So guys, I've joined Twitter: http://twitter.com/yarmalade
It's kind of fun!

Hey everyone, here's a head's up! I am migrating all of my blogging here:
http://carmenkeysart.blogspot.com

I will still keep this LJ account so I can keep up with your journals, but I won't be posting here except perhaps occasionally. Sorry, I know I said I was condensing my blogging here to LJ, but I've decided to condense even further than that and the other account fits the bill. I have done a lot of soul-searching since my grandpa passed away and went home, and as my art continues to migrate to children's illustration I am just feeling the need to migrate everything about it (including blogging!), if that makes sense. You are all more than welcome to read my posts at the other blog account though! :)
***Update*** Mere has kindly supplied the link in order for you to be able to add my blogger account to your LJ friends list: http://syndicated.livejournal.com/carmenkeysart/
Thank you Mere!!

Good evening all! I have a couple of ACEOs on auction right now (it's been awhile since I've done any art cards!). I'm really rather fond of these two and I hope you will be too. ;)
Oh yes, I'm having scanner issues :( -- hence the weird fuzziness of the images. I might be in the market for a new scanner. Really very annoying, I hope it won't be too distracting. **update** I think I might have improved it a little..... hm....

By the Sea ACEO


Secret of the Marsh ACEO

I haven't done an Illustration Friday for this week yet -- if I do it will likely just be a pencil sketch! Argh, I want to do this week's theme though since many possibilities come up.
Just got back from Wednesday night Bible study a couple of hours ago. It was really, really good. Our pastor's been away for 6 weeks and he's just got back. Worship was awesome! I ate cake that I shouldn't have, hopefully there was no milk in it. :) We'll see if there are any adverse effects tomorrow. Well goodnight all, it's midnight and way past bedtime.

Yeah. Had to get Linux for Dummies.
Doing better now though :) -- I'm starting to enjoy it, even. Two things I very much like already: #1 I can customize the desktop environment in a gazillion different ways. Seriously, it can look like anything! I guess Linux can use any number of Window Managers with any number of themes. #2 It's transparent, if that makes sense. I like to look at exactly where things are, how they got there, how to change them and tweak them (even if I don't know how yet!).

So anyway, enough of my budding geekery. Hopefully I can make this thing make prints of my little paintings -- must do that tonight. I am back home now, and art is calling my name!! Must paint!!
Oh yes, and I found this utterly delightful, wonderful little art book yesterday: The Magic of Drawing by Cliff Wright (a children's book illustrator). I love this guy's whimsical/realistic style so much!! And there are drawing/imagination exercises in it!

Oh the torture. So I DID install Linux! I am on it right now, and I know nothing!!!!!!!! I've been at my mommy's house for awhile, pulling my hair out and trying to learn. I am using Puppy Linux 4.1. :) Cute name. This was a really silly thing to do when I am already busy! Oh well. I am going to be really slow at returning emails, etc for awhile.

Well it's me again! I have a kitty on auction!


Rooftop Party

The Alice painting isn't being auctioned, because I have an actual real gallery show coming up!! Agh!! I've never had a gallery show before -- so this next month is going to be freakishly busy getting ready for that and I must hoard some originals. :)
However, you can find the Alice prints here if anyone wants to buy prints!
So yeah, I'm going to pretty much be painting non-stop every chance I get. Despite this, I might just be crazy enough to turn my computer over to Linux tonight. Because I apparently like to torture myself and my computer just keeps acting funny.

Apparently Blogger is down right now, so I'll have to post my IF entry here on LiveJournal!

"I'm late, I'm late, for a very important date!"

The church and graveside funeral services for Gramps were lovely. It was quite sad of course, but my aunt had put together this awesome video of oodles of family pictures/Gramps-ish music and it somehow was just the thing to let emotions go and relive good memories. I found a strange comfort that my grandfather was a very gentle, quiet and kind man and those traits live on in so many of us.
The trip was full of many frustrations/emotions but also full of awesomeness, I am really blessed with a dang wonderful family. I really think my Grammy is Yoda ;) -- we had a huge memorial party at my cousin's house and she was carrying around this tiki pole with a ratty head on top, banging it on the ground just like Yoda might in The Empire Strikes Back! Ha ha. Plus she is very, very short and gnomish in personality. ;) She gave me an art book about Perspective that I will enjoy using.
I miss everyone so much already. I have a rockin' family.

