Brigid Ashwood Art BlogBrigid Ashwood Art Bloghttp://www.brigidashwood.com/blog/2010-07-01T00:12:21ZSquarespaceNew Silverpoint & Sepia Tone Prints!http://www.brigidashwood.com/blog/2010/6/30/new-silverpoint-sepia-tone-prints.htmlBrigid Ashwood2010-06-30T17:09:44Z2010-06-30T17:09:44ZI've got 8 new prints for you today!
The first is actually a set of 6 prints that are designed to be displayed as a Hexatych.
The original of this work of art is a series of 6 silverpoint drawings on antique book paper. The colorful patterns behind each drawing are original designs by myself. I created the patterns then printed them on fabric. Each of the original drawings is displayed in a shadow box.
I've mainstakingly reproduced each image for you to create the best quality set of affordable giclee' prints I could. I'm so pleased with the results. You can buy the complete set - signed of course - for just $60.00. (Sorry but I will not be offering these images seperately. While they are individual images they are meant to be displayed as whole - the entire set. Please note the image above shows the prints framed - this is for display only. Purchased prints sets are prints only - unframed.)
The next two images I have for you are called 'Specimens'. The original is comprised of two silverpoint drawings - again on antique book paper. The drawings are framed by books. I rescued two Antique books slated for destruction. The books were glued solid and a frame cut out of their covers to accomodate the drawings.
Original diptych on display at Davenport & Winkleperry Gallery
This was a challenge to reproduce for prints. I was unable to photograph the book covers effectively to allow for them to be reproduced as a print. So I've taken the original drawings and created a new work of art entirely - two sepia toned prints. They are available for purchase seperately.
Specimens - Group A
Specimens - Group B
All of these new prints are available for purchase online. CLICK HERE!
]]>Studio Sale!http://www.brigidashwood.com/blog/2010/6/28/studio-sale.htmlBrigid Ashwood2010-06-28T14:45:05Z2010-06-28T14:45:05ZHappy Monday! I want to invite you to participate in a Studio Sale I'm having this week!
All this week I'll be cleaning out my studio and offering a wide variety of original oil paintings, drawings and sketches for sale for the first time ever! Available works include many of my older Fairy Pieces - so if you are a lover of fairies you are in for a treat. I've also got some lovely black and white graphite drawings in steampunk and mechanical genres and some rough sketches at a great price.
I'll be on Twitter and Facebook sharing photos and info about the pieces as I clean the studio. Feel free to follow me on Twitter or my Facebook Fan Page and if you see something you like make me an offer! Just tweet back at me or post something to my facebook fan page. If you prefer to make an offer privately you can email me.
Oh and don't forget I'm blogging about Bravo TV's reality show "Work of Art - the next great artist" Read my weekly recaps of the show at my other blog http://www.skwerlgrrl.com]]>Bravo - Work of Art - the next great artist Episode 3http://www.brigidashwood.com/blog/2010/6/24/bravo-work-of-art-the-next-great-artist-episode-3.htmlBrigid Ashwood2010-06-24T20:47:05Z2010-06-24T20:47:05ZCLICK HERE]]>Bravo - Work of Art - the next great artisthttp://www.brigidashwood.com/blog/2010/6/10/bravo-work-of-art-the-next-great-artist.htmlBrigid Ashwood2010-06-10T18:41:06Z2010-06-10T18:41:06ZHERE.
Also the article I was asked to write on Steampunk Fairies is now out in Faerie Magazine. Check it out!]]>Steampunk World's Fair & Professor Elementalhttp://www.brigidashwood.com/blog/2010/5/10/steampunk-worlds-fair-professor-elemental.htmlBrigid Ashwood2010-05-10T16:33:32Z2010-05-10T16:33:32ZThis weekend, May 14-16 I'll be at the Steampunk World's Fair in Piscataway New Jersey.
I'll have a table with some prints and goodies and I'll be painting live (digitally on my Wacom Cintiq). I'm also participating in two talks/lectures/whathaveyou. One on Steampunk Art - and another on Steampunk in Virtual Worlds.
I'm absolutely delighted to be a guest at this event. I can't thank the organizers enough for inviting me. I'm so excited to meet so many wonderful artists, performers and steampunk enthusiasts in person!
I'm especially excited to meet my most recent Steampunk friend - Professor Elemental.
If you are into Steampunk and you don't know who he is - well you need to! He is the artist behind the instant classic and unofficial Steampunk Anthem - "A Cup of Brown Joy". CLICK HERE to watch the video.
When the good Professor asked me to create the cover of his new album "The Indifference Engine" - I of course leapt at the opportunity. And I'm so glad I did!
The album is awesome - and the cover - which I'm now finally able to share with you - is one of my favorite steampunk paintings to date. It was great fun to paint!
click to view image larger
click to view image larger
If you are familiar with the brilliant creations of Brute Force Studios - then you might recognize the inspiration and reference for the goggles and gun in this photo! (Special thanks to Mark - the maker of those special pieces - for posing for the "body and accessories" reference for the painting.)
So if you are planning on attending Steampunk World's Fair - the rumor is you can get a special advanced copy of the album (did I mention its awesome?) at the Fair. I'll also have signed prints of this image available at my table.
Hope to see you there!
]]>Fairy Fantasy Art Coloring Bookhttp://www.brigidashwood.com/blog/2010/5/5/fairy-fantasy-art-coloring-book.htmlBrigid Ashwood2010-05-05T14:25:36Z2010-05-05T14:25:36ZWhen you are an artist and you have a little girl, and you've been known to draw a fairy or two, eventually it is inevitable that you will be asked by the little girl, to make her a coloring book.
My coloring book was slowly created over the course of a few years. I simply scanned and kept the line art for a variety of pieces, and would print them out for my daughter on demand.
Now I'm sharing these collected works with you. You can buy the book! It's a digital download. Instant gratification!
Buy it for the kid in your life, or for yourself! I know lots of grown ups who like coloring (me included).
You can print the book out as often as you like. Just please don't share it with friends.
]]>SkwerlArt Tweetstakeshttp://www.brigidashwood.com/blog/2010/4/30/skwerlart-tweetstakes.htmlBrigid Ashwood2010-04-30T12:33:09Z2010-04-30T12:33:09ZAlrighty Folks! Let's have us a Skwerlgrrl Art Sweepstakes on Twitter!
Here's the rules:
1. Read Skwerlgrrl tweets to see some song lyrics posted.
2. RT or reply @skwerlgrrl with the hashtag #SkwerlArt - in your reply include either more song lyrics from the song I posted - or the Title of the song.
3. Tomorrow Morning (May 1st) I'll choose a winner from the CORRECT entries. I will choose ONE winner RANDOMLY.
4. Only enter once - don't keep retweeting the same thing a bunch of times. It won't improve your chances and it pisses the Twitter people off.
THE PRIZE:
The prize is a $12.00 gift certificate to my online shop. This is the same price as a signed print. So you can use the Gift Certificate to get a free signed print and only pay shipping to where-ever you are in the world. Or you can use the Gift Certificate to offset a larger purchase.
I have links on my site to other sites that sell merchandise I license - like shirts and figurines. The gift certificate DOES NOT apply to those items. It only applies to items I sell. The items I sell directly are prints, necklaces, and lockets only.
EXTRA INFO:
If you like my art and aren't already following me - please do!
Consider signing up for my mailing list! You get a discount code to my shop when you sign up (cannot be combined with other offers)
This little shindig is Twitter only. I'll consider running other sweepstakes on other networks at other times. Let just stick to this for now!
Post any questions in the comments and thanks for participating!
]]>Digital Painting & Video Tutorialshttp://www.brigidashwood.com/blog/2010/4/26/digital-painting-video-tutorials.htmlBrigid Ashwood2010-04-26T12:36:02Z2010-04-26T12:36:02ZHello All!
I finally managed to get around to putting up a few video tutorials for digital painting.
"SOLO DANCE" TIME LAPSE PT. 1 - DIGITAL PAINTING - COREL PAINTER
Some backstory.
I came to digital painting about 4 years ago. It wasn't entirely new to me as I'd already had a background in graphic design and fine art. So using the computer to create art seemed like a natural progression to me. In fact for years I've used my graphics programs to mockup ideas for new paintings - manipulate reference materials - play with color schemes etc.
When I started painting digitally the first program I used was Photoshop. And please understand I mean PAINTING. I'm not talking about photo manipulation - which is an art form in its own right.
Another quick note. Lots of people refer to digital art with the term "computer generated". Personally I don't like this term. It is inexact. Computer generated means anything made with the aid of a computer. Your email is "computer generated". And even Digital Art is an imperfect term. Digital Art covers everything from 3d modeling to photomanipulation to Poser images to digital painting.
The art that I make digitally is painted. I sketch out the piece. I block in color. I blend and refine until the image is complete. The only difference between my digital painting method and my traditional painting method is the medium. Pixels versus pigment.
Most of the digital painters I know also paint this way. So please don't ever assume you know how the image was created!
Moving on....
Many digital artists find Photoshop to be their preferred painting tool - and it suits the way they work beautifully. Alas I was not one of them! I couldn't seem to make Photoshop blend the way I wanted to blend. I understood that I needed to adapt to the medium. Artists always need to work with a medium. You can't force watercolors to blend like oils, you need to adapt to their own unique properties.
