Show announcements...

Just me tooting my horn for a few show announcements in this post...

'Crossing Over' will be part of the Society of Animal Artists 51st annual show...

My smaller sumo toads have been selected (I'm pleased as Punch and proud to say) for the Western Visions 'Miniatures and More' show in Jackson, WY at the National Museum of Wildlife Art.

'Crossing Over' has been selected for the Society of Animal Artists 51st annual show.
They're both around September time.

I had to write an artist's statement on Crossing Over for the Society of Animal Artists show, so here it is, sandwiched between the next two pics....

Life is a journey.
As much for mice as for us.

Sadly for mice, they usually end up as a tasty snack.
Happily for us, we're more likely to glide up to the other shore in our old age.

Either way life is fleeting.
Might as well enjoy the ride.

I'm also honored to be a part of the Albuquerque Museum's Miniatures and More show, which is closer to the end of the year.

Table top sized 'Sumo Wrestling Toads' will be at Western Visions, Miniatures and More, at the National Museum of Wildlife Art, Jackson, WY

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Click these links to visit my website... SteveWorthingtonArt.com - Sculpture that loves you back
or my Etsy store, CritterVille

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'Crossing Over' - Bronze on blackened steel base, 18" x 10" x 4"

Here is my artist's proof for 'Crossing Over'.
Bronze on blackened steel base,  18" x 10" x 4"

This is what the foundry will refer to for positioning and patina while they make the edition of 25.
It's currently (although only for the next few days before it's offered in galleries) available for pre-order through my Kickstarter project at a significant discount, along with a few other new mice.
You can click HERE to check it out.

Click these links to visit my website... SteveWorthingtonArt.com - Sculpture that loves you back
or my Etsy store, CritterVille

'Crossing Over' - New mouse sculpture underway (and also pre-selling on Kickstarter)

I wasn't going to announce this piece until it was finished, but since I just added it to my Kickstarter project (available at nearly half what it will cost once it's in galleries and on my website) I'll also add it here.

It's called 'Crossing Over', and features Sprightly, Nosey and Chubby looking forward, backward, and enjoying life in the moment while on their journey aboard a primitive dugout style canoe filled with tasty seeds.

The pictures show it unfinished since the patina on the canoe, and the base are not done.

When it's finished the steel base will cradle the bronze sculpture, holding it aloft.

TX Cupcake, your time is running out to claim your mouse...
the next person in line is chomping at the bit to claim it in your stead when your time runs out at the end of the month...

Click these links to visit my website... SteveWorthingtonArt.com - Sculpture that loves you back
or my Etsy store, CritterVille

Oh ye of little faith.....YEP, you WON!

Contest Winner!

That would be this contest I started in June or July...

It seems I'm immune to shame.
217.4 this morning, so the winner of my 'guess my weight in the New Year' contest is TX Cupcake.
Congratulations. I move a few pounds in the wrong direction and you get to pick out a mouse from Chubby, Nosey and Sprightly (little Santa hat not included)!

So I have two things spinning in my head.
1. The definition of insanity is trying the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.
2. If at first you don't succeed, try, try again.

So in order to achieve the second, without incurring the first, I'm going to re-run the exact same contest for the next six months (guess my weight on July 1), with one small difference.

The plan I had for last time (move about more, eat a bit less): I'm going to implement it this time.
I have the whole New Year's resolution thing working in my favor.
See if that helps!

I'm keeping everyone entered from last time, so if you don't want to change your guess just do nothing.
If you want to change it, shoot me an email with 'change contest guess' in the subject line.

If you didn't enter the last one, have at it. Same rules apply (click HERE to read the original post - entry period expires at the end of Jan 2011), results on July 1, 2011, when someone again will win a mouse!

Other News...

I have a few new mice I'm going to unveil in a fairly imminent post.
I'm going to launch them into the world in a slightly unconventional fashion, so check back in a week or so and see what's up with that!

Part of it involves making a video, but my voice is all bunged up and croaky with a cold so as soon as that's over I'll get right on the case.

Sisko Gallery in Seattle is opening a show of my work on Thursday Jan 6th.

Happy New Year to you all!

I hope your resolutions all work out for you, and thanks of course for staying tuned to this channel!

Click these links to visit my website... SteveWorthingtonArt.com - Sculpture that loves you back
or my Etsy store, CritterVille

Season's Greetings from my politically correct singing mice!

They may look to be singing in perfect harmony, but these politically correct mice are all squeaking different songs celebrating different things in different languages at the same time.
It's a cacophony that looks way better than it sounds!
Mice at least can't sing very loud!

