Blogger Issues

Some of you have been writing (thanks!) to let me know that they can no longer post comments on my blog. After researching online a bit I have found that this is becoming quite the little problem on Blogger (the site I use for my free blog). If this is a problem for any of your blogs this is how I fixed mine:

I had to manually go into each blog I had already posted under "Edit Posts" (under Posting), then "Edit" each post by clicking on the "Post Options" in the bottom left hand corner and click "Allow Comments" as each of my posts had somehow been stuck on "Disallow". If I find an easier way to fix this problem (besides using a new blog site to publish news) I'll let you know.

Cheers.

Part-time work

I have finally decided to make the plunge and look for part-time work. Being summer (ok, almost!), the sun is shining, the garden outside is planted and I'm itching to work outside, or with green things. A good break from being in my basement alone all day will probably be a positive influence. I'm crossing my fingers for either a greenhouse job (that pays more than minimum wage), work at fort edmonton park (ok, my number one choice actually), or oddly a job at westjet airlines where I can get a discount on travel and work one on one with travellers. Wish me luck!

New Drawings For Sale

Doctors and Derrieres has come to a close and there are many life drawings left in my little black portfolio case that I have started to upload to my online store, etsy. In time I will also include prints of the paintings sold at the show, if anyone is interested. To view these original paintings and sketches for sale click the link above.

Doctors and Derreries 2... Gala Tonight!

Tonight is the grand gala for Doctors and Derrieres II! If you're still interested in seeing the show or bidding on a few pieces (there are some really cool ones in there....) tonight at the Red Strap Market between 7 and 11pm is where you'll find a buzzing crowd, cocktails and of course doctors and arists to chat with.

I will be selling prints of the pieces that were for sale at the auction as well as the rest of my originals soon. I know a couple other artists are going to sell the rest of their pieces as well and we might set up an online store where you can purchase some of these splendid goodies. Hope to see you at the show!

Shown below (and please forgive the reflections on the glass) are artists: Adolfo Ruiz, Amanda Woodward and Gerry Rasmussen.

Dustball Fairies

I've been working very diligently on a new children's book with local author, Mrs. Georgie Prockiw. It's a cute story about Grandma GoGo and two little dustball fairies that she discovers in her dollhouse. I am half way finished the paintings (which I am so excited about!) and can hardly wait to see the final product.

To see some of the newly uploaded sketches feel free to click on the title above, which will take you to my flickr page.

ps: For those of you interested in a little treat buy the edmonton journal this Saturday... (look under Ed Magazine) and you'll find a little feature about yours truly. Thank you so much Jason for making the interview fun and entertaining. I can hardly believe the leg on my chair broke just as we were starting, however!

Here are some if the character development sketches for the story, which I completed long before the storyboards and sketches.





and here is a glimpse of the author, Grandma GoGo!

Paint Brush Care & Selection

When you step inside your favourite local art supply store it's hard not to be bombarded by the intense vast array of paintbrushes. I usually have to buy paintbrushes several times a year and usually have to buy them more frequently when I'm painting on rough surfaces (such as plywood or heavily gesso'd board) as the surface does lots of damage to the delicate tips...

So, what's the difference between different kinds of brushes? First of all there's two main distinctions: Natural bristle and synthetic. Natural haired paintbrushes can come from a variety of animals including Weasles, Oxen, Goats, Ponies & Squirrels (and camel does not mean it is made from camel hair but rather an all-encompassing brush made of many types of hair). Synthetic hair brushes simply mean that the hair is manufactured. Natural is often best for watercolour and synthetic for acrylics although I do not always follow these rules. I Often prefer natural brushes for the acrylic wash work I do as I find the brush head lasts longer.

When choosing your next paintbrush consider these following tips:
1) What are you painting with? (acrylic, watercolour, ink, etc)
2) What are you painting on? (is it rough or smooth)
3) Your desired effect... (texture, or perfection?)

Natural Brushes:
Kolinsky: The finest red sable brushes. Ideal for watercolour: great absorbancy and strength
Red Sable (weasle): Oil & Watercolour: Holds a point well.
Goat: Inexpensive brush, very absorbant.

There are also stiff haired brushes (called Bristles, found in both synthetic and natural fibres, I personally enjoy natural more as they seem not to "grate" along surfaces), ideal for painting on fabric, textured materials, oils, acrylics and tempera. I love these brushes because no matter how ratty they get I never throw them away. I use them for dry brush work and thick acrylic paintings because the worse they get the more comfortable I seem to be with them.

