Month: May 2020

Starting Alphapets Too

A Creative Life, Abecedarian, Alphapets, Alphapets Too, Ambassador for Small Frames, animals in art, art exhibit, art gallery, Art Word Combinations, artist book, artistic inspirations, author illustrator, books, creative thinking, ebook, fine art, illustrated poem, miniature art, pet portraits, printed books, sketchbook, words and pictures, writing, writing and illustrating

As I mentioned in my last post my book Alphapets by Clancy has been such a hit at Storyberries.com that they want a sequel – and my fans do also! So this week I’ve begun Alphapets Too.

For several days I looked for popular house pets that are not cats or dogs. I made a list of over 26 kinds of pets: parakeets, hedgehogs, hamsters, gerbils, rabbits, turtles, lizards…and so forth. I didn’t realize there were so many house pet options! Here’s a photo of me doing some of this research work – with the help of my dachshund.

As I saw images of hedgehogs, turtles, newts, frogs, gerbils and such I practiced drawing the animals in my sketchbook. I just drew the animals and had fun with them in my sketchbook – merging the animal drawing practice with whatever thoughts I was having at the moment. I regularly post my sketchbook pages on my Instagram page (@artistclancy).

Also in short bursts over several days I wrote a new poem for Alphapets Too. I write in longhand on a legal pad with a fountain pen. Typically I sit in my dining room near a collection of books on writing and several dictionaries. I view this as play-time and since I’m just writing drafts I take nothing seriously. It’s all play. So I make sure to have a fun beverage at hand. Milk and cookies. Coffee or tea. Or as in one of the photos below a yummy steaming hot mug of “lemony lucious luck”.

To make “Lemony Lucious Luck” heat water in a tea kettle, cut 2 to 3 generous slices of a fresh lemon and remove the seeds. Put the lemon slices in a mug. Put a bit of honey onto the lemon. Pour hot water over all. Let it steep a bit and enjoy!

That’s my creative process in a 12 ounce mug-size description.

Also this week I varnished all of the original artwork for Alphapets and delivered the art to the Aurora Gallery for framing and exhibition. Since the coronavirus pandemic is what it is, the delivery-to-the-gallery process was very different. In addition to wearing a mask it was arranged that I would leave the art just inside the gallery door, holler that I was there and then go home. Details about the framing and exhibition were arranged via phone and text.

Since all of the Alphapets artwork is small – 3.5 x 2.5 inches – all 26 pieces fit into a box that fit into a gallon size zip bag. It was rainy the day I delivered the art so I put the box in the plastic. Having everything in one box made the art delivery easy.

Due to the novel coronavirus the exhibit will likely be online only and will be on the Aurora Gallery social media pages – https://auroragalleryonline.com – All of this is very different – but quite doable! Here’s some photos of me spray varnishing and then, days later after the varnish was dry, delivering the Alphapets…

Its been a busy week. As mentioned in my last post I hoped to start creating the new artwork for Alphapets Too. That didn’t get as far along as I’d hoped. Ah well. Something to look forward to posting about next Monday!

Hope to see you then!

Here’s the link to both print and ebook forms of “Alphapets by Clancy”

Thanks again for reading and riding this ride with me!

Alphapets published and starting Alphapets Too

A Creative Life, Abecedarian, Alphapets, Alphapets Too, Ambassador for Small Frames, animals in art, art exhibit, art gallery, Art Licensing, art techniques, Art Word Combinations, artist book, artistic inspirations, author illustrator, books, ebook, pet portraits, poetry, printed books, visual story, words and pictures

Last week my book Alphapets by Clancy came out in print and ebook forms. Quickly it was picked up by Storyberries and has over 6000 views as of this writing! Storyberries has already asked me for a sequel! Details below! First here are a few photos of pages inside the printed Alphapets book.

Here’s one of the delightful pictures I was sent by a grownup to show me how much my book was enjoyed! I love seeing the smiles!! That’s why I do this work – smiles like this!!!

