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TheGeekCanPaint

Keith James
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To celebrate the launch of my brand new website, I’m giving away a 16 x 16 (w/ 1" border) Watercolor Paper Print of "Bubbles"(worth $160)!


ENTER HERE:https://www.thegeekcanpaint.com/new-website-giveaway


The winner will be announced on October 21, 2022.


I will also be providing EVERYONE who enters (even if you don't win!) a one-time discount to buy anything on my site at 20% off.


Good luck!


BTW – I’d love if you would let me know what you think about my new site in the comments below!

NewWebsiteGiveAway Photo
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Changes...

8 min read
Discontent

Changes Part 1: What's Been Wrong I hate my job. I hate having to wake up to go to a place that has been eating away at my soul for the better part of the last 20 years. There are frustrations with it that would have me seriously considering looking for employment elsewhere, except for one big issue, and this would be a problem wherever I went... it's not art. I've known I wanted to do art for a living since as long as I can remember. And lately I've been feeling like I've wasted my life - because I just haven't. Please don't misunderstand - I'm grateful to have a job and the income it has provided. But it's not what I felt I was put on this planet to do and I don't like what that is doing to me. The discontentment has been bubbling up for some time now - even effecting the art I do for fun. I had tried making an adjustment to how I did art - creating a sort of schedule. And that worked in all the ways it had been intended. But now I need to make a major adjustment to that schedule - and that's fixing the intent of it. I need to try and really make a go at creating a career that I care about. So that means some changes.


Changes Part 2: The Risky Project So, in order to really make an effort of creating a career in art for myself, I had to re-evaluate how I spend time on art. I have my list of projects I enjoy, but outside of maybe adding to my portfolio - they don't do anything for my career. All they've really done is help keep me sane. And while I love them all for that reason alone, for now, at least some of it needs to be set aside. It's time to put my proverbial "eggs all in one basket" as it were. Focus all my artistic energy into one or two projects that I can try and sell, or use to get a job in art or... something. Whatever that "something" ends up being, it needs to be something I'm willing to risk wasting my time on. I actually made that decision a couple weeks ago. Since then, I have been thinking and praying about it. Mentally going through the list of projects I already do, and considering new ones. Weighing the pros and cons of each, dwindling it all down. I've made some decisions…


Changes Part 3: Letting Go Part of focusing my efforts on one or two projects, unfortunately means letting go of others. The obvious ones to go were the copyrighted material. Star Wars & Buffy – I might be able to do something with these in time. But the extra work it would take looking for and retaining the rights and/or permission to sell prints or something… it just isn’t worth the effort. And the idea of having to go through all of that each time I completed a painting… I just don’t see a future in it that I can make a proper living off of. That’s not to say these projects are gone. They will be the easiest for me to randomly do here and there for fun. Just don’t expect to see them often. Harry Potter – This one hurt the most. I mean, if I could choose my career and do whatever I wanted; Potter would be it without question. If I could be guaranteed my Potter Project would work out for a career, I’d drop everything else and not look back. But I’m not even a blip on the radar of the people in charge of Potter. And either way, they are flooding the market with Potter stuff now, with mostly just movie based products. I will eventually pick this project back up and finish it – if only for myself. But for now… it needs to be set aside.


Changes Part 4: The One Thing Staying This is minor in the grand scheme of things, but it warrants a mention – I will not be setting aside the books I’m writing. When I started thinking about focusing my efforts to make a career in art, I considered trying to do… I don’t know, something “more” with my books, like adapting them into a graphic novel, or possibly a web-based series via Patreon. But after weighing the pros and cons, I’m gonna just keep going with it as is, but as a separate project, independent of my artistic career goals. All that said, should the series take off and actually support my household, that would change everything. I could be content writing for my career and paint for fun. But at this point, I’m not counting on that happening, so I’m not going to use the books for my “Risk Project”


Changes Part 5: Something Else I had considered a number of other “new” projects but they all fell short for one reason or another. All except one; writing and illustrating a children’s book. I don't want to toot my own horn, but I believe that is something I have in me to do and do well. The only reason I haven’t done it yet, is that none of my ideas have ever inspired me to see them through. I’m not letting the potential go, but I can’t waste too much time on it either. The whole point of everything I’ve been writing about is that I want to get going, so I am giving myself a deadline. I am currently working on 2 projects. One is the cover illustration for the second book of the series I’m writing and the other was a distraction project I started; birthed in the frustration that concluded in me realizing something needed to change, setting me on this path I’ve been talking about. Anyway, I have till the end of those two projects to come up with a children’s book, or it’s off the table and I move forward with the only things I haven’t talked about yet…


