Update on life, A to Z and other things.

Hello everyone!

I finished this piece during May, and never

got around to sharing it here;

so I figured now would be as good a time as any.

I haven't posted since May 1st apparently... May and June have been... oh my heavens, where to even start??

We've had just a lot going on- in addition to the water main repairs we've now discovered we have to do some very expensive electrical repairs.  Yay.  Those have been overwhelming enough on their own.  I don't know how these past 2 months have flown by.

Last week on the 15th I finally felt like everything was more or less sorted; and we could start moving forward.  So I began to establish my art schedule for the rest of the summer and get things in place so that I could be productive. 

Then last Wednesday happened; it doesn't feel like it was only a week ago.  My Father in Law had a sudden heart attack. The doctors were barely able to stabilize him- but were not able to wake him up. The short version of the story is after a lot of ups and downs and tears, my father in law passed away this past Saturday evening.  My poor husband and his brothers and sisters and of course their mother are absolutely heartbroken.  I've been doing whatever I can to help and support them as they deal with this.  The funeral is this Friday.  One of my Uncles-in-law set up a go fund me to help my Mother-in-Law with funeral costs and anything else she needs as she picks up the pieces of her life. It's linked on my facebook page if anyone would like to donate a few dollars. 

All of this has delayed me from getting much work done. Which is understandable I suppose; but I figured since I know there are a few people who check back here I should probably update. 

Next week I'm going to attempt to get into a better schedule.  I have a convention in Salt Lake City Utah that I'll have a booth at this September.  I only have 70 days to get ready for it.  There has been SO much that has delayed me from working on it this year.  I'm hoping that after the funeral life can go back to a slightly more normal pace.

Art updates:

(I don't intend to be insensitive sharing this AFTER talking about my Father in Law's death; as broken up as I ham about that; unfortunately life still moves forward and deadlines still exist.)

A to Z Steampunk Gods- this project is still on my list of things to finish, because of the amount of other things I'll be working on I'm planning on getting all of the sketches done and then picking my top 5 to finish as paintings for the September Con.  I still plan to finish it all out and do some sort of book- but that probably won't happen until Spring 2021.

Accomplished Women Project (I do need a better title for this one) has been in limbo for about a year now.  I plan on going over the art that I have done for it and adding a few more women (since the majority I've done are from STEM and Law, I want to add entrepreneurs, artists and others as well)  The collection will be with about 40 women total with their stories.  I'm going to be getting that together and the kick-starter for the book and coloring book SHOULD be July 15th, assuming I can get everything to a good point this next week and a half.  My goal is to have a few of these books/coloring books at the FanX booth in September; but we'll see- there are so many variables here.

Untitled D&D Project- I have more accomplished on this then I have shared on Social Media.  For those of you who do not know I'm working on both semi-modular terrain as well as large scale 3D models that you could use with any table top RPG system.  If you want to see some of the progress you can visit my instagram that I've set up specifically to share D&D and RPG type art.  (@that_dm_chick) for the booth my plan is to have 2 'dungeons'.  One with a Castle theme and one with a Forest theme. I also intend to have at least one of my large models (probably the Tavern) on display at the convention. 

That's the update.

Alicia

if you want to follow my art on facebook or instagram:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aliciaillustration/

Instagram: @aliciahawksart

Z is for Zeus (of course)

This is as far as I'm getting on this one today.  This project has been fun- and I am going back through the ones I got behind on and getting sketches done for them.  I liked this enough that I'm absolutely planning on finishing them all up.  I might even put them together in a little book or something.  I don't know on that part, we'll see.

Here's Zeus- wish I could've spent more time on him today- he was probably the strongest idea that I had of any of them, and the reason I jumped into this project, but you get the idea of where I'm going with it.

Thanks for those of you who have supported me! I have been looking at your blogs even though I've not been commenting. 

Y is for Ye Ddraig Goch

Ye Ddraig Goch is a red dragon from celtic mythology.  So for this one I looked at the dragon version of celtic knots and at steampunk type dragons.  Once again if I had time I would push this MUCH farther... and make it feel more like steampunk.  I like this project enough that after I spend the first week in May catching up I'm actually going to go through each one and finish it up.  :D

X is for Xanthus... the horse

I could not find a god that started with X.  SO here is Achilles's horse :D I feel like I could've steam-punked this farther... but honestly horses are SUPER hard to draw and then to make them mechanical... I could do this justice if I had 8 hours to work on it, but as it worked out I only had 1... This like many others will be revisited and finished- someday.

Alicia

W is for Washerwoman... of DOOM

I'm back! These past 2 weeks have been SO frustrating.  First the iPad glitching out... and then... last week happened.  The short of it is... our water main and our furnace have both broken.. basically 2 very expensive things to repair/replace... anyway- been dealing with ALL of that.  Maybe next year I'll actually be able to do the AtoZ Challenge without something coming up lol.

ANYWAY...
This is a Celtic Witch... or evil goddess...  her name is Bean Nighe- and she's super creepy.  (Scottish Gaelic omen of death, basically the Scottish version of the Banshee)  Had a hard time making this one truely steampunk- but Vampires are often in steampunk fiction, so I went with that. 

Thanks for coming by! I hope I can get caught up this week.  Hopefully by the AtoZ review at the very least.

Alicia

Delayed posts

This week has been... irritating... basically there have been a lack of posts due to technical difficulties.  I'm so apprecitative of everyone who has supported this project so far! Your comments have been so kind!!

The long version of events is that my iPad Pro started bugging out- not surprising it is a first generation iPad Pro.  So I've been doing a TON of trouble shooting, combined with that the nibs on my apple pencil are old and need to be replaced.  Let me tell you- these are super cheap, but since they are not considered 'essential' I won't get a new one for probably another month. 

Ah- you say- why don't you just draw with pencil and paper?  And yes my dear friend, I ABSOLUTELY can do that... but I have a lot of non- AtoZ Challenge art that I must do digitally... so I had to prioritize fixing my iPad over getting drawings out.

I did get it to a semblance of working- I can at least draw again.  I wish I could afford to just replace it with a new model, but life is the way it is- maybe in a year I can.  We'll see.

SO Monday I'll be posting again- and I'll be doing my best to catch up on the ones I've missed.

Thank you SO much for stopping by! Enjoy the earlier posts if you are new :D

~Alicia

K is for Kore goddess of spring

My project is ‘steampunk-ish’ versions of gods and goddesses.  At the very least I’m having fun attempting to pull both pantheons and steampunk together into one place.  Not sure how successful each one is, but definitely fun :)

I’ve been enjoying this project so much, I hope that I have time to finish all of these sketches and get them to the point where they are finished paintings.

H is for Hecate

The goddess of magic and witchcraft.  Since she normally is depicted holding torches I decided some lamps would be fun.

My project is ‘steampunk-ish’ versions of gods and goddesses.  At the very least I’m having fun attempting to pull both pantheons and steampunk together into one place.  Not sure how successful each one is, but definitely fun :)

Keep being creative!
Alicia

G is for Graces

These three are the daughters of Zeus and Eurynome, at least according to one of the myths about Euynome.

My project is ‘steampunk-ish’ versions of gods and goddesses.  At the very least I’m having fun attempting to pull both pantheons and steampunk together into one place.  Not sure how successful each one is, but definitely fun :)

E is for Eurynome

My project is ‘steampunk-ish’ versions of gods and goddesses.  At the very least I’m having fun attempting to pull both pantheons and steampunk together into one place.  Not sure how successful each one is, but definitely fun :)

This was a suggestion from Fantasy Write Guy.  I didn’t know much about this particular mythological character and when I looked her up I was more confused.  So then I headed over to his blog and read his post “Eh? What’s that?” Since he told me he’d be writing about her.  It didn’t really clarify anything lol.

