Artform The Heart: 2010

60% Off My Greetings Cards (drops to 40% off soon)

Zazzle.com are offering a massive 60% off greetings cards right now!!

Buy your greeting cards early! If you order now, then you will have four hours to get 60% off of Greeting Cards. Order one of everything to send unique and customized messages to your friends and family, or your coworkers!

As always, if you don't have time to shop or you get this message after the allotted time, then don't worry! After four hours has passed, Greeting Cards will be 40% off for the rest of the weekend, just don't forget!

Use code FFHSCARD2010 at the Checkout

* 60% of the greeting card net sale price will be deducted when one or more qualifying greeting card are purchased and the coupon code FFHSCARD2010 is applied at checkout. The net sale price is the price of the product (excluding shipping and taxes). Offer is valid from October 15, 2010 12:01pm PT through October 15, 2010 4:00pm PT. This offer does not apply to past purchases and may not be combined with any other Zazzle promotional or volume discount offers. If a volume discount applies to your order, you will receive either the discount set forth in this offer or the standard volume discount, whichever is greater. Offer valid on Zazzle.com only.

* 40% of the greeting card net sale price will be deducted when one or more qualifying bags are purchased and the coupon code FFHSCARD2010 is applied at checkout. The net sale price is the price of the product (excluding shipping and taxes). Offer is valid from October 15, 2010 4:00pm PT through October 17, 2010 11:59pm PT. This offer does not apply to past purchases and may not be combined with any other Zazzle promotional or volume discount offers. If a volume discount applies to your order, you will receive either the discount set forth in this offer or the standard volume discount, whichever is greater. Offer valid on Zazzle.com only.

Go to Zazzle now.

View all ArtformTheHeart cards.

Moving Blogs

As I just added to the header: word is that blogger are deleting blogs that have links to external sites with absolutely no notice so I'm moving the blog to: http://www.cmdesignstyle.com/blog/

My many blogs here will remain until they are deleted by blogger but they will likely become rather neglected from now on barring pre-scheduled posts.

Art Nouveau Reproduction Wall Hanging Poster

This is another piece that I did for Artform Nouveau. It's pretty much a reproduction of a Charles Rennie Mackintosh wall hanging from Miss Cranstoun's Tea Rooms and is available on a wide range of products.

Art Nouveau Reproduction Wall Hanging print

Art Nouveau Reproduction Wall Hanging
by ArtformNouveau
See all the prints and posters at zazzle

50% off any of my Posters for Labor Day Weekend at Zazzle.com

Zazzle are having a huge sale for the Labor Day Weekend, get in and grab some bargains while the promotion lasts!! You can grab up to 60% of selected lines, with 50% off posters!! View the ArtformTheHeart Gallery here.

USE PROMO CODE: LABORDAYSALE

60% of the apron net sale price, 50% of the poster net sale price, 30% of the shoe net sale price, 20% of the bag and embroidered bag net sale price, 20% of the hat and embroidered hat net sale price, 10% off the shirt and embroidered shirt net sale price, and 10% of the mug net sale price will be deducted when one or more qualifying products are purchased and the coupon code LABORDAYSALE is applied at checkout. The net sale price is the price of the product (excluding shipping and taxes). Offer does not apply to framed posters. Offer is valid from September 2, 2010 through September 6, 2010 at 11:59pm PT. This offer does not apply to past purchases and may not be combined with any other Zazzle promotional or volume discount offers. If a volume discount applies to your order, you will receive either the discount set forth in this offer or the standard volume discount, whichever is greater. Offer valid on Zazzle.com only.

Visit any of our recommended stores for great savings:

ArtformTheHeart
ArtformNouveau
Animatastic
TheStepmomProject
TeeWhiz
Made in the USA

A recent Pony design I can't use (yet)

Recently I have been spending so much time on marketing that I haven't really created very much at all. I did create a cute pink pony for the Animatastic range but when completed I realised it bore a striking resemblance to the 'My Little Pony' products. After all the work creating it I really didn't want to simply abandon it so I contacted Hasbro, the makers of 'My Little Pony' and am currently waiting and hoping to hear back from them on whether or not they would consider the design to be copyright infringement.

While it does look a lot like the MLP that I had as a child, it was genuinely a coincidence that it turned out that way. When I had that thought I immediately googled MLP to compare and can see a few little differences. Firstly, my design has a shaded muzzle - woohoo, big deal huh? lol. Then there is the shape of the legs; the MLP legs don't taper as a real animal's would, instead they get broader all the way down. Finally, the MLPs don't have hooves wheres my design does. Having said that, I am holding off on using the design for now. Hopefully Hasbro will respond soon.

Another 'Graphic Design' Project

Sometimes I like creating 'quickie' designs. Some people consider it to be selling out to design Wedding Stationery etc, but the fact is that it sells and it can be fun to create too. I don't kid myself that it shows any talent or even originality, but it is quick and fun to create when I don't have time to do 'real' art. This is from my latest range of Wedding products, with a faux embossed look and gift tag effect. Very quick and simple to do in Photoshop, the really time consuming part was resizing everything to fit the various product types and then making the products in zazzle.

Wedding Binder Faux Embossed Swirls in Ivory binder

Wedding Binder Faux Embossed Swirls in Ivory
by ArtformTheHeart
Make your own 3 ring binder on Zazzle

Wedding Binder Faux Embossed Swirls in Ivory
by ArtformTheHeart
See other Wedding Binders

View the full range here.

Art Nouveau Triptych Postcard

This postcard design is based upon a a sketch for a mirror frame (to be made in beaten metal) by Frances MacDonald of the 'Glasgow Four'. The original sketch features one woman with an all seeing eye and organic forms that would extend around the mirror glass. I found the all seeing eye rather distasteful and creepy and substituted what I'm choosing to call sun discs. I created the background using several transparent layers, some scratchout brushes and lighting effect. I then put the finished result on zazzle as a poster print, but decided that it would also work really well as a tryptych of sorts and so I flipped the original image, recoloured sectons of it and put the panels on a black background. I'm pretty pleased with the results, which is rather unusual for me, I normally seem to think that I could have done better.

Art Nouveau Triptych Postcard by ArtformNouveau

Update on featured designs

I have been meaning to do another post on the Art Nouveau work I have been doing, but have gotten so busy with other things that I haven't had a chance. Just thought I would quickly add this update in the meantime:

my Male Cardinal painting from a few posts ago has received the honour of being featured on the Awsome Zazzler's Gallery. It was a huge surprise to me as I went to the page to say 'thank you' for them featuring Parker the Pig from my Animatastic store, and there was my Cardinal too! And on the same day I discover that zazzle has selected my cheeky 'Menopause Chick' T-shirt for the Funny T-Shirts landing page - that makes two of my designs in the funnies!

I feel very honoured indeed to be featured on these pages amongst some incredibly talented artists and designers.

How Unoriginal!!

I have been doing some reproduction and 'inspired by' pieces to add to the Artform Nouveau collection. Some of these have been what I'd term artwork, whilst others like this one are more graphic design. It's based on a fabric design by Charles Rennie Mackintosh and whilst it seems very retro nowadays, it must have been very modern and ahead of it's time when he first created it. Personally, I think it's rather 1960's Flower Power and not so 19th Century Art Nouveau! Because of that I kept it in the ArtformTheHeart collection instead of adding it to the new one.

I worked in Photoshop for this one and did four simple, stylised flower outlines in separate layers then copied and pasted each layer until I had filled the design area. I then went back and did a layer below the outlines to add the colours and then finally added the 'dotted' lines and text. Being that it was done in photoshop, and on numerous different layers, once I'd completed it I went back and changed the hue/saturation on some of the layers so that I ended up with two versions.

Tobacco Flower Print Tote Bag by ArtformTheHeart
Design a personalized bag on zazzle

Faces

This piece was originally titled 'Race Relations' but I thought I should change that when I put it on zazzle, just in case anyone took offense to it. I painted it several years ago and my mother loved it so much that I immediately gave it to her. I sold a print of it the other day and am really pleased with that, but rather worried about how it'll print up and whether or not the customer will be happy with it. I think that the canvas texture shows through a little too much for a poster, but I'll wait and see what happens; nothing ventured, nothing gained.

