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~Alternate Reality Arts~
(Cool Header Coming Soon)
31 October 2009 @ 06:48 pm
30 October 2009 @ 08:53 pm
This is one of the pictures we put in the Bellingham School of Comics annual show at the Black Drop coffeehouse. We submitted 5 pictures in all and at the last meeting Phillip attended two of them had sold, so we're pretty jazzed about that:)
P.S. Just in case you missed it, look at the tree.
Current Mood: 
weird
weird24 October 2009 @ 10:52 pm
So we've been getting this TV guide online magazine in our email, maybe because we subscribed to TV Guide a million years ago or because we have TiVo. Anyway, they had a poll on who was the hottest vampire on TV right now. The choices were the two guys from the Vampire Diaries, Bill and Eric from True Blood, and The Count from Sesame Street. I'm not into the Vampire Diaries and though I've read the Sukie Stackhouse books I haven't seen the show. So I figured I'd be a smart alec and vote for The Count. So I click on him and it takes me to the results. And it turns out The Count is totally kicking ass with 59% of the vote. Phillip says that's as it should be, because The Count is classic.
10 April 2009 @ 02:40 pm
I posted to the ValhallaCon Yahoogroup about the logo/promotional art we'd made, with a link back to the journal. We got a couple nice comments over there on the list and Ulysess Somers, who does their website, posted the pencil draft to the 'art show' page.
http://valhallacon.com/art-show/
A few days later I emailed the con chair, asking if they were interested in using the logo to promote the con, especially seeing that NorwesCon was coming up. She emailed back, thanking me and saying the Publications Coordinators for the con would be contacting me. I emailed them a couple days later and traded messages back and forth with one of them for the next few days. He felt the logo was fine without any changes and wanted to put together a flyer around it, so Phillip went ahead and inked it. They had some art they'd used last year at NorwesCon that they ended up deciding to stick with it for the sake of continuity; they included our picture at the bottom of their flyers/posters, minus the lettering. He asked if they could use our logo as part of their table display, so we made a sign for them, including the lettering. We threw in Phillip's picture "The Valhalla Variation," which I'll include in an upcoming post. We also gave him some ARA promotional cards and bookmarks that he agreed to set out for us.
On an entirely different note, check out our new icon. We've decided on it for our ARA logo. Phillip's going to design some cool angular/deco lettering to go with it. Then we can have the header we've been threatening to put on this journal since we started it. We're also setting up a new workshop/studio. More about that later. ( For now, here's the ink version of our ValhallaCon logo: )
http://valhallacon.com/art-show/
A few days later I emailed the con chair, asking if they were interested in using the logo to promote the con, especially seeing that NorwesCon was coming up. She emailed back, thanking me and saying the Publications Coordinators for the con would be contacting me. I emailed them a couple days later and traded messages back and forth with one of them for the next few days. He felt the logo was fine without any changes and wanted to put together a flyer around it, so Phillip went ahead and inked it. They had some art they'd used last year at NorwesCon that they ended up deciding to stick with it for the sake of continuity; they included our picture at the bottom of their flyers/posters, minus the lettering. He asked if they could use our logo as part of their table display, so we made a sign for them, including the lettering. We threw in Phillip's picture "The Valhalla Variation," which I'll include in an upcoming post. We also gave him some ARA promotional cards and bookmarks that he agreed to set out for us.
On an entirely different note, check out our new icon. We've decided on it for our ARA logo. Phillip's going to design some cool angular/deco lettering to go with it. Then we can have the header we've been threatening to put on this journal since we started it. We're also setting up a new workshop/studio. More about that later. ( For now, here's the ink version of our ValhallaCon logo: )
Current Mood: 
accomplished
accomplished28 March 2009 @ 08:43 pm
16 March 2009 @ 07:10 pm
It looks like ValhallaCon is on! Phillip and I got pre-supporting memberships when they first offered them about a year ago, and talked our friend Colleen into getting one, too. I joined the
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif?v=92.1){kind=small}
valhallacon Livejournal and Yahoo Group. Then for several months there was no information and it seemed uncertain if it was really going to happen or not. But now they have dates, a venue and a writer guest of honor!ValhallaCon is being promoted as "The successor to VikingCon, Bellingham's premiere SF/F convention." and "Where VikingCons go when they die." I was thinking about that and all of the sudden I had a picture in my head. I described it to Phillip and we worked on it together. Then he surprised me with some great lettering. So far we have a pencil draft that we can develop into a ink or colored version if they're interested, as well as make any changes they'd want. So I'm going over to post to the Yahoo Group and link back here. I guess even if they're not interested in it for any official con stuff we could always enter it in the art show (I read that it hasn't been decided if they'll have an art show, but it seems to me that it would be a shame if they didn't, since Bellingham is such a big art town.)
Preview:
( Click Here For Larger Image )
24 December 2008 @ 06:32 pm
"The Mermaid's Christmas" a pen and ink drawing by Phillip, from an idea by Cynthia
Best wishes for whichever path you follow.....
30 September 2008 @ 10:03 pm
Everyone was impressed with the sign stand and how steampunk it was, with all the brass fittings and dark wood. I want to get some pictures of it to post since it's such a good example of Phillip's wood and metalworking skills. None of the pictures we took at the con turned out very well, though ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=92.1)
fenmere has some pictures on his journal, including some of the stand and our cards and prints for sale.
