Sending off the Bride

Two nights ago I finished the Bride of Frankenstein portrait for my client who also bought the Frankenstein's Monster portrait about two months ago. It's so great to have a returning customer who is so happy with the work. Now that it's done, I'm pretty excited to ship it. It almost feels slightly romantic, having drawn Frankie, and now finishing his Bride like the good doctor, and now mailing her off to join her husband at last. I'm a sap, I know. Here's the final piece:

18"x24" acrylic on canvas

As always, I added a little touch to the packaging. I drew a big Sharpie sketch of the Bride:

The box is pretty huge, so it's nice to have drawn so large. The last piece of packaging art I did was on an envelope when I sent off a sketch card based on the 1958 film, The Fly.


Now that this commission is complete, I have two more commissions for friends that I need to wrap up. They are more traditional style paintings, one of Bob Marley, and another of a beloved dog. When they are out of the way, I will be starting a couple new portraits. I currently have Vincent Price, Edgar Allan Poe, Tor Johnson, Bruce Lee, and Zorro in mind. Besides "fine" art, I am also finishing up a storybook, and I need to work on an eight page comic book for the upcoming convention in May. Speaking of conventions, today I am going to RadCon as a visitor. I've never been to it, and I am very curious to see if it's the type of con for me and my art. I hope so, it's only a stone's throw from where I live. I'll be attending a panel discussion on the Pros and Cons of Etsy and E-bay for artists. Hopefully it will be a good discussion. I plan on taking photos, jotting down notes and relaying them in the blog, and maybe even pass out a few business cards.

Packing and Shipping Art

Alright. I'm fed up. It's been a year, and about a dozen paintings later, that I feel like I'm getting overcharged every time I send off a large painting. I have been going through Postal Annex the last two times I have mailed an 18"x24" painting. The first time, I stepped in with the painting, and said I needed a box to ship that would fit this painting. The woman stepped in the back with the painting, and came back with an ultra packaged, bubble wrapped, package peanuted, super protected box. I wasnt expecting all that, I just wanted a box that would fit it, and I'd do the dirty labor. They charged me nearly $20 for all that madness, and I swear that on the itemized receipt, it stated "SMALL ART BOX $2.99." So today, now that I'm shipping off another painting, I prepared myself. I didn't bring the painting, I just stepped in and rattled off the dimensions. She said the art box would be $12.00 this time... Whaaaat? I even said, "I would never have imagined a hunk of cardboard could cost so much." This is definitely the final time I will ever step into a Postal Annex.
You know, it would be one thing if I were charging five times the price I do for my paintings, but I'm not. I'm trying to be as fair as I can to my clients, without seriously cheap-skating myself. Currently I charge $25 an hour, plus price of canvas and a new tube of paint or two for paintings. Then I add a $25 shipping fee, which covers about $20 from the Post Office including shipping confirmation. I think it would look very suspicious if I bumped the shipping fee any higher than $25, just because places like Postal Annex are charging me an arm and a leg for corrugated cardboard.

So now, I am asking all you great artists and creative thinkers, what do you do when you ship a piece of art of this size? Where do you get the box? I've once made my own box by cutting down a giant tv box to fit. But it looks a little Frankenstein-ish. I don't want to give the visual impression that "I'm going to send you a work of art in a very scary box that could fall apart at any given moment in route." Where else does this leave me? Should I check Office Depot, or Staples for a more fair price point on boxes? Or should I just charge $37 for shipping? That makes my stomach sink, just typing that large of a number.

What People Think I Do meme

I decided to put together my own "What People Think I Do" Artist meme, after looking at a few that didn't completely speak to me (for example the street artist, contemporary artist, and artist):

I thought I'd share this. I'll have a more substantial post later on today, or tomorrow with the completion of The Bride of Frankenstein. I've been working all morning, and took a lunch break. Hopefully I get some good lighting for photographing the final piece.

Selling sketch cards...like hot cakes?

Well, after having filled my Etsy shop with a decent buffer of sketch cards six months ago, I'm finally seeing a jump in sales.
While paintings are my focal point on Etsy, I also like to do sketch cards and larger illustrations simply because they have a quicker creation time. I'm also told that the larger store you have, the more eyes you get browsing your shop.

As an added bonus for fun, I like to doodle on the envelope of the sketch cards I send off. For example, I sent this 1957 Fly sketch card with a mock movie poster drawn on the envelope. I think it makes the experience a little more exciting and personalized, I hope my customers do too.

Here comes the Bride

Not too long ago I sold a portrait of Boris Karloff as Frankenstein's Monster. The buyer was so happy, he commissioned me to match the painting with a Bride of Frankenstein portrait. I'm pretty thrilled about the project, not only am I honored a fan loves my work and commissioned more from me, but I also get to join the bride with her husband. I've wanted to paint the Bride for some time, but lack of sales and business of daily life kind of slows down my productivity. But with this sale, and potential future commissions, I'm back in my groove

A note to those who do commissions. As soon as I started the basic sketch on the canvas, I snapped a photo with my cellphone and emailed the buyer with a note about my progress. I usually do this, but this is the first time a buyer has told me that he "felt a part of the process." I've never thought of it like that before, I just wanted them to know I was on task with their commission. But now that I know that there is a personal touch beyond that with frequent updates, I am even more encouraged to let my customers know what is going on with an email an photo.
So with that, after work tonight I'll be hitting the paint and canvas and sending a new photo update.

Pied Piper of Hamelin

Sketches of The Pied Piper of Hamelin 1-17-2012

I'm working on a storybook for the Spokane Comicon, and this is my sketch dump so far.
The book will be The Pied Piper of Hamelin, and so far I'm having fun with the Piper. I based his design on several illustrations I found in research, particularly the pattern cloak.
The man in the hat is supposed to be the mayor of Hamelin. I'm having a hard time finding costumes for 13th century German local officials, so I just made a wild stab. A lot of pictures I found had important people in hats, so I made a funny hat, I hope it doesn't look too "Russian." I like the mayor's look, but I'm sure the clothes will change when I find more reference images.

I may draw a couple more officials, then some children, and I'll be ready to illustrate. I've divided the story text into 9 pages. The book will be laid out with text on the left page, and a full page illustration on the right. I also think I might draw rats crawling around the text as well.

Another fun idea I came up with is using a hole puncher to cut out "bites" from the corner of the cover when this is complete.

I'd love some suggestions! If this goes well, I may have to make more pocket storybooks.

A year's worth of reading

So at the beginning of 2011 I decided to keep track of the books I've read. I've never kept a list before, so it was quite surprising to see how many books I managed to fit in the year. With a total of 27, that amounts to 2.25 books a month, not too shabby. I think towards the end I was reading a little faster than that average, since I was finishing the Dresden Files. Those books consumed me, I think I read the last two books in the series in one week alone!

Here's the list, it's not actually in order of when I read them, I grouped them by author mostly.

F Scott Fitzgerald - Great Gatsby
Cherie Priest - Boneshaker
Cherie Priest - Clementine
Cherie Priest - Dreadnought
HP Lovecraft - Herbert West, Re-Animator
Tim Powers - On Stranger Tides
Sethe Grahame-Smithe - Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter
Sara Gruen - Water For Elephants
Jim Butcher - Dresden Files - Summer Knight
Jim Butcher - Dresden Files - Blood Rites
Jim Butcher - Dresden Files - Death Masks
Jim Butcher - Dresden Files - Dead Beat
Jim Butcher - Dresden Files - Proven Guilty
Jim Butcher - Dresden Files - White Knight
Jim Butcher - Dresden Files - Small Favor
Jim Butcher - Dresden Files - Turn Coat
Jim Butcher - Dresden Files - Changes
Jim Butcher - Dresden Files - Ghost Story
Jim Butcher - Dresden Files - Side Jobs
Fritz Leiber - Swords Against Deviltry
Robert E Howard - The Savage Tales of Solomon Kane
How to Build a Better Blog
Robert E Howard - The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian
HG Wells - The Time Machine
Richard Matheson - Hell House
Richard Matheson - Stir of Echoes
Richard Matheson - What Dreams May Come


Now some of these books, I've actually read before. I've read Conan, Solomon Kane, Time Machine, and The Great Gatsby years ago. But like any great movie, a good book is worth reading again as well!
Now that you have an idea of my taste, I'd love to hear some recommendations for my reading list for 2012!