In Nature’s Realm – A Fairy Walk

Posted on by Katharine

This past weekend, our family went on a fairy walk to Rochester, NY’s beautiful Highland Park.  It was a gorgeous day and we really only poked around a small area, so there will be much more exploring in the coming months.  One of the big things we missed out in CA was the green of upstate NY, and we got a lot of it on our walk.

When we first parked, I was fortunate enough to see the start of a flower trail, obviously left in the wake of some fairy maiden as she worked her magic that morning.

Fairy Trail Starts - small purple flowers
Fairy Trail Starts
 
You can see in the following picture the path of purple flowers.
 
Path of Flowers

Path of Flowers

 
Next, we found tree hollow home.  Unfortunately, this fae was out and about, but you can see how comfortable this space is.  It was the single clover growing in the space that tipped us to the location.
 
Fairy Home

Fairy Home

 
We were then delighted to encounter these two ancient tree spirits.  It is incredibly rare for the trees to reveal their faces like this, but they were both friendly folk.  I know the one looks a tad bit crabby, but once we started talking to him, he was only a touch curmudgeonly.
 
Tree Spirit

Tree Spirit

 

Second Tree Spirit

Second Tree Spirit

 
Highland Park is known for several flowering trees, and indeed the Lilac Festival held every year there celebrates them.  I adored the pink of these blooms, and I know many of the fae do as well.
 
Pink blossoms

Pink Blossoms

 
And here, in front of the conservatory, we have a magic tree.  It is the only one that hasn’t started blooming yet.  Used in some kind of fairy magik, I’m sure, because when you look inside, there is one small patch of flowers growing.  Don’t you just want to go inside and play like you did when you built forts as a kid?
 
Weird tree

Weird TreeLife Inside the Weird Tree

 
 
Next time we go, I hope that our son is walking more and we can get a little off the beaten path.  Where are some of your favorite places to go to hunt out the fae?

Nurturing Yourself Within and Without

Posted on by Katharine

Next month at the Maryland Faerie Festival, Fairy Magik will be debuting homemade bath and beauty products, which will be available in our online store soon after.  We are very excited about making these products and offering them to the public.  I have been making many of my own bath products for the past two years, ever since I was diagnosed with psoriasis, coupled with several chemical allergies and sensitivities.  I went on one round of a mid-strength steroid cream and began researching the disease and many of the ingredients in the products we both apply to our bodies and that we eat.  And I became more and more disgusted with what I was learning.  Yet this is not a blog post for dwelling on the negative side of our consumer-driven culture.  I want to talk about the positive ways you can change your current routine, simply by making small adjustments to your mindset.

The human body is a truly amazing thing, whether you think of it scientifically, religiously, or magically.  The way it works from DNA to individual cells to a unit as a whole is beautiful, and I truly believe that each of us, regardless of how we match up to “ideal” concepts of beauty, have a base healthy point for our bodies which we can find and maintain and nourish which then allows all of our individual beauty bubble out.

Step number one to taking care of yourself is making sure you get enough sleep.  The number of hours varies depending on how active you are and how your brain works, but generally falls in the 7-9 hour range (not necessarily all in a row), with a minimum of one solid 4 hour chunk of sleep needed for optimal mind and body functionality.  Step number two is minimizing your exposure (as much as you can) to outside factors that mess with the equilibrium of your body.  Think holistically and examine the areas in your life where you can cut back – are you taking lots of medication for migraines?  It could be tied to your diet or something you are applying topically to your skin.  Do you regularly work with harsh chemicals or around a lot of dust?  Consider wearing gloves and a mask if you aren’t already.  Be willing to do the extra legwork and research the pros and cons to the products you use, especially those you are using daily.

