The JIG is UP for this Scammer

I was contacted by one Anthonio Jack via my art website this morning and immediately I was skeptical of him mostly because there just wasn't something right about his use of the English language.  His words just didn't seem to flow smoothly.  He also kept calling my art a "piece" of work when you would normally refer to a body of work as plural and not singular. 

A quick Google search of "Anthonio Jack"  was all it took for me to be informed.

This message was WORD for WORD the message I received.  You would think he would be smart enough to realize he needs to change it up from time to time but I guess scammers aren't really smart to begin with.  Anyway, I didn't waste a moment on this junk and told him that the "Jig was Up! and to go crawl back under the rock he came from." 

Here is one warning of many I found

Beware Of Anthonio Jack

I got email through the website and research revealed it's a scammer. Heads up.



From:
Anthonio Jack


Subject:
ARTWORK

Message:
Greetings,
My name is Anthonio Jack from Oregon.. I actually observed my wife has been viewing your website on my laptop and i guess she likes your piece of work, I'm also impressed and amazed to have seen your various works too,You are doing a great job. I would like to receive further information about your piece of work and what inspires you.. Kindly confirm the availability for immediate sales..
Thanks and best regards.. 

Fontology 101

Today makes 2 months exactly since I became painfully aware of the common to everyone in the human race except for me, that the COMIC SANS font was the last font on the planet you wanted to use if you want to be taken seriously.  This awareness set me on my current journey to find the fonts I really liked and then to have an artistic eye on just how to combine them to catch the attention of my audience.  The definition of Typography is, "the style and appearance of printed matter.  *the art or procedure of arranging type or processing data and printing from it."

How appropriate to actually use the work ART of ARRANGING TYPE.  Art is exactly what it is.  Today I thought I would share 5 of my favorite font discoveries so far.  I have used the all familiar "THE QUICK BROWN FOX JUMPS OVER THE LAZY DOG" sentence to demonstrate what each look like at 14 pt and in BOLD.   The first line of course is the forbidden comic sans font which I have taken the liberty of striking through. 

Here is a poster I designed this week to accompany my little chihuahua watercolor/pen and ink sketch.  I decided to use a combination of two fonts, "Love Ya Like a Sister" by Kimberly Geswein and "Dancing Script".  Both can be found with open licenses on the Google Fonts site.  I included the links for you. 

You can find this particular poster as a downloadable file on my Etsy Shop along with lots of other examples of my artwork that is available there.  You can also see more of my fine art on my website at Julie Townsend Studio.  Stop in and take a look around, drop me a comment or following me on Instagram or Facebook @JulieTownsendStudio.  All of these will make me very happy!

Have a great weekend and try to stay cool!



And to close with a few comic sans jokes

 

I can spell CHIHUAHUA now!

My Original Watercolor/Pen and Ink Sketch turned into a Poster

Ginger

I always struggled with spelling the word Chihuahua but not any more.  I guess all it takes is for me to create a piece of artwork and then type the word about a bazillion times as I'm coming up with all the keywords and social marketing posts.  I think I've got this word figured out finally and that is probably a really good thing since I actually own a chihuahua named Ginger.

My newest Etsy Shop listing is of this in adorable Chihuahua dog poster that is completely downloadable and printable.  This gives you the ability to instantly print it out as many times as you would like for the one low price of $5.25.  You can even use the image to print out your own greeting cards.  As long as you are using the file for your personal use only and  not selling the image I'm good with you using the file over and over. I'm just thrilled that you like my work.
  
Julie Townsend Studio on Etsy

I have also listed this image on my Redbubble.com site.  The think that I love about Redbubble is that they print your art out on all types of merchandise and pay you your royalties right away.  That is important as artist.   

 Julie Townsend Studio on RedBubble.com

T-Shirt on Redbubble

IPhone case with my artwork on RedBubble.com

INSPIRATION UNDER FOOT

Mice taking a Shower in the Rain

Here are two new pieces that I designed just this week. I call them posters but I just enjoy taking my artwork and combining them into encouraging or funny images with the help of a little Photoshop.

The first image here I call, "Showers of Blessings". I had this idea of the drawing some mice taking a bath in the rain. I thought the one with the toothbrush and his mouth wide open was cute and then I really got a kick of drawing the little one on the right has a life vest on. That made me laugh for sure.

