New Art, My 2016 Art, An Upgraded Workshop, My 2016 Year in Review, and More!

The last couple months have been incredibly busy and productive for me on multiple fronts, so I thought I would write up a comprehensive blog about it! :)

More New Art

I've been very busy working on prepping some original wood panels for sale as well as taking a few commissions, fulfilling orders, and trying new things. One of these new things was offering some original lithograph prints with hand-painted, real 24k gold leaf accents. You really have to check out the video to really appreciate it: Video Here. I also have lithographs of it and some other recent art prints for sale as well! If you're interested, please feel free to contact me at kimberly.lecrone@gmail.com. :)

"Fire Tiger" - Real 24k Gold Leaf Lithographs $65 - Video Here

"Dragonfly Mandala" - Prints $15

"Macaw Mandala" - Prints $15

12 Glimpses of My 2016 Art

During 2016, I created over 70 pieces of original art!  Here are twelve of my "top" projects:

You can learn more about below:

1. Jeweled Lion Sculpture: One of the first sculptures I did this year, and one that I'd started many years prior!
2. Sea of Stars: One of a number of story sketch pieces I did this year, and one that I would definitely like to revisit!
3. Color: Another sketch story piece I did that shows one of the major towns of the third book in my book series. :)
4. Huntress: Yet another sketch story piece, this time of one of the creatures in my novels (a gryphowl!)
5. Ornate Dragon 2: A watercolor painting I did while at Lightning in a Bottle this year!
6. Messenger: A wood panel painting that really got me rolling back into acrylics this year!
7. Aeterno Kymba Facepainting: A fun facepainting fan art of sorts that I really enjoyed creating!
8. Mandala Fox: An enjoyable exercise in combining my love of animals and mandalas.
9. Fire Tiger: Easily my favorite painting of the year! :)
10. Sun Spots: I had a lot of fun trying to level up my mandalas with gold leaf!
11. Hummingbird and Kitten Memorial Sculpture (Work in Progress): A memorial sculpture (and accompanying short story) I hope to complete in January of 2017
12. “Sashah's Song” – Mixed Media Sculpture (Work in Progress): I started this sculpture way back in late 2014, and it sat around for the bulk of the year before I got moving again on it in the later half of 2015 and beginning of 2016. It's a sculpture of one of the lead protagonists of my stories, who happens to be a werewolf enchantress. Much like the Yak, this project has encountered numerous technical battles along the way, including not fitting properly in a home oven, which meant I had to build an oven to bake it, so... suffice to say, she has continued to be a labor of love, and I'm really hoping I can finish her off in the near future. :) I figure I'm around 200+ hours in at this point, and there are a lot more photos of her over on my Twitter accounts @KLeCrone and @Vaeflare. To date, this is very possibly the project I'm proudest of so far! 

An Upgraded Workshop

Over the last week and many, many hours of hard labor, I spent the bulk of my time inside of my garage in order to clean, organize, donate, sell, and purge items. While I wanted to downsize, the overall goal was for me to reclaim my garage workspace, which had been compromised when my mother moved closer, and thus gave me back the boxes I'd stored in her garage for many years.

I cleared out so much space, in fact, that I was able to install the new workbench and some upgrades I'd gotten from the holidays (or from gift cards)! :)

While I am physically exhausted, I am thrilled beyond belief to see my hard work pay off in such a tangible way! I love how far it's come, and it's not over yet! This will easily allow me enough room to continue my woodworking projects, as well as the molding and casting I want to do in the new year!

Before...

After!

 

 

Since I was sharing workspace photos, I figured I would also show you my two other primary workspaces. The first is my art and writing room. The second is my computer area (for general web-browsing, gaming, digital art, scanning, printing, etc.).

My Art and Writing Room

My Multimedia Digital Workstation

My 2016 Year in Review

I hope to have more to report next week, but in the meantime, I'm excited for the prospect of making some real headway with my various projects over the remainder of my holiday vacation (the first half of it was dedicated to family events, the garage overhaul, cleaning, errands, and other busy-work). My 2016 year in review:

The good:

• Really felt the self-love this year. This can be a hard one sometimes, especially when I’m not in the shape I want to be in, but I know that who I am is encompassed by so, so much more than that. I tried to be kinder to myself and more realistic with my goals in 2016, and felt that really made me a happier person.
• Grew closer to a number of new friends and long-time friends this year. This has made my day-to-day so much richer and more enjoyable. It feels wonderful to be able to talk about “real stuff” with supportive people I feel like I can be myself around.
• Hugged my SO even tighter. <3 He is such a wonderful, supportive light in my life.
• My mom moved closer, so I get to see her more often, yay!
• Donated, purged, and gave away a dramatic number of boxes of stuff I had stored in my mom’s garage (sorry, mom!), as well as a ton of unneeded review items, art supplies, clothes, and more. The heavy downsizing continues!
• Felt very happy with my career performance and trajectory this year!
• Did a lot, a LOT of Amazon reviews, and learned a TON in the process!
• As a fun result of this reviewing, I probably produced more art this year than in any other year to date! I think somewhere in the ballpark of 70 pieces of new art! Having to use so many real media art materials (some of which were…subpar…) for reviews reminded me of how nice and manageable it is to do smaller “bites” of art.
• Resumed selling personal art on the side, and managed to have a surprisingly great year of sales too!
• Took a number of commissions, and completed all of them within 1 month of when the original order was placed. I managed to walk a careful line between keeping busy, but not becoming overwhelmed.
• Finished general outlining my 8 book series!
• Swapped gears and finished fine outlining v4 of “new” first book!
• Restarted prose for v4 of “new” first book! 25,000+ words in or so!
• Learned more about woodworking, and leveled up some necessary skills in that realm!
• Went to various conventions to meet up with people and had a great time, but tried to manage my hours and energy level better so as to not get overwhelmed and exhausted.
• 2016 was one of my healthiest years on record!
• Got Contoura Lasik!
• Did a massive overhaul on our garage and purged/donated/sold a TON of stuff, opening up a lot of room to rework and upgrade my garage workshop space!
• Started ordering molding and casting supplies to move forward into that realm in 2017!
• Kept my optimism intact.
• Pushed myself to learn new things and experiment!

The not so good:

• Lost a kitty (we still miss you, Augie)
• Gained some weight. >_>
• Had a health scare with my kitty, Opal (she’s okay now).
• Had a repetitive stress hand/wrist injury at work, but it’s on the mend now, and at least it’s my left hand!
• Didn’t finish my own self-imposed 30-day sketch story challenge, but made it to day 18 or so!
• Didn’t finish “Sashah’s Song” sculpture, but hopefully next year!
• Admitted temporary defeat on my life-sized hydralisk head sculpture and relegated him to the garage so I could prioritize other projects.

Diablo Fan Art Watch #300: The Art of Kimberly “Vaeflare” LeCrone

This year I was honored to ask to partake in an in-depth interview about my personal art and roles at Blizzard Entertainment. You can read the full interview (and lots of art and videos) here: http://www.diabloii.net/blog/comments/diablo-fan-art-watch-300

On to 2017!

All-in-all it's been quite a year, and I can't wait to see what 2017 holds! Some personal things I'm aiming to accomplish in the new year include:

1. Complete "Hummingbird and Kitten Memorial Sculpture"
2. Complete "Sashah's Song" Sculpture
3. (Re)learn how to mold and cast
4. Keep moving forward with one or more novels
5. Finish at least one outstanding art project and selectively retire others
6. Continue to grow my creative side-business
7. Continue to infuse my unique vision into my work

Overall, 2016 was a pretty solid year for me, and I’m really eager to see what 2017 brings personally, professionally, and creatively. :) I’m so thankful for all of your support along the way of this crazy journey called life. <3

New Original Art and Prints for Sale

It's been a whirlwind last few months, and even though all the craziness and responsibilities of work (especially BlizzCon), I have still been forging ahead with both writing and personal projects! I also opened up a new store on Society6 that I am hoping to further populate over the next few months. In the meantime, you can check out some products with my "Fire Tiger" art on them here: https://society6.com/klecrone

Art Updates and Original Art and Prints for Sale

I completed a number of new pieces of art, and have been posting them regularly to both my Patreon as well as to my Twitter and other social media accounts. Virtually all of them are available as prints (ranging between $13 and $15), and some of the originals are still for sale as well! If you're interested, please feel free to contact me at kimberly.lecrone@gmail.com. :)

In particular, I've had renewed interest in painting on wood panels. It certainly makes for more prep-work, but I find the interplay of wood grains and gold leaf quite intriguing! You can see a video of one example here: https://twitter.com/KLeCrone/status/796458006879703040

"Sun Spots" - Original ($175) - Prints $13

"Fire Tiger" - Prints $15

"Mandowla" - Prints $15

"Sun Raven" - Prints $15

"Friendship" - Original for Sale ($225)

"Mandala Fox" - Original for Sale ($110) - Prints $13

"Messenger" - Prints $15

"Stylized Lion" - Prints $13

Novel Progress

I recently completed v3 of my outline for The Apprentice of Rook and am currently working on v4 of the outline before I dip my toes back into the prose next week! While I am not formally working on this book as part of NaNoWriMo, I am hoping to make some serious headway with it next week. I will be taking a nine-day staycation overlapping the Thanksgiving holiday, during which time I plan to do a load of writing with a side of art!

 

I hope to have more to report next week, but in the meantime, I'm excited for the prospect of making some real headway with my various projects. :)

Art and Stories Interwoven

The last few months have been crazy busy for me, and while they've been productive in some ways (pleasantly so!), they haven't always been as productive in ways that I wished them to be. Such is life. Ever-onward!

