Hello!  I'm not doing a very good job of keeping my blog up-to-date!  I guess it shows that I've been just a little busier than normal.  Which is a good thing.  I've been doing a lot of research in the Children's Book market.  Trying to get mailing lists current, preparing for a new mailer, getting a couple manuscript/dummy packages prepared...you wouldn't believe the amount of work involved!  Something I did was re-join the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI), and was surprised at how much it has changed (for the better!) since I was a member in the mid-90's.  I was very pleased with the progressive changes I've seen!!  Anyway, gathering my energies toward writing and illustrating children's books again has been what has consumed me lately. 

    But today I'm taking a break from this work to switch gears a little.  I have 3 paintings to frame which need to be dropped off to a show this weekend, and...you guessed it!  I do not have frames for them.  What to do??  Being a creative in such situations is a very good thing!  Because my usual frame supplier has been back-ordered for the frame style/size I need for the past month, I am out of time to get them there.  But I just happen to keep a supply of molding for home dec projects, and this serves me well for the occasional frame-building project I might need to do!  So this afternoon I will be building 3 frames, and finishing them out.  Can't wait to get started!  Fire up the mitre saw, pa!!

    Take care ya'll!

Karen

 

Big, fat snowflakes are wafting down outside right now. I'm not the biggest fan of snow, but I do adore a heavy snow when it's really coming down and there's no wind. I sit in my studio with a roaring fire in the fireplace, and look out the windows, thanking God for the beauty of the day and the fact that I get to make art for a living.  Sure beats being in some job doing something I'm not suited for, where I wouldn't even have a window to look out at the day. Yes, fortunate indeed! Does anyone else feel similarly?

Today I wrestled with a simple Illustrator assignment from my class on Wednesday nights. I managed to get 90% correct, but then got stumped at the very last wherein you inverse your design and the blacks become whites and vice-versa. I'm going to try again tonight.

Well, that's about it for today's entry. Short and sweet!!

-K.

Salutations, Art Fans! 

So, I'm taking a class at the local community college trying desperately to play catch up with my computer skills; it's getting to be sink or swim time!  (Boy! Commercial art has sure changed in a mere 25 years!)  Either that, or to relieve the encroachment of Alzheimer's (True Fact: As one starts to age, one can keep Alzheimer's Disease at bay by keeping one's mind exercised and nimble.  Suggested exercises: learning a new skill with a high level of complexity, learning a new language, learning a new computer program.) 

So, I'm taking this class once a week, Wednesday nights, and am currently learning Adobe Illustrator.  The class is very relaxed, and the prof is excellent.  Has been teaching this for some time and is very patient and approachable.  There's this other "dinosaur" in there besides me; otherwise everyone is young and fresh-faced and, most impressively, can click those keys and mice like they know what they're doing.  Me (and the other "dinosaur")...slow and steady.  However, I can say that I have a definite edge over the youngsters in that I've been designing/illustrating for almost 30 years now.  So, I'm slow, but I know a bit of what I'm doing, so it's sort-of a trade-off. 

In case anyone is contemplating taking a class like this - and I'm actually going for a Certificate, so will be taking web design, animation, photoshop, quark express, etc. by the time I've earned it - once you're an official student you can purchase any software you want for a deeply discounted price on-line.  It's fabulous!  I'm still coming out ahead by paying for my college class and purchasing the software (plus a RAMM memory upgrade for my computer)...and it's still all together not as much as buying the Premium Design Suite at retail price!!  Almost worth taking the class just to get the software, huh?!  So tonite was fun; we got to do a little bit of designing with type just like a real graphic designer!!  Just playing, really, while learning a few of the program's tools.  But this was the first little design project we have done, and all I hope is that I can remember what the tools are for practicing at home over these next 7 days!! 

Well, must go; the coach is about to turn into a pumpkin!!! 

Blessings to you all, 

Karen

I think I'm going to have to get tougher, and that's all there is to it. 

Yesterday, while crunching on that very tight deadline I wrote about last time, with uncanny timing a new neighbor dropped by unannounced.  And while it was nice to take a little break and chat, sometimes I  have a hard time taking control of the conversation and saying, "Sorry, but you'll have to leave now.  I'm working.  Maybe we can get together another day instead?"  Well, it was after-hours; at a time most people are relaxing in front of the TV before calling it a night, and I had just completed one project and had to move onto the next one.  And my new neighbor, expecting I was like "normal" people and available at that time of the evening to socialize, wasn't picking up on my hints that I really couldn't visit.  Finally, I had to just stand up and say I had to get to bed because I had a big day today.  He did eventually leave (at about 11:30 pm), but kept trying to keep the conversation going just a wee bit longer while he dragged himself slowly to the door!  Sometimes well-meaning friends who don't understand what artists do, not to mention the necessary "alone time" needed to build up the creative energy pool, think they are doing me a favor to interrupt my work (that they don't view as work because I'm at home in my studio and it looks like too much fun to be work) and get me out of "hermit-mode."  Indeed, they give me a break, but unfortunately it breaks my concentration, scatters the energy and then once they leave I have a hard time refocusing!  So, yeah.  I'm going to have to get tougher!  Going to have to insist that they not interrupt (except for a true emergency!) and that they call ahead of time to check with me and see if I'm working or not.  These folks mean well, and they really are nice people who I enjoy being with.  But I cringe when I see some of their cars pull up in my driveway unannounced! 

Okay, enough griping!  I'd better go now since I still have more work to do and there's no cars pulling up in my driveway just now!! 

