graphic design

Professional dogs, books, Thanksgiving art and some about the holiday box!

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Here’s news about The Professional Dog and all of my projects that I couldn’t talk about in my last posts! First, this weeks sequence of dogs.

Below is a closer look at the artwork of each of those dogs with the book text beneath.

The Kayaker’s dog is a kind dog.
The Lawyer’s dog is a laudable dog.
The Lender’s dog is a lucky dog.

As I mentioned in another post I tend to work first and talk about the work later. This means all of the artwork is finished for The Professional Dog and I could work hard this past week on the book layout. Here’s a photo of me at my laptop doing the book layout.

I wanted this book to be able to be shipped by Christmas so I focused on getting the book design done – and uploaded – which altered my posting about the artwork itself or about my creative process surrounding the book but I think that’s okay. If you have questions just ask.

But here’s the cover for The Professional Dog and a link where you can preview the entire book and order a copy if you wish.

https://www.blurb.com/b/10926040-the-professional-dog

There’s a lot still to do for this project but the publication on the 16th of Nov was a big deal. There are 40 portraits in the book and this is the most pages I’ve created for any of my books so far! So I’m celebrating! Wahoo!

Because I made portraits of my friends dogs I plan to keep posting each dog in alphabetical sequence so that each dog gets to be featured and each friend has a chance to share the portrait of their dog if they want to. Mainly it’s just a bit of cheerfulness from me over the Thanksgiving holiday.

Speaking of small cheerful things: I took some more of my books, mug mats and postcards to the Aurora Gallery at their request.

The Caplan Art Designs Gallery did a studio visit and selected some artwork from my studio stash for the special Thanksgiving event the Gallery is doing Nov 26, 27 and 28th. Each of the artworks Caplan selected are autobiographical. I’ve been sharing details on my Instagram page for each of these pieces but generally speaking each painting is about some aspect of my life here in the Pacific Northwest. Like the time we went hiking in Forest Park and my bootlace broke and we discovered a wonderful coffee shop that also sold bootlaces! Or the Rainier cherries we enjoy eating by the sea. Or the fine dining we’ve enjoyed…my feeling is reflected in my choice of dog breed depicted. And the bookstores… There are many more artworks selected by the Gallery than I’ve included below but perhaps this gives you the idea? The Gallery event happens the 26th, 27th and 28th in Portland Oregon.

Why were the above artworks languishing in my studio? They didn’t fit neatly into a theme or a unified whole for any of my exhibits. And also they were still there because I forgot about them. This is an example of when it’s helpful to have someone outside my head – in this case a gallery owner – look at things with fresh eyes.

Another example of the value of “fresh eyes” is that my spouse looked at my digital book layout of The Professional Dog and caught a major mistake I had made before it went to print!! (I had one out of alphabetical order 😱) I thank her on the book info page seen below.

The Professional Dog by Clancy

And now for what we’ve all been waiting for (drumroll please) the Holiday Box Project! The Box Project exhibit opens at Caplan Art Designs the first Thursday in December. That’s why we artists were asked to wait to post and to only do a “teaser” post now because the Thanksgiving gallery event happens first. We artists were each given by the Gallery a solid brown wooden box, 8 inches cubed, some time ago so we’d all have time to create art on them. Below are before and after photos of my box.

I’ve titled my holiday box “All The Chances” – what are the odds you’d find 21 dogs named Chance? Anyway, are you teased? Lol! I will tell more details about “All The Chances” including about my working process after Thanksgiving.

It’s been a super busy week (no time for Creativity Chats or for much cooking creativity either) and frankly I am very tired from all of the activities. But at the same time I’m very happy! So I’ll rest up and share more this week on social media and on next Monday’s blog post.

I hope your week is a good one. Thank you for your many kind comments and your support! I am grateful for you and for the blogging community! Happy Thanksgiving!

This Rabbit likes Irish Coffee

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My newest children’s book “This Rabbit” is about noticing what you like. For the book description I write “This rabbit likes one thing. This rabbit likes another thing. So many things to like and do! Which do you like to do?”

The act of noticing what you like sounds deceptively simple but it’s easy to be swept along in a tide of what’s popular, trendy or what people tell you that you “should” like. It’s easy to forget what you-yourself really really like.

For our entire lives it’s helpful to practice being aware of our inner self and our preferences as they change over time.