Art Updates

At the end of May, after an absolutely wonderful excursion to Lightning in a Bottle with a close friend, I returned home and had to put our young cat down. Over just a few days he'd developed the onset of Wet FIP, which is a terminal illness, and we were not expecting our furry companion, who was just a year old, would have to leave us so soon. In the wake of this tragedy, I started sculpting a memorial piece I plan to give to my mother.

It's a quite a bit different than my usual sculptures, but it will be a freestanding lattice hummingbird with a saddle, who is taking our dear kitty, Augie, skywards onto their next great adventure. I have a short story that will accompany the sculpture once it's finished as well, but in the meantime I hope you enjoy some of the work in progress shots of the sculpture leading up to where it now stands.

 

 

  

 

It's not quite done yet, but the sculpture part is getting close. The sculpture includes real amazonite gemstone eyes for the hummingbird, a labradorite on her chest, and then glass eyes for the kitty.

 

 

More Art Created with The Help of One or More Reviewed Products

The last few months have been a mix of many things, and by and large, I've actually been regularly creating a decent amount of what I'd consider "smaller" art pieces. Many of these were the results of needing to review items and art supplies for sellers, and I've been having a lot of fun with them! In particular, I've enjoyed the more stylistic creatures I've been creating in one sitting. They aren't my usual style, but I really have loved creating them! I haven't done a lot of work on my bigger projects aside from the hummingbird, but I do home to make some headway with my "Sashah's Song" sculpture over the next few months too.

I'm not going to link all the reviews (since that isn't the purpose of this blog), but if you have questions on any particular ones, just let me know and I'd be more than happy to let you know! The captions below list what materials were being reviewed for each piece.

"Sashah's Song" (Work in Progress) - Multiple Types of Paint Brushes

 

"Dragon Koi" for Use with "Sashah's Song" Sculpture - Clay

 

"Zuni Fetish" - Watercolor Pencils

"Fire Hawk" - Watercolors

"Melinda the Mean Hummingbird" - Watercolor Pencils

"Winter" - Watercolors

"Velociraptor" - Watercolors

"Selkie" - Pens

"Ornate Dragon" - Watercolors

"Fish" - Colored Pencils

"Lizard Dragon" - Markers

"Gryphon" - Metallic Pens

"Dotty Cat" - Gel Pens

"Dotty Wolf" - Gel Pens

"Lattice Raven Sculpture" - Airbrush Kit 

"Stylized Raven" - Masking Frisket

"Henna Fox" - Markers

"Mandala Dolphin" - Gel Pens

"Mandala" - Laser Engraver

 

"Hyacinth Macaw" - Fountain Pen

Novel Progress

After spending the last two years or so working diligently on Secrets of an Accord, which I'd intended to be a sort of origin story for how two main characters in the series got to know each other, I realized that all my careful planning was for naught because this really was the third book in the series, and the more I though about it, the more I realized it would be silly to publish this particular novel ahead of other novels, only to follow them with prequels.

So over the last few months I've been working to find a nice stopping point for myself on that book (which is quite far along), so that I could take a step back and look at the novels and stories I'd planned as part of a greater series and reorganize everything and start re-planning things so that there was a better overall flow.

So far that has been going quite well! I don't have a lot to tangibly show for my planning aside from a bunch of notes on note-cards and bits and pieces in my private wiki and Scrivener documents, but things are slowly moving forward, and I've finally gotten to the point that I can resume work in earnest on the first book of the series. Thankfully, it's a story that's already gone through two full drafts, and while there are undoubtedly changes as I move forward, it felt really nice and comfy opening up an old Scrivener document and finding a completed outline looking at me at the ready: The Apprentice of Rook.

 

It's also been fun (and challenging!) trying to pin down some of the overall flow of the novels, but at this point, there looks to be around eight of them, but who knows how much that will change as I push them forward.

 

Tentatively, this is what I've named and numbered them (all of which are subject to (undoubtedly) change):

• Book One: The Apprentice of Rook
• Book Two: Crystalline Whispers
• Book Three: Secrets of an Accord
• Book Four: Song of the Wild Ones
• Book Five: Hand of the Lion
• Book Six: Journey to the White Forest
• Book Seven: Rising Storm
• Book Eight: Claws of Fortune

But, well, that's where things stand as they are! I'm pressing forward with The Apprentice of Rook and will be working on this third version of the text for the next few months, and will continue onward and upward! While I will still be doing some Amazon reviews, I'm also trying to review less on a weekly basis to ensure I have enough time to really sink myself into my writing, and I'm hopeful so far! I've been getting up early each morning to get a few hours of writing in before work, and it's been absolutely wonderful to keep those creative vibes flowing on a regular basis.

Thank you again for joining me on this journey, and I hope you have a wonderful week!