I forgot to bring my external hard drive to load my videos to youtube, so I guess at the start of next week you'll get to see a bunch of videos, lol.
Please give these a thumbs up if you enjoyed the videos.
If you really enjoy the art, feel free to message me I may still have them for sale.
@AjournalJourney on twitter sort of challenged me to make some of these automatic drawings in black and white or black and white in spot color. So I took the challenge, and it's been a blast. It's been really cool. I've especially enjoyed making the drawing in black and white and using red ink over the top. Classic. jarring.
Anyway, take a look: (also if you don't mind, thumbing them up if you like them, it would be greatly appreciated. The sycophantic followers are at it again, thumbing them down. OR someone has too much time on their hands.)
This is a simple idea, create blocks of color using watercolor, or what ever media suits you and then write or draw in those blocks. Instead of blocks, what about circles or triangles or trapezoids? Anything goes as long as you're having fun with it.
I've been loading an automatic drawing video to YouTube every day. I shoot them the week before and then edit on the weekend, then load each day to youtube, usually in the AM, if I can remember, lately, I've been forgetting. This week's were a little more fun than the week previous. The upcoming week holds some fun stuff, I've been experimenting with black and white with occasional spot colors or with blue ink on white paper. So far I'm enjoying the direction this is pushing me in. I can't wait until you see some of the new stuff.
Here are the videos:
Most are available on my artfire or etsy shop. IF you see something that isn't listed feel free to contact me about it and I'll let you know if it's still available.
The first few automatic drawing videos I loaded to youtube were me in my safe zone with the technique- black lines, wet watercolors and washes of color blending together. I pushed myself a little to try something new. I loaded a pen with a favorite watersoluble blue ink and went to town.
I added watercolors and allowed the blue ink to merge with the colors, creating whole new shades. I added Pearl Ex watercolors to the mix. Sprayed the whole thing with water and hit it with a jet of air from my new high powered hair drier (it's too fast for my liking) and allowed the air to push the water around on the page, blending it further.
Watch it come to life here:
(I'll be getting more mats in tomorrow so some more of these will be listed, until then check out my etsy and artfire shops for other images.)
I was browsing vimeo and found Amanda's videos of her art journaling. I adore the style and automatic style of her journaling. The combination of works, color, rubber stamps , found objects and FABRIC. Oh My.
Journaling from Amanda on Vimeo.
1 01-31 10 from Amanda on Vimeo.
I can't believe the Microwaved RO.bot said that outloud! from Amanda on Vimeo.
Ten years ago I was doing larger sized automatic drawings- about 2×3 feet in size, on paper, ink and acrylic. I also made smaller sizes of ink on paper. I took a bunch of pictures, had them printed on paper then bound them into a book. I made a few dozen of these. I sent them out to a bunch of galleries in the area. I received back dozens of rejection letters.
It was disheartening. I'd been both rejected and accepted into shows at that point. In several cases I'd have one piece accepted into the show and another rejected. I knew what I was doing might not be commercial enough.
What I realize now is that I hadn't matured as an artist enough. I was exploring themes that other young adults would be interested in but not the people who would be interested in buying.
After awhile I stopped even opening the rejection letters. I tossed them in a pile. Worse yet were the rejection letters that were clearly a form letter. After a few months of waiting and working the crappy over night job I"d taken to "not interfere" with my art, I opened all of them, they all sucked but one was less shitty than the others and it encouraged me to keep working. So I switched fromone crappy job to another job that was slightly less crappy but at least I got to work on art as part of the job.
I'd be a liar if I told you that the MASS of rejection letters wasn't crushing because it sucked in every way possible. As a result I put the automatic drawings on the back burner. I did them in a little sketchbook and never showed them to anyone. For years I'd draw them in sharpie on crap paper. It was just how it was.
Then I started to add color. I did them on little boards, in journals, and on canvas. I still rarely shared them. A few here and there woudl make their way to flickr. Response was…. Mixed.
These little images were about the subconcious process (still are) and sometimes they don't look like what people want. Sometimes they don't even look the way I want. I've adapted the process of them over time so that it fits more to the intuitive process and isn't limited.
A few weeks back I started to showthe process of how they are created on youtube. Response was for the first time largely positive. Time and place perhaps? I decided to throw caution to the wind and put a few up on etsy and artfire and see what would happen.
A bunch have sold, some people have contacted me about their favorites on youtube and those have sold. It feels good to have people like my work enough to purchase it, it's also totally unexpected and wonderful. The elated feeling I get when I pack a piece up, looking all professional in a mat and a KrystalSeal bag is like nothing else.
I can't express my gratitude well enough.
So here's a little song:
So you have a picky artist on your holiday shopping list and you're fretting over what to get them. Luckily for you I have ideas.
If you are okay with getting gift cards, buy one from a place where they can get the most bang for their buck- places like Jerry's Artarama or Cheap Joe's. These places offer art supplies at very reasonable prices and thus the money you give them will stretch.
Most artists I know love sketchbooks and always have one on hand. You could buy a really nice sketchbook for them. Check out the many many handmade and wonderful handbound journals and sketcbooks on Artfire or Etsy.
What about buying them a really nice brush?
I like to listen to "acid" jazz and quartets; like Mediski, Martin, & Wood or The Vitamin String Orchestra while I draw and paint. I like to listen to Pandora because their stations for this style of music are pretty awesome. You could get your favorite artist a subscription to ad free Pandora or a gift card to a local music shop or even an Amazon gift card.
Another great gift for an artist who draws in pen and ink would be a gift certificate from Jetpens.com or Gouletpens.com Either place offers fantastic products coupled with excellant customer service.
Anyone else have any great gift ideas for artists?
I decided I was going to load all my videos I'd made for next week to my YouTube tonight. Why? No real reason other than that it might be fun.
