Annette Rand's Blog, page 7

Going public soon

I’ve decided to set up stall online and see if I can sell pet portraits. I need permission first from a couple of people whose pets I’ve drawn already and then the website��can go public. We’ll see how it goes, considering I still need to fit my job, my rats and my family around it. Not necessarily in that order!

In the meantime, I’ve put my favourite drawings of my own pets into my t-shirt shop, in a complete revamp and update. If you’re interested, it’s here.

A Happy Ratty New Year!

2014 was a good year. My hubby and I got used to having the younger two kids back home after a lovely few months of just the two of us, and both of them are now focussing on their futures and sorting themselves out with the hope of fledging once again. Our eldest son is engaged to a lovely young man and working hard to make a solid future for them both.

By my calculations, my dad managed to get through the year with less than a week in hospital, which is his best record for several years. Keep upright, dad, careful with the Zimmer! My mum is coping (just) with his habit of turning the telly on to full volume and then nodding off to sleep, only waking if the telly is turned off.

Having initially looked into making a Kindle file of my rat care guide for new owners of the ratties I breed, I ended up actually e-publishing it for anyone��to buy and then even making a paperback version. Two more books later and an amazing amount of help and support from my friends and family I sold an incredible (to me at least) 55 paperback books, 15 e-books and 6 Kindle Unlimited borrows in December. Gobsmacked am I. ��http://www.rattycorner.com/books/

The ratties have done well too, winning three of the six shows we went to and with two amazing litters being born. I do love my ratties.

The newest fad is my graphics tablet, which is the best thing I’ve bought in a long time. After a few attempts at copying from photos, I’ve now found a technique of drawing straight over the top of photos which gives fantastic results. It makes it looks as if I can really draw, whereas it’s actually just��a very��labour intensive method of photo editing.��http://www.rattycorner.com/commissions/

So all we have to do now is make 2015 an even better year. It’s going to be hard, but I’m up for it!

Happy Ratty New Year!

If I ever lose my job

I may have found a new one! I have a queue of pictures to draw now, some for me and some for friends. ��http://www.rattycorner.com/commissions/

This one turned out very well indeed.

Cheating, but it works

This has taken me a few days to produce. It’s based on the photo below, picking up the colours and tracing the shapes. I think it’s probably cheating, but I’m very pleased with the results.

Jigsaws

If you have a few hours to spare at any time, pop over to Jigidi and try the two jigsaw photos I’ve uploaded. I promise, that site will eat your time!

http://www.jigidi.com/puzzle.php?id=V6PNOMNF��– Two rats jigsaw

http://www.jigidi.com/puzzle.php?id=YW0GHCIM��– Tigger cat jigsaw

Book cover

I’ve been quiet for a few days. It’s because I’ve been playing with my graphics tablet again, painting a copy of the photograph that I used as a cover on my first book.

When I first published my Kindle version of the Care Guide I used a photo of two rats that I felt was perfect for the job. On producing a print version I found that the photograph wasn’t large enough to use as a full cover so I opted for a smaller version against a dark background, but it has annoyed me that the two covers were different and I preferred the original.

You have no idea how long it takes to draw fleece! But it didn’t look right with a plain background. So here is the newly minted front cover.

Midlands Rat Club

A wonderful yet exhausting day out at the show yesterday. I’ve just got the first of the photos up on the club website. at��http://www.midlandsratclub.org/shows/2014/12ratby/photos.shtml and the photo shoot photos are at http://www.midlandsratclub.org/shows/2014/12ratby/photoshoot.shtml

I sold four books too, so success there.

There’s still a video to put together. I think I took some useful footage but we’ll see.

Ruby and Tate

I think that drawing with the tablet is becoming a ‘thing’ that I can do. I’m a little bemused by it; I didn’t expect it to work this well. But very pleased.

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Selfie

I did a selfie. It looks better than the photo I took it from – definitely the easiest way to remove wrinkles!

Doggy drawing

So pleased with the way this one turned out!