Anyway, here’s a few poem lines and illustrations from “This Rabbit”

This rabbit likes doing hair

This rabbit likes the outdoor air

Here’s a look at those same illustrations in the digital book layout I’ve designed in prep for making both print and ebook formats. As I mentioned in my last post I’m making these illustrations large in each page with a small space for the poem line running along the bottom of the page.

Below is a look at the cover art. The cover layout is similar to some of the other books I’ve done: Alphapets, Alphapets Too and Numpurrs. I did this cover design similarity on purpose because I’m working on a series of artworks and books that play with concepts using a variety of characters. This cover layout allows me to show many of the different characters right on the book covers. The cover similarities emphasize that each individual book is an art series collected on a topic that exists within a larger series of artist books.

By now the book “This Rabbit” is finished and will be released world wide on Storyberries Mar 29. I will continue to tease out the book a bit on my social media till then. But for my followers here’s the advance link to the finished printed book: https://www.blurb.com/b/10612530-this-rabbit Yes, you could get a copy of this book early, in time for Easter! (On average it takes 7 to 11 business days after placing your order to get a book)

Copies available via this link: https://www.blurb.com/b/10612530-this-rabbit

Before the digital files could be made I began “This Rabbit” by creating a series of ink and gouache artworks depicting rabbits enjoying activities. Then I wrote a poem on a legal pad with a fountain pen – prior blog posts here and here tell more of my working process. Anyway here’s a look at my legal pad scribbling and the illustrations. I like to emphasize the non-digital parts of my book creations – the digital reproduction, in print/ebook formats, are simply an allowance for kids messy fingers – the book is still intended as a work of fine art and of love.

On to other non-rabbit thoughts: Saint Patrick’s Day is coming up and we can celebrate the holiday and also drink to celebrate my new book “This Rabbit” – so here’s a recipe for an Irish drink I really like perhaps you will like it too? No matter what you’re drinking – “Sláinte!” 

A page from my kitchen sketchbook Favorites So Far – https://www.blurb.com/b/9759759-favorites-so-far

Saint Patrick’s Day is one of my favorite holidays so my evening lounging-about-before-going-to-bed reading is an anthology of Irish writers mystery stories. The book title is “Murder Most Irish” edited by Ed Gorman, Larry Segriff and Martin H. Greenberg. Some of the stories are so enchanting that I’ve looked up almost surprised to find that I’m not in Ireland following behind a sleuth on a cold rainy night but sitting in my warm living room instead. The book pairs well with Irish Coffee….or peppermint tea.

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day in advance and thank you for following my progress on “This Rabbit”! See you next Monday?

This Rabbit likes extra drawings

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When I was a kid I wanted drawings on every page of a picture book. For “This Rabbit”, my newest artist book for kids, I’m doing extra drawings, with simple lines like this drawing below, for the book info pages.

And here is the drawing placed in the software so it will print on the books title page.

Here’s the drawing I did for the book dedication page.

Here it is placed so that the rabbit’s heart shaped balloon floats up towards the dedication text.

In my last post I showed some of the poem lines and the illustrations that go with the poetry. I’ve also been serially posting pages from “This Rabbit” on my Instagram and Facebook pages. Here below are a few more poem lines and illustrations.

This rabbit likes to seed

This rabbit likes to read

I’m filling each page of the book with the artwork leaving a small white space for the poem line below each illustration.

This week I’ve talked with Storyberries.com sent them digital files and whatnot as per their request! They will distribute This Rabbit just before Easter! How fun is that? (Telling this news here first!)

Also this week I made homemade hummus to go with a Persian flatbread my spouse made. It was yummy! My hummus recipe is in my kitchen sketchbook Favorites So Far.

Page from Favorites So Far – https://www.blurb.com/b/9759759-favorites-so-far

Below is a photo of books I’ve been reading: it’s March and Saint Patrick’s Day is coming up so I’m reading some Irish writers work in a short mystery story anthology “Murder Most Irish”. I’m also reading a book from the Hamish Macbeth series by M. C. Beaton which is set in Scotland.

See you next Monday? Hope your week is as good as possible.

This Rabbit some lunch and books

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This week was filled with photographing my illustrations for a new children’s book tentatively titled “This Rabbit” (as I wrote last week). Then I uploaded the photos checking the digital images against the original artwork for accuracy of color. Sometimes I had to retake a photo.

Once all of the illustrations were digitally correct, more or less, I uploaded them into the software I use to make the printed books. My art studio supervisor cat, as you can see, helped with the process.