Have a lovely day!      Karen

Okay, so maybe I just can't stay away!  Maybe I'm having such a great time getting to know my new "family" that I'm finding it difficult to wrench my fingers off of the keyboard.  Maybe my poor dog - whose name shall remain "Pumpkin" - does have to wait a little longer to take a potty break.  (Maybe I do, too, for that matter.)  Maybe I am loitering over my computer and not working in my studio like I scheduled in for this time (yoiks!)...but, it's really important to establish an understanding of how Scuttlebutt works at the beginning of my sojourn here so everything will go much more smoothly later on.  (Or at least, it's how I can justify my new obsession!) 

Sigh.  My alter-ego, (aka "Slavedriver") tells me to get off the computer already and get going as I have too many deadlines to be lingering long.  I guess I will comply because Slavedriver is the one I depend on who ensures I can pay the bills!  Yeah, I guess I have a bit of a split personality when it comes to my work.  There is one side of me (aka "Dreamer") that is meticulous and detail oriented.  Dreamer would love nothing more than to take my time at everything - no matter how much time it takes - to make certain all is completed beautifully, lyrically, perfectly (well, as perfectly as is humanely possible.)  And then there is Slavedriver, that is constantly standing over my shoulder, impatiently watching the clock and tapping my toe.  "Must complete.  Get it done already.  You're taking too much time.  Too much time.  Did you hear me?  TOO MUCH TIME!!!  Gotta move on.  Get moving.  Finish that up already, won't you?"  You get the picture.  I'm in a constant battle between making deadlines (whether it's the client's or my own self-imposed one) and making quality art. 

Some time back I reached an agreement with myself:  I give myself a deadline and have to reach it with a finished piece.  If I don't finish in the deadline, I have a little bit of a grace period, but then I have to tolerate Slavedriver, who is standing behind my shoulder as depicted above.  If I can't get it done in the grace period, I start to feel overwhelmed and too pressured and then I have to set it aside as "not making progress" and move on to the next project.  Thank God it doesn't happen often that I have to set a project aside!  It would make me crazy!!  Anyway, I do try to get back to former set-asides, but I don't often manage to complete.  They kind-of tend to get stuck in "No Man's Land" (a certain drawer in my flat files) and often never actually emerge as a complete "being."  They stay perpetually looking a little bit like those poor, broken androids with pieces of their structure missing in the film, "Artificial Intelligence." 

Okay.  Well, I've enjoyed today's blog about enough.  Slavedriver is...well, slavedriving.  Must go before I get myself into trouble. 

Ciao, darlings!

Karen

Hi there! 

I just posted the children's book illustration I'd forgotten to do last night (per yesterday's blog).  And I've been experimenting with my Scuttlebutt site, trying to get colors and type and bars and backgrounds to work together.    Oi!  Just jumping in there, like everyone else, and muddling around.  Persistence is really the key to understanding technology, I've discovered.  You keep plinking away at it until one day you wake up and suddenly you realize you understand what your doing passably well!  Life is good again!! 

Well, just checking in and it's back to work again.  I have an illustration project with a quick turnaround time that I need to get a jump on over the weekend or I won't make the deadline, so I won't be blogging the next few days.  But, let me invite you to visit my website.  Don't use the link; it won't get you out of Scuttlebutt even though I followed the instructions to the letter.  My website is:  www.klwadeArt.com 

See you in a few days!   -Karen

Hello, cyber-friends! 

This is my very first blog ever, and I'm pretty excited about starting since I've been wanting to do this for a long time now.  But I needed to figure out how to go about doing this, and since I'm - ahem! - a bit of a dinosaur it didn't come easy. 

I love to write about anything and everything, so I'd like to invite you to visit often.  Oh, and while you are at it, check out my website!  It's kind-of basic, but for a first attempt it turned out great!  I'm hoping to continue adding to my site to make it more streamlined and offer interesting and interactive options.  Until I am ready to sophisticatize (ain't a word, but you get the idea!) my website, I'll continue updating with my latest paintings so there will always be something new every week or so. 

I don't really know how to categorize myself as an artist.  At various times in my career I have been a graphic artist, an art director, a designer, and illustrator, and more recently (as of January 2005) I have gone back to being a fine artist - what I originally intended when I went off to college.  My hope had always been to get to a point where I could paint in oils, at an easel, like a "real artist!"  Working commercially, I'd never really been able to work in oils, so I've been largely having a ball concentrating on that medium since opening my art studio (Wade Art Studio).  However, I've been experimenting lately with gold leaf, metallics, stiffened and shaped fabric, and texture gels so I've been switching back and forth between acrylics and oils.

In oils I mostly work realistically, but not always.  In acrylics I mostly work sort-of experimentally, but not always.  I go with my mood and how I think will best express the concept.  So, it can be watercolor, pastel, acrylic, colored pencil or even mosaics...I'm always experimenting with technique, concept, format, tools and mediums...in short, anything that sparks my interest creatively. 

What you see in my gallery are a few samples of my more recent works incorporating gels, gold leaf, metallics and shaped fabrics.  For the most part! 

 I'm also very interested in children's book illustration, so I'm throwing in a piece from that portfolio that I think is particularly nice.  Any and all comments are most welcome!

Well, I'll close out for today.  I'm looking forward to getting to know my fellow artist friends in this community, and sharing interests and tips.  If you respond to my blog I will write back!  Talk to you soon, and many blessings,

Karen