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Introduction to becoming a Traveling artist.

Written on January 16, 2012 by Tave in Art Business, Traveling Artist, Travels

It’s been a plan of mine to start sharing with you my experiences as an artist and what it is like to travel and create for a living. Increasingly more of us want to be able to travel and work at the same time. So over the coming months I will bring you more on traveling as an artist and how to make a living doing what you love.

I have been traveling since October 2006, we started off in the US traveling east to west along the route 66 traveling on Harley’s, stopping in hotels catching up with work along the way. After our first two years of traveling, having fun living life on our terms, it became clearer that we did not want to come back home to the UK. Until December 2010 we spent 3 months a year in the US. We have lived on the road, in San Diego, Chicago, Orlando and St Petersburg. Besides Living in the US we have lived in Thailand, Philippines, and New Zealand. We have traveled to Vietnam, Hawaii, and India.

In the early days I really didn’t know how to earn a living while traveling, let alone go about it, or what I really wanted to do. All I knew was that art was in my soul and somehow I had to make it work, and find my path. To mix things up a little more, I also had to deal with living life completely differently, swapping our house for a suitcase, and leaving our family and friends behind, to having just the two of us. They say Traveling can either break you or make you, fortunately for us it made us stronger and I’m lucky to have my best friend and rock with me. Thanks to the internet it allows us to stay in touch with family and friends besides earning, enabling us to live life how we do.

Five and a half years on and today I live in Bangkok Thailand and have been now for the last 2years. Why? I here you say, well there are a few reasons for this.
• One being is the opportunity to live in another country learning about another culture, so much is learned by watching and stepping into another life seeing how people interact with each other. It’s humbling and allows you to think outside the box and broadens the mind.
• Two Thailand is a beautiful place, and the people are generally very happy.
• Three it’s very cheap and we can afford a good quality life here compared to the west. It’s no secret Asia is booming!
• Four which is the big one is TIME! It allows me the time to build on my business and really think about where I want to go in business and what I want to achieve. Time is the important key, far too many of us don’t have enough time to spend on the things we love, or don’t know where to start cause we are so wrapped up in life and we often don’t see ourselves. You are the most important person in your life so finding time is so important. Time is the only thing we have to experience life! So make it count! I could so write some more on this and give you the benefits, but I will create another blog for especially about you and your time

I recon the next question on your lips will be how do you stay there for 3 years? For me it’s going to college for 4 hours a week. I go to a Thai language school where i am learning to speak, read and write Thai. What better way to connect to the country and it’s people than to learn and speak there language. I’m not fluent yet and it’s not the easiest of languages but the more I learn the better it gets. In Bangkok many Thai’s speak English so you don’t get to practice much, plus I have a western partner so I learn a little slower, but the main thing is the experience As I write this post I’m holidaying in Hanoi Vietnam and its so frustrating that I can’t speak their language. lol

More to come about traveling and working as an artist for a living. Here’s a list of some of the topics that will show up in future blogs

• The best way to start and earn a living online.
• In the beginning and how I found it making a living? and what were my problems.
• Traveling and work? A total rethink of how do business while traveling.
• How to be a traveling artist and earn a living.
• Tools of my trade – must have items.
• Where do you buy your art supplies.
• Whats different being an traveling artist the good and the bad.
• Advertising and promotion.
• Meeting other artists.
• Social media sites
• Time how important is it to you and do we have enough?
• Living in a suitcase and what its like.
• Living with less verses more.
• Investing money and creating a security blanket.
• Opportunities!! the world opens up!! You only live once!
• Living outside the box and looking outwards?
• Whats important to you?
• I wonder what the next 10 years will be like?
• Looking into the future? Where would I like to be and why?

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Ocean Heart

Written on November 8, 2011 by Tave in Art Tips and Tutorials, Goddess, Mermaids

The other week I completed the finishing touches to “Ocean Heart“ my mermaid angel of the sea. Looking at the painting above you can see that I finished of the hair and the water, to create more depth and movement in the water I used thin layers of watery paint building up many layers. Finally I used white paint to add some high lights to the bubbles.

