Stephanie Corfee

vibrant, bohemian, and intricate art

When is it done?

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In the typcial ebb and flow of business, i’ve been crazy busy for a while with deadlines and projects and to-do lists….but now find myself in a quiet time. The quiet time is simultaneously scary, paralyzing and welcome. i’m a person who functions well under pressure and on a schedule, so i really have to work to maximize my “down time” and actually get things completed. To that end, i decided i’d work on a personal collection i’ve been envisioning for a while. It’s a series of soft, loose watercolor portraits with some of my sketchy pencil/ink sketches overlaid on top.

Here is the watercolor portrait practice i posted recently…stage 1, if you will….no sketched bits added yet….

WC-EmilyPractice_sm

See, to me, it is not finished.

It COULD be finished. It’s a portrait alright. But to MY vision…it is still incomplete. I haven’t yet fully realized my goal.

i often post works in progress because 1) i like sharing process, 2) people usually enjoy seeing them (i know i love watching other artist’s process pics!) and 3) for practical reasons. i’m not always popping out finished artwork every day, so sharing progress is a good way to stay in touch when i have lots of half-baked artworks going and nothing complete to share : )

Here’s the thing; folks on social media who see a work in progress will often tell me to “STOP!!! Call it done! Put down the brushes and pens, lady!” And trust me, i get it!! i often hear these very same phrases in my OWN head, truth be told! But deciding when an artwork is done is sort of a tricky business. Is it done when it looks “pretty enough?” Is it done when the majority of people you show it to say it’s done?Is it done when you get a “feeling” that it is? Is it done when it matches what you had in mind? hmmm…..

Being a working artist who obviously wants to sell my work, do i listen most intently to the folks who support me and my business? Their input is super important to me! i mean, i certainly respect and am grateful for these folks. i wouldn’t exist in this career without them! So, i sure do hope that the art i make is something they love.

Or do i listen to the small voice in my head that says….”hey, remember that idea you had before you fell asleep the other night? Don’t you want to find out how that would turn out? Don’t you want to follow through on your creative vision?”

Agh! What is the answer!?

Is there only one right answer?

i could go ’round in circles for days wondering on this one….and i have. On the one hand, i don’t want to water down my artistic point of view. But on the other hand, i am mindful that getting to make art everyday for my business is a blessing, and it IS as much a business as it is a creative exercise.

So, having said all this, i think i’ve come to the conclusion that:

– client work is a careful blend of my vision and the client’s heart – so mutual agreement and respect about done-ness is a-ok in those situations. i mean, one of my favorite things to do with my art is take on commissions that help folks tell their story…i can’t do that from inside myself and without input. Sharing that experience with a customer feels like nothing else.

– but, personal work has to be guided by my inner voice, and i have to feel free to try whatever i’m feeling…even if it doesn’t work out…..even if i “wreck it.” : )  i don’t ever want to stop at the “safe” stopping point just because i was afraid to try the new idea or wacky technique….or just because i thought the safer route would sell well, etc. That would kill my spirit.

So i guess my conclusion is that there is no ONE way that is always right, at least for me. There is a little room for wiggle.

What do you all think? Is there room for wiggle when calling your art “done?” Is it lacking authenticity if your customer helps in the decision making? Or is that part of the beauty?

i really want to hear! : )

A New Doodly Friend! Traci Bautista!

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i am such a lucky girl!

i got an email a few weeks back from an accomplished author, teacher, artist, doodler named Traci Bautista. You may know Traci from her book, Collage Unleashed or her line of Collage Pauge products by Aleene’s. She also travels a lot, speaks to groups, teaches her craft, offers tons of online workshops,  and generally rocks it in the creative community. And she’s just adorable too, isn’t she!?

Anyway, Traci’s new book, Doodles Unleashed just released and she’s touring the blogosphere sharing the love and doing lots of giveaways with artist friends and colleagues. i get to be one of them! Traci thought my book, Creative Doodling and Beyond would be fast BFFs with her book if they met each other on the street. i’d have to agree….don’t they look cozy together? They’re on the way to the craft store for some new micron pens. Good times. : )

So follow the book tour! She’s got a slew of stops already posted on her blog here. Tons of fun. I highly recommend.

Aaaaanyway……for our post, Traci asked me to create a Tag-Team art piece with her! A cross-country collaboration of doodly goodness. i was given the task of beginning our project by laying down a whole lotta my signature color and texture. Here’s a little peek….

i used  textile dyes to paint on watercolor paper. The intense colors just make me sooooo happy! i snapped photos and sent her my part. Then SHE worked her magic to make a completed artwork. When you are done reading here, you should pop over to her blog and see a whole bunch of  juicy, vibrant still photos she has of just HER part! They are super cool. But here’s a little hint at how she approached the collaboration to pique your curiosity!

Are you intrigued!?

We also videotaped our process. And Traci edited it into a fun time lapse movie because she is WAY better at that than me so far! Wanna watch?

To finish off this little stop on the “tour,” we’re also both offering signed copies of our books to some lucky commenters. We each came up with a burning-hot doodle question for ya to answer. Here on my blog, i want to know your fondest doodling memory. Did you have the best Trapper Keeper in the 8th grade? Did you doodle your high school sweetie’s name all over your composition notebook and then go on to marry that sweetheart? Did your kiddo give you a doodle-rific birthday card last year? i want to hear! Comment below to enter and i’ll use a random number generator to choose a winner. Then hop on over to Traci’s blog for another chance to comment, win, AND see more of those photos i told you about taken during HER part of the artwork collaboration! The giveaway closes on Saturday, March 10 at 12:00am. Good luck!