What I’m aiming for as I process the photos: I want to make an album of my fine artwork that just happens to be for kids. Kids need fine art too, in my opinion. So I’m striving for digitally capturing as much of the range of color and detail in the original artwork as possible. No camera or screen matches the capability of the human eye but I do the best with what I’ve got. I’m also trying to keep the soft feel of the original artwork on the off-white handmade papers.

My root idea with this new book “This Rabbit” is cultivating the skill of enjoying the many things there are to like and do. So that is always in the back of my mind as I work.

Here are the two poem lines I wrote to go with the two illustrations below:

This rabbit likes pretty pearls

This rabbit likes doing curls

This rabbit likes pretty pearls
This rabbit likes doing curls

After the photos of all 32 illustrations were digitized to suit me, it takes me a lot of time to do the digitizing to suit because I am the original Ms. Picky, but when I had the images as I wanted them then I worked on the books graphic layout and design. As I proceed with the layout/design part of this project I may need to take new photos of some of the artwork depending on how they look as I place them side by side in the book design … we will see how things go.

This new book is part of a series of children’s books I’m creating. So it will have a have similar cover design (and other format elements) to fit with the book series. However, for “This Rabbit” I decided to make the illustration images on each page larger, filling two thirds of the page or perhaps a bit more, filling almost to the three edges of each page.

I chose this layout because I’ve included small details within many of the artworks that might be missed if the images were smaller. My poem text is one single line within a small white space on the bottom of each page.

I will serialize some of “This Rabbit” on my Instagram page and give you more details of my working process (and my creative life) here on this blog each week.

Anyway, now you know what a busy week I’ve had. Needless to say lunches were quick-fix affairs. Like this broccoli pasta dish.

Here’s the recipe – a loose guide or philosophy really rather than a recipe. When I made the dish this week I used short pasta and added spinach. But the rest of the recipe was followed. It’s a recipe from my Favorites So Far kitchen sketchbook.

Copies of Favorites So Far are available here:
https://www.blurb.com/b/9759759-favorites-so-far

Despite being busy I still carved out time to read most evenings. In my last post I was still reading “The Mexican Tree Duck” by James Crumley. I finished that book and loved it! I’ll miss the main character Sughrue. Sughrue was a decent guy, a good friend to other characters in the story, someone who cared. I liked that! Crumley’s character and his writing style will be a hard act to follow.

As I cast about for which book to read next I realize that I want another protagonist with a strong decency streak. Not moralistic, self righteous, preachy or anything like that. I want a character who is just plain caring and kind. Even if they have flaws, faults and difficulties I want there to be a core of goodness, a sense of concern for their community, at the heart of the main character.

I’m ready for the good people to win a few … damnit!

So from my book shelves I pulled this book selection for consideration: The Nine Tailors by Dorothy Sayers, Rumpole A La Carte by John Mortimer and Death of A Bore by M. C. Beaton.

A few more cups of coffee and I’ll decide which book to read more of later after my working day is done.

See you next Monday with more of my progress on “This Rabbit”? (And yes…so far my working title has stuck.)

Numpurrs 20 & it sums up…

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There now! Despite all the odds (see last post) I finished “Numpurrs”! I’ve also sent it in to Storyberries for distribution. When I sent it in this last week Storyberries said “I just LOVE it Sue!!! It has come together so nicely !!!! Thank you so much for sharing your beautiful work with us!!”

So I think it’s safe to say that they’re pleased! The book will be live on Storyberries.com very soon as they said they’ll “…schedule it for 9am Gold Coast time Australia on Monday morning.” Which works out to about 4 pm in Washington state, USA on Sunday. And I post these blog posts on Mondays but write them on Sunday morning’s… so, yes, I can have a bit of time zone confusion.

[Update: here’s the link to Numpurrs on Storyberries.com: https://www.storyberries.com/bedtime-stories-numpurrs-by-clancy-free-counting-books-for-kids/ ]

Time zone differences between where I live on the western US coast and the time where Storyberries is in Australia can confuse me even when I have help from the internet. My solution to working across continents and time zones is the same in publishing as it has been when I’ve done fine art exhibits outside of the U.S.A; get it all done early and everything into their hands as soon as humanly possible then let the people I’m working with sort the what-happens-when out at their end.

It helps that I work on the graphic design part of any book almost simultaneously with creating the fine art illustrations. This way by the time I finish creating the fine art illustrations I’ve almost finished the book design too.

The graphic design informs and affects my illustrations – in the number of illustrations needed, the size of them and so forth. But what I want to do in the first place with my illustrations/fine art at my easel (using ink and gouache on board) will also affect the graphic design.