SO she’s more or less generic steampunk girl lol which is kinda my comfort zone so I didn’t mind.

Keep being creative!

D is for Demeter

Goddess of the harvest.  I struggled with this one, not a ton of steampunk farmer reference or ideas out there... go figure.  I’m definitely  going to revisit this one, but I like the overall feel of the sketch. I’ve got a few ideas to make it more steampunk feeling... like I said will work on it more.

C is for Cronos (god of time)

Not the crazy one that ate his own kids lol.  I’m excited to finish this one later! I cannot wait to work more on his workshop.

B is for Boreas

Update! Here’s my sketch of Boreas, I’m rubbish at drawing men... I need to practice more.  I looked a lot to JC Lyndecker for some reference in drawing men well I need to add some more steampunk elements, but this is where this is at right now.

………………………………………………………………

I'm going to update this one later with my sketch- I have it partly done- last night I got hit with a lot of stuff I had to do, so I didn't finish it.  I could post what I have, but it is more of a scribble right now!! lol

So for you who don't know Boreas is one of the greek gods of wind, he is the north wind.

This is not my art- because I haven't had time to finish something like this lol
but here is someone else's depiction of him :D

If you're curious about my sketch- stop by later- I work in a different style, and it will be an unfinished sketch because of my time constraints lately lol

A is for Aphrodite... sorta

Like I said yesterday, these are going to be sketches... hopefully on Sundays I’ll be able to at least finish them up to be line art we will see if I end up having time.
,
So these characters are all going to be steampunkish characters inspired by Greek, Roman, Egyptian or Nordic dieties.  Aphrodite seemed a good place to start. You can start to see the steampunk elements in this sketch- Though I realize it is hard to tell right now.  Also, I understand that everyone has a different view of beauty- and that is wonderful! This is just my interpretation.

A to Z Blog Challenge Theme Reveal!!

I know I'm not the only one out there who has had a particularly unpredictable year!! I actually wasn't sure if I was even going to be able to do the A to Z Blog Challenge- which is why I've not done a theme reveal yet. With all 3 kidlets at home and needing School from Home help my time has barely been my own.  After 2 weeks of this though we're getting some routines going.  SO I'm going to officially do my theme reveal!!

My Theme for the A to Z Blog Challenge is:

Gods and Goddesses Steampunk Style!!

I know... not *super* original, but it is what I'm going with!! My original theme was much more fun, BUT as I don't have the time to do full illustrations I switched to something a little more manageable. These more likely than not will be in a sketch stage *possibly* a little farther (that stage between sketch and line art)   

Along with this I'm going to try to live stream drawing at least 2 times a week.  I've not decided if I'm going to live stream the A to Z challenge specifically or other illustrations that I need to get done (I have QUITE a backlog right now of work to do lol) 

If you are just here for the A to Z thing- then you can stop reading here, unless you'd like to learn more about me.

So I have to say this Covid19 thing is CRAZY.  I admit I'm a little jealous of the people who are on facebook like 'look at all this free time I have'.  I cannot relate to that at all!! Not only did all my normal life stay the same (making meals, keeping up the house, caring for kids, and my freelance stuff) I got a WHOLE bunch of new responsibilities on top of that.  That and my workload around the house has at least doubled, possibly more than that.  And before you suggest it- yes my kids do chores; they are actually REALLY good at doing chores.  There is still more to do because everyone's home.  It is just how it goes.  

Anyway- we're safe, we're happy.  The more I learn about the Covid19 virus the more I wonder if that weird flu/pneumonia thing that we got over winter holiday was in fact the virus everyone is scared of now... we at least had a viral pneumonia with identical symptoms... So if we haven't had it I sure don't want it again.  If we have though... it'd be nice to know. 