The concept for the piece is fairly obvious: one face, many races. A personal comment on the similarities and differences between us all. I think it's an idea I'd like to revisit as it has so many possibilities, and next time I'll bear in mind that it may be used for prints.

Faces by ArtformTheHeart
More Potrait Posters

'Fan' Art for JWS

I've been so busy with zazzle recently, trying to create products, organise and promote, that I haven't had much time for doing the type of artwork I love to do. Nor have I had time to photograph any of my back-catalogue that isn't already on my laptop. So, I decided that for now I would post this piece of 'fan art' that I did a while back. It was a gift for one of my fiance's children, I had done some pokemon drawings for two of the boys already and spent time helping them to draw their own. But the third boy had been in hospital out of state during my visit and I didn't get to spend any time with him. When I was coming home, I bought a pack of naruto trading cards as that's another of their favourite shows/passtimes. I went through the pack of cards and decided on this one; The Magician of Black Chaos. Because it was for one of the boys, and one getting over a major operation at that, I wanted to make the piece special, a replica of the trading card but on a much larger scale. I used acrylics and bought some metallic shades specifically to use on this project. It's not the best photo, but I don't have access to the painting anymore so it will have to do. And it goes without saying that is is PURELY 'fan art' and not anything I'm using commercially.

Male Cardinal

Digital watercolour of a male cardinal resting on a Cherry blossom tree.

Cardinal on Cherry Blossom

My First Award: Black-Winged Damselfly

I got my first ever TBA (Today's Best Award) on zazzle for this damsefly mouse pad. I had all but given up hope of ever getting a TBA so it took me by surprise.

Black Winged Damselfly Print by ArtformTheHeart

Fighting Fish

I've had this post saved as a draft for weeks but hadn't gotten around to writing my blurb. That's the thing, I love creating artwork and looking at other people's artwork, but when it comes to talking about it I'm at a loss. But, I'll do my best, so here goes. I first came across the siammese fighting fish (betta splendens) because my fiance had one. I'm really not a fish person but I thought that the black/irridescent fish he had was really pretty. After that, every time we went to walmart on that visit, I would go look at the 'pretty fishies', lol. When I came back to the UK I sat down and painted a brightly coloured fighting fish in acrylics, on a set of 4 canvas boards. I didn't really think about the practicality of the piece before painting it, because the 4 pieces have to fit together to form the picture, framing them would detract from the effect. So, the boards sat around my house and eventually two of them warped because (were placed too close to my central heating radiator). Oh well. But after I purchased a graphics tablet for my laptop and began working with Artweaver software, I decided to give this little fishy another try. I don't like the digital version as much as I did the original, it was one of the first project I attempted in Artweaver and for the life of me I couldn't get the intensity of color without making the image look amateurish.

The original painting.

Fighting Fish - Betta Splendens mousepad

The Artweaver version
Fighting Fish - Betta Splendens

Pastel Study, Nude

This is another of my figure studies, partially nude, yet again it is very modest. It took me a long time to get around to doing any work in soft pastels, whilst they are a wonderful medium to create with I often find that somewhere along the line I manage to smudge the piece before it is completed. I've tried several different fixatives, including some high-end ones and have never managed to get it quite right. Either the fixative diminishes the colour intensity of the pastels, or on the odd (and very frustrating occassion) has propelled a blob of 'goo' onto the paper spoiling the whole project. I'm usually very careful with the fixative and make sure the nozzle is clean before starting, shake the can until it feels as though my arm is going to fall off, but sometimes, even then, these things happen.

With this piece, in contrast to some of the other nude studies I have done, I wanted a soft, almost romantic feel and so pastels seemed the obvious choice. Although I didn't realise it at the time of drawing this picture, I find that I really like how the shoulder blades give the impression of being light and dark wings - if you use your imagination, lol.

Pastel Study Nude by ArtformTheHeart

Some fellow artists whom I admire.