As I finished Alphapets several people following my project asked me if I would please start the alphabet again because it was such fun. Some also asked if I would include house pets besides cats and dogs in my next book. I replied yes to both questions! These questions, and the discussions with Storyberries got me excited and an idea for Alphapets Too began to form!

So right away I began work. My first task was to think about what I and other people enjoyed most about Alphapets: the “hidden” letters, the colors/clothes on the pets and the silly rhymes. I, personally, enjoyed the audiobook version Storyberries.com created! I’m having fun thinking of poetry as pictures with sound now! Here’s a link and the photo below shows where to click for the audio: https://www.storyberries.com/bedtime-stories-alphapets-free-books-online/

To begin Alphapets Too my working process is roughly like this: Here I am looking online for a list of common pets other than cats and dogs. I came up with more than 26! I didn’t realize there were so many “common” house pets that aren’t cats or dogs! And, yes, my studio laptop assistant is helping!

In this photo below, I am writing notes on a pad with my fountain pen. These are very loose notes, I’m just playing. (My studio laptop assistant had another project to work on and so isn’t in the photo.) I’m sitting near a lot of books about writing – and several dictionaries – just in case. 😉

This week I’ll varnish the original Alphapets artwork and hopefully deliver all 26 pieces to the Aurora Gallery for framing in prep for upcoming fine art exhibits. Doing this makes studio space for Alphapets Too production work – and, of course makes my gallery happy!

I’m also hoping this week, after gathering more house pet data, to work more on the poem for Alphapets Too and possibly begin the new artwork. I’m often optimistic about what I can get done within a day – life happens – so it’s possible I may not get new Alphapets Too artwork started. We’ll see. As is my usual in the midst of life happening I will work in short bursts daily and longer snatches of time when possible.

My thought is to do Alphapets Too in the serialized way I did Alphapets: posting on my Instagram my artwork (along with other art projects also in progress) as I get them done and then next Monday posting a summary of Alphapets Too progress here on my blog. Here on my blog I can describe more of my thought process than I do on Instagram. Anyway, we’ll see what I get done…

Posting here on my blog once a week seems manageable. Hope to see you next Monday! Thanks for riding this fun ride again with me!!

Oh, and here’s the link for print and ebooks of Alphapets by Clancy. You can catch up by following the trail of the creation of Alphapets here.

Alphapets: Y, Z, the book cover and Storyberries

A Creative Life, Abecedarian, Alphapets, Ambassador for Small Frames, animals in art, Art Licensing, Art Word Combinations, artist book, author illustrator, Authors, books, cat portrait, Cats in art, dog portrait, Dogs in Art, ebook, fine art, graphic design, illustrated poem, miniature art, poetry, publications - publishing, published art, words and pictures, writing and illustrating

The Alphapets portrait project this week is brought to you by the letters Y and Z. Here’s my abecedarian poem to go with these letters and artwork :

Yolanda has a good attitude

Zoe says “We’re done! Let’s go get some food!”

Here’s the artwork (somewhere on each piece is an alphabetical letter):

I did portraits of a Bengal cat and a Basset Hound.

In thinking of a “good attitude” I thought of my adopted father, a psychiatrist, and his Bengal cat named Missy. He was fond of pointing out how a cat will adapt easily to things, take things in stride – or have a good attitude – that it’s humans, with our big-brains, that will often resist adapting, and will as a result make things harder on ourselves with a bad attitude.

The Basset Hound finished off this letter sequence because as a child I was best friends with a Basset Hound and loved getting to share an evening meal with the dog.

As I completed the original artwork for my abecedarian poem I also worked on the graphic design of Alphapets by Clancy. That’s part of what makes this an “artist book” – it was conceived and constructed like an art object – by me. My spouse did proofread the text, make some book design suggestions. That, in my mind, is akin to submitting a bunch of artwork to a gallery for exhibit. Here’s a photo of me doing the graphic design hocus pocus.

You can see a bit of my book cover design in the above photo but here, below, is a better view of the front cover of the printed book.