In regards to bath and beauty products, read the back of your labels, even on “natural” or “organic” products.  Many common ingredients are problems – parabens have been found in very concentrated amounts in breast cancer tumors, sodium lauryl sulfate is a known skin irritant, formaldehyde-releasing agents are common preservatives.  A lot of cleaning agents involve stripping you of your natural oils and then adding chemically-derived oils back in, which works against your body’s natural mechanisms.  And as far as “natural” ingredients go, consider yourself holistically again.  Do all your products contain soy or soy lecithin?  Do you also eat a lot of soy or pre-packaged foods that contain soy?  Then you are probably getting too much.  Do you know for certain that your “natural” eyeshadow is safe?  Many shadows use ground glass as a sparkle-enhancer, and glass is natural, but not too safe for the eyes.  Sometimes the simplest solutions provide the best beauty results.

When it comes to food, think about what you are feeding your body.  Prior to being pregnant, I really started trying to get as healthy as possible, and I’ve increased my knowledge as my baby moved to eating his first foods.  When you eat, you should not just be trying to fill the growling mass that is your stomach, but you should be giving your body the fuel it needs to work.  Foods as close to nature as possible are best.  Eating a wide-variety of whole foods ensures that you get all the vitamins and minerals you need.  Eating foods containing naturally-derived fat does wonders for your skin and hair, as does naturally-derived cholesterol such as you find in pastured eggs.  I am a proponent for shopping local whenever possible, both because it’s better for the local economy and because you get fresher foods the closer it is to your door, which means you get the most out of it.  Limit your sugar intake as this can cause you to get hyper and then crash, leaving you listless and worn out, which is reflected in your looks.

Bottom line is, if we take care of ourselves, we don’t need a complicated beauty routine.  We can wear the make-up products we love for fun rather than because we feel we need to.  We don’t need to fear aging because our skin and hair will maintain a glowing look for decades to come, our minds will remain sharp, and our bodies will remain fit.  We owe it to ourselves to treat our bodies like the wonders that they are.

How I Got Into Drawing Fairies

Posted on by Pete

Occasionally I get asked about how I fell into doing fairy artwork. After all, if you don’t know me and meet me for the first time, you wouldn’t immediately assume I’m a fairy-loving guy. I’m over six feet, broad shoulders, and I listen to metal. But once you get beyond that, you find out that I’m definitely not a stereotypical guy (I also listen to Enya).

My drawing fairies actually came from my inability to draw females at all. Growing up I used to draw constantly. There wouldn’t be a space on my school notes or in the margins of my workbooks that didn’t have doodles. A lot of the time it was superheroes, because I was big into comics back then (something that didn’t translate much into my teen years and adulthood). But I just never was able to draw a decent-looking female. When I started doing Bardsworth, I realized that I needed to start practicing a lot more because a good number of my characters – including a fairy – were female.

But the big breakthrough came the first year I attended the San Diego Comic Con in 2006. I was wandering the aisles of artists until I came across a booth that really drew me in. It was fairy artwork, and it was beautiful. I couldn’t stop studying and admiring it. At the time, I had no idea who Jessica Galbreth was, but I was definitely disappointed that she wasn’t at the booth (she was at a panel) and that I would be gone by the time she returned.* Regardless, I bought a book of her artwork, the only major purchase I made that day.

That was the gateway drug. From there I went and found a bunch more fairy artists, and realized that drawing fairies would be great practice in drawing females, plus it was a lot more fun than just drawing figures. Over time, as I got better and better at drawing females, I began to realize that I was drawing them better than I could draw males! Ironic, huh?

I’ve found that there’s something inherently pleasant about drawing fairies. I can play with mixing their beauty with a countless number of things – whimsy, cuteness, darkness, modern attributes… the list goes on. And there tons of ways to draw them, as I’ve learned by studying other fairy and fantasy artists. I’ve more or less found my style, but I like to step off the beaten path once and while and try something different.

I like that something I love doing came from a challenge I gave myself – to learn to draw females well. I guess if there has to be a moral to this story it’s to challenge yourself as an artist. Step outside of your comfort zone and try to perfect something that you aren’t particularly good at. You may surprise yourself with how good you can be at it.

*This was the beginning of what has become a running joke in my life. It seems that each time – and it’s happened about three times now – that I might have a chance to meet Jessica Galbreth and get my book signed, something happens to prevent it from happening. As of my writing this, I still haven’t managed to meet her face-to-face or get my book signed. Maybe I’m just destined to meet her when I’m so good at what I do that she’ll feel honored when I say she was the one who gave me my start.