Way back in 2009 or even further back I picked up a copy of Make the Cut a fabulous software that let me control my Cricut craft cutter. I was able to cut anything I wanted and items of my own designs. Awesome.
Well that was fun, until Provocraft decided they didn’t want third party software controlling their machines. Then sued the makers of Make the Cut. Make the Cut was tied up in court for years. Googling the company shows several lawsuits. Eventually the software was locked down and the code needed to make the software able to work with the cricut was locked out. If you upgraded your copy of make the cut past MTC 4.1.0 it can’t be hacked to work. You also need to install the pccplugin which you have hopefully saved on a thumb drive somewhere.
Make the Cut is now abandonware. The developer has allowed the site to come and go it is currently up and you can download the software, though there are reports in the forum that the new serial numbers no longer work. The forum and site are up now, I was unable to get any assistance from the owner for getting my reg key. I used their automated system and it did not work. I also have not received an answer via their support ticket system. According to several users on the forum, the user has not responded to anything on the forum for over 5 years at this point (writing this 12/2020).
If you have access to the computer you had Make the Cut installed on you can use these instructions to attempt to retrieve the registration code. I was able to successfully reboot my nearly dead old laptop and pull the code out. Then I emailed it to myself AND saved the MTC4.1.0 installer, pccplugin, and reg code to thumb drive. This will get stored in a safe place and I’ll also back these files up to the cloud. And you should to.
I’ll update my old posts about MTC. Apparently now you need to use Sure Cuts a Lot, but I do not think it can be hacked to work with the crapcut. Again I salute Provocrap with a middle finger salute. We should be able to use the Crapcut with any software in the same manner we use a printer.
Use these links at your own risk:
An no I will NOT send you copies of this stuff. I’ve provided the links, follow them.
Please read the comment section of t his post closely for the information you are looking for. Other readers have posted info.
Seriously READ the comments section.
If you bought an expressions 2? Sell your machine on eBay and get one of the machines listed on the MTC website.
Google make the cut 4.1.0 look for a page on TUMBLR. You will need to download MTC 4.1.0 and install it. After that download and run the plugin installer. These are items 1 and 2 on the tumblr page. (No I will not post a link to it, you can work google.)
You will also need to purchase MTC from MTC. You need the serial number to use the software. Don’ be a cheap ()&%^&$^&*% asshole. Seriously. The software is $80, or 2 carts at full price or 4 carts on sale. BUY THE DAMN SOFTWARE. What you just downloaded is NOT THE FULL SOFTWARE, you need the serial number. SO BUY IT. /rant
When you plug it into your computer it WILL NOT CUT IF you don’t have a cart in the machine. For it to cut, plug in a cart, any cart, it doesn’t matter.
So for those of you who have been coming here for my cricut hack post and then noticed… I never updated about it again… Well, I was very disappointed to find out that ProvoCrap sued the creator of Makes the Cut. Sigh. ProvoCrap forced them to disable the use of cricut on their machine. Apparently ProvoCrap hasn’t noticed that many other companies, like you know, Sony, Apple, Nintendo, Atari etc did a little thing called “software licensing” where they forced companies to BUY a license to manufacture add ons for their products. Everyone wins. The company that sells the machine gets money and the company that sells the software makes money and most of all the consumer gets innovative products. ProvoCrap fails to see that.
Now if my Mom hadn’t bought me my cricut as a gift (shortly after her heart surgery) I’d shelve or sell the damn thing and buy a machine that isn’t crippled by it’s manufacturer and allows me as an artist to create my own designs without fear of being sued or threatened with lawsuits or “damage to my machine.” There are no issues with 3rd party content damaging machines, what a ludicris idea! Unless of course, provocraft has installed somethign on the machine to damage it IF I dare use 3rd party content. That being said I’ve been using Makes the Cut with no issue, and I will continue to do so.
Here’s the meat of my post: If you have a cricut, hack it. Screw provocraft. Seriously if you do buy a cricut, buy Makes the Cut and hack MTC so it works and don’t buy another damn cart again. It can be done. And it’s not hard. I am not posting publically how you can do this, as provocrap now sends a cease and desist to everyone who DOES leave the information out there. So, feel free to google the makes the cut hack, and for god’s sake don’t update your cricut firmware. Or do and then sue provocrap for embedding disabling software on your product.
As for blades: You can buy Roland brand cutter blades on ebay for about $2 to $3 a blade- which is a lot cheaper than buying the provocrap blades. Also, provocrap can’t sue Roland, they made these blades long before provocrap started to make the cricut. Maybe Roland should sue cricut for copyright violation. Also, good luck with provocrap shutting down the Chinese vendors of those blades.
Mats not sticky anymore? Start off by washing them with warm soapy water and then letting them dry. That will remove some of the fibers sticking to it. You can also buy a glue remover and glue system. This seems tedious, and I attempted to buy a bottle of it from a seller on etsy only to be screwed out of my money. It’s a spray glue system which of course smells bad. However, this company has a good reputation.
The best resticking option that I’ve seen so far, and has rave reviews actually uses one of my favorite glues- Zig 2 way. I usually buy the pen tip but it comes in a big mammoth pen now and the suggestion is that you wipe off the large pieces of lint with a wipe, let that dry, apply the ZIG, let that dry and then cut away. You can find this ZIG all over the place but here’s an eBay search. Zig glue is awesome.
I’d like to see a holder made for the cricut that holds a regular exacto blade. It wouldn’t be hard- a dowel seated inside another dowel so it can rotate, the interior dowel would swivel inside the housing and have a channel cut into it to hold the blade, a set screw would hold the exacto in place, and another screw on the top would adjust the blade pressure. (Someone get on making that and send me one.)
Here’s a picture for provocrap:
