Making a Book

My fiancé is big into horror. He loves watching it, reading it, writing about it. He even tries to encourage me to try out a few horroresque type drawings…Too Bad Hunny, I don’t do scary…so I thought. Since he is a very talented writer, he has been considering having a few of his short stories published. Unfortunately circumstance has made us have to postpone it for a little while, to cheer him up I decided he didn’t have to wait to have his stories in a book. I started designing a way to make him a book that would compliment his stories. Something that would match his dark writing style.
When referring to creepy books, one comes to mind, the Necronomicon, ya know the Book from Evil Dead. No I wasn’t going to make him a book that summoned evil spirits but I was looking for the cover to be creepy like that.
The task began by printing about 12 of his stories off. I changed the font to “Parchment” an old Archaic looking font. After adding small sketches to a few of the pages I then printed them off front and back. I then started the tedious task of staining the pages. I wanted to give them an old, weathered look like ancient books have. Each page, there was about 60 of them, was carefully brushed with a wet tea bag. Interesting tip I learned while staining, regular tea gives you a yellow stain but flavored tea gives you a grayish stain. Yes I probably could’ve just gone to a printing store and printed it on yellow paper but I also wanted that weathered look you get from the wet pages after they dry. Stapled all the stories together along with a cover page and index, now it was ready for the cover.

Don’t want this Blog to be too long so I’ll tell you all about what I did next in my next blog. Stay Tuned :)
~Caralyn

It's a Scary Thing...

So I’ve been talking a lot to my sister, who also doubles as my manager for Mystic Reflections, about a few ideas for the future of my business. We had the idea to turn my art into a business about 4 years ago but really only started working hard toward the goal this past year and a half. It was really scary at first. I was constantly afraid I would fail horribly and no one would like my work, we didn’t give up though. Now after almost 2 years of selling my work we feel confident to take our business to the next level. But there are a few obstacles in our way.
As it stands right now I currently have a day job that sucks up the majority of my day and I work on my art in the late afternoons or on weekends. Honestly I find myself searching for more time and constantly thinking of how much more I could get done if I didn’t have a day job. I could work on all my little projects I keep saying I should do but never get around to them because I have a 9-5.
So that is the question, do I quit and have more time to see if I can make a living just as well with my art, or do I stay and never really find out? I live on my own so I have to consider how my decision will affect me being able to pay my bills. Those Leasers really get touchy about that Rent, they don’t take I.O.Us either. Also with the job market the way it is right now, leaving your job with no guarantee you will find another is a scary thing.
I have read some articles on what other people have done and most of them just went for it. Perhaps that is what I need to do, just give it a go and see what happens.

Wish me luck.
~Caralyn