best for the way i work.
normally

all the paper i use is 100% archival as well, so it should, with reasonable care, last at least 500 years. so will my pigments...........
not that i am any great master artist or anything but it's good to know that when it comes time for these original paintings to be sold, the buyers won't be facing faded or mutated colors, or deteriorating paper. properly matted and framed they will be around for a very long time.

a glimpse of one of the 'fails'

occasionally a painting is a total fail, and i recycle it.

2nd painting of a
chipping sparrow-recycled

i figured that i would show you all a total fail, and it only got worse after this!

there are elements of this chipping sparrow that worked but then overall it just was not something that made my heart leap when i set the brush down.....then i made it worse by redoing the background sort of an orange purple too. 

 also he's cramped into the plane of the painting, which made me feel like he was captured and flattened, not the feeling i wanted at all....so this is one of my recycles...

now the elements that did work for me, actually it was the colors! i really LIKED this the way it was as far as the colors go...and the modeling of the bird itself- and i even liked how the shadows and modeling of the branch came out...just enough without being over done but overall it just was not right.

on the plus side, HE is actually looking like a SHE since there is an egg bulge. 

*  anyone who is involved with birds on a daily basis will know exactly what that is-for the rest, it's the bulge just under the tail, indicating that an egg is waiting to be laid. i have ducks, chickens and budgies here, mainly girls, so that is something we notice   *

now my point being?

well each painting teaches the artist something, even a failure.

keeping trying as it is about the process of correcting what you did wrong, and reaching further towards what you feel is right.
repeating what you did right while stretching your comfort area with each different painting
and THAT part should never stop for an artist who's interested in growing.

3rd chipping sparrow

here is the third one i did of a chipping sparrow- i don't think the bird is quite as well modeled as the last one but i do believe there is more 'air' around him....

this was/is all part of the process i went through doing the work for the card project. i have nest paintings too the either didn't make it into the line up although they were good, because they didn't 'fit' the look

i though folks may find it interesting to see some of the 'out takes' that happened with this project

now as soon as i get a voice BACK, i intend on doing the voice over for the slide show...then this project goes live on kickstarter.....

one that i love, but didn't get into this set of cards

this is the oven bird.
they live in my area of pa on the forest floor, they make a really cool nest, which is what they are named after.
i loved this little bird so much.
after laying out all the birds in the series i decided that i would have to cut him.
it broke my heart as i really loved painting him, i loved learning about him, and his little feet in this painting just GOT ME.
(so did the orange striped cap)
i do tend to favor the ones that everyone overlooks.
in my mind this is as fascinating as a cardinal, but not as showy.
with THIS bird, you have to learn to appreciate the subtle shadings of feathers, and how amazingly well this bird is designed to hide in the mulch layer of the woods.
no he isn't the most eye catching of birds but that is the whole POINT!
cool huh?
maybe eventually i will do a series with these quite birds.....what do you folks think?


oh and we are getting better around here.
today i was able to get the ducks out (with help)

temporary setback due to

fast update today is tuesday sep 4...OMG i been sick all weekend (you don't want to know just how sick i was, i could NOT break a fever of 102.4) but i am better today, thank goodness
whatever this thing is that bernie gave me, i am STILL coughing really bad, and i hope i can sleep tonight as i wasn't able to for two nights as i could NOT breath, i almost went to the hospital ER it was so bad.
i figure another day if i can get some sleep then i should be fine and out of the nest should be back on track- thank you all for your continued support

the plague from the pits of hell..........(thanks to bernie....who shares EVERYTHING with me)

he shared a really bad cold this time, so bad my face is swollen!

so here is a page out of my journal, i know a few are unfinished but i need to order new ink for my fountain pen, please look at this for a while, and let me attempt to recover from this really really REALLY bad cold that has my poor face so swollen i can't focus my eyes!

and for the record, bernie is on the mend...... and he's barely coughing!

some PROGRESS!

i got a bit more done on scanning etc, my friend lana would like to see these paintings professionally scanned and i would also- i did find one more fine art scanning/printing company that i didn't know about so i am going to call them to see about scanning. because i scan them over and over and keep adjusting color to get them to look the same as on my screen but then i realized, that a printer will need them scanned for cmyk not rbg ( i know that MY printer wants them in cmyk, i can do color separations for that here) 

so monday i call another printer, and depending on costs i will figure that into the kickstarter budget. meanwhile, this is the line up of the paintings for the card project. plus the fledgling in the nest if we exceed the goal.  i am starting to get excited again. oh and the writer's block..... fading....

"hi, ..........and welcome .................et me introduce you to my project........'