life is short, filled with stuff

I have no idea whatsoever why this must be in bold. Anyhow, in the absence of any IF this week with which to entertain those eagerly awaiting my blog postings, and in celebration of the acquisition of a (good!) scanner, I present to you various stuff that I had laying around from here and there. First, one sheet of the pinup girl tattoo designs I did about a year ago for a tattoo artist: (seemingly mandatory 'bold' gone! why?!)

This week I spent working hard on the business/promotional side of things! (Finally!) I received the postcards that I ordered from vistaprint.ca, and I was pleased beyond pleased. Really, I can't recommend vistaprint enough! The postcards themselves were free; I just paid a download fee (because I was using my own image), which was about 5$ per design (i.e. 10$) plus shipping. And the quality was far superior to the ones I first got (at unnamed print shop near me). All you have to do to be BOMBARDED continuously with offers for free this and free that is sign up for an account with them. (How can they afford to do this?)

Anyhow, so I mailed out a number of packages to several publishers and children's magazines, including CRICKET, my favourite of all magazines for kids. They use an impressive variety of illustration styles, not just all that goofy super-cartoony kiddy stuff that seems endemic...oh, I know what I mean. I now have a decent 'template' letter for both magazines and publishers that can easily be added to or adjusted for the individual recipient. I also sent a follow-up card/letter to several magazines that I've contacted already. So, good!

Here is a stream-of-consciousness ink-watercolour crayon thing I did last summer:
Also this week, I got paid for the piece that I did for Briarpatch. Very good indeed!
Here, another ink/watercolour crayon sketch. This one I like.
And I played bridge! For the first time in nearly five years. I was in 'instinctive mode' mostly- my card-counting skills are gone. Luckily I played the hand only a couple of times (and made it!) I did not disgrace myself terribly. I miss playing cards! Next week I'll continue with more publisher research (have to do some research into the maisons d'editions en francais here in Quebec, too!), but mostly I'll be working on a commissioned piece. Maybe I'll have time for Illustration Friday, maybe not.
One more ink/watercolour thing: