Darlene the Artist

I enjoy creating fluid,  sinuous patterns with the strokes suggesting  fur.

Tags: black & white art, darlene's art, illustration, wolf

Well, it looks like I’m back to perfecting my black & white line art.

Check it out:

Still experimenting with the digital colorization of  my newest black & white line art.

I’ve been experimenting with different ways to add color to black and white line art. Shown here is my most recent experimentation.

Tags: darlene wizard gaming art

Darlene’s newest black and white fantasy illustration, just completed!

Tags: mermaid darlene artist

Keeping in spiritual balance is vital for the overall creative health of an artistic being.

Like a sleeping bear huddled within the moist warm darkness of a womb-like den, Winter is the time for dreaming. Within the yearly cycle, this is the time to be circumspect about the past year. Determining what worked reaffirms one’s strengths. Considering what did not work is a good means to identify one’s weaknesses. This is also the best time to plan for the future.

Winter is the season for vision renewal. Active dreaming during the Winter months opens the space for people to re-evaluate their recent and long-term choices, entertain a different interpretation of facts, and conceive new alternatives. With a different focus, we can change the probable outcome of continuing on our current path. We can dream another ending to our unfolding story.

Dreaming is the first step towards switching our current direction and making new plans regarding the future. What we once perceived as a terrible weakness can be transformed into a powerful strength. To achieve this, we have to firmly be within the process, seeing clearly where we are and where we want to be. Within the welcoming ground of fertile ideas, we can actively plant the seeds of change.  

Towards the completion of the winter cycle, the seeds we’ve sown will begin to take root. Depending upon the power of our convictions, whatever we’ve planted will begin to sprout. In the Spring, artists return to their creative tasks with a renewed sense of vigor. With the advantage of a firmer foundation, artists can rely upon their deep connections to the roots of their creativity without dipping into the personal reserves of their life-force.

Creativity is cyclic. During the winter months, creativity slows and seems to hibernate. I only know this because I’m presently in-between cycles and can clearly perceive the one I’m moving out of. 

I’m now keenly aware of how very late fall/winter functions as the best time for artistic reflection. Assessment is the obverse side of creativity. Deadlines are not natural to this aspect of the creative cycle. 

It may seem financially beneficial for artists to continue Fall’s harvest level of artistic production instead of slowing down. However, this solution is short-term and should only serve as an exception rather than the rule. Over the course of an artist’s creative life-time, never honoring all the stages which keeps one’s artistic well-being strongly balanced has terrible consequences. 

Continually accepting high-pressure jobs with winter deadlines in favor of the process of introspection is actually a risky business practice because it depletes the artist’s creative reserves. Becoming prematurely “burnt out” is the fate of those who are not attuned to the cycles of time or do not follow the integrity of each artistic season.

Most of this summer (2011) I’ve been experimenting with the design of a new extended typeface I’m calling “JASMINE,” named in honor of the main character of  my 1982 card game* and “The Story of Jasmine” illlustrated fantasy-adventure which appeared in the Dragon Magazine circa 1980. 

 The version below is the Italic font:

This Wedding Program represents the first commercial use of Jasmine Italic:

*JASMINE: the Battle for the Mid-Realm™ collector card game was first published by DARLENE in 1982 and marks the first appearance of fully illustrated collector fantasy cards created for the purpose of game play.

The pencil image is of Sally Hemings, the black slave whom Thomas Jefferson adored.

Just click on the image to view a larger version in its entirety.

The publication of “Darlene’s World” will be suspended until I again have the time to devote to a quality product. 

When it reappears, it will be available by subscription only.

Thanks to all who have expressed much joy and appreciation for this effort.

Blessings, Darlene