Picture Story: bear ride

I needed an illustration for January for my calendar. We have the four seasons here in Michigan, so, January is usually a picture of something cold and snowy, because that's what it is. Somehow I decided on a girl and a bear trekking through the snow for the picture...

And so it was sketched:

Then sketch was scanned in photoshop, converted to a blue page. That was printed, 

inked, scanned into photoshop and cleaned up and converted into  a file...

That file was filled with color and then printed off to be colored by hand.

 Once the entire page was colored it was scanned into photoshop.

 Where I began to add other elements, like the snowy ground and the sky...

The sky needed a little more visual oomph, so, I added a layer of a 

scan of one of my paintings: sunkissed alchemy phantasmagoria

There was snow on the ground, so there should be snowflakes in the air. 

The issue was to leave them behind or on top of the girl & bear...

 I decided to leave the snowflakes on top, so, I selectively deleted some of them...

And there it is: bear ride

You can find "bear ride" at sarahkdesigns or sunshinesight

Christmas cards on Artfire

Snowflake Christmas cards are available for a limited time at:

 SunshineSight.artfire.com

 12-pack, deer on blues

 10-pack Christmas themes on earth tones

 10-pack midnight deer variety pack

10-pack Christmas themes on pink and green

 12-pack deer on blue watercolors

12-pack Christmas themes on blues & greens

 12-pack snowstorm valentine collection

12-pack snowstorm spice berry variety

Have a Very Merry Christmas!

snow pictorial

So, yeah, it snowed... again.

I tried to have a sense of humor about it, I suppose. But really, now I hate snow. I've had enough. I don't want to spend any more time shoveling the driveway or that part in front of the mail box... or an extra half an hour driving to work, and another extra half an hour driving home. I really just want it to stop.

In the mean time, I suppose, I have hot chocolate and animal crackers. But really, I'm just ready for spring. (as recent additions to my "sarahknight" etsy shop can attest)

••∞•∞•∞••

Oh, but on a non-snow related note: I now have a Tumblr
You can find me at: http://sunshinesight.tumblr.com/

I'm still a technophobe, so honestly, I'm not quite sure what exactly the point of tumblr is. It seems like a middle point between twitter and a blog. Still, don't expect to find any nude photos there or anything.

••∞•∞•∞••

On an optimistic note:

• new episode of "Supernatural" this week (a + that it wasn't pre-empted)
• FX reruns "Archer" at 11pm on Saturdays - so I can actually watch it
• my socks are all folded (so now I don't have to pick through the pile to find 2 that match)
• Brett Dennen has a catchy new song which I keep getting stuck in my head.
• Found Zachary mellowcreme "valentine mix" when I was browsing the Holiday candy aisle - yum

let it snow

I feel like I need a note from my mom, something that says tomorrow I'll visit a cajillion blogs, but today Sarah is being analog and needs to stay off the computer and go to bed on time.

Yeah, it's been a busy and sleepless week. And holy crap: it's December! How did that happen? November, where did you go? I have 4 graphics to create for a calendar and Christmas gifts to figure out... I think I need 30 more days and to figure out where I can find some cheap peanut brittle.

Anyway, I spent the morning catching up on some beloved reruns on the television while putting up the winter decorations (which I may get around to taking down approximately around April). I literally took the hummingbirds & butterflies down a couple days ago and it snowed for the first time. Appropriately, my winter decorations are snowflakes.

And as usual, I got halfway through actually putting them all up.
I have a collection of snowflakes. Most of them are plastic or resin and covered with glitter, some of them are metal or wire or have mirrors or rhinestones. The vast majority of them are unique (in that mass produced holiday decorations can be 'unique') - in other words, it's not like I just went to the store and bought the package with 10 of the same snowflakes in it 10 times over. No, I have about a hundred snowflakes, and 90% of them are not multiples.

I hang them from the ceiling, which means that each snowflake is strung on fishing line. Now, if I was "organized" — then I would probably possess some sort of box with dividers in it so that when I finally get off my lazy bum and take them down well after spring has started— well, they'd be neat and organized and I could just plow through hanging them. Pfft, where's the fun in that? Besides, it sounds like work.

No, these things go in a plastic bin, so every year there is a comedy routine involved in separating them from themselves, because the fishing line somehow gets tangled... I pick up 1 snowflake and end up holding a clump. Yes, it's silly, and probably time consuming, and yet amusing enough that I cannot be bothered to buy one of those ornament boxes with the dividers.

So, I'm covered with glitter, the floor is covered with glitter, and so far there was only one "clump" that I had to separate with scissors...

Hopefully tomorrow I'll be done, and then I have to vacuum. And even then everything will still be covered with glitter.

Hopefully, your home is decorated for the holidays : )

Christmas card giveaway

The holidays are over, right? I don't have to make sure I didn't set the house on fire cooking the turkey or wonder what in the world happened to that extra can of whole cranberry sauce that I was sure I bought until I was in the kitchen rummaging through the cupboards pondering where I could have possibly put it (only to find it in the trunk of my car the next day)...

It's Tuesday now, and I finally got my make-up sleep for the holiday.

Anyhow, Christmas is around the corner, and I design snowflakes & make Christmas cards — so it's time for a giveaway.

Up for the taking are 8 snowflake Christmas cards (the ones pictured above; the winner gets 4 of each design)

The cards measure 4.25 X 5.5 inches & come with envelopes.

The message inside of the cards reads: Have a lovely Holiday Season! Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!
The message is printed in violet colored ink in a cursive style font.
(wanna see: click here)

To enter:
send an email to sarkni@live.com with the word "giveaway" in the title of the email.

The names of the entrants will be written on paper, and one will be drawn from a vessel of some sort. The drawing is this Friday (3 December 2010). I will then email the winner, because, obviously, in order to send you the cards — I need your address, and I don't expect anyone to publicly declare that sort of thing in a blog post, hence the relative privacy of email.

I don't have a mailing list, newsletter, or forward email addresses, or anything spammy like that. The email is exclusively for the giveaway.

New Snowflakes

September is when I'm supposed to get all the "Christmas stuff" done... and that never happens. I think I'm on year five of this pattern. So, it's mid-November, and I finally sat down on the couch and watched M. Night Shyamalan's "The Happening." Yeah, clearly I'm a bit behind on my bad movies... that and it beckoned me from the cheap DVD bin at Walmart. The funny thing is, I generally like M. Night Shyamalan movies, but this one - I think I wanted a plant to reach out and strangle Mark Wahlburg by the end of the movie...

Anyway, the point is that popping in a movie that I had paid for was incentive to actually sit there on the couch and fill in an entire snowflake template, which is what I did.

I now have at least 16 new snowflakes for this year — TA-DAH:

I think (actually — I know) I have now designed over 100 snowflakes in the span of 5 years.
You can see 94 of my designs in the listings in my "sarahknight" shop on etsy: snowflake prints
They're spread out in 3 'templates' — 1 | 2 | 3

Are you getting ready for Christmas? Eef, I still have 4 graphics to produce for the holiday calendar. I so need a clone, specifically one that likes to do work.

: )

Snowflakes in September

Dear blog: yes, I hope to update you more frequently.
Sincerely,
Sarah
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Okay, now that we have that out of the way, I got busy working and being exhausted last week. Part of that working was my full time job, which regularly consumes 50 hours of my week (between my actual presence there & my drive). The rest of the 'working' was spent at home in front of the imac and involved snowflakes. Yes, every September I start working on the snowflakes.

I started designing snowflakes about 5 years ago. I'm sure as a child I cut snowflakes out of paper, and in college I started decorating my dorm rooms or apartments with snowflakes (I have hundreds of those plastic snowflakes covered in glitter — every year I go out and buy new snowflake ornaments)... but it was about 5 years ago that I started to seriously design snowflakes. I decided I wanted them to have the traditional 6 arm symmetry. Thus I designed a template that I could design my snowflakes with 6-arm bilateral symmetry on. I use the same template to this day.

I began designing the snowflakes because I decided I was going to sell Christmas cards. And if I was going to sell Christmas cards — I would want them to look like something that I would want to send to people, thus snowflakes.

So, every year about this time it occurs to me that "it's time to make the snowflakes." And every year I design some new snowflakes... and they usually have some kind of general theme. The first year there were lots of peace signs in hearts. The next year there were more hearts and "words." After that it was more traditional themes — like old school Martha Stewart motifs... and last year my thing was swirls. This year may be the year of the deer, at least that what seems to be on my file so far... yeah, I'm not done with this year's crop of new snowflake quite yet. Hey, it's only September.

What I did accomplish last week was designing and consolidating the backgrounds for the snowflake prints I offer for sale on etsy. At the present moment I have 42 different background color choices available (they can be found here). I know, I know, it sounds excessive, but I aim to please. Of course, I also have 66 different snowflakes to choose from. Technically, I suppose that makes 2772 possible different prints...
although I do have at least 2 new snowflakes finished...

Anyway, this is one of the new backgrounds I calibrated this week:

This is "Julia" on seafoam pizzazz
which can be found at "sarahknight" on etsy.

To be updated periodically: you blogged about me...

and I appreciate that.

Images are made to be seen. Yes, I’m sure there’s a conceptual artist out there who can work to prove otherwise; I illustrate to have people look at my images. So, thank you to everyone who has ever done me the enormous privilege of blogging about my work which can be viewed on etsy at sarahkdesigns or sarahknight.

Indie Crafts @ CRAFTGOSSIP
http://indiecrafts.craftgossip.com/2008/11/24/is-there-such-a-thing-as-a-cranberry-bog/

Monkey Musings & Such
http://coffeemonkeymusings.blogspot.com/2008/11/laundry-day.html

bloomize... a journal of blooming ideas
http://www.bloomize.com/teddy-bears-and-tulips

You’ve Got Maille
http://youvegotmaille.blogspot.com/2008/11/let-it-snow.html

Practically Perfect
http://chrisandjennytucker.blogspot.com/2008/10/serendipity-christmas-cards.html

Adam and Angie
http://adam-angie.blogspot.com/2008/08/etsy-roundup-of-week.html

GrayEyedScorpio
http://grayeyedscorpio.blogspot.com/2008/04/etsy-search-word-puce.html

ILLUSION IS THE FIRST OF ALL PLEASURES by Lindsey Rose
http://lindseyrose.wordpress.com/2008/02/28/february-slump/