The next thing to consider is if you will want a long handle or a short handled brush. I have lots of both but usually seem to hold my brushes close to the tip for most of my work. However, when painting on plywood I like to have big handled brushes so that I can sit farther away from my work. It helps to view things from far away and having a long handled brush will take lots of the walking back and forth out of the situation if you tend to paint from a chair (like I do).

*Historically short handled brushes are preferred by watercolourists and long handled brushes are for easle work.

How to take care of your paintbrushes:
I bought a cleaner from my local art supplies store (keep in mind to buy the right cleaner for the paint you are using). It's softer than soap as brushes can't take too many harsh chemicals before the hairs start falling out everywhere. My biggest reason I have to replace brushes is because I often forget my brushes in the little tub I wash them in for too long: Don't let them soak! They'll eventually get bent tips and you'll forever be cursing the curve of your brushes if you do this. Also: do not overload your brush as it isn't healthy for brushes to get crammed full of paint all the way up to the metal part (ferrule). This eventually rusts out the brushes and makes them stiff and gross. Who wants to be putting the final touch on a painting when suddenly a little bit of old crusty black ink comes oozing out... staining it for good! Of course the more obvious rule is to not allow paint to dry on your brush. It's very unhealthy for the brush to get scrubbed like a maniac to get all the paint out (even if you do get it all out your little brush will never be the same).

Finally store your brushes laying flat or upright. Never store them with bristles down or once again you'll get a nice crocked tip which will inevitably be very annoying.

The tip I heard lately to fix old brushes where the hair has seperated is to boil some water and let your brushes sit in there for a few minutes. If the brush isn't in too bad of shape it should repair itself... NEAT!

Good luck painting and love your brushes.

How much to Charge?

As a beginner freelance illustrator I've never been more daunted by what to price my work. Do I charge what I want and risk scaring my client away or do I undercharge to "build my portfolio". Lately I've been erroring on the side of charging too little and have been wondering if my fee even covered the supplies (Yikes!). However, I have been lucky enough to find some posted rates for illustrators on the "chewingpencils" blog by Matt Glover

Australia
The MEAA (Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance) sets recommended rates for Australian artists. Only members have access to the site directly, but the Australian Cartoonists’ Association has kindly reproduced the rates

here

The Australian Society of Authors lists rates for authors and illustrators on their site

here

England
The AOI (Association of Illustrators) in London has a very comprehensive list of rates on their site

here

Ireland
The Illustrators Guild of Ireland list their rates

here

South Africa
The South African Freelancers Association has a list of rates here:

here

America
The Graphic Artists Guild has a handbook on pricing and ethical issues for sale on their site

here

I don't have much for Canadian Illustrators but I know Canadians contributed to the American: Graphic Artists Guild Handbook for Pricing and Ethical Guidelines (link above).

Individual People's Rates:
http://www.curtoons.com/logo-design-rates.htm
http://www.unlimited-ideas.com/cost.htm
http://www.electriceasel.co.uk/Prices.html

Last night I was the host for a small gathering of edmonton artists involved in Doctors & Derrieres II. Vance Yung, Sarah Jackson and Gabriel Wong brought their top drawings and we went through an intensive, "American Idol" style voting process to get down to everyone's top four pieces (we can only submit up to four framed pieces to sell at the charity auction). View our four final pieces in the below photo, labelled with each artists name.

Auction Gala Event: May 24 7-11pm.
Viewing Times: 11am-5pm May 22-23
Red Strap Market 2nd Floor

I am so excited to be working on a children's book with a local author. I am posting this image from the book, which happens to be page 01 of the story. The interesting part is that both people in this picture actually exhist in real life! Grandma GoGo is indeed our author!

I finally got round to scanning a few sketches from Doctor's & Derrieres II. These might be the four I am going to submit to the silent auction, on May 24th at Red Strap Market. I encourage all my readers to make it!

Please view the rest of my images at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/crystaldriedger/

I was quite surprised this morning to return from my parents house (after doctoring a sick car and father) to find an email saying that I had gotten 3rd place in the ben wicks award. Not half bad! The editor told me "Your front page got the highest marks for original concept, followed by your crossroads page, also for original concept" which of course I was excited by. The thing I have to work on (which I did have a feeling about) is colour. Too little contrast, etc for newsprint. Of course! Bah, silly me. This does make me want to try again for the next contest... and maybe now I'll have an edge.

Doctor's and Derrier's 2 has been taking up lots of my time lately (which isn't a bad thing whatsoever!). I've been doing interviews here and there with local design studios to let them know 1) I exhist, 2) I'd loooove to do local work on top of the work I've done internationally and 3) unless somehow this whole thing comes crashing down on my I'll never ever quit freelancing: AND no one can stop me any longer! (Whew)

The top pictures are part a series that I did for a contest which I just found out I didn't win (nor was I runner-up). Oh well! I would love to point other people in the direction of this contest because it has a phenominal prize pack! But know after all is said and done a contest is a contest and all work put into said entry might just end up as a little feature in a blog someday.

Go to http://www.regionalmapleleaf.com/benaward/default.htm to view info on the next contest available.

Doctors & Derrier's II (an update)
I have already attended two drawing sessions for this fundraiser and I'm completely hooked! I'm back out drawing with my peers (and old school & workmates to be precise) and am breaking out the conté, pastels, watercolours... and more. It's great fun. I'm getting some pieces I'm happy with and the last model/future doctor was amazing. She made the perfect poses, held completely still and was so very professional. I'm looking forward to tomorrows model.

Fellow Doctors & Derriers Artist, Gerry Rassmusen (artist of the popular Betty comics among other great achievements) talked with me after the session about the importance of quick "throw away" sketches. If you have in mind that the picture you are going to do is "the one" (a keeper) you'll probably end up being too nervous and self conscious to create something with fluidity, motion and emotion. I found that while I was doing the longer pose with our model, Kelly, I did not do a throw away sketch before going onto the final piece which inevitably meant that I was creating art that was horribly out of perspective. If I were to offer anyone some advice it would be to do a little test piece to get all the angles, general lighting and proportions correct. This will save many crumpling of papers after the model has sat so wonderfully still for 1/2 hour all the while wishing she could move her foot just a bit to ease the pain.

Once again I am astounded at the calibre of art and artists that are in Edmonton. Each time I think I've seen the best we have to offer someone new comes along and shocks the heck out of me. I wonder how many artists there are in the world? How many people are out there making a living drawing? I'm so glad all those little voices that whispered "oh doing art isn't a Real profession" were ignored during my upbringing. Oh, and I'm also thankful my parents were very supportive all these years (ra ra here here!)

I must blog about something I discovered a few weeks ago: Von Glitschka's blog, the Illustrative Designer (I have included his links below). He is also the creator of keyboard characters, those cool little critters that you can stick in the last row of your keys to give your desk that extra "Umphf" that is often needed (especially in those too clean style offices).

Von interviews "Illustrative Designers" Stefan Bucher, Tommy Kane, Paul Howalt, Bill Gardner and there is a special recent podcast in which Von is the subject of an interview. There is so much to learn and grab inspiration from during these podcasts that I quite honestly leap everytime there is a new one to listen to. It's great to know that these "illustration idols" are people who make mistakes, have struggled to get to where they are and still have confidence issues. They are certainly worth a listen, especially for those of you who work from home and have lots of time to listen while they create.

Von also coined the term, Illustrative Designer, to which many of us can relate to (perhaps not myself so much as friends, "miss dishy & designustrator). His interviews delve into the serious side of his subjects as well as the silly and human things that make us all great. On a personal note, Von's illustrations are clever and utilize textures in a way that I have only seen a few other people do before (amy!). I believe he has a book of textures coming out soon which I can't wait to get my hands on. It features brilliant illustrators and what they have created with the textures (great idea!).

I wish Von lots of luck with his podcast and many other ventures.


http://www.theillustrativedesigner.com/
http://www.vonster.com/main.html
http://www.keyboard-characters.com/

Easter weekend was exactly what I hoped for. I got to hang out with family, eat chocolate and draw. A large collection of my new sketches can be found on my flickr page (where I post most of my pictures). Feel free to browse them at http://www.flickr.com/photos/crystaldriedger/

This is an acrylic wash baby elephant which I completed today while waiting for a client to deliver a dvd of material to my house. I've decided to make a cataloge of images that will be available for sale to greeting card companies/etc as I plan on sending lots of self promotional material their way this year and thought "heck! Why not have some things to sell while I'm at it?"... plus illustrationcastle's blog gave me this tip! Heather Castle, writer of the illustrationcastle blog has a fabulous selection of tips, outright advice and samples to look at and learn from.

She's FABULOUS!

