Artist's Sunday #4: Nerd Love, Episode 1 - Big Bad Beholders

I'm kicking off the next month of Artist's Sunday with Episode 1 of a series (as I type this, Dragon is peering over my shoulder humming the Star Wars theme music... argh!) celebrating the artisan crafts inspired by various nerdy pursuits. Depending on what I find, these themes could include cosplaying, larping, Steampunk (and/or its various permutations, such as Dieselpunk), Cyberpunk, pen-and-paper gaming, MMO gaming, heroes and monsters of various fandoms, Star Wars, Star Trek (hmm, an entire Sunday devoted to Wars vs. Trek in art form...) and, heck, whatever else I find. This may have to extend longer than one month to squeeze all the awesomeness in, or I may have to do a couple multi-themed posts, or... well, we'll see.

Stay tuned for Twinflame Studio's artistic month of nerddom.

Episode 1: Beholders

Because no Dungeon is complete without a Beholder.

 The Beholder, by emilywarrenart on deviantART

 Beholder by Xiven on deviantART

What the devil is a Beholder, I'm sure some of you will ask. (I salute those of you who do not need to ask, and say namaste. :D)  Beholders are nasty creatures with an evil eye (11 of them, actually...) and a tendency to use those eyes to zap anyone that ventures too close. From the Monster Manual I (3.5): "A beholder is an 8-foot-wide orb dominated by a central eye and a large, toothy maw. Ten smaller eyes on stalks sprout from the top of the orb." They float, and you can't sneak up on one unless it's asleep. Each eye has a different, and devastating, magic power. They are typically kept as watchdogs by villainous adversaries, and no magic-user can think of a beholder without cringing at least a little. Its central eye is constantly emanating an effect that keeps any other magic from functioning, in whatever direction the beholder is looking. 

They are a classic, iconic Big Bad Nasty, the stuff of any adventuring group's nightmares, and the artistic Muse of many an artisan crafter...

Happy Green Beholder by JessicaHCreations on Etsy

Beholder Monster Hat by MageAklya on Etsy

Beholder by ladytech on deviantART

Live, Love, and Make Art

-your Artful White Fox

Artist's Sunday #3: the Unicorn

Artist's Sunday is your Artful White Fox's day to pay it forward, showcasing other artists' work that catches my eye.

After my snarky comments about unicorns on the last Artist's Sunday about Persephone, I decided these lovely creatures needed a little more attention. After all, they've captured the imaginations of fantasy enthusiasts for generations. Maybe I should turn my nose down and remember how I felt, reading those dozen library books over a summer as a kid...

 The Last Unicorn by zamzami on deviantART

Unicorns have inspired literature and myths, arts and crafts, movies, plays, and even dances, since their inception as a mythical beast. The "official" Wikipedia entry says that unicorns have been around since "antiquity" which in this estimation means since the Classical Age, although some translations have rendered a word from the Bible, re'em, as unicorn. Interesting. Unicorns in the Bible? This bears more investigation.

 

Ylthin and Unicorn by xXUnicornXx

Also of note is the fact that they were not a mythological beast to the Greeks. The mentions of Unicorns in Grecian writings are in their natural histories, rendering Unicorns as more of a cryptid than a mythical beast. Grecian experts on natural history were convinced the Unicorn existed in the wilds of distant and exotic India. Popular modern theory is that the Grecian writers were describing the Rhinoceros and the Oryx.

Mechanical Rhinoceros by creaturesfrommel on deviantART

Oryx by KonikPolski on deviantART

Back to the topic at hand, however. Unicorns are typically described as horselike or goatlike, with a single long horn and cloven hooves, and sometimes a goat's beard. They were extremely wild, free creatures, the epitome of purity and grace, and could only be tamed by the touch of a virgin. Its horn was believed to have the power to cleanse water of poisons. In medieval times they represented lovers, chaste love, faithful marriage, and even the relationship between the Virgin Mary and Christ. (Does that make Christ or the Virgin Mary the Unicorn? ;) )

*ahem* Anyway. You're here for the art, not my exposition on the literary history of the Unicorn.

