Roll Cameras and...Action!!

Hi Guys!

I am sooooo excited here!

I have been planning to record videos for a while now, but if you know me, you'll know I want to have it as perfect as possible. Meaning, a fun intro, speed up painting process with voice-over and music...etc. Well, with my current schedule, I never seemed to have the time to record something. So two days ago, I was staring at a sketch and thought "you know what...the sun is shining (no need to set up with extra light) and I'm just going to record! If it's okay, then I'll upload it, if not, well at least I tried and I'll record something else later."...so that's exactly what I did and it went okay! When I looked at it I was "Ohhh I did that!!!" and I didn't feel like "Nooooo I don't want to upload this!" haha. I am so pleased to show the first of many videos that I'll be creating for you guys.

There's no voice-over or rambling intro just yet, but will have this with other videos though. Sometimes I just need to let my need to have everything TOO perfect go and just go with the flow and the time I have (will publish a column soon about my  thoughts on this.). So without rambling too much...click on the video below and check out how she's created. It's not your usual happy TJ painting though haha.

Feel free to share the video with everyone who might love to see it. It's a new adventure for me and I'm so curious what you guys think of it! So do start rambling if you have something to share. ^_^

Enjoy your weekend!

TJ's Commissions: Be a Disney Princess.

Ah! Today will be a peek at a personalized header commission I completely a while back.

Pearliology is a Beauty Guru on Youtube and I got to know her via my sister Cilla. She is a huge Disney fan and she wanted to have herself captured as one for her header. Of course, I said "Yes"

So obviously I went a bit in stalker mode and checked out her blog. A header space isn't that big, so I had to keep in mind what I wanted to paint as I didn't want lots of details to go missing. However, it was clear from the start that there had to be one big princess Sarah, as all Disney princesses have their moment of prettiness on a poster. Then after a bit of research I decided to add 3 little princesses. 1) She loves to snap pictures as much as she can (and her blog is filled with lovely peeks in her life), so because of this I chose to have one mini Sarah holding a camera. 2) She loves slushies! 3) Disney princesses always seem to have cute birdies around them (and then they burst out into singing...)

I don't have a whole lot of pictures this time as the design was pretty straight forward and the sketch was right in one go. I wanted to add frames around the 3 little princesses, but decided to leave them out in the final sketch as it would take up too much space. Also on the original I hand-painted "Pearliology"

She absolutely loved it and hearing this just makes my day! It's always a challenge to create something that the client will love, but so far the response I get is way beyond amazing.

Little updates:
1. YAY! The SOS Sahel painting is sold during the auction! The lovely Betty Dravis is the proud owner of the Goddess of Nature and the painting is on her way as I type this post! She is a writer AND a celebrity interviewer (she interviewed Clint Eastwood back in the days. How COOL is that?!) and if you're interested to see her work, please go to her site, Betty's Dreams.

2. All the giveaway prizes are on their way to their new owners! AND there will be a new one up in a week or two.

3. I'll be doing some major redesigning of a lot of things soon, but I will update you accordingly when the time is right.

Thanks for reading lovely readers! Till  next time.

Sifting Through Thoughts and Papers pt. 1

(peeks from behind piles of paper)

Oh my goodness! I reached 400 readers :D So happy here! Thank you so much lovely people! You know, I wonder if I ever get out of this cleaning mode, but okay, I have a few small updates for you.

Canceled 2nd blog.
I chatted to a few friends and after some thinking I decided to cancel my 2nd blog and post my columns solemnly on Expats Post (more on this soon). I divide you guys a bit all over the place now and to be honest keeping track of all I do is a tad much at times. So my column will be published there and every now and then I shall post a reminder here. Of course everyone who has me on Facebook or Twitter will see the tweets and status updates twirling by.

To everyone who followed me there and not here, please keep an eye on it and switch to this one if you want to stay up to date ^_^.

New commission/shop policies
I re-wrote my commission and shop policies. The last one was focused on the mugs I created, but now I changed directions, so needed to change my policies. I highly advice you read them as I (hopefully) provide you with enough information on how I work, price calculation so you can decide whether you want to hire me or not. Prices are quite difficult to point out as I used to end up doing more work then planned and as much as I love creating, I have to be sensible and realistic with my time and pricing.

Do NOT be afraid to e-mail once you've read it all and still have questions though. I don't bite...hehe.

Shopping!
Don't forget that you can get my stuff at two places now: Etsy & Zazzle. I have a permanent tab and a widget in the sidebar for them. Zazzle is really for those who just want to order stuff without the hassle of contacting me. All products listed on Etsy have gone through my hands. I signed it, added extra details, wrap it up for you and fly to the post office. Also, original pieces will be listed on Etsy alone as well. Remember, I'll work with small stocks, so if prints/cards are gone, they are gone unless you guys keep asking for moooorrrreee! hehe.

NOTE: I've FINALLY ordered new prints of sketches and new art. These will arrive next week and will be added in my Etsy shop and I'll be doing a giveaway when I reach 300 likes on Facebook!!! Stay tuned for an update.

Random Rant: I dislike doing VAT and tax thingiessssss, but I have tooooooooo (head desk)

Column Post: My latest column is about Mirrors. Do have a peek if you're intrigued :D

Ciao Everyone!

TJ's Projects: Canvas vs. Paper

Hello hello everyone!

My first canvas done with watercolors arrived safe and sound at its owner! I figured it would be nice to see the difference between my usual watercolor paper and working on canvas.

Some of you know about the Three Venetian Masks I painted a while back. I love Venetian masks they are mysterious and often full of details. A friend really loved them and asked if it was possible to have it on canvas as well. Well almost anything is possible, so I said ‘Yes of course!!’

So I re-painted it on canvas with...watercolors! I haven’t got the usual in-between pictures. I kinda forgot to keep track of it. This is what I used:

I probably should have taken a picture without both finished pieces hehe. Ah well! Next to the standard things, like brushes, pencils/pen, eraser, paint (which I forgot to add in the picture), I used four extra steps.

1. I retraced the original painting on tracing paper (that's the transparent drawing you see above)

2. I primed the canvas with Watercolor primer from Schmincke (the white bottle in the back)

3. Then I retraced the painting on the canvas by using Saral transfer paper. (the red box on the left)

4. Finally details are added with acrylic ink in white, black and iridescent gold. (the three little bottles in front of the primer.)

Standard canvasses are prepped with a universal primer, suitable for most paintings. However I found that watercolors didn’t really ‘stick’ with this universal primer. So after some research I found a watercolor primer for canvas. A very good product, easy to apply and it dries fairly quickly. You need to add 3 thin layers on your canvas. After drying, you can start painting.

Saral transfer paper in graphite. I love this! A whole new array of possibilities has been opened with this little roll of graphite paper. This medium makes transferring drawings very easy as you can transfer it on e.g. canvas (obviously), wood, ceramic and so on. The graphite lines dissolve in water. Warning: make sure the lines aren't too thick (so not a whole lot of pressure while you trace your drawing) as it will influence your paint color, because the lines give too much pigment and add a touch of greyness when it dissolves. Most people don’t want that…

The actual paint process was a bit tricky as the canvas had a rougher structure than the paper I use. The brush didn't glide quite easily over it, at least not like I'm used to. The watercolor paper I use is quite smooth and the canvas had those little lines…

I guess because of this the waiting for a layer to dry increased by a lot! And I’m not that patient to begin with hehe. So the adding of the layers continued and the details and background are done with the acrylic inks. Finally, I added 3 thin layers of fixative and this also gave it a lovely shine.

I’m very pleased with the end result and I do like both pieces. On the canvas the colors are more vibrant and on the paper it’s softer. It really depends on what you want in the end.

Here’s a picture that I got from the owner. She loves it and I’m really happy it got to her safe and sound! It was such a fun project to do and the first time I really painted on canvas. So not mindless doodling hehe.

Now it's proudly displayed in its new home :D

That's it for now! Questions? Do you have a preference? And do you like Venetian Masks? Some people find them a tad scary...

Enjoy your weekend.

Ciao!