Days of magic!

MarsCon 2011 has come and past and we had such a fantastic time; meeting new people, making new friends, helping with panels, and visiting party rooms at night - woohoo! Everyone was so kind, friendly and welcoming. We were treated so well by all of the conventions amazing volunteers, who were so helpful. Thank you to everyone who attended and to all of the wonderful dealers and volunteers.


Here are some pictures we took at the con...enjoy!

This is Joe and I at our table. From left to right we have a box of prints, my Ferlin and His Paper Hat moc up book for display, a tiny stuffed animal fox (more on that later), business cards, magnets, Tastes Like Good books 1 and 2,  Asha mini comic, and introducing "Nerd Journals" by Josh Murray. Behind us we have an extremely gorgeous dress by Rae Lunquist of Dreamsticher costume. And to the right you can see a super tiny part of Julie Bowman's merchandise of Mythical Creations.

This is a close up of my book and our magnets and business cards. My little fox is in there too.

This is my little fox I was so proud of the whole weekend. Julie Bowman of Mythical Creations made her, but the fox had no clothes! Julie was making some kimonos for her other creations and gave me the pattern and supplies to make one for my fox. So I went on, over the course of the weekend to make my fox a little kimono complete with black embroidered stars, a little obi belt, a pendant, and a pretty hair thingy. I thank you so much Julie for sharing your pretty supplies and creative wisdom! I had so much fun! My fox says domo, suimasen, arigato, namaste - and then she bows politely.

This is a closer uninterrupted view of the dress that was behind our table. It is a copy of the "breath" dress from the movie Ever After.  It has lots of detail everywhere with many layers and shades of white gauzy fabrics and trims. Again it was created by Rae Lundquist of Dreamsticher Costumes. Amazingly pretty!

On Saturday night there was a masquerade contest. We saw some of the people lining up in their costumes and took a few pictures, but then we had to go eat cause we were so hungry. Luckily we got back just in time to see the winning contestants, although we didn't get pictures.  There was a group dress up as Wizard of Oz characters, steampunk gals and guys, the Harry Potter cast, the Ever After cast, fairies, and other fantasy and science fiction characters of all kinds. Here are a few more picts of some great costumes.

Voldemort getting schooled by Sirius, Harry, and Hermione. Apparently Voldemort had just come out of a make up demo.

Very cool dragon armor. He is perusing the wares of Mythical creations.

The two gentlemen in the center, brothers as it were, had great steampunk costumes complete with detailed accessories of all kinds.  You can also see the cowardly lion and some fair ladies. Thank you for posing for the picture!

This is a very nicely detailed tank device for catching something. Spirits perhaps? It had meters on the side.You can see technological advancement goggles hanging on his shoulder as well. Thank you again gentlemen.

Hopefully you can see from these few pictures that there was so much fun to be had! The whole weekend was full of all sorts of events from panels on costuming and makeup, geek music performances, tea parties, an art show and auction, a dealers room, science room, a den of gaming, panels on artmaking and business, and of course nightly party's in themed rooms. Thank you again MarsCon 2011, until next year!

quickly!

A super quick post! It has come up really fast, my husband Joe and I are the artist guests of honer this weekend at MarsCon 2011! For more information visit marscon.org
We look forward to meeting some cool new people and showing you our artwork!

visit me everywhere!

Today I am working on my portfolio and gallery sites as well as doing some new posts for this blog. I love my blogging, but the portfolio and gallery sites are not my favorite to update. If only I did(or didn't) label my files so cleverly, I might recall which is which.

But when all the sites are updated they are very pleasing to look at and they showcase my latest and greatest work.......and who wouldn't be completely happy with that.

To visit my portfolio site go to megarts17.daportfolio.com
 Be sure to click on the little "i" at the bottom of the image. It will give you a little information about the piece.

