GraceLineArts.com is mine once again! Ha ha! If this doesn’t seem like a large accomplishment to you, I totally understand. But it is. So this website is now listed at that address!
[Note: If you’re interested in reading the saga or you’re not well versed on domain protocol and think you might need to know about it someday, read the next paragraph. Otherwise, skip it and check out my art below!]
Back in April, I decided to close my full website where I meant to keep archives of all my finished pieces and attempt to sell art directly through the site. I’ve been getting way more traffic and commissions through my blog here, so paying for a full site was useless. However, I also decided to cancel my domain name subscription. Dumb. After months of trying to understand the very complicated world of web domains, I realized that if you desperately want a domain name that you used to own, you’d better buy it again during the grace period immediately following your cancellation or you’ll have to sit on pins and needles for almost 90 days to see if you can capture it again. In late June, I noticed that all of my accounts and business cards send potential buyers to http://www.gracelinearts.com rather than the more tedious (and free) http://www.gracelinearts.wordpress.com. I had to get it back! But another company had a hold on the name until the 90 days was up. The waiting is made more frustrating by the fact that if enough people visit a web address, the domain will often be auctioned off right after the hold expires, normally at a price a normal person like me couldn’t afford. Thankfully on Tuesday, the “pendingDelete” status was finally lifted, no auction happened, and I grabbed it before anyone else could! Victory is mine! 😉
In other news, I’ve been spending a good deal of time working on yet another puppy portrait. I honestly think this painting has been the greatest challenge of any piece I’ve ever worked on, rivaling the horses we made in my high school art class out of sticks, leather, and wire. Unfortunately because it’s been so daunting, it’s taken me SO long to get anywhere with it. Poor Ashley has had to wait about 6 months for me to get the fire under my butt to finish. Granted I did have a baby in that time period, but I’ve definitely been lazy, too.
I want this piece to be the best it can be, so the intense detail in the original photos created that dauntingness (I know it’s not a word) that held me back for so long. I left the painting at that last picture for probably four months. But in just the past two weeks, I’ve been flying. Stay tuned to see the finished piece in all its glory!
Just chuggin’ along,
Natalie Grace
Grace Line Arts 