Redbubble quality let down, cheese and more

I'm just processing some photos off my camera for some one of a kind items and new things I'll hopefully be getting online for a website update today, and grabbed these photos that were on there as well.
First one, is a photo of the print quality of the Red Bubble t-shirt I just bought myself.
http://www.redbubble.com/ is one of those print on demand product services, and I thought it would be neat to make myself a kinda promo t-shirt with a bunch of my images on. I picked Redbubble over the others since I thought it had an Aussie branch, but turns out the shirts come from germany anyway, sooo....
But meh, I'm SO dissapointed with the quality of the print. I don't think I'll wear the shirt at all... For any artist out there that has designs up on Redbubble but hasn't ordered a sample themselves it'd be worth doing I think. I don't think I'm being fussy... it's all grainy and you can barely make out some of the images.


On a completely unrelated topic, me and David have been very busy lately, and going out a lot. Which means our milk, which the milkman brings each week, is not being used. So I've been making lots of homemade cheese lately. It's fun, and is really yummy, particularly for cooking (cannaloni, cheese pastries, etc). It's also super easy too. You just mix up some plain junket with the milk, let it set, then spoon it into some cheese baskets (getting the cheese baskets will be the hardest part!). Then the curds and whey seperate out, leaving nice, fresh cheese.
My cheese baskets are the Maltese style, so they have cute little patterns in them that make really pretty little cheeses-


And that's my random post for the day! Hopefully I'll have some website news later today!

Fun with Fonts

As much as they told me during my graphic design degree that I should only ever need 2-3 fonts on my computer (one serif, one sans-serif, and one script), I've always loved my fonts. I generally have anywhere between 500-1000 fonts installed on my computer at any given time. True I rarely use them all, but I like having them around just in case.
When you have that many fonts though, without a way to see what they are, you don't end up using them anyway. I used to have a font manager installed, but lost it moving to Vista, it just wasn't compatible! So for about a year or so now, I've been struggling with my font collection. Not happy.

Anyway, I've found a great new font manager, MainType. It works with Vista, and does everything and more that my old font manager did. It's really neat, functional, and intuitive, which is something that so many programs get wrong these days (do those designers even USE their own programs? Seriously!).

Basically what a font manager does is pulls up a visual list of all your fonts, so you can see what they look like. You can also install and uninstall fonts, a few other things. What I like to use them for is when working on logotype designs. The programs normally have a screen with the full alphabet showing, or a quick brown fox line, to preview the font (MainType has a few options there). But what you can do is type in whatever text you like, and it will preview the font in your own text. So, just say I'm working on a new Fairies and Fantasy logotype, I type that in and breeze down through my fonts list to find a font that suits the text. It makes things so much easier.

Anyway, MainType is a neat, simple program that does the job. The only thing I wanted to be able to do that I couldn't was flick a uppercaps/lowercaps switch for the preview text.

MainType is from http://www.high-logic.com/
They also do http://www.yourfonts.com/ which is awesome fun! You can create your own font from your handwriting! It's pretty cool stuff... of course my handwriting is too disgusting to consider doing it...

What's happening these days...

So I've been really busy. This morning is the first time for a while I've just sat down for a bit of a break for weeks, so I thought I'd do a little random blogging to release some pressure from my busy head. Even though I should be clearing my inbox and finishing costumes...

So the last few weeks have been a bit of a blur. I've been working hard helping out with a play that will be showing for five nights at Newtown Theatre as part of the Short and Sweet festival http://www.newtowntheatre.com.au/Short_&_Sweet/Short_&_Sweet.php
I've been just lending a helping hand to David who's directing, and mostly getting the costumes together, which has been an interesting project. There are NINE costumes required for this 10 minute play, including secret service agents, delivery men, angels, and the devil. And since we basically have no budget... hrm, well I think I've done ok considering. I've sculpted a pair of 14inch long devils horns and created fur pants and cloven hooves for the devil, robes for the angels and more. We should be taking a group photo at dress rehearsal tonight, I'll see if I can post it here later.
On top of working on that, I've been vending at more markets, filling orders (without my helper monkey!), updating websites, and working on some big stages of my business plan, important behind the scenes stuff like contracts, database set up and so on.
My next big import shipment is due in about a week or two, which as usual I'm feeling totally unprepared for. My store room is going to become mighty cramped again all of a sudden, just as I had almost cleared some room again. Of course, this is the way it should work right? Stock coming in on time, etc. But it's nice to have space...

