2017. Watercolor background. Hand-carved octonaut (linoleum) printed onto page and gone over with shiny white acrylic. Octonaut concept from a sketch of mine done on a notecard back in 2013. Might make into a greeting card…Alternate name: “What do octopus see when they trip?” or “Acidpus”.
Hand-painted mug – adaptation of a design concept seen online mixing “coffee” and the Pokemon “Koffing”. Ceramic paint. Made for my brother’s birthday. August 2017.
So although I posted my first Etsy listing quite some time back (a lino-cut of a panda shown in a previous entry here) it didn’t really go anywhere or turn into anything. Probably because I didn’t advertise or social media much….it seems the follow-through and follow-up are the weakest (if not nonexistent) links in my chain. So, although I didn’t make any sales, I did in fact keep learning and experimenting and whatnot and have come around back to it, relisting “Panda Prophecy” and also a new hand-carved and printed artwork (I’ve been calling it “Evilephant” which seems a bit…silly, but I haven’t come up with anything else yet):
(below: Panda Prophecy – one of a kind edition hand-painted with gold embellishments – an’eye-catching/interesting’ photo for my Etsy listing – also see link at the bottom of this post)
(below: Evilephant – photo with the carved lino block and the print – also see link at the bottom of post for my actual Etsy shop listing)
So, those are the two listings I have so far. I have many other almost ready lino carvings, but what has taken a lot of my time is experimenting with this craft. A LOT of trial and error, a LOT of unsatisfactory prints, and a LOT of scouring the internet for tips, tricks and supplies. In fact, since I took notes (I take notes on most things I study – really I could be quite successful and regular in my posts and informational transference if I only had the same urging to make posts and ‘share’ as I do to learn and create…) anyway since I took notes, I’ll make a useful separate post with them, to be updated over time, with my findings on linoleum carving and whatnot.
Both of these prints started as conceptual sketches, and were a bit of an endeavor to adapt to carving (I felt both needed a lot more than they started as to make them visually work with the medium) though I might have overdone Evilephant…but hopefully newer discoveries in ink and paper will allow me more freedom in design and not worry about large areas of solid ink not transferring well.
Above, left you can see my very first drawing of Panda Prophecy on a notecard. Being that this was the first carving I made, I thought taking out the bird might be a good idea for simplification, though the swirling details I added ended up being just as difficult (if not more….smooth curves can be tricky – especially small ones and circles) to carve. I can’t tell you how long it took me to finish – definitely a few separate days of work. I drew the swirls right onto the block and carved away – sometimes having to change or alter things to fix mistakes, and often returning and refining things after trial prints. Above, right you can see the plain black print – some swirls are missing their centers and certain areas are thicker than intended. Also note the areas where the ink did not transfer well enough onto the paper in the solid-black areas. Apparently I had been printing on far too thick a paper stock for hand-printing with a spoon. I’ve since been looking at lighter papers to use until I can get a press of some sort. The embellishment-with-paint idea arose from my desire to further correct the errors apparent to me, and I really like how it turned out – though it’s quite a bit more of a time investment to hand-paint all those swirls. In earlier prints I discovered that other paint could not very successfully be used to cover errors, as it seems each paint/ink/etc. has a slightly different tone, texture, and finish, and is visible in the right light on the print. In my elephant print, I tried to use a brush and later a rubber point to apply a bit of the printing ink I’d used to correct any mistakes. Unfortunately, for all but the smallest fixes, the ink applied this way does not match in it’s finish and is thus visible on the print.
Above here you can see the original concept sketch for Evilephant. Obviously a lot has changed, from the addition of linework and designs outside the figure to alterations to the figure itself due to errors in carving and realizing my limitations as a newer carver (there was likely no way I could get the gears in the ear like above carved nicely). I may yet still do something with the original sketch as it is above since things changed enough for the carving. It’ll be interesting to see how different manifestations of the concept come through and perhaps vary in feeling across different mediums. This carving too was one I returned too over and over to make refinements, and after test prints, to correct problem areas. I think I also learned something of overdoing via design in trying to prevent uneven ink transfer. Maybe I will carve still more away to simplify the print a bit in the future…For now, the few printed successes are for sale as limited edition prints in my Etsy store.
