Rotty Blog

O.K. Edgar’s finished now, and this time I mean it. All that’s left is the varnish, which I’ll wait to do in a few days after I’m sure the paint is completely dry.

Edgar and Chloe will be participating in the “19 Days of Edgar” starting January 1 and running through the 19th. Read about the whole convoluted idea here. If you have any requests for what you would like to see Edgar and Chloe on, take a look at the complete list of possibilities over at Zazzle, and then let me know. Please tell me ASAP, as I’ll be designing mostly in advance of the post dates to make sure I have all the kinks worked out before posting. The first selection will be available December 31, somewhere around 9 pm.

Must…go…design…

Having been caught in the act by three unsuspecting children, Mr. Claus turned himself in to authorities early Christmas morning after a lengthy standoff. The children were immediately sequestered for psychological evaluation.

The latest installment of “Where’s Edgar?”:

He may be finished…or not. I’m not sure just yet. I’ll have a look at him tomorrow and see what he has to say.

Worked some more on Edgar and Chloe this afternoon. I would consider Edgar’s vest finished (the close-up is below), but his coat is only underpainted at this point. I’m satisfied with how everything’s turning out so far.

And I had an idea.

This whole painting was meant as a celebration of Edgar’s birthday on January 19th. So starting January 1st (and running through the 19th, of course), I’m going to celebrate the “19 days of Edgar” by creating a different product on Zazzle each day using this painting for each of the designs. I’ll upload one design each evening and give everybody a heads up of each product’s availability. After the notice, everyone has 24 hours to purchase that specific product at a reduced price. After 24 hours a new product will be released, and the price on the product from the day before will repost to its regular price.

That’s it. That’s my light bulb for today.

As you were.

Worked a little more on the Edgar painting this afternoon. His shirt and tie are finished, but his vest is still in under-painting mode (it won’t be green when I’m finished with it).

I do my painting in our dungeon so lighting isn’t so great for taking photos. I have to use a flash which ends up reflecting off the paint, and I have to play with the lighting setup to minimize that whole issue.

The first image here shows the whole painting, bad lighting and all, and the second one is a close-up with more accurate color.

Edgar painting in progress:

I think Chloe is finished, so all that’s left now are the clothes.

Neil Gaiman has proposed a new tradition of giving scary books to someone you know for Halloween. Buy them new, buy them used or give one of your own. Regift if you must.

Of course, my version is a little more twisted: I borrowed a book from my local library and, after having read it myself, I renewed the borrow and loaned it to a friend. The book was Shirley Jackson’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle.

I loved the book, first of all (it was first suggested that I would by somebody else). My library’s version was from 1967, so the cover actually was as bad as the link above (the new cover looks much, much better). But the page corners were bad, too. Frighteningly bad. The top corners were damaged from years and years of people folding them down to mark their spot. Over and over. Page after page.

Not good, guys. Maybe a little respect is in order.

Here’s my work-around:

1. Download these bookmarks for free
2. Print them out
3. Rip them out along the dotted lines
4. Give them along with your All Hallow’s Read scary book giftings

Did I mention they’re free?

Here’s the latest update on the Edgar Allan Poe painting. Not a whole lot more to show, but it was an aggravatingly longish day trying to get it close to what I wanted. Just added some hair and a little of the Raven feathering. If you missed it, the first progress report would be on a previous blog post here.