spring 2003

~ Friday, June 13, 2003

 
Nothing exciting to report. I’ve been focusing on moving ahead on new paintings (now that my last batch are complete) in a slightly assembly line-ish “yes, I’m running a marathon” way. I decided to try to tackle gathering photo reference and compositional sketches for twenty new cards. When I got to sixteen, I decided enough was enough. Now I’m in the process of scanning the sketches to transfer them onto watercolor paper, which I’ll wet and stretch onto wooden boards. Once the paper dries, I’ll move onto painting, first in watercolor, then oil glazes.

I have to say that having a computer has sped up my working process considerably. It’s also enhanced the creative parts of my job by reducing the repetitive tasks involved. One example: I used to manually transfer my sketches onto paper, either by tracing from a light box or by using graphite paper. Very boring and time consuming! Now I just scan my drawings into my computer, and then print them directly onto the watercolor paper, using an oversize epson 3000 printer. I can even colorize my drawings, giving them a nice subtle tint, or make them as light or dark as I like. This process (or lack of it) leaves me with a lot more energy for the important work of painting. I also think that my initial drawings have a lot more energy than the traced versions did, which can only help the art in the long run.

posted by kris at 2:51 PM

~ Friday, June 06, 2003

 
Just posted six new paintings on the website! Three more are still drying/need a little more work. At this point, I’ll wait to work on them when I’ve got more oil paintings underway — I’ll be more efficient this way.

I’m glad to be (once again) making some progress. But to be honest, I’m feeling concerned about my deadline, though it’s still months away. I wasn’t as productive, art-wise, as I scheduled myself to be in May. I do need to pick up the pace a bit.

It would help if I stopped allowing myself to be distracted by unimportant details. I’m working the paintings up 250% from reproduction size, which is quite large; for comparative purposes, I worked up only 133% for the main art in Sacred Animals. Since the cards are so small, I didn’t feel comfortable working any smaller. It’s too hard on my hands, too difficult to get the level of detail I desire. That said, I have to remind myself how small the art will be when reproduced, and not get so caught up in minutia — in other words, stop staring at the trees and see the forest. A lot of those hair curls, twisting leaves, decorative patterns, et cetra, won’t even be legible this small.

posted by kris at 10:22 PM

~ Wednesday, June 04, 2003

 
Finally finished up those paintings hanging around the studio. They had been waiting there for a while as I worked on updating the website, the book dummy, and everything else, in a state of tantalizing near completion. As soon as they dry, I’ll scan and post them!

I’m now at a stage in this project where I think about how much I’ve got done, and how much I’ve yet to do, in terms of percentages. The score stands at 22 finished paintings, 56 to go — approximately less than 1/3rd/more than 1/4 of the way through. Or, in other words, I’m making progress.

I’ve just mapped out my next round. I think I’m going to tackle a few court cards, as well as a few more major arcanas. So, after I post this, I’ll organize my photo reference for those. Speaking of photo reference, my photographs of Joe (for King Mark, of Tristan and Isolde) came out great. I’m hoping Nick will pose for Zeus sometime next week, and have an idea to approach two other friends to pose for Abelard and Heloise. So many details to think of!

posted by kris at 10:44 PM

~ Tuesday, May 27, 2003

 
Just updated the rest of the Lover’s Path Tarot site (or what I have to post at this time). I also added links from most of artandwords.com, my “official” author’s site. I also set up the preliminary design for the tarot oracle — no text or card art yet, but hopefully soon. There’s still so much to do, but at least I can feel that some progress has been made.

Anyway, a website is never done. It only reaches statis. So I’m telling myself that the most important thing is to plot out the architecture for the future. Then it’s just a matter of filling in the missing pieces as I go along. Even in this early stage, I think/hope people will have fun exploring my “palazzo of the imagination”. (Love that expression!) There’s also the wish that the site will generate interest in The Lover’s Path. It would be nice to have a receptive audience waiting for it when it’s finally published.

Now back to the studio for more painting! Plan to post more art within the week. . . .

posted by kris at 4:16 PM

 
On the art front, Joe also came and posed for me. As I suspected, he made a very soulful King Mark. He’d never posed for an artist before, but he did great. He warned me, “Don’t ask me to smile — I get self conscious.” I told him not to worry, since King Mark is meant to be a mournful figure. Still have to get the photos developed.

I also received photos from my sister, who lives on the west coast, for Penelope. She’s a weaver — perfect!

posted by kris at 4:03 PM

~ Thursday, May 15, 2003

 
Finally finished up on revising my book dummy for The Lover’s Path (the novel, not the tarot deck). So now I’m switching back to finishing up those ten almost-there paintings waiting for me in the my studio.

As usual, what I thought would take a day or two took more like three, though I’m pleased with the way the book dummy turned out. My main problem was that my computer wasn’t very cooperative: some of the files crashed when I tried to create an adobe acrobat file of all my work, and I had to redo some work. To be honest, I suspect that the book dummy file was way too much of a memory hog for even my fairly powerful and usually reliable G4 to comfortably process. In the end, I broke down the dummy thirty pages at a time, which worked okay. Then I ran out of black ink. An emergency run to J&R Computers yielded no cartridge in stock. Ditto for Staples, despite their boldly posted guarantee to have all inkjet cartridges in stock. (When I asked a sales person about this, she replied, “But that’s only for inkjet cartridges in stock.” Go figure.) I finally gave up and ordered online, which was probably the cheapest and fastest solution after all that, and exactly 36 hours later, have the cartridge here in my hands. So I’ll print out (hopefully without further drama) while I go back to my oils.

All I can write is that mercury must be retrograde. Things are plain less complicated with paints and brushes — but I do love my mac, even when it’s fussy.

Click here to see a sample page spread from my novel.

posted by kris at 3:17 PM

~ Saturday, May 10, 2003

 
Inspiration, persistant muse that she can be, has suddenly struck me: I realized while trying to sleep last night that I now have enough art from The Lover’s Path Tarot to flesh out what remains to be done on my illustrated novel, which inspired this deck.

Each chapter in The Lover’s Path (which is what my novel, not surprisingly, is titled) has an opening illustration, which sets the mood for the text to follow. This concept is inspired by a fifteenth century Venetian illustrated book (whose name I know I cannot spell off the top of my head, so I won’t humiliate myself by attempting here).

So I’ve switched over. I’m quickly working in Photoshop, resizing the tarot deck art to fit into my book dummy. I’m also thinking that I want more chapter breaks than I originally planned since more chapter breaks = more art = a more intensely illustrated book. Which would make me happier, since once concern I had about The Lover’s Path was that it was too much of a hybrid, with not enough art, and not enough words to be clearly marketted as an illustrated book. After all, if a publisher’s going to pay for four color printing, there should be enough art to warrant the expense.

I’m hoping this will only take a day or two — especially since all those tarot paintings await me, so tempting and, more importantly, so close to completion. But I’m telling myself that once I get this book proposal with art together, I can show my literary agent what’s what. Hopefully she’ll be able to offer enough feedback for me to decide what to do next.

It’s such a process! But I’m curious and excited to see how my long-aborning novel will look with most of the art placed in it.

posted by kris at 9:18 PM

~ Friday, May 09, 2003

 
As promised, at last I’ve posted a sneak peek at the art for The Lover’s Path Tarot. So far, I’ve gotten only 14 of the cards scanned. There’s another ten paintings ready, as soon as the oil paint dries. Stay tuned!

posted by kris at 5:39 PM

~ Wednesday, May 07, 2003

 
The work on The Lover’s Path Tarot is going well — but not as quickly as I’d like. (You knew there had to be a “but” there, didn’t you?) Yet, all things considered, I’m making good progress. If things continue at this pace, I should definitely make my deadline of November 1.

Right now, I have almost 1/4 of the art for the deck finished. And I can rationalize that about 1/3rd of the deck is there, if I consider the artwork currently underway: right now, there are a dozen paintings in various stages of finish lined up around my studio perimeters, awaiting my attention. This is because I usually work on several paintings at the same time, so I can go back and forth between them as the oil paint dries. A dozen is a lot, more than I’ve ever worked on at once! I scarcely have room for them all, but I do feel this helps me to be more efficient. And believe it or not, it does. There’s also the psychological benefit of feeling that so much of the deck is underway, even if it’s not finished. 78 paintings is a lot of paintings, far more than any illustrated book I’ve ever worked on!

Even though so many paintings are in progress, I’m thinking ahead to what I need to do to keep work flowing. I don’t have photo reference for some of the cards yet — which means that I need models to sit for me. So this week at orchestra rehearsal (I play cello in a community orchestra for fun), I approached our conductor to pose as Zeus, for the myth of Danae and Zeus for my “Wheel of Fortune” card. Everyone who knows him says this is a perfect juxtaposition of looks and character, since Nick is tall, dark and slightly saturnine-looking (in a good way). He’s also very charismatic, as a lot of conductors are, and have to be. I also asked one of my co-cellists to pose for King Mark, from Tristan and Isolde, who also readily agreed. Joe has this beautiful face, serene yet a sad acceptance to his eyes at times, which I think would work well. Plus it helps that he’s an older man with beautiful white hair.

As you can tell, I do like using models whom I have a personal connection with; I think it helps make the work more resonant. The entire Goddess Tarot was posed for my friends, btw, and I think it shows. It also reflects my belief that the divine is human, the human divine.

posted by kris at 12:12 PM

~ Sunday, May 04, 2003

 
Well, I’ve finally gotten this blog set up. It took me a bit of time to figure it out. More coming soon — now I just have to get my e-mail list together, and start setting up the website.

In my last journal update I wrote about how The Lover’s Path Tarot was going to happen: I’d just signed the contract with US Games (who also published The Goddess Tarot), and had been assigned a November 1, 2003 deadline. Since then, I’ve been in a state of deadline overdrive!

It’s exciting, but also stressful. I love working on huge projects, but there are so many details to coordinate that it can be mind boggling. To avoid this, I make lists upon lists for everything I have to do. I also have a basic schedule, which usually gets ignored after a while. I also made up a status sheet for each element of the tarot deck, these ranging from research to finished painting and all stages in between.

Now that I’ve organized everything, the work is just flowing out of me without much coaxing. So I’ve been trying to take advantage of it as much as possible –meaning, I’m working as much as I can. I’ve also made a few changes in my way of working which has really speeded up my process, mainly working on hot press Arches watercolor paper, instead of cold. (This is what my friend Dale Dyer, also an illustrator, uses and he seems to work more efficiently than I do.) With the hot press, I can print my sketches directly onto the paper after scanning them into my computer — a real time saver. In terms of painting the cards, I’m working with oils over watercolors, after protecting the watercolor with a coat of crystal clear fixative and acrylic gel medium. Complicated as it sounds, this method is much faster than working in straight oils (which take forever to dry, alas). It’s also kinder on my lungs.

I’m pretty happy with what I’m doing so far. Though I’d originally planned to work on the minor arcana first, I seem to be working all over the deck — basically wherever inspiration is striking. It helps that I’ve collected a good array of photo reference for this project. Christy, the female model who posed for many of the paintings, is very renaissance-y looking, with a smooth pale face, wonderfully expressive hands. And Charles, my male model, has wonderful muscle definition and a great profile. So that’s helping a lot.

posted by kris at 7:34 PM

~ Monday, April 28, 2003

 
After much consideration, I’ve decided to continue my new project journal as a web log — much more effective than wrangling with bulk e-mails and bouncebacks. This will make it much easier for me to post more often as well!

As of January 25, 2003, The Lover’s Path Tarot is a go! (And I’m a poet and don’t know it
Seriously now, I recently received the contract from US Games for this new project. It’s been signed and countersigned and mailed back to me. All I’m waiting on now is the final dimensions for the art and other technical information. And I need to more quickly: It’s going to be a tight deadline, since all art (seventy-eight cards worth) and words (enough for an accompanying book) are due before the end of 2003, for 2004 publication. Fortunately, I operate well under pressure. Plus I have the experience of creating The Goddess Tarot to aid me; this time around, I’ll be able to anticipate ways to work more efficiently.

The Lover’s Path Tarot was inspired by an illustrated novel I’ve been working on for a while, also entitled The Lover’s Path, which is set in the Italian Renaissance. Both tarot deck and novel incorporate classic love myths and stories from around the world, ranging from Tristan and Isolde to Dante and Beatrice; from Cupid and Psyche to Isis and Osiris.

I’m elated. I’m also excited and determined — excited to get working, and determined to create the most beautiful and inspiring art and words that I can. I feel fortunate to have a big project at hand which will require all of my concentration and talents. I’m eager to see this new project come to fruition.

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