Information about me - the artist and who you are supporting with your subscription:

Hello, everyone!

My name is Lucy Moore, and you have probably figured out by now that I am an artist. I love drawing and painting pretty much anything, but especially animals and most notably equines. From the depths of my memory, I can recall drawing and coloring animals of all kinds. I couldn't go anywhere without my paper and implements of creation or coloring books. Trips to see my grandparents and traveling with my parents were spent on the 5.5-7+ hour car rides with a big cookie tin next to me filled with crayons and me lost in my own world only to come back to reality occasionally to ask "are we there yet".

I came by art naturally as a child. Both my parents were artists of their own type. My mother a fine artist who supported the family with her art as a member of the art department at the electric company and also doing weekly art shows selling her pen and ink drawings, watercolors, and more. My father also did artwork and sold at these weekly art shows; his being metal sculptures, while he worked as an engineer. I grew up with this sort of "starving artist" lifestyle for the large majority of my very young life. When I was an early teenager, my mother took an early retirement/severance package from the electric company and set up her own studio. In the process of that, she returned to the weekly-ish art show circuit again as well.

As I went away to school for college, I had a determined in my mind that I was not going to do art because I was so much like my mother in every other way, I didn't want my family saying I was copying her with the art as well (I already looked and had the same mannerisms as her, was going to the same university as she went to, studying the same subject seemed to be just too much.) I went with the intention to be a biochem major (I loved science) and to go into Bio-remediation (saving the world using things like algae to eat oil spills, etc.)

College was a culture shock to me, and I ended up searching and soul searching, and finally after several other departments and just not finding my heart and soul in them enough to be happy for the rest of my life, I took my very first art course (everything to that point had been self-taught, or taught by my mother) and I was in love. I ended up with enough credits to major in both Studio Art and Art History, but I chose Studio Art.

Eventually, I graduated from Texas Woman's University with a degree in Visual Arts. My concentration while earning that degree was Studio Painting. After graduation, I never quit my art, but it has changed over time. I started experimenting and learning about the digital art field. I started providing my graphics services to clients as well as doing commission work both digitally and traditionally. I had to maintain a mundane 9-5 type job in the meantime, so sometimes life got a little busy and my art took a temporary back seat I always wanted to do more with it. I began focusing on it as a career in 2008. I have a background in oils, watercolor, acrylic, ink, and drawing, but I am self-taught as a digital artist.

Life happened after college, and there was a rather dark period for a few years where I got depressed due to the loss of my 3 foster children 10 days prior to adoption because my (now) ex-husband decided that marriage wasn't fun anymore and he didn't want to do it. He filed for divorce and without a thought to what it would do to the kids or myself, he and the State of Texas unilaterally decided to remove them from my care while they were at school. I never got to tell them goodbye, and I still had all their things, which was a constant painful reminder of what happened and it took me a good while to get past it. It was actually my art that did a huge amount for my therapy towards coming back to the "land of the living". Over the last 8 years, I started a business ( Interlocked Solutions) and created art on the side. I really would like to have my art be more my day to day financial support and rely less on the business so that money can be saved for a rainy day, and the next big goal I have planned.

It has been years now, and I am ready to really get back into being a professional artist. I started with Patreon, but like many people here became very disenchanted with their activities and behaviors in recent months, and looked for an alternate solution. Enter SubscribeStar.

My SubscribeStar project(s), art YouTube channel (still setting up), and everything I do as an artist is controlled by a simple set of rules:

• Be willing to shed some old habits. Erase what has gone before, take risks, let go, clear the deck, jump right into the water!
• Agree to suspend judgment. The art critic is on vacation - toss judgment out the window. Nothing squelches creativity more than the daunting expectation of perfection.
• Squelch the desire to do the predictable. Find new solutions to the dilemmas facing you.
• Be brave enough to bring your life and life experiences into your work. There is something only YOU can bring to art.
• Be bold and daring enough to make a meaningful statement.
• Break the rules and take artistic liberties. Paint the sky yellow, trees purple, grass orange, and water red!
• Have fun! Experiment with what you already know and extend it into the unknown. Liberate yourself from predictability and open up to the exhilaration of discovery.

I work full time as a business owner/Virtual Assistant, and I love my job - but my dream has always been to be able to support myself through my art. SubscribeStar is an excellent way for me to approach that goal. When it comes right down to it, I am asking you to pledge to help me create a dream, to pass on fun, creativity, and enjoyment to people of all ages, and to look at your pledge of any monthly amount as an opportunity to nurture and grow the arts in all its various forms. In the process you will get to interact with me as an artist, you can receive copies of the finished coloring books, and will get to download the art as soon as it is finished before anyone else has access to it. Every subscriber is appreciated from $3.00 all the way up. I look forward to sharing with you! I have many paths working towards the goal of my art is my day to day financial support. The coloring books are one part of the process, but my art sales is a huge part of it as well. I have several collections already started and I want to bring them as a finished product to the public. I also have a desire to create much more.

