From @PGHCityPaper Street Box to Your Best Friend’s Mailbox

City Paper street box

So some of you might know about the City Paper street box I painted three years ago (has it been that long?). Andy got a lot of good feedback at the time, and for some reason I didn’t take him to any other level, let alone the next one.

 

Andy's Balloons street box

Well, all that’s changed.

Andy’s Balloons

After some Photoshopping to get the background size right and get rid of the holes and seams of the box, I’ve made Andy into a greeting card. He’s available in The Rots’ online shop. I’m calling the new image “Andy’s Balloons.”

Andy's Balloons greeting card

On the card, Andy’s up front, and three of the balloons I drew as part of the sketches for the box are on the inside, left.

Here’s the experiment: I want to leave the inside text up to you. I can make it say “Happy Birthday!” if you want. I can make it say “Your 15 minutes are up” if that’s what you want instead. Or I can make it say absolutely nothing if you want to write your own thing. It’s all up to you.

Step 1: Go to Andy’s Balloons Greeting Card in The Rots’ online shop.
Step 2: Select an option (single, five- or ten-pack) and a quantity, and click “Add to cart.”
Step 3: Begin the checkout process.
Step 4: Look for the box that says, “Add additional note to merchant (optional).”
Step 5: Type your custom text in the box or leave it blank if you don’t want any text on the inside of your card.
Step 6: Finish checking out.
Step 7: Celebrate your bad self with a little chocolate for shopping with a small business that loves you!

Just a Card

Here are some great people with a very important message. Give them a look, and buy your friend a card from a small business today. It’s more valuable than you know.

justACardLogo

In case you didn’t know about Andy or have forgotten, here are the in-progress City Paper street box posts:

Here’s the sketch
And the box
And where I do some painting
And then I paint some more
And some more
And then *poof* it’s finished

The Rots on Exhibit

The Rots Upcoming Exhibit

I’ve collected a combination of the best and latest Rots I’ve been painting and drawing, and they’ll all be shown at a new exhibit opening next month.
Here’s the event page on Facebook.
And here are the details:

Places & People

August 19-November 6, 2016

Places & People exhibit

Opening reception: August 20, 2016, 6-8 p.m.

Places & People will be a joint exhibit with my husband, Stuart Thompson, who will be exhibiting oil on canvas, clay wall pieces and free-standing clay. I will be showing The Rots in both paintings and drawings.

Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art, Ligonier Valley
One Boucher Lane & Route 711 South
Ligonier, Pennsylvania

Hours of Operation:
Tuesday-Friday: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Saturday-Sunday: 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Closed Mondays and holidays

Phone: 724.238.6015

The Birdcage (in progress 3)

The Birdcage (in progress 3)

Here’s the next round on The Birdcage. Kind of calming down that electric blue a little, and getting the colors on the cat closer to where they need to be. I’m still working on the shadows and highlights, but this should give you a better idea of the light source.

I’m trying (really hard) to paint foreground parts first so when I paint the background it flows together rather than looking like something was painted on top of something else. It’s just a style that I really admire, and I wanted to try it out for myself.

I’m also going to mess more with the whiskers when I get to the background. I want them to be much thinner than they are here.

The Birdcage (in progress: sketch)

The Birdcage (sketch)

I had an idea to do another black cat, but this time I wanted to do something different. Bring a little story into the painting. Here’s the sketch I came up with.

So if the cat’s going to be black, I thought I could make the bird yellow and the wall a desaturated purple-ish.

I’ve been working somewhat big lately. Well, not necessarily BIG, but with all the details I like to add, 16″x20″ takes a pretty long time to finish. I wanted to do something that wouldn’t take quite as long, so this one’s pretty small; only 7″x5″.