Finished Piece "Mouse in a Matchstick Chair" : Art & Commerce

I finished the latest in my Animals In Chairs series

The gentleman mouse began as a sketch and study I shared previously in the month

Thus he was on my docket of work to get done by the month's end in the studio list.

He's a dapper little gentleman

Previously I shared the sketch and watercolour which is in pencil and rather loose, but for the final piece I find the "final lines" and ink him out in digital ink pen:

Often choosing black to make the character pop, but sometimes I prefer a colour outline, in this case I wanted to emphasize his little red tipped matches of his chair and to tie him to the piece I outlined his nose in the same red.

When I'm laying him out digitally to work on his various layers I love to isolate a few of them (as there are usually many) and snapshot them as stand alone layers as I like the sort of illustrative/pop art feel they give:

The negative space filled with yellow adds a pleasing glow

You can see where I deduct color from the background to highlight the character and then go in behind with a chalk tone to give it a bit of 'glow'. There is something I like about the first one with just the pick and his outline in ink that makes me think of old children's book illustrations (mid last century 1950s)

Of course, as I isolate a few of these many layers and save them independent of the final piece, I love to make them into GIFs:

Now, my series, such as Animals in Chairs, are made both to delight me but also to sell in various ways.

The role of Artist in Commerce is always an interesting one
And ever since the online world opened up so many avenues for we creatives to sell our wares, I've rather embraced it. It's true I love to play a bit of the brooding artist in the cold garret or attic dabbing away at an oil piece for months, but I also really enjoy taking a piece I've created and making graphic forms of it for sale.

This is one little version of this fellow made into this design so I could use him in various ways on items for sale

In this case I used him enlarged and not repeated on the all over printed Tees

And things such as pillows

I also used the work without any added decorative motifs for things like the cute little notebook

And of course phone cases

In this one, after laying it out a few times to make room for the camera openings, I left it thus because I thought it funny as if his thimble 'top hat' was a spy camera. The things that amuse one in the studio after a long day.

Well, I hope you like my little fellow in his frail little chair. I rather like the process of working as I do for my more 'fine art' pieces (same process in some ways as far as thoughts and sketches and studies) but then getting to give life to a piece in so many iterations.

The idea that a simple thought or vision I had will be spread out amongst so many things makes one smile.
In a way It makes me feel like I'm sending out my little 'children' into the world, " go forth and multiply."

I've always felt an artist need not be only ONE thing and whenever I was told one must either choose Commerce or High Art I just sort of thought, "but why?" I'd like to think the complexity of Art is that we , as artists, are priveleged to express the world and our views of it visually, so whether we choose one day to create a singular piece that feels it needs to express a deep meaning or we just enjoy making a joyful piece that makes us smile, I think all these instances can exist in one studio. I know I try to do so, anyway. In fact I simply try to make what gives me joy or gives me pause to consider my life and the world, sometimes that's a view of it and sometimes it's an escape from it.

However you view it, I do know that as artists we are lucky to have the ability to create up a world into which we can escape. I hope you enjoyed my little escape today.

I hope you find a moment to indulge in your own passions and as always remember to stay creative.

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