All of the money received from SubscribeStar goes towards my goals, social projects, and producing more art. Though my goal is to support myself and my family through art, SubscribeStar subscriptions will only be reinvested in the social programs and projects I have running. My website will be where I support my family from with my art. Have no doubt that the money you pledge to this project is deeply appreciated and well needed/used.

Goals!

To be successful, everyone must have them. To be more successful goals must be shared, made real, and I must be held accountable. I am happy to be working here with you and so I want to share my goals with you. As each one is met, I will mark them completed and they will pop up in the goals section to the right.

These goals are for repeat monthly subscription levels (not 1-time income)! You can help by subscribing and sharing my Star page with others who might be interested in subscribing. Doing any of this is much appreciated and helps out greatly. The more people see what I am doing, the more likely everything will be successful.

$100.00: $57.76 down $42.24 to go!

Each month that I meet $100.00 I will be able to afford the time to produce 10 fully completed projects per month (coloring book pages, paintings, drawings, etc.) These projects will span the gamut of my works so that I can continue to grow and expand and reach new audiences. I will create a unique brush pack available to my subscribers to download for free. This pack will be made available for purchase in my store. I will be able to provide new photos of products in my store and begin listing individual premade one of a kind items with photos so you can see in advance what you get. I will add monthly coloring page option reward to $25.00 subscriber tier. (Higher tiers will get benefit/additional coloring page.)

$300.00:

Each month that I meet $300.00 I will be able to guarantee productions of 20 fully produced pieces (coloring book pages, drawings, paintings, etc.) These will range the gamut of my work so I can continue to expand and reach new audiences. I will create a book monthly with all tutorial/informational videos, posts, etc. so subscribers can read/watch without having to log into SubscribeStar each time. I will hire an editor to help with video quality and production with the goal that all postings will include a high-quality video. I will add monthly coloring page option reward to $10.00 subscriber tier. (Higher tiers will get benefit/additional coloring page.) Everyone who is currently a subscriber will recieve a "zine" of the current "Everything!" coloring book. (The zine will be mailed to you, so I will need your address if you want it.)

$600.00:

I will buy a GoPro Hero 7 (or the current affordable best fit product) that will allow me to do better tutorials for artwork. It will even allow me to do some special videos regarding life drawing/painting, plein air painting, and lots more for you! I will add monthly coloring page option to $5.00 subscriber tier. (Higher tiers will get benefit/additional coloring page.) Everyone who is currently a subscriber will recieve a new "zine" of the current "Everything!" coloring book. (The zine will be mailed to you, so I will need your address if you want it.) I will begin providing postcard rewards to all subscribers of $50.00 and higher.

$1000.00:

Each month that I meet $1,000.00 I will be able to guarantee the production of 30 fully completed pieces. This will be divided into 3 main categories Drawings (10 images guaranteed) will be full suites of images for my coloring book series, Paintings (10 images guaranteed) will be in any painting medium, and "Other Media" (10 images guaranteed) will range from graphite or colored pencil images to digital images for a wide range of projects. I will add a tier for those wanting to have video calls where you can get constructive critiques of your work to improve and grow as an artist or learn as a beginner. I will purchase a iPad Pro and Apple Pencil which will allow for more quality artwork, even when I am on the go. (Currently, I use a Huion Kamvas Pro or a Samsung Tablet depending on what I am doing and where I am.) I will add monthly coloring page option to $3.00 subscriber tier. (Higher tiers will get benefit/additional coloring page.) Everyone who is currently a subscriber will recieve a new "zine" of the current "Everything!" coloring book. (The zine will be mailed to you, so I will need your address if you want it.) I will begin providing postcard rewards to all subscribers of $25.00 and higher. All subscribers of $50.00 and higher recieve a monthly one of a kind artist trading card with original artwork.

$1500.00:

When I meet the goal of $1500.00 I will purchase some upgrades to my equipment and accounts which will allow for improved photographs, videos, streaming, and interaction with viewers. Some of the things I am aiming at are better lighting setup (softboxes, etc.), green screen set up (better and more entertaining in my video setups), upgraded computer to handle better software (upgrade my Photoshop, recording software, etc.) and more, Since this will take a fair bit of time to get here, I haven't picked specific purchases yet, and will do so once I reach the 1,000.00 goal.
I will add monthly coloring page option to $3.00 subscriber tier. (Higher tiers will get benefit/additional coloring page.) Everyone who is currently a subscriber will recieve a new "zine" of the current "Everything!" coloring book. (The zine will be mailed to you, so I will need your address if you want it.) I will begin providing postcard rewards to all subscribers of $10.00 and higher. All subscribers of $25.00 and higher recieve a monthly one of a kind artist trading card with original artwork.

