Results of the Tea Party

Sneak preview?

So as most of you do not know...I have slowly started to work on my own

MANGA!

AHHHH!!!

so yeah, that's what i've been up to here lately, and today while wasting away in Ohio I sketched this little beauty out, lolz. The idea behind this is that the main character, Alice, has lost her mother due to some sort of illness and is looking back on a photo of her and her mom...

Originally it was a sweet photo of the two of them laughing and embracing, but somehow this is what I came out with today. I dont know why but I think it suits the direction i'll be heading much better, lmao.

It's supposed to be one of those photos taken at a kid's birthday party ( in this case, Alice's) where instead of being happy they're having a tantrum over something and can't really appreciate the moment. So in the photo here i'll have her mom, this beautiful lady, all, " Smiiillleeee!" *stretches her daughter's face into a smile for camera--*

Lolz. Originally I was thinking maybe she'd be a super sweet, loving, all knowing mother, but I think that (while still having these characteristics) that she's gonna be the type of mother who would send that picture out as a thank you card to those who attended the party, lmao. Awesome, right?

Anyway, hope you enjoyed the preview! In my attempt not to fail as a blogger any more, I will update every day at the least again, surely! .....surely!

Preview:

EDIT: Here it is painted. I've been working hard! I still intend to add things to it via photoshop (small effects here and there) as well as smooth it out but over all, this is the general idea....The corner up by the Red Queen needs some filling, dont you think? Probably gonna add something there as a background element with photoshop, but yeah...sorry about the poor photo quality at the moment!

Just ordered some new product in...

So, I finally ordered some more product. I've had a promo code for a discount on my fridge since some time last year and as it was going to expire this month, I decided to go ahead and use it.

I ordered some business cards as well as various button packages. I hope to order some bookmarks as soon as I find a reasonable place to have them printed. So far all I can find are places that want to print them, but at a minimum of 100 each, and I really dont need that many just yet, kay thanks!

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As for what I did order...

I ordered three sets of five buttons featuring my Alice in Wonderland characters, the White Rabbit, The Mad Hatter, and my Cheshire.

I hope to display my stuff this March at this art festival that's going to be taking place on the 6th. While selling Miche bags, I'll also have postcards, stationary, buttons and magnets for sale, as well as having my new business cards out and on display.

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In other news...

taxes tomorrow!

Cheshire

The Cheshire

Start of the boy's series to compliment the Ladies of Wonderland set.

Etsy Shop Up and Running!

So at the moment I only have four items listed on my etsy shop, and they're actually only two different pieces offered in various products, but the shop is up and running.

Although not listed yet as I have yet to get it back, I am offering all images as prints for sale. They are printed on very high quality paper that looks and feels as if you're getting the actual painting itself, so its very nice. Personally for a watercolor piece anyway, I think having that texture is important. As I have already posted information about this in a previous blog, I will repaste that here for your convience:

"Giclee Prints:

Fine art prints are very popular with artists who need to reproduce their artwork to sell at art shows or galleries. Please note that fine art prints are often referred to as Giclee Prints, and are high quality prints of the product. Somerset Velvet Giclee, which I use for my shop, have the authentic "look and feel" of high quality watercolor paper and are produced with Somerset Velvet paper and Epson Ultrachrome professional archival inks, so your product won't fade. Sizing and prices are as follows:

4x6 - $8.00

5x7 - $10.00

8x10- $20.00

8x12- $27.00

11x14- $40.00"

Hopefully this information helps some of you better understand the high quality of these prints. As an added offer, as well as costs, prints can include mat board. This needs to be specially requested however in "message to seller" otherwise I won't know to include it.

So, heres to a new start in a new year!

Take care~

Christi Thomas-Fealy

Okay two things....

God bless Eddie Izzard.



Secondly, God bless Lewis Carroll for giving me so much to work with. I've decided I rather kind of freakishly love Alice in Wonderland, which is fair to say, I think. While working on some paintings for buttons/stickers, "White Rabbit" by Jefferson Airplane came on and I think that that rather describes my idea of my wonderland. A little twisted and disturbing but interesting at the same time...why? I'm not sure. Hell, why not.



Anyway, I developed this Alice series about a year or two ago (the concept sketches, etc) and am finally developing them. In my world, the Red Queen is slowly taking over by poisoning the inhabitants of Wonderland...she marks each one of them in one way or another. For my mad hatter, she took his eye...but with him its a bit of a wonder on if he's twisted or not, as she more so took from him than scared him. Thats still up in the air. The one person she really wanted was the cat (think Queen Beryl with Endymion) but he had no interest in being involved in, well, basically anything. I have some drawings where he is with Alice, in some weird twisted relationship, and I have some drawings where the Queen has finally marked him and poisoned him. I think originally I was just developing my own manga, lolz. The Rabbit is twisted, I believe, and more or less as much of a trickster as the Cheshire is. To me she doesn't really talk, just smiles and does creepy things like leading people down rabbit holes, lolz.



Alice has gone through a variety of looks...still not sure i've settled, lolz. Long hair, short hair, long dress, short dress, who knowwwwwss yet. I still have people to be drawn as well, such as the march hair, the little mouse in the tea pot, the white knight...I *have* got sketches or finished drawings of the cat, the red queen, the white queen, the hatter, and the catepillar.



I dont really understand the point of this ramble, and suppose its all thanks to Baileys, but whatever. Heres a sample of what i'll be painting for my Mad Hatter.