Her Goddess name is within you and speaks to you.

“Ocean Heart“ is about honoring our quiet time and simply being you, taking time to be in the moment, to appreciate yourself. Breathing listening to your heart beat feeling everything in that second, within you and around you. When you are at one, within the moment you can feel so much love and your inner voice becomes loud and clear. The pearl in between her hands is the essence of everything, you and all living creatures, in the ocean, on the land, in the sky, within the earth and beyond into our vast universe, its the pearl of all life and love.”Breath in the loving warmth and pass on that glow.”

Thank you for following my journey while creating this painting. Sharing this process with you has been very full filling and has enabled me to give something back. This was the 1st of my art tips and there will be more in the future. There are some lovely gifts now available from my zazzle store now available in ipad, iphone, blackberry, galaxy covers, skateboards, stickers, greeting cards and much more.

Coming soon! Handmade Jewelry from my etsy store

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Mermaid Portrait Painting Part 4

Written on October 13, 2011 by Tave in Art Tips and Tutorials

It’ s been a few weeks since my last blog post since part 3, being self employed and working on a few projects can hold you back from time to time, which can be a pain, but life never runs how you want it too at times so we just have to go with the flow and see what lessons we learn

So back to the painting, as you can see from my last post “Ocean Heart” has come on quiet a bit, in the first images you can see I have began working more greens into the hair and merfins, using a light wash of greens over the hair and building up darker areas to create depth by weaving the hair in and out. This acts as a guide to see where each curl is going. On this particular painting the hair is very complex so I try to map out as much of the movement I can in light layers first, trying to not make mistakes, if I do its means I can correct it early on. Sometimes its easy to get carried away with a certain area of the painting, and miss something because you are not seeing the full picture in your minds eye, this is where mistakes can happen. I try to stay fresh and stand back from your painting from time to time to see the overall feel. There’s nothing worse when you make a mistake later in the painting.

I keep moving from one area of the painting to the next so I can see how her hair merges with the water, and see how the highlights of the healing glow reflect on her hands and face. I really want the highlights to stand out and create a warm inviting feeling, whilst drawing your in, so you can feel the warm of the glow radiate from within you. Because this painting is very moving and is such a strong pose I’m keeping the water background simple as I can while adding more depth to the piece. To create movement and feeling I am merging the hair with the water so she becomes at one with the waves of the water. I loved this part of painting with a flow and working in beautiful swirls with the cirls. She is at one with the changing tides whilst remaining calm with the heart beat of the ocean, forever alert and feeling each moment in the present “this was a neat feeling that just ran over me, I love it when something inside speaks to me and connects me to the moment.” being connected with our work is being in the moment of life’s awesome pleasures”

In the second picture I have enlarged an area of the hair so you can see how I built the depth in the hair. With the close up of the hands you can see the reflection on her hands and hair, from her warm healing energy.

And finally the last picture is nearly complete and I have started working in air bubbles using them to create a magical alive feeling, hidden messages of the water and the spark of life. There is still quiet a long way yo go yet, more shading to do in the hair, hands, face, and water. Then finally adding some white hight lights to the water bubbles so that they really lift of the painting, this might need to be enhanced with photoshop, but were see how it go’s.

Until next time thank you for reading. I and Ocean heart would like to wish you love in your creations.

Tave

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Mermaid Portrait Drawing – Part 3

Written on August 31, 2011 by Tave in Art Tips and Tutorials

I have been feeling so inspired with this theme, that I felt the need to start painting her today.

“Ocean Heart” is what she speaks to me.

The paints I am using are Winsor and Newton Acrylic, I use them like watercolor paints and to build up the colors slowly layer by layer, giving it’s rich vibrancy to a painting. I Began with painting a watered down lemon yellow, using it as a wash all over the face, arms, hands and neck. From the photo you may not even see the faint yellow on the hands and arms, but its there, just ever so faint. I then built up the yellow in the darker areas. Once I was happy with that, I then added some deep turquoise to the lemon yellow and darkened up her mermaid skin tones. I have been mainly working on her face today, along with some subtle colors in the hair, arms and and mer-fins. In between her hands I have used the lemon yellow, this is her healing energy, you will notice flecks of this in her hair and hands and face to add some glow reflecting out from her hands. It is here that I work out by eye, where I think the glows should go.

So far I have a very good idea for the feel of color for the whole piece, but who knows what will happen later in the game. I may get a spark of imagination while I’m in the flow of painting and something new could be added to her at anytime

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Mermaid Portrait Drawing – Part 2

Written on August 30, 2011 by Tave in Art Tips and Tutorials

Today I have more to show you on how I create flowing hair. I adore drawing long hair and their is so much you can do with flowing locks creating movement and flow.

Above to the right you can see part of Hannah’s lovely curley hair. The first thing you can see is that it is quiet complicated to draw, because the curls are weaving in and out. I’m not out to replicate the hair exactly but I do want to base it on her hair as much as I can. As your drawing improves you will find your flow will improve and your work will become more complex. Another reason I don’t want the hair to be an exact copy, is that I want to add my own personal touch to the feel of the theme. More on this in the next paragraph

What I tend to do when copying hair is pick out the strongest curls in the photo and draw them in faintly. I also look at the weaving of the hair, some of the strands will appear from behind another curl. I also faintly mask out all the hair so that the balance is right, plus it keeps my eye moving around the paper. Building up the curls I can see a flow and I let my pencil play enhancing the natural shape. I keep adding more curls, until I’m happy with the overall feel of the hair. Just to make sure I stand back from the drawing and have a good look at the movement, at this stage I may add some more, after that I then go back into the sketching and start darkening the curls and work out which curls are overlapping. I use an erazor here and rub out the areas where their is no overlapping, this is helpful as a guide when I start painting so I can see the individual curls. A point worth when you look at you look air hair its very rarely smooth and you have bits and pieces that have a mind of there own and I always paint these in later, its one of the finishing off touches to the painting. Layers are amazing, they create depth and the more you have the more luxurious your hair will look.

In the picture below you will notice that the right side of my hair I have not darkened this is so I can add some bubble effects, as she is submerged in the water, these will help create some more depth to the overall painting..

My Mermaid painting is about a deep love of respect for the ocean, sending out positive thoughts to help heal our waters and to clear out harmful toxins. Let me explain a little bit about reiki. Reiki is a Japanese technique for stress reduction and relaxation that also promotes healing. It is administered by “laying on hands” and is based on the idea that an unseen “life force energy” flows through us and is what causes us to be alive. Our hands have energy centers called chakras, and it is here energy is released. In my painting I am going to use color to show you where the energy flowing from the hands, and will add real feeling to the painting so you can feel the warmth and love also.

Some great links for more on reiki.
www.reiki-for-holistic-health.com
www.reiki.org
www.reikiassociation.org.uk
Next Week Part 3
I will talk about my painting technique.

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Mermaid Portrait Drawing – Part 1

Written on August 15, 2011 by Tave in Art Tips and Tutorials

Recently I was asked how I draw faces, I have never been asked before and I was honored to be asked. So I wrote back with my advice, while thinking it would be great to start a new painting and explain how I paint from start to finish. I know their are already many videos out there, but it’s alway nice to do something personal for my fans and fellow artists, and a great way to give something to the art community. We are all unique and we all have different experiences to share

How I draw faces, thats one question that makes me think and a little hard for me to explain in words. For now though words and photos will have to do A camcorder will be a great addition in the future.

