Challenging Myself

Note to self: Find time to make stuff!

I constantly need to challenge myself to “make stuff”. Otherwise I’d end up vegging my weekends away and not getting any art or crafts done. Blame it on poor time management! I envy those artists who challenge themselves to produce one piece of art on a regular basis and actually stick to it — like Randel Plowman and his Collage a Day project.

One of these days I’m going to join Sunday Postcard Art, which shouldn’t be that demanding on my schedule (I hope) since the challenge is weekly.

But given my currently hectic lifestyle (yes, I’m blaming the Day Job!), I needed something that would still challenge me to actually make something based on certain criteria, but would not be too tough on my schedule. My solution? An online craft course!

Last month I signed up for My Creative Classroom‘s free course called “Everyday Moodlings”. Every month you’re taught a fun craft or technique via video or PDF, and you have to upload a photo of your assignment to the site for grading. Since classes started last January, I’m like four assignments behind (argh!), and have lots of catching up to do! I’ve already submitted a few assignments, and I’ll post them here next time. For now, I’ve some homework to finish…

Tags: Artists, Collage, Musings, Online Courses, Postcards, Websites

You are My Sunshine!

Digital postcard art, March 2009

Haha, am having a blast with these medieval tarot cards! Here’s another image, The Sun, from the Visconti-Sforza deck. What better way to let someone know that he or she is special than with this “You are My Sunshine” medieval-inspired postcard?

This one was easy to make: I simply cropped the original image down to size, then layered on a strip of torn paper stamped with the sentiment and doodles.  Oh, and I had to give our sun-bearer a fig leaf of sorts so as not to offend anyone. Tah-dah! Another digital postcard in a jiff!

Hope your day’s all warm and sunny!

Tags: Cards, Digital Art, Medieval, Postcards, Tarot

Save Our Wildlife

Digital postcard, February 2009

OK, here’s another study of the animal-cruelty-prevention postcard. Heck, couldn’t make up my mind which one was better, so I decided to post both.

Tags: Advocacy, Animals, Digital Art, Postcards

Stop Animal Cruelty

Digital postcard art, February 2009

My first attempt at postcard art. This one’s inspired by the Visconti-Sforza tarot deck, and shows the “Strength” card. Well, beating lions to death with a club may have been a very acceptable – even highly laudable – deed in the old days, but not anymore. Unless you enjoy the attention that comes with being targeted by PETA.

This took less than 30 minutes to put together in Photoshop Elements, but of course the idea’s been nagging at me ever since I spied this image at Liam Quin’s site. If you need old illustrations that are public domain (and free!), do visit the site!

Tags: Digital Art, Postcards