A Smile in the Making

Rob Kalin, founder of Etsy, on Martha Stewart thanks to Mothtoflame.

Here is a short test from the bbc you can take to determine if you can spot a genuine or fake smile. I thought that seeing as my blog is called A Smile in the Making, it might be kind of fun.

Theme for Illustration Friday this week is Garden. This is another illustration for my friend's story.

Saw my son this week in Madison. BRRRR it was cold there! Said there is new music to download on The Dorothy Heralds MySpace page

Illustration Friday topic this week is Heavy.

What is heavier than lead? Well, I am sure there are other things heavier than lead, but we do say "Get the lead out" when we think someone is moving too slow. Oh well. Just had some fun with photoshop and have always wanted to do something with the first layer style that comes up in my default menu -- the bubbles.

Before and after pictures of front walkway on my other blog. Mahan Services from Oxford did the work.

Art News Blog gave me a shout out on the Innocent Spam today.

Seems I am not the only one who thinks their spam folder gets some strange stuff.

Got a logo set up. Now to get going on screenprinting.

You have to check out Karen Hetzer's new service of painting on screens. What a neat idea and I could see them fitting in so well in the wonderful residences in downtown Philly. Reminds me of some of the trompe l'oeil work that William Cochran has done in Frederick Maryland.

I had not seen the portrait that she has posted in this listing before. I think it is great just like the one she did of her grandson. Glad to see that she is now offering portrait work.

Join Linda Dubin Garfield for a meet and greet on
April 1, 2008 from 6 to 8 PM
at the London Grill, second floor
23rd and Fairmount Ave in Philadelphia.

Topics for discussion including free materials about how to:
set and reach goals
improve your web presence
tweak your portfolio
CASH BAR and delectable hors d'oeuvres!!
Contact Linda at smartbusinessconsulting@verizon.com and let her know you are coming:

Can I call myself an international artist now? :-)

Was checking the stats on my other blog when I noticed a huge increase in traffic.

Apparently there is an article written by Andras Foldes about my innocent spam on an Hungarian online news site The Index

While I dont read Hungarian, I guess the jist of it is that this is some new internet folk art and they have invited their readers to submit ones of their own. Someone left some links in the comments to some online translation sites. This one seems to work fairly well.

So while I wasnt trying to figure out this mystery, I discovered that the gocco screen is too fine for the fabric paint. So in the process of burning a screen right now out of the PhotoEZ material which is not so tightly woven.

Looking at putting the images up on Zazzle so people can order tshirts from there. It looks like I can get things printed front and back (I want the logo to go in the space between the shoulders and below the neck in the back).

Update. Cafepress prints front and back also. Now I have to refresh myself on how each site works.

Have applied for a couple local art fairs this summer and figured these would fit in with the market.

Off to check if the screen is ready.

Update. There comes a time when one must not be influenced by their frugal "I can do it myself" upbringing and just pay to have things done.

My latest Innocent Spam.

Was watching American Idol the other night. I like David Archuleta, tho there are others that sing really well too. He seems very genuine.

But there has been something about him that reminded me of someone.

Meanwhile, I awoke with a really bad headache today, so I didnt get to any screen printing.

Decided I needed to make a frame to hold the silk screen. In the demo video from the supplier, all they did was tape one edge of the screen. In my attempts the other day, the untaped edge would lift up as I used the squeegee. The do have some screens available from the supplier, but of course, I did not know that I would need one. So I am making one out of a stiff plastic report cover.

I did manage to get some IS cards printed and submitted them to a greeting card company in Chicago this afternoon. Fingers crossed.