And to visit my work in a gallery setting visit me at megarts17.deviantart.com

There will be some of the same images displayed on both sites. I feel that the portfolio site is a bit more tailored looking and is very simple to navigate. But the gallery lets me put more information about my artwork and allows for comments and critique.

So please go and visit.... and go again so that you will see all of my sure to be sensational updates!

While I never!

When I was looking at all of the MarsCon work I have posted I realized that I had never ever posted an image of the promotional poster that my husband Joe and I did from way back. There was a lot of work and many elements of drawing that went together to make both the promotional poster and the convention book/t-shirt design. So here they are....Text has been added to the designs by our wonderful contact for MarsCon, Kristy.

This is the promo poster that Joe and I did earlier in 2010 to advertise for MarsCon. It is a version of the poster before text was added.

Poster with Text.

For this design I drew the princess, mermaid, fairies, castle and background. Joe drew the sorceress, wizard, snarky, and the frog. Everything was a separate element that was inked by Joe. We scanned in each character and put everything all together and colored it on the computer. After we finished the poster we sent it off to Kristy for approval. She then added all of the information like the title, important people, and the website www.marscon.org/2011

Here is the t-shirt design that I debut in a previous post.

Here the text has been added and notice our signatures underneath our characters!

For the t-shirt design I drew the princess, fairies and trees. I then inked the trees while Joe drew the sorceress. He continued to ink his character, the fairies, and my princess. We then scanned everything into the computer, put it together, and colored it on photoshop.

I am so proud of all the work that Joe and I did. Working together was a wonderful experience and many thanks to Kristy again for making all of the text look fabulous!

The great Ozma of OZ

This is one of the fabulous women that I drew over November and I am so very pleased with how she turned out. A friend of mine Kelly Brown is working on a comic series called Woe is Oz. He has asked a few artists to draw characters from the series, bringing their own style to each piece. The character that I was asked to draw is a grown up version of princess Ozma.

This is the final image, except the real one doesn't say pixiegirl studios. I have been drawing figures rather large lately and had to scale down my sketch to fit it on a sheet of 14x17 bristol. The drawing is in graghite, which I chose to pencil really darkly so it would look as if it was inked.

I have always loved the character of Ozma and I wanted to think of just the rite way to draw her to do justice to the lovely original inks by John R. Neil and of course the re-imagining of her character in Woe is Oz. I wanted her to look modern but still Victorian and definitely stylized with a teeinsie waist and large head. In my original sketch I had thought to do a background and border that would be a mirror showing her hands behind her, holding her staff. Perhaps a future painting is in order?!

This is my original little sketch on a scrap sheet of paper drawn in pen. I love sketches, they have so much energy!

 To find out more about artist Kelly Brown visit his site at  www.kellybrownillustration.com
To find out more about the ongoing comic book series Woe is Oz visit www.woeisoz.com

In November and December

It has been a very long time. i don't like long times apart but it gives stories to tell and so many things to say. I have often wondered where to start again though. Do I go on about things that happened in the last bits of the old year? I think just a little bit maybe and then I can be free to contemplate all the wonderful new-ness that the this year will bring....

I left off with the suka free art sale that my husband Joe and I participated in. It was particularly snowy that weekend but we were grateful to everyone that had the opportunity to come visit us. Joe and I were also very happy with how our artwork looked displayed together on the walls and our tables. We had a cheerful time in the warm indoors meeting new people and reminiscing with old friends.

This is Joe and I standing in front of our artwork from the Sucka Free art sale.

Again this is our set up from the sale. We had a computer in place for any paypal purchases and had books on one table and prints and buisness cards on another.

Threwout the rest of November and into December my husband Joe and I worked on a very large project for the MarsCon sci fi fantasy convention this March. We have already done a promotional poster which included characters that will be featured on the convention badges. This time we have finished the design that will be used for the convention booklet as well as t-shirts. All that is left is some line work pieces for the book, which I am eager to start.

This is the newest MarsCon illustration that Joe and I did together. We are very very happy with how it turned out. This is the image that will be on t-shirts as well as the convention booklet. The princess and sorceress were characters we made up and introduced in the promo poster.

Although I have shown you the t-shirt design for MarsCon, I am currently getting some images ready to post to show you how the final image came together, as well as an ilustration I finished up in November of Ozma of Oz......!!

To find out more about the 2011 MarsCon convention please visit their site www.marscon.org/2011/index.php
To see the artwork of Joe Rheault visit his sites at  www.dirtyinks.blogspot.com and www.dirtyinks.deviantart.com

The sucka free art sale!

When I posted about the Sucka Free Art Sale I remembered that a our friend, Jared Martin, had taken some really great pictures of the last event. Here are just a few to get you exited!

This is me in front of the table that Joe and I shared. I have some of my paintings on the wall and we had prints and magnets on the table. Behind me are some more prints of ours.

All of these fuzzy crazy creatures are by Tim Holly of Tim Monsters.

This is the table of Mr. Jared Martin, full of comic poster goodies!

This is a nice shot showing part of the layout of the sale. There are some sweet painting on the wall as well as Karen O'Bryan's jewelry table to the left.

 It was really hard to pick just these picture to show you but see how cool it looks?! Don't you just wanna be there? Well you can! It's this Saturday, December 4th from 10am-7pm and Sunday, December 5th from 12pm-6pm.

For more information you can leave me a comment or write an email to me at megarts17@yahoo.com You can also go to tarnishandgold.wordpress.com , which is where the sale will be.

just in time for the holidays - be Sucka Free!

It has been too long, but as I said. just in time for the holidays! I realize now that it was just before Halloween where I left off. Oh dear how time does go! While......I had a lovely Halloween and even dressed up as a beautiful shimmery shooting star. I sent out my book Ferlin and His Paper Hat to three lucky publishers. I got to work on an update of the classic character Ozma of Oz, who is simply stunning and I will happily share. I also had a wonderful thanksgiving with my family, full of food goodness galore, to be fallowed by Friday shopping madness. The time has gone by so fast and I hope everyone, like me, has been enjoying every moment!

One of the things that I am happy to share is the Sucka Free Art Sale happening at Tarnish&Gold this coming Saturday and Sunday. My husband Joe Rheault and me, Megan Rheault will be there with over 15 local artists to sell prints, paintings, photography, comics, clothing, handmade books and other unique gifts.


Here is the official write up, as posted on facebook, by the show organizer herself Karen O'Bryan

Stop on by the Tarnish&Gold Gallery for the Sucka Free Art Sale and get your loved ones something unique this year!

Featuring the work of over 15 local artists, items for sale include:
...
Drawings - Paintings - Jewelry - Clothing - Comics - Horror - Photography - Prints - Handmade Books and so much more!

When: Saturday Dec. 4th, 10am - 7pm
Sunday Dec. 5th, 12pm - 6pm

Where: Tarnish&Gold Gallery
1511 Marshall St NE, MPLS, MN 55418
www.tarnishandgold.org

Artists Include:
Karen O, Dirty Inks, Pixie Girl Studios, Eldritch Curiosities by RM Hanson, Sami Foust, Jared “Chubbybones” Martin, AJ Ragland, Hannah Kleese, KOGiraffe, 7not8Press, Tim Monsters, Jennifer Sandquist, Woe Is Oz, Isaac Breneds, Jonathan McDougal, Chris Crammer, Jessie Schneider, Jesse Nagamatsu, and Patrick Kelley Worldwide Photography

Support local artists and have a fantastic holiday season!

Sponsored in part by: LeToile

up to?

welllllll..........I have been so happy busy these past few weeks. I have printed out copies of my Ferlin and His Paper Hat book to send on their way to the publishers for consideration. I have scanned in all of my finished pastels of Ferlin, which I had been putting off for a very very very (yes that many very's) long time. And.........my husband and I opened up our apartment for the fall variety of the Saint Paul Art Crawl just two weekends ago.

