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I've got a whale of a tale to tell you, lads
a whale of a tale or two
jackieocean
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We went and saw Sherlock Holmes last night and I loved it! It's about time Guy Ritchie got back into doing good movies.

And this is kind of art geeky of me, but how awesome were the end credits? It's not the right music on the video, but the visuals are there at least (obviously spoilerish if you haven't seen the movie yet).



Can anyone point me towards some good Sherlock Holmes icons? I think I'm going to replace some of my holiday ones with those. I might just make some of my own.

Now to make some coffee and move things around in the living room because the couch gets delivered today! They're coming sometime between 8:30 and 11:30. The snow is still coming down outside. I think we got another couple inches last night and we're supposed to get 2 to 4 more during the day today. At least it's mostly fluffy snow and not too wet.

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jackieocean
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I posted this on my sketch blog a few days ago, but since I'm getting caught up I thought I'd post it here, too. I know the image is a little on the large side, but the details get lost otherwise.



I painted this portrait of my family's yellow Labrador, Marley, as a Christmas gift for my parents. A few years back I had done an oil painting of our former black Lab, Tobey, as a Christmas gift for them and I felt it was time they had a painting of our current dog.

Marley just turned six years old in December. People always ask us if she's named after the book Marley & Me, but she is not. We got her a few months before that book was published, but she was so crazy as a puppy that everyone assumed we named her after the book. Pure coincidence. At one point I think we had about six copies of the book because people kept giving it to us, exclaiming, "It's totally your dog!" Marley has since (thankfully) mellowed out a lot and she's now a very cool dog. If you click on the "marley" tag at the bottom of this entry, you can find more stories about her.

This painting was done with watercolor and acrylics on watercolor paper, measuring 10" x 12". Completed in December of 2009.

Prints of this painting are available here!

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Current Mood: good
Current Music: Innocent Bones - Iron & Wine

jackieocean
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I hope the New Year has been treating you all well! I wanted to say thank you for the lovely holiday cards that I received in the mail - it's always fun getting cards from all over. I apologize for being late with getting mine out in the mail, but I wound up working a lot of extra hours during the holiday season. That was good for my bank account, but not so great for card making plans. I'm still going to be sending them out, they're just going to be later than I had wanted.

The past couple of days have been kicking my butt with a nasty cold. I've been taking cold and sinus medication which seems to be helping and I'm finally feeling better today. I can breathe through my nose! My plugged sinuses aren't making me dizzy anymore! I called in sick to work yesterday because I was so foggy and dizzy that I couldn't even think straight. After I called work, I wound up collapsing into bed for almost three hours. I had a can of chicken soup when I woke up, and vegged out with comfy blankets and episodes of Fringe for a few more hours before going back to bed, and I'm finally feeling more like myself. Still stuffy, but I think I'm over the worst of this.

Speaking of Fringe, does anyone else think that Joshua Jackson now looks kind of like a hybrid of George Clooney and Ewan McGregor? I never really watched Dawson's Creek, so unless you count Mighty Ducks, Fringe is the first thing I've watched that heavily involves Joshua Jackson as a cast member. He looks very Ewan-eqsue here, and his eyebrows definitely look like Clooney's. Anyhow, random observation. I just finished episode 4 of season 2 of Fringe last night, so I'm almost all caught up.

Also, in exciting apartment news, we bought a couch last week! It gets delivered tomorrow. Yay!

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Current Mood: okay
Current Music: Love Vigilantes - Iron & Wine

jackieocean
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I'm cross-posting this from my sketch blog because I'm really happy with how it turned out.

A few months back I picked up a wooden stool that was being discarded. It was pretty dirty and had paint smears and drips all over it. After cleaning it up and sanding off the paint globs, I sprayed it with primer. Then I re-sanded a few rough patches, spray painted on the base green color, and then hand painted the dark green trim and the leaf on the seat. The final step was to spray a clear coat finish over everything to seal it all.

Voila! A new stool for the kitchen.