$3000.00:

When I reach the monthly goal of $3,000.00 I will be able to afford to invest the time and energy into 10 fully completed images per day. This will be the time will I will be able to afford to be a full-time artist. Each day I will produce at least one of each category of art I am working on, and additional images ranging the gamut of my work to continue to expand and grow to new audiences. I will guarantee a daily coloring book image, painting in watercolor, oil, acrylic, drawings in pastel, charcoal, graphite, colored pencil, a soft and hard sculpture, and more, producing a minimum of 70 images a week, and between 280-310 images a month. I will post composite images to subscribe star every day/week/month (so as not to spam you) and a full portfolio will be available via my website. I will add a tier for those wanting to have group video calls (podcast/google hangout style) with guest artists to learn from and ask questions. Everyone who is currently a subscriber will recieve a new "zine" of the current "Everything!" coloring book. (The zine will be mailed to you, so I will need your address if you want it.) I will begin providing postcard rewards to all subscribers of $5.00 and higher. All subscribers of $10.00 and higher recieve a monthly one of a kind artist trading card with original artwork.

$5000.00:

When I reach the monthly goal of $5,000.00 per month I will be able to afford to travel to do shows, meet and greets, and on-site artwork of unique and special places to acknowledge events and memories. I would love to do a special series of artwork to commemorate my subscribers, friends, family, and followers and give them, their stories, and their lives immortality through art, storytelling, and photographs. This is a major project I want to undertake, but I need a lot of liquid cash flow to be able to do it. Everyone who is currently a subscriber will recieve a new "zine" of the current "Everything!" coloring book. (The zine will be mailed to you, so I will need your address if you want it.) I will begin providing postcard rewards to all subscribers of $3.00 and higher. All subscribers of $5.00 and higher recieve a monthly one of a kind artist trading card with original artwork.

If we meet and are exceeding $5000.00 per month, I will work up new goals.

Every so often I will have a random comment drawing, for a piece of art, a commission, or something, so make sure you keep your eyes on this Star Page. You won't want to miss out on any of the fun and hijinks, but to participate you will have to subscribe. That's the only way you will be able to see any other posts besides these introductory posts.

Information about my personal project - the coloring book project:

Interested in my process? Here is a video to show how I make the coloring book pages: https://youtu.be/xYa_SBaU-OM ...and... here is a live stream capture of me creating one of the pages from scratch: https://youtu.be/SuGbO2LlECE

So, you are interested in just what this coloring book project is all about. Let me tell you what, this is a fun one, for people of all ages, walks of life, talent, experience, background, and circumstances.

The act of coloring is therapeutic. There is nothing magic about this fact. It just is. It allows you to break out of your head, zen out, and relax while you (intuitively, or experimentally) play with colors, patterns, and sometimes if you want, even textures. I have seen the benefits of this activity with my 3 special needs foster children I raised for 4+ years. They would suddenly become more placid, relaxed, and friendly with each other, myself, their therapists and anyone else trying to interact with them. They were more open to considering suggestions and did better at explaining their own thoughts and feelings, which was an important part of their process through their time with me. The problem was, with 3 children, they very often all wanted the same page, or a page that was already colored on by them or someone else and I was spending a verifiable fortune in duplicated coloring books and supplies. There was nothing I could do about the supplies - I can't make crayons, pencils, paint, etc, but I could make pictures, and reprint the pictures when they all wanted it over and over again. That was the seed and how this coloring book project started.

Then, unfortunately, due to unforeseen circumstances and a now ex-husband who decided they couldn't handle the stress of the foster care system, the children were placed in a new location and I went into a pretty deep depression. I had (in my mind at the time) lost everything I had to be creative for. The coloring book was put to the back of my mind because every time I thought about it, I thought of the kids, and honestly would collapse into a blubbering pile of goo over how they and I were treated. It took years to get to the point where I wanted to even think about art again, much less my coloring book project, but when I came to a point in my life and my grief process that I could think about it again, it all came flooding back. I really wanted to make this happen - now, in honor of my 3 foster kids Aaron, Hope, and Angel (I still love you guys!)

I started drawing some designs, but my art bug wasn't quite back yet, and my depression was still strong enough I would go sometimes days, weeks, or even months without creating one thing, but even for me, this coloring book has been therapeutic.

Now I am back into full art swing, but I still get the benefits of the therapy from this project. I constantly am testing each image to make sure it works as a coloring book picture, and the act of designing and drawing each page is so relaxing and freeing for me. I want to share these benefits with everyone.

Now for the nitty gritty about what makes these coloring books so unique:

My coloring books are good for all age ranges/experience/ability or disability levels. I provide for each starting idea 3 core images (basic, intermediate, advanced.) With each of those variations, I provide further iterations with 2x (each different) patterns (think paisley/zentangle/henna type patterns), 3x (each different - background, subject, and complete image) mandala versions, greyscale, light version,etc. Each image comes in a total of 24 versions. I then produce a coloring book for basic, intermediate, and advanced difficulty and for each subject and style of art. Each coloring book will have 50+ images.

My coloring books are digitally supplied, giving you the ability to print as many times as you want. Do you have two or more kids wanting the same exact picture? Print it twice! Do you have a perfectionist streak and want to find that perfect color combination? Print as many times as you need to experiment. Do you run an education/childcare program and want to use an image to teach all the kids a subject, concept, or skill? Print it 30+ times. