Facebook Fan Page Auctions

I just wanted to let you all know about a fun new way to purchase my art! I am going to start having auctions right on my Facebook Fan Page where you can bid on my original sketches, paintings and other goodies.

If you missed it, I did have an auction on my Facebook Fan Page last week for a whole bunch of Cassandra items. Cassandra is part of my Portrait Series and she is Portrait of a Vampire #1. The auction included the original sketch, 5x7 print, ACEO print and sticker of Cassandra. I'm happy to say that the sketch will be going to a good home and I was so pleased with everyone's involvement in the auction.

I have gotten several messages asking if I will have more in the future, so I just thought I'd make this quick blog post to let you all know that yes, I will definitely be having more auctions! I'm thinking about having maybe one per week. I will always try and put up an auction preview at least a day before the auction starts. This way you can browse what will be going up for auction to see if you want to bid.

The auction works pretty simply. As of right now, there are no minimum bids. So, if you're interested in the auction, you just post below the auction picture with the price you're willing to purchase it for. If someone outbids you, you're welcome to submit a new bid. Then, the person who has the highest bid before the time limit runs out wins! I will invoice you via email for your auction including the auction price + shipping through Paypal.

I want to reiterate that these auctions will be taking place only on my Facebook Fan Page! So, if you're only a friend on my personal page, be sure to "Like" my page here so that you don't miss out on any of the upcoming auctions.

Let me know if you have any questions! =)

My Frog Witch is Named.....Ashlyn!

Congratulations Cathy Abbott-Young! I actually had my husband choose the winner of this naming contest. I thought it might be fun to switch it up a bit. He took the task very seriously and read through all of your suggestions at least 3 or 4 times. He narrowed it down to a few, but finally decided on Ashlyn. I really like the name too and think that it fits the piece nicely! Thank you so much to Cathy who suggested the name. She will win a 5x7" print of the finished painting! Cathy, please send me an email to nikki@aurella-art.com to claim your prize. Thanks! =)

Thank you to everyone who participated in my naming contest! Of course for those of you who also suggested a name for my Portrait Witch sketch, you have a second change to win. If you haven't yet suggested a name for my Portrait Witch sketch, please feel free to do so! You can see the post here.

I hope you all like the linework for Ashlyn! She will be available as a coloring page and will also be submitted to Sweet Pea Stamps who creates all of my rubber stamps. I will be painting Ashlyn this weekend. I anticipate that she will take quite awhile to paint as there is a -lot- of detail in this one. But I of course will be posting WIP pictures along the way.

A Typical Saturday

I love reading how other artists spend their time throughout the day, so I thought that I would write about what my typical Saturday is like! I really like the weekends (who doesn't really). It's my most concentrated amount of time to get things done on my artwork. I try to structure my days around my husband's work schedule. I like to take time off when he's home and I work, work, work while he is at work. Lately he has been working a lot of weekends, so I have been coming up with a schedule that works well for me!

I usually wake up around 6:00 every day if not earlier. My cats don't allow me to sleep in longer than that, and I usually can't sleep past that time anyway.

After I wake up, I check my emails first thing. I respond to any orders that I received overnight by sending out a thank you email and informing my customer that I am working on their order and that it will ship shortly. I always like to be acknowledged when I order something, so I try to do the same.

Next, if I received any Printable orders, I make sure to send those out straight away. I sell Printable Coloring Pages and Printable Digital Collage Sheets. I have to manually email these files to anyone who purchases them. I like to send them out straight away so that no one has to wait too long for the file.

After that I usually browse Facebook for awhile. I like to see what everyone's up to and comment on any interesting posts. I also try and respond to anyone on Facebook who wrote me directly and reply to any other emails I got art related that were not specifically orders.

By this time, my husband is usually up. If he's not up, I start packing up any orders that I received. I typically don't ship on Saturdays so If I only get some orders done, I will finish the rest on Sunday to ship out on Monday.

Once my husband is up, I enjoy the morning with him! I put my art aside and focus on spending time with him before he goes to work. We usually have breakfast, play some computer games and might watch a show or two on Netflix.

After my husband goes to work, I take a quick nap. Ok, sometimes they are not quick, but I am the type of person that NEEDS 8 hours of sleep. I just can't function without it. Since I wake up at 6 and usually don't go to sleep until 11 or 12, I need that hour or so nap to catch up!

After I wake up, I start on my artwork. On the weekends, I have my largest chunk of time, so I save my painting and sketching for the weekends. I work on products, web updates, various licensing duties and things of that nature on the weekdays when I have less time.

It's great that I'm able to sit down and work on a painting for 8+ hours at one time. I think most artists do their best work when they work for long uninterrupted periods of time. I'm able to really focus and create some awesome work this way!

When my husband gets home, I pack up my art and clean up my mess. Then we usually watch a couple episodes of King of the Hill (LOVE that show) and finally turn in around 11 or 12.

And that's my day! What's your typical Saturday like?

My Favorite Wheel of Time Character

If you haven't read the series yet, beware...there are some spoilers below!

One of my favorite things to listen to while I paint and work on my artwork is the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan on Audible. I am midway through the 4th book and am thoroughly enjoying the series. My favorite thing about the series is that there are so many characters in the book and they each have such unique powers and abilities.

While I think the male characters are all very interesting, I am of course drawn to the female characters. I really love the whole idea of Aes Sedai. In the stories, Aes Sedai are women with magical powers. Aes Sedai train in the White Tower and eventually choose an Ajah color. There are different Ajah colors and an Aes Sedai's Ajah color dictates their specialty. For instance, the brown Ajah are historians, yellow Ajah are healers and so on.

Moraine is the first Aes Sedai that we meet in the book and she is of the blue Ajah. The blue Ajah like to go abroad and become involved in political affairs and justice. I like that you can never fully trust Moraine's character. She seems like she is a good person, but is she really looking out for every one's best interests? It's hard to tell! But I think my favorite character so far is Nynaeve.

Nynaeve is a very stubborn, quick to anger type of person. But more than anything she cares about the well-being of everyone from her small village. She has the strongest potential out of any Aes Sedai in thousands of years, but she cannot yet wield her power consciously. She has to become angered to fully embrace her powers. She oftentimes makes herself angry on purpose so that she can channel her power. But when she is able to channel her power, she is unmatched in her abilities.

She is also interesting because she has been using her powers for almost her entire life as a wisdom in her village. A wisdom is like a village's wise-woman, adept at healing and can sometimes listen to the wind or predict the weather. Most women who use their powers without training end up killing or hurting themselves, but she has been able to use her powers unknowingly for years without being harmed. I am really looking forward to seeing how Nynaeve's character develops throughout the series. Will she ever be able to wield her power without becoming angry?

I am also at the part of the book where Nynaeve and Lan first start up their relationship. Lan is Moraine's warder which means he swore to protect Moraine until her death. Aes Sedai usually have one warder who is adept at sword fighting and can sense all evil spawned creatures. Lan is bound to protect Moraine even if his heart belongs to Nynaeve. Nynaeve has always hated Moraine since they first met, so the interplay between the three of them is quite intriguing. It's almost like a love triangle. It's hard to tell how Moraine feels about everything so far, but I can't wait to see how that situation develops as well.

Do you like the Wheel of Time series? If so, what is your favorite character? If you haven't yet read the Wheel of Time series and like fantasy books, I definitely suggest you give them a try!

What Are Tubes?

Creative Design Outlet is one of the companies that license my artwork. They sell my artwork in tube packages. One question I get asked frequently is, "What is a tube?" Well, I will try my best to explain it to you! I have to admit, that I didn't know what tubes were until I was approached by a company who sold them. But I did some research and soon found out that there is a lovely tube/tagger community and tubes are widely popular with people who work with computer graphics.

A tube is sort of like clip art. When you purchase a tube from Creative Design Outlet, you will receive a digital file of my artwork. The file is separated into different layers. They take one of my witches, fairies or mermaids and remove the background creating a cut out type image. This way, you can use my fantasy girls to create your own custom computer graphics.

The cut out image is perfect to create your own computer art, because you can overlay fonts, borders and other graphic elements. Usually a finished piece of art made using tubes is called a tag. You can use tags in a variety of places like Facebook, Myspace, forums and more. They are also really fun to create for friends to give as gifts...sort of like a digital e-card! You can make "Happy Birthday," "Thank you" and other holiday related tags.

Make sure to read all of Creative Design Outlet's rules here. There are certain places you can post tags and other places you can't. Also, there is information you have to put on everything that you make using tubes, like a license number and artist name, etc... It's best to get that information right off their website, because they're much better at explaining that part of the process than I am!

Tubes are priced very reasonably. They are only $1.85 each or $5.00 for a set of three. You can also purchase a set of 10 tube packs at a reduced rate.

Here are pictures of some of my tube packages that are available:

Here are some beautiful tags created with my tubes by talented artists:

Telsa Tag by Jacqui Healy

Karmina Tag by Claire Mullins

Telsa Tag by Claire Mullins

Have any further questions about tubes? Let me know! I will gladly try and answer any questions that I can or point you in the right direction.