ACEO Blue Butterfly is very iridescent, I used Luminescent watercolors on both the butterfly and the two flowers. It took reworking the flowers to decide on their final color, but I like the violet better than the greenish blue they were to start and was able to model the petals better with the violet shading.

Then I did an abstract doodle off a card that Eric started a sketch on and abandoned while he was doing his Junior Swap card:




ACEO Geometric Abstract started out with his loose pencil sketch of the big vee at the bottom that I turned into two shapes, the verticals that made up the hexagon-topped spike, and the tall cube at the far left. I went over his lines with black ballpoint and then started adding more shapes and details till I had a good design, then went in with luminescent watercolors to color it. The entire card is shimmering with the iridescence of these new watercolors. I'm having fun with them, using them in most of my newer paintings because they're so cool. I think I'll need to do something with a grackle sometime with these since I can probably get the grackle-neck iridescence just right with them.

I'm still wrestling the backstory of Novel Next and wondering why I'm getting the willies about starting it. Tonight it occurred to me -- this one might not be mine, it could be Guy Krieg's. And I need the backstory of that main character in place before writing the first scene. I'm getting close though, I figured out tonight that his girlfriend dumped him after his dad murdered his mom, she freaked out over dating the son of a murderer and was trying to stay cool about it until the next time they argued, he said something angry and she snapped. One of those vague threats people make in arguments like "You're going to regret that" which carries all new weight if she believes that he has killer genes.

I'm putting together his frame of mind for the opening scene, and I think it's going to open up a lot of supernatural dark things as well as the unexpected ally he gains. It's not just about the cats who heal. Though it does tie in well with the Cat Magic books and they are there in it, it's not from their point of view.

It's weird, but doing these watercolors is starting to help chip away at the writing block. Go fig.

Complimentary Art And Things, it's an arts and crafts group that roams between Etsy.com and eBay, and I joined a while ago. We have a social network on ning, and I just found the link to this cool little badge so I'm happily posting it here. The move into a new space on the host where it's easier to find CAAT group was a little crazy for about 24 hours but people are coming in every minute and most of them are folks I know from eBay or Etsy.


View my page on CaaT Complementary Art and Things


So there's my member badge, I thought I'd come post it here at LJ and let artists and crafters among my friends know about this excellent group. Or here, why not post the big one too with all these icons? You can see who else is there.


Visit CaaT Complementary Art and Things


Wide variety of cool stuff. nicosian, you might be interested, your chainmaille designs might get a lot of notice! It's a mix of artists, crafters, jewelers, basically people who make creative things and sell them online.

I'm also definite about starting up my new site next month. This is going to seriously rock.


Here is my daily doodle for today -- ACEO Red Doodle is posted at auction for my usual 99 cent Doodle price, another little bargain, bright and colorful and spontaneous. Another abstract, go fig. Maybe the ACEO YBAC got under my skin with that first Call to Art!

ACEO YBAC Abstract Spiral



ACEO YBAC Abstract Polar Ice




ACEO YBAC Abstract Storm




ACEO YBAC Abstract Knotwork

Of course all of these included the listing for:



ACEO YBAC Abstract Kitten Caboodle which is now up on auction, all of them are on the links, for $4.99 minimum bid because that's the flat start price for contest entries. I've got bids on Kitten Caboodle, Storm and Knotwork already, with an extra bid on Kitten Caboodle already. The winner gets decided by most bids on a single piece. If any of them has a shot at winning, it's probably Escheroid Kitten Caboodle. I had fun doing that one. I had fun with all of these actually, since I don't usually work wet into wet with watercolor.

But this batch, I did not let them dry and go in later to detail with a pen or with more layers of paint. If I do this again I probably will do some crisping up and some details.

This one isn't listed on eBay yet because it's for a contest dated tomorrow -- the ACEO YBAC -- ACEO Year's Best Call to Art. Each month one of the categories for the annual Year's Best ACEO awards will become a theme for the Call to Art. Cofounder wendyswhimseys sent me an email with the JPG award for the first one, and I decided to try to do a good Abstract or two for it -- I can do as many entries as I have time to do and post by tomorrow. Since stylized figures are okay in abstracts, I went for Escher cats in a sleep heap... and it worked, it so worked! I'm proud of this one and had to post it TODAY somewhere.

Feel free to print it out and color the line art if you want to play with it, this one is also a coloring page for my friends.