Artistic Musings: Ann Vremont
Bio and Links:
Author and artist Ann Vremont is a subversive, fractious child closing in on her fourth decade. She claims not to say half of what she thinks or think half of what she says. She's been married over half her life and is a newly minted empty nester. She's a licensed professional dillhole in at least one U..S. jurisdiction and doesn't have much of a pension plan so please go buy all of her books, which you can learn about on her website at http://www.annvremont.com/.
Q&A:
1) When did you know you wanted to be a Graphic Artist? I've always been attracted to the process of creating a visual product (particularly that done by hand) but for the longest time did not think I had sufficient talent. Photography was too expensive, and so my creative streak was pushed into writing. In 2003/04, I was forced to come up with some fixes for a marketing product for my employer and got my first copy of photoshop. From there, it escalated to 3D computer graphics and now that I have finally learned enough patience and self-forgiveness, into sketching.
2) How long does it take you to do a (design, book cover, website)? Anywhere from 30 minutes to a month. It depends on how difficult the subject matter/concept/characters are to represent visually.
3) Where do you get your inspiration from? Everywhere and I would think this is true of all artists, visual or otherwise. Everything is fodder for a creative personality.
4) Any tips for aspiring Graphic Artists? Stop thinking you "can't," learn patience and dedicate yourself to objective quality for your field.
5) How do you calculate your price for one of your (figures, book covers, websites)? I rarely do work for someone else and so far I charge under market because taking creative direction from someone else is still a learning experience for me. There have been times that I sold a piece for $40 and it took 20+ hours to do. There are other times I sold something for $50 and it took 30 minutes to do. Now I try to figure on a range that, after costs, will earn about $20 an hour. So being able to figure out how long an image will take you to do based on the specs you're given becomes absolutely crucial.
6) What is your favorite (book cover, figure, website) that you've created? It really depends on the day, but I'll answer with one that is relatively safe and accessible from an interpretive POV – it is titled "No Mouth" and is a play on the Harlan Ellison short story of "I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream." Readers can see the image here (http://www.visualsnark.com/images/nomouth_museum.jpg) and learn more about the story, if they haven't already read it, here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Have_No_Mouth,_and_I_Must_Scream)
7) Is there a place other than your website, where we can view your work? Most of the work I post on my website is double posted someplace else, but my Renderosity gallery is at http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/browse.php?user_id=156927 (people have to have a free membership to Renderosity to view gallery images, however).
8) I know there a few programs that an Artist uses to create their work, such as Daz or Photoshop, what do you use? I primarily use Poser 7 (started in P5), photoshop 7 or elements (depending on the machine I'm working on) and Vue 6 Pro. I'm hopeful I'll be able to add a few higher end programs like Cinema 4D at the beginning of 09.
9) Silly Time, what would a lion, elephant, zebra, penguin and snake look like smooshed together to create one animal and what would you call this new creature? I would call it "Mommy!" and it would look like this: [PICTURE ATTACHED ALSO AVAILABLE ON ANNVREMONT.COM/IMAGES/ANNVREMONTSMOMMY.JPG]
10) Anything you want to say or add? Anything you want to ask me? And for the record, yes I am crazy so you can't ask that. LOL – Just thanks (!) for providing a spotlight for artists :-)
If you are also an author, please include a blurb of your latest work as well as buy link and excerpt.
Coyote's Woman (http://www.changelingpress.com/product.php?&upt=book&ubid=979) is a contemporary shifter erotic romance set along the U.S./Mexico border. It releases from Changeling Press September 5!
About the story -
Lucy Suther is a bartered woman who hates the sight of dust rising up on the road into the Double Nought Ranch. It accompanied her on her bound arrival and bore silent witness to her marriage to a smuggler of flesh and drugs. Now her husband is two months missing and hoped dead, she's trapped on the remote ranch, and the coyote that killed off her chickens is growing bolder. So, when a sexy stranger claiming to be her brother-in-law drives in on a cloud of dust, she has to wonder — will trusting him earn her a way off the Double Nought or an express ride to a moonlit grave?
About the excerpt -
The story features 2 POVs — Lucy in First Person and Shane in Third Person (and usually when he is in or near his shifter form). I'm not sure how people will take to reading those two disparate POVs (they are seldom mixed) but I thought it worked best for the story. The excerpt is in Shane's POV. Hope you enjoy and that you find, like I did, that Shane is one of those men that can make a girl go "Woof!"
Now, without further delay — the excerpt
The first night home was hell. Shane felt himself being pulled in two directions. In the next room was the woman, Lucy. The desert sun had lightened her dark hair with coppery highlights while it had baked her skin brown. He could smell the warm spice of her skin, the moist earth of her brown-black hair, the aroma deepening as his thoughts traveled down to the V of her thighs. His tongue thickened, yearning for a taste of her skin, the sweat along her stomach and thighs, the cream buried between them. The heat of her body and the sound of restless shifting within her bed drew him naked to lean against the wall, to imagine entering her room and playing out every fantasy he'd had in the last six months of watching her from afar.
But at the back of his neck, he could feel the pull of the moon. Selene, Diana, Luna — his many-named goddess was outside, naked, pale-skinned and spilling her light across the desert floor. She called, stroked her cold white fingers down his spine while she whispered promises of fresh blood in his ear. She was at her fullest tonight, tugging at him to come out and play..
One call or the other — Lucy or the moon — his body demanded he answer. Shane felt the prickle of coarsening hair along his back and stomach. He ran his hand along the wall that divided him from the woman, his nails lengthening to mar the plaster. He wanted her. A lick, a taste. A moan, a scream. He called her name, low in his throat so she wouldn't waken.
Lucy.
The change in him was coming hard and fast. The need to possess the woman warred with the need to run wild and overwhelmed his control. Leaping onto the bed, he threw the window open and jumped. Four legs hit the ground in quick succession. Turning back to the house, he nosed beneath Lucy's window, listening again to the sounds of her sleeping.
Shane paced along the wall; energy bristled through his coat. She was Theo's woman, but Theo was dead. He'd killed him two months back. Pack law gave him the right to keep the fruits of that kill.. The ranch and house that had been half his by birth were now his by blood..
And the woman — above all else, the woman was his.
