My Own Business

New Work — “Earth Dance”

jeighdeigh — Wed, 16 May 2012 02:52:42 +0000

A new piece: Earth Dance. Here, I allow myself to get a little cosmic. Somewhere in life, I picked up the idea that thinkers of olden times (Middle Ages? earlier? the Alchemists?) saw the world — which to them meant the Earth — as a Giant — a vast human figure. Male, of course, to those thinkers of olden times. That idea grabbed me, somehow, but I choose to cast the image in female form. Makes more sense, somehow. And I always imagine that Giantess as joyful — like this:

Earth Dance. Pen, ink and a little watercolor on Arches watercolor paper. About 18 by 13.5 inches.

Some details:

Earth Dance detail 1

Earth Dance detail 2

Earth Dance detail 3

And for fun, some experiments with background color with Photoshop:

Earth Dance background color 1

Earth Dance background "color" 2

New Work: Let’s Dance

jeighdeigh — Sun, 13 May 2012 19:39:31 +0000

Aaaannd … here’s another! Let’s Dance — without, or with, Photoshop background:

Let's Dance: Pen, ink, watercolor. Image about 14.5 by 19 inches.

Let's Dance: Pen, ink, watercolor. Photoshop color background. Image about 14.5 by 19 inches.

And here are a few details:

Let's Dance Detail 1

Let's Dance Detail 2

Let's Dance Detail 3

New Online Store

jeighdeigh — Fri, 11 May 2012 01:53:10 +0000

I went through HTML coding hell for a couple of weeks, but I finally have put together a new online store: At Home On Earth, http://www.athomeonearth.com. The piece I described in the previous post is there, and many others. The store is clean, simple and easy to use. The piece is also at Etsy. It’s also at my other online store, http://www.athomeonearth.biz. I’m trying everything, right now. Soon I will have an eBay store, too. Ah, me….

New Work: “Let’s Make Music Together.”

jeighdeigh — Fri, 11 May 2012 01:40:50 +0000

Here’s a new piece. Honest to God, I don’t know where this stuff comes from, sometimes. It’s like this: I bought (charged) an Epson Stylus Pro 3880 printer a couple of weeks ago. I want to sell prints of my works, and if I have to pay someone else to make the prints, I have to price them too high. So I wanted to get my own professional printer. But the Epson was NOT cheap. So now, if an idea comes to me for a new piece, and it seems like it might actually be a good seller, too, and might help get this machine paid for, well, that’s very good. So I was mulling over what might work, and the idea for this new piece seemed like just the thing. What kind of surprised me, though, is that I really got into it. You might expect that work on this would be kind of an “ok let’s do a marketable thing” kind of chore, but no — I just loved it. I have no idea whether it will sell or not, but it sure was fun. And archival fine art prints of this piece, made most beautifully by the Epson, are available at my new store, At Home On Earth.

Parts of the process weren’t easy, though. It is important to say that doing a piece which has a fine air of ease and spontaneity sometimes requires a lot of tough preparatory practice work. This went through four or maybe five first drafts. But a lot of it was pretty free improvisation, even after, or maybe because of, all that.

"Let's Make Music Together." Pen, ink, and a little watercolor on Arches watercolor paper. 14.25 by 19.75 inches.

Here are some details:

Let's Make Music Together: Detail 1

Let's Make Music Together: Detail 2

Let's Make Music Together: Detail 3

Let's Make Music Together: Detail 4

New Work: “Peace”

jeighdeigh — Thu, 03 May 2012 22:44:09 +0000

Here’s my latest, titled “Peace.” Looking at it right now, it seems to me to be one of the most beautiful things I’ve done. This was about six days of very intense and very careful work. The border/frame alone, with the gold accent bands, was a full day’s work.

I’m not sure what “Peace” means to other people. Maybe to some, it’s just the absence of war. To me, it’s just what you see in this painting: clean, clear skies, a good book, quiet, calm, tranquillity, and a happy cat. Being at home, here, on Earth.

"Peace." Pen, ink and acrylics on 140 lb Arches watercolor paper. About 9.625 by 19.75 inches.

Here are some details:

"Peace" detail 1

"Peace" detail 2

"Peace" detail 3

Study For New Work: “Peace”

jeighdeigh — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 01:56:16 +0000

Here’s a figure study for a new piece, probably to be titled “Peace.” I’m still not decided whether to do this one as a linoleum block print, or as a pen-and-ink. Either way, color will be acrylics.

Sketch for new work, tentatively to be titled "Peace."

New Work: “Morning Song.”

jeighdeigh — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 20:08:00 +0000

This was about six days of the most exacting, meticulous work I’ve ever done. There are a lot of ink outlines here, and the acrylic paint had to get right up next to them, but not slop over. My eye-hand coordination can’t get any better than this. Most of the work was done under a magnifying glass — nothing major, just one of those task lamps with the big 3-diopter lens.

And of course, doing blending, like in the sky, with fast-drying acrylics, is difficult. But, it’s a good piece, now available on Etsy:

"Morning Song." Pen, ink, acrylic on 140 lb Arches watercolor paper. About 12.25" by 18".

Here are some details:

"Morning Song": Detail 1

"Morning Song," Detail 2

"Morning Song," Detail 3

"Morning Song," Detail 4

“Ave” — New (re-done) work

jeighdeigh — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 22:10:25 +0000

In the first version of this piece, I made the mistake of using a Daler-Rowney flourescent orange. Nothing against Daler-Rowney paints, at all, but it so happens that their flourescent colors are “fugitive.” That’s the term used on the Daler-Rowney website, and it means that they fade. Since I am offering this piece on Etsy, I can’t be employing “fugitives.”

So I re-did it, using regular colors. And I’m very glad I did. This piece pleases me no end. The colors in the original are very rich, and the watercolor paper (Arches 140 lb) gives things a wonderful texture, especially the hair, which is gold over yellow ochre.

"Ave" -- linoleum block print with acrylic coloring. About 10 by 18 inches.

“Ave,” of course, is the Latin for “Hail,” as in “Ave Maria,” or for just “Greetings!” A robust “Howdy!” Hail Spring! Hail Robin Song! Hail Wine! Hail Everything!

The title was originally going to be “Toast to Spring,” but that seemed to call for a morning image, and this one kept turning out evening. “Benediction” didn’t work, nor did “Serenade.” “Ave” fits, and is also a bit of a Latin play on words, since the Latin for “bird” is “Avis.”

“Dance Into Light” — New Work

jeighdeigh — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 03:33:24 +0000

It’s been a while since I’ve done a linocut which called for this much concentration. Actually, I’m not sure I ever have. This would probably have been better done as an engraving, on Resingrave. This kind of work is asking a lot of linoleum.

"Dance Into Light" -- Linocut on Hosho paper, about 10.25" by 15.75."

Linoleum is really too soft for this sort of work, which calls for a lot of tiny parallel grooves, whose depth and width can be closely controlled. The grooves took about twelve hours of work yesterday, and about six today, finessing the tones.

I’m actually kind of wishing, now, that I had done the orientation like this:

"Dance Into Light," flipped horizontal.

The reason, I guess, is that we in the West tend to read things — pictures too — from left to right.

Nevertheless, in spite of everything, be that as it may, notwithstanding, I’m pretty happy with this one.

“Toast to Spring,” A Bit Better

jeighdeigh — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 02:34:33 +0000

Not only have I gone way in hock to get a new iMac, but I went a bit further in hock and bought a new scanner, an Epson Perfection V500 Photo. The first thing I scanned, or re-scanned, was “Toast to Spring.” And here it is:

"Toast to Spring." Linoleum block print on Arches watercolor paper, with acrylics.

SOO much better, so much truer to the real colors. It’s really strange. I mean, this is the exact same piece that I scanned for the previous post here, with my old scanner.