Feels slow, but progress comes. Hopefully soon the same will apply to my sales…
((My Etsy shop: https://www.etsy.com/shop/HollyZezuArtStudio ))
A gift for my brother’s birthday – his first 40k army was Tyranids, and I fondly remember sitting around with everyone and helping to paint them, watch battles, and take amusement in the lore/backstories and “flavor text” for the various factions. Since he is practical, his abode is thus sparse and could use an epic poster – especially one custom-made for him by his ‘delightful’ sister. So I gathered a bunch of images from online and among his books and collection and put together a collage in Photoshop, then had it printed and framed! Below is the poster image itself (minus mat and frame):
Well, larger than most other things I have custom painted up to this point. He was a Halloween decoration – plaster or something rather fragile-ish (bits of it sort of chip off the bottom sometimes). I painted him with acrylic paint (and holy crap did it take a lot longer than I anticipated…granted the ink shadowing didn’t work on him the way it does on the smaller figures so that set things back…) Hopefully making a plan AHEAD of time will speed things up in future endeavors – though I guess that won’t account for trial-and-error scraps of plans…Anyway I think he turned out rather well at this increment of decided completion, and I really like how his back details turned out with the paint shade layering for his fur. Also worth noting that being plaster or whatever and not a high quality material/expensive perfect statue, there was a lot of pitting and/or flaws to work around and try to mask with my painting work. But he’s quite lovely and I wouldn’t mind painting another something large sometime.
Eventually, even I get tired of explaining away (or trying to) my absence periods. And thus, just down to business: Despite the lull here, I am quite busy at my art and creating, so it is time to schedule a series of (long) finished objects for all of you lovely people to see. More to come!
So anyway, there’s three. There are many more and I’ll try to get them up regularly, I’ve photographed most, so that just leaves the edits/preps and commenting. Stay tuned!
Like a ‘compliment sandwich’, but the opposite (frustration bread + meaty middle goodness + another frustration bread).
I work so hard and intensely on any given artwork or project, then once it’s done or almost done…it’s like I forget about it. I don’t brag about it all over or show everyone, market it or give it even it’s 15 minutes of fame. Why? I am usually pretty happy with the things I create and have tons of ideas for them, design and sales concepts that I feel could really take off….but that spark that drives my artwork and ideas and passions just doesn’t ignite for the sharing and marketing…almost as if I am unable to stop moving forward with my artwork, to the point of being detrimental to any potential I might have for anything I create. I recognize this, but it gets…’lost’ in my head or buried by my moods and whims and desire to lose myself in the moments…and then I’m just going in circles trying to find progress and/or success.
Middle yum yums: I was going through my artwork, and came across this album art I created for a friend a few years ago: 
However (here comes the finishing bread of our sandwich), I don’t think it ever made it onto a physical item (I don’t know that the album ever did end up released or anything like that). The both of us (artists visual and auditory) were neither very good at the finishing and progress part. Always missing parts or things needed that never came about. I withheld it for a while, just in case it should ever come to be, but I haven’t spoken to that friend in a long while and haven’t heard anything regarding the project so…at least I can share the artwork I created for it!
-Holly
Title: “She’s Not There” (with a nod to the song of the same name by the Zombies). 2014. Developed from a sketch done around 2013. Photoshop and graphite.
Concepts reflect a lot of what I was feeling at the time; (descriptive words): facade, subliminal, defiance, poison, forbidden, pain management, twisted passion and intent, misdirection, survival persona, facet, temptress, morbidity, hollow.
Resigned to evil for desires, needs, impulses, and though not malicious in original intent, results stained like a sacrifice of blood for peace. She is acceptance of the inner darkness, made possible through the abandonment of sympathy, naivety, illusion, and social decorum.She is the fiery passion, the intensity of all that burns, and such a flame consumes all else. Retaining only the selfishness, desire, the temptation of moths to a flame, it is the only way to continue on un-extinguished. As they burn, so would she if of similar accelerant made. She summons with a deadly beauty, a sickly sweet decay perfume, and keeps and feeds with a poison like ambrosia, a toxic addiction that is never forsaken.
It is not so far-fetched thus to view a demon as a survival persona.
I leave the extent of her truth and fate to each individual viewer. Is goodness, hope, selflessness adeptly buried away in a survival bargain? Or has it been completely lost altogether? And what are the boundaries of being – is it all you are and have been, or only what you are most recently? Does it include the parts of yourself you’ve disconnected, but that still exist dormant or hidden?
Another song: “Falling in love again” the version sung by Christina Aguilera.
I’m going to start planning to make prints to sell, or cards or whatnot. And I’m thinking of making similar concept ladies to create a collection/set of emotion/persona beauties in various colors.
These drawings (done on standard note cards) represent some of my earliest experiments with form, line, geometric figures, and how to structure and fill compositions. If I had finished them all and say, published an art show or something, I would have called it “Geo-Safari”, and thus it would have shared a name with the first piece created:
Most of these drawings were created with ink, graphite, acrylic paint, collaged paper, marker, and digital editing. They are in varying degrees of completion and conceptualization. I think most are from around 2013. I hope to adapt these or make something of them someday. Maybe….a gift card set? Postcards? Print sets?
The Artwork of Holly Zezu 