People and faces are a wonderful thing. Many of my paintings are based around the facial expressions and a story. I usually start of with an overall rough sketch, just to make sure it fits inside my canvas. As you can see in the first photo I have drawn a rough shape for the face and I have used a rough lines to help me get the spacing right. I was told that a portrait is egg shaped.
1. So imagine your egg, draw a horizontal line half way through your egg this gives you a line where the eyes go.
2.Then in the bottom half draw another line at the halfway mark and this is where the nose goes.
3.Then half that again and thats where the mouth goes.
4. Now if you half the top part of the egg this is where the hairline starts.
5 Half the bit in between the the hairline and eyes then you have a rough guide for your eyebrows.

On my picture its slightly different as I’m looking slightly upwards towards the face. But this gives you the basics.

After I have drawn my rough guides in I then start to build up the line work slowly. It helps to stand your work up and look at it from a distance to see if it looks okay and the perspective is good. Once I’m happy I usually start with drawing the eyes in then moving down onto the nose, mouth and jaw line. I keep moving around like this, as it helps me get the whole structure right. After that I will start to add the hairline and hands in.

When I begin a new art work I always start off with a rough sketch, to get a feel for the mood and a message I’m trying to convey. Sometimes my models really say something to me so I incorporate that into my work. Healing hands is what I wanted in this piece and when I met Hannah for the first time this is what went through my mind, as it turns out Hannah always has warm hands and she loves giving reiki healing, this gives me an excellent start to my story, from here I let the theme, color and feeling speak to me.

Next Time I will go into more detail with the overall theme of this painting and share more ongoing work as the painting developes.

If you want to check out more Fantasy Artwork then take a peak here. More Mermaids some Beautiful Presents click here
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If your interested in subscribing to my monthly newsletter and getting your hands on some Free Desktop Art then click here

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Prints Now Available at Deviant Art.

Written on May 19, 2011 by Tave in Products

If you’re looking to purchase my art, deviantart.com is a great place to go. I recently set up my shop on their website, and they are many great reasons to shop with them. They use high-quality printers, and my prints are always in stock. Print on demand is a great way to do business, as it eliminates overprinting. Thats reduces the costs and is better for the environment.

As well,deviantart.com offer excellent shipping rates, and they can post overseas. For those of you in America, this is perfect: Shipping originates from the US, so delivery is quick and prices are low. This also means you get to buy Local. No more waiting up to three weeks for your prints!

Besides buying my prints from deviantart.com you can purchase them at my website, etsy and zazzle.

deviantart.com use LASERLAB a 50×75 cm. (20″x30″) photographic color laser printer
* Print sizes range from 4″x6″ – 20″x32″.
* The LASERLAB printing resolution is 3000 dpi.
* Its 16 bit per color DAC (total 48 bit) the print quality has an exceptional tone continuity.

At the moment I don’t offer prints to retailers.

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Artist Meet Up in Bangkok

Written on May 19, 2011 by Tave in Events

Drinks, Meet and Greet in Bangkok. The idea is to meet other artists here in Bangkok, so anyone is welcome to come along. Here we can share ideas and learn from each other about where to exhibit and help to find out whats going on here in Thailand. We help, share and give each other advice and create a supporting network community. There is plenty of scope to arrange workshops, gallery trips and outings etc. Lets bring us together to make new friends and share our worldly experiences. I’m hoping this will be a monthly event where we can share our love for art!
Looking forward to meeting you:)
Every meet we take it in turns to promotoe each others art on our flyers.
You can join this on Facebook or Chicky Net If your new to Thailand and want to meet people and make some new friends then Chicky Net is a great site to network. There are all kinds of events and fun meet ups to join

Artist Meet and Greet!The Black Swan Sukhumvit Road
Located next to Asoke BTS and across the road from the MRT.
29th July 7.00pm-11.30pm

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Butterfly Kisses Competition!!

Written on February 3, 2011 by Tave in Competions

The Model in this painting is Lady Amaranth to visit her website look here. She has some amazing photos, she models for many companies and is such an inspiration.

Ummm my first post this 2011 and it is the season of “Love” so I bring you “Butterfly Kisses” for the gothic valentine in you. For a while now I have been wanting to do something different and this was as good as chance as any. So the reds came out to play The model in this painting is called Lady Amaranth and her website is www.ladyamaranth.com. I just let my feelings guide me this month and embraised my darker side and added some beauty with it. I also wanted to create something different with Lady amaranth so I turned her into a zombie, she is like sweet nectar to the butterflies and they love to kiss her. There is no particular story behind this piece I just felt inspired to create what I did, towards the end of the sketching process I felt it fitting to add “The Frog Prince”. Will she kiss her prince before midnight to save her soul? This is the first of my gothic images and I hope to bring you more in the future. Thinking about your write ups has lead me to an idea for a Competition!

The best story or poem for Butterfly Kisses.

I would like you to write a romantic short story or poem for Valentines Day. No more than 150 words. The winner will receive a signed 11×17 print by myself and there poem will be printed on the back of the card credited with your name. If you have a website I will also credit you on my website too. In order to enter add your comment below and on 28th February 2011, I will pick the most fitting story or poem. Any questions please contact me here.

I’m really excited about seeing what you guys come up with Good Luck and have lots of Valentine fun X

Anyone interested in a signed print please contact me here. As its Valentines this month I decided to release this design on free desktop wallpaper. In order to recieve this and many other free desktop art simply sign up to my newsletter. Every month I give away a new design to my subscribers along with a 15% discount on your first order.

Coming Soon!
signed prints, greeting cards, bookmarks, jewelry, iphone covers, ipad covers and much more.

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Autumn “Dance of Color”

Written on December 7, 2010 by Tave in Faeries, Goddess

Autumn is one of my favorite seasons of the year. I love watching the trees change color. Its natures grand finally like firework display of dazzling colors from greens to darker greens, browns, yellows, oranges to reds. Its a season of celebration and harvesting. The leaves eventually and leave a blanket of color that slowly breaks down enriching the earth for next’s years cycle of birth.

The goddess of Autumn is Demeter she is goddess of harvest within Greek mythology. Demeter resided over barley and the harvest, she was also associated with the poppy. Here I have depicted her with faerie like features, she is greeting her faerie friend who lovingly dances around her casting out love and appreciation of earthly fruits.

The golden colors change into oranges and reds and you can feel the warmth the colors glow. All around you, you start to here the forest sing with the russell of the leaves from the gentle wind. You can feel the cold coming in, but your face is touched by the warmth of the setting sun. You open your eyes and see your faerie friend dancing around you singing. You glance around and see natures bloom of wild mushrooms and fungi, fruit for the forest animals and forest folk. You spot a long lost friend the Red Squirrel who is gathering for the winter, flicking his bushy tail he moves off busy harvesting as he go’s.

I want to thank John at Ophrys photography for kindly letting me use his wonderful Red Squirrel photo. His site is so worth checking out, he is an amazing photographer, don’t just take my word go and have a look at his site here.

Today we see less and less of our old friend the Red Squirrel but thanks to many charities the Red Squirrel can be found in some parts of the UK still, today you will find them roaming in parts of Scottish Highlands, Anglesey in Wales and the Isle of Wight. A great site to look at for information on helping protect the Red Squirrel is RSST the Red Squirrel Survival Trust. Here you will find projects that are set up help to reintroduced the Red Squirrel back into certain areas in the UK. The Lizard in Cornwall is one of them. There is plenty we can do by helping out the Red Squirrel from becoming a friend or donating there are also other options as well, like volunteer work and spreading the word. As my business grows its my plan to become a friend, but to start I want to help spread the word. At present I already plant one tree for every painting I create and over the coming months I fully intend to do more. Maybe organizing competitions and prize draws to help a charitable cause. So I’m sure you will here more from me over the coming months. A special thanks goes out to Helen at the RSST for her help in telling me what I can do to help.

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