Black Unicorn Horn by FireflyPath on Etsy

Unicorn Spotting Moss Terrarium by MossLoveTerrariums on Etsy

Gold Plated Unicorn Seal by BacktoZero on Etsy

Wall Mount Unicorn Skull by HarlanMcKennaDesigns on Etsy

Handmade Poseable Baby Sherbert Unicorn by Wood-Splitter-Lee on deviantART

Mardi Gras Unicorn Mask by merimask on deviantART

Well, there you have it, boys and girls. It might be a little late (usually I write the draft the night before and schedule it to post early Sunday morning), but I made it. I love doing Artist's Sunday; I find so many new artisans to love, and I love sharing their work with you. <3

Live, Love, and Make Art

-your Artful White Fox

Artist's Sunday #2: Re-kindling Persephone

Been awhile since the White Fox did Artist's Sunday. The blogging life often gets superseded by other things. The holiday season was... taxing, and time- and energy-consuming. So, apologies, dear readers, but here we go again!

Since childhood, your White Fox has been fascinated by mythology and folktales. My favorite stories to read were the Greek myths of Persephone, Hephaestus, Artemis & Orion, the Graces, the Muses... well, you get the idea. There was a phase of obsession with unicorns - and not fluffycorns, by the way - the old stories, the real stories of unicorns that would rip you open with that horn of theirs unless there was a virginal maiden nearby to calm him. I checked about a dozen old books about unicorns from the library that summer and read, and read, and read... these days, however, I'm convinced the unicorns were just randy old goats...

Ylthin and Unicorn by xXUnicornXx

*ahem* I have always adored and been obsessed with dragons of all shapes and sizes. As I grew, I discovered other mythos - the Celtic stories of the Warrior-Queen of Connacht, Cu Chulainn, the Morrigan, Arawn, Arianrhod, the Cailleach, Cerridwen, Bloduwedd, Rhiannon & Llyr, the Tuatha de Danaan, Lugh... other tales, such as the stories of Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca, or Amaterasu, or Inari and his kitsune, or the Jade Emperor, ancient /Mesopotamian mythos, such as Inanna, Ishtar & Ereshkigal, Enlil, Gilgamesh & Enkidu (which she's actually been fascinated with because of an episode of Star Trek: the Next Generation. Extra points if you can name the episode...). The Egyptian mythologies, too, of course... like the story of how the gods had to get Sekhmet drunk on blood-wine to get her to stop taking her job too seriously and slaughtering all the humans. Most recently it's been a fascination with the Phoenix, and re-kindling of Persephone...

Persephone by marcoso86 on deviantART

This Artist's Sunday is dedicated to Persephone, Queen of the Underworld.

She was born to Zeus and Demeter, and was beautiful, and much-loved by everyone, gods and humans alike. Even Hades could not deny her beauty, and he also loved her, so much that he opened the earth one day and stole her away while she was collecting flowers on the plain of Enna. He was so quick that no one but Zeus and Helios, the all-seeing god of the sun, noticed.

Hades and Persephone by Sayara-S on deviantART 

Demeter's heart was broken, and she wandered the earth searching for her daughter, until finally Helios revealed what Hades had done. The grieving mother was so angry that she withdrew herself from the earth, causing the earth to cease to be fertile (fecund...). Zeus took action, knowing that this infertility could not continue, and sent Hermes to Hades, to make the god of the Underworld release Persephone.  Hades agreed, but not before he had given Persephone a pomegranate. Eating from the pomegranate bound her to the Underworld, and she is forever fated to live there for one-third of every year. The rest of the year, she lives with her mother, Demeter, and there is joy and life in the earth.

 Demeter by JynetteTigner on deviantART

When Persephone must return to the Underworld, Demeter refuses to let anything grow. This is how winter came to the world.