After they finished they all rushed off as a man (or a mouse) to share a tangy meal in the garbage can, followed by a nice communal snooze.
 

Click these links to visit my website... SteveWorthingtonArt.com - Sculpture that loves you back
or my Etsy store, CritterVille

Is that the 'great pumpkin' and friends, lurking in the pumpkin patch?

What have we here, scampering about among the pumpkins?

 Why it's none other than Sprightly, Nosey and Chubby, looking for seeds!

Could it be?

Is that the elusive 'Great Pumpkin', come to join his crittery friends?

Click these links to visit my website... SteveWorthingtonArt.com - Sculpture that loves you back
or my Etsy store, CritterVille

Using Lulu to put together 'The Mouse Project'. But not for the free PDF 'Lite' version

Cover layout using Lulu.com

I'm getting pretty excited now I'm seeing how the final book is going to look!
I must say, thanks entirely to the unbelievable enthusiasm from the artists involved, it's going to look fantastic!

Dreama Tolle-Perry's cat Eddie with Sprightly (aka Phyllis in Eddie's world)

I can hardly wait to hit the 'publish' button.
Using Lulu's design templates has been interesting.
I've never self published using online print-on-demand software before, so I'm learning as I go...

Jeffrey Hayes painting laid out using Lulu.com

You can see the page layout options on the left. Text in gray, images in black.

It's really easy to drop things in and move them about, but for some reason has been quite 'buggy' when it comes to formatting text, both when using firefox and safari.
For instance, if I want some words to be bold, and some not, once I've made the changes and then hit 'save', it all turns bold again.
Same thing for changing font size here and there.
So in the end, after some very frustrating hours of tweeking text and watching it tweek itself back again to how it wants to look, I just kind of let the ghosts in the machine decide!
It looks fine, but I'd still rather that it looked fine the way I wanted it to!

I'm using the plain option from the 'photo book' templates

I'm getting the very last paintings over the next week then I'll make final adjustments to clear it for take-off, and hit the magic button.

PDF 'lite' version showing the cover and some page layouts down the side

I'm also putting together the PDF 'lite' version (not using Lulu though) which will have one image per artist even if they painted more (and no close ups showing details of brush strokes or in-progress pics).
I'm trying to keep it under 1 MB. It will look fine on screen (since the images are 72dpi) but it won't be high enough resolution to make good prints from.

Each artist has a clickable link to their website in the PDF 'lite' version

So the free PDF will have 20-something low res images, while the published book will have around 60 images (including detail close ups) and be printed at a much higher resolution.

Mind you, the advantage of the PDF is that:
• it will feature live, click-able links to everyone's websites,
• you'll be welcome to copy and email it,
• it will be FREE.

Must be time for me to take a tea break!

I hope I end up doing everyone's hard work justice!
...Stay tuned...

Click these links to visit my website... SteveWorthingtonArt.com - Sculpture that loves you back
or my Etsy store, CritterVille

Nearly there! More Mouse Project paintings for the book...

Just a few paintings left to come in, here's another amazing batch for the book I'm putting together to benefit animal shelters.
It's all been just unbelievable stuff!
To see all posts relating to the project, click HERE

 Chris Beck's painting. A shocking discovery.

Lynne Windsor, Cetti's warbler with mouse

R. Garriott, I came, I saw, I concord

 

K. Henderson, Mine is a long and sad tale

Dreama Tolle Perry is doing a whole bunch, having re-named Sprightly mouse Phyllis, and featuring her beloved cat Eddie...

The First Meeting

The Grand Tour, Eddie Style

Lunch on the Patio

One Down, Eight to Go...

 

More on my new trough with turtles and resin for water experiment in the next post, and of course ArtPrize in Grand Rapids, MI starts next week (Weds I think), so if you're there pop into the public museum and check out my 'Amphibian Struggle' presentation!

Click HERE for more Mouse Project posts.

Click these links to visit my website... SteveWorthingtonArt.com - Sculpture that loves you back
or my Etsy store, CritterVille

My mouse project painting in acrylic...step by step from start to finish

I thought Craig Nelson cured me of painting more than a decade ago.
Meridee took me to his very popular week long painting class at the beautiful Asilomar conference center in Pacific Grove, California.
After spending a week hunched over a tiny easel (my easel!) on a very uncomfortable chair (my chair!) for about 12 hours a day I could hardly stand up straight again for a month.

That week didn't turn me into a painter, it turned me into a garden gnome!

I vowed to put away my brushes and never go near a paint tube again...