To Paint a Mermaid pt 2 – The Process

Posted on by Katharine

All right, here we are down to the nitty-gritty process.  Here again is the (darkened) pencil on cold-press watercolor paper.

Mermaid Sketched onto Watercolor Paper

Mermaid Sketched onto Watercolor Paper

The next step is start laying in color.  When painting watercolors, it is important to layer, layer, layer.  It is the layers of paint that add depth to the piece.  The tricky part though is to not over saturate your paper but still use enough water to allow your color to spread where you need it to.

Skin tone

Layer one - Skin tone

The first step I took was to lay in a flesh tone onto the mermaid’s torso.  Fortunately I had some flesh tone already mixed up from a long time ago, so I didn’t have to waste time mixing one.  With the Dr. Martin’s watercolors, I usually mix up an orange-y/peach-y color and then add white to it.  If I am using gouache or generic watercolors and I have a flesh tone in a tube, I still mix this with some other colors for a more realistic shade.  In this layer, I also layered in a light wash over the rocks in the foreground.  Then I laid this painting aside and worked on the other painting.

Layer Two - ocean wash

Layer Two - ocean wash

On the second layer, I added a wash to the ocean.  I used a mixture of old and new paint in a couple of different shades of blue, which caused those scuff marks (due to dried paint chips collecting on the paint brush and then being dragged on the paper with water).  I liked the texture that was being produced.

Layer Three

Layer Three

Layer three.  I realized a mistake from the last layer.  Oops!  I put water over the edge of the rock on the left side of the mermaid.  So I laid in a little more color on the rocks, including painting over the mistake, then I added a wash into the mermaid’s hair.

Mermaid with Base Paint Laid In

Mermaid with Base Paint Laid In

And here’s layer four, which is as far as I got the first night.  Here I laid in the sky, the cliff behind the rocks in the foreground, and put a very faint green onto the tail.

Layer Five - first layer of shading

Layer Five - first layer of shading

Layer five is where I’ve started laying in my shading.  I like to mix my own purple-y grays to use for shading.  I also added a brighter green to the tail fin and the waist, and a golden yellow/orange blend to the hair.  I noticed too that my sky was a little rough, so I smoothed it out where I could.

Layer six

Layer six

Layer six, I’ve traced the seaweed, laid in more color into the tail, added lip and eyebrow color, and put some texture into the cliff face in the background.

Layer seven

Layer seven

Layer seven adds another layer to the foreground rocks, the mermaid tail, and the flesh of the mermaid.

Layer eight - textures

Layer eight - textures

Layer eight, I’ve added leaves to the seaweed and speckled texture to the rock.  I’ve also added a little more shading and texture to the hair and to the fins and waist of the tail.

Layer nine - water texture

Layer nine - water texture

Layer nine, I’ve added texture to the water by making wave shapes with a few different shades of blue.

Layers ten and eleven - the finishing touches

Layers ten and eleven - the finishing touches

Here is the finished painting!  In layer ten, I added texture to the tail in several different shades of green.  I also added more detail through the mermaid – another layer on the leaves, more detailed work on the body.  Layer eleven, the part that makes the painting pop, is going through and adding bits of white reflection throughout the piece.  I ran out of Dr. Martin’s white paint so I got out my tube of Winsor & Newton white gouache.  To make it cover the darker colors, I used only enough water to wet the smallest brush before running it through the white.  Before selecting where to add the white, I tried to imagine where the sun would be hitting the mermaid.

So that’s it!  Eleven layers of paint.  I think I would like to try a more detailed background on my next painting, but I like the way this turned out.

Sketch Dump

Posted on by Pete

Whenever I go to a convention or a festival I like to use some of the down time to do some sketching.  A lot of these sketches don’t see the light of day, so I’m grateful I have this blog now.  Recently, when I was at NonCon, I did the following four sketches on index cards.  I didn’t really have anything in mind when I started sketching them, I just went for it.

This was the first one, and it was one of my favorites from the batch.  I’d love to turn this into a full-body color print.