Some say she loved Hades in return, and ate the pomegranate seeds on purpose, so she could be with him, and Demeter would still allow the earth to grow. Personally, I prefer this version of the tale, but I'm a hopeless old romantic at heart...

And now a little more eye candy for your savoring, before I sign off on this Artist's Sunday:

 Persephone's Jewel by BloodMilk on Etsy

Persephone Athame by Eliora on Etsy

Persephone's Choice Note Card by ElementsArtifacts on Etsy

Bronze and Silver Pomegranate Pendant by WingedLion on Etsy

Live, Love, and Make Art

Ever Yours,
the Artful White Fox

Foxfire Daily: Documented Life Project, Chapter 2

Week 4: Write a secret message and paint over all but one word.

Ok, so I cheated slightly and painted (colored-penciled) over all but 4 words. But Artistic License is what it's all about, right? And I do love me some artistic license... I look at this and see amateurish work - too many angles combined with the organic look of other parts, crappy color combnations, and let's not even go into the "doodles" on the left-hand side of the page - but then I remind myself that I'm out of practice. And I don't have a lot of materials to work with. The only part of this I'm really pleased with is the message I chose, and the Celtic knotwork at the top of the page. 

 Now, next up, for your perusal... remember those leaves from my last post? With no glue, no fancy-pants gouache or any other such thing, I found some gift-wrap tape at the bottom of a box and went to town. You can barely tell where the edges of the tape are. (I hope.) I'm just glad my Bic markers actually stayed on the tape.

Thirdly, my initial (official) attempt at the Week 5 Doodled Border, which mutated into something with no border as of yet, but... well, see for yourself:

Week 6: Open Your Pinterest Board and be Inspired. The lotus has been blooming in my mind lately, as you can see in this in-progress pic. My inspiration was not any one board or artist, but antique Chinese jade carvings. I actually went a little hog-wild for a couple of days straight, obsessively collecting pictures of various and sundry jade sculptures, urns, jewelry, etc and pinning them to my board. You can see the WIP results:

This last one... the flame and the lotus roots... was in part brought into being due to my uncle's touching tribute to his father, who went on to the Summerlands very recently. He was a sweet, darling man who inspired his sons and was greatly loved. His passing came just after a trip with several family members to Panama, where he had done psychoanalytical work with dreams with a tribal chieftan. The chief actually came from several islands away to visit with this man during the vacation. The photos from the trip were a beautiful tribute to my uncle's father, and such a blessing that he got to have that adventure with his family before taking a path they couldn't follow. May we all be so lucky when it's our time.

Live, Love, and Make Art
Ever Yours,
-the Artful White Fox.

Foxfire Daily: Documented (Artful Reader's) Life Project

Your favorite Artful White Fox Has begun some new personal projects on top of and working around studying up on her new wireworking technique books, and so I thought I'd share some pix of the work:

Documented Life Project, a community effort where members create art journal pages based on weekly prompts from the organizers. Here's some of my efforts.

My journal, acquired years ago, never used until now, and wrapped in an OmegaWolfe Designs leather case:

You can also see my Week 1 project on the right, which was to photograph or draw your front door. Since my front door is not technically -my- front door, I decided to draw what I'd like it to look and feel like someday.

My Week 2 project, "selfie":

I've been tired, stressed, and worn out lately, with good reason. But, I'm also clinging to some last vestiges of hope and looking up...

Week 3, incorporating envelopes from the mail into the journal:

The leaves were collected here in Albemarle this past Autumn, as were the flowers. The yellow one is from the flowers my Dragon planted in secret one night for me, spread all over the other side of the road... The envelopes with the flowers and leaves scrawled on them are keeping my dried leaves and flowers safe until I can come up with a way to incorporate them in my journal. And you can see the Dragonling bombing my project with her own leaf.

Week 4 is "Write a secret message and paint over all but one word" and I'm still deciding what my message should be...

And this is where I realize (and panic) that amongst all this, I've been neglecting my Artful Reader thing. Well, maybe if I miss January, they won't hate me. Maybe I can double up one month. Or... oh, hell, I'll come up with something.

-your Artful (busy) Fox. 

Foxfire Daily: Zentangle, and a note on Artist's Sunday

So I didn't post on Sunday. I know, I know, your dear wildland Fox promised a scheduled post every Sunday, paying it forward to other artists' works, but I was at my mother's on Sunday, with my computer... but without a power cord. (And the battery had done its slow-motion-explosion thing for the second time since I have owned my Mac, and I can't afford to replace it right now... argh...) So there was no Artist's Sunday because I am a forgetful Fox. My apologies. The regular scheduled Sunday will resume this weekend.

Zentangle by Khuce on deviantART

With that out of the way... Zentangle!!! What the devil is that, you ask?? Well, I asked the same question. Turns out that a lot of the pattern doodling that kids just *did* in class when the teacher wasn't looking is now considered an abstract artistic therapeutic expressional technique for men, women, boys and girls of all ages and all walks of life. But Fox, what does that mean in not-artist and not-therapist language...? *ahem* It means that it's an art form that is now used by therapists (and parents, and kids, and... well, you get the idea) to draw out things from the subconscious. Call it artistic meditation, if you like. Turns out there are special techniques and methods, and you can get certified as a teacher of this Zentangle technique, and there are special kits you can buy, and all sorts of money-making mumbo jumbo...

It's also *just* an art form, but then aren't most art forms more than one thing anyway?

Frame Scape by gisellemendes on deviantART

And here I thought it was just abstract pattern art that I (and everyone else in my class) doodled as a kid. It's turned into its own art form, much like the classical styles, and people are making money off of teaching other people how to do it, and selling "kits" to "tangle" with, and...

I suppose my point is, I don't know how to feel about this - the moneymaking part of it, anyway. I loved doing it as a kid, but I feel like I've lost the trick of it... but would I pay someone else to help me re-learn how to do it? Would I spend money on a "kit" to teach my kids how to "tangle"? As well ask if I feel it's necessary to go to art school to be an artist (but that's a whole other post...)

kalabalik by peymane on deviantART

Now, don't get me wrong; I've seen what people are doing with these techniques and some of it is absolutely fantastically awesome. But I find it hard to believe that it's necessary to charge for learning this sort of technique. Do a Google image search, and I bet you could learn just as much...

So what do you think? Is Zentangle legit? Is it worth spending the money on classes or kits the same way one would spend money on, say, a chainmaille weaving class, or an oil painting seminar, or a sculpting class?

Paisley Peacock by Ladyegg on deviantART

Foxfire Daily: Worktable

 Fox's work today: some crystals, a chunk of raw (unpolished) amber, some painted bone bits, an ear cuff, and a delicate little labradorite pendant. Still practicing the basket-weaving technique. Better photos coming, I promise!

And a Wyrmling Interlude... the 2-yr-old decides it's time to practice her color words with Mommy's pens. This is what homeschooling looks like for an artist.

Artist's Sunday #1: Church for an Artist

I'll come right out and say it. I don't go to church. I find them... unpleasant. Not because of the religion, but because... well. There are several reasons, and this post is not about those. Instead, I will do as I came to do, and show you one of the ways I find church at home, as I feel it was meant to be: a communion between like-minded individuals.

What does communion mean? Community, sharing, supporting and loving one another, a coming-together for a common goal. Right? There's also the body and blood of Christ thing (which is a form of sharing), but that's not what I'm getting at. So what does this have to do with an artist's church?

This: sharing love of one's passion with like-minded individuals (and one's audience!) is, to me, one of the finer forms of church and communion, celebrating one's fellows and their gifts, their talents and skills.

I am going to celebrate other artists' works here, and on the Studio's Facebook page, and I'm going to attempt to do this every Sunday. This is my first attempt at scheduling my posts, trying to do something orderly... (I'm normally an exceptionally chaotic person, and I do my best work surrounded by my own personal forms of said chaos.) So, from deviantART today, I'm going to share some of the Studio's favorite works.