This interdependence (and writing the poem is in there too) is related to the construction of my book idea in the first place in a which-comes-first chicken-or-egg kind of fashion. As a result of my working method the posting I do online nearly always slightly behind the action. My motto is create the thing first talk about it later.

Anyway, here’s a pic of me working on my laptop doing the book layout. I often do my computer work in the corner of my dining room near the cookbooks and am almost always cooking something on the stove. Taking breaks to stir something on the stove is so nice!

Sue Clancy creating “Numpurrs”

And here are the last poem lines in my book:

Twenty butters bread, risen with yeast

And it all sums up to a wonderful feast!

In the printed book my three panel “feast scene” will flow in sequence left to right and will line up side by side. But it worked pretty well in scroll ebook form too even tho it doesn’t line up at the edges. As I worked I had to think of both of these “flow” patterns when I was creating the images.

Even though I’m doing so much myself – which sounds like a lot of freedom – there are still constraints: page flow, number of pages allowed within the publication formats, where the blank pages must fall, printing product options, ebook construction and so forth. I see these constraints as the path, the way forward, the technical issues become part of my creative process.

When it came to creating the feast scene artwork in Numpurrs I consulted this book, Food and Feasting in Art by Silvia Malaguzzi

Many of these art historical images had the viewers eye moving left to right and or moving up and down. This served as a guide as I created my cat feast illustrations. (I love art history!)

Running into the graphic design publication constraints I mentioned earlier I only had 3 pages within which to fit my feast. When, in an early sketch, I fitted all 20 cats in – the cats were too small and the numbers couldn’t be easily read. Since the point of the book is to distinguish between cats and to recognize numbers I decided to make the cats and numbers bigger even tho it meant leaving out some cats.

Besides at almost every group photo I’ve ever participated in there were several people who declined to be in the picture. Perhaps we can pretend some of the cats in my artwork were similarly shy?

After sending everything in to Storyberries, and after being given the release schedule, I was asked to send in a new photo of all three of the feast panels as one image. There are design constraints and issues at their end too – and we’re in this project together. So I hustled (time zones remember…) and sent this photo in:

Since my book idea is about distinguishing between cats and numbers I also used 4 of my allotted pages to include the photos of real life cats that my friends had sent to me for use as reference to create my artwork. Like the feast scene artwork not every cat illustrated in the book is on the cat photo pages… again it was a case of if I fit in every photo the cats were too small to see well. And in some cases the photos my friends sent was fine for my art reference use but it wasn’t high enough resolution for a printed book. Since I’m doing both print and ebook forms I had to design for both to look the same. Perhaps it can add fun to also distinguish which cat is there and which isn’t and also to see some of the source material I worked with?

Here’s what the Numpurrs book cover looks like, and the dedication page where I thank my friends for all of their help.

Numpurrs by Clancy – https://www.blurb.com/b/10297565-numpurrs

You can see a preview of the entire book Numpurrs via this link: https://www.blurb.com/b/10297565-numpurrs

You can see all of my artwork and my blog posts containing my thinking as I developed this project on the webpage here.

Here, again, is the link on Storyberries where you can see what they ended up doing with the new feast scene photo I hustled to send in …. https://www.storyberries.com/bedtime-stories-numpurrs-by-clancy-free-counting-books-for-kids/

On my Instagram page I will tell more about Numpurrs as things on Storyberries develop. (An audiobook version is in the works etc)

Next Monday this blog will move on to my next art project…

Thanks again for reading and adding to the Numpurrs fun!

Alphapets: Y, Z, the book cover and Storyberries

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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: Q R S and T

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The Alphapets portrait project this week is brought to you by the letters Q, R, S and T. Here’s my abecedarian poem to go with these letters and artwork :

Quincy is rarely upset

Rufus requests a 3 egg omelet

Snickerson eats all the whitefish

Tippy, age 2, is still kittenish

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

I did portraits of a Maine Coon cat, a pug dog, a Sphynx cat and a tuxedo cat. This seemed to be cat week.

The world also seemed a bit topsy-turvy this week so when setting out to work on this pet portrait project I sat and thought of calming pets, including some professional therapy cats and dogs I’ve done portraits of in the past.

