The new paintings are going really well. Slowly, but really well. Looks like I'm going to begin releasing the new paintings starting in the third week of March. I'm working on some fun ways to help release the new works: trivia contests, pondering a contest on helping me name the paintings, and several other ideas resulting in the giving away of free or discounted price prints, as a reward to fans for helping me spread the word about my new paintings with their friends.
Valentine's Day is a couple of weeks away! I'm still thinking on what to give my Valentine this year, but I do know what I'll be giving my fans:I'll be discounting the wedding themed Day of the Dead prints at the Dizzybear Creations webstore up to 50% off (beginning February 1st), and 24 brave and awesome people will get a special treat in the form of a "Valentine's Day Gift Mystery Box".
At the time I'm writing this, there's still 23 Valentine's Day Gift Mystery Boxes left, but they will sell out QUICK when I take them to the gallery next week.
The webstore continues to baffle me. It gets a lot of traffic, but there hasn't been as many sales as I expected. One of the many things I've been doing, to try and change this, is posting all the new items I've been making on the webstore. Often times up to two months before they hit the galleries and stores. The webstore has built in tools that keep track of how many people visit, which pages they look at.... Everything get's looked at a lot, but still, not many sales. It confuses me, because when I take the new items to the galleries and stores, they end up getting priced higher than what I sell the items for on the webstore, and they sell like crazy, often selling out, even at the higher price.
On the positive side, a large percentage of the customers I have had at the webstore, have become repeat customers, so I must be doing something right! :-) I'll be sending out an email on Feb 9th to all the customers at the Dizzybear Creations webstore for a special, customers only Valentine's Day "Show the love" sale.
I've been spending a lot of time this past week crafting silverware windchimes. Like I mentioned in last week's blog, I really like making the windchimes, especially the metal working. I collect the parts and pieces all year long to work with, and once or twice a year I spread everything out all over the studio and spend a week or so working up as much of it as possible, using all the beads left over from jewelry I make. Most of the jewelry pieces I design, will get created numerous times, but what I like most about making the windchimes, each one is different.
Here's a few pictures of some of the items I've been working up in this batch of silverware windchimes, I'll post some pictures of the finished products in next week's blog. All the windchimes will be available at Sedona Green within the next couple of weeks.
This weeks featured paintings are "Autumn Wedding" and "The Cigar Smoker".
"Autumn Wedding" was the 8th painting I did in 2012. How it finished, is not how it was planned though. Originally, this painting was going to feature a man riding a Penny Farthing. A Penny Farthing is an early type of bicycle with a very large front wheel and a small rear wheel, as seen in this picture.
I painted the background first, but before I started on the man and the bike, I did a few preliminary sketches working out the details and realized that the best way to feature a Penny Farthing is from the side, so you see the wheels facing you, like circles. The manner in which I had painted the background however, if I were to paint the man riding the bike facing sideways to the viewer of the painting, he'd be riding the bike in the wrong direction on the road and would quickly be hitting a tree.
I thought for a few days on what to do with the background, and had all sorts of ideas. Most featured different types of vintage cars, but I was never able to sketch out anything I liked and gave up on the idea. At the time Michel and I were starting to plan our wedding, scheduled for the following year, having decided upon a fall wedding, in October of 2013. Since we were having a fall wedding, and I had painted a fall background, it just seemed a perfect subject to finish the painting.
Autumn in Canada is quite different than Autumn in Northern AZ. For one, it's much earlier in the year, and the fall colors dont last quite as long up there. We had our wedding at a lake house north of Montreal, and while there were still some trees with fall colors, we were about a week too late and had missed a majority of the color explosion. It was still a beautiful wedding though. We wanted to get the photographer to take our picture in a similar layout as this painting, but we never got the chance. Hopefully when we do the Arizona wedding, there will be more time for pictures, and a beautiful backdrop of fall color.
"Autumn Wedding" was the 8th painting I did in 2012. How it finished, is not how it was planned though. Originally, this painting was going to feature a man riding a Penny Farthing. A Penny Farthing is an early type of bicycle with a very large front wheel and a small rear wheel, as seen in this picture.
I painted the background first, but before I started on the man and the bike, I did a few preliminary sketches working out the details and realized that the best way to feature a Penny Farthing is from the side, so you see the wheels facing you, like circles. The manner in which I had painted the background however, if I were to paint the man riding the bike facing sideways to the viewer of the painting, he'd be riding the bike in the wrong direction on the road and would quickly be hitting a tree.I thought for a few days on what to do with the background, and had all sorts of ideas. Most featured different types of vintage cars, but I was never able to sketch out anything I liked and gave up on the idea. At the time Michel and I were starting to plan our wedding, scheduled for the following year, having decided upon a fall wedding, in October of 2013. Since we were having a fall wedding, and I had painted a fall background, it just seemed a perfect subject to finish the painting.
"Autumn Wedding" gave me a couple of problems. Most people would guess it to be the dress, with all its detail, but once I figured out the method, it was just a lot of repetition to paint all those ruffles. What did prove to be a challenge was the groom. This painting is the first time I ever gave one of my male Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) characters hair, having always reserved the painting of hair for the women characters. In the original version, he definitely looked like a woman wearing a suit. I painted over the original version of his head and hair twice, as he kept looking very feminine. If you compare the style of his face, to the others painted in 2012, you'll notice that his face is noticeably different than the rest in the series. I ended up painting his face in a "stronger/harsher" fashion, with a bit less fine detail, to give the face a much more masculine feel to counteract the longer hair style which was contributing to making him look like a woman. While working on this phase of the painting though, I decided I definitely do need to do a couple of gay and lesbian wedding paintings. Even more so, now that 37 states in the US recognize same sex marriages, and soon all 50.
"Autumn Wedding" has proved to be a fan favorite and is the second best selling of my wedding themed Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) paintings. Coming in a close second to my very first Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) painting: "The Bride and Groom".
"Autumn Wedding" gave me a couple of problems. Most people would guess it to be the dress, with all its detail, but once I figured out the method, it was just a lot of repetition to paint all those ruffles. What did prove to be a challenge was the groom. This painting is the first time I ever gave one of my male Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) characters hair, having always reserved the painting of hair for the women characters. In the original version, he definitely looked like a woman wearing a suit. I painted over the original version of his head and hair twice, as he kept looking very feminine. If you compare the style of his face, to the others painted in 2012, you'll notice that his face is noticeably different than the rest in the series. I ended up painting his face in a "stronger/harsher" fashion, with a bit less fine detail, to give the face a much more masculine feel to counteract the longer hair style which was contributing to making him look like a woman. While working on this phase of the painting though, I decided I definitely do need to do a couple of gay and lesbian wedding paintings. Even more so, now that 37 states in the US recognize same sex marriages, and soon all 50.5x7 "Autumn Wedding"Print <click here>
8x10 "Autumn Wedding" Print <click here>
11x14 "Autumn Wedding" Print <click here>
The second featured painting this week is "The Cigar Smoker". Until I painted "The Vigilante", which will be featured in about a month, "The Cigar Smoker" was hands down the best seller to men.
This was the second Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) painting I did featuring a Sedona background. The rock formations in the background are Cathedral Rock in Sedona, AZ. I'm not exactly sure why I keep doing it, but several times now, the story cards I've printed for the backside of the prints for this painting, will list the background as Coffee Pot Rock. At least a hundred have been sold with this mistake. If I ever become famous, I would imagine those copies would be more valuable, like a coin or stamp with a mistake are more valuable. I really doubt I'll ever be famous enough for it to matter though. I'm just happy that getting to be creative pays the bills.
This was the second Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) painting I did featuring a Sedona background. The rock formations in the background are Cathedral Rock in Sedona, AZ. I'm not exactly sure why I keep doing it, but several times now, the story cards I've printed for the backside of the prints for this painting, will list the background as Coffee Pot Rock. At least a hundred have been sold with this mistake. If I ever become famous, I would imagine those copies would be more valuable, like a coin or stamp with a mistake are more valuable. I really doubt I'll ever be famous enough for it to matter though. I'm just happy that getting to be creative pays the bills.
While this painting sells well, it's one of my least favorites now. I had retired it a couple years ago, but the owner at Sedona Green asked and asked and asked for me to start reprinting it again, and I eventually gave in.
At the time I painted it, I was pretty happy with how it turned out, as I was still learning how to paint, but looking at it now, I just want to fix all the mistakes in perspective and depth of view. It was first painting I did that had a long depth of view, so several things in the back have too much detail, others in the front have too little, the shadows are weird..... I could go on for several pages.
At the time I painted it, I was pretty happy with how it turned out, as I was still learning how to paint, but looking at it now, I just want to fix all the mistakes in perspective and depth of view. It was first painting I did that had a long depth of view, so several things in the back have too much detail, others in the front have too little, the shadows are weird..... I could go on for several pages.
This is why I dont have much in the way of my own work hanging in my house, I tend to only see the flaws or things I'd want to make better, especially with the earlier pieces. This piece, to me, has the longest list of things that need to be fixed, so every time I see this painting, it just drives me crazy. I have many times wanted to paint over a few spots to fix some of the problems in the earlier paintings, but I like being able to see my paintings improve when compared linearly.
"The Vigilante" was meant to replace this painting, with the poncho, and the cigar. For many people "The Vigilate is preferred, but with the addition of an automatic weapon, and switching to a straw hat instead of the sombrero, many other people prefer "The Cigar Smoker".
"The Vigilante" was meant to replace this painting, with the poncho, and the cigar. For many people "The Vigilate is preferred, but with the addition of an automatic weapon, and switching to a straw hat instead of the sombrero, many other people prefer "The Cigar Smoker".
Prints of all the paintings shown here in this blog are available at the webstore.
"The Cigar Smoker" is on sale this week for 50% off. It is available as a series of specially reprinted, limited edition, hand signed and numbered prints. Limited to a series of only 10.
You can see the other limited edition prints by clicking here or visiting http://dizzybearcreations.storenvy.com and clicking on the "Special Edition Prints" link on the left hand side.
"Autumn Wedding" is available in 3 different sizes and is also discounted for one week only.
Two more paintings next week, and a special contest! Thank you again for sharing my artwork/posts with friends that you think would like my artwork, on your social media accounts: Facebook, twitter, blogger, pinterest, tumblr, ello....
It is INCREDIBLY helpful in getting my artwork out in the world, and is greatly appreciated.
As a little thank you to those who've been reading this blog, when I start releasing the paintings in March, I'll be beginning a trivia contest, asking questions that you'll be able to find the answers to in my blogs. There will be more details coming in March.
It is INCREDIBLY helpful in getting my artwork out in the world, and is greatly appreciated.
This week only, with the purchase of every Spoon Skull Pendant, you'll also receive a FREE Hand Crafted, Vintage Chandelier Crystal, Angel Skull Ornament included with your order (retail value of $12.50). This offer ends on Feb 1st.
If you have any questions you'd like to ask that I can answer in a future blog, you can either post them in the comment section below, or send them to my email dizzybear73@gmail.com
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Ello: https://ello.co/dizzybearcreations
E-mail: dizzybear73@gmail.com
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