ellenmillion | Entries tagged with aceos

Well, January was certainly a lot of month. But one good thing that came out of it was #JanuRaven! I did 31 tiny bird art cards, and now I'm giving them away!

Here's the final project page: https://ellenmillion.com/januraven2022.php

I'm really happy with how these turned out - I experimented with different media and styles, and it was a really fun, low-pressure project that helped me get through a long, dark month. Prints, magnets, and bookmarks are available of all designs except #9, which was done on sparkly silver scratchboard and there's just no way to reproduce that. Shipping (including international) is free.

I am giving all of the originals away, because I wanted to spread a little joy during a time that has been really weird and tough. (Patrons got first dibs, because they were the ones who made sure I could do this!) No strings, no requirement to share (though you may), no pressure. Please note that winners are selected by random draw, but I might pick and choose who gets which one based on your favorites.

Here's the giveaway: https://forms.gle/DanwBMWYbJUJjsFKA (ends Feb 8!)

(oo, I should make a JanuRaven icon...)

I'm doing #Junicorn again this year! See all the juicy details here: https://www.ellenmillion.com/junicorn2021.php

These are the ones I've finished so far! (Well, I've actually finished two more, but I haven't scanned them yet...) Red exes indicate claimed originals, question marks are on hold for prompters but may be available in the future!

Crossposts: https://ellenmillion.livejournal.com/1860572.html

Collectible mini-prints! These 2.5 x 3.5 inch prints are archival quality on heavy, acid-free paper, and this is the only time some of these will be available...

Support your favorite artists and Sketch Fest!

Crossposts: https://ellenmillion.livejournal.com/1779981.html

Junicorn is one of my very favorite parts of summer. For the past two years, I have joined this challenge to produce 30 pieces of unicorn art, and like the last few years, I am making my focus colored pencil pieces on tinted paperstock.

Original cards, prints, bookmarks, and magnets are available!
Any single original is $15, 2 for $20, 3 for $25, or 4 for $30.
Signed prints are $5 each, 8 for $20, or 30 for $40.
Get #junicorns of your choice as magnets. $5 each or 5/$15.
Shipping is included (Even International!)

You can mix-and-match from prior years designs as well:

2017: https://ellenmillion.dreamwidth.org/1604777.html
2016: https://ellenmillion.dreamwidth.org/1538566.html

You can wait for the end of the month to make choices - but claims are first come first served, so if there's an original you have your eye on, comment, email, or message me (on any platform) to snag it.

Claimed originals: 09, 14, 18, 21, 22, 23, 26, 27

You are welcome to make prompt suggestions in the comments, ask questions, or claim originals!

Crossposts: https://ellenmillion.livejournal.com/1643581.html

I won't say that I'm 'all better,' but I am crawling back to some new normal. I haven't responded to all the sweet comments and messages yet, but I will when I feel able to go through them.

Yesterday was all self-care and shopping, because we were out of everything. Crying for a few days in a row is unflattering, and even now that my eyes aren't blazing red, they are very puffy and I look like a poster-child for Botox gone terribly wrong. Thankfully, my glasses minimize the effect.

Guppy and I did some art yesterday:

Serious artist is serious.

She asked me to draw a camel, pretty much out of the blue. I thought I finished it, but then she handed me a pink pencil. "It needs a tongue."

(Original available, if anyone is need of an ACEO of a camel...)

Fun fact, a lot of the physiology of the snow-unicorn is based on a camel, though structurally they are more horse/mammoth/goat.

Today I'm going to go to the Farmer's Market for lunch, and the afternoon will be spent doing something fun with Guppy, tbd.

Now I'm going to catch up on Torn World and send Sketch Fest payouts.

Crossposts: http://ellenmillion.livejournal.com/1629084.html

Still taking it easy. When I think too hard about my back right now, I get really, really crabby, so I'm trying not to dwell.

This week is Muse Fusion at Torn World! I am taking prompts and doing artwork and writing flash fiction. I've painted an ACEO so far, and am about 500 words into a story. Jump on in! You can use your Sketch Fest/PA/Lilypad login at the Torn World site now. :) https://www.tornworld.net/musefusion.php

Muse Fusion Work:

Finished:

From Afke's prompt "Hidden between the leaves". ACEO, acrylic ink and pens. Original claimed.
I used this as my August artsnacks challenge, too.

From Jenny's prompt "Skycat glides off with yarn end". Sketch ACEO. $5 as-is.
From Julie's prompt "Steampunk Skycat". ACEO, ink, watercolor pencil, gell pen, metallic pen. Original $15 or 15 credits.

From Deborah's prompt "Calico Skykitten!" ACEO, pencil and brush pen on Legion Kraft paper. Original $15 or 15 credits.

From Deirdre's prompt "A plant Skycat (or a skycat) loves". Original, $10 or 10 credits.