This one would make a nice print as well, but I’m not as excited about it.  However, if I added color to it, I might think differently.

This was my other favorite.  This one I’d love to do as a painting.  But I have the feeling it’ll be one of those sketches I won’t be able to make look good as anything other than the original sketch.

This was the last one, but it was actually the third version.  The first two versions just didn’t gel with me, and this one doesn’t really do much for me either, but it turned out to be an experiment in doing expressions other than happy.

I’ll probably be adding these into my next “sketchbook” (collections of sketches that I sell at conventions/festivals) along with the numerous other sketches hiding in my collection.  Gotta do something with them, right?

Little Devil

Posted on by Pete

Recently we had a spade of mysterious things happen around the house, which I attributed to a mischievous fairy. I figure if you draw them, and surround yourself with artwork and depictions of them, they probably take notice. The funniest – and most frustrating – was the disappearance of a quarter-filled bag of potatoes. Neither Katie nor I finished them off, and still the bag was gone. I even pulled the fridge away from the wall (we keep them on top of it) and there was nothing behind. So I just figured an impish fairy flew off with them or magicked them away.

Looks like it was more imp than impish fairy. We found this on the floor of our living room yesterday:

I wonder if the little devil was responsible for the giant spot of mold in our boy’s room, too.

To Paint a Mermaid Pt 1 – The Beginning and How I Work

Posted on by Katharine

This is my first post on the new site!  It is a two part on a current watercolor work in progress entitled “An Idle Moment”.  This first post will deal with my artistic process through beginning to lay in the paint and also show how I currently work.

The first step is research.  I basically choose a body pose I like, mostly from vintage photographs, and then I decide what kind of fairy or mythical creature I want to create.  In this case, I decided to go with a mermaid.

The second step is the rough sketch.  I flushed out this rough sketch a little more than I sometimes will because I wanted to give it as a gift to a friend of mine (which I did).  Below is the image of that rough sketch which I took a picture of and saved on my computer as I drew this sketch in 2009.  It has been enhanced in Photoshop Elements to show more of the line work.

 

Rough Mermaid Sketch

Rough Mermaid Sketch

So, I had this sketch sitting on my hard drive for several years, and I decided to finally realize it as a painting because I needed to work on another watercolor for the cover of my soon-t0-be-released collection of poems.  I discovered in graduate school that when I work with watercolor, I like to have at least two paintings to work on simultaneously so while I let one layer of color dry on one, I can be working on the other.  This allows for greater productivity.

This past New Years, we went away for a weekend of creativity.  And it was here that I lightly penciled my base for my painting onto watercolor paper.  Here is an image of that, again enhanced in Photoshop Elements so you can see the line work.

Mermaid Sketched onto Watercolor Paper

Mermaid Sketched onto Watercolor Paper

As you can see, not nearly as detailed as the sketch as I’m going to use the paint to draw in the details.  These lines are more used as guidelines.

Last night, I set up on the dining room table.  When working on costume renderings in grad school, I used to like to sprawl on the floor with an art board, sitting in strange positions while painting away, but now that we have two cats and a baby, I had to be up relatively out of the way.  Here are some of the tools I use:

Watercolor Brushes

Watercolor Brushes

Notice there aren’t that many brushes there.  These are all the brushes I use with my watercolors, including the bamboo pen.  Mostly, I use just three brushes – the large one, the medium one, and a super fine one for tiny detail work. I occasionally will layer in watercolor pencils when drawing fabric patterns (not an issue on this piece) and I don’t hesitate to use metallic or white gel pens if I need something to pop.  I am not a purist.

Here is my giant plastic container of water and paint palettes.

Palettes and Tub of Water

Palettes and Tub of Water

I use the Glad press n’ seal over each palette to save my paint.  I was seriously able to use paint that I haven’t touched in three years last night, thanks to this.  Some of them had dried and flaked beyond saving though; it just depends on the pigment.  When using watercolor, you want to use a bigger container as it allows you to work longer.  If you use a teeny cup, you have to keep getting up to clean out the water.  And in the back of the picture there, you can see my container of paints.