I wanted to take a break from posting only my own work, it gets very difficult to keep on saying positive things about myself and my art (the perfectionist in me always wants to criticise!), so I decided that today I would feature some work from other wonderful artists that I have come across.

Remus Brailoiu is a young artist based in Romania. His gallery on zazzle features surreal and abstract work which I find very appealing. I love this piece "Drunk Street Lamps" as I find it very evocative. It is reminiscent of Salvador Dali's work yet to me, far more whimsical as it seems to leave more up to the viewer's own imagination. I feel that I could write a short story based solely on inspiration from this painting.

Drunk Street Lamps by RemusCB
Shop for art on zazzle.com

Ruth Housley is an American artist living in Texas. She works in oils and has a number of amazingly beautiful wildlife and still life paintings on her blog. This Piece, Geese Flying North, is soft and tranquil. I find myself drawn into this painting, imagine myself walking through the snow, enjoying all that nature has to offer on a bright and crisp winter's day. You can view Ruth's blog or contact her by email: rjrhousley@verizon.net to purchase her artwork.

Geese Flying North by Ruth Housely

Nude in Blue

This is an acrylic on canvas study. I love doing tonal pieces, usually in pencil sketches/charcoal/pastels but on this occassion I chose acrlyics as the medium as I wanted something bold. I'm fascinated by the way the human body can contort itself, the shapes it forms and the shadows is casts. For that reason I do a fair number of "nude" studies. I use the quotes around the word nude because most of my pieces are very modest even when the subject is completely unclothed.

Black Canvas Blue by ArtformTheHeart

Another Gerbera Daisy.....and something a little different.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I've really come to love the cheerful gerbera daisy (how wonderful would it be to have a garden full of these pretty blooms?). I had taken some photographs of some last year and went back to those as a reference for this bright cerise pink painting. I reverted to adding lots of detail to this piece, ah well, lol.

Bright Pink Gerbera by ArtformTheHeart

After that I went on to do something quick and goofy, just for a change of pace, and came up with a goofy little caveman. I thought he'd make a funny t-shirt design, so here he is:

Gone Clubbing by ArtformTheHeart

'Loose' Floral Design

After the Pink Gerbera Daisy painting, I was detrmined to do a very loose painting and not become obsessed with details. Without having anything infront of me for reference, I began painting some lilies in artweaver. I didn't use the zoom function, kept a large brush size and sat well back from the computer screen. I also limited myself to half an hour to complete the picture start to finish. This is the result. I'm not sure that it will ever become a favourite piece, but it was a very good exercise that I plan to repeat with real paint and canvas.

floral by ArtformTheHeart

Pale Pink Gerbera

This beautiful pink gerbera daisy was part of a bouquet of flowers my sister gave me for my birthday at the weekend. I've decided that I really love gerberas and the colour of this one in particular is gorgeous so I couldn't resist sitting down with artweaver and doing a digital painting. I downloaded some free watercolour brushes for artweaver from DeviantArt and use them a lot. 99% of this painting was done in artweaver (a free software btw for those who are interested) but I finished it off in photoshop as I still find a few things easier to do in the adobe software. I'm really happy with the results but again, I had intended this to be painted quite loosely and instead ended up adding more and more detail.

Pale Gerbera Canvas by ArtformTheHeart

Flower & Butterfly

This is my second 'painting' in Artweaver using the graphics tablet and pen. I was getting along really well with it and was several hours into the project when Artweaver crashed and I realised that very stupidly I hadn't saved it in a LONG time. I had put so much detail into the centre part of the flower and lost all of that work so I learnt a valuable lesson - save your work often! I have also learnt to save my work as a photoshop file with all layers at various stages incase I merge layers and later down the line change my mind on something I have done. Keeping all of my layers came in handy when doing my cartoon character Starsign designs previously as it meant I could use the same character over and over - I event used it to make some funny Bride and Groom designs. It certainly made me think that digital artwork is a big benefit when designing for POD but I will never fully give up on traditional media.

Flower & Butterfly by ArtformTheHeart

Windows

Pen and ink isn't my favourite medium and this was really a practice exercise for me. It was taken from a photograph that I found online and particularly liked; I also thought that it was a fairly simple and straightforward project to work on. I was pretty pleased with the result here but less so with with my next attempt, which I won't post here, lol.

I don't currently have this piece on any products as I'm not happy with the photo quality.

Dot-Art Iris

I had done a painting very similar to this a long time ago in acrylics - a real labour of love creating all of the individual dots and I resorted to using a cocktail stick rather than a paintbrush. Unfortunately I was rather careless with the painting once it was completed and it got spoiled. This time I decided to try it in photoshop where I had complete control over the dot size. I'm fairly happy with the result but don't think that it is quite as good as my original. Ah well, such is life.

iris rose dot-art by ArtformTheHeart

I love you THIS much

I managed to get back to my little wooden artist's mannequin briefly for another humorous (in my humble opinion anyway) photograph. The large felt lovehearts came as part of a valentines bouquet of roses - along with a beautiful card and some very yummy Guernsey fudge! Sadly, the felt hearts are all that remain but I wanted to do something with them as a memento instead of just leaving them lying somewhere gathering dust. I should think of a name for this little mannequin if I am going to keep featuring it, lol.

I love you this much by ArtformTheHeart

Art Nouveau Roses

I've always been a fan of art nouveau, especially the work of Charles Rennie MacIntosh and his wife Margaret McDonald. I created a range of MacIntosh inspired designs specifically for products on zazzle, this is one of them.

Art Nouveau Roses by ArtformTheHeart

Gerbera Daisy

I bought a graphics tablet to use for my digital art projects and began playing around in the free software that came with it; trying out brushes and doodling. After about half an hour of getting used to the pen I began 'painting' this daisy that was in a bouqet I had. After a few hours working on it, this is the end result.

Yellow Daisy by ArtformTheHeart

Droplets Suspended

After a light rain one morning I went outside with my camera looking for something inspiring in the garden beyond the usual flower and foliage shots. I noticed these rain droplets suspended above the stones on the finest of spider's webs, so fine they were almost invisible even close up. I took this shot and converted it to black and white for maximum effect. I love how it appears that the droplets are suspended in mid-air.

Droplets Suspended by ArtformTheHeart

Pop Art

I started out with just one of these watercolor paintings for my own amusement, and enjoyed the subject so much that I created another two. The fourth image in the set is a digital manipulation of one of the original paintings. It's available as a poster and two versions as t-shirts.

Original Pop Art Print by ArtformTheHeart

Dark Woods

This is a simple pastels drawing of dark and eerie woods in moonlight. This was one of those rare occassions when I had nothing in mind when I begans puting the marks onto the paper, I just went with what began to appear and developed it. It's available as posters, mousepads and t-shirts at present.

Dark Woods by ArtformTheHeart

That Friday Feeling!!!!

Slightly stuck for inspiration one rainy afternoon I decided to play around with my camera and one of my wooden artists mannequins, this was the result. I have plans to do more pieces like this but haven't managed to find the time so far.

That Friday feeling !!!! by ArtformTheHeart

Seated

This is an acrylic on canvas piece, part of a set of three. Taking a break from finely detailed work, I decided to something modern and abstract. I was reasonably happy with the results but being a perfectionist I will never be 100% satisfied with anything that I do.

seated by ArtformTheHeart

I wanted to update this post with the new version of this set that I added to zazzle recently:

"Seated" Poster by ArtformTheHeart
See other Paint Posters

White Tiger Cub

This began life as a preliminary sketch for a comissioned piece in color pastels featuring two tiger cubs however I liked this one so much in black and white that I went ahead and completed it in charcoal.

White Tiger Cub in Charcoal by ArtformTheHeart

le Chat

This was one of my early digital art designs. Vector swirls in shades of pink manipulated to form the shape of a cat. Depicted here as a simple greetings card.

Cat by ArtformTheHeart

Sagittarius

I created a series of characters depicting the signs of the zodiac. Some, like this one, are children whilst others are animals. It was my first foray into using digital media for my designs and my previous experience had extended only to touching up the odd photograph. I deliberately kept the designs simple and childlike simply because I thought it looked rather cute. This is Sagittarius depicted on a ladies T-shirt.