Art of Victoria Champion

my submission for t-shirt contest

The gaming community I belong to, Gaiscioch, is having a tshirt contest for members. This is my submission:

More images after the jump:

Website Re-launched

I rebuilt my website victoriachampion.com from the ground up, using a bare bones boilerplate called Skeleton. Having had my site since 2006, the code had become cluttered and the files messy. I scrapped the entire thing and started fresh, copy/pasting only necessary elements that I stripped of any code using Notetab, and rebuilt by hand.

Skeleton allows my site to reformat itself based on any browser size, including phones, without breaking the content. It has the latest up-to-spec code requirements for browser/phone compatibility, including css, js, and html 5 compliant code as well as a favicon template, among other goodies.

My new site is designed to be clean, modern, minimalist, and easy to use. My Dreamhost guestbook, Dreambook, has even been redone and fully integrated into the site. My site is hosted at Dreamhost.

I used Helvetica Neue, sans-serif, for the primary font, and Georgia for the italics. The scripts I have used are from Google API, Dynamic Drive, and Skeleton. The buttons are from MySiteMyWay.

My art galleries are still being hosted at DeviantArt. I wish I could alter the color scheme there, but their gallery system is still the easiest to use and best solution for me at this time, as it integrates with my prints shop there. Maybe someday they will let us alter the colors.

Reducing clutter and streamlining the finding of content was the primary focus in all my design decisions, hence the ajax button tabs on the index page. Clicking on the top graphic returns you to the home page. There is also a small homepage icon in the footer.

Of course all this is subject to change as I will inevitably tweak things.

Writing Blog

I have started a blog to post my litera creations: Ink Lingers

I've been writing off and on since childhood, mostly poems, some short fiction, and once a partial novel. I'll be getting back into it more seriously now - at least that's the plan - along with my visual art. I have actually started to consider including some typography elements (beyond the ancient 'dead' languages and alchemical scripts I have been using) into my paintings, but we shall see if that works out. Sorta like a graffiti element. Maybe I should illustrate a book of my poems? Not a bad idea. Just brainstorming here. Well, go on over and check it out if you like. It's brand new, so content will be incoming as I transcribe from paper as well as go through my files, and also compose new works.

You can tell by the look of the new blog that I absolutely am obsessed with books. I used to spend my food money on books instead of eating. True story.

Warm weather

Warm weather means I will be going back into the studio. Expect some more activity after my winter hibernation.

Deviant Art and Me

I have decided to point my galleries on my site to my Deviant Art accounts, rather than hosting them myself. This is for ease of use for both you and me. Nice and easy...ahhh...much better. I also have portfolios set up there. The difference between them is that portfolios are for a quick look at a sampling of some of my best of work. The galleries are to see everything that I deem fit for human consumption. Eat at your own risk.

Portfolios

Traditional Art Portfolio
Digital Art Portfolio

Galleries

Traditional Art
Digital Art

I also decided to sell my prints exclusively through Deviant Art for now. Sorry Zazzle!

Art for Sale

Prints

In the meantime, I am updating my site and banners and blog, so please try to forgive the clashing colors and general chaos.

Updated the FAQ

Hiatus over

Been on a bit of a painting and blogging hiatus due to having a 2 week long migraine, and now it's time to get back to business. I am finally going to get back to swimming tonight, and then will hopefully get back in the studio tomorrow. I do have a new painting sketched on to canvas and am ready to make some final adjustments to the sketch and then start the painting itself. Also have a whole set of photographs I need to edit and upload of my previous paintings, including the revamped ones. So all in all got a busy art schedule ahead and will try to keep this blog updated more often .

Latest Painting - Kawaii Sun

A new painting in fresh new colors instead of the usual grays. I'll be mostly painting in similar color schemes for a while, as I continue to revamp some previous paintings and also for new work.