For my book I made five copies, four to be sent out and one for myself to have for shows and such. I printed it out at the local staples and cut it all down at home with our paper cutter of xacto brand. And I put everything together with small little zip ties and clear sheet protectors, cut down to my page size.
 Before sending it on it's way each submission needs a particularly special letter to the editor as well as copies of my page spread done in pastel, (as I intended the book to be finished.) I am putting the finishing touches on those letters and will take a happy picture when I do my send off.

In my other news the Saint Paul Art Crawl was super! I always love how our space is transformed in a matter of exiting and fast paced hours. The week before it I was forever visiting goodwill or michael's to buy up frames and various other necessities for the show. We had a wonderful weekend and I even donned my apron to make some gnome, bear, and squirrel cookies. Magnets as always were quite popular and many people admired my Ferlin book, wishing me good luck on it. In the end our furniture was all moved and moved back again within four days.

So that is what I have been up to for the most part and making room for new things to come my way.

Here are all five of my sweet little Ferlin books, bound and ready for submission.

Three gnome cookies. They were Pillsbury sugar cookies with added mint extract and turquoise food coloring. Decorated with black sparkly gel icing! Yummmm!

This is part of our living room transformed for the art crawl. You can see some of our prints hanging on the grid in the back and my Ferlin pastels on the wall.

This is the other half of our room. Behind the partition is where our studio is located. By the window is Joe's painting, his comics are displayed along with my paintings.

More cookies! On the very last day I made pink squirrels and bears with white frosting.

The shape of wings to come...they're done!

A few weeks ago I finished the wings just in time to send them off to be worn, to what I am sure was a fabulous Halloween party. They turned out exactly as I hoped they would, full of iridescent shimmery-ness. I took lots of pictures with my phone during the whole process in order to show it here and also be able to remember for myself how I made them. So where did I leave off......well I had modge podged some fabric, cut it out into a wing shape, and sewed on some wire.

From that point I cut out two more little shapes in the modge podged thin canvas and added more wire for reinforcement. After everything was good and glued down with modge podge I drew up some shapes to cut out of the wings. I drew on tracing paper (my favorite) and transferred the image to the wings by going over it with a pencil. Then I tried to cut the shapes out with a scissor, which didn't work, but luckily an xacto knife worked very well. After it was cut I got to paint!yay! I chose yellow with a mix of iridescent paint for the back and pink and yellow for the front of the wings. After they were dry I glued shimmery see threw fabric to the back so that it showed threw all of the shapes I had cut out. I made sure to top everything off with plenty more iridescent paint and gloss varnish medium as a final protective coat. I was so pleased with the end result and I know my sister felt so special wearing them. She fit rite in with the rest of the fairies!

This is a small bit of thin canvas I sewed a piece of bent wire to. I adds more stability and helps them bend at the right place.

Here is the above piece as it is glued to the wing.

Both supports are glued on with modge podge and I'm ready to draw some designs to be cut out.

I sketched some designs on tracing paper and then flipped the paper over and traced so that the graphite would transfer onto the canvas. You can see the way it transferred on the right.

Here is where I started to cut out some shapes.

One whole side of the wing is cut out.

Getting ready to paint the front of the wings. I tried out my colors on a scrap of canvas to see how my blending would go.

One side of the wing painted, although I did go in again to add some more highlights.

The back of the wings got painted yellow and sheer iridescent fabric was glued on.

The front of the wings as they are finished, with a coat if iridescent paint and gloss varnish medium. The sheer fabric glued on the back is yet to be cut.

And finally they are done and in place. Very pretty!

The wings get their close up!

You can notice the holes that I made for decoration are actually very functional if you want to hang up the wings or tie them on instead.

Close up of the back of the wings were they bend.

I just had to try the on myself. Lovely.