Tag: drawing

wORDPRESS WOES

Posted on by omordah1

Figuring Out WordPress

I’ve been using WordPress for sometime now, and I’m embarrassed to say that I’m only now discovering how to use different aspects of it. In my defense, I have to say that this platform has never been the easiest to navigate, at least not for me. I’ve used various other platforms and have never had the the kind of issues I’ve had with WP.

For example changing the color or size of the font. It’s taken a while partly because I was so busy, but I had a few minutes so sat down and made a concerted effort to figure some things out. As you can see I have figured out a few. I have not however, figured out how to change the color of the “add title” section. In order to change the font, one has to go to the first “block”.

Changing fonts, in any way, should be easy. And for me, as an artist and highly visual person, this is important to me. But it isn’t easy to navigate to where you do so. Finding where was even harder, and it shouldn’t be. Why isn’t it right there, on the same page, set at the top?

I even googled it, as trying to follow the instructions on the actual platform hasn’t worked. Unfortunately, neither did any instructions on Google. How did I figure this much out, you may ask? Basically, just hunting around, and sheer luck. (I’m sure to some others it was no problem at all. )

So I’m playing around with it a bit. I’ve always considered myself pretty capable when it comes to using computers, so this has been fairly annoying for me. But maybe it is me. Has anyone else had these issues? Maybe I’m just spoiled from using other platforms that are, to me, much more user friendly. For example when writing paragraphs, if I start one, and then decide that I don’t want a new paragraph, it is not easily deleted, leaving a gap and the user info on the page. It’s just not intuitive. On a recent post that was basically just a few photos of my work, I wanted to swap out one of the photos. One is normally able to “replace” photos, which I have done in the past. However, this time, it kept glitching, turning what should have been a quick ten minute post into an aggravating thirty minute, task. And this wasn’t the first time something like this happened. I know that one could always speak to an admin, but I have not found this easy either on this site, haven’t always had the time, and frankly past experience has taught me that this is rarely helpful. I write quickly and am able to get my thoughts down quickly so have just used things as they were.

To be honest, the main reason I’ve stuck with WordPress is that one, I was too busy to try out another site, (“the devil you know”). And two, more importantly because my daughter had designed and put together the main page and font for me early on, and I want to keep it. I also get discouraged with WordPress, because even when I was faithfully posting on here on a regular and often basis, as well as interacting with others, I’ve only ever had a small amount of actual feedback. (I am very grateful to those who do!) But for the effort I put in, it doesn’t feel like much bang for my buck, so to speak.

But for now, I will continue on with WordPress (regaling those few who are paying attention, with my artsy life.) If you’ve read this far, thanks! And see you next time. 🙂

Kindly take a look at my other art sites; @susanm.l.mooreartist on Instagram where you can view many of my art pieces. And etsy.com/shop/omordah where you can purchase some of my art pieces. Thanks! Ciao for now.

“LAP DOG”

Posted on by omordah1

While at a kid’s soccer game, there was a woman sitting with her huge dog in a folding chair. This Weimaraner was a beautiful, good girl. She kept trying to curl up with her “mom”. It was so awkward and funny, that I just had to capture this moment.

This pup was sweet and hilarious, definitely not a “lap dog” but absolutely a fantastic art model.

I began this painting a few weeks ago, but had a lot going on and didn’t want to just rush it in between things. Also I know that many people struggle with knowing when to say, “this is finished” but I generally seem to have the opposite problem. I tend to sometimes feel ready to move on to the next piece, or project to quickly. However, I loved this subject so much that I was willing to take my time and get it just the way I wanted it. I think I accomplished that because this painting of a silly dog makes me smile whenever I look at it. I hope it makes you smile too! I present; ”LAP DOG”

Please visit:  @etsy.omordah.com and @susanm.l.mooreartist on Instagram to see more of my work or to purchase my art.

Etsy on strike

Posted on by omordah1

Hi All,

This is just a quick note to say that, in solidarity with my fellow Etsy sellers, I have put my Etsy shop on hold. Etsy who has greater than four million (!) sellers, has again made a ridiculous hike in their percentage fees of over 30% !

If you are interested in purchasing any of my art, please contact me here or through my Instagram site, susanm.l.mooreartist . Thank you for your understanding!

Susan

“The Maine Event”

“Relection”
“Great Northern Pass”

Preliminary Sketches For…?

Posted on by omordah1

A few months back, I decided that I would like to participate as an artist at a Comic Con that takes place a few hours from where I am. It’s usually around March. In order to do this, I will need to have enough art pieces in various sizes to warrant paying the price of the booth area. After taking some time away from drawing, I did feel somewhat refreshed, and thought that this goal might be a good place to jump back into the “paint” so to speak. I decided to go with a favorite super hero of mine, The Flash. (I do have a few other art works almost ready for this Con, but that’s another blog.) Not being an official expert on The Flash, I of course have to go with what I am into. And that happens to be the most recent incarnation on TV. I like the characters, the actors, and the overall look of the series. (Everything except the most recent version of The Flash’s outfit. I’m sorry, but good grief. They seriously need to go back to the season four costume). I meander. Anyway I’ve begun by doing some simple preliminary sketches. (With the season four costume).

For the title of this post, I left it a bit ambiguous for the simple fact that, although, I have my subject, I haven’t quite nailed down the exact form I’d like these to take.

I haven’t had an art booth in some time. And have never don a Con. But I’ve been to a few, and I know what I have personally been drawn to.

Personally, I enjoy the whole experience, from the cos players, (sometimes myself included), to the panels, and of course the many related items to purchase.

It’s always interesting to see all of the artists. They are as varied in their art, as in their separate approaches to selling it. Many work as a team with another artist. Some are more approachable than others. There are those who reach out to people wandering around. This can be a good thing or a bad one. If it’s done in an easy going friendly way, it’s usually OK. But of course there are always those venders who just have too much of a desperate vibe. It can be awkward, and is usually a turn off.

But for the most part, I have found the venders to be friendly, interesting and fun. Many of the venders spend their time there, working on more pieces. This is always interesting to see. The artwork ranges from simple to unbelievably detailed and excellent work. But whatever the case, they have put their hearts and energy into it, so it’s important to respect that.

Getting back to the question mark in my title. It also covers the how and how much to charge per item, aspect. Another thing that seems to be a good idea, is to have a few different price point items. I know that whenever I go, I like to get a few small things, sort of as souvenirs. For example I almost always get a few Lego super hero or Star Wars figures. Many times these have been refined or modified by the seller. I also like to get a few small art pieces, or hand done comic books. On occasion there may be something that really catches my eye, and I may be willing to make a bigger purchase.

I’m guessing a lot of people think this way. Unless they are hardcore collectors, most people are there for a good time, and may get a few little things. But It’s also a good place to display your more expensive pieces. People may not be interested or able to get something there and then, but might consider it for a later date, or as a future gift. The question here is, how many, and what kind of small items I should have on hand, as well as larger pieces, some small hand outs, business cards, and maybe some written items that explain my process, or a little about me? People do seem to like to know something about the artists. More importantly, I feel that the venders should be relaxed, and enjoy the venue as well. Those are the ones that I like to talk with. I don’t feel pressured, and neither do they. I’m more likely to purchase something from them as well. But if I don’t that’s cool too.

As a side note, there was a young woman at one of these venues, who had written and self published some comic style books. She was asking a reasonable price. It was late in the day, and the second time we came around and had decided to get one, she gave it to us for free! As fellow artists who know what has to go into this sort of thing, (after our first shocked delight), we just felt that we couldn’t accept that, and insisted that she take payment. See, relaxed and happy, and generous. We practically begged her to take our money!

If you are an artist, writer or musician who is selling your work, here’s hoping someone begs you to take their money!

I hope you enjoyed this post, and see you next time!

Inktober In Review; Week Four, The Final Count Down

Posted on by omordah1

Hi to everyone who has been following along, and to those just stopping in, check out the last three parts of this series following my (mis+)adventures in completing an ink drawing a day for Inktober. I’ve enjoyed doing this drawing challenge for three years now, and I’d like to say it gets easier, but I still find it is a “challenge”. If only due to fitting it into my busy life, and trying to think of ideas, as well as the execution of them, often with little time. I have noticed that I do seem to get faster, and feel that my drawings improve as the weeks go by, except for a few here and there when I was truly rushed. In essence this does help me to work better, faster. The actual challenge ends Halloween Day, so for the purpose of writing this post, I’ve finished up, and will show you what I’ve come up this last week. Starting off with the prompt word; “ancient” which I really liked. Below you’ll see what I thought would be a good choice, as well as a style I more or less followed for the rest of this week. I threw in some artistic licence as well as a bit of a graphic look.

Day twenty four had me “reeling” silly pun intended. What do you draw for “dizzy”? I mean I could have gone with the obvious, but I thought about what makes me feel dizzy. Looking up at tall buildings can do that to me. A sort of reverse vertigo. I only had about twenty minutes that day so I kept it simple.

I think I had a bit of a sweet tooth for day twenty five, heheh. Uuummm, yum!

On day twenty six, I had a little more time so attempted to do a kind of silhouette of a night sky with the Milky Way.

The prompt for day twenty seven is tricky. It is simply “coat”. What?! I guess this could be considered either really easy, or “wait, what?”. But it does leave the possibilities fairly wide open. Having not felt rushed or pressured, I just played around with it for a while and felt a sort of cross between a Steampunky and a military parade theme for the coat would of course look great on a giraffe.

And what better “ride” as in day twenty eight, is there than a fun carnival one? (Which btw, I never go on.)

For the artists out there, you may have noticed that some of these could be finished somewhat more. This is all part of the whole Inktober challenge, for me anyway. Often, there just isn’t time, so you have to be able to say, ‘yeah, this is as finished as it’s gonna get.” And that’s OK. It’s great to just be able to draw along. This year I managed to do every day, (and I include the one I shredded-see episode one of this series), because although I decided not to use it, I still put a lot of effort into it. For day twenty nine, “injured” I was in a sort of “Hunger Games”, “The 100” kind of mood. Get up, you can do this!

Anyway, day thirty found me in a more gentle mood, so for the word “catch” I felt this kitty would be a cute idea.

Finishing up for the last day, day thirty one, Happy Halloween! The prompt is “ripe”. I figure that by the time we pick and carve a pumpkin, they’re pretty “ripe”. I almost went for the whole over-ripe thing, making them all rotted and such for Halloween, but then decided to go with this. Let me introduce, Moogle, and Arrgh in, “Moogle and Arrgh see a ghost”. (I did make them a wee squishy).

Wrapping up this mini series on Inktober 2019 I want to say that I am grateful to people like Jake Parker who come up with ideas like this and are kind enough to share them. Inktober has grown to include fantastic artists from all over the world! If you can, take a few minutes to scroll through the literally thousands of pieces of artwork for Inktober on Twitter and Instagram. The many artist’s works are varied and amazing! I have no affiliation to these sites, other than having tagged along, but as an artist, or just anyone who appreciates art, it’s something that shouldn’t be missed! I hope you’ve enjoyed following my attempts to produce an ink drawing a day. See you next time! (I’m not sure, but I may be taking a bit of a break for a few weeks, but who knows!?)

Inktober In Review; Week Two, “Sixty’s Style, Giants and Legends”.

Posted on by omordah1

For those of you who are following along, I won’t go into the whole description of Inktober again. I will just mention for those who don’t know about it, to please visit my last two blog posts, or head on over to Inktober on Twitter. So I’ll jump right in here about my first ink drawing for week two. The prompt word for the day, was “frail”. As I do, I didn’t want to go with anything cliche’, and unfortunately this led me to procrastinate until I basically had no time, energy or desire to draw anything. But not wanting to skip a day, I did a very quick drawing of earth. Yes, I know it is not accurate in any way, which further on in this post, you’ll see was humorously pointed out to me. However I do feel it gives an OK representation. My idea here was to point out the fragility of our one and only earth. I hoped that people would pick up on that, otherwise, my “frail” image, is mostly a “fail”. Ah well, such is the exciting and dangerous world of art.

For day nine of our little adventure, the prompt word is “Swing”. Thinking out of the box and into the dark of Halloween, I thought an image of a child in a red cape, (wink), who decided to swing her lantern into the dark of night in search of, ahem, her grandmother as a large unfriendly, (though he came out looking more wise then “bad”) wolf followed her would be appropriate. I had a little more time to play with this, and I was happy with the shadowing, and how the composition generally came out.

Day ten, the prompt was “pattern”. I wanted to get an elephant or two into the mix this week, so playing around a bit, while also watching TV and “chill”, this is what I came up with. This whole thing was just an exercise in doodling. But it’s not too bad. My older brother, pointed out that it reminded him of 1960’s art. So there you go. This was a much better reaction than his about my “earth” drawing, where-in he inquired as to if “Australia, (where he mostly resides), was in the mix?”

The prompt word for day eleven, is “snow”. I decided to go with an image I had from a ride “up the road” out of our little college town, to a Christmas tree farm. The day we went it was bitterly cold, but very beautiful. There had been a fresh coat of fallen snow, and the trees and fields through the woods, were pristine, and just wonderfully quiet.

Finding that day twelve was “Dragon”, was fun. For a few years, in between jobs, I took a part time position at what was known as a “head shop”. It was actually two separate stores owned by one person. I worked on the side that sold a lot of hippie style clothing, rings, incense and things along that line. The owner also graciously “allowed” me to sell some of my hand made crochet bags, and other things I made, for the low low price of 40% ! (I have never since, worked with anyone who expected to make more than 10% off of my work. and neither should you.) Anyway, for some reason I got into drawing dragons, (I may have had it in mind to do a kid’s book.) In any case, it brought back some funny and sometimes odd memories (perhaps a story for another day), as I worked on this drawing.

I have to confess that I was actually at work when I did this quick sketch for the day 13 prompt, “Ash”. So I was interrupted a lot, and tried to get it done as fast as I could. This is why it may not be the best for a number of reasons. (I won’t point them out, as I learned a long time ago, with one’s looks, and art, it’s best not to point out what you perceive as problem areas, because most of the time no one notices anyway.) Where was I, oh, yes, I think depicting Ash from “Ash vs Evil Dead” probably fits the prompt and the whole Halloween vibe perfectly.

This last little drawing is for both the day fourteen and fifteen prompts; “Overgrown” and “Legend”. I pictured a story about a young boy, completely overgrown to giant proportions, who was the object of ridicule by his peers, until one day a great tsunami hit their seaside village. He saved them all, and was then a hero. I literally wrote a sort of sing song-y story to draw this picture for, which turns out, was for me anyway, a good way to make the picture evolve. So there you have it, week two of Inktober in review. I hope you enjoyed this post, and have maybe been inspired to try an art challenge. Thank you for reading my blog! see you next time!

It’s “Inktober”, Ya’all !

Posted on by omordah1

Today marks the first day of “Inktober 2019” . For those of you who don’t know, it’s a drawing challenge started by a man named Jake Parker. Basically during the month of October, anyone who wants to join in the fun can! Everyday there is a new “prompt”. You just draw a picture of whatever comes to mind, and ink it, (but I guess it’s not imperative that you ink your drawing.) I like to, as it brings me back to my earlier roots, when I did a lot of ink work. I also like the look. Then go to Twitter, hash tag it like this; #Inktober and #Inktober2019. Let me know if you do, I’d love to see your work!

I’m starting out with a simple one, no pressure. Today’s prompt is “ring”, so I’ve done a ring of ellies! I’m not always able to do one everyday, though I do try. It’s good practice as well as fun. I don’t look at other’s work, until after I’ve done my version of the prompt. I feel this makes it less likely that I would be influenced by anyone else’s work. It is fun to see what other people come up with afterward though!

I’ve already had a stumbling block of sorts. In order to get some momentum, I did a few pictures ahead. For day two, the prompt is “mindless”. Rather than do something expected, (as it is Halloween season) and do say, a zombie, I decided to do something a little different. I had also decided that I would somehow incorporate elephants into each picture, sort of a running theme. So I drew a person mindlessly killing a beautiful animal. (I can’t even write it, uugghh). Technically, it came out pretty well. I wrote on the pant leg of the person, evil, and death, and on the poor animal, good and life. However. after looking at it, I realized, no matter how strongly I feel about this subject, (and I do), I couldn’t bring myself to post this. It is more my style to draw the beauty of what we can, and are losing, rather than go for the shock value. So I shredded it. I instantly felt better. I’m sure some would say that I should have posted it, but again, not me. I’ll leave that to others, and fight my battle, my way.

Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter; “Sweeney Todd”

I have posted a lot of my past ink sketches before, so if you’ve seen them, here are some of them for you to enjoy again! heheh. And if you haven’t… enjoy!

“Mindlessly Waiting”

I’ve decided to use the drawing of me waiting for a movie to start as my 2nd day Inktober post; “Mindless” . #Inktober #Inktober2019 (Although it was also pretty mindless, in this case it was pleasant to sit and chat while we waited.)

Happy Inktober everyone! See you next time!