In Progress:
The Beginning of the End, fiction, from Deirdre's prompt: "A mysterious medical problem"
The Empire explorers in Itrelir are looking over the snow-unicorn riders' archives and investigating their genealogy.
Excerpt: “Biology isn’t my strong point,” Diren admitted, looking over Margaa’s tidy notes. “But that doesn’t look good.”
So far, 1200 words, probably end up about 2000. Sponsor for $15 or 15 credits.

From my Prompts: Deirdre has started an acrylic painting!

I'll update this post as I add more - the Muse Fusion runs through Sunday afternoon. :)

Crossposts: http://ellenmillion.livejournal.com/1627246.html

Here are the last four cards!

But waaaaiiiiittttt, you're saying. Wasn't #junicorn supposed to have 30 pieces of artwork? Like last year, one of my #junicorns this year is a little different. I will be officially releasing it tomorrow! (Patreon patrons got a sneak preview!)

See all of them together here: https://ellenmillion.dreamwidth.org/1604777.html

Crossposts: http://ellenmillion.livejournal.com/1623619.html

I've been slogging at the writing, about 2k over the last few days, but it's hard stuff, filling in gaps and working on scenes I skipped for a reason. Some writing is like uncapping a firehose. This is more like trying to get those last few iotas of toothpaste out of a tube. But I've soldiered on, and the not-a-book is up to 27,700 words. Unfortunately, my stupid muse is telling me all these awesome ideas for book 8 or 10 (this is book 3). NO BRAIN, STOP.

I have WON #JUNICORN! 30 pieces, finished yesterday. I haven't, however, gotten to scan them all yet, so I'll share this one, now up at Torn World:

This is one of last year's #junicorns, but I wasn't happy with it, so early this month I went back and revised it extensively.

Have been suffering more than usual back pain this week, because I am an idiot. Today is better, but I'm being super diligent about taking breaks and stretching, and I'm going to go do that before my next writing window. Just two more days of summer camp!

Crossposts: http://ellenmillion.livejournal.com/1623081.html

I've gymed every morning this week, and it feels great! Day 2 was not quite as productive as Day 1, but I still got 1800 words written and a bunch of admin-type things, and I felt refreshed when I picked reluctant monster up from camp. (She tried to run away instead of getting ready to go, because she wanted to staaaaayyyyyyy!) Day 3 saw about 1300 words, but I also finished inking two more pieces for a project I've slipped to my Patreon patrons, and then squeezed in 2 junicorns when I realized I'd written and deleted the same paragraph twice and my brain was just not wrapping around story anymore.

These are three junicorns from the weekend:

The greenman unicorn was an experiment on birchbark, which was only semi-successful - the bark flaked as I worked, and is still really fragile. A sneeze would peel off the colored part. I will have to apply some fixative to it, now that it's sunnier.

The garden is exploding. The potatoes are just peeking up, but the lettuce baskets are gorgeously frilly and full, and the delphiniums are eager to take over the world. I planted some garlic cloves I had that had sprouted, and they merrily shot up several inches over the last few days.

The voles seems to have given way... to ants. It appears that they have moved into the rocks around my garden, and while they don't appear to be damaging anything, I have had to squish more ants in my house recently than I am happy to.

Speaking of happy, Guppy yesterday came cheerfully to the door while we were outside working on the woodshed. "I have a terrible emergency!"

Then she hands me a warm, stinky pair of underwear and flees back into the house. "I have to finish pooping."

Yes, my daughter had handed me a pair of poopy underwear. BECAUSE PARENTING IS AWESOME.

We're going to go have ice cream sandwiches on the porch now and I'm going to just pretend that never happened.

Crossposts: http://ellenmillion.livejournal.com/1621454.html

The morning was cloudy and gray, but it turned out very hot (in the 80s, so you hot-climate people can mock me!). We met some kids-of-relatives-of-friends who were visiting at Alaskaland, and were very happy to get cheap ice cream at UAF shortly afterwards. There wasn't a lot of the kids actually playing together (Guppy was a little older than one and much older than the other), but Guppy still declared that "This day is fun!"

Quiet time was brief, and I spent some of it napping myself (because playing at the park is hard work). Then Guppy 'helped me' finish #junicorn 7:

I've kind of gotten stuck in a gray and white rut with my snow-unicorns, as that is their most common color scheme, but they actually do come in other colors, too. About time I showed that.

No writing today, but I did get some last night, and I tore the outline apart and repaired it, because it rarely survives the first 10k completely intact. In the meantime, I had completely changed the bad guy, and I wanted the resolution of one of the complications to be a little neater. I'm closing in on 17k, and feel like there's a nice little story here. Yay. I may get a little more writing time tonight to make up for the fact that I gutted out nearly 500 words yesterday.

