Website Revamp!

Finally. Finally I like my website. Check out this bad boy. 

Or, check out the real thing! www.emilycrowley.com

Spectrum Judging part 1

February is almost to a close and the judging for the 20th annual edition of Spectrum is almost here! Lancelot and Guinevere should have made the trip successfully, and now they are these bins awaiting their verdict by an excellent panel of judges.Check out Arnie Fenner's blog post on Muddy Colors.

Spectrum is the quintessential go-to source for all things fantasy and sci fi. And when I say all things I mean it! There's traditional and digital illustration, mixed photography media, sculpture... and they all serve a different purpose: editorial, game design, non published works, the list goes on and on. And as the blog mentions, all work is seen by the judges. That means no pre-screening; everyone gets their chance in front of the judges. I am excited that once again Irene Gallo, the art director for Tor, is on the judging panel. I've met her a couple of times, and it would be an absolute dream to work with her (c'mon Irene, you know you want to, too.). Also on the panel is illustrator Michael Whelan, who did this version of The Princess of Mars. I know for many illustrators, Frank Frazetta's Princess of Mars is the true one-and-only, but this happens to be the particular version my dad owned, which he kept with his other sci-fi and fantasy books in a blue bookcase. As a kid, I would look through those cover illustrations and make up stories about them in my head, and Princess of Mars was a favorite. Should a five year old look at books with near naked women on the cover? Well, I suppose it made more of an impact that we could have guessed because now I'm an aspiring cover artist myself.

Anyway, I digress. The competition and the annual is very important to me. I feel that although my work could have competed well last year, the reproductions alone were not up to snuff. But as they say, you gotta be in it to win it. This year, Lancelot and Guinevere got a lot more attention in the reproduction department, so let's hope they really did survive to make it into one of those grey bins. Go team!

Winter Dragon

Good ol' dragons. They are just so much fun to draw. Here's my most recent painting I did in time for Dracopedia's Winter Dragon Challenge and ArtOrder's Dragon Challenge.

I mean, he's pretty sweet right? And check it out, there are two men hiding out in a cave in the mountain. I think they're hunting for the super fine fiber the dragon sports to keep him a little warmer in his wintery climate. I wanted him to still seem carnivorous, but I also wanted him to feel like he belonged in a wintery climate, so I looked at big horn sheep when deciding his coloring. I think his design came out successfully! Process shots are below:

And here's my palette and studio area. Why on God's green Earth would someone work like this? With a palette that's itty bitty, and jars between me and my computer where my reference lives? I don't know. I really have to do something about that, haha! Wish me luck on the challenges. Hope you like this.

Revamped and Reloaded

In an effort to better define what clients can expect of me as an illustrator, I've redone Lancelot and Guinevere in oil. And it's better for it! Here's the two side by side. And now this painting is sitting in a corner with it's back to me. It happened. Moving on!

Before, Photoshop

 

After, oil on panel

This message brought to you by Cobalt Drier! The siccatif Emily discovered on this last painting that dries oil paint overnight, or even in an afternoon! And that leaves more time for going back into a painting, and time for glazes! Cobalt drier's satin-y gloss will leave you saying, "My goodness, why didn't I discover the stand oil/cobalt drier combination before? It's not too dull AND not too shiny!" Yes, we're sure you'll love Cobalt Drier. Find it at your local art store, or dickblick.com which always seems to be the cheapest art supplier out there!

Postcards Are In!

I got the postcards in the mail today! They are true to color, and they look and feel fantastic. I can't wait to find 250 people to give them to! ( I may have ordered a few more than I needed to. Better to have too many available than to run out, right?) (P.S. See my awesome white couch in these photos? Believe you me, paint nor curry comes within miles of that thing!)

As far as the portfolios go....

Blurb's smallest page limit is 20, and I simply do not have enough pages. Game over. Do not pass go. K.O. So from there, I looked at some local printers.

I found a printer that was willing to print and bind my small order. Unfortunately, even with so few pages and such a small order, it still requires work to set everything up etc, so the price I was looking at was near $200 for a 8x10" portfolio, and 4 5x7" leave behinds. Then I asked for the price of just the 8x10", but it was still going to be almost $90. While that might be fine and good in another situation, I had already dished out almost $90 on nice postcards, so another $90 simply was not in my allotted budget for promotional materials.

 Now I'm on to doing this thing myself (as far as binding goes). Printing wise, I've seen Meijer do some good work (believe it or not!), and I'm told Staples prints and binds, so these are things I will need to look into- literally tomorrow because I am quickly running out of time! This is difficult however, as I don't often get out of work on time for these things. Yipes. And we'll see about their prices. Who knows? Maybe I would have saved money with Meijer or Staples, but lost out on the hassle of putting this thing together! I'll be sure to let you all know what I discover!

Overnight Prints Postcards

Sent out the postcards today, and I'd like to share a little bit of what that's like.

I have used Overnight Prints in the past and have always been very happy with the user interface and the items I receive from them. And *BONUS*! They're having an Earth Day sale until tomorrow! 67% off! Get those business cards people. Might as well! (Remember, you can click on any of my images to enlarge it and read it better)

 

Home page. See that postcards section on the right? Lovely, no? Right there. Saying, "Hey, you don't have to look any further. I'm here. Click on me!"And when you do click, you get the option at the top of the page to download their Adobe friendly templates for your business cards, or postcards, or brochure, etc. A quick download away, and you get a template with instructions written on it. And wouldn't you know, this setup they give you is exactly how they want the postcard uploaded (sounds elementary huh? You'd think so, but I've dealt with a company that makes it way more complicated, even though they offer you a template. It's nothing but a big pain in the neck). 

Below is the screenshot of the template in Adobe Illustrator CS5 with a dialogue box where they ask you to change the CMYK settings. It's seriously the hardest thing you have to do (just scroll down and select the right setting)- aside from deciding what how you want to design your postcard!

 

 

All that's left after that, is to save your postcard as a PDF, tiff, or a jpg, etc (all the usual suspects), and use their easy downloading software back on the website. Just click, download, and decide where you want your image, front or back.  It's nice because you can see what you're doing, and you know everything will look good because you've used their template that instructed you exactly what to do.

From there, you have the option for rounded corners (for an extra $2 per 100 cards, but I just really prefer the feeling, and you'd be amazed. It's those sorts of little things that can help people pick up your card or even keep it!). You always have the option of a matte finish, or a glossy UV coating. I opted for UV because even though light bouncing off the gloss can obscure your image in the right conditions, it also helps with keeping the color vibrant. A matte finish feels good in the hands, but the colors will appear slightly duller, and you'll lose some of the detail in the dark ares. And, ta-da! You pay, and all is good. Overnight Prints is priced well, and although you may balk at the price shown here, they are large 5x7 postcards... and there are 250 of them. Seems pretty reasonable to me! 

I went for a vertical format for my postcards, just because it's different and it allows me to blow up my images so people can see them better. I zoomed in on Lancelot and Guinevere because the rest of the piece is essentially unnecessary to capturing peoples' attention in a split second. Although I will be handing these out primarily, these sorts of conventions typically have a table where people lay out a few extra business cards and postcards that people can pick up at will if they like. And if they don't have a table, people usually find some sort of surface to leave their wares! You'll see postcards, business cards, stickers, and magnets strewn about unsuspecting decorative hotel tables where these conventions are often held!

I mentioned earlier the matte vs glossy option in the case of keeping things vibrant. Both of the images I decided to use are pretty dark, so to lose information in these areas is a pretty good bet with the matte finish. Also, you may notice that Lan and Guin are significantly lighter and a little more saturated than the finished version I posted yesterday. There I'm just trying to compensate for the printing process. A computer screen is backlit, so images that appear bright on screen will actually be much darker when printed. I'm making a calculated guess and lightening my images ahead of time slightly to compensate for that. You don't have to do much, just enough lighter that you don't wash our your colors or values, and you can be confident your guesstimate will be good.

That's it! Soon I'll have the Blurb portfolio books ready, and I'll have that process available for you too. Until then, I'll just keep on keepin' on getting ready for the big weekend!

Finished for Good!

Lancelot and Guinevere struggle with their emotions for each other and Arthur.

Preparations are in the works for Spectrum Live in... what is it? 28, 27 days? Oh boy! Getting those postcards for handing out and a few little portfolio books made. Postcards I'll be sending to OvernightPrints.com and the portfolio books I'll be making through Blurb.com. I've used both of these companies before, and have been extremely happy with their user friendliness and the product they produce. I'll be going through a little bit of that on the blog as I do it, and update all-a-ya'lls with the process. We've got to get these things out soon so that I get them back in time - just in case, for any last minute "oh shucks that printed too dark" surprises that may need fixing!