2017 Year In Review

So apparently I did a lot of art this year.  Here's a video I did that's a slideshow of all the art I came out with in 2017:

The music is Never Give Up On Your Dreams by Two Steps From Hell, with whom I do not claim to be affiliated in any way.

The pictures are all the artwork I uploaded to deviantart, in 2017, in chronological order:
https://jpmorrow.deviantart.com/gallery/

Its been a good year for me in terms of art, and I'm going to continue making more and better artwork next year.

Thank you all for your support!

Mobius Acanthus

Another year come and gone, time to turn over a new leaf, and go around again!

Thanks for all the support this year!

<3

:)

More With Colored Pencils!

The top one was a Christmas present for my mom and dad, and the the bottom one was a Christmas present for my sister.  I didn't have time to finish any paintings, so I got out my colored pencils instead, and it didn't scan very well but I think they came out kind of nice.  :)

I hope you all had a very nice Christmas too!  <3

Acanthus Leaves - Color

I finally colored something!  Its also available as a print here: https://society6.com/product/acanthus-leaves878437_framed-print#s6-7921089p21a12v52a13v54

Celticanthus

I tried to draw a Celtic knot made out of acanthus leaves... well it had to happen I guess.

Acanthus Leaves

I'm learning to draw acanthus leaves!  This is the first illustration of my second coloring book which will be pictures of acanthus ornament.

Another Knot

I've now got 4% of the artwork done for my next Celtic knotwork coloring book, although I've got other books that I want to come out with first.

I'm Back

This is the first Celtic design I've come out with since my coloring book.  Or to look at it another way, its the first knot in my next book full of Celtic Awesomeness and next time I'm gonna try for 50 patterns instead of just 32!

But I'm not in any particular hurry, or trying to be prolific or anything, (yet), because I've got lots of other artistic and literary endeavors to tackle first.  I'll just come out with a new knot every now and then when I feel like it.  :)

Vandalism Is Bad For Art

One thing about being an artist is that the entire rest of the world is just waiting for the opportunity to betray you.  Well, maybe this is just the human condition and they are after you whether you are an artist or not, but then of course, everyone is an artist.  And it gets a whole lot harder if you're into representational art, that could be enjoyable and embodies the classical virtues of truth, beauty and goodness.  Or even just two out of three.

I feel a rant building inside me and I don't have time to expand on it right now but the greatest enemy of art is political motivation.  The latest example of this is liberals vandalising civil war monuments from the civil war.  Now, I don't care what you think about history or current events, but those have got to be at least life size and they're representational and cast in metal... they're destroying art!

Maybe this should seem obvious... but vandalism is bad for art!

Like I say, I've got a rant building inside of me, and I've got liberals, conservatives and companies to chew out, but I don't have time for that right now.  But I just had to bring this up because liberals destroying statues is a teachable moment and its a bad sign, I don't care if you're hypnotized by the news, its a bad sign.

I also don't like getting kicked around forever and I'm getting my own back.  Stay tuned for more art.

Magical Places

So much art that I need to color...what a great problem to have!  ^_^

I Started A Brand New Tumblr!

I have other tumblrs, but this one is my artist tumblr, for sharing my own art with the world:

https://jpmorrow-art.tumblr.com/

:)

Something A Little Bit Different!

Love ya, hope you're all doing well.  Here's something I've been working on, I was shopping at Beverly's yesterday where my sister and brother work, and for some reason I just had to buy this fake rubber celery.  And today I got out my cordless drill and drilled a hole in it so I could put a pen in it, and now its an epic writing implement!  Needless to say I am now sharing this image of it with you with great celerity! xD

I call this my Om nom nom de plume!

Artwork

I recently added these as art prints to my Society6 store: https://society6.com/jpmorrow/prints?show=new

Politics Vs. Art

Or Political Gossip Vs. Getting A Life


I apologize for writing a political rant but I hope you will be merciful considering that this is the first time I have given in to the temptation with regards to the 2016 elections.

It seems like everyone I know has been doing way more talking about politics than usual this last year or two.  Of course I live in America so there's been elections and there's Trump and all that that entails (I think he's the best president ever from a technical standpoint but I still can't help finding him deeply repulsive, which may seem a little odd).  Political speculation has a way of eating into my brain so that I have a hard time thinking about anything else.  And I don't even like politics, it tends to make me feel angry and bitter.

Its my opinion that most people have better things to do with their time than worry about politics.  In my case the time I spend thinking about politics, would be better spent figuring out what mythical creatures to draw, or paint, or what happens next in the stories I'm writing.

Only this time they have gone too far.  This means war.  Now is the time to realize that art and politics are fundamentally in opposition and that artists should strive to reclaim the national conversation which has centered too long around politics with all its bleak ugliness, and replace it with something that's actually important.

I do not advocate armed conflict, or even argument, (for the most part).  Yet I believe that if each of us as individuals follow the creative muses of the depths of our hearts, we will create such a sudden yet enduring storm of beauty and goodness that the darkness will be defeated and light will prevail.

It Looks Like Fireworks

It Looks Like Fireworks was the name of a short story I had published as a kindle ebook.  I recently unpublished it because no one was buying it.  The story itself was brilliant, and it might come up again in one of my future collections of short stories.  I just wanted to let people know in case they were looking for it.

And if you want to support me as an artist/writer and want a collection of awesome Celtic designs to look at or color, have I got the book for you!

Celtic Knotwork Coloring Book: Over 30 Original Hand Drawn Coloring Pages

Moving Forward!

Deviantart Group

I can't believe I never linked to this before

Ornamentation

This is a group on deviantart that I started and sort of manage but the artwork is (almost) entirely by other people.

And there's lots of wonderful art there so go and check it out.

Representational Art and Artists that I really like!

Where to begin?

So I follow a ton of artists on deviantart (a social media community based around creating and sharing art) and a ton of them do representational art that I find really beautiful.

Last June I put up some of it on my art tumblr, (tumblr is a social media platform not based around anything in particular,) and here is a link to that month in the archive to give you some idea:

http://jpmorrow.tumblr.com/archive/2016/6

Because I try (and fail) to keep track of these artists I compiled a list with links to all of them, also on my art blog:

http://jpmorrow.tumblr.com/post/155453576652/linkdump-of-a-ton-of-artists-i-follow-on

This list is of artists that I follow that do representational sorts of artwork, and sadly does not include artists that specialize in photography, decorative arts, sculpture, crafts and all the other wonderful kinds of art.  Maybe I will make linkdumps for them too if I ever have the time.

It is not a complete list by any means but I wanted to share the wonderfulness and help support artists around the world.