Etsy shop

Over the past few weeks, I've been working hard, and steadily, at getting my online presence up to date with all of my new work. It takes a lot of time and effort, but it's also fun and exciting to be putting more time into the promotional angle.

As part of this effort, I've re-stocked my Etsy shop with new artwork and prints. I still have a number of things to add to it, but for now, I feel it's in a ready-enough state to share! I'm also currently offering free shipping, and will continue to do so from now until Christmas. This means, if you're interested in sending something elsewhere as a gift, I will happily do so on your behalf at no charge. I'll even gift-wrap it inside the packaging, upon request!

The link to the shop is here:

http://edenbee.etsy.com

Hope you enjoy! If you have an suggestions or recommendations, those are appreciated as well. Thanks for checking it out!

Also, my sale for charity is still on, with many pieces available at reduced prices. Scroll down to the next blog post to read all the details.

Art Sale for Charity: feeding the hungry through Second Harvest

Back in May, I put together a sale of some of my artwork at reduced prices, with partial proceeds to charity. The sale was a success, and through people's purchases, over $300 was donated to the international Red Cross.

I've decided, as we head into the winter weather, to put together another sale. This time, 30% of sales will be donated to Second Harvest, an organization that works in Toronto to divert perfectly good surplus fresh food from restaurants, stores, and markets -- food that would otherwise go to landfill -- to feed those in need. (Learn more here.)

Each of the paintings below is included in this sale, with 30% of their price going to this charity. I will also, between now and the end of November, donate 15% of any regularly-priced purchase from my website, including prints, to this cause. It's a great opportunity to pick up a piece as an early holiday gift, and to do some good for those in need at the same time.

The sale will run from now until the end of November.

Mister Fox

Acrylic on canvas, 36" x 18"

Regular price: $680

Charity sale price: $450 SOLD

(A note on this piece: inspired by the English folk tale "Mister Fox," which is a variation on the story of Bluebeard... there is a tiny murder scene taking place in window of the manor house.)

One of the Crowd

Acrylic and modelling paste on 1.5" deep gallery canvas, 10" x 48"

Regular price: $800

Charity sale price: $450

Circus Monkey

Mixed media (with gold metallic leaf) on canvas, 24" x 30"

Regular price: $550

Charity sale price: $300 SOLD

Hand-embossed metal, 8" x 10" x 1.5" deep

Regular price: $120

Charity sale price: $70

Hand-embossed metal, 8" x 10" x 1.5" deep

Regular price: $120

Charity sale price: $70

Hand-embossed metal, 8" x 10" x 1.5" deep

Regular price: $120

Charity sale price: $70

Contact me here or at eden(at)edenbachelder.com for inquiries or to make a purchase. Thanks for your support!

Masks

A full sampling of all the masks so far! Some have sold, some are on hold, but all of them are available, as I am happy to recreate any of them as a commission, and can have them ready within a few days.

Bird Mask

Metallic blue-black finish

$65

(Original sold)

Bird Mask

Matte black finish

$65

(Original sold)

Bird Mask

Two-toned red finish

$65

(Original sold)

Cthulhu mask

Green and silver semi-gloss finish

$80

Cthulhu mask

Matte black and greenish silver finish

$80

Cthulhu mask

Blue and silver semi-gloss finish

$80

(Original sold)

Cthulhu mask

Matte maroon and purple semi-metallic finish

$80

(Original sold)

Cthulhu mask

Unpainted, natural leather finish

$65

(Original sold)

Blogged!

Hey, neato! I found out yesterday that I got featured on a Lovecraft-related blog, Propnomicon. It features all manner of Old-One-related objects, art, and curiosities. One of my Cthulhu masks appeared there! Swell!

Link is here: http://propnomicon.blogspot.com/2011/10/leather-cthulhu-mask.html

Upcoming event: The Bazaar of the Bizarre

It's back, and I'm back there too! The Bazaar of the Bizarre returns this upcoming Sunday, October 23rd. Click on the image below for all the main details:

You can also add yourself to the Facebook event, to keep it on your radar.

I have a LOT of new work, and news, for this particular bazaar. I will be offering a selection of the work on canvas that many of you now know me for, as well as some work in completely new media. The short list:

-New original paintings on paper, almost all under $100 each
-NEW! Original handmade, completely wearable masks! Each on

e is one-of-a-kind, and has been designed, hand-molded from high quality leather, and hand-painted. See below for my Cthulhu-inspired design!
-Original works on canvas at special prices. At this event only, select canvases will be offered at 20-30% off of their original prices as listed on my website.
-Signed, matted, ready-to-frame prints of many of my original pieces.

I won't spoil all the surprises by posting everything here, but here some examples of new paintings, and one of the new (completely wearable!) masks:

...And much more to come on show day! Hope to see you there.

-Eden

Gentleminotaurs Prefer Blondes

Better late than never, I suppose? Here, nearly a year later... I bring you...

The post with the actual, final, finished, lettered version. (Posted with permission of the author, the lovely and talented Alison Kooistra! With lettering by the also lovely and also talented KT Smith!)

Art by me, from last spring/summer/fall thereabouts. Please enjoy, and if you did (or didn't), please leave us some feedback! Many thanks!

-Eden

Figure Drawing

Last week, I attended the first figure drawing class I'd been to in... okay, I'll fess up. It had been years.

I had figure drawing as a regular, several-times-a-week thing all through my fine art program at university, but have since been focusing more on drawing from my head than from reference. Lately I've felt like I've been maxing out on that, though. I really can't progress without turning back to live reference, and so... back I go!

I have a couple of dozens of sketches from the evening, in varying styles, and done to varying degrees of completion. This one, however, stands out as my favourite drawing of the evening. The accuracy isn't all there, by any means, but... there's a moodiness and line quality in it that's lacking in a lot of my more literal and accurate pieces. I think the bizarre angle of the model lent itself to a more abstracted approach, and often when that happens, good things can come about. Not overthinking what I'm doing, either, tends to have lovelier results... much of the time.

Sir Percy and Chauvelin: finished artwork

And, la, it's done!



The proper title, and explanation, are on deviantart, here: http://shmeeden.deviantart.com/art/Sir-Percy-and-Chauvelin-209033885

(Damask pattern available here: http://kittenbella.deviantart.com/art/Damask-Brites-Patterns-101555681)

Percy and Chauvelin: more progress!

I've done a lot more work since yesterday's post, and here it is!

First, the inks, which I did by hand, then tweaked and cleaned up in my clunky old version (but still totally practical) of Paint Shop Pro (where I can use a hard edge on the paintbrush tool -- something which is bafflingly impossible in Photoshop).



And then, flat colour!



Next up, I add shading and highlights, which is the best stage of all, as it gives the work some life and some polish. And then I decide whether or not I feel up to adding any kind of background. We shall seeeeeee...

Sir Percy and Citizen Chauvelin

Today's project: pencils for a soon-to-be more polished Scarlet Pimpernel illustration.

First, the little sketchbook scribbles, each only about 2.5" high.



These I scanned, tweaked and re-sized to the proper scale for one another in photoshop, then printed very lightly, for penciling over-top.

Which, after an hour or so, resulted in the adjusted and completed (enough for me to ink, at any rate) pencils:



(Please forgive the filthy, smudgy paper... My penciling isn't always the, ah, cleanest...)

As my next step, I'll adjust the levels in Photoshop so that the piece can be printed out very lightly, but with all its detail, on a new sheet for inking. This method suits my purposes much more than attempting to ink over my pencils, as I've often penciled on pretty rough paper, and have usually dented and pulverized it by the time I'm done my tweaks.

Artwork on sale for the month of May, and for a good cause!

I have decided, for the month of May, to offer some artwork at reduced prices, and will donate 30% of sales towards the Red Cross.

If you've ever been interested in picking up some of my artwork, but haven't had it in your budget, now is the time! You'll also be making a significant and much-needed donation to a good cause!

The available pieces are shown and listed below:


Running Horse
Acrylic on canvas
24" x 36"
Originally $550
Now $280
SOLD



Circus Monkey
24" x 30"
Mixed media with gold leaf on canvas
Originally $600
Now $300



Bird Portrait III
12" x 12"
Mixed media on canvas
Originally $180
Now $120
SOLD



Black Bird XXIII
20" x 16"
Mixed media on canvas
Originally $330
Now $220
SOLD



Fish
8" x 10"
Hand-embossed and painted metal on 1 3/4" wooden panel
Originally $120
Now $70



Flying fish
8" x 10"
Hand-embossed and painted metal on 1 3/4" wooden panel
Originally $120
Now $70
SOLD



Reef fish
8" x 10"
Hand-embossed and painted metal on 1 3/4" wooden panel
Originally $120
Now $70
SOLD



Rabbit
8" x 10"
Hand-embossed and painted metal on 1 3/4" wooden panel
Originally $120
Now $70
SOLD


I will also be donating 30% of any purchases of signed and matted prints, which sell for $40 each. (Prints are matted, with acid free materials, to fit standard 11" x 14" frames.) To view which pieces are available as prints, please take a look at my paintings site, below:

http://www.edenbachelder.com/paintings.html


Prices include delivery within reach of the TTC. For out of town purchases, I will ship at cost.