(And next week is summer camp! I am hopeful for several hours of dedicated writing time every day, and can't wait to see what I do with it!)

Tomorrow I get to go see Wonder Woman and I'm SO EXCITED.

Crossposts: http://ellenmillion.livejournal.com/1620763.html

It was a very early morning, but I was able to get this done during errands that involved waiting. The Junicorn landing page is here: https://ellenmillion.dreamwidth.org/1604777.html

I got my 500 goal today, but none yesterday, so I'm still at a deficit for the month. I did also go through and polish up a few bits and catch some changes I made to my heroine, though. This not-a-book is up past 15k, and feeling like a real story. I don't think I'm close to halfway yet - this will probably be a 45k thing, which is the longest yet. I have two weeks of summer camp coming up, and am hoping to get a BIG CHUNK of it written those two weeks. Trying to work around a needy small monster who doesn't regularly nap anymore has proved challenging with no daycare/preschool/respite.

This weekend, we're planning to tackle the woodshed. And finally see Guardians of the Galaxy 2.

Crossposts: http://ellenmillion.livejournal.com/1619931.html

Monday afternoon, Guppy didn't particularly want to eat, or get out of bed after her nap, and she started running a fever. This ended with a spectacular, ah... mess... on the dinner table (and a shower), after which she bounced back considerably. However, she ran a fever most of Tuesday, and is still not eating particularly well, though the fever is finally gone. She slept in quite late and we're taking it easy.

Yesterday, despite a child who mostly wanted to be in my lap, I got ALL of the Kickstarter PDF rewards filled. (I think we watched two seasons of Magic Schoolbus.) I love checking off the 'rewards sent' boxes.

Today, I did laundry and cleaned, made granola, and picked up an entire carload of coloring books - which is still only about half of my order! Wheee! I have just gotten Guppy down for her nap, and hope to start getting packages out. MORE CHECKBOX ENDORPHINS!

I have sold out more than half of my #junicorns!

These are the ones remaining:

($15 each, 2/$20, 3/$25, and 4/$30, prints are $5.)

So much to do, and ALL of it fun, inspiring, and amazing. I am in a tailspin of indecision of what to tackle first!

Among my things to do:

*Pick up coloring books (if I get the email telling me that they are done, as I'm expecting!)
*Reply to an amazing art offer (SO EXCITING)
*get a new dog run tether
*send payments
*Last #junicorn piece. (Though I do plan to go back and replace a few of the first few that weren't as good as the later ones got... I leveled up!!)
*Pick up copyedits on my not-a-book. They don't look too hard! Formatting stuff, mostly, and a handful of typos. Easy peasy! And formatting was far less painful the second time through.
*Work on sketch for another amazing art opportunity.
*Work on another sketch.
*Work on that OTHER sketch.
*Start thinking about a kickass 5 minute presentation strategy
*schedule next Sketchfest
*PDF Kickstarter fulfillment.

I've been kicking butt on #junicorn:

There's an ACEO of Bran Stark snuck in there, too, from Sketchfest this weekend.

Of these, the following are available: 28, 22, 5, 19, 7 and 8. $15 for a single, 2/$20, 3/$25, 4/$30. Several of the previous batches are still unclaimed, too.

I jammed ahead on #junicorn this weekend, mostly during gaming.

Here are 10-19:

All except 12 are available for purchase! They cost between $15/1 and $30/4. You can also get all 30 prints for $50, or pick any single print for $5.

I made bread this morning for the first time in a long while. It's actually destined to become pizza, but the recipe is the same.

I also FINISHED MY BOOK. Again. The hole I needed to fill has been all stitched together again, and I will need to do a readthrough/polish, then send it out for final copyedits. Final wordcount, a little over 32300.

I also just realized I hadn't done my May wrap-up. Oops.

I HAD planned to go to the grocery store today, and drop off a pile of boxes and envelopes at the post office. However, a phone call shortly after Jake left for work informed me that my car would not be happy going up the driveway, so I've hunkered down for the day. We played in the basement breaking down some boxes into shipping stiffener for coloring books and packing up orders, and then made fresh granola - this time without raisins or dried cranberries. She just picks them out to eat separately anyway! Then there was some playing outside in the melting snow. Some children have sandboxes. We have snowbanks!

Most of the grubby look to the snow is birch seeds. I don't think I've ever seen as many as we got this winter. I vacuumed twice yesterday because they are EVERYWHERE.

I also worked on the trench at the bottom of the driveway. It's been a good thaw so far, with controlled runoff and sort of a settling out of all the ice pack, but we'll see how things go. Crossing fingers we don't get heavy rains before the ground thaws again. That got ugly last spring.

Now I'm going to be doing some scanning, some painting, and then some writing. I've gotten some loose ends tied up on freelance things, cleaned up a few emails, and am ready to be creative.

I will probably have some painting energy and daubs left at the end of my session today - if you leave a prompt in the comments, I will paint you an abstract! They will be ACEOs on canvas, $5 apiece. (No obligation to buy, of course, but you'll get first dibs.) If I don't get to your prompt today, I will do so next week, and I'm capping at 20 in case something crazy happens.

One of the fun things I made myself was blank ACEO cardstock for artists. (ACEO stands for art card edition or original, and indicates artwork that is exactly 2.5 x 3.5 inches. Highly collectible, and great for media experimentation and quick sketching.)

I bought a stack cutter and a heavy-grade die punch that cut 2.5 x 3.5, with lovely radiused corners, stocked up on various art papers, and provided oddball kinds of specialty paper that were perfectly cut for art cards. It's a little time-consuming to do the punching, but the radiused corners are really cool looking. I also can do hard corners on my stack-cutter, which is WAY easier, but not quite as awesome. I kept this equipment, and I have some of this stock left! If there is enough interest, I may keep two or three kinds of paper in stock and start offering them generally for sale again. The rest of this stuff I consider leftover, so it's gotta go, too!

Japanese Sketch Paper: http://www.dickblick.com/products/yasutomo-japanese-sketch-paper-pads/
This was a 9x12 pack, but the end has been chopped off, so it's now 9x8. You can have what's left, uncut, for $4. I will chop it into ACEOs (~288) for $10. Punchcut will be $35. (1 available)

Stonehenge drawing paper. http://www.dickblick.com/products/stonehenge-drawing-paper-pads/
Uncut 9x12 pad with 1 or 2 sheets missing off the back: $5. Cut into ACEOs (~90 cards): $12. Punchcut for $35. (1 available)

Japanese Rice Paper: http://www.dickblick.com/products/yasutomo-japanese-rice-paper-sheets/
Unopened pack of 100 sheets, 9.5 x 13 inches. Uncut, $4 - but it's large, so will require a minimum of medium flat rate box. Cut into ACEOs (~900 cards): $15. Punchcut for $35. gone!

Strathmore Bristol, 300 series. I have smooth and vellum! 150 cards for $15 cut, $35 punched. I will probably not carry this again, because Strathmore wised up and started offering this size themselves.

Fredrix fine grain gessoed canvas. 50 cards for $12 cut, $30 punched. (I only have three available!)

Arches Hotpress, 140. 50 cards for $15 cut, $30 punched.

Arches Coldpress 140. 50 cards for $15 cut, $30 punched.

Arches Coldpress 300. 45 cards for $20 cut, $40 punched (this is a one-card-at-a-time process, and hard on the wrists!) (only 2 available)

Mi-Tientes colored paper, the assorted colors collection. 100 cards, $10 cut, $35 punched. (I only have 4 available)

Scratchboard: white, gold or silver: 50 cards, $5 cut. $25 punched.

Crazy miscellaneous pack: 100 cards, $10 cut, $35 punched.

And... I haven't done a drawing for a while, so anyone who comments here (OR at the Facebook mirror) is entered to win 50 miscellaneous cut blank ACEOs. No purchase necessary.

Master page of all specials and deals is here! Bundles still available! http://ellenmillion.livejournal.com/1403112.html

Painted yesterday. People may or may not have tried to talk to me while I was doing so, and I think I may have changed a few diapers. Did not end up with too much paint on the baby. This is what I made:

I took scissors to some older artwork today.

Literally... and carefully.

These are pieces of artwork that I sort of liked bits of, but that didn't work as a whole for me at all.

And, because I need decent watercolor brushes in a major way (all mine are cheap AND well-used, and contribute greatly to my general frustration with color), I'm trying a fundraising experiment!

(Click them to see larger versions)

I'm asking $20 each for Phoenix 2, Messenger 1 and Messenger 2.
$15 for Phoenix 1, Faerywoods 1, Atlantis 1, Faerywoods 3, Window 2.
$10 each for Messenger 3, Window 1 (CLEAVAGE!), Atlantis 2 and Atlantis 3.
$5 each for Messenger 7 and Faerywoods 2.
$2 each for the rest.

Domestic shipping is included in each price, international adds .50! Comment, email or contact me in one of the gazillion ways you know how to claim. First come, first served. Each one will be signed and titled, no prints will ever be made.

I will also consider trades, but since I'm trying to earn towards some nice brushes (which are holy bajeebuz expensive), cash will be given preference.

I am also planning to chop up

: The Morrigan. I already have it sketched into awesome little bits, but if any of you guys are interested in the un-snipped-up original, please let me know ASAP. It will make 6 great ACEOs, so I'd like to get $120 for it. (There is a wing in the clouds that I photoshopped out for the book version shown here, I will show you the unadulterated scan if you ask.)