Finished the underground drawing from yesterday with watercolor and gouache outlining.

A work in progress.  I finished the pencil sketch & outlined everything in Micron pen.  I will work on the watercolor tonight!

]]> http://www.emersonstreetcreative.com/2012/01/10/work-in-progress-drawing-underground/feed/ 3 http://www.emersonstreetcreative.com/2012/01/06/i-finally-have-a-facebook-page/ http://www.emersonstreetcreative.com/2012/01/06/i-finally-have-a-facebook-page/#comments Sat, 07 Jan 2012 00:15:25 +0000 Molly http://www.emersonstreetcreative.com/?p=468 After a whole lot of prodding and convincing – I have created a Facebook page for my artwork.  So, no more procrastinating!  I have always had a few toes in the social media bathwater, time to jump all the way in!

Please head over and “like” my page if you would like to keep tabs on what I am up to.  I will be posting photos of artwork mostly and will post events if I happen to be at a show anywhere.   I am hoping since everyone and their grandma are (quite literally) on Facebook, this will help my artwork reach a larger audience.  I would love to do commissioned work, so if you or someone you know is looking for something in my style – send them over!

You can find my Facebook page by clicking here or on the link in the menu bar to the left.

Alright I will get off my grandstand now.  Much love to all and Happy New Year!

This portrait was commissioned by my oldest friend for her mother for Christmas.  As most memorials do, this portrait has a twinge of sadness.  My friend wanted to memorialize her mom’s horse whom died unexpectedly this year.  He wasn’t old and nobody really knows what happened.  I have worked with horses my whole life and sadly this does occasionally happen.  However, we always want to remember the good times we had with our loved ones and that’s what this painting is all about.  My friend sent me some photographs of her mother, the horse and the two of them galloping across the fields.  She told me to just “do my thing” which is my favorite kind of commission: total trust and no rules.  The results I think were great; this was my favorite thing I painted this year!  I wanted to capture a dream like state, a magical place where we can meet briefly between the living and dead worlds.  Her mother loved it, my friend said Christmas morning was a “pool of tears.”  Good tears!

12″ x 12″ Acrylic on Canvas

If you would like to share this painting with friends, I am just now trying to get a Facebook page off the ground.  Mosey over there and check it out

I got a really sweet email from one of my customers, and it made my day!

Hello Molly!

I wanted to let you know that our Girl Scout troop’s Thinking Day booth was fantastic today, and that your Kiwi Bird stamp was a huge part of its success and popularity with the other troops! Our Kiwi passport stamp was the cutest and best stamp in the whole auditorium!

Thank you so much. I have sent a notice about your stamp and your quick order processing to our state organization for inclusion in their next newsletter.

Sincerely,
R. , T. , and the young women of Girl Scout Troop 3291

How awesome is that?  I love the idea of the passport stamps too.   Stamp on friends!

You can buy custom stamps like the one above and more at my Artfire shop:  http://www.artfire.com/users/EmersonStreet

P.S.  I just bought a box of Girl Scout cookies this weekend too.  Those Thin Mints didn’t last long in our house

I found this video by accident… and was almost about to delete it!  Lesson learned: name your files kids.  It’s a peaceful video of me painting the sperm whale that is available in my shop.  Music is by one of my favorites, Arvo Pärt.

.

She just had her first craft show, and by the looks of it had a gorgeous set up! (If only I could show you my first show – there’s a reason pictures don’t exist!)  blueheart has great style and makes it look easy.  Congrats girl!

Head over to her blog for more lovely finds!

All photos by blueheart.

Just wanted to share a sweet project from yesterday.  A friend of mine commissioned this piece for her veterinarian.  His longtime feline friend Daniel passed away recently.  This is a gift in remembrance of Daniel, a beautiful cat if I must say so.   Painted from a photograph (what a great shot – by the way) in watercolor and gauche.

A while back I switched completely over from Etsy to Artfire.  I was sick of all the favoritism and repetitive featuring that goes on over there.  If you’re not a hipster selling bacon merkins, you can basically throw in your poorly screen printed tea towel.  This isn’t going to be an Etsy bashing post…I won’t go there (today).  It’s a post about how I’m feeling as a somewhere between new and established seller on Artfire.

I really like the traffic I’ve been getting.  I love my stats! You can see right in your dashboard when you’re getting hits from Google searches and shopping sites.  It makes picking keywords and tags very easy when I can see what people are searching for.

The sales are MUCH better on Artfire, especially with my work being in the “fine art” category – which is usually buried or outright ignored on Etsy.   I’d only been promoting my Artfire shop actively since the beginning of this summer and already I’ve got 37 sales.  Compare that to my 8 sales in three years on Etsy.  Maybe that’s an unfair assessment as I did a big fundraising project on Artfire and I suspect that lead to higher sales.  But, I’m stickin with it.  Numbers are numbers and to the outside viewer, a shop with 8 sales in three years looks kind of sketchy.  I don’t want to come off sketchy, do you?

I haven’t ventured into the forums much on Artfire, but I do see their executives posting in there often and they actually respond to questions which is pretty cool.  They can do this because they are still smaller than Etsy.  They still have the time to respond to everyone.  I hope that Artfire keeps this intimate vibe they have going (well that sounded unintentionally dirty).

I can’t help feeling this weirdness though, like we are on the brink of the goodness spilling over into a messy mismanaged place like Etsy.   We are kind of enjoying a renaissance right now – much like I’m sure early Etsy sellers did.

Every once in a while when I’m re-tweeting their latest deal (which is awesome – sorry) I feel a little hypocritical.  A little like a cupcake.  What if they get huge like Etsy and lose their awesome down-to-earth roots?  All in all, I have high hopes for Artfire.  It seems like they started their foundation strong by having actual customer service in place right away.  But I’d hate to become a cupcake, so don’t let me down Artfire.

Forgive an overly dramatic post about my relationship with websites, but when you’re an artist this stuff really does matter!

Photo Credit:  Eva Blue for Clever Cupcakes

Just wanted to pop-in with a donation update.  Even though this disaster seems to be “under wraps” and isn’t getting much press lately, the long lasting effects are unknown.  I appreciate all the donors who continue to support the cause even when it’s no longer popular!

I just did little screen caps of my donations today. 

We donated $464.85 today, bringing the total donations up to: $1,580.85!  Awesome

Thank you again!

Photo Credit:

GNOF:

National Audubon Society:

Our Gulf Waterkeepers: