How SPIFFY!

This is going to be a very short but very exciting blog post:
My Website redesign is done!!!

www.faunawolfcreations.com

Go check it out and please share far and wide! As a Creative Specialist I rely quite a lot on word-of-mouth for the work I do. So if you're one of the lucky owners of a pair of shoes on my site or you're a small business I've done a logo for, please let your friends and family know about the source!

I appreciate it hugely!

Thank you!

lynbree Photography

Last year I had the great privilege of working on two logos for one client. One was for a community support organisation for the trans community in Calgary (More of that in a future post - I promise) and the other was a logo for their photography business.

Both were very fun projects and the client was so happy with the logo designs that they requested a website design too. Now, I am NOT a web designer. I don't do code and probably never will. My own site is a complete WYSIWYG set-up and that suits me just fine - but it still requires a bit of work. I told this client about the provider I use and they requested a site built by me via the provider.

This was a lot of fun to work on and a lot of it also involved Skype tutorials to help my client gain confidence in using the platform so they can manage their own site. In the end they were extremely happy with what they were able to make and whilst I designed many of the headers as well as the watermark and logo, they really did take the site and make it totally their own.

The client has since launched the site and it's great to see them so happy with the tools they have to promote their fantastic photography. 

Priorities

The following video is best watched in the context of the Me First life coaching site I set up about this time last year.

When I set out to establish myself as a life coach I took the plunge whole heartedly. I believe that putting yourself out there is the best way to find out if something will work or not. Part of figuring this sort of thing out involves the trial and error experience of trying different approaches to an idea or project.

I have come to the conclusion that a new approach is needed for several reasons.

1. I'm publishing a book in March, which will be quite an undertaking and requires a lot of time and energy.

2. I don't want to risk spreading myself too thin. I believe it's good to do a variety of different things to keep life interesting but important to find balance. By taking on too much I risk depleting my energy and not performing very well at any of my projects.

3. I want to integrate my coaching into what I'm already doing with Faunawolf Creations as a Creative Specialist.

The video below explains all of this and will be up on my other site for the time being. I am still offering one to one coaching through www.faunawolfcreations.com and expanding my services to include bookings for classes - like learning to sculpt with polymer clay, character design, or mask making, for example.

So toodle on over to www.FaunawolfCreations.com! 

You can subscribe to my new e-Newsletter (Don't worry, if you were subscribed to Me First you'll be switched to the new mailing list), keep up to date through my twitter and facebook accounts, and keep reading my blog. 

The Hierophant

There are twenty-two cards in the Major Arcana of a Tarot deck, starting at zero (The Fool) and ending at twenty-one (The World). Yesterday I completed another, the eleventh since I started this project in earnest last January. That means I'm half-way there.

I have chosen not to paint the cards in any particular order, instead choosing them based on my own mood and what is currently inspiring me. A few of them have been inspired by family or friends. Some have been focused on the beautiful animals which have graced my life. The latest one I chose to do, number five in the deck, was the Hierophant. The card itself represents self-awareness, the search for knowledge and the strength of wisdom, rather than intelligence.

I thought it would be suitable, then, for my depiction of the card to have strong elements of Buddhism and my own sense of self-knowledge. I chose an Ox for the animal as it is my Chinese Zodiac sign, and suitably, the year of the Ox has just ended. The Star-Sign represented by the card is Taurus, which I also am.

I didn't know, when I set out to do this card, that I was doing it for myself. It has become just that, however. It represents my desire to question and challenge myself, which I did a lot when painting it. I knew I wanted to have moss growing on the pillars and figuring out a technique for this was fun and produced more than satisfactory results. The Mala beads at the top of the painting were another undertaking I refused to let myself shy from. Individually painting and shading thirty-one beads seemed daunting, but I managed to complete it in one session in only a little over two hours.

The greatest challenge, however, and one I feel I accomplished beautifully, was the face. I have always loved how incredibly soft and gentle the face of an Ox looks. I wanted my Ox to appear velvety. I agonized over how this could be done, prepared to paint and re-paint the face until I got it right. I did all the base painting on one day and left it for several. When I sat down to work on it I felt forced, but in a matter of a few minutes I began to feel the flow. The colour was rich and I found the perfect brushes to capture the texture of the hair.

Now The Hierophant is complete and I cannot seem to stop looking at it. I don't know that I can sell this one. I want to hold on to it for a little bit, at least, especially as it gives me something to hang on the walls of my new room.

In the mean time, I've found a way to sell prints of my work universally, which also includes printing and shipping. Through the support of the creators of FolioTwist, who provide my lovely website, I've discovered RedBubble. There are now links from several of my imaged paintings to my RedBubble account, which will allow you to buy reproductions of my work for as little at $25.00 CAD.

In the next week, as long as the rain lets up eventually, I'll be getting the Hanged Bat and the Hierophant imaged as well, so they will be available for purchase.

Now I just need to decide which card to do next.

FaunawolfCreations.com Launch!

Http://www.FaunawolfCreations.com

It's official! Thanks to foliotwist.com (Dan and Zac were super helpful, easy to contact and quick to reply.) I officially have a website!

Why, you may ask, do you need a website? You seem to have a blog, flickr and Deviant Art portfolio, facebook fan page and twitter. That's a lot of social media.

But selling my work through a 'contact me' message on my blog just doesn't fly. Not to worry! The blog shall remain and I'm still going to use all the rest, it's just more centralized with the website. Besides, it increases my search-ability and it's much easier to have all my work featured in one spot.

Course this is just the initial launch so there will be many updates in the weeks to follow. I invite you to have a look-see though. Feel free to peruse the site, get a feel for the layout and point out my embarrassing spelling mistakes.

I'd like to thank everyone who has shown their support in the last few months as I've been formulating the best course of action to sell my work. With this site I hope to make ordering prints, custom pieces and original paintings more simple.

Huge thanks and hugs to my parents, who have given me so much support and who have graciously been delivering prints and pieces ordered to those in Canada whilst I'm abroad.

*Blows kisses* to everyone who has bought my artwork. Without your support I wouldn't have the means to set this site up. I thank you for your fandom and all the ways you show it by following my twitter, signing up as a fan on facebook and following this blog.