I made another illustration! I need more boys in my porfolio, so here is one now (on Etsy):

Birding Expedition

This boy reminds me of my brother Travis, since he used to be into birds a lot when he was a kid, especially ducks!

Tomorrow morning (early early early) we shall leave to go to Gramps's memorial. :( I am trying to figure out how to copy a song I have on tape over to CD for the occasion, but none of my music software seems to want to comply at the moment. Bah. Guess I'll keep trying. I won't be back until Monday sometime, so have a good weekend everyone!

Anyone have a cat that does this when you're trying to sleep?

Well hi everyone!
I did end up painting something for Illustration Friday this week as opposed to a sketch. The theme was "Strings", and my illustration is up for auction:

Practice Makes Perfect

This little girl was originally a sketch in my sketchbook, and I thought she was really cute and needed a painting of her own. The violin was added later. ;)
We went to the Pumpkin Patch today!! I love going there. It was extra fun this time because it was Araya's first trip. We took lots of pictures. And there was a large turkey who strutted about very impressively with all his feathers stuck up in every direction, he was funny. I got a little white pumpkin of my very own. Araya got 2 little orange pumpkins, and my Pa got a big orange pumpkin.
In book news, I just started reading the Redwall series by Brian Jacques. Can we say ADORABLE? I love them already. I already need to do fan art. There's a little sketch of Cornflower the mouse popping up in my sketchbook. ;)
Time to go rescue my completely hideously messy kitchen.

My website, it lives! It LIVES!!!!!!!!!!!! Tell me I'm not hallucinating: www.carmenkeys.com
And if it really does work, this is my new website design as well. :D A nice bright spot, I've been feeling bummed out today.

Hi all,
Sorry I've been quiet -- kind of haven't felt like writing much since my last entry. :(

Nonetheless, I thought I ought to show you my painting that is currently on auction:

Mona's Little Bird
This young girl's face reminds me oddly of irrimiri. ;) Maybe it's the eyes?

And, I have a little sketchy for Illustration Friday. I never seem to paint something in time for that, so maybe I'll try pencil drawings/sketches instead. The theme is "Sugary".

Sadly my website STILL IS NOT UP. I am STILL waiting for the domain transfer. Bah. Apparently the approval email went to my spam box and I couldn't fish it out in time, so we had to start the process again. Hopefully now it will not be long.
Good night and sweet dreams, dears....

My Gramps and I when I was a teenager. See you in Heaven, Gramps. <3

*Taps foot impatiently*
I'm waiting for my domain transfer to finish!!! I just finished my website with the re-design and I want to put it up now!!!!!!!! Wah.
I'm deliriously tired and must go to bed.

Stolen from mcmatz

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 56.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the next seven sentences in your journal along with these instructions.
5. Don't dig for your favourite book, the cool book, or the intellectual one: pick the CLOSEST

Bats remind us of Lugosi;
Bats have webby wings that fold up;
Bats from ceilings hang down rolled up;
Bats when flying undismayed are;
Bats are careful; bats use radar;
Bats at nighttime at their best are;
Bats by Batman unimpressed are!


Ha ha. The nearest book (which also happens to be very cool) is The Random House Book of Poetry for Children by Jack Prelutsky/Arnold Lobel.