Dr. Martin's

Dr. Martin's

I like to use Dr. Martin’s Hydrus Fine Art Watercolors.  These are liquid pigments, and one of the reasons I like them so much is because they mix similarly to fabric dyes.   The colors are also very intense and vibrant.

The other items that I use that are not shown – a paint-stained white and purple plaid towel for tapping excess moisture from the side of the brush before laying it on the paper, a paper towel to dab tiny tests onto so I can see what a color is going to be before putting it to paper, and my purple star craft apron that I made back in grad school.

This is as far as I got last night.

Mermaid with Base Paint Laid In

Mermaid with Base Paint Laid In

Base color has been added on everything.  Well, everything but her lips, but I’ll add that in later.  This is actually the first time I am attempting a watercolor background.  When designers do costume renderings, the focus is on the bodies in costumes, so generally there is only a shadow or a horizon/floor line added in to ground the character.  So I am experimenting!  I rather like the way my water came out, but I’m not entirely happy with the sky.  We’ll have to see how things come together as I layer in more paint.

Next week I will go step by step with each layer.

And as a bonus, here is a peek at the pencil for my other piece I’m working on!  Again, the pencil work has been enhanced in Photoshop Elements so you can see the detail.  This was done on illustration board, and I am REALLY liking it for watercolor work.  The trick is not using too much water so as not to flood the board while you’re working.

Flaming Skull Crying Blood

Flaming Skull Crying Blood

Obviously this is a completely different kind of piece than the mermaid.  My writing tends towards to be more on the serious side.  I feel as a creative person, it’s important to stay balanced between the beauty and the harshness of the world, and this is the way I do it.

The Pendant

Posted on by Pete

We’ve been pretty bad about updating this blog, but it’s something we are fixing starting this week.  Expect at least two weekly updates, one from myself and one from Katharine.  What will they be about?  Who knows.  We’re making it up as we go along.

Just kidding.  We’ll be talking about our art, our new products, the business as we grow it, and tidbits from our lives.  So if you haven’t already, please subscribe to the RSS feed (in the links to the left), our Twitter account, or our Facebook page, or just bookmark the site and check back when you can.

Here’s a little something to leave you with.

I painted this mini-painting back on New Year’s Day, during a retreat we planned to start the new year off creatively.  I call it “The Pendant”.  It’s painted with acrylic paint on a 3×3 mini-canvas.  I didn’t have any idea of what I was going to paint when I started; it just came to me as I was going along.  I’d like to do a series of mini-paintings to make available at conventions and festivals because I like the idea of being able to sell original artwork at an affordable price.

As I said, stay tuned for further updates!

Coming Soon

Posted on by Pete

With the start of a new year and a new website comes the promise of new Fairy Magik projects and products! These will all be debuted and available for purchase this spring at the festivals. We thought we’d give you a little sneak peek at what’s to come.

1.) Bath and Beauty Products. This is the one we’re most excited about. Katharine has been making her own all-natural bath and beauty products for a while now, and we’ve decided to share those with you!

2.) Wings, Wings, and More Wings! We are not only restocking our fabric wings, but we are producing cellophane wings as well. And we hoping to have at least two pairs of elaborate adult-sized wings for sale.

3.) Paintings. We’re hoping to have a couple of new paintings by each of us done in time for the festival season.

4.) New Sketch Collection. I hope to have a new sketch collection ready for sale, with the ultimate goal of joining both collections into a professionally-bound collection.

As you can see we have a lot of work ahead of us, but we’re confident in getting most of it done on time. I hope you’re as excited as we are!

We’re Back!

Posted on by admin

Hello, fellow fairy lovers and fans of Fairy Magik!  After much experimentation, we’ve settled on a simple and easy-to-manage portfolio setup to display our arts and crafts.  Please take a look around; you might find something you missed previously!

We’ve just applied to get into the Faerie Festival at Spoutwood, and we’ll be applying for the Maryland Fairy Festival as well.  We’re also looking into the New York Fairy Festival.  So we’ll be around a lot this summer!

Stay tuned for more updates as we add on to the site and start making blog posts again!