Magnets

I promised better pictures, and here they are!

These are the standard 2 1/4 round magnets, just one of the sizes I will be offering. Other magnets will be offered in:

Round, Square - 2 1/4 for $4.00

Or larger magnets ( 3 inches) for $5.00 The larger magnets are only available in round.

Some excitement on the home front.

Alright so, the good news is this:

All my little ladies are painted!  Im hoping to enter them in this "anything goes" show in Ormond Beach this upcoming Feb.  Bad news is that they have a 24 x 24 x 1.5 size requirement which the cheapest i've found for that sort of printing has been in the 80s, with a 20+ shipping fee, so basically a 100 dollars by the end of all this.  Have we forgotten the starving artist scenario? Seriously, the fuck?

Anyway.  Tomorrow i'll be scanning them in via kinkos (death to my scanner) and proceeding with the computer editing.  I'd LOVE to get some physical prints done soon...the plans are postcards or individual prints.  Also discovered a place where I can get my stuff printed on actual cards, which seems all too obvious with an Alice in Wonderland set, so I may be extending the series even more.  By the end of this my entire portfolio will be Alice but I can't help it, the whole concept is rather liberating. 

Far away, this ship is taking me far away, far away from my memories, of the people who care if I live or die - Muse

Ladies of Wonderland

Okay, so, Im actually rather happy with the watercolor process so far, the tragedy lies in my scanner. It cannot scan in a non blurry piece for the life of it, so i'll have to take all my images in to be scanned in clear before I can do any computer editing, which is a downfall. Anyway, heres what I got so far...

Subject One:

The White Rabbit

Heres the (albeit) horrible scan in of my White Rabbit. I fiddled very briefly with the saturation in the computer, but have yet to give it full attention due to the low quality of the scan to start with. I cant decide if I want to add some digital effects in via photoshop yet or not. Im rather enjoying the texture to the piece however.

Subject Two:

The Red Queen

When I first started sketching ideas for the queen, I had her very sultry, but soon decided against that. She needed to be sexy, but not too much, which I felt would be expected of the Queen of Hearts. But she's not just a normal queen, is she? Shes flippin' mad. So I have her more coy than my initial sketches, with roses and mini crowns floating in the back. Unsure on colors yet but leaning towards deep rubys, golds, and blacks. Some purple tones. This will be a very saturated piece.

Subject Three:

Alice

Heres my Alice. I wanted her outfit to be very sexual to contrast the little girl image of Alice, but I kept her face a full mask. It will be painted start white, with rose colored cheeks and lips, to play off that child image everyone has. Her corset will be that beautiful baby blue, while the frill, bow, and most likely the stockings will be white. Hair is blonde of course. Unsure on background colors ...thinking a wash of blue...? So far this is my least favorite of the set. Unsure what it is exactly, but something isn't meshing to me.

Color suggestions welcome!

Color Comp for mailer.

Finally posted a piece of my own art on here, lolz.
Anyway, below is my rough color comp for my mailer. Like i've said before, it's my idea for my mailer. I intend to paint it with watercolors, but since im so sketchy with that sort of thing, I wanted to do a comp or two in the computer. Any suggestions or comments on it, i'd be glad to hear.
I'm thinking of sticking to these three colors, golds, blues, and pinks.
Click on the image to see it in a larger window.

1st Blog!

Alrighty! Pop the champagne, light the candles, watch a Johnny Depp movie...it's my first post!

I've decided to open up a blog to correspond with my new Etsy shop (www.ChristisImagination.etsy.com), as well as my new website link (www.ChristisImagination.com). I hope to keep this updated and pray it won't turn into one of those blogs thats gets updated every five months with "sorry I haven't updated!" but only time will tell with that one.

So i'm excited about the progress i've been making with my art business at the moment...it kind of has been dead in the water for a little while now, but things are finally (hopefully) progressing in the right direction. I bought a new domain name, and if I haven't bought hosting yet, I will be doing that soon. I have a wonderful friend who is helping me with the website construction, so I pray that will be up soon. My old website, www.ChristiThomas.net, was tragic to begin with and not really what I wanted as an illustrator, so I'm hoping this new portfolio site will be the platform to dive off of. I spent all of yesterday designing a new logo and business card/mailer, which I am also extremely pleased with the progress of. Scanned in my mailer ideas today over dinner in order to do a couple color comps with before I touch the actual sheet with paint.

The image is my distortion of the White Rabbit, from Alice in Wonderland. It didn't originally start off with this end goal, but it kind of morphed its way into my series. Through it, however, I was inspired to make a couple more drawings to flesh this set out. It will be a postcard series of the girls of Alice, and they will all be provocative and creepy. While it was originally intended to be my business card sketch, my plan now is to use the White Rabbit as my mailer...haven't settled on a business card idea yet. Once I get adobe up on this computer I will post my ink sketch.


My ideas for color are to keep her light and fleshy, with the clocks and mask filigree being in shades of gold. The background will be a very soft blue...

The ladies in this series will include:

• The White Rabbit
• The Red Queen
• The White Queen
• Alice

My idea for a new logo is based off my ring, and its a coo-coo clock =]

I'll end up posting that as well, i'm sure.

Anyway, like I've said, i'm beyond excited, and have lots planned for this little adventure...

Signing out!
Christi and Jedi