Sunday, September 30, 2012

Knitting and a good link


I've been knitting a lot lately, working on fleshing out my little etsy shop. I let it go for such a long time, and now that I've decided to get it going again, I'm overflowing with ideas!

I have Big Plans to do some drawings of knitting, and a genius licensing idea (I think - you know how those can be), all of which will take quite a bit of work, of course. But that's OK! I just have to figure out how to fit it in with the Children's Book art, and the Un-Still Lifes I've started with the "fine art" side of myself. The same old story we all have I guess - not enough hours in the day. 


Some day, in the future, when we CAN make clones of ourselves, we'll be saying "Remember back in the old days, when we only had ONE of ourselves, and had to do everything in just 24 hours a day? How on earth did we do it?" 

If that sounds far-fetched, just think back to not so long ago when we didn't have anything digital or cellular or even cordless, for that matter. Remember that first fax machine?! Lordy.

On the flip side - I started watching that new show "Revolution", where the world has gone 'dark' and there's no electricity or anything (except there IS - in secret), and everyone has to do everything the old-fashioned way. I like the way the little village looks - kind of old-timey but with left over modern stuff. I wish they'd focus more on the actual "this is how life really is now", the day-to-day, mundane, domestic side of things, rather than the hunting everything (and everyone) with a cross-bow side of life, but of course that's interesting too. I've always loved those shows on PBS where they go back in time to Pioneer days, or Edwardian or Victorian times, or WWII, and have people try to live that way for a few months, and slowly go mad (and love the part where they get to go back to real life, and head straight for the shower and some fast food and TV.)

Anyways. I'm pretty sure knitting will always be around, whether we have power or not, so I'm going to soldier on with my ideas.

And while we still DO have power and the internet and stuff, you might want to check out this cool website, if you haven't already: http://www.folioacademy.com



Will Terry and Wayne Andreasen have teamed up to create a website full of really cool art videos you can buy, to teach you how to do all kinds of art things. They've just updated it, so its cooler and even better than it was before! There's traditional drawing and painting, as well as a lot of digital art stuff, children's book tutorials and even 3D!



I have the Digital Painting in Photoshop Part I, and How to Illustrate Children's Books videos, and they're both great. I figured out how to do a digital version of my colored pencil look by watching the Digital Painting one, and the Children's Book one is a good refresher course in some basics even if you're already a children's book illustrator. So go check it out!

Hope you're enjoying Fall. I am, finally. Its been HOT here still, which is pretty annoying, but I think its starting to turn just a bit - hope so, anyway. I want to wear a sweater! And socks! :~)

Monday, September 24, 2012

Its Fall!!



Fall Gingerbread
© Paula Pertile


Gingerbread, cookies, and colored pencils. And Fall! Some of my favorite things. 

I tried out my new Caran d'ache Pablo colored pencils for this, and loved them. I used some Polychromos too, for more control. Both are oil based pencils, which I prefer to wax. 

And do you know what? None of them broke in the electric pencil sharpener. (OK, one did, once.) But I probably jammed it in funny or something. Last time I tried to use my Prismacolors they ALL BROKE, over and over again. I was thinking part of the fault might be my sharpener, but now I know the sharpener is fine. So these new pencils are definitely 'keepers'!


Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Knitting cables

Its knitting season!




I've had a knitting shop on etsy for a while, which I haven't "worked" much. At all. In fact, I've emptied it out altogether more than once, and left it sitting there, abandoned, for long periods of time. 



But I have all this yarn. A lot of yarn. Seriously. I'm a yarnaholic. Some of you might like beads, or colored pencils, or fabric, or something else. You know what I'm talking about. Your 'thing' is on sale somewhere, and its calling out to you. You never need it, you just have to have it. 
Well, that's how I am with yarn.


Sometimes I just can't commit to doing a whole big project, like a shawl or big scarf even, because of time. So I've been trying to come up with something small I can make, that's fun and cool.


I love love love love cables, so starting playing with some ideas. How could I make a 'stand alone' piece of cabling, not attached to a sweater or something? Usually you see cabling done within a panel, with plainer stitches on either side. I wondered what would happen if I just isolated them. What would it look like? Sometimes you try these genius ideas and end up with a hot mess.  


But this time my idea worked. I actually started with a much more complicated braided piece, then edited it down to these simpler ones. And having it look like a bow tie was a happy accident! My intention was to make an accent pin - something you could wear for a pop of color or texture on a sweater or jacket. The larger ones just happen to look like a bow tie.


So I sewed a pin back to the back of each one, and voila! We have Cable Knit Bow Tie Pins and Mini Cable Knit Bow Pins.


It was fun to make the little cards to pin them to. Taking the pictures for the shop is never my favorite thing, but a necessary evil. (I always wonder about the people who do the pro photo shoots, with models and all. How on earth do they manage that?) So I do the best I can.


There are 25 new pieces in the shop, mostly all Fall-ish colors. Christmas and holiday ones are in the works. I hope to do some hair clips and other little goodies too. How cute would these be on pet collars? If you have an idea for one, or would like to commission me to make some for you, please let me know! 

Monday, September 10, 2012

An interview, and thoughts about Fall

I'm very honored to be featured this week on the wonderful blog, Lobster and Canary.




Daniel Rabuzzi, the blog's author, emailed with all sorts of very flattering things to say about my Un-Still Life pieces, and asked if he could interview me. I blinked a few times and thought "Seriously? ME?" and then of course I said yes.

After you've read my interview, please take some time to peruse the rest of the blog, because its a treasure trove of really interesting art and creativity.
Thank you Daniel!

~~~~~~~~~
In other news - I've been knitting a lot, and am juuuust about ready to stock my etsy knitting shop with some new goodies for the Fall and Winter. Small, affordable cable-y things.




Hope you're all enjoying September. Its one of my favorite months, as the season changes back to cooler weather, and the anticipation of the holidays begins. Sweaters! Knitted woolies! Fall colors! Crunchy leaves! Stew! Picturebook kitty characters wearing Fall colored woolie sweaters, walking through crunchy leaves and eating stew! (OK, that will be the next thing on my drawing board.)

There's a lot on my 'to-do' list, so I've better get to it. Bye for now ~