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Back from the Big Crash of 2010

You’ll notice there are still broken images for the older articles, something I’ll remedy gradually, but other than that everything is pretty much back to somewhat normal.

The store has its images again, as does the gallery, and the name and mission generators are working again (though the font is slightly off).

The free E-cards section is down for a little while longer, as it was the result of a *lot* of custom programming tying three separate plugins together. I also lost a few of the free desktop wallpapers and a whole page of the free Iphone desktop wallpapers for the time being (you can still find those at my flickr account though).

What Happened: The entire server went down May 14th, and all files and file structure were irretrievable. The backups got toasted when a second failure happened mid-backup, or so I am told.

The web host has been very helpful in getting things back on track, but my own last backups were old, and their were fried.

After 10 years with the same host, I took for granted that the host had that all covered… a bad move. Thankfully they managed to keep the MySQL data intact, so re-installing the site and its plugins without losing old entries and data was possible, though tricky.

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A Few Commissioned Engravings on Clayboard up for grabs

I am currently wrapping up the current commissioned painting (scanning and imaging being done), and trying to prepare for the coming convention (hotel room, supplies, merch re-stock). To facilitate this, I am offering a handful of clayboard commissions, cheap. I also think turning myself into an engraving mill for a week will help me… allowing me to get more content together for a book, letting me delve (funded) into a fury of art making. If you’d like to help us with the convention, please help yourself to this opportunity to own a you-tailored original.

Commissions are $65 a piece, Engraved by me on 8×10 Archival Clayboard. More details here:

[PRODUCT LINK].

Mountain Temple
Mountain Temple Engraving 8x10 (an example engraving)
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Cats

When using laser pointers to tease cats, my favorite part is where I grab the laser dot off the ground with my hand, eat the laser dot, and act like it was the most incredibly delicious thing ever created.

…Then I sit on the couch for a while acting as fulfilled and blissed as one would after Thanksgiving Day, allowing the cats to imagine just what it was they missed out on.

Putting cat nip behind glass is also fun
Putting cat nip behind glass is also fun
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The Cog is Dead

I lost track of this band for a few months. My first sighting of them piqued my interest, due to some decent page design, good photography, and a promising band description – which was pretty much all I had to go on at the time outside of a (then) dormant twitter account, and a (then) soon to be updated myspace page (does anyone remember myspace?).

Admittedly, when it comes to such promotions, I bookmark these things and add profiles – but often times the chance to promote is lost on me when solicited by a “great stuff soon to be here” profile. It isn’t that I don’t believe there will be, but whether or not I check back is another matter entirely… save for Facebook where I see pretty much everything from everyone I add, and have a second chance “news feed” by which to see anything I may have missed, as long as it is generating a good amount of responses.

This is one of those cases where the promise was certainly delivered, and in good amounts.

In the time I didn’t check back to see whether new music was posted, their online profiles took leaps and bounds, and a web site came to be, a very stunning and brilliantly designed piece of internet real estate, designed by “Spring Shoe Productions” who I *wish* I could find more about.

But more than great design and “updateyness” in general, I find music to be a very important thing when it comes to bands, especially that part where I either like it or I don’t.

Today, I ran across this video on their steampunk.ning page today, and impressed as I am with this track in particular, I just *had* to post it here. I hope you enjoy it as well:

“The Death of the Cog” by The Cog is Dead :

The Cog is Dead
The Cog is Dead
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Big Change: Many More Prints, and Easier to Find

I’ve finally completed the new gallery page. Not only will you find a much more comprehensive collection of images, but I also list next to each image what size prints (or other merchandise) that image is currently available as.

This move not only revealed to me that a lot of artworks were missing in various (or all) sizes, but that there are a lot of originals I need to get back up after taking them down for shows. It also forced me to make the prices more across the board uniform, as each was priced according to my (then) current prices for prints. They have all been updated to reflect what good price shopping has done me over the year, i.e. I’ve dropped a *lot* of them in pricing.

It also provides for me a checklist of what I need to add in the future. Watch this space for jigsaw puzzles, refrigerator magnets, and book marks to return, as well as new t-shirts designed (as I am able to afford pre-ordering them in bulk). I aim to introduce a new t-shirt design every 2 months.

Also, April means I will be adding links to SKINS for each image, as I have finally found a provider of the damned things worth working with.

Lastly, I have removed most additional packaging prices from most every print, save for a few of the bigger ones. Many of these prices were remnants of the days when I offered only un-stretched giclees; Now that I have switched to the greener, less expensive model of shipping them rolled (though the option for stretching and mounting remains) additional crating and packaging prices need no longer apply in most cases.

I have, for the most part, returned to the easy, no-nonsense flat rate shipping: $5 shipping for the USA, flat rate $14 for Canada, etc.

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First Flight

Myke Amend - First Flight
Myke Amend - First Flight

An alternate version of the promotional piece done for Dexter Palmer’s brilliant and fantastic novel: “The Dream of Perpetual Motion”, published by Macmillan/St. Martin’s Press.

( http://us.macmillan.com/thedreamofperpetualmotion )

This is the scene as I first imagined it, not the actual piece for Macmillan’s site.

