Golden Apple!

We just found out that Omar won a gold award in the "unpublished" category for his painting "the Apple" in this year's Spectrum Annual!
woohoo!

Studio Cat

We've got a cat. As with any other cat, she likes to sleep. Alot. And also likes to be right in the middle of things. So with our art studio being in our home, we have a cat in our lap (or elsewhere draped upon us) for a good part of the day. BTW, our cat's name is Patchouli, she's 18 and lives a REALLY good life.

Return from Boskone

We just got back from Boskone, where we had a very successful showing. I received much praise for my work, Omar sold a bunch of paintings and also got a pile of awards. This painting was shown at Boskone and is also the one we showed a "peek" of in an earlier blog, here it is finished. Omar titled it "the Knight, the Daemon, and the Donut". The poor horse looks a tad worried about what the daemon is going to do with that donut...
It's available for sale, contact us for more info.
-Sheila

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day everyone. Omar just finished painting this one, fresh off the easel and tentatively titled Froggy Went a-Courtin'. I thought it was appropriate for today, so I figured I should share it. He'll be displaying it at Boskone tomorrow. We're in the final stretch right now getting ready for the art show, and our studio actually doesn't look too bad. Usually by now it looks like a bomb went off. I guess the renovation and reorganization is actually working. Phew.
-Sheila

Simpsonized!

This what I'd look like if I was a Simpson's character...
try it for yourself here.
-Sheila

What's he up to?

We're down to the final week before Boskone, so we're getting pretty busy in prep for the art show. Here's a quick peek of what's on Omar's drawing board...

Groundhog Day

Well, good old Punxy Phil saw his shadow this morning, so that means six more weeks of winter weather. So far this week we've had 7 inches of snow, 2 days of pouring rain, high winds, power outages, mud, slush, ice, frost, and ladybugs in our morning coffee. I think I'm about done with this winter stuff. Can we send Phil back in his burrow for a second opinion? I found this great cartoon on Casting Stones Productions cafepress store, check it out: cafepress.com/cstonesprod

Selling out!

We've just entered the wild world of merchandising and opened a shop on cafepress.com to sell items with our fabulous artwork on them. So far we've done t-shirts, buttons, and my favorite: coffee mugs. More stuff will be added as I have time to put them together, so keep checking back. Don't forget: Valentine's Day is coming up and I just know you've been dying to give a Turtle Race coffee mug to your squeeze. Now's your chance! Buy! Buy! Buy! Make us rich beyond our wildest dreams! Go there now: www.cafepress.com/studiorayyan

Producrastination

Producrastination is a word that Omar and I have come up with. What it means is "productive procrastination". It's what you do to keep yourself busy when you really should be doing something else. With regular procrastination you can be just loafing around watching TV, but producrastination is a very active form, you're actually getting something done, just not the thing you SHOULD be getting done. For example, this blog today. I should be doing sketches, but instead I'm teaching the world a new vocabulary word. Producrastination.
Well, back to work! I mean, the work I'm SUPPOSED to be doing.
-Sheila

Photo Booth Fun

I think the best way to procrastinate is to play with PhotoBooth on my Mac. This is my favorite self-portrait.

Website Updates

I've just put a pile of Omar's work up on our sale page. They are all paintings he did years ago for Iron Crown's Middle Earth card game, based on the Lord of the Rings by Tolkien. We've even got the game cards available for sale, signed by Omar of course. I didn't put the cards up on the website, there's just way too many. If there's a particular one you're looking for, drop us a note, and we'll check our inventory. Please note that we ONLY have cards that Omar illustrated! And don't forget that Omar is doing stuff for Magic the Gathering also. You can see the available paintings from that game on his gaming art page.
-Sheila

Happy New Year!

It's 2008 already. Wow how did that happen? Remember all that Y2K hype years ago? Seems like ancient history.
I had my belly dancing "debut" last night and it all went well-- I was nervous as heck at first, but then managed to settle in and enjoy it at bit. We had a full house with a lively audience, nobody fell off the stage, and no costume malfunctions (a la Janet Jackson), so I think it can be safely said the show was a success! Yippee! We spent the rest of our New Year's Eve having dinner with friends, then to see the fireworks at 9pm. Why fireworks at 9pm and not midnight? Beats me, maybe everyone else on this Island are old farts like us and go to bed before midnight (which we did, only to be woken up by a neighbor shooting off fireworks at midnight, so I guess they aren't old farts). Happy New Year everyone!
-Sheila

Ah, the classifieds

I saw this in our local paper this summer, which normally has pretty mundane ads. Wonder if the bird has a new hairy man to love.

Website Updates

Well, I finally got around to putting my artwork back on our website. (go to Sheila's Gallery) Yay! So to all the great unwashed masses out there that have been nagging me can now quit naggin'!!! Sheesh! I've even put some never before seen drawings on there, too! Not that they're new, but they're new to you, ain't they? I've got my drawing table set up again so I'm hoping to have some fresh new work to show, possibly in time for the Boskone art show? Maybe.
-Sheila

Battle? Duck!

We just spent a few days gallivanting about with artist Rick Sardinha and his equally talented wife Manuela. We went to see Manuela bellydancing at Efendi's restaurant. It was kinda surreal with all the women shimmying and dancing about the tables, what century were we in? The next day Manuela and I did some costume shopping, she helped me pick out some things for my big New Year's Eve performance coming up. This will be my first real bellydance performance in public. Nervous? Me? Naaaaaaaahhh! My hands always shake like that!
We also got to see the behind the scenes workings in Rick's studio. Busy little badger that man is! Does some amazing stuff. Check out his website RIGHT NOW!!! www.battleduck.com
-Sheila

Romance Novel?

Omar and I just finished working on the cover for a book for NESFA Press. It's a collection of short stories by Bruce Coville that NESFA is publishing for their upcoming Boskone. Omar did the painting and I did the cover design/layout. It was a lot of fun to work on because we got to design a romance novel! Okay, so it has an ugly troll and some rotting fish on the cover, but hey, that's Bruce Coville (and Omar) for ya.

Spot

Since the new website redesign, we've had some complaints that Spot is nowhere to be found.
So to quiet the great unwashed masses, heeeeeeeeeeeerre's Spot! and Sheila showing off their better sides (?!)

Moebius

Moebius (Jean Giraud) was artist guest of honor at World Fantasy this year, and we had the privilege to meet him. He let us peek in his sketchbook. I'm still in awe. His work is so amazing, he was so humble and funny, I wish we could have spent so much more time with him. Here's a pic of Tom Kidd, Omar and Jean during the art show tear down. Tom is looking a bit dazed because Jean had just bought one of his paintings. Lucky fella!

Chesley Award!

Omar won a Chesley Award this year for Best Interior Illustration. Since we didn't go to the WorldCon in Japan where they had the Chesley award ceremony, they had an informal awarding at World Fantasy Con in Saratoga Springs, NY. Here's a pic of the gang mugging with their awards: Todd Lockwood, Steven Hickman, Donato and Omar.

They redesigned the awards this year and they are stunning!! They look like a galaxy trapped inside a meteorite.
Very cool.

New website up!

I've just uploaded our newly redesigned website. If you're reading this blog, then you have already visited it! Lucky you! I wanted to try to get our website to fit a little better in the 21st century. It took me a looooooooong time to get the tech part figured out. But considering how little I know about web design, I think it came out well. (fingers crossed). I still have a few pages left to finish (like my gallery), hopefully I can get to them soon. I'll also soon be posting some photos here of our recent travels. So keep checking back! Now that we've got the new format, I'm hoping to keep the website a little "fresher" than it has been in the past.

-Sheila