Blog

I can't believe it's been a week and a half since the "Photoshop CS4 Down & Dirty Tricks Tour" seminar I went to in NYC. So much great information.I've been to several of these seminars and have always come away better for having gone. I was never too sure of how to use layer masks and now I have a grip, albeit shaky, on it.

The Designing with Type section will probably be the most useful. I've designed many greeting cards in my Zazzle shop (http://www.zazzle.com/nightmareartist) and this will help me make them more interesting more quickly. This Handfasting invitation is an example. Altering the leading and kerning to fit the space is so easy once you know where to look and what to do. You can see the Handfasting card here:

http://www.zazzle.com/handfasting_join_us_invitation-161830297861993123?gl=Nightmareartist&rf=238302772713230042

Well, the Fat Boy Fossils shop on Zazzle.com is now live. It is a small shop at the moment, but that will change as I get more trilobites and ammonites photographed and scanned.

I play with the images in the computer and digitally alter them with cool backgrounds and colorful effects. So if you are a fossil lover or collector stop by and look around. Then let me know what you think. If you have any suggestions please let me know!

So Easter is over and the next holiday is Mother's Day. It falls on May 9th this year and it's coming up fast! I have Mother's Day cards available on my Zazzle.com shop. These cards are great because they are customizable. I know! You can add your own message anywhere on it. There is a wide selection of fonts in virtually any color. Add to the front, inside left, inside right or the back.

You can upload photos into the cards too. Who doesn't have a ton of photos to share these days? In fact, I've designed some "border cards" for just this purpose. These are cards with a pretty border that you can put the baby's latest picture in, show off a photo of the garden she taught you how to care for, or let her know what you spent the Christmas money on. Hey! This is your MOM and she wants to know!


This is a link to one of my Mother's Day cards. It features pink peonies in watercolor with the same image as the background inside.

Mother's Day Peony card by Nightmareartist
Browse all other greeting cards available at zazzle

I've been getting alot of queries by people who want commissions done in oil rather than the dyes and color pencils I usually do. I don't know what spurred that, but it would be a nice change. I haven't done an oil in a while and I do love working with them. The last one was an expanded scene from one of my Magic: the Gathering images; The Lord of Atlantis. It has three figures and a coral reef and city background. It was big too. Well, big for me. Two feet by three feet. My other oils were usually 22 x 28 inches.

Oil paintings are more expensive than the dye/color pencil pieces because they take longer to do and the materials are more expensive. They are also at least 16 x 20 inches. I'm too cramped any smaller.

Actually, I started doing oil paintings right out of college. I found that the time factor was a huge issue and, for me, in order to work quickly I needed to work smaller with great detail and for me, that meant pencils. I added the dyes to boost the color pencils for the super saturated colors that I prefer.

The piece here is titled The Threat and I have it here on the site available as a giclee.

Just found another web site to sell my originals on. ArtbyUs.com. Looks interesting. It's an auction site like ebay, but the fee structure is completely different. There are NO fees required unless you want special exposure or a bold type. We'll see. After all, do I really need another online site?

On to Zazzle.

I've been scanning my husband's trilobite collection, digitally altering the images and putting them on various items on Zazzle. I now have enough that I can open a new shop. So it's "Coming Soon!" as they say.