While thinking I remembered a pre-quarantine visit my spouse and I made, several years ago, to a cat show in Portland Oregon. It was a tumultuous event, generally, but one area seemed particularly chaotic: a group of small kids were clamoring around a large Maine Coon cat, taking turns holding the cat who was almost as big as the kids doing the holding. The cat was poured from lap to lap, he was hugged, kissed, patted, fur ruffled, his tail and ears were tugged – and through it all the cat serenely meditated. A Zen monk would surely be impressed. I certainly was. Still am.

Anyway I combined those thoughts with memories of a long ago trip we took to Maine where I discovered thick “fisherman’s sweaters” with shawl collars and big pockets. I feel serene when wearing one. So all of these thoughts combined for Quincy.

For Rufus I was thinking about omelets; omelets with veggies, omelets with cheese… and Pugs are fun to draw. The background pattern was just playful fun – thinking of oval eggy shapes.

A dear friend of mine suggested Snickerson and Tippy – suggesting both the names, the breeds and giving me some resource photos for each cat. As I looked at what my friend shared I thought of fish, and the fishing in my local area – and I can imagine that with Snickerson’s big eyes he’d charm any fishmonger out of all their whitefish.

I combined my friends info about the tuxedo cat Tippy with my awareness that lots of people are doing school at home now – including teaching and learning to write. Writing seems a thing to learn and practice one’s entire life anyway … which keeps one kittenish. 😄

As usual all of this artwork 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. But since the pandemic I’ve decided that rather than wait for the physical art exhibit, (I normally wait to release a book in conjunction with an art exhibit) to go full steam ahead with the book. Since these posts of my Alphapets, especially on Instagram and Facebook, have seemed to cheer people….perhaps it will also cheer people to have the choice of a printed or an ebook of these portraits? Anyway, now that I’ve reached the letter T my thoughts are turning more firmly towards book design – and that’s fun for me too. Art, in my opinion, is there to give us solace, to help us get thru whatever is happening in life.

If you’re just joining the fun the previous set of letters is here. My Alphapets project is still aimed to be an art exhibit. With framing eventually done by Aurora Gallery and Frameshop. https://auroragalleryonline.com/ as part of the Ambassador for Small Frames program. More of the poem will be revealed on each Monday’s post as I get more of the artwork done. More of my artist books are here.

Anyway, I’ll have more letters for you next Monday. See you then!

Reading All Year 2020

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I’ve always wanted to make an art calendar. A group of 12 images on a theme. So I did one titled “Reading All Year” – theme of books and reading- I like to read. Maybe you’ve noticed…😁 Happy New Year!!

playing cards and pleasures

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For my evening-just-before-bed holiday reading I’m re-reading “Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austen. Last night I read this:

“Mr. Hurst looked at her with astonishment. “Do you prefer reading to cards?” said he; “that is rather singular.”  “Miss Eliza Bennet,” said Miss Bingley, “despises cards. She is a great reader and has no pleasure in anything else.” “I deserve neither such praise nor such censure,” cried Elizabeth; “I am not a great reader, and I have pleasure in many things.”

I enjoy reading books and I, too, have pleasure in many things. Sitting and playing a card game with my spouse is one of them. Playing cards with friends and family… so many good memories stem from times around the table, after a meal, with decks of cards, drinks and conversation!

So even though my main theme for my Dec. 7th pop-up event at Vintage Books is readers – stocking stuffer gift items on which I’ve put images from my current Readers fine art series – I had to create some playing cards!  Besides a deck of cards will fit into a holiday stocking nicely.

4CardDecks72

playing cards with artwork by Clancy

If you’re not able to make it to my pop-up event at Vintage Books you can get some of my playing cards and other items here: https://www.zazzle.com/store/sueclancy

playful and practical

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One of the purposes of the Arts is to help us live well and, paraphrasing Kurt Vonnegut, to grow our souls.  I’ve had this in mind as I’ve created my holiday stocking-stuffer stuff for my upcoming pop-up shop at Vintage Books Dec 7th from noon to 4 pm. https://www.vintage-books.net/

Making a whimsical, playful, calendar with artwork from my current Readers series was loads of fun – and I hope it will help people remember to live well and grow their souls all year long!  I’ve titled my calendar “Reading All Year”. It is 5 x 7 inches when closed and 10 x 7 inches when open. It’ll fit into a holiday stocking. I’ve checked.

CalendarA72

“Reading All Year” – a 2020 calendar by Clancy

If you can’t visit me at Vintage Books here’s a link where you can get your own calendar shipped directly to you.  Hopefully my calendar will be a fun stocking-stuffer gift the other readers in your life will enjoy too!

I wish you the best during the holiday season and in the coming new year!