A New J.B.Chicoine Header Underway

I had every intention of posting my progress incrementally, but—well…I simply wasn’t feeling real enthused about this project. Aside from my ultimate goal—designing a new homepage for JBChicoine.com—the need for which is pretty darn exciting (adding Novelist to Artist), the process causes me great anxiety. I guess that’s what sucked some of the enthusiasm out of painting. Aside from that, when I set my Reading & Writing watercolor beside it for reference, the favored painting taunted me. How could I produce anything that would not wither beside it? And this new painting is supposed to represent my art side of the Website! Okay, yeah, I allowed my negativity (and funner* graphics projects—more on that another time) to get in the way and stall my progress.

Yesterday, I finally sat down and forced myself to finish it. Overall, I’m please with the result—it’s not as dramatic as its sibling, but how can ‘blank’ compete with all that dramatic black? (see previous post). Just the same, it has a nice light and airy feel to it.

Here is an idea I had for making the transition between the two images (it was my husband’s idea to chop off my bottom). I really like the concept of having an image of the painter/writer in the heading, except the face belongs to me. Ha! Having ‘me’ so prominent makes me squirm a bit, but objectively, I really like the composition—I like all the juxtaposed angles.

Now, I have to pick a day when I’m feeling really fresh and in control and patient, and dive back into the software program I used to design my Website in the first place, and relearn it. I am not looking forward to that. I need a new chant…  “I will not have a meltdown…” (that sounds too negative) “…I can do it!...I can do it!...”

* although MS Word says “funner” is not a word, Merriam-Webster’s Multi-Reference Dictionary says it is.

A New Painting for My Website Header

Well, I decided it's time to update my watercolor Website, J.B.Chicoine.com, to accommodate my upcoming novel. Uncharted won't be released until October, but it will probably take me that long to relearn my Web design software. In addition to that novel, I have others I plan to publish, so I may as well take advantage of having a Website with my name and combine my "artistic" endeavors.  Anyway, I'm going to incorporate the header I made for my writing blog (which I painted here a while back). 

I'll use the above painting for the Author half the page header... and start a new one for the Watercolorist half--something along the lines of the watercoloring arrangement to the right. But I like the oak and post setting of the Reading and Writing scene. So, below is the drawing I've come up with. I took a photo of a new arrangement, flipped it horizontally with my graphics program and messed with the perspective a little. I'll keep the background light and abut the two paintings, end-to-end; the dark contrasting with the light.

That's the plan, anyway.