From all I've heard, sales were much better last year. The con was at a different, less centrally located venue this year, and of course the economy is in rough shape right now. We did sell a couple prints though, so that was encouraging.
I also made some contacts and met a lot of great people-that's what really made the con for me. I went around with the flyers for The Association of Science Fiction & Fantasy Artists and talked with people about ASFA, The Bellingham School of Comics and of course, Alternate Reality Arts:) I met Gus F. Martin, president of Cartoonists Northwest and he asked for several ASFA flyers to take back to with him. So hopefully I did ASFA some good. Fenmere said several people came by the table and asked about the B.S. of Comics.
All in all, it's great to have a convention here in Bellinham, and hopefully things will pick up when the economy turns around and the con-runners get more experience. And who knows, maybe the ValhallaCon group will manage to pull it off and we'll have two local cons....(*checksvalhallacon LJ and Yahoo Group, sees nothing, but refuses to entirely give up hope*)
fenmere has some pictures on his journal, including some of the stand and our cards and prints for sale. From all I've heard, sales were much better last year. The con was at a different, less centrally located venue this year, and of course the economy is in rough shape right now. We did sell a couple prints though, so that was encouraging.
I also made some contacts and met a lot of great people-that's what really made the con for me. I went around with the flyers for The Association of Science Fiction & Fantasy Artists and talked with people about ASFA, The Bellingham School of Comics and of course, Alternate Reality Arts:) I met Gus F. Martin, president of Cartoonists Northwest and he asked for several ASFA flyers to take back to with him. So hopefully I did ASFA some good. Fenmere said several people came by the table and asked about the B.S. of Comics.
All in all, it's great to have a convention here in Bellinham, and hopefully things will pick up when the economy turns around and the con-runners get more experience. And who knows, maybe the ValhallaCon group will manage to pull it off and we'll have two local cons....(*checks
valhallacon LJ and Yahoo Group, sees nothing, but refuses to entirely give up hope*)26 September 2008 @ 11:30 pm
Saturday we'll be at BellCon. Phillip made a sign for The Bellingham School of Comics-and when I say 'sign' it doesn't do it justice-this thing is made out of 4 kinds of wood with brass fittings. It looks like a sculpture and I will definitely have pictures of it in a future post. Very steampunk. We've also got some prints of Phillip's art ready, so we'll see how that goes.
I also found out I was wrong when I thought our memberships to The Association of Science Fiction & Fantasy Artists had expired. Turns out we're good until next June. We've printed up a bunch of ASFA flyers so we can do our part to pimp the organization.
27 July 2008 @ 05:58 pm
....the art journal of Phillip and Cynthia Livingston. We created this to be our link to the art and fandom communities, as well as to share pictures and info about our various projects.
So, to introduce ourselves....
Phillip Livingston: Art Guy. Work including, but not limited to:
Science fiction, fantasy, alternative history, anthropomorphic (‘furry’) and comic art
Design, illustration and painting, including airbrush
Bookbinding in modern and Medieval styles. He’s made books with paper, cloth and leather covers; decorated with tooling, embossing and metalwork. He also does book repair.
Illuminated manuscripts, calligraphy and creative lettering in a variety of styles
Jewelry including metalwork, lapidary, enameling and scrimshaw
Woodwork, including furniture making, repair and refinishing
Phillip is aided and abetted by me, his wife Cynthia: manager/agent/idea person/all around helper. My semi-official title is Grand Poobah of Quality Control. I also make handwoven, custom decorated wreathes and do a bit of writing here and there. I’ve been around LJ for a few years now in a general fannish capacity. I’m responsible for the look of the journal, and will be handling the posting, as well as most of the contact with other human beings. Phillip is somewhat of the quiet, artistic type-at least until he gets to know you, then he’ll act out Monty Python skits and do funny voices.
We met approximately a million years ago at a Star Trek club in Fairbanks, Alaska. We moved to Phoenix, Arizona so Phillip could go to art school and ended up living there for 19 years, enjoying all the Rennaissance faires and fan run conventions in the area, including participating in LepreCon and CopperCon art shows. We now live in Bellingham, Washington (City of Subdued Excitement) and are looking forward to taking part in the local art and fandom scenes.
For our first offering we have Story Time At The Beach. The original is 20" x 15", watercolor and airbrush. It was around for a few years as a pen and ink drawing. Phillip did the first painted version while he was working at Roswell Bookbinding in Phoenix. They were holding a raffle to raise money for a co-worker’s medical expenses and asked Phillip if he could contribute some art. He brought in ‘Story Time’ and they sold out of tickets. Afterward several people approached him to paint versions for them. Each original was a little different-what you see here is the last, "definitive" version he painted so we would have one for our own purposes. We had it scanned and put to disc so we could make prints. We’ve sold some, given some as gifts and donated one to an auction to benefit The Association of Science Fiction & Fantasy Artists.
Edited to add: 8 x 10 prints are available for $10, which includes postage. We can also do larger or smaller prints, just let us know what you'd like. Also available as a blank greeting card for $3.
Preview: 
