Inspiration drought

 I have been going through a pretty major drought...

it's one of inspiration and creativity..

here are the last paintings I managed to do during this drought

and now I'm not sure what else to do.

I've thought about just grabbing some paint and brushes

and slapping some paint on canvas to see where it takes me...but

we'll see if I'm brave enough to do that.

For one thing...I've pretty much run out of storage room...so I'm

not sure where I'd put any new paintings anyway.

I may need to 'paint' in PhotoShop instead...that will depend on how much space

I have to store what I come up with.

New Stuff at Society6

These are examples of my

Wizard of Oz

tee shirts

now online at Society6. 

The garments are American Apparel in a wide variety of colors.

I have just started adding the shirts and I don't have

many online yet...but I'm trying to add a few more

each week.

A little different from what I am offering on Zazzle.

I hope you like them.

 

 

It's been a while

It's been a while since I've written anything on my blog...

I've been taking some time away from art in order to

rejuvenate myself.

Here are a few 6" x 6" Fairytale paintings that I

managed to paint since last I posted.

New pieces at Society 6

 

I've got a number of new pieces in my Society 6 Shop.

Of course the pieces I've added there are available elsewhere

but not in the pillow and tote offerings.

January is first creation of 2014

I have completed and listed my first creation of 2014...a digital painting I have titled...'January'.

One of my 'Steampunk Goth Girl' regulars is out in the snow during the month of January...

complete with a little redbird to add that little dash of color to brighten this otherwise grey offering.

 

It is one of the few digital pieces that I've done using the landscape format...

in the hopes of doing a series dedicated to each month...which will become the art for a 2015 calendar.

Society 6

I recently "set up shop" on Society 6.

I am gradually adding my pieces...and loving the black pillows and totes that I've only

found available here.

It's a bit different than Zazzle...there isn't quite as much merchandise

available here...and everything that is available needs pictures in different sizes...so it's a bit

more time consuming...as well as more images to store on my computer.

I am planning on adding one image a day throughout the month of January...so I will have a bit more end there by the end of the month.

Good-bye 2013

While I won't be sorry to see 2013 go...I learned a great deal this past year...

I have always 'failed to plan'...and there are those that say...

'fail to plan' and you 'plan to fail'....

there actually is some credence to this little saying....

so I've taken some steps to make 2014 a better year for me...

at the very least, I should know more about what's going on and why.

Here are a couple of the more 'notable' things that happened in my 2013...
1.  My 'Gothic Beauty' interview

2.  Started my series of  'Notorious' characters
3.  I learned "the hard way" to stay on top of my Etsy Shop....hoping that will be improved in 2014.

A couple of things I have planned for 2014...
1. Another two panel 'Alice in Wonderland' themed painting.
2. My first two panel 'Wizard of Oz' themed painting.
3. Some new 'Notorious characters'
4. Keeping my Etsy Shop 'relevant' to Etsy search....and new pieces coming shortly after the New Year.

I will do a better job of blogging and posting on FB as well!!

Thinking ahead to next year

 

I've got all but one package packaged and shipped...I'll get the

last one out tomorrow or the next day.

It's been kind of an 'odd' year for me and my art business.

With the ongoing changes springing up on Etsy...it's been a challenge

just to try to keep up.  Keeping up with Etsy changes also takes a bit of a

toll on the time spent creating new pieces...so I need to start now and

think ahead to next year...

how to keep up with my creative work while trying to

keep up with Etsy changes.

Plenty to think about...for sure!

A handful of Christmas Ornaments



Every year I try to have something 'different' in my Shop(s)
especially for Christmas.
A few years ago I did this Snowman ornament, along with
some Santas, other Snowmen and a couple of Carolers.
I also offered them at local art and craft shows I
went to and sold out.
I had a handful of these pieces, unpainted, and decided
to finish them up and get them into one of my shops.

Since there's only 8 of them, I will probably list them
in my Rustic Goth Etsy Shop
at some point in the next couple of days.

 

It's Been A While....and there will be some changes.

I've had kind of an 'up and down' summer...

now that Fall is here

I've made a couple of definite decisions.

On Friday...October 11th...I will be closing my ArtFire Shop.

It's been open for a year and I've made few sales

there...so it doesn't make sense for me to keep it open.

In the meantime...I have a Sale going on there through Thursday..October 10th...

one last 'hurrah' if you will.

I am almost done with a small Wizard of Oz painting and it will be my

last character painting of the year.

I hope to have it in my Etsy Shop by the week-end.

I've already started some dark abstract landscape paintings...

hopefully I will have, at least one, listed by the week-end as well.

I've put some new products on Zazzle

It's getting to be 'that time of year' to start putting together some new

items for my Rustic Goth Zazzle Shop.

I have put new items, periodically, into the shop there...

and I knew that they had changed their design fairly recently...

but..

I sure hadn't realized just 'how' much they'd changed

or

how difficult it would be for me to try to find my way around.

It's not hard to add new items...

it's difficult to try to figure out where to place them now.

I imagine I'll have to spend some time everyday

until I figure it out...

in the meantime though...

I put about twenty new items in that shop

this past week.

I am closing my Shop...Not So Fast....

....in ArtFire!

I have decided to close my CMZart  ArtFire Shop...on September 10th!

After trying a couple different eCommerce builders....I have decided that I

neither have the time...or the patience...to try to find one that does what I want and need it to.

This close to what I hope is my 'busy' time of year...I have opted to leave ArtFire open, at least through the rest of this year.

Then I will re-evaluate how well (or not) ArtFire is doing and I'll make a decision

when I have more time to experiment....

...so for now...No New Web Store

and ArtFire will remain open through the end of the year!