But then again - most artists prefer to work in mediums that meld with their natural style - not work against it. For instance when painting with pigments I rarely use acrylics. We just dont' get along. Similarly in digital mediums - when it came to painting in Photoshop it was a struggle.
So when I found Corel Painter I was really over the moon. Corel Painter strives to re-create traditional artist's mediums in a digital space. Unfortunately a lot of people find Corel Painter a little overwhelming when they first encounter it.
This is where good books and tutorials come in handy. There are resources out there. But frankly the number of tutorials and books for painting digitally with Photoshop far surpasses the number for Corel Painter.
Additionally a lot of digital painting tutorials seem to focus either solely on mechanics (how to make a brush from an image capture) or painting technique (how to paint an eye).
Mechanics are good - we need to know how to make the software work for us. We need to know which tool does what and why. But teaching someone how to paint an eye in acrylics or draw one in graphite versus digitally is just not something I find all that helpful. Certainly you need to know how to draw an eye. (I'll probably do just such a tutorial myself at some point) But what I'm saying is that painting an eye digitally and painting and eye traditionally is still painting an eye! It's the MEDIUM that is different.
So I'm hoping to share some of my tips and tricks and what I've learned about painting digitally in the medium that is Corel Painter. I will aim to show you not only the mechanics of the program but how to paint in the medium itself. I hope you find them useful!
]]>Who is Skwerlgrrl?http://www.brigidashwood.com/blog/2010/4/8/who-is-skwerlgrrl.htmlBrigid Ashwood2010-04-08T14:17:14Z2010-04-08T14:17:14ZFor a few years now I've used the online handle of "Skwerlgrrl". I own that domain name. I use it on Twitter and a blog. It's fun and I enjoy it.
It all started when our family found a baby squirrel that had fallen out of (or been kicked out of my greedy siblings) its nest. Nicky, our chocolate Lab, found the squirrel and was very distressed on its behalf. We took the little guy inside (after diligently looking for its nest) and over the next few months we raised him up and eventually set him free.
We named him Icarus - because he fell from the sky. We quickly shortened that name to just "Icky" and it stuck.
Being the Mom around here (and since I work from home) I was the one mainly in charge of caring for him. It was a great experience.
I believe it was my friend Steven - upon hearing yet another squirrel story one night online - who christened me Skwerl Grrl. Although I believe the spelling was different.
So that's the story behind my handle/nickname. I get asked this question a lot so I figured I'd better answer it.
I recently gave SkwerlGrrl her own brand identity too - in the form of this flashy charicature of me...as a skwerl.
]]>New Sketches - Facebook & Formspringhttp://www.brigidashwood.com/blog/2010/4/5/new-sketches-facebook-formspring.htmlBrigid Ashwood2010-04-05T13:08:47Z2010-04-05T13:08:47ZHello everyone! Hope you are having a lovely spring.
After a long winter full of snow we are really enjoying the spring thaw around here!
In art news I recently adapted three of my robotic steampunk girls for a manufacturer. A figurine company hopes to release them as well - figurines. The original drawings did not have legs! Not an insurmountable problem! I simply adapted the pieces so that they "made sense" as 3 dimensional figurines.
I can't wait to see the complete sculptures from these sketches. So exciting! I'll keep you all posted on the progress!
Anyone who knows me knows I love social networking - alas I HATE Facebook! I have such a tumultuous relationship with that place and their incredibly ignorant and invasive privacy policies. While I do have a Facebook account - I primarily use it to keep in touch with friends and colleagues. So if you friend me on Facebook and I decline please don't be offended. I just can't manage Facebooks interface with a large following. It's too much for me. Please consider instead joining my Facebook FanPage. I am active on that page! Here is the LINK.
Lastly I also have a Formspring.me account that is a lot of fun. If you aren't familiar with Formspring - basically it is a website where people can ask questions either openly or anonymously of members who have an account. In my case I signed up because when I go to shows and cons I often hear comments from fans and colleagues that they would love to ask a certain person or artist a particular question but they are too shy to ask - or worried that their question will be ill received. Formspring allows you to ask a question anonymously. On the users end - when I get a question - I can choose to answer it or not. So if someone asks something inappropriate or too personal or a trade secret I don't want to share, I can just delete the question.
One thing when submitting a Formspring question. Be clear about what you are asking. Proofread your question and make sure it makes sense. Follow up questions and or corrections to your inquiry are difficult to do on Formspring because of the nature of how it works. Also keep in mind that even though their website claims to email you notifications - I've found their system temperamental. So be sure to check back manually.
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Original diptych on display at Davenport & Winkleperry Gallery;)
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Specimens - Group B;)
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