FAQ

I started drawing recognizable objects in elementary school.  I was 'the artist' in my grade school class (you know what I'm talking about - every class has one).  I was obsessed with horses, so I drew lots of unicorns and pegusi.  My sister and I would draw fantasy horses on thin cardboard, cut them out and color them and play with them like paper dolls.  I didn't start drawing people until seventh grade.  For early work, see Evolution.

Observation, mostly.  I took to studying drawings at a young age (by studying I just mean looking at them carefully and noticing stylistic differences, shading, etc.).  I read a lot as a kid and I would check out the artwork in the book as well as the writing.  I was also very interested in animals - I watched a lot of nature programs.  Some of my first influences were 19th century illustrators like H.J. Ford.  I also watched a lot of animation.  When you get right down to the bottom line, I just drew a lot.

Yes, I've taken classes, though I've been disappointed by most of them.  I took an art class in jr. high, followed by 4-5 classes in high school.  I still consider myself primarily self taught and I don't put too much stock in art classes.

Depends on the media, the size, and the background.  A 9"x12" finished pencil piece with background will probably take me around 15 solid hours of work.  A color media would easily double or triple the time involved.

In general I like Strathmore papers - I use Strathmore sketchpads and drawing paper. Canson has nice drawing paper, but I'm stuck on Strathmore sketchpads and will probably never switch unless forced. For pencil pieces I start sketching with a .5 mm mechanical pencil, then shade with a set of Derwent drawing pencils, grades H - 9B. I rarely use anything harder than an H. I highly recommend Derwents. For ink pieces I use dip pens. My favorite nib is the Hunt 108 and I like Higgins Engrossing ink. For watercolors I have a mish-mash of different brands, in tubes and cakes. For digital media, I used Adobe Photoshop 5 for older work and recently upgraded to Photoshop 7 (big improvement!). I have a Wacom tablet and my computer was custom built for handling image large files. For scanning I have a little Canson scanner that has served me faithfully since '99.

Do you have any useful hints for beginning artists?

Check out the drawing tips section.   It covers some of the basics like materials, proportions and features.  I've also documented some of my works in progress so others can see the steps I go through to finish a piece.

1) Always scan your artwork at 300 dpi and save it as a tiff.  Keep this high resolution file in storage.  Then remake your lower resolution jpegs from the tiff.  Jpeg file quality will deteriorate over time as the image is worked with, but tiffs won't, so you want to keep a high resolution tiff as a source image.  I am kicking myself for saving some of my early scans as jpegs.  :-(

2) Don't post images that are over 700 pixels high or wide, no matter how tempting it is.  Big files that won't fit on the screen are annoying, take a long time to download, and are more attractive to image thieves.  If you feel you must show off the detail in a particular piece, make a cropped image of a section and post that.  Also make sure your contact information is posted on all your artwork (name, website and perhaps email address).  This can be as obvious or as subtle as you like.

3) Make sure you have good scans of your work.  Learn to understand and operate your scanner  and touch your images up in an editing program where needed.  This is very important if you wish to create a business with your work.  Along these lines, learn the differences between gifs, jpegs and tiffs.

4) Create a professional, neat website.  It doesn't have to be huge and elaborate, but make sure all your links work, that your contact information is posted (and commission information if you accept commissions), and that your site design is attractive and easy to navigate.  Check your spelling and grammar carefully.  You don't have to know a lot of html, but you do need time and patience.  Your website is your "face" online, and people will look at it before they see your art.  If your site is an eyesore, with broken links, bad spelling and incomplete data, people aren't going to want to stick around for the art.  If you can afford it, buy yourself a domain name and find a good webhosting company (I would recommend DreamHost).

There's a great article here that should pretty much cover it.

I'm sorry, but I cannot accept requests for any reason. Please read Why Artists Don't Accept Requests. Here's a useful article about requesting art from artists, if you want to know how to do it right.