Kitten with Ginger

The second piece is kind of close to home for me. While I was off visiting our son in Georgia a couple weeks ago, Brad discovered that we had a litter 4 feral kittens born in our backyard. When they were old enough, he set out to trap them so that we could socialize them and find them good homes. This is actually the last kitten we caught and we are crossing our fingers that today he too has found a good home. In the meantime these past several days he has been running around our house getting into about every tiny space or crevice he could find. He has also found a new best friend in my chihuahua Ginger. I'm not sure that the feelings are mutual but he seems to have a great deal of fun chasing her wagging tail.

Dog Art

After I had finished to "Showers of Blessing" piece I had already found a reference photo and decided I would try my hand at painting a chihuahua. I wanted to use watercolor and pen and ink. Here is a scan of my original drawing. I still have to finish the background but I usually try to get a scan of it before the background goes in. This allows me more freedom to use the image in other compositions.
As I was trying to think of a creative and funny way to use this drawing in my digital art, I realized that I didn't have to look far for my art inspiration. I realized that I didn't have to look any further than at my feet.

What was Ginger thinking when all of a sudden her world was rocked by a tiny ball of fluff that persisted in following her all around the house with the occasional pouncing on her wagging tail or grabbing at her as she walked past. I'm sure she was thinking, "Seriously! Is this some kind of a bad joke?"

Cat Art

I had drawn this little kitten with colored pencil just a month ago for a cat themed art show that I was participating in. I knew she would be perfect as the feline companion to my single chihuahua.
Photoshop is such an amazing program. With just a little adjustment here and a swipe of the eraser or the lasso tool you can create almost anything. I decided to add only the one word, "Seriously". In my mind the whole story is so clear but I wonder if I really convey the feeling of the drama of the situation with just this one word? Does this make sense? I guess the jury is still out on that one and I maybe pulling this piece back into Photoshop if down the road I think of something funnier to say.
If you like my artwork, then you might want to check out my website at Julie Townsend Studio. You can follow me on Instagram or Facebook @JulieTownsendStudio and I also have an Etsy Shop you can check out where I sell posters, prints, jewelry and mugs with my images on them.

"Seriously, Is this some kind of a joke?"  Dog and Cat Drama

TEAtotaler not Teetotaler

I've been just a little obsessed this past week with furry little rodents and I just can't stop thinking of different scenarios and compositions that I might put them in.  Here is what I have been doing this week.




Really it started with this simple sketch of a stack of tea cups that I did in my sketchbook.  Nothing spectacular but I liked the simplicity of it.  I decided to add some color.

Of course I knew that this was just the beginning and I thought a cute little mouse and maybe a tea bag would be just the thing to go along the idea I had in my head.  So I went back to an older drawing that had a cute mouse holding a cup of tea and decided to invite him to the party.     I added some text and make this cute little poster which is now listed on my Etsy Shop as a printable download.

Etsy Shop- Tea is Like a Hug in a Cup 

























Then I decided what I really needed was 2 little buddies and a drinking straw to really set this composition off.  I really liked where this was going but decided that I needed to change up my mice.  I did some quick sketches and scanned them into Photoshop.  I love how I am able to play around with the composition and rearrange elements of the drawing to find the best position.  The mouse on the top I even later moved his foot around because I felt that the way I had drawn him would be awkward for him to be standing on the cup. As you can see by the end I actually changed hit to be sitting on rim of the top cup.

I printed the outline drawing out on to 140lb cold press Canson Watercolor Paper and began painting it.  I'm not very good with watercolors but I love using them for tinting and then finishing off details in pen and ink.  I even used some color pencil on the cups and areas of shading to give it a more solid look.  I've titled this piece, "TEAtotaler"

Sketchbook page of the mice

The final artwork using watercolor & colored pencil

Combining the sketches in Photoshop

   

I scanned the finished piece back into Photoshop so that I could create a 2nd (8 x 10") poster option by adding the lettering, the tea stained background and the lace table cover. I think this would make a really cute gift for a tea lover on your list or maybe even to hang in your own kitchen.

As you can see this image also makes a darling greeting card.

  


Etsy Shop link to "TEAtotaler" poster

TYPOGRAPHY is Creating ART with Word

NOW THIS IS WHAT I CALL A FONT!

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking these days about fonts. I had downloaded a few fonts previously from a site called  www.dafont.com and learned that my favorite font artist so far is Kimberly Geswein (KG). I find myself drawn to almost all of her collection. 

What I realized that this site is fine if you are just using the fonts for personal use but if you want to sell the item, you need to purchase the license to use the font commercially. $5 doesn’t seem like much but it has put me on a hunt to locate a number of fonts that are free to use commercially that I like.

I'm not real good and remembering the names of the individual fonts or what style they are and so to help me with that I have dedicated a whole section to fonts in my creative journal. 

I wanted to share some of my favorite fonts with you that I found on www.font.google.com. This site has 878 fonts all free to download and use and I quote, "Free to use.  All fonts are released under open source licenses. You can use them in any non-commercial or commercial project.With so many unique fonts to use, you're bound to find something you like!"  Now isn't that awesome?

One of my very favorite font artists is Kimberly Geswein (KG).  Kimberly has a number of free fonts on this site along with others that need a small fee to purchase a commercial use license.  All these beautiful fonts make me a happy artist and I no longer need to feel that comic sans is my only choice. 

All royalty free font examples in my creative journal pages

I have downloaded a number of fonts to my PC. I saved the install zip file on my external drive so that I have access to all the same fonts from my laptop or other computer that I may be working on.

Here is a list of my personal favorites:

HANDWRITING FONTS-

Cupcakie- I actually downloaded this while on vacation and can’t figure out where I got it but the license says commercial use is okay
Shadows Into Light- KG font
Love Ya like a Sister- KG font
Give You Glory- KG font
Sue Ellen Francisco- KG Font
Annie Use Your Telescope- KG Font
Moondust- Free this past week from FontBundle
Amatic SC- all caps
Coming Soon- KG font (this is the font I have decided to use when adding my signature to an art file)

SCRIPT FONTS- 
Princess Sofia-
Dancing Script
Sacramento

BLOCK OR OUTLINE FONTS-
KG Summershine- This is a Kimberly Font that I just love so I decided to spend the $5 and purchase the license for this one.
Vast Shadow-
Fredericka the Great- Almost looks like a chalk lettering
Londrina Shadow-

Well there you have it. More than you ever wanted to know about fonts.

https://fonts.google.com/

Some Pig on a Coffee Mug

This Mug on ETSY

A few weeks back I was watching a YouTube video about increasing my Etsy Shop sales and discovered what appeared to be the perfect company to partner with to handle my drop ship order needs.  I want to begin changing my shop to more digital download files and drop ship listings so that I can free myself up to travel and not be required to keep such a large inventory of art related merchandise.  I'm getting so crowded in my studio that I'm finding it hard to create more.

With drop shipping you just place the order with a 3rd party vendor to fulfill the order.  You don’t have to carry a large expensive inventory of products or place orders with printers in large quantity.  Rather, you create the product on their site, advertise it on Etsy, Amazon, your website or any other venue that you might be using.  As an order comes in, you simply log into your computer and place the order and have it shipped directly to your customer.

The drop ship company that I learned about was called GearBubble.com.  I checked them out immediately and decided to give them a try.  I created a number of coffee mug designs and 2 jewelry designs all using my original artwork.  It was a bit of an effort and I wouldn’t say that the GearBubble site is super user friendly.  They have training videos but it still seemed confusing but I was determined to make this work.

I did have some issues when I came to opening the drop ship part of the account.  I had to email customer support 3 or 4 times to get it all resolved.  They did solve my problem and I’m still not sure why I couldn’t get the drop ship icon on my home page but it is there now and I guess that is what really matters.

I decided that before I had my first online order, I needed to check out the quality of this company and make sure that I was happy with the finished product.  So I decided to order the mug I though was probably the most difficult to reproduce and placed the order on May 13th and the mug was delivered on May 26th.  That is within the 8-10 business days promised and my mug looks very professional.  Overall, I feel I can be confident that my artwork will be nicely represented.

Here are the pictures I took of the mug I received and the link to my listing.  I chose to order the mug design that features my original acrylic painting that it titled "Some Pig".  I love how it turned out don't you?

Julie Townsend Studio Etsy Shop-Some Pig