If interested, or if you have any questions, please contact me at eden(at)edenbachelder.com.

Sea monsters and cephalopods, oh my!

Thursday and Friday of this week, I participated in the group show This Just In, in the Inner Garden space at 401 Richmond.

The theme of the show was new, never-before-shown work -- which presented quite a challenge, with all of my work having been displayed in another show less than one month before!

With the theme of new work, I decided to try something entirely different from my previous series. For the first piece, I made things up as I went along, and the end result was... a sea monster! And from there, the rest followed.

There are currently three pieces available in the series. And here they are!



Left to right:

Murky Depths
36" x 6"
Acrylic on canvas

Of the Deep
24" x 8"
Acrylic on canvas

Murky Depths II
36" x 6"
Acrylic on canvas

All three are available for purchase! Please send a message my way for pricing. I also have images showing more detail of each, but will try not to clutter up the blog with a gazillion pictures. So if you'd like to see them, do ask!

Hope you enjoy them! I had a blast making these.

"This Just In" -- A group show of new work!

Happy news! I've been invited to participate in a group show at 401 Richmond, in the beautiful Inner Garden space on the third floor.

The show, "This Just In", features all-new, never-before-seen work by a range of artists working with all different media and subject matter.

I will debuting an entirely new series. I won't say too much about it just yet, but know this: there will be narwhals.

The public Facebook event is here. Add yourself, and come on out, if you can!

Demmed Elusive

Attempting to expand my repertoire a little, to avoid eliciting the reaction of "Oh not another... (you know what goes here)," I've been sketching a few different characters from classic lit. I'm still working out my Watson, but have some Sir Percy Blakeney, bart., the Scarlet Pimpernel, in the meantime.



I need to do more research on fashion from the era before I can confidently draw the clothing, but it was the expression I was after here, more than anything else.

Sketch is... small. Pencil on paper, slight clean-up and a touch of colour in Photoshop.

This Sunday: The Bazaar of the Bizarre

I'll be there! Will you?

11am to 7pm, at the Pia Bouman School of Dance, 6 Noble Street (near Queen and Dufferin). Free admission, and family friendly!

Facebook event page here:
http://www.facebook.com/the.Bazaar.of.the.Bizarre#!/event.php?eid=193349210683736

This is my favourite art and craft fair of the whole year, hands down. I am never so tempted by so many wonderful, weird, totally-to-my-taste things as I am at this event.

I'll be there, in my usual spot from the last two times I've shown there, with plenty of new work -- and this time, with signed, matted, ready-to-frame colour prints of about a dozen of my original paintings!

A little Holmes

And I do mean little. This sketch is only about 2" tall.

I'm in the early stages of working out my cartooned versions of Holmes and Watson for a silly little comic I have scripted out.

What on earth are these comics all for, you ask? Well! Stay tuned for some big news! In the meantime, I'll be posting some of my efforts towards... whatever it is.

Punny bunny

After not trying this medium with any real intent for... oooooh, ten years, I decided to give lino prints another shot.

I had forgotten the crazy amount of time this stuff takes, or how easy it is to cut oneself while working on it, but between stabs I did manage the following piece:



8" x 6", approximately. And the title? "Hare, Standing on End". I promised a bad pun, and I delivered.

This print is available! I'll be doing a set of numbered originals, available with or without matting. You can purchase one by contacting me online, or... at next month's Bazaar of the Bizarre! But more on that later!

A long-overdue update with... ahhh, nerdy comics!

Oh dear! Poor, neglected sketch blog! I'm so sorry. I've treated you so badly. Um, have some chocolates. Also flowers. Oh dear, yes, these ARE from post-Valentine's Day clearance. I had hoped you wouldn't notice. I mean mind... Hoped you wouldn't mind...

If you think can stand another Phantom of the Opera piece, then please take a look at the following comic. If only for the art and nothing else? I spent about a month picking away (okay, slaving away) at this during my spare time, and am quite happy with how it all turned out. I think... it's actually my only multiple-panel full-colour comic so far. I've done greyscale a lot, yes, but... colour!

Anyhow, click to view properly:

Comic is here!

And let me know what you think. Oh, nerdery... But it seems to have blown up on deviantArt, where it has nearly 200 favourites, and about 1900 page views so far (and counting). Miiiiles more than anything else I've posted there.

More paintings to come soon as well -- and a couple of show announcements! Woooo!