Changes Part 6: The Decision…S I’m still going to divide my art time between only two projects with the most potential to do something for me in terms of creating a career in art. 1of 2: I said I would do a Children’s Book if I could come up with an idea for one that inspires me, by the time I finish the current projects I’m working on. If not… I’m going to move forward with illustrating “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz”. I will admit, the story doesn’t inspire me the way it does my husband – heck, it wouldn’t even be something I’d consider doing if not for him being a part of my life. But, maybe this is part of the reason God brought us together. Add that to the changes that I was already started making to the project dealing with issues of diversity inspired by things going on in my own heart… It could all be a sign. Now, I’m not ready to assert there are supernatural causes to this notion just yet, but I am quite prepared to give God all the praise should it work out. It’s the closest project I have to being like what I was doing with Harry Potter, which as I mentioned previously, is my preferred project. The story is in public domain, so I am free of any copyright issues and there’s a decent fan base for this classic story – which I don’t think has been illustrated (well) in some time. All in all, I feel good about the potential in the project. 2 of 2: I’m not sure how much to go into it. I mean, there are some people who don’t know anything about it, while others know me only for it. I do artwork highlighting a subsect of the gay community often referred to as “Bears”; robust/chubby men, who are often bearded and/or furry. There is more than one series - “The gAy, Bear, Cs” a cute A,B,C style book, “The Pin-Up Bears” inspired by the pin-up Girl art of the 40s, 50s, and 60s, and a series of “Bear Portraits”. None of it is pornographic, though it can be suggestive, which is why it’s not easily accessed on my website. Anyway – it is a niche market, but I could be a pretty big fish in that small pond. At the very least, it could be supplemental income that still comes from art. Or it could surprise me, and I could find myself doing it fulltime… and doing art full time is my goal in all of this.

There’s still plenty to figure out. Am I going to seek out an art rep or agent, to help me sell these projects? Or should I try to keep everything as independent as I can, which means more money but also more work? How will I work out health insurance and other scary “grown up” concerns? Fortunately I don’t have to worry about that stuff yet. Whatever the case, I have a framework now with how I’m going to begin. And it will officially start after I’ve finished the two projects I am currently working on.

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Finished...

2 min read

This was a pretty awesome weekend for finishing projects for me. I finished my most recent painting (Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 3) AND I finished the slipcases for the Harry Potter books I hand bound. Since I won't be posting them as an image in my gallery, I thought I'd say a little something about them here. At first glance, they look very similar to the original version I made, but there are a handful of serious changes:

  1. The biggest change (though it isn't noticeable in this image) is that I used the actual story text. I formatted it all myself, placing my illustrations wherever necessary.

  2. The dimensions are about the same - I had to because of the slipcase art - but I these books are smaller than the originals. As where the originals were about 8.5 x 11, these are closer to 6 x 9.5ish.

  3. The slipcases (which is what I finished over the weekend) probably show the most noticeable differences - they are covered in slightly different material from the originals - still leather like, but the colours are lighter and (not noticeable) they're soft to the touch. And finally...

  4. I didn't put the title on the slipcase. I was actually originally planning on it. I had a friend who was going to help me - he had a machine that would cut it out of the leather - probably creating a neat effect. But after some thought - I really wanted to be able to say I did these all myself. AND the theory is - the illustrated cover is the actual COVER, with the spine of the book showing the title, so I changed course. All that said, I think there's something classy about the single image representing the story.

There are other more subtle changes, like things with the ribbons, and since I used the original text the illustrations fit differently. But that all is the jist of it. All that's left is to make a new video about them for my website, then TRY and mail a set to J.K.Rowling, while the other goes up on my own shelf.

Potter Books 1 and 2
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Assembled and left to dry last night, so waiting for me this morning were the finished base books. They aren't perfect by any means - but they are hand made so sue me. I think they're better than the previous versions I made, and think later books will only get better. That said, these aren't done yet...

Base Books
  1. Now that I have proper dimensions of the physical books, I need to measure and reformat the cover illustrations I've already done for these. This isn't a step I will normally have to do, but since these were originally designed to be bigger I need to do some compensating.

  2. I wish I could print the covers at home, but alas, the dust jackets are just too long - so I need to take the newly formatted images I just spoke of doing to a place that will print them for me. While I wait for that to get done...

  3. I need to build the slipcases for each book and...

  4. Attach the bonus and main illustrations inside. I'll explain what I mean later when I'm doing it.

THEN - the books will be done. I'll make a new video explaining them and show them off. Which will then set me free to start painting again... which I am looking forward to doing!

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Book Bundles - near complete

When last I spoke of it - I showed off some supplies for a project I've been working on, and here is more evidence of that work. I'm re-creating physical copies of the Harry Potter books using my illustrations.


I'm making changes to the design - they're going to be a little smaller, though in scale with the original version I made, in order to accommodate for the illustrations I've done for the dust-jackets. The interior layouts are a bit different though. This time the colour illustrations will be treated like "plate illustrations" - separate, but higher quality printing. I used some new fonts, and I've learned to wrap text around images better and - speaking of - this time I'm using the actual text of the story, not gibberish like I did the first time. I figure, since I have no intention of selling these without permission - which I'm not likely to get - why not make them as close to "real" as possible? I'm making 2 copies though; one for myself, and the other to try and get to J.K.Rowling as a thankyou gift. Right now, I just got the text part printed and folded. Once I get the colour illustrations done and inserted in place, I'll begin sewing them all together! I'll probably do one more progress post but then I'll share the finished products.

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