ANYWAY

I don't know how all of this is going to affect the rest of my year.  I'm a little worried about the Convention that I'm signed up for at the end of May- I have a feeling that it isn't going to be canceled- but I'm not sure if I'll have the inventory to sell thanks to all this craziness.  We'll see- hopefully I can get a lot of good work done over the next month.  Crossing my fingers.   

Thank You for Stopping by!

Keep being creative!

Alicia 

2020!

I know it's a month an a half into the year, but this is literally the first moment I've had to sit down and write a post.  The bullet point recap is pretty simple- my family started off the year sick as could be, about mid January we were healthy people again.  Basically since then I've spent a lot of time getting caught up on housework. 

So 2020 is going to be a good year for my art.  At least that is the expectation, we'll see what reality holds. Here is what the year holds for me:

Blog/Website- I'm going to be migrating this blog from Blogger to my website (aliciahawksart.com) at some point this year- my goal is to have it all moved over by the end of March.   Along with that I'm going to be updating and making my site a little more posh- basically I'm giving myself 45 days to do this.  However I've got other things I have to do in that time as well- so we'll see.

Social Media- This includes Facebook, Instagram and YouTube primarily.  I'm working on branching out to other sites (thinking of doing some TikTok art videos, but that'll probably be later in the year). I've struggled for awhile to post consistently, so I'm currently working out a plan to get more art up more frequently.  The only goal I have here right now is 'do it more' so right now my first quarter goal for this is to figure out exactly what art I want to post where, and which Social Media sites I want to keep. 

Patreon- I've not touched this yet- I DO want to create an account and start doing monthly things for it- but I've not exactly figured out what.  My long term goal is to have *something* going on here by the end of the year, my short term (first quarter) goal is to figure out what that is lol. 

that_dm_chick: About a year ago I started working on branding for a place to put up my Dungeons and Dragons/RPG/Fantasy art.  So far I've got it up on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/that_dm_chick/ I'm trying to decide exactly what kind of web presence I wan to have with it.  I've thought of doing YouTube 'story time' type videos about campaigns and whatnot- honestly I'm not sure if I have enough stories- maybe video game reviews as well lol.  In anycase- this is something that I'm going to work on developing over the next year.  Right now I have 10 posts up on IG and plan to put up more, but not sure when.

Conventions/Public Appearances:  Yes, this is on the list this year.  I'm jumping WAY out of my comfort zone and I'm going to try 2 conventions this year.  Both are in my home state Utah.  The first is Pop Culture Con in Provo on May 29-30.  The other one is FanX in Salt Lake City on September 17-19th.  I'm beyond nervous- especially since the first of the 2 is only a little over 100 days away.  (there is a very loud voice screaming at me 'what have you done!!!') but these are happening!! So hopefully they go well. 
The other appearance this year will be a Gallery Show I've unintentionally been putting off.  I do not have a set date yet- but the plan is late September or Early October.  More details on that as I get things nailed down. 

Monthly Art/Writing Challenges:  
February: partial participation in Faeriefeb
March: casual participation in March of Robots
April: Blog AtoZ Challenge (I'll announce my Theme for this in March)
May: partial participation in Mer-May but mostly getting last minute stuff together for Pop Culture Con
June: no challenge, going to be working on gallery show a lot here
July: I really WANT to participate in Art Fight, but not sure if I'll have time. (See June)
August: casual participation in Smaugust and again- see June
September: no challenge, just getting things together for FanX and my Gallery
October: Inktober- for real this year
November: Going to attempt Nanowrimo this year- I don't know if I'm going to do it 'officially' or just on my own.
December: no challenge, just going to survive the holidays and hang out with my family.

I know there is a D&D/RPG type challenge out there somewhere- I cannot for the life of me remember what it is called, but if I can track it down I will be at least partially participating in that.

Those are the things I'm looking ahead to this year- hopefully I can stick to it.  I know not many people read blogs these days but I am going to try to write once a week if you want to drop by. 

Alicia