Speaking of space, David and I have been speaking with a real estate agent about a house we quite like, and are maybe interested in buying... yup BUYING! It is HUGE compared to the space we're in now, and even has a seperate studio building outside, and room to convert into a filming studio for David, wow.... Not to mention another 4 bedrooms in the house itself. At the moment we're living in a 2 bedroom townhouse, of which I've completely overtaken one bedroom and the large garage/basement space for my business.
Anyway, fingers crossed... We're still nutting it out ourselves, whether it really is in our afforable range, whether the area it's in is where we'd like to live, etc. But as for the space it has, and the house itself (VERY nice house and gardens!), I like.

Since I'm rambling, I also felt it was time to give everyone a little "cancer update", since I've been thinking about it and realised I've not mentioned anything for a while.
I've been thinking about it a bit because I HAVEN'T been thinking about it. I realised the other day I've basically forgotten last year happened, just pushing it away, trying to not think about it. In some ways it's best that way, because thinking about it (particularly chemo) still makes me feel queasy. Best just to not think about it at all.
There are some things I'll never be able to handle again after last year. Like buck wheat heat packs and crushed ice/lemonade ice blocks and the sensation of icey cold on my skin. All of these things I now associate firmly with chemo*, and make me want to dry retch. Also the sound of drip machine motors running. Bleeaah.
Otherwise I'm doing really well. In fact, a couple weeks time it will be the one year anniversay of my surgery, can you believe that? I'll be going in for scans then too, get a check up and hopefully an all clear for another 6 months.
My hair has grown a fair bit. It's about an inch and a half long now, and pretty much straight brown like it was before. I still get really tired easily if I push myself too much (like I have been this week!) and my boob still hurts all the time from cut nerves in surgery and the further beat up it got during treatment, cooking with radiation, etc, but the Dr's said I should expect that it will keep hurting for years... yay.
But otherwise, I'm feeling pretty much back to normal now which is nice.
So that's basically it. I'm enjoying getting things done again, wish I was painting more right now but have a million other things going on. Should be diving back into painting more again after the play is over next week and I've got my accounts from last quarter out of the way!


*The heat packs were used to heat my veins before chemo, the iceblocks I had to chew on during chemo to reduce damage to my mouth, and the icey sensation is from the freezing chemo liquid running up my arms.

New artwork- The Darkling

I started this artwork ages ago, but had to shelve it while working on the faery oracle deck. The Darkling here is one of a set of images for a little project of mine, which has been a long time coming since it's kinda low on my priorities list, oops... The Silver Sisters are also part of this project. Hopefully I'll get more finished soon and can tell you more about it! Until then, here is The Darkling-



The Darkling

Of dragon bones and ancient stones
All black, all night, all darkness.
Of pitch and web and long since dead
A thing not cruel but heartless.
In shade and shadow and blood and marrow,
Of spells, bewitchment and blight.
A thing of beauty, long lost to duty,
a thing of forever and flight
Guarder of souls, of goblins and trolls,
Keeper of secrets and lies.
The dead she will keep yet not mourn nor weep,
For she knows that a tear always dries.

Perspective Problems

Ok, so I feel a bit like the town idiot, but I have NEVER been able to get my head around this...
And it's probably the simplest thing and I'm just not getting it... but...

Basic Perspective right, for drawing. You got your horizon line and vanishing points, yada yada, that all makes sense...

But when it comes to actually putting it into practice, if your vanishing point is NOT actually ON your paper... how the HECK do you line stuff up to it?!?!?!