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Current Music: Heart Skipped A Beat - The XX

jackieocean
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I'm running slightly behind with things on my end, but I'm going to try and get holiday cards out again this year. I'm aiming for Christmas, with getting things out by New Year's as my cushion. So anyhow, addresses!

If you'd like to receive a card from me this December, just include your mailing address (not your e-mail address!) by commenting here. All of the comments on this post are being screened so no one but me will see your address, and I'll be deleting the comment after I receive it. So no worries, total security! Even if you think I already have your address, it's best to give it to me again. And if you're outside of the United States, make sure you're very clear when leaving your address about what it should say for international mail (ie. what country!). I'll be accepting addresses up until December 21st, and I'll be sure to post reminders here about it from time to time.

Also, if you'd like to send me a card in return, just include your e-mail address when you comment with your mailing address and I'll send my mailing address to you. I had a lot of fun getting cards from all of you last year!

[info]iolausian, I got your card yesterday - thanks so much! :)

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Just a general question, no real specific plans at the moment, but would anyone be interested if I were to offer paintings and drawings for sale on Etsy? I've been toying with the idea on and off for a while now.

Or does anyone here sell art (or anything else for that matter) on Etsy? If you do, and don't mind sharing some details, do you find it worthwhile? I've bought stuff from Etsy so I know how it works on that end. I'm just curious if it would be worth trying or not.

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Current Music: Love Rescue Me - U2

jackieocean
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Right now there are a variety of sales going on in my print shop, just in time for the holidays!

From now until December 10th, all ceramic mugs are 15% off!

Photo paper prints, the kind most commonly purchased from my shop, are 20% off from now until December 13th at 11:59 PM Pacific Time.

If you've been waiting to purchase something, this sale would be a great thing to take advantage of! DeviantArt print services said some more things might go on sale between now and Christmas, so I'll post here if anything good is marked on sale.

Much thanks to anyone who has purchased a print from me before or plans to do so in the future! I really appreciate the support, and I always love knowing that my art is going to be in someone else's home.

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Current Mood: awake
Current Music: Creepin' In - Norah Jones & M. Ward

jackieocean
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I'm re-posting this from my sketch blog, because I thought that people who don't read that might still enjoy this.

Earlier this week I made a Christmas wreath for the apartment's front door.



There was a pile of plastic grocery store bags in my kitchen that I kept forgetting to recycle at the store. I was gathering them all together when I got the idea to make something out of them. I've seen Christmas wreaths made out of rags before, so I thought why not try that with the plastic bags?


I started with a green wire wreath frame from Michael's. However, I thought that with that frame alone, the finished wreath would look too skinny.


I solved that issue by adding an inner ring to the frame with some aluminum wire that I had, twisting it double for strength. I used thinner wire to hold it to the frame.


After that I just started tying plastic strips cut from the bags onto the wire frame. I didn't cut the strips in any uniform manner because I wanted the plastic to look somewhat leafy when I was done. I also cut off any letters or logos because I didn't want those to show. The bags I used were all either white plastic bags (from Target) or transparent grocery bags (from Wegmans).


When I bought the wreath frame, I also bought some plastic silver leaves and small branches to include in the wreath. I used the thinner wire to secure the branches onto the wire frame, and then I tied the plastic strips over the stem to hide it. The supplies for this project were cheap, with the branches costing anywhere from $0.29 to $0.49. All told, I spent maybe $10 at the most on supplies.


I didn't keep an exact count of how many bags I used, but it had to be at least 30 plastic bags or more. Tying all of the plastic strips on took a while, but it was an easy project to work on while watching some DVDs. The finished wreath is about 20" wide and very lightweight, so it's easy to hang with a plastic hook and sticky tape. I definitely plan on saving this wreath to use next year.

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Current Music: Lenin - The Arcade Fire

jackieocean
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30% off ALL greeting cards, just in time for the holidays! This is a great chance to get some unique cards and support independent artists! I recently updated my print shop, so there is now artwork available for greeting cards that was not previously available.