Today will be dedicated to some of the more unusual and unique uses of artistic mediums I have ever seen, that inspire me to find my own new, unusual, and unique methods of combining my own mediums.

Alkhymeia uses wire wrap techniques and 

Polymer Clay to create super-unique wearable art:

Meet and Clash between Blue and Magenta, by Alkhymeia on deviantART

AmberSculpture's amber and wood necklaces... 

earthy, elegant, gorgeous, and totally unique:

Amber and Wood Necklace 1317, by AmberSculpture on deviantART

Kanzashi is an intriguing Japanese art of fabric folding. 

SincerelyLove makes them into wearable pieces:

White Frost Kanzashi by SincerelyLove on deviantART

And last but not least... cucumbers! Yes, cucumber jewelry. Take a closer look,
you might be surprised. Ilionej took a school workshop topic and turned it into this:

Green of Life by Ilionej on deviantART

Fox's Muse: Help Pick One!

As my self-imposed hiatus ends (I hope) and I feel some measure of renewed dogged tenacity for my work (enthusiasm's running a bit low, so all I've got to work with is stubbornness), I feel this is an appropriate time for a request for feedback.

I am attempting to create a simple logo that I can paint/engrave/imprint on my work as a signature. I have created three different versions of a simple line kitsune. I don't know which I prefer.  So I need some help!

Look at this picture (ignore the weird winged thing in the upper left hand corner and concentrate on the foxes please) and tell me which you like better:

1. Sitting-up Fox
2. Long-ways Dancing Fox
3. Curled-up Fox
4. Find a way to use all three!!! 

Copyright Leigh Evans 2013. 

Do not steal, use, alter, or redistribute without permission.

Foxfire Daily: Paint the Runes

All painted up and drying. The other bone bits will become pendants and earrings. Now's the time to weigh in if you want a custom piece. *wink wink nudge nudge*

Foxfire Daily: Cut and Shape the Bones

Fox is working on a new Rune set, cut from whitetail deer rib bones. It's a pain in the fuzzy tail when all she has to work with is a hand saw and some detail files, but the bones whisper and sing, and she works until her hands ache and her skin is raw...

She forgets, while she works, sometimes to breathe, or eat, or drink. She communes with her materials and mediums, and they nourish her, body and soul, until she doesn't need anything external to sustain her...

And then when she finishes, and comes back to herself, she realizes she's ravenous, and thirsty, and aching... but it was so worth it.

And as a bonus: a 10-song excerpt from Fox's Muse Playlist, as she works with the bones today: 
The Root of All Evil by Abney Park
Berlin by Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
Blue Alice by Ayria
Anthem of Our Dying Day by Story of the Year
Joy by VNV Nation
Black Sheep by Metric
Skin is Burning by Burlap to Cashmere
The Wrath of Fate by Abney Park
The Living Daylights by a-Ha
Savin' Me by Nickelback.

Dragoncraft: Antiques and Inklings, Oh My!

First on the agenda for today: Dragon has created his direction, or perhaps reinvented it. As I said previously, he loves old things and is truly in his element when surrounded by them.  The area we live in currently is rich in history and old, deep roots, and rich in antiques. Imagine how excited a dragon would get with so many antique stores and "pickable" places so close by.

Remember, we promised some treasures from Dragon's Hoard? Well, those three treasures are now up on his own, separate shop on Etsy:

From Tinctures to Taxidermy: Antique Sales and Consultations

Also, #2 Limited Edition Deer Bone Inkling, Ziggy, 

is up for sale in the Studio Etsy Shop. 

Go over to Dragon's shop and show him some love, please! And help Ziggy find a home.

Much love and many blessings,
-White Fox

Foxfire Daily: Imagery

Sorry, I don't have sources for these - they've been sent around 

Facebook so long I don't think they have original sources anymore...