You can now get my Cryptic Cards designs on t-shirts in my Red Bubble store!
Please note; for prints, decks, and artbooks, pls go to my Etsy store :)
Thanks for looking <3
www.etsy.com/uk/shop/ImmySmithArt
Cryptic Cards postcards & limited edition artwork booklets are now available in my shop! Thanks for looking :D
Source: etsy.me
Cryptic Cards Week 41: 7 of Clubs
This week’s card is based on the shape of Sematura luna; a sematurid moth of the cloud forests. This species of moth has very intricate patterns on its wings, and it was a challenge to keep my painting cryptic and not add too much detailing. I’m definitely going to come back to some of these moths so I can paint them again after this project!
The first video from the recent recordings made as tests ahead of the crowd-funding is up. Its the 2 of spades mentioned last week; ~7hrs painting compressed into 3 minutes! It’s got audio of my artist’s commentary. Find it here.
Anyway on to the next card and crowd funding tasks with me! Till next time, have a great week all!
Cryptic Cards Weeks 38, 39, & 40!
So all’s been quiet on my tumblr wrt cryptic cards for a few weeks... that’s not because nowt’s happening though. Entirely the opposite in fact! I’m busy as a very busy squirrel preparing for the Cryptic Cards Crowdfunding, including;
- digitally re-editing all the cards onto higher resolution card templates so that I can offer a soft-back book of all the card designs as a crowdfunding reward, which takes aaaages but they look. So. Fecking. Good. that it’s worth it!
- Preparing 3 videos of 9D, 2S, and a how-to on drawing/painting moths from scratch, and the video for the Kickstarter campaign starting end of March
- Making sure all my budget and other sensible stuff for the crowdfunding gets done on time, and working with the printer to make sure the cards can get sorted as swiftly as possible when all the designs are finished in the 1st week in june
- Generally running around squeeing
So I hope you’ll bear with me until the kickstarter starts! Of course I will post updates here and on my twitter feed when new videos get posted to my YouTube. Until then, have a lovely week all!
Cryptic Cards Week 26; 7 of Spades
Last week’s timelapse took aaaages, so no video this week - I’ve got a lichen-themed drawing workshop to run, so I need to just stay on schedule for a couple of weeks :)
Spades are hawk moths and this week its another one with intersting shaped underwings, not unlike the poplar hawkmoth we’re most familiar with in the UK. Hawkmoths are often associated with a single shape, the torpedo kinda shape of elephant or bedstraw hawkmoths, say. But actually looking around, lime hawkmoths, willowherb hawkmoths, etc all have slightly different shapes :)
Cryptic Cards Week 9: 8 of Spades
I was very excited to paint this weeks card, having the cunning plan of making it a stand-off between two poplar hawk moth-shaped critters. I’m really getting into my stride with this project, altho I need to find some time to get ahead of the schedule... I have exhibitions in September, best get as far in front as I can!
Poplar hawk moths have an interesting shape from sitting with their hindwings protruding forward. They aren’t the only species of hawkmoth to do this, but they’re the only one I’ve seen in the UK. Their grey-brown patterns also make them hard to see on tree bark. Probably for the best since they are a large moth that would no doubt make a great snack for many birds. (Or my cats who eat moths I’m ashamed to say.)
This was also the first week I used an easel. My neck and back injury makes it hard to sit for long. Yeah, an easel seems like overkill for a painting this size... but a girls gotta do, so I’ve rigged one up with an MDF board I can tack the card templates to while painting!
There’ll be a bit of further digital tweaking to make sure all the cards have the same tone. but thats a job for nearer the end! For now have a great week all :)
Cryptic Cards Week 5: Hawkmoth on 5 of Spades
Hopefully this scheduling thing works when I’m on the road… I prepared this week’s card ahead of time, so that I didn’t miss a week! :D You could see a sneaky peek in last weeks process shot of 9 of hearts, I know ;)
I’ve been playing around with where I put symbols for the suits on the moths in the last 2 cards. Its a process of experimentation on incorporating the moths into the various layouts of symbols on the cards. Also there are some features of moths themselves that I’m looking forward to playing with. For example, some geometer moths have translucent wings, and some tiger moths have transparent ‘windows’ in their wings! Only 5 cards down so far, so plenty of time to investigate all the possible permutations :)
See previous weeks cards here; http://imaginingscience.tumblr.com/post/122244937198/cryptic-cards-week-4-tiger-moths-9-of-hearts Enjoy your week y’all!
The Cryptic Cards Project - Week 1
(Background is in this post!)
The Cryptic Cards project is finally underway! This week I’ve been testing the template cards from the printer, and set up a small table in my studio to be home to these moths for the next 52 weeks!
A picture of my first card is above. I’ll be sharing various views of the cards as the weeks go by, and moth-related learning as I discover new things about the zoology of my cryptic furry flying friends!
Materials: I’ll be using Acryl Gouache and Open Acrylic, and printing template cards on Bristol card, cotton paper, or vellum, depending on how I feel. I’ll be using photoshop to scan and transfer the image of the moths onto a digital template to go for printing.The lines on the template in the picture relate to the printing process
Moths: To make things more interesting I’ll be painting moths in various poses, and using different families of moths for each suit. I haven’t picked which family of moths I will use for clubs yet. But for diamonds, I’ll be painting geometrid moths, and this weeks moth is the 6 of Spades - Spades will be hawk moths (Sphingidae). Each week I’ll try and share a little bit of my learning about these moths and their habits. Although these cards aren’t aiming to be photorealistic accurate portraits, I hope this will be a learning sciart experience, as well as making a beautiful deck of cards.
Crowdfunding: To produce the final deck, I plan to use crowdfunding to cover the print costs, and something for my time in making these cards. More about that as we go, I’m hoping to use the practice cards painted on real playing cards as rewards!