CrashOctopus Blog

Knight Nautilus by Meg Lyman

Ink and pencil on ACEO paper

$20 – e-mail to purchase

Wonders by Meg Lyman

Metallic ink on ACEO

$25 – e-mail to inquire about purchase

I feel like this toucan today. There is inspiration in the air. It’s probably because it was a beautiful, full-blown spring weekend, the sun was out, the daffodils were peeking up through the pine needles, and I spent yesterday afternoon out in that beauty, arms deep in my car’s engine compartment. Ahh, spring. Too bad it’s going to get cold and nasty again this week.

I haven’t done much art the last few months, and let’s face it, the end of February is a bit late to be planning the year. The weather is partially to blame. But I also think I needed a break to decide the direction I want to go with my art, which is why it has taken so long to figure out what I want to do with this year.

I doubt now that art is ever going to be my main source of income, and I’m OK with that. A lot of my inspiration isn’t terribly marketable, and I just don’t want to paint things for other people for the rest of my life. Luckily, all my commission work has involved cephalopods so far, which makes it enjoyable, but 1) it doesn’t pay very well and 2) it’s hard to knuckle down and do it when you have a dozen more inspiring ideas clamoring for space in your head. Because of this realization, I decided to do fewer conventions this year. After two years on the circuit, I know which ones are money makers and which are the most fun with friends. I’ll stick to those, and probably mail in art to the rest. Note that most of those I’m attending are in Atlanta, or nearby, which cuts down on expenses.

2010 Convention Schedule

• FWA (Atlanta) – Artist’s Alley, volunteer at the art show
• OutlantaCon (Atlanta) – Dealer’s Table
• Mobicon (Mobile) – Mail in art
• Imagicon (Birmingham) – Mail in art
• RCFM (Huntsville) – Maybe attend with a Dealer’s Table; depends if friends go
• Anthrocon (Pittsburgh) – all in (Dealer’s Table, Art Show)
• Dragon*Con (Atlanta) – all in
• AWA (Atlanta) – all in
• Con on the Cob (Akron) – all in

Other than conventions, I of course want to keep improving my art. I also want to focus my inspiration more in order to refine my style and start giving my art more meaning. Just because I have a vision of a tractor tire nautilus shell doesn’t mean that anyone will buy it. It needs to tell a story or make a point… otherwise, it’s just my subconscious barfing on the canvas. As fun as that is for me, very few other people dig it enough to pay for it.

I’m using mind-mapping to help me focus. Specifically, I’m using the tool “VYM” for Linux. If you are having problems with art block or with inspiration, check out mind mapping. It can be done with a pen and paper, and can really help you filter through your ideas and pick the ones that will take you somewhere. Without it, I probably wouldn’t have posted this plan until July.

Poison Dart Nautilus by Meg Lyman

8×10″ gouache on paper

$50 – e-mail to buy

Holy moly, life is busy.

Two conventions last month, one coming up, getting my house under contract and all the various sundry associated tasks, looking for a new house, seeing my little sister happily married, traveling for work… it’s been fun but crazy!

I have a bunch of commission work to do now. These cloudy fall days make me want to snuggle up with some paint and create all day.

Cosmic Koi by Meg Lyman

11×14″ gouache and ink on illustration board

$95 matted – e-mail to buy

This was another fun experiment! I used a large ink brush by Pentel – the kind you have to squeeze to get the ink flowing – to do the outline. I painted the koi with gouache and scanned it so it could be used as a tattoo. Then I colored the background, using salt and a white ink pen to make “stars.” This is pretty much backwards from how I usually work. Finally, I went over the ink again. It was challenging, but fun.

Also, I was out of big black mats, so I painted a beige mat with black gouache. It’s quite absorbent, so it worked well with only one coat… but the black gouache came off on my fingers if I rubbed it. Solution: frame or put in a ClearBag.

Last WIP…

…annnnnnnnd: DONE! Just in time for Dragon*Con. I have 20 pieces in the show (4 of them are limited edition prints). I still have 3 to finish, so off I go! I’ll share them with you when it’s over, and remind me to give my shining critique of watercolor canvas with gouache.

Previous WIP Steps

Painted Shark by Meg Lyman

5×7″ oil on board

$85 – e-mail to purchase

Stylized Cuttlefish II by Meg Lyman

5×7″ gouache on paper

$45 – e-mail to buy

Been painting little doodles and working on the website. I need to post a WIP of one of these little gouache doodles, but they’re so fast that I usually forget to stop and take photos.

Happy Mother’s Day!

Mimic Octopus by Meg Lyman

4×4″ gouache on board

$35 – e-mail me*

Here’s another of the 100 Cephalopods! The famous Mimic Octopus. It disguises itself, using its stripes and its arms’ ability to make cool shapes, as various poisonous sea critters, like snakes, lionfish, and stingrays. AMAZING

This was my first try with gouache on Aquabord and let me tell you, it’s like they’re made for each other. Great surface to work on with gouache/watercolors. Absorbent enough to *not* rub off (see my earlier posts re: gouache on Gessobord) and sturdy enough to scrub back to white if you make a mistake. I recommend!

*My e-mail was broken for a few days. I am in the process of updating my website, which is why it says “under construction” or something when you go to meglyman.com. I was puttering around in FTP and deleted something by accident. I had to call my hosting provider and they charged me $75 for a backup restore. They only keep the tapes for 3 days. Lesson: BACK UP your website. ALL of it. I backed up the directory where my viewable files are stored. However, the thing I accidentally deleted was in the root directory. Important things live there. Back it up too.

These guys really know how to have fun.

Gouache on Strathmore Illo Board ACEOs which are thick and awesome.

For Sale! $40 – e-mail to buy

Gentleman Crab ACEO by Meg Lyman

Gouache on Illustration Board

$40 – e-mail to purchase

Look! He brought you flowers!