It puts me about a month shy of one year...and I was originally going to give it one year ... but...

the site just is not paying for itself...so it's time to go ahead and close the doors.

My Rustic Goth Etsy Shop will remain open 

(until and unless they make changes to the site that ends up being more than I can bear)...

and for the time being...

my Fairytalez N Fantasiez Etsy Shop will also remain open.

I combined the two Etsy Shop to create the CMZart ArtFire Shop...

offering a 'one stop shop'...

but most everything that I did sell through ArtFire was a Rustic Goth item...

so I will give Fairytalez N Fantasiez

until next Spring

before I make any final decisions on that Shop.

There were a lot of 'bugs' during checkout in our ArtFire Shop as well as

too much 'downtime'

 (which also influenced my decision to close this shop)

...so...

I've decided to open my Own Rustic Goth online Shop .. 

on my website...
 instead.

I plan to have that shop up...and fully operational
 by the first week of September!

The summer...

I haven't posted many blog posts this summer....

for one thing...

I'm desperate for a new laptop.

My old one needs to be 'laid to rest'....

so I'm saving up to get an inexpensive one...

and then I'll be able to do more

digital paintings

and more posts!!

My Own Web Store

I have decided to open my OWN Web Store.

 

Until I get the site figured out...I started with a free store....which is

very limited in the number of items.

But...I didn't want to pay for a store and then use the first month

trying to figure it all out.

 

So...I'm getting everything ready to go...working out any bugs...trying to understand

how the site works...etc

so that I can have a full Store up and operational

by fall.

 

 I currently have a couple of postcards discounted to half price

to see if I can generate a couple of sales

to test how the checkout will work.

My Two Etsy Shops

At the end of last year I opened a second Etsy Shop

Fairytalez N Fantasiez.

I wanted somewhere to offer my 'cute' art that didn't 

conjure up any thoughts of darkness.

The only problem with that is....I literally get very little traffic to that

particular shop.

I know I've had my Rustic Goth Etsy Shop since 2007 and was lucky enough

to build a following before Etsy decided relevancy was better than just 'browsing'...

but..

when I don't even get a dozen views on an original

Alice in Wonderland

painting...in a week's time...

I won't be able to spend as much time working on pieces for that shop

as I do my Rustic Goth Shop.

I listed this Alice in Wonderland painting there...got 6 views in 8 days...now it's going

to get moved to Rustic Goth

and we'll see how it does there.

Reviving some old works

Both of the above images were digital paintings I did in my very early days

of  'painting with PhotoShop'.

"In the Field of Innocents" and "No Turning Back"

I am self taught in every style of art that I do...including PhotoShop.

The biggest problem I have is...that I tend to learn the 'hard way'.

Instead of viewing some tutorials that are probably out there on You Tube...I just taught myself

by trial and error.

Long story short...I had both these pieces listed and the image file 'safely' stored on my

computer until...horror of horrors...my computer went down and I couldn't

retrieve any of my image files.

I've since started backing everything up on zip drives...but I had to pull both of these prints.

Over time I became better at digital work so when I ran across these pieces recently...

I decided to clean them up...back them up...and get them listed for sale once again.

You can find them in my Etsy Shop for now.

Christmas in July SALE

I am having a "Christmas in July" Sale in my 

Etsy Shop

as well as in my

ArtFire Shop.

I plan to run the Sale in both Shops for 10 days...the

Sale will end on July 22nd.

It's my intention to get down to only two or three sales a year

and this is one of those planned Sales.  

I'm offering some pendants in my Etsy Shop and when those are gone

I don't think I'll do any new ones.  It takes so long to put them together...it's just

easier for me if I take those images to Zazzle and put them on pendants there.

It takes about as much time to put them there as it takes to do a listing on Etsy or ArtFire...

so when you consider the vast amount of time putting the pendants together...

trying to get decent photos...etc...

I'd be saving myself  TONS of time and Work...so think that's what I'll do.

In fact...I'm thinking...going forward I'm going to cut back to acrylic paintings 

(including the little ACEO paintings I do for eBay)

and digital original paintings and illustrations.

I'll continue to offer Scrabble Tile pendants...but that's it...and most of 

those will be offered on ArtFire.

A brief update...

This is a little ACEO painting inspired by

the Norman Rockwell painting...

"Boy and Girl Gazing at the Moon"

I plan to do more 'inspired' pieces featuring my

'sad ragdolls'.

I'm currently working on several new canvas paintings

for my Etsy Shop...

as well as my

ArtFire Shop.

Most of my newest 'experimental' pieces start as

ACEO paintings that I first put up for auction on eBay...

then I decide which of these I will 'expand'...

as I have with my 'Sad Ragdoll' pieces..

to become larger canvas paintings.

I have a few other things that I'm working on...

I'll post more about those in the near future.

Hello summer!

Just a quick update....seems I'm keeping myself busier than usual so far this summer.

I've painted numerous ACEO paintings over the past couple of months....

to post for auction on eBay.

This is where I'm working on new ideas, experiments and the such...

so some sell and some don't...but it helps me know

where I need to go with my art at the moment.

I've also added quite a few pieces to my Fine Art America site

so that anyone who wants something more than a small paper print can get my art on canvas, acrylic or metal...

or as greeting cards.

 

I've got some new paintings on Etsy....with more to come soon!

And...for Rustic Goth news not found elsewhere...you can subscribe to my Rustic Goth newsletter.

I offer freebies, discounts and more through my newsletter...including information on upcoming Sales.

Gothic Beauty Magazine Interview

The interview I did with Gothic Beauty Magazine...

it covers pages 42-44.