Halloween!

O.K.! I am officially excited about Halloween! I have created a bunch of cards in plenty of time for my favorite holiday! I could just keep going... We will see. I even created a Halloween themed station on Pandora to inspire me, but Pandora hasn't got the hang of it yet. Anyway, so far, I have a wiccan ceremony in which a chalice is displayed in worship of the mother goddess (this was meant to illustrate the fact that the use of a chalice (the holy grail) predates Christianity. Although in fairness, the Zoroastrians also used it as did the Roman spin off Mithraism, early Hindus (also evolving from the same culture as the Persian Zoroastrians aka the wise men visiting the baby Jesus) as well as the Greeks and basically everyone with a cup and a Deity to worship. But I digress. This is the first painting that I utilised my favorite celestial object the cone nebula; which lends itself nicely to being raiment for the Goddess. The Priestess embodies and becomes the Goddess. That painting is from my student days in days gone by.
Next, I painted specifically for this Halloween, another rendition utilizing the cone nebula, this time as the Goddess herself manifesting over a field where thirteen fires represent a coven of wiccans summoning her. In this piece, I made use of watercolor pencils that I received as an anniversary gift from my girlfriend. I suspect I may have freaked her out a little with my near obsession with witches and witchcraft (in July no less! It's only Halloween to me!). If I did, she had too much grace to let me see it.

At this point, I decided to paint a picture of a black cat. I searched the web, the library and the used book stores looking for the right cat. I think I found one that was relaxed, yet stared back at the viewer in a challenging way that may confront the viewer.
Then, continuing my focus on witches (Halloween may mean dress up and Frankenstein, but it was originally a Wiccan holiday; one of several sabots or witches' Sabbaths - Black Sabbaths. It's the most important holiday on their calendar, so this has been my focus. I may lighten up a little after this. However, before I lighten up, I painted a picture of a girl in Puritan dress circa 1692 Salem Mass. She is at her hearth where a cauldron hangs. she sits with a black cat at her lap and a giant pumpkin by her. For fun I gave her a corn cob pipe. In one of the cards I created, I included a quote from one of the women executed for witchcraft: Mary Easty. She was later exonerated. "I know not the least thing of witchcraft, therefore cannot, I dare not belie my own soul."

Then, finally relenting to the urge to have a laugh, I made a cartoon of Monster proportions. As I'm going to display it with the others, I won't describe it as explanations of cartoons tend to diminish any humor they may possess.

More Weight.

Well, it had to happen; sooner or later I was bound to create another post for my blog. Surprise surprise: I have been painting and creating cards. I painted a cat for Halloween. I think painting may take more out of me than I think, but it's hard to follow up a painting by coming out of the shoot running. I really like this painting. I call it "Bad Luck." I went through a lot of scrap looking for the right cat. I bought a book about cats, which is good because I like cats and will probably paint more.

Next I want to paint a witch; but of course I can't just paint a green skinned, pointy hat wearing, broom riding mother-in-law. No. I want to paint a woman from Salem Mass. circa 1692. I know, I know... these women (and men) were killed for being something they weren't: witches. At least most modern experts agree they weren't guilty of "bedeviling" their accusers. But it is precisely their martyrdom that makes me want to paint them. They were the oppressed, the marginalized. They were the easy targets. There are several quotes which illustrate their courage. One man was pressed to death. This means he was placed between heavy stones and unless he would name accomplices (more innocent people to be tortured and killed), he would slowly be crushed to death. His final words were reportedly; "more weight."

It is really hard to find period costume for the area. I have looked at pictures from "The Crucible," and books containing colonial art, and realised that the time period is the Baroque, and the clothing is similar to Dutch and lowland costume of the same period. This means Rembrandt and Vermeer. Yay! Rubens was Catholic and the Puritans were Protestant which is what the Baroque means to me. The clothing is still similar.

I painted a mermaid for my friend's birthday. I've also been trying my hand at sanskrit caligraphy. The above is pronounced, "Namaste." which means; "the holy in me salutes the holy in you."

& NOW FOR A SHORT DIGRETION INTO POLITICORELIGIOUS HISTORY

Greetings, weary traveler! Welcome to another edition of the exciting new blog everyone's talking about! Oh wait. No, welcome to Azule Blue Dragon instead. Well, I have been hard at work, making cards, friends on facebook, and trouble in general. My facebook fanpage; known as bluedragon connections, if you aren't near a link, has 85 fans so far, but I went from getting a four star rating to zero to one. People click "like" and then don't interact anymore than that. That doesn't bother me, but I still have made only two sales on cards and I have to figure out a way to market my cards to people who are looking for them.

Well, I just keep moving forward; or as fish savant Dory would say, "just keep swimming." I post at least once a day on all three facebook walls, make new cards, examine what I think makes other people's cards good or interesting, and researching new subjects and marketing strategies.
I'm exploring the various theories on "search engine optimization", which is why I've done all the things I've done so far, but clearly more needs to be done.

More interesting to me is the new cards I've made. A few utilize a new painting I created combining my favorite deep space object: the cone nebula, with pictures I found of witches celebrating Halloween, which they call "Samhain" pronounced "Sowen". When I was younger, I became interested in this phenomena and did some research. I had a real "through the looking glass moment" when I realized that real witches don't worship the devil. The religion, now known as "Wicca", predates Christianity. When Constantine; a Roman Emperor, converted to Christianity, Christianity took on many aspects of Roman Culture; centralized authority, and conquering the world. To this end, whenever opposition was found that couldn't be overcome with a sword, God was used as a weapon. In this way non Christians were made to convert to Christianity or be killed, usually after torture. To justify this, the deities of other religions were made to be the devil, and the followers of these other religions were said to be devil worshipers. That would be like making a Hindu or Buddhist out to be devil worshippers today (which some people do) The funny thing is witches don't even worship a male god; they worship a Mother Goddess. Her consort is the "Horned God", and the patriarchal early Christians mistook him as the main Deity of the wiccans. They said he was the devil. This is one of the primary sources for the modern view of the appearance of the devil.

Anyway, I try to have respect for all religions (including Christianity) but I feel the need to explain my affinity for the Wiccans.
In fact, I have also made cards utilizing prayers from the Catholic Rite of Mass. Specifically "Gloria" & "Sanctus".


Finally, I have crafted an ink and brush rendering in Sanskrit of the word "yoga". The word means "Union with God" and, being indo-european etymologically speaking shares the same root as the word "yoke" in English. I hope to create many more cards using Sanskrit calligraphy.

JUST MY TYPE!

I'm thinking of changing the name of this blog to "Bad Blogger" because of how remiss my posting is. Anyway; here with another installation of the latest news from bluedragon greeting cards is your intrepid reporter. When last we saw our hero, he was pining for an application to put on his netbook that would allow him to add type to his greeting cards. The website that publishes the cards provides a format for an inner message; but the image on the front of the card must be uploaded as it will appear on the card. Every computer has a word processor of some kind, but the website requires that images be uploaded as jpegs.
Well, "Mission accomplished" as one of our former presidents was wont to say. I purchased PRINT ARTIST SILVER. It is perfect for my purposes. My netbook doesn't have a CD ROM drive however, and as you may be aware, most programs come on CDs to be loaded onto computers. So, I put it on my PC, and split it into two "thumb drives" leaving off a ton of clip art that I don't need and don't have room for.
I immediately set to putting type on lots of images. It takes longer than I thought, and I had to overcome a couple of hurdles along the way, but the end result is exactly what I needed.
NEW: FAN PAGE ON FACEBOOK!
I also started a fan page on face book. Become a fan today! Actually, first I started a whole new account just to promote my greeting cards! I went to the greeting card universe page on facebook and friended about 200 people on the fan list. this is a slow process as it takes me back to the first person on the list after each request which of course has two windows to approve before proceeding.

I've been spending a lot of time working on these two pages, so I haven't done much else. My next move is to start those Halloween cards and more fairy cards. I'm gathering images and ideas to work from right now!

High Time!

Well, It's high time I wrote another post! My girlfriend writes way more than I do. I am such a slacker. Much has happened since my last post: the most exciting of which is that I made my first sale! Somebody bought 2 of my cards! That's a big $1.12 for me! Well, you have to start somewhere, I guess. To date I have 63 aproved cards in my store that I have created since I set it up back in March. The past 2 months has seen 250 store visits, and 298 card clicks. Whatever that means. I have 14 cards pending, most of them father's day cards. Father's day is in 2 weeks and it takes a week for delivery; so I kind of missed the boat on father's day. A forum inquiry informed me that in order to really capitalize on a holiday card, I should submit them 3 or 4 months in advance to get them into the engine searches. Once again: whatever that means. I mean I know what an engine search is, I just don't know why it takes so long for it to get in there. Anyway, I had one idea for the fourth of July, but it involved calligraphy which I need practice at and a copy of the "Declaration of Independence" which I obtained from Knotts Berry Farm. It's too late for the 4th I guess. I need to work on Halloween.

I'm also trying to do more fairy stuff since that is what sold. I really enjoy that kind of stuff, and will have a blast doing Halloween cards too!

I also have been taking advantage of Spring and taking a lot of flower pictures I'm not sure what to do with. They could make good anniversary cards, birthday cards, sympathy cards. What I really want to do is get some kind of lightweight graphic design program that I can put on this little notebook computer so I can add text to my images from it. I have photoshop and Illustrator on my desktop computer at home but I don't like to work at home.

Now I need to learn how to promote my store. I stumbleupon, share on facebook, twitter, and connect my blog but it's not enough.

update: blue dragon!

OK! It's been a while and in some ways a lot has happened! I finally got some of my recovery cards approved and more are on the way! Check out my store here. As you may know this is the place to see what I'm working on before it appears in the store. Just to catch you up to speed; I had trouble getting my first batch of recovery cards approved because I wasn't clear in my inner text message. I also was unclear what was expected of me. I finally figured out that the category is simply "12 step programs" so that could include people recovering from drug addiction, overeating, sex addiction, gambling, and a whole host of things other than alcoholism, which is the focus of my cards.
The procedure is that they send me an email saying "see notes for resubmission" and on the site where I manage my store are notes saying, "Please be more specific with 12 step language in your message." I wasn't sure what they meant, so I turned to the forum that's available to artists with "storefronts" at gcu. They pointed out to me that I could reply to the email gcu had sent me. This didn't occur to me because the notes were in a separate place and also I am a dufus.
I wrote a note explaining that I was being as specific as I could (I had added sobriety specific language to my greetings) and wasn't sure what else they wanted. Well, they approved my cards without further comment.
I suppose that was too much info, but it was the focus of my being for about a week.
Now I have taken to submitting photographs. Some of them were taken at Sea World of the polar bears, and some were taken at local parks and nature trails. I have noticed the the people at gcu who are successful and respected have hundreds of cards in their stores, so I am going to create as many as I can. My new images are of animals and flowers. Usually I create the image first and then try to figure out what category card I can fit it into. Of course this is backwards, but until I get the hang of this, I am going to try everything I can to build a store that has a wide selection of products that will attract a wide variety of people.
As I have stated previously, I am focusing mainly on recovery cards, and that continues to be the case, but that will not stop me from creating cards that fit into a variety of subjects.
I also submitted a painting of the blue dragon that this site and my store are named after. This is significant because of the text within the card:
I am the Blue Dragon. I serve the Blue Light; whose physical manifestation is the Universe: the One Voice, the Eternal Word, the Infinite Sound. All things are revealed by the Light. All shadows are created by the Light. Love is the Way of the Light. Either one serves Love or one opposes Love. One cannot claim to serve Love through hate. Anger and fear are the absence of Love. Love is omnipresent. There is nowhere it is not. It does not shirk; it does not hide. To be unable to feel its presence is delusion. It is we who turn away from the Light. It is constant and never abandons us. It is The Energy; The Force; The Power. The Source of all. Love is indiscriminate. Love is not concerned with what name it is called, or what rituals it is worshiped by. Love does not favor one over another. Love does not punish. Love wants you to be happy and healthy. For this to happen you must conform to Love. Love cannot be ruled by you. You are a manifestation of Love. There is no intermediary.

This is something I want to have reproduced everywhere I can, and be reminded of as often as possible. It has real significance for me. regardless of any mythology of blue dragons which derive from blue being the color of heaven and dragons being the apex of Chinese mythology, coupled with the fact that I was born in the year of the dragon: The creative force of the universe is Love, and my ability to align myself with this force is the determining factor in my life regarding my usefulness to myself and my fellows.

St Anthony

Today I finished my portrait of St. Anthony, and submitted it for approval. (I also had to resubmit my recovery cards because I had put "A.A." & "ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS" in the keywords and they are copyrighted. They also asked my to be more specific about recovery in the text of the cards but I didn't know what they meant on most of them so I left them all but one.)

To paint the card for St. Anthony, I googled images of him. It became immediately clear that he is always pictured with baby Jesus, so I also googled "father & son" images. The key in finding images to use as reference is that I don't want to copy another painting or photo; I want to create an original image of my own. To that end, I studied one painting, on stained glass window and one photo of a father and a new born. I melded them into a single image that became my painting.

I painted the monk's garment first and started with a blue that I wanted to be the shadow color. I had way too much color on my brush and ended up painting the entire robe blue. Then I painted over it with orange which is the color opposite of blue. In theory this will turn the blue into a neutral grayish color, but I knew it would more likely turn it brown because in order for it to be actually neutralized, the exact color opposite would have to be added; not just any blue plus any orange. My orange was too yellow and turned the robe a funky green. Now at any point, I could have panicked and given up, but I just added a red (the opposite of green). I added burnt sienna because that is close to the actual color of the Franciscan robe color of Anthony's garment. (grey would have made him look benedictine) This worked pretty well. This technique; by the way, is similar to the way the old masters handled color and this lends an old world feeling to the painting.

Next I painted the faces. (actually, I painted the faces in between painting various layers of the garment, as I waited for that layer to dry.) Finally I painted the halos. I knew that I would have to give baby Jesus the halo of superiority, so I made his gold and St. Anthony's silver. I tried a variety of methods to simulate gold leaf. I ended up using sumi silver watercolor for St. Anthony, and cadmium yellow mixed with iridescent medium for baby Jesus. I knew that actual gold color doesn't scan very well, and metallic surfaces also don't always come across in a photo reproduction.
I added a prayer I found for St. Anthony:

O gentle and loving St. Anthony,
whose heart was ever full of human sympathy,
whisper my petition into the ears of
the Sweet Infant Jesus,
who loved to be folded in your arms, and
the gratitude of my heart will ever be yours.