World domination is fast approaching...

These mice will stop at  nothing to achieve their nefarious goal:
They are hell bent on world domination and must populate every continent on earth!

I just sent two Nosey mice off to Brazil and Australia, and it got me wondering, 'how far and wide have they spread so far?'
I have personally sent them to every continent except Africa, which doesn't of course mean they don't also live there, since they have other ways of getting around besides relying on me.

Here's a post of Sir Ranulph Sprightly Mouse arriving in Antarctica.

Here's Ralph Sprightly in Australia.

Perhaps it's time one of them went on an African Safari, or a trip up the Nile or something?

Nevertheless, they are progressing quite nicely on their mission to take over the world...

The box turtles are also more than holding their own, turning in a stellar performance over on Kickstarter...
Here is a mini chart showing their progress...THANKS BACKERS, YOU ARE AWESOME!!!




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

Pre-Order my upcoming new Angel Mice at Kickstarter (for around half their expected retail)

Angel Pug wax and clay original (pre-cast)

That's right, if you like my new upcoming Angel Mice series now's your chance to snap one or more of them up for a steal!

They're a available for pre-order through Kickstarter.com for 30 days until Noon on Tuesday Oct 18th New York time.
Click HERE to go straight to my project.

It's my second Kickstarter project.
I had a blast first time, and I have to say I love their whole win-win concept.

I'd like to offer another huge thanks again to you if you participated last time or have collected my work through galleries or my Etsy store.
You are making it possible for me to do what I love to do.

And also a big thanks to anyone who's reading my blog and enjoying my handiwork!

I can't speak for other artists, but I'm sure I'm not the only one who's ego gets a tickle every time someone likes what they do!

Above: Angel Chubby wax and clay original (pre-cast)

Winged Sprightly wax and clay nearly finished original (pre-cast)

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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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Sprightly is also becoming a winged mouse...

Winged Sprightly Mouse

I suspect all my mice will eventually sprout wings, but here's a wax version of Sprightly sporting a fine feathered set of wings.
Destined to be bronze with a silver patina when all's said and done.

Winged Sprightly Mouse again

At the time this was taken there was still a bit to do in the area where the wings meet the body, but it was nearly finished and gives a good idea how Sprightly will look as a winged mouse.

Winged Sprightly Mouse from behind

I went with semi-folded wings.

Would that be just  having landed, or about to take off...?

In the last few posts you can see Chubby and Pugnacious in their wingcarnations...

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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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Godzilla Mouse attempts to terrorize New York City!!!

Godzilla size Sprightly Mouse checks out the Met while jaded New Yorkers refuse to bat an eye

I had this genius idea a couple of years ago, but I couldn't make it work.
I wanted to photoshop my mice into pics of famous (famouse?) landmarks the world over and drop them into Goggle Earth so when people clicked on the little photo icons every now and then they'd be surprised by a giant mouse striding Godzilla-like across the landscape.

I started with the Met in NYC, but I couldn't get the upload to work.
The photoshoppery was easy enough though, which just sparked another idea...

If you have a pic you think one of my bronzes would make an interesting addition to, shoot it my way via email and I'll see what I can do.
You could stick it on your fridge or something.

It could be a mouse Godzilla-like, or maybe you just want to see how something would look on your mantle, in your yard, or anything really.

I'd need to photograph the critter in question at the right angle, in the right light and (if you want it to appear actual size) to the right scale, so if you send one pic of the location, and a second pic of the same thing with a soda can parked where you want the critter I can work out those things from that (unless we're doing 'Godzilla style', in which case just the one pic of the location will do just fine).

It won't take a few minutes for me to snap something that will work.

Also, since I don't always have every sculpture immediately available (lots of stuff in galleries), you might check what I do  have, much of which is up on my Etsy store.
Other pieces might require me to pull something from the gallery in town for a day to take the snap.

So, if you want to see Nosey peering off the Arc de Triomphe, or Sprightly sniffing the Eiffel tower or doing his best impersonation of the Colossus of Rhodes email me a pic (just make sure you aren't infringing any copyrights-your own holiday snaps are ideal- since I may post them here later).

Go to 'view complete profile' in the sidebar (or just click HERE) to find my email.

In the example above I used a pic taken by a friend of ours who's website Duaflower you might enjoy.

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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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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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Mice up for auction at the Hollywood Humane Society Genesis Awards bash...

It's the special 25th anniversary Genesis Awards event for the Hollywood Humane Society.
It's on Saturday March 19th at the Century Plaza Hyatt Regency.

I don't know if tickets are still available, but if you click HERE  you'll be at their website.

I've got a bunch of mice up for silent auction, so I hope they do well and raise a big bunch of cash for needy critters.

Up at the top there is my ad which is going in the brochure...!

Manitou Gallery's show was lots of fun last night (any excuse for a glass of wine and lots of chin-wagging!), I think it will stay up for a couple of weeks until they start preparing for the next one.

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

'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

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

Halloween, anyone? Trick or treat time is fast approaching...

Already?

I can feel a trip to some pumpkin patches with my mice and trusty camera coming on in the next few days...
The world is decking the halls for halloween. How did that come around so fast?

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