In the novel, the main character is rather un-phased by his flight; This one however is a more dramatic piece, and is as I would imagine the reactions of the *other* children. I also used the demon with the scarier first-draft visage I imagined (in the book, the mechanical demons aren’t meant to be all that frightening).

There are 25 limited edition giclees available, printed in high quality 200-year archival pigment inks upon fine high white-point fine art rag paper for the best and most vivid representation of this piece. The printed area is 11.75 x 11.75 inches, and the extended white border extends it to just over 13 x 13 inches.

They are, of course, signed, dated, and numbered in the margin in pencil by me.

They can be purchased here: In the Store

They are *also* available as are open edition prints, printed in high quality 200-year archival pigment inks upon fine heavyweight metallic professional paper for a beautiful and lustrous representation of this piece. The prints are also coated with a UV resistant, moisture resistant, scratch and fingerprint resistant protective luster coating.

The printed area of the metallics is 10.75 x 10.75 inches, and the extended white border extends it to just 12 x 12 inches. They can be purchased here: In the Store

Thumbs of the other three images from this series are below, which can be viewed on the book page for “The Dream of Perpetual Motion”. For the triptych, you’ll need to right click:view image (it is a bit scrunched on that page). I’ll add these others to the site gradually over the next month – I am refining each of them to be printed well at full-size – here or there as I have time.

There, you can also view the image of the above scene as it was intended to be, with Harold as the main focus, mildly amused and otherwise un-phased by his flight.

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Mankind Has No Time (Desktop Wallpaper)

Mankind Has No Time 1280x960 Desktop Wallpaper
Mankind Has No Time 1280x960 Desktop Wallpaper

This image was the cover for the upcoming September/October issue of Gatehouse Gazette, an excellent dieselpunk, pulp, horror, sci fi, steampunk mag if you aren’t already reading it. It was originally done for the magazine in pen and ink, as per their black and white specifications, but I decided to complete the piece with color after the publication date.

This is the finished result… very vintage pulp in its look and feel.

What I was going for was a very retro sort of Neon Genesis Evangelion sort of concept…of course what it translated to, especially with the 1940’s technology looks very “War of the Worlds”, both of which made it an enjoyable and fun piece to do.

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Some New Artworks

Gatehouse Gazette 10 Cover Remixed
Gatehouse Gazette 10 Cover Remixed

The drawing for the Gatehouse Gazette was ink on Bristol. I decided it needed some color, so I broke out the acrylics and got to work on it. This is the finished result… very vintage pulp in its look and feel.

What I was going for was a very retro sort of Neon Genesis Evangelion sort of concept…of course what it translated to was looking very “War of the Worlds”. I’m perfectly okay with that.

Also – I made the below engraving the other night. It is a throwback to my darker and more minimalist style.

A quaint moonlight ceremony on a cozy cobblestone path, surrounded by stone, lit by flickering torches which lend light the reverse side of the tree.

The Path
The Path

If you are interested in Prints of “The Path”, they are at ettadiem.etsy.com for now. If however you are interested in prints of The Gatehouse Gazzette piece, watch this space tomorrow (Thursday). I’d get them up tonight… erm.. this morning.. but I am beat.

Thank you for dropping in,

Myke Amend

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New Desert Shadows Wallpaper

Cropped from the full-size piece to feature the airship only to make for a more up close, boldly detailed, and vivid view of the work (available as 18×12 metallic prints, and as 36×24 giclees on canvas in my store)

This desktop is 1800 x 1200, but can be resized or stretched to fit your needs.

Enjoy!

Desert Shadows 1200 x 800 Desktop
Desert Shadows 1200 x 800 Desktop
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Update

Just an update to say I am still working on the painting for Cherie Priest’s upcoming book “The Clementine”, but will be done shortly.

A tiny piece of the current painting for Cherie Priest
A tiny piece of the current painting for Cherie Priest

Currently I am running a sale on my airship pirate tees, as I do not need to do much custom packaging for those, which will help to keep my workshop going with a minimal time needed to spend on shipping. These $25 shirts, artfully screen-printed on brown heavyweight cotton tees for men, super-soft ring-spun baby dolls for women and reduced to $17.95 (just click “Clothing” in the store categories to the lower right of any page.

When I return, I’ll be posting images of the Gatehouse Gazette #10 cover all painted in, and *maybe* a full image of the illustration for the cover of “Clementine” (I am not going to post the full image until the publisher gives me the go-ahead as they may want to hold that for a special time).

Also, for those who were wondering – I am finally completely through the proofing process for “Desert Shadows”, meaning numbers 1 through 50 of those prints are now available. I am holding the APs, for art shows, except for the one spoken for – but if you are interested in having one – just go ahead and use my contact form to reach me.

I would say I am done with commissions for a bit, but Bethalynne and I am gearing up for two conventions, hopefully – we need to earn a little more money to secure our tables at a few of them, but have at least reserved hotel rooms. If you are looking to secure a commission, please keep in mind that I like to know at least 3 months before the piece is needed – and only serious bidders need apply.