Please don't send me attachments.  To be on the safe side, I assume they are viruses and do not open attachments from strangers.  If you want to show me your artwork, set up a webpage somewhere or get an account at an online gallery and send me the URL.  I will offer an honest critique of your work.  Please note that this involves pointing out things that need improvement.  If you don't want criticism, don't point me towards your work.

Not currently. I'm too busy.

Possibly.  Please understand that I am quite busy right now, so undertaking any large project is tricky, especially if there is a short deadline.  I will only accept very special projects. If this is pro bono work (ie, you can't pay me) the answer is no, sadly. However, I may license some of my already existing work for publication. Please email me and include a list of pieces you are interested in. Some of these are not available for publication, and some I do not have suitable files for printing.

If you like a particular piece, please inquire about it. I only sell originals if they are in good shape, and some of them I no longer have. I can produce high quality prints on demand for most pieces - see the print page. Some prints are available through Ellen Million Graphics.

I believe that artwork is meant to be enjoyed, BUT that doesn't mean that anyone has the right to take my artwork and use it without my permission.  If you see a piece of artwork you like, please check out the rules first before you take it.  If you would like to display it on your webpage, I require that you put 'drawing copyright by Jennie Seay' on the same page that it is displayed.  Also, do not alter (crop or resize or use in graphics) my artwork without getting my permission first.

In most cases I have no problem with this.  It's flattering to know someone wants your art on their body permanently.  If the piece you like has products available I would greatly appreciate it if you would go buy something with the image on it.  Either something from Ellen Million Graphics, or one of my prints. Not only is this a nice thing to do, but you'll get something you can take to your tattoo artist. Also, I'd love to see a photo if you have the tattoo done. Please ask permission for a tattoo here.

I use Greymatter 1.3, an opensource journaling software.  Greymatter is intended for blogs, but by creating an entry for each piece of artwork I can turn it into a gallery instead of a journal, with commenting features.  It requires some extensive template modification to do so, but the program is very flexible and worth the effort to customize.  You will need a server capable of running cgi - a free website service like Tripod won't run it.  I would not recommend it to people uncomfortable with coding raw html, as it does require some coding to make it work.

It's a small javascript I found here, and I added my own favorite quotes.

It's a simple css script.  There's a tutorial here.  Feel free to check out my source code.

Here.

I have always been fond of starting multiple projects.  In high school a friend of mine commented that I was living in "delusion land" thinking that I would get all these projects done.  The nickname "delusion girl" stuck.  It's fairly accurate.  When I got online it seemed a natural choice for an alias, and when I got my first domain name I opted for delusionland.com.  I evenually decided to get a separate website for my artwork, and delusion studio seemed like a logical choice.  I think all artists have to be a little delusional at heart.  :-)

What sorts of links to you accept?

Just about anything art related.  If it can somehow be connected with art or the creation of art, the site will be added.  Exceptions to this include "galleries" of artwork culled from the web without listing artist credit, "clip art" archives, and sites determined to be violating copyright.

Depends.  More than likely, just a day or two, unless I am on vacation or busy, in which case it could take a week or more.

Of course.  Assuming you submit a nice, polite description, I have no problems with this.  If I am contacted by the owner of the site, I will abide by his or her wishes to remove the link or alter the description.

Of course.

Submit them all if you want.  I have subdirectories for listing the galleries.  The only exception to this is Elfwood - please only submit one of your galleries if you are listed in multiple sections.

I wanted to create a listing for shady websites as an "artist beware" sort of warning.  If you submit a site to the "Warning!" category I do require resonable proof - please include links.  If you find your business listed in the "Warning!" section and would care to dispute, please contact me.

Easy.  There is a "modify" link option, where you can submit an alternate description.  If you want the link gone, please drop me an email and it will be gone.

There is a section in the message board for this, or contact me.

Trust me, I hate spam.  I will not give your email to anyone else, and only in extreme cases will I ever contact you about your link.  Your email is not visible on my site.