This has been a serious amount of fun, people. Thanks so much, Traci!

….and Happy Doodling!

Yay for Productivity!

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Nothing like the sun streaming through the studio window on a sunday afternoon. Endless possibilities. This is such a beautiful sight to me.

Every weekend i swear i will catch up on overdue work and get some fresh new artwork done.

Every weekend flashes by in the blink of an eye and i come up short.

But this weekend, for some reason….i got it ALL done??? …and then some. So that meant that i could spend some time this lovely sunday afternoon being creative.

i’ve been keeping a little secret. i was contacted by an artist/author whom i consider to be pretty. darn. great. and she asked if i wanted to be part of her upcoming Blog Book Tour! Wow! Yay! (Once my very wet-behind-the-ears-in-the-world-of-publishing self came to understand what that was, i was stoked!) Essentially, she’ll be guest posting on popular creative blogs all over the web in the coming weeks talking about the launch of her new book, offering tips and tricks. interviews, videos and the like. Its a press junket that doesn’t require leaving your couch.

Turns out that this artist is about to roll out her own doodle book this month and thought we could partner on some fun press opportunities!!

Now, this is the part where i get all soft and squishy thinking of how many beautiful people i’ve met since embarking down this road toward my dream of being a full-time artist. i have found this community to be so giving, so willing to help. Nobody is looking to hog all the limelight and i have yet to meet a fellow artist who has been anything but amazingly generous.

Anyway, i’m still going to keep the full details under wraps a tad longer, but i thought i’d post some little tidbits from this first collaborative project we are working on together. i got to do Phase 1, then pass my work off to her for Phase 2, then i get it back for round 3 and …you get the idea. i can’t wait to see what develops! Happy Sunday!

Super Secret Collaboration Project

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When i Grow UPThe above print is one i had been working on a while back and just never completed. You may have seen similar typography style prints in my shop, but with a watercolor fill which i did by hand. In this case, i was just stumped as to what color scheme i’d use for this phrase. It wanted to be a bit more bold and less soft and washy like watercolor. Then along came Ashley.

i’ve had a life altering blog discovery a few weeks back. It’s called Li’l Blue Boo. have you seen it? You should. Artist, designer, painter, crafter, and creative ingenue, Ashley Hackshaw is the woman to know. She creates fabulous upcycled knit dresses with a patchwork, whimsical style that is too cool for school!! She also designs and lays down her own artwork as screens on the knits and incorporates those into the dresses! When she’s not sewing and screening, she’s raising an incredibly creative daughter and also painting gorgeous portraits and customized art for kids. And she shares her know how on all of the above through very easy-to-follow tutorials like this!

OK…..so now that THAT introduction is made, i’ll just tell you that after reading Ashley’s blog end-to-end in one sitting, i was oddly compelled to write her and tell her what an inspiration she is. i thought for sure she’d think i was a crazy lunatic, but most people do anyway, so i got to typing.

And she wrote back.

She was super sweet and wondered if i ever collaborated or wanted to? WHAT??? Me??? Of course!!!! Pinch me! i jumped onboard in a heartbeat and knew just what art i could send her to screen on these precious works of art. i sent the “When i Grow Up” print pictured above. More precisely, i sent her the outline of that art. She needed the one-color art for screening anyway, and i still had not figured out the fill.

The next day, it came to me. It needed to be filled with a joyous amalgam of color and texture. This was art meant for little girls and big girls who remember what it’s like to dream. It needed an injection of HAPPY! So i immediately pulled Baby Bohemia from my archive. After all, it’s been a very important piece to me. One that helped define my style and which has sold super well since day one. i had just recently made the artwork into a repeating pattern since i’ve been considering dabbling in a little textile design. Lucky for me, it was just perfecto for this project. See how it came together 1-2-3!

BabyBohemia-tryptic

i wanted to make sure the print was listed in my etsy shop in plenty of time to coincide with the launch of our collaborative collection. Because, c’mon! Wouldn’t it be a sweet & super-unique gift idea to give a dress and the art that inspired it in one lovely package? Well at least i thought so.

Now, Ashley has been so kind as to give me the green light to use her photos to show glimpses of the work as it progresses. So far, she has selected ink colors and fabrics and made a pile of various screen printed fabrics to be pieced together in to these dresses. You can see those, along with some of the fabulous other offerings in her shop below. (The middle dress/tunic is BIG Blue Boo, for us stylish mamas!)

LilBlueBooCollage

i am so, so excited for these dresses to hit the web. i give many, many thanks to Ashley for working with me. i mean, really, she’s doing about 95% of the work at this point! And i’d only offer one word-to-the-wise if you want to snag one of her creations anytime soon. LBB has a fiercely loyal and HUGE following, and dresses sell out FAST!, like- minutes after they’re posted fast. So be forewarned and be at the ready! Yippee!

lazy sunday – collaboration with a 4 year old

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MArkerBlotFaces1

Ah, lazy Sunday. Today we did lots of work on the house and were pooped when evening came. So, my 4-year old son sat next to me at my art station and scribbled while i sketched. Liking the loose look of his scribbles, i asked him to make me some “circles” in a few different colors. His messy circles were adorably cute and i used 2 of them as the base for some quickie, silly ink sketches. Aren’t the faces goofy? My little guy LOVED watching the faces develop on the page and he was ecstatic that he was part of the drawing. We will definitely be collaborating more in the future. It was just so special…and so simple.