Horray, my website is fixed!

After a few months of skirting the issue of my website (links had gone hay-wire all over the place!) I opted for a one day redo yesterday using iWeb. While there are still some very minor glitches I am really enjoying the growing simplicity of my online portfolio. There's nothing worse than not wanting to post a new image because it will take a couple of hours. I hope in the fall I will be able to take the Dreamweaver course I've had my eye on but until then I'll stop trying to fiddle with the ultimately complicated program.

I have found the following pluses about iWeb that make me come back for more each time:

1. ease of use (within a couple hours you'll have figured the program out)
2. no need to make slices - just click on your picture/text and tell it what it needs to do
   
3. user interface is very well laid out

Of course, with such simple programs, there are things that can be frustrating/limiting:

1. you cannot make rollovers and all text links are underlined (sigh)
2. unless i buy a .mac account I can't use some of the cool features such as blog with comments, news feeds or stats counter (and can't figure out how to put the code in when I upload using dreamweaver)
3. no flashy elements (this might be a good thing!)

Kisses & Tears

I was so excited today when I found the link to a video that I helped animate last summer by local film maker and friend, Adolfo Ruiz called Kisses & Tears. The process is called rhotoscoping and it is done by tracing over individual frames on film (via flash in my case). Adolfo has done several films in this style and I am so proud to have my name in the credits!

Here's another film by him from the website exposure.

21 Day creative challenge: Day 13 - 20!!!

I have good news to share about two wonderful, talented friends of mine (who happen to be illustrators that I worked with at my last full time illustration job)

1) Kelly Schykulski's work has been featured in this years Applied Arts Magazine, Illustration Annual, see the selected works here & here!

2) Sarah Jackson has published a website for her adorable & popular JAM! books.


day13-20, originally uploaded by crystal driedger.

As promised I'm posting the creatures I created for the 21 day challenge...and I can hardly believe that It's been eight days since I've updated my blog with the challenge creatures! I paid for it in scanning time in the end. Now to be fair: Here's a little diddy about what I've been up to.

• Stop & Shop Fair: I set up my booth (new shiny display, prints and bookmarks, cards and twinkling lights ready to go...) only to be out-sold by the spectacular weather that Edmonton was given. Thank you so much to those of you who stopped by to visit and pick up a new card/print!
  
• Student Recruiting: My last day as a student recruiter for MacEwan College's Design program was last night during an information session... hello to those of you who picked up my new postcard!
• Self Promo: I have new postcards and business cards! Mail-out to come in the next couple weeks
• Museum: Only four more days and my contract ends at the Royal Alberta Museum. I've been hard at work promoting their upcoming Dragon exhibit as well as the soon to open Empress of Ireland story!
• Freelance: Oh internet! I wish I could tell you everything about the amazing projects I'm working on...
  
• Garbage Film Festival: I watched films all about trash. It was amazing! I was saddened, inspired and enlightened by the stories I witnessed. For example: Did you know that there is a Guatemalan garbage dump that houses 4,000 people (they live there, eat there, work there, raise their children there...)?
  
• Gardening: All Monday I was outside, digging in the dirt with my fingers planting herbs (over a dozen different ones), tomatoes (3 varieties), peppers (3 varieties), lettuce, spinach, potatoes (2 varieties), onions (2 varieties), kale, cucumbers, fennel, wild flowers, raspberries, strawberries, carrots.... I'm trembling with excitement because it's raining outside right now!

Stop & Shop Show THIS weekend!

I've been sketching my creatures (I promise!) but I am too busy to scan them right now... I'm in the process of getting ready for my second show of the year and one of the best ones to be involved in if you live and craft in Edmonton... The Stop & Shop Show (Scroll down for more info)!

I have a bunch of new prints & cards as well as some original designs that have remained top sellers for me... Stop by the show early and be one of the first 25 in the door each day and you'll receive a goodie bag that includes a coupon for my booth (there's always a line out the door for this show so be early).

Print off this coupon to get $2 off admission to the show!

21 Day Creative Challenge: Day 12

Today is Mothers day on every planet, including todays creature's one. This sweet boy has searched for hours for the perfect gift for his mother: A copy of the latest Dione Cenila romance novel. His favorite food is gummy worms and his biggest pet peeve is when people throw take out wrappers into the streets (he's a big environmentalist).

Same Rules for this one: First to name gets the honors!
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21 Day Creative Challenge: Day 11

Today's Creature is also "humanoid" and for the first time in eleven days I'm going to name her... (read comments to find out!)... She's currently attending St. Theresa College and is working towards her degree in education. She dislikes raisins in cookies and is allergic to cats (but doesn't mind because she hates them anyway). Her favorite things in the world are curling up in her gramma's quilt while sipping hot chocolate filled to the max with mini marshmellows and driving to work on her scooter (which happens to be an olive green Vespa).

21 Day Creative Challenge: Day 10

Today's creature reflects my day today. While I'm happy to announce that I'm currently flooded with illustration work (whoo hoo! three cheers!) I have had to quit one of my part time jobs in order to keep my life in balance and am very close to the end of the contract with my other part time job. I'm afraid I've put them in a pickle (which I never enjoy doing) but I can hardly wait to be back in my studio full time! Can't tell you about these projects and I'm afraid I have to keep you in the dark until September on the biggest one but promise to make time for my blog readers (and make time to read your blogs too) during the summer.
ps: Is anyone going to the Illustration Conference this summer? I'm considering it...

21 Day Creative Challenge: Day 8-9

I'm back from my trip to Grande Prairie and Whitecourt in Northern Alberta, Canada. It was truly exhausting and I'm so glad to be back home that I nearly pounced on my lawn and hugged it when I got out of the car (I'm not a fan of driving long distances by myself as it turns out).

I saw this in a park near Grande Prairie.

On My way... I saw this cool guy (from car window)

I have learned two things on this trip: 1) I am not wonderwoman (darn). I've simply put too much on my plate and working all of the hours that I am awake somehow isn't working... And 2) Doing the 21 day creative challenge is very difficult while on a business trip. I opted to focus on illustration projects instead, sketchbooks piled on my hotel bed while listening to television reruns, which is why the two sketches I have provided were done on the days they needed to be done I'm positive that they could have been much better (alright, frankly I don't even want to post this rubbish but don't have time to create something superior). However, they are still creatures nonetheless and need to be named thus! Same rules apply: First to name wins.

Creature Day 8:

He's a relative of sponge bob - square pants (at least that's where he got his eyes), except that he never wears pants (he doesn't have a body). He can tuck his legs up under him and fly away and has been mistaken as a UFO by many unsuspecting humans.

Creature Day 9:

She was drawn while I waited for my breakfast of eggs and toast today... the eggs arrived when I was only ten minutes into the drawing (or less?)... how did they do that? I had to scribble some fast legs and a hat to finish her head just before I scanned her. She's an artist and digs the Beatles. Wears ballet slippers any chance she can get but never intends to dance in them.

21 Day Creative: Day 8

I'm off on a business trip for the next couple days and will not have access to a scanner but promise to sketch another couple creatures. Feel free to browse my "older" creatures below or check out my flickr pages while you wait (don't get too excited, it's not for my illustration business but rather a part-time job I picked up while my husband was back in school).

21 Day Creative Challenge: Day 7 Nairi

Have any of you switched to the Lepoard operating system for Mac? Well... we did (at my part time job) and it's been really frustrating. Today I did a "clean" install (threw everything on my hard drive away then reinstalled lepoard to try and get rid of the program errors and crashes I've been having). So... while I was doing this (it took hours)... I did my next character in pen (until it died) then pencil.

Creature of the day: She's rather human in appearance, but is not a human at all. Not nymph or fairy or anything of this sort, she's rather to her own class. While she enjoys the finer aspects of being "humaniod" such as listening to her record player (built in 1968) at a soft volume, most of her free time is spent near a bubbly brook talking to flowers and coaxing insects to nest in her hair.



Once again: Be the first to name this creature... (I may make prints of this one so it will have more impact than the others!)

21 Day Creative Challenge: Day 6 BARKLEY!

If I'm truly going to challenge myself I have to go out of my comfort zone. Usually, this involves creating things on the computer. For today's challenge I used illustrator (and only illustrator) to create my newest creature. Thank you again so much for the comments as they have kept me going these last six days!

Once again: Viewer challenge is to be the first to name my creature (thanks for the great and wonderfully appropriate names thus far!)

Today's creature: He's elusive and careful but a tad on the nutty side: while he will eat peanut butter he will only eat it on potato chips with a side of guacamole! His biggest fear is alien invasion and yes, his fur is naturally orange.

21 Day Creative Challenge: Day 5 VERONICA!

It's been great getting back into my moleskin. I did this creature yesterday while at the Royal Bison Art & Craft Fair (which was very enjoyable: I connected with come people who had bought from me at a previous fair and traded my goodies for some very lovely products!).

Here's two quick facts about yesterday's creture: 1) She loves wearing layers (so she can enjoy her two favorite shirts at the same time) and 2) She often wakes up near midnight to jot down her dreams in vivid details.


I also had time to do a self portrait (crystal style): I find it fascinating that the one face you look at every day is the hardest to get "right"... then again, it might have helped to have a mirror.

21 Day Creative Challenge: Day 4 MAGGIE!

Today I sketched my creature in pen and realized very quickly how much I love this medium. I'm afraid 15 minutes is all I have been able to squeeze into my drawings thus far, which I do hope to increase as I go. This is a very important exercise!

Alright: Today's creature (also up for "naming") is the first female I've drawn. She's currently contemplating her day, as she often does after school by a pond near her home. She's madly in love with the boy who sits two rows ahead of her (and one to the left) and wonders if she needs a new hair cut in order to get noticed by him. Her favorite thing in the world to do is to stretch out on a blanket in the grass and read comic books in the sun (she prefers books about Jughead and never, ever buys or reads comics about Veronica).

21 Day Creative Challenge: Day 3 Joey

Today's "creative creature" was captured during a moment of shame. As it turns out, his father caught him moments earlier pulling his sisters tail. However, on moments that aren't filled with shame, this little one spends many giddy moments jumping in puddles with his bare feet and often tries to bring humans home as pets (his mother doesn't allow such ridiculous creatures in her home as they are far too loud). His favorite meal consists of baked polenta with tomatoes and cheese (grated extra fine and melted until brown).

Art & Craft Fairs 2008...

Last year I experimented by selling my art/prints at craft and art fairs. I personally love going to these events. They're packed with local small business owners (as small as business's can come) who not only create their products but package, transport, sell and market everything about themselves). It's beautiful and it's so traditional. These tiny business's are directly linked to their owners and therefore are fully responsible for the quality of their products (the product is also a "face" and a personality). I adore also (and maybe especially, having grown up on a farm) farmers markets where you can smell sweet freshly baked bread and walk by rows of organic and locally grown potatoes and carrots, beautifully washed and glowing. Necklaces shining in the sun and jars of homemade mustard that make your mouth water as you pass. I don't even mind (some people scoff at such things) older women who sit together, knitting needles clacking as they chat behind rows of perfect mittens and quilts.

Becoming a vendor, however, made me aware of the true work that being a "craft fair" person entails (besides, obviously, creating your products). Fairs are costly: often I rarely earn much of a profit for my business and what little profit is earned is usually spent at the various booths who buddy up with my table (a carton of free range duck eggs here, a pair of fair trade earrings there...). The hours I put into packaging artwork, cards and making sure they don't fly away in the wind has been known to exhaust me. But with that said, fairs can also be addictive. I can't describe how wonderful it is to have real live feedback about your art to an illustrator who usually sits at home (alone) handing in illustrations via the internet. The connections I make and exposure that I gave myself are priceless (plus it gives me the opportunity to educate the public on what illustration is and to quite frankly create whatever the heck I want to try to sell). While the early morning running around (ahhhh... where's my calculator!... geee I forgot to get change again!) and long days hoping for more foot-traffic were nice to escape for a couple months I've decided to do a few more this year, because heck, these fairs and beautiful.

New Illustrations for sale (cards & prints at the fairs only, email me if interested in the originals):
Holly's Castle, Summer Fun, Animal Party, Barnes Garden (with proceeds going towards the Edmonton Humane Society) & Garden Stroll (all © 2008)

Royal Bison(THIS SUNDAY ONLY - from 10am - 5pm)
8426 - Gateway Blvd (Cosmopolitan Music Society Building, Edmonton AB)

Stop & Shop (Highly Recommended: The last show was amazing! On May 16: 5pm - 9pm, May 17: 10am - 6pm, May 18: 12 - 5pm)
10330 - 84 ave (Trans Alta Arts Buidling, Edmonton AB)

Down Town Farmers Market Not to be confused with the indoor Strathcona Market!
Various Saturdays 9am - 3pm (I'll keep you posted when these are, I'm "cutting back" this year)

For those of you who missed my BIG NEWS,

The Big News (in case you missed it)

21 Day Creative Challenge: Day 2 FRED!

I had so much fun reading the comments about my last creature (thank you everyone!) that I wanted to see what you would make of the next one.

Here's his stats:
This guy is friends with Stan (believe it or not). In fact, they've worked in the same building for four years this upcoming tuesday. He enjoys eatting pickled corn and root of huginoba (a dark red fruit found in his land) while listening to his favorite radio show (which features local blues bands and interviews with select groups of human rights activists). He's had a bad day, which explains the rather sad illustration of him right now (he was forced to do the CEO's laundry and it was extra gross this time around)