Alphapets by Clancy is now available as both hardback or soft cover printed books. The ebook version has a similar but slightly different cover. All versions can be accessed here: https://www.blurb.com/b/10071862-alphapets-by-clancy

I had dedicated my book “for reading aloud to P and J” – both P and J are under age 5 – so the day I uploaded my book to Blurb.com for printing I told P and J’s grandparents (our friends) about the book. Then I turned off all of my devices to make dinner and read a novel a while before going to bed.

By now I don’t remember why but a few hours later, after dinner, I turned on my smart phone. I had messages just about every way a person can be messaged these days, from Storyberries.com !

Long story short this publisher/distribution house wanted to release my book for free to their readers! I gave my author/artist permissions and now you – or your little ones – can access my book here: https://www.storyberries.com/bedtime-stories-alphapets-free-books-online/

Storyberries.com is also doing audio versions of Alphapets by Clancy which are appearing on their podcast channels on Apple, Spotify and Podbean! How fun is that?!

I’d hoped for my book to be read aloud….

Here’s a photo of my friends grandkids looking at Alphapets by Clancy – the twins’ mom was pretty happy too!! Yippee!!

I’m a very happy author/artist!!

You can find the previous set of letters for this project here.

I had such fun riding this ride – I think I’ll do it again! Meet here next Monday?

Alphapets: U, V, W and X

A Creative Life, Abecedarian, Alphapets, Ambassador for Small Frames, animals in art, art gallery, art techniques, artist book, artistic inspirations, author illustrator, books, cat portrait, Cats in art, dog portrait, Dogs in Art, ebook, fine art, illustrated poem, illustration, miniature art, pet portraits, visual story, words and pictures, writing and illustrating

The Alphapets portrait project this week is brought to you by the letters U, V, W and X. Here’s my abecedarian poem to go with these letters and artwork :

Udall grabs steaks right off the hob

Violet hopes for corn on the cob

Winston exudes a certain noblesse

Xavier’s in love with jolly Jo Beth

Here’s the artwork (somewhere on each piece is an alphabetical letter):

I did portraits of a Labrador Retriever, a Boston Terrier, a Greyhound and a Scottish Fold cat.

Udall, the Labrador, was inspired by a friends dog – who, though he’s had professional training, still occasionally steals unattended food off counter tops. Then, after licking his lips, sports a sweet face of innocence.

While thinking of food I remembered a long ago visit my spouse and I made to Boston Massachusetts. In one of the pubs there I had the best grilled corn on the cob I’ve ever had. As I recall it was served alongside beans and roasted zucchini. Sage and onion are in my memory too. And the need for a second cloth napkin. That corn on the cob…wow!! I’d hoped for more even after we’d finished our entire meal. Naturally such a delicious Boston memory had to be served by a Boston Terrier.

Winston is a real-life therapy dog. A friend nominated him for a portrait due to his heroic achievements as a canine therapist. He’s had some serious training – that’s why I depicted him in a uniform with medals.

Scottish Fold cats, the very few I’ve met anyway, seemed loving sorts generally but were especially attached to their particular human. One of the cats was a trained therapy cat.

As I write this blog post I realize I thought a lot this week about pet training, pet therapy and food. Isn’t it curious how the mind associates things?

Anyway, this artwork, too, was created with ink, gouache and color pencil. I do these portraits on board, size 3.5 x 2.5 inches. The original art will be framed…eventually … and be a miniature art exhibit at the Aurora Gallery. But due to the current pandemic I’m full-steam ahead on both a print and ebook version of my Alphapets.

I’ve said it before: Art, in my opinion, is there to give us solace, to help us get thru whatever is happening in life. So I’ve no grand plan with all this work other than to make myself and others smile.

The previous set of letters is here. As I said earlier, my Alphapets project is still aimed to be an art exhibit; both the framing and exhibit eventually done by Aurora Gallery and Frameshop. https://auroragalleryonline.com/ – this all began as part of the Ambassador for Small Frames program. Not waiting till the exhibit happens tho…I’m going ahead with making a book of Alphapets! I enjoy creating books as an art object and as a way of extending the gallery exhibit space.

The rest of the poem will be revealed in next Monday’s post as I get the last two pieces of this project done. More of my artist books are here.

See you soon with the remaining English alphabet letters – and details about the book!