My contract with the Royal Alberta Museum is up and so is the exhibit I worked on: Cool & Collected. Here is a very tiny preview of the labels I created with the team at the museum. The exhibit was designed by a wonderful & creative woman, Marina Hulzenga, who organized the space into three quadrants: Gallery, Emporium and Laboratory. Each section has a different feel and utilizes a different colour scheme (as well as different artifacts with varying stories and ways of examining them). Beautiful work Marina and all those who worked with you along the way.

Cool & Collected at Edmonton's Royal Alberta Museum. This is the primary exhibit I worked on these last two months. Working hand in hand with curators, designers, writers and other wonderful staff at the museum I couldn't be more proud. The exhibit was completed under a tight deadline and is already drawing fantastic crowds. Shown here are some of the amazing artifacts in the exhibit.

From Top left to right then below: (for the collage with the bat, sword, bone...etc)

Just noticed I forgot the bat: It's called a "flying fox" and eats fruit. Watch those fangs baby!


1) "Play Football": Only 5 cents to play with these cool guys? (see the little guys along the bottom)
2) Entrance sign: Created by art director Carolyn Lilgert. Beautiful photography!
3) Chinese Lion Dance Costume
4) Brilliant hummingbirds.
5) Samuri Sword with Ray Skin handle ("firm grip for a bloodied hand")
6) Two headed Calf
7) Gas Pump (why aren't gas pumps this cool anymore?)
8) Alligator Skull (this skull once belonged to West Edmonton Mall and when the creature died the entire skeleton was donated to the museum!)
9) Gorilla Skull
10) Bone Tool (inuit)
11) Football game's little playing pieces
12) Cassowary Bird (bad taxidermy job!... see it up close at the museum!)

I would highly reccomend this exhibit. It's a great combination of weird, wonderful and amazing. Read the stories as most of the objects that seem plain to the eye aren't so. A piece of the Red Baron's plane might go unnoticed or a .22 calibre firearm belonging to Sir Conan Doyle might seem quite normal at first glance...

I will certainly miss going to work there each day. What a wonderful place! (sigh)...

Snowman Band



I got my postcards printed (& Bus cards to match) and they look great. I can truly say that there is nothing quite like finally having something to hand out to people when they ask me about my work. In retrospect I would have liked to have printed them on something a bit thicker (12pt perhaps) but as I plan to print postcards at least twice a year I'm sure I can try different thickness out as I go along.

Miss Dishy (new zealand illustrator extraordinaire) has recently started a blog of notice as well. Check it out: http://mishemcbride.blogspot.com/ as you'll really enjoy some of the more recent articals. She'll draw a chuckle everytime.

The last fun tid bit is that I have signed up for a fundraiser called Doctors and Derrieres II which involves creating art for a silent auction... This is an excerpt from an email I received asking me to join:

***

"It's called "Doctors and Derrieres II: Posing for a Global Cause" It's a joint effort between local artists and a non-profit University of Alberta organization, International Health Initiatives by Medical Students (IHIMS) (and this year, Change For Children). This fundraiser will take the form of a silent auction where art will be sold. However, this is far from a regular silent auction. The subject of all the art pieces will be the nude human body and the model for each one will be a medical student, dental student, health professional or an MD from Edmonton's Hospitals. This event will raise funds for international health projects taking place in Tanzania, India, and Kenya. As well, funds will go to support a medical project in El Salvador carried out by a well established NGO, Change for Children. Last year we had a huge response from the public and the media. Raising over $5000.00. 17 artists participated and over 40 pieces of art auctioned off. This year I want to have more artists and more art because the exhibit will be held at the Red Strap Market. (2nd floor)The exhibit will run from the 21st to 24 of May. The silent auction will occur on the evening of the 24th from 7-midnight."

***

So! A very interesting cause indeed. Already myself and friend/illustrator Gabe ( http://www.designustrator.blogspot.com/ ) are signed up as well as I'm sure many other fine artists around Edmonton. I hope to see some readers at the show this May.

ILLUSTRATION FRIDAY: "I spy with my little eye"...



Can you find: Harry Potter, a clown, a dog, a cat, a robot (or two), a guy on his cell, a boy picking his nose, a super hero...

I was so excited yesterday to see that my mermaid painting had been chosen as the "feature image" on artwanted.com and even more excited that it recieved over 5,000 hits in one day. I'm beginning to think that this website might be worth upgrading so that I can publish more than three images a month on it. It seems to get some good exposure although admittedly I'm not sure how much exposure it gets by professionals? So far in less than one month there have been over 7,000 views on my three little images which is really neat.