Well hello!
I have a new painting at last. Here she is:

Snow Day

Finally it's behaving like Autumn around here!! Today it is cloudy and raining, and this makes me happy. :) I'm actually wearing a sweater, to boot. I haven't worn one in months, so it feels funny. I may progress to SOCKS as well! Lol. My feet have seen naught but flip flops for ages.
I'm in the midst of switching web hosting, so everything is kind of up in the air. I found something way more reasonably priced than I had before (which was Powweb), with plenty of space for my needs and very nice features -- like a real mailing list so I can get rid of the Bravenet nonsense. People have been dropping off of the Bravenet list, I suspect because of the annoying advertisements they always tack onto my emails. Or, perhaps I send them out too often. At any rate, I shall see about getting a new mailing list or possibly just leave it all on the blog. Oh yeah, the new webhost is Cyberultra, which I thank toeknuckles for suggesting!! ^_^ I'm sure they'll be great.
Also I'm seriously considering going to Linux. At least on another partition -- my computer continues to be unstable on Windows, despite my re-installation. ::cry:: Perhaps I'll wait until this webhost transfer is over and my new website design is up, just in case things go wrong.
Okay enough computer news. :) In the world of funny things that children say: Araya still calls her sippy cups "baba", and she has a new one that has Spongebob's face plastered on it. This, she calls "baBob". Ha ha!
Also she surprised me yesterday when Curious George came on with a solemn "George is a monkey. Hoo hoo ha ha!!" I think that's the longest sentence I've ever heard her say, heh.
That is all for now.

Holy smokes! Can it have been a week since I last posted? Well, then. On to the latest...

DESK PHOTO MEME

1) STOP.

2) Grab a camera.

3) Take a picture of your desk - don't fiddle around with it/tidy it/etc.

4) Post on your journal.


Rather sloppy today, I'm afraid.

Not my desk, but a cute cat below my desk!

Current sketch. Sorry everyone, I don't feel like using the LJ cut today. :P

So yeah, I've been kind of monumentally busy this week! Helped my good friend Christy with starting to set up a website/blog for her missions trip to somewhere in Africa.... she doesn't know which country she's going to yet. She has spent years in Ethiopia though, and she absolutely loved it there. They may be poor and the government horrible, but those people are joyful and they have a real heart and community. And they have tasty recipes. :) Also, my dad and I went and finally saw the Batman Dark Knight movie -- I must say Heath Ledger was fantastic in it. It was also nice to watch a movie that wasn't full of gore, swearing and nudity. It was dark though, despite.
So a lot of my busyness is because I am doing a huge gigantic redesign/overhaul of my website. I am too scatterbrained to be maintaining separate websites/blogs for fantasy art and children's illustration, so I am integrating everything into one. I'll be keeping LJ as my everything blog, heh -- seeming how I only had 3 entries in the illustration one and nothing since April. I'm just way too scattered to deal with too many sites and communities. I really want to get rid of MySpace :( but for family drama reasons I'll have to keep it for the time being. Ohhh the family drama has gone beyond unreal these days.
So anyway I'm rebuilding the whole thing with a design set that I painted in watercolor :) -- it looks cool I promise!
Time to go eat, I have Bible study in a half hour.

I've finished the umbrella girl sketch (now painting)! I LOVE this illustration. I hate to sell it -- but I shall anyway. And here it is, on auction:

Foggy Morning
5x7in. Watercolor on 140lb hot press paper.
A young girl steps out into the fog one early morning on a mysterious errand, carrying her red umbrella to ward off the drizzle. A black cat slinks into sight, greeting her on his way through the alleys of the quiet city.

I think I'm going to design up a new auction template.... I think I'm over the one I've been using for the past few years. In the words of a three year old I knew, "pink is OVER".
I am going to Bible study in a couple of hours. :) I love those -- and this is a new one for me so it will give me a chance to get to know some of the other women at church (since we've only gone to Calvary Chapel for a couple of months yet). I am so ready for Fall to be here NOW. Come on, Fall! Show me some yellow leaves and pumpkins!

Ah, nothing like eating super dark chocolate, listening to Fauré cello/piano duets, and sketching. With a nice hazelnut mocha candle burning, to boot!!

So this one technically wasn't done tonight, but it is the one that started me on the latest illustrations -- from "Autumn in the Air" up until now! I liked the loose, sketchy quality and I think I want to go that direction more often.

Tonight's sketch... please ignore my issues with perspective. ;) I am going to have to fix that building!
( More sketchedy-sketchy stuff )
And that is all for now.