Random Updates

This month has been super busy. Between getting back to order filling, doing some major business planning, working on a short play with David and catching up with socialising after hibernating all of last year, it's been non stop for weeks now! A few quick "Yays!"-One of my artworks is shortlisted for inclusion in a new fairy art book being published soon, yay!I have an idea for what I want to paint on my monster piece of paper! yay!My next shipment of journals and silk bags is due in early february, yay! (although also eek! I neeeed more space!)I've lost 5kg's that I put on during chemo, now just another 5 to go! Yay!I've got all sorts of exciting things already lined up for the new year, which I'll be anouncing as they come closer, yay!I just bought myself Stephanie Pui-mun Law's Dreamscapes book and a how-to landscapes and cityscapes book! Yay!I'm doing costume design for a short play showing at this years Short and Sweet festival in Sydney, and get to make angel wings and devil horns! yay!I got over my addiction to Twitter as quickly as it started, yay!
Anyway I had better get to work. I've got a lot on my to-do list today!

Another year review, because it's a good time to do it!

I had one of the best views in Sydney harbour of the fireworks last night, and they were absolutely amazing. I love that feeling of hearing almost every person in the harbour counting down and cheering the new year in!
This morning I'm taking down my 08 calendar and putting up my 09. I have been using my own calendars for the last few years, because after I've used them I keep them as a bit of a keepsake of what I did and where I was. Looking back through it is always interesting. As is looking forward to the blank pages of the new year. I know a lot of people have said it's amazing I've managed to get things done at all this year, and it's never felt so. It was always just survival, you gotta do what you gotta do, right? And working kept my mind off things too. But looking at my calendar with all these entries of faires and events and artworks painted and work done in amongst all those dr's appointments and hospital visits (sometimes 2-3 a week, or even every day!), it really just hit me how much I have done.

Some of my acheivements past and goals for the new year and onwards-

Artworks Painted
Barnubus and the Prince, Clockwork Heart, Hold onto Hope, In Love, Goliath, White Wych, Catch Me, Silver Sisters, Caelia, Gloriana, Mab, Titania, Light the Darkness, Moonshine, Sunset, Rainbow Wings, Fairy Wishing Well, Coloured Treasures, Winged Things, Cherubina, Crystal magic, Into the Woods, Golden Gift, Follow Me, Seraphina, Nephelina, Angelina, Water of Life, Midnight Prince, Sleepy Spring, Child of the Moon, Blossoming Love, Gatekeeper, Along the Forest Path.

That's 34 total. I want to beat that next year!

More acheivments
- Was published in my first professional oracle deck, The Oracle of the Dragonfae, and signed for two more just with my artwork.
- Created artworks for labels for a worldwide exporting beer company, working with a major design house!
- Pitched a number of new ideas to licensing companies and had them made (Wishing well desktop fountain! And another TOP SECRET in development!)
- Dyed my hair blonde, pink, streaked, and went from waiste length hair I thought I'd never cut to pixie cut then bald (and back to pixie cut! It's growing fast and thick now, you'll see it in my video soon!)
- Sold almost a dozen originals, that weren't even listed for sale.
- And of course, had major surgery, IVF, Chemotherapy, and radiation therapy, and come out the other side not so much worse for wear!
- There were some more, but I went over a lot of this in my month by month review, no point repeating at the moment :)

Goals
- Incorporate my business into a proper company
- Expand my production to add even more artists
- Hire more staff to do basic tasks for me. My helper I had last year has moved away, so I'm going to need to get recruiting again very soon!
- Paint much much more. I need to paint a lot of new work for my next deck with Lucy C. and have so many ideas of my own to do as well!
- After that deck is done, I want to begin working on some concepts for a book of my art.
- I want to re-write my fantasy novel... yeah I've got one, yeah it's really bad! But I still love the story, and it's going to be my pet project this year! I also want to illustrate it.
- Sketch more, get back into drawing just for the love and wild creation of it.
- Lose the weight I put on during treatment, exercise more and have fun doing it!
- I want my business's turnover to grow by about 30% (and actually make more profit as well!).
- Hrm, I have more but have to keep them quite for now as well...