These 5 x 7 inch folded greeting cards come with envelopes and a reusable matte black box to keep them safely stored when not in use. The cards are printed on high quality 110 lb. matte stock with a beautiful UV sheen finish.

Don't miss out, this sale ends November 20th at 11:59 PM Pacific.

And if you know anyone who might be looking for some holiday cards, feel free to pass this along! I'd love the support. ;)

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Current Mood: hopeful
Current Music: Silver Lining - Rilo Kiley

jackieocean
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I posted this on my sketch blog a while ago, but I'm just starting to get back into the swing of things on LJ after moving earlier this month. And so!



This digital illustration was originally started as part of a demonstration for a digital painting class at Syracuse University that I was a guest instructor for. The students were required to create a musician themed illustration in the manner of something that you would see accompanying an article in Rolling Stone magazine.

For this piece, I picked Florence and the Machine as my musician subject matter. I became totally hooked on Florence's album Lungs back in September, so it was an easy choice when it came time to pick my subject matter for the college demo. I'd been thinking about doing an illustration about Florence anyway, so this was the perfect opportunity.

I went with kind of an art nouveau/steampunk motif to represent the "Machine" part of the band. Florence and the Machine is essentially Florence Welch and whoever else happens to be performing with her at the time as her band.

This illustration was started on watercolor paper with brown colored pencil and ink washes. All color was added digitally painted in Photoshop. The final illustration measures 10" x 17" and was completed in November of 2009.

I saved a whole bunch of progress images which I will eventually post here. In the meantime, the previous post with progress images can be seen here.

Prints of this illustration are now available!

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Current Music: Gossip In The Grain - Ray LaMontagne

jackieocean
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From now until October 27th, you can get free worldwide economy shipping on any orders through my print shop! That's right, free shipping to anywhere in the world. If you've been thinking about buying anything from my print shop, now would be the perfect time to take advantage of this offer.

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Current Mood: awake
Current Music: Rise - Doves

jackieocean
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Full image behind the cut )
Jeff and I collaborated on this dog portrait as a wedding gift for some friends of his. They got married recently, and instead of asking for wedding gifts they asked for people to make a donation to the animal shelter that they adopted their Boston Terrier from. This portrait of Spencer sat on a table at the wedding along with information about the animal shelter.

Jeff did the black and white drawing and ink wash painting. I added all of the coloring through digital painting in Photoshop.

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Current Music: Sea Song - Doves

jackieocean
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This is totally cracking me up right now.

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Full image behind the cut )

I drew this yesterday in my Moleskine sketchbook with ballpoint pen and white acrylic paint. This can also be found on deviantArt and my sketch blog. And remember, you can always add [info]jackieoceanart to your friends list to keep up with my sketch blog.

I also changed the colors on my LJ to make it more autumn themed. I'm so glad that it's almost fall, it's my favorite season.

EDIT: I put my drawing behind a cut. I forgot that it was a little on the wide side.

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Current Mood: awake
Current Music: watching Glee

jackieocean
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Video for the day! Not exactly a new video, but it's still so much fun.



Phoenix's album "Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix" has been my definitive album of choice for the summer. The whole thing is just perfection.

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Current Mood: thoughtful

Time for some thrilling heroics.
Jackie
Name: Jackie
rummaging for answers
Back January 2010
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advertising in the skies
living in a den of thieves
Currently reading:
-All Together Dead by Charlaine Harris
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Books Read In 2009:
-The Road by Cormac McCarthy
-Definitely Dead by Charlaine Harris
-Dead as a Doornail by Charlaine Harris
-Dead to the World by Charlaine Harris
-Club Dead by Charlaine Harris
-Living Dead in Dallas by Charlaine Harris
-Bee Season by Myla Goldberg
-The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
-Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris
-Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling
-Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling
-Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling
-Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling
-Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling
-Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling
-Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling
I've got a jar of dirt.