Small Business Saturday

I’m really bad at keeping abreast of the lingo – days of the internet. 

But apparently today is Small Business Saturday.

So if you are looking for gifts for folks on your list. Or yourself (I don’t judge – treat yourself) may I turn your attention to these fine vendors that handle genuine Foolish Mortal products.

Support your small time vendors – and starving artists. Accept no substitutes.

Foolish Mortal Studios on etsy

sold directly out of my stock. Everything that comes out of the etsy has been handled and selected by me. If you want something signed this is the way to get it.

Redbubble 
Larger stock dating back years of work and designs on a wide variety of items – want a t-shirt? a coffee mug? Redbubble has it.  For this weekend use the code “CYBERDEALS” to get 25-60% off your order

Redbubble also houses the large backlog of Krampus Cards

Society6
Shirts – curtains – tote bags- fine home decor – Society6 has it for ya.

Inprnt
Just set this place up but if oyu want archival – giclee prints for the more distinguishing connoisseur Inprnt’s the place to go. The weekend all orders of $50 or mre gets free international shipping.

Holiday Gift Ideas for Artists

So I’ve got a pie in the oven – a turkey in the fridge – and a Krampus to put on my shelf. The holidays are fast approaching.

For many this  means its time to get started – or if you are really organized (like my sister) – wrap up your shopping list.  But if you are like me you have no idea where to start or what to get folks.

 Do you have an artist on your shopping list?

Someone you know well enough you should get them something but not well enough to let them loose in an art supply store and foot the bill? Not sure if they like pastels or paints? You don’t know if they are a cartoonist or illustrator, or even why there is a distinction? Or you just aren’t sure what they’d need or want?

In the interest of sparing my brethren another box of Roseart crayons or bad paint – I’ve surveyed a variety of artists – pro and hobbyist and this is what we came up with. We can’t promise these are the most exciting gifts but these are basic staples they’ll probably appreciate.

Scary Monsters (Super Freaks)

This article is from the vaults -I wrote it AFTER the show – and was past Halloween by the time it was even half way done. Also Halloween shall live on in our hearts – next to my Oingo Boingo albums and oddly growing Abe Sapien collection. So it’s monster season whenever I say it is.

For process and sketches from this years monster show – they are posted up on the Patreon along with colorsheets made from the line art from last year’s paintings. 

 

Well the temperature dropped finally, the owls outside my window are having hooting contests and my grocery store is overrun with mutated warty gourds. This can only mean one thing…

It’s time for Halloween – and the annual Monster Show

I’m too lazy to make fancy looking text  – so here’s a seasonal gif from Hausu.

Live Stream Tonight

Decided it’s time for a live stream  

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Not sure what I’m doing just yet – got a concept or two I might sketch – might also paint on dear old Sebastian here. What I can promise is music and probably live mic and swearing. Cause why the fuck not.

Drawing Dance and Motion Part 2

So previously on Lissa tried to write a tutorial- I covered basic exercises – and figure drawing techniques. Now we are going to try to elaborate them into something more usable.

Okay so lets go back to our collection of dance sketches.

July Patreon Update

For the Patreon this month I’m offering coloring sheets of my artwork. For people who desire or need to color fancy butterfly women in ballgowns or an angel smiting a demon.

For $2 subscribers you can get the printable pdfs of these. 

Down by the river- Where it’s warm and green

Okay so I said I was going to do Lupin the 3rd stuff next. That did not happen. (RIP Monkey Punch you will be missed.)

Instead a friend of mine got married, and wanted me to do some art for her wedding.

Since I was still arguing with picture concepts and ideas for the Lupin thing – and I love my friends dearly;  I agreed to  paint budgies and Vespas for a month. (She did not need to pay me to draw Vespas, but I’ll accept money.)

 

The basic art was stuff I’m sort of used to drawing for clip art, vespas, suit cases, assemble a map. The main bulk of the docket were portraits of her and her fiance’s budgies/parakeets that they’ve raised together. That is a bit out of my usual wheelhouse but I’ll try anything once.

 

In another attempt at trying something new – I decided to record me working on the last budgie and timelapse it up. I sure how I feel about this vid -or if I will try it again but here we go.

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Blood Saints

(I started this in January and took too long on it. But apparently the feast of St Agatha is this week so lets pretend I planned this. )

Okay – so the New Year has arrived – and is in fact – still here. I’m not one for New Year Resolutions – but I do tend to make the New Year an occasion for me to examine what I’m doing and how to improve it. With this in mind I should be working on social media and how to make my online presence a thing that exists. But I hate social media and am avoiding working on it so lets talk about Saint Iconography with a side note of women’s roles in history.

Warning – this will probably get a bit gory and rough. Because – history is rarely clean and pleasant. Also politics of now gets briefly mentioned. 

Nuclear Hellscapes and Travel Posters

Holidays crashed over me and the New Year started pretty rough.

A mix up at the pharmacy has left me with a bit of a brain chemistry issue I’m still dealing with. (For the record; double check labels and spelling on any medications you take.) It’s been a fun month or two.

But despite the weird mood swings, head aches and drowsiness I have actually gotten something done.

Sadly not sure of the

original artists of these

hell we are lucky to have scans in the first place

It might be somewhat obvious on here but I’m a bit of a history nerd.  I also love and collect vintage posters and post cards (well reprints anyway.)  A few years back during a cross country road trip I got introduced to the National Park posters from the Depression era Works Project Administration and fell in love with them.

The Works Project Administration was a program that was part of the New Deal to stimulate the economy and get unemployed folks working. In an attempt to get out of work artists producing and as a way to get art to the lower classes they started commissioning posters for various events and projects. Public Service posters, Health Reminders, local events, and in this case advertising the National Parks. For more information and examples the Library of Congress has more information and over 900 examples of said posters.

Me being a graphic design nerd and a bit of a gamer, I tried this style out for a location in Fallout New Vegas – because making travel posters for imaginary, inhospitable locales amuses me. I had a lot of fun making that poster and it surprisingly was a great eye catcher at my last convention so I decided to try to give it a revisit when I had the chance.

In Which I Ramble on about Ghosts and Ladies that Go Bump in the Night

So October is here, and gone.  I was intending to post this sooner but the month was a blur of comings, goings, deadlines and disasters.  Probably poor excuses, but it was a poor way to spend what is normally the happiest time of the year for me.

For the occasion of Halloween a local store decided to hold a monster themed art show and they were kind enough to let me join in the fun.

So I get in the show, no worries right? Well actually I realize that “Monster” is a pretty big heading. Are we talking classic movie monsters? Modern monsters? Urban legends? Zombies? The list goes on.

After a bit of mentally throwing darts at a board for ideas and coming up with nothing  a friend suggested I try to do something with “those Japanese ghosts like that one artist you obsess over.”