CranberryCloud Laurel Martin

Here's my "Satellite" illustration for IF and also my "Technology" illustration for Point of Departure.  I love it when I can combine two projects!  For the Point of Departure I had to make something with this picture of a cell phone.  I forgot, AGAIN, to scan the image before I started cutting.

If you can see some faint white lines on the side of my finished image, that is my new scanner problem.   After fiddling for an hour with it, I gave up.  If anybody knows how to fix this, please let me know.  It may just be the end of my old HP scanner.  :(

Lisa and I are a bit behind in our Point of Departure project.  Below is the picture that she gave me for May.  May's theme was "fashion" and I was supposed to make a collage with this picture from an old Eatons Department Store catalogue. 

Of course I've seen many pictures of how people dressed a hundred years ago, but I still found the images extremely odd.  The women seem to be bent at the waist.  They look a little deformed and I found the ad somewhat creepy.  I'm so glad we don't have to wear uncomfortable clothes these days.  However, lots of people do anyways so maybe not much has changed.  I felt an overwhelming desire to cut this picture up and it was almost too late to scan it.  I did manage to reassemble it so you could see it.

I found these little boys on the back cover of an old book about crafts for boys.  It was also a little creepy because two of the boys have little black moustaches.  I didn't do that!  Maybe some little boy who didn't like crafts did!!

For the "paisley" IF, I decided to try out a particularly nice piece of styrofoam that I'd been saving.  I used a pencil to imprint the design and then Speedball printing ink.  I printed on various types of paper.  I'm not sure what I'll do with them, but I liked the results.  Which one do you like best?  You can click them if you want to enlarge them.

Afew posts back, I wrote that this picture would not make it as a print.  It just didn't translate well onto the computer because some of the mixed media elements didn't scan well.  Thanks to some encouragement and some digital altering it has worked!  I like the digital version as much as the original. I should never say never!  Sometimes I hate computers, but mostly I love them.

Also, I have created a link to the Ripplesketches blog.  If you want to see my art cards there, just click on the picture below of the jellyfish.  It's not too late to buy some cards there and contribute to the gulf cleaning effort.  There is some great art still available.

Kelly Light is an illustrator from Long Island who has come up with a wonderful idea for helping the wildlife affected by the Gulf Coast oil spill.  Artists donate art cards; 2.5 by 3.5 inch original works of art, which can be purchased from her blog Ripple.  All the proceeds go to help the wildlife AND the cards are only $10 each!  What a fantastic idea!   Here are my two submissions.  They are watercolor, marker and the oil droplets are made from a lino cut stamp.  They can be purchased at the Ripple blog.  Go get them!

I was considering making a print of this picture and when I saw the Illustration Friday word this week I thought it was perfect.  Here you can see the light waves from the moon  bouncing up and down.  The grass and the water are also rippling.  Even the tree is waving.  Wave, ripple bounce...I suppose they're all related.

I just found out about the Ripple Project so I will do a small art card for them too.

Here are two new prints...actually I did them afew weeks ago, but I framed them for my street show and then forgot that I could still make some nice prints of them.  The ones at the top made wonderful prints but alas, the third on did not.  It's interesting and sometimes frustrating how somethings translate so well into prints and some don't.  The third one below looks much better in real life because the moon is a bright silver textured paper and the bushes are drawn on a transparent green tissue.  Neither of these things lend themselves to the computer or prints.  If you have any helpful suggestions let me know. 

As far back as I can remember I've been happiest when I'm out in the woods, following one trail or another, or making my own.  Today the sun was dazzling and all the colours were so bright they were almost glowing.  In the winter, the world becomes much more monochromatic.   I love all the seasons, but when you live in Canada, you really appreciate weather like this!

Last Sunday was the first Artists' Alley of the year.  This is the event where I madly try and get my art framed and then haul it all out to the street for people to see.  My friend, Lisa and my husband John also participated.  I can see from this picture all the things wrong with my booth...sign too small...a mish-mash of different things for hanging...art too far back in booth.  If any of you are experienced art showers, I wouldn't mind hearing constructive criticism.  Lisa gave me the black grid wall and it was by far the easiest to manage.   I think I'll try and get more.  Here's Lisa in her booth concentrating sooo hard on her lino block!

My husband, John, was even less prepared than I was.  However, he came up with the wackiest ideas.  When he told me he was going to do "paint the bronze poodle", "art on a stick" and "pay for paint by numbers", I thought I'd better get a booth veeery far away.  I have to hand it to him though.  It was the most original and entertaining booth by far and everyone loved it!

The next Artist Alley is July 18th.  Now that I have my art framed, I can think about improving my booth.  I don't think I could carry off "paint the poodle".  I'll leave that to the professionals, but I will try and make my booth a little more interesting!