Baby Elephant Walk

In today's post, I'm going to focus primarily on the development of the background image used in my original digital painting "Baby Elephant Walk". As to the decision to add a mother elephant and her baby only came to me when the background was completed and was inspired (1) by how that background made me feel; and (2) what my imagination told me was missing after having laid back and examining it for quite a while in the same way you might lie in a field watching the clouds.

After uploading the final version of this image, I applied to a few different products.

View all products with this image in separate tab or window.

Got any suggestions for other products suitable for this image? Add them in the comment section on my blog page. (Likes and ratings are also always welcome!)

In my next post, I'll show you what I was inspired to do with the background (sans elephants) for a few other paintings.

Romance - It's Not Just For Valentine's Day!

It's Valentine's Day (or night to be accurate) - and just like the proverbial cobbler who's children have no shoes, I have been so busy creating original artwork and products to post to my stores for Valentine's Day, I hadn't even realized that this day was upon us already - and so my hubby got nothing! Of course, he hadn't remembered either, so no apologies were given or required - a fact that got me thinking about the whole concept of having one day a year officially set aside for "romance".

"Romance doesn’t come from some standard set of expectations. It can’t be enforced. Romance, if there is such a thing, is all about taking your loved one by surprise. (come on, I thought you were above that!) Spontaneity is the key. Giving flowers on the 12th of October, for no reason at all, that’s romantic. Giving them on the 14th of February, that’s being a sucker." Michael J. Holley, author

Out of the 691,000,000 search results that Google spit out on "the meaning of romance", the quote above seemed to hit it on the nail for me. Romance is not something that occurs as the result of a duty, guilt, or by appoitnment. It's a self-initiated spontaneous expression of your love that results in both of you feeling even more loved and loving than before. That's why you can't ever be too old, too sick, too tired, or too late for romance. So if you're like my hubby and I and hadn't marked Valentine's Day with a special card or gift, remember: It's far more romantic to give a special expression of your love when it is least expected.

So, whenever you ready for romance, keep me in mind and check out my romance-inspired original artwork on great products like these:

View more gifts featuring IconDoIt's Original Art at Zazzle.

As for me hubby and I, we spend 24 hours a day together in the same room and not only still like each other, on March 5th we'll celebrate our 37th Anniversary! How will we celebrate that day? Just like today and every other day I expect. He'll bring me tea and toast in the morning and I'll rub his feet with lotion. What can be more romantic than that?

The Roycroft Café

The British and American "Arts and Crafts" movements (approx. 1840-1910) that was born out of a fear that industrialization would render hand-crafters' skills moot and lead to a mindless standardized society, bereft of imagination, individuality, and a loss of the connection between humans and the natural world. In hindsight, it's easy to see that their fears were in large part justified and prophetic. At the same time, they failed to recognize and give proper credit to the small but consistent percentage of the population who are the fearless dreamers, innovators, and stubborn individualists that recognize, understand, and nurture a symbiotic relationship with the universe.

I first became aware of Roycroft, Rookwood and Roseville (all major players in the American Arts and Crafts movement) when I was a young child through both pottery and woodworking classes at a Girl Scout camp in Connecticut. My appreciation was reinforced at age 10 by my Grandmother when she took me to various local antique shops, flea markets and the Moravian Tile factory that were nearby her farm in Quakertown, Pa. What impressed me most was the use of natural materials (as opposed to the proliferation of plastics in the late 1950's-early 1960's); the individual attention and love that went into the creation of each piece; and the depicture of flowers, trees and woodland creatures that capture their essence in just a few simple lines and shapes.

In creating my own art, it is rare for me to have any particular agenda or vision of what I'm about to produce. All I start with is how I feel at the time (physically, emotionally and spiritually) and an image or shape or color scheme that calls out to me at that moment. In the case of my paintings "The Roycraft Café" and "Shadow Dancing", I was drawn to a particular hand-crafted Roseville vase that was for sale at an online antiques mall. The series of images below document my progression from the original photograph of that vase to the final tableaus. As to why I made various design decisions to add or subtract something, I honestly can't tell you as I'm not consciously aware at the time of execution of actually making such decisions! My paintings are more of an expression of my unconscious feelings and mood. While that hardly makes my methods easy to translate into a useful tutorial...

The real lesson to be taken is that in creating your own art, let go of your inner critic and rely more on your instincts. And above all, keep in mind that Art Buyers rarely purchase a work of art because of the technical skills of the artist, nor because of the particular objects or scenes depicted. They buy because of how the artwork in its' entirety makes them feel.

Photograph of Roseville Vase.
Overlay color.
Modify proportions (Make more rounded)
Modify saturation and exposure to give more depth.
Add color.
Add flowers.
Add table, chairs and backdrop.

THE FINAL RESULTS

Add lace doilies, strawberries & subtle frame.
Click to view this print in my HoMeArts store.

Shift Vase to left, remove table & chairs, add shadow figures to background.
Click to view this print in my HoMeArts store.

Great Artists May Steal, But Does That Mean Their Art's Not Original?

Pablo Picasso has oft been credited for the statement;

"Good Artists Copy; Great Artists Steal."

Pablo Picasso's reputation for arrogance and irreverence makes a great case for such claims but his statement was, in fact, irony at its' best because he had "stolen" that phrase from the poet, T.S. Eliot, who "stole it" from yet another poet! W. H. Davenport Adams But what does this phrase really mean, especially in an age of patent, trademark and copyright trolls? Would Picasso have been at risk for a Take Down Notice from Zazzle or from other PODs (Print on Demand)?

Unfortunately, there is no definitive answer. But the goal of this blog is to separate out those who intentionally infringe upon other's copywrite and trademark rights from those of us who are taking inspiration from all that has influenced our desire to express ourselves visually (whether it be from other visual artists, nature or dreams while we sleep) and try to evolve those influences by infusing our own visions, techniques, and stories in what we can rightly call our "original" art.

In my next post, I'll look at some of the things that influenced and inspired me to create one of my favorite designs and the products that I chose it to go on. In the meantime, and appropos of "Patent Trolls", here's a tongue-in-cheek original digital painting I made and applied to this cool lawyer's brief bag!

The Patent Troll (Personalized Brief Bag)