I’m pleased to finally share with you all a side project of mine that I’ve been laboring on for the past few weeks. The economy is hitting everyone hard– including us artists. I’ve been pondering this problem for awhile now, and it is really frustrating. Artists want to sell their work. People want to buy artist’s stuff.

Unfortunately, there is sometimes a hold up in that transaction because art is not always as affordable as we’d like. Artists pour hours and hours into art: perfecting those small details, using expensive supplies and utilizing years of practice and honing of their craft to create images. Some even say a tiny piece of the soul latches onto the items that artists create. A lot of people don’t understand that, and thus do not understand why art has to be so expensive.

Obviously that means that most artists cannot drop their prices and still be fairly compensated– but the economy is preventing a lot of people from buying that piece of art that they truly love because they’re strapped for cash. It’s a tough situation that’s located between a rock and a hard place. What can you do?

Well I brainstormed a solution to that problem by creating something I like to call “Snippets.” Snippets are small pieces of art created on a 4″x6″ card. Small means less materials. Small means less time. That means more affordable! Someone could own an original, one of a kind piece of art for something that fits more easily into their expenses!

Snippets are small snapshots of something. It may be a subject matter, it might be a thought or an idea. It’s a small peek into something that the artist may have been thinking about or inspired by at the time. I frequently have urges to do just a little something here and there, and this is the best outlet possible.

Here are the first three in the series, with four and five being finished up just as soon as I’m done posting here! Click the thumbnails for larger images:

Each snippet is original and one-of-a-kind. No prints will be made from these tiny pieces of art. Each is something that I felt I wanted to paint on a whim at that moment. Each one is hand-signed, titled, and numbered with what Snippet it is in the sequence. I’m going to offer them for sale at a reasonable price, and I’m really excited about it!

Think of it as an economic art stimulus! Information on buying coming soon as I set up shop. More Snippets to follow as well. (And no, they won’t all be dogs, either. Expect some interesting new things… in addition to my usual ballerinas, mermaids, and twisted story tale fare.)

Tonight I bring you some of my activities of late. Last Saturday a colleague of mine and I had a long studio day complete with a sketch brainstorm. During these sessions, we randomly choose subjects and then do timed sketches of them. This activity been very successful in the past– Redneck Pigs was actually born from one of these sessions. If I can find the original sketch, I’ll post it here at a later date. Needless to say I was very eager to get started because I was hoping for some great inspiration for personal art.

Mermaid Song Sketch – Graphite on bond

Our first subject was “mermaid” and I was surprised with how much I liked the sketch. I feel like the lines are very graceful and lyrical which lends itself perfectly to the subject matter. I do believe I have a basis for a new painting! Expect to see this drawing again in the near future.

Nerd with Corgi – Graphite on bond

Another subject later on in the evening was a “nerdy kid.” I took the liberty of making an extremely bookish nerd girl complete with sidekick corgi. I enjoyed this a lot too, and it may hopefully turn into something as well.

And of course, this past Tuesday I finally got back to the Gaijin Studios figure drawing class for the first time in about a month. I had newsprint this time instead of drawing paper, and was wildly unhappy with the outcome of my drawings. The newsprint I purchased was really waxy and just wasn’t taking the graphite well. Unfortunately I ended up hating almost all of my drawings with a passion. I’ve only got one worth showing this go-round.

Figure Drawing – Graphite on newsprint

Come back tomorrow for more on what I’ve been up to outside of Vinny. I’ll have lots to show!

I am still alive, amazingly. I’m not sure if it’s the constantly changing weather, allergies, or the fact that I work in an office, but I just keep staying sick. It’s awful. I’m getting lots of art done though, and generally keeping it together to make my Vinny deadlines. I just completed another page earlier this evening. Unfortunately, I have not yet scanned and/or photographed any of the new stuff I’m working on, so my blog post for tonight is going to be a week-and-a-half late Artist Spotlight.

Tale of a Butterfly – Markers and colored pencils. © Natalia Pierandrei.

Natalia Pierandrei, more commonly known as “Nati” has been an illustrator that I’ve admired for quite some time. I discovered her originally several years ago on DeviantArt while surfing and collecting artists that I liked to add to my Watch List. I was immediately attracted to her artwork because, like me, she does marker work. And believe me, after an entire semester of intense self-study in markers, I know that there aren’t very many marker artists out there. I’m not surprised either, with the sheer lack of instruction in and use for marker art. Everything is computerized these days! There’s not as much respect for us traditional artists anymore, I say!

Garden of Delights – Markers, watercolors and colored pencils on Fabriano Murillo paper. © Natalia Pierandrei.

I digress. Nati’s work is fabulously limited in its color palette– and boy does it work for her. Simple, graceful lines, dimmed colors suddenly superheated with one or two bright ones, and an interesting anime-influenced fusion style really gives her work a punch. There are so many of her pieces that I like that it’s difficult to choose just a few to showcase here!

Winter Commission – Markers, watercolors and colored pencils. © Natalia Pierandrei.

Her work is intricate and detailed. She says herself on her website that she takes some inspiration from art nouveau-styled artworks and artists. And the best part? She lives in Italia. Easily one of my favorite countries, and the one I’ve spent the most time in besides my own.

She just released an artbook named Precious Things which is, unfortunately, sold out at this time. But you should totally get interested and check out her website “A Forgotten Night Tale”, and her blog, “Precipitevolissimevolmente”. Her stuff is great– I hope you get hooked on it as I have.

I apologize for missing my weekly Artist Spotlight post. I’ve been super busy this week trying to meet my Vinny deadlines, being sick (again!), and having to do my taxes (in addition to normal life stuff like my full time day job, errands, bill paying, chores…). This is the first year that I’ve been considered an independent, and the first time I’ve filed my taxes on my own… and it was a really heinous experience. How much more confusing can things get? Oh wait, they’ll get a LOT more confusing once I become a freelancer/contractor. Let’s not think about that, though…

Anyway, I’ve got a lot going on that I can’t wait to post about. I’ve got my own side project I’m squeezing in here and there, and I’ll write more about that as it progresses. And once I’m not feeling as though I’ve been hit by a truck.

As many of you know, I’ve been working on a comic book with my friends Josh and Matt over at Arguing Idiots called Vinny.

Vinny Teaser #1 – © 2009 Joie Brown, Josh Copland, and Matt Garth

Last month I posted some of the concept art for the comic, and then in a later post you could kind of see some of the pages in progress lying on the table.

Vinny Teaser #2 – © 2009 Joie Brown, Josh Copland, and Matt Garth

Some of the pages have actually been scanned at this point, so I thought I’d share some teaser images to start whetting your appetite for Vinny!

Vinny Teaser #3 – © 2009 Joie Brown, Josh Copland, and Matt Garth

This project has been difficult because it’s my first ever large (non-academic) project with a deadline, as well as being my very first comic book. So far, progress-wise I’ve finished 4 of 22 pages, and having been working on page 5 today during my long day in the studio. I will post some full teaser pages sometime in the future, so be on the lookout!