But after all the wonderful mouse paintings I'm seeing from everyone, I was inspired to:-
• unearth my old acrylics (they were buried under a bunch of carpet underlay foam in a big old cardboard box),
• re-acquaint myself with my old brushes (carefully stored in a plastic bag in case of emergencies) and
• give it a go.

I'd spent much longer messing about with paint brushes before I moved on to sculpting, so I was quite curious to see if I could remember how to make those odd little sticks with the hairy ends work!

After setting up my mice I borrowed a trick from Claudia Hammer using duct tape and some string to help scribble my mice onto a piece of masonite.

Here's how the painting progressed...

I used a Sharpie to sketch in the shapes...

I started in monochrome, exaggerating highlights and focusing on silhouettes.

Then I added a bit of modeling and brightened the shadows.

It's starting to look a bit ghostly now! John Watkiss teaches a method of painting where you alternate between scumbles and glazes. The scumbles have a very softening effect, so you have to be overly angular and sharp with the transparent paint to compensate for it.

Another thing he says is that you must not be scared to lose your painting in the process. 

You have to find it again later. 

Gulp...Here goes....

Ewww! Well that surely needs finding again!

A background re-paint and some more back and forth on the mice and it's starting to look respectable, I was very relieved to discover... 

I snagged a frame from Meridee, since I found one that happened to be 16"x20" in a pile of other sizes.

Those mice clean up quite nicely after all!

I didn't get the level of crispness in some of the strokes I would have liked, but all in all a fairly decent effort, if I'm allowed to say so myself!

Both Craig Nelson and John Watkiss will be turning in mouse paintings soon, and I for one am dying to see them!

Click HERE for more Mouse Project posts.

Click these links to visit my website... SteveWorthingtonArt.com - Sculpture that loves you back
or my Etsy store, CritterVille

Another easy win-a-mouse contest! Enter now, find out if you won in the new year! (Entry deadline Aug 31)

Another chance to WIN a mouse!

Guess the future weight of the chubby artist (that's me)! 

Sort of like 'guess the length of the snake', only rounder.
And more futuristic.

Because you're not guessing my weight right now (which is 212.2 lbs, as of Aug 1 2010), but what you think it will be on Jan 1st, 2011.

Actually I've been sneaking my weight into the end of my monthly email updates all year (see sidebar to sign up for them) hoping the semi-public display might kick myself up the rear end enough to dump some unnecessary poundage.

Didn't work so far.

Time to get more public about it and (hopefully) force myself into action!

Useful stats...

Here's some useful stats to help you make an educated guess...
I'm 5'10" tall if I stand up really straight.
Lightest I've been in the last couple of decades...173.6 for about 5 minutes several years ago.
Heaviest I've ever been.........................................239.8 for quite a while, but over a decade ago.

You've got all month to post a guess in the comments (more than one guess and you're disqualified!) or email me (put 'chubby artist' in the subject line), of what you think I'll be on Jan 1, 2011.
That is, of course, right after the holidays!
My scale measures with the number after the decimal point always an even number, so every 2/10ths of a pound.
Last chance to guess is Aug 31

Who knows, you might be best off guessing more than I am now, but I hope not!

I'll weigh myself on Jan 1st (I'll keep sneaking my current weight into the monthly email updates, so you can see how you're doing if you like).

And give a mouse to whoever comes closest, and hopefully be considerably lighter when I do.
Re-cap...
If the winner doesn't claim their prize by the end of Jan, I'll give it to the next closest instead.

Get Email Updates

Click these links to visit my website... SteveWorthingtonArt.com - Sculpture that loves you back
or my Etsy store, CritterVille

My Venn diagram, where to find the BEST Venn diagrams on the web, and why it's nice to be wrong.

I've had some fairly strange ideas for sculptures. When they pop in my head I wonder if anyone else will like them, figure 'probably not', but because I've just been dying to see what they would look like finished, I'd go ahead and make them anyway.
That's group C, with no group B overlap.

Then I've made other bunches of stuff I've been itching to do, which I think will also be appealing.
That would be groups A and C, each with some group B overlap.

And then there's been more stuff I can't wait to make, that I'm really not so sure would be popular.
I'm glad I've not only made stuff I thought would overlap with group B, or there would be no Sumo Toads or mice, both of which are enjoyed by more people than I would ever have guessed!

So sometimes it's nice to be wrong!

One thing that's common to everything I've made is it's all stuff I've been itching to do, and like to have around.
And I plan to keep it that way!

Click HERE for the BEST, most entertaining Venn (and other) diagrams in the universe from Jessica Hagy...

Click these links to visit my website... SteveWorthingtonArt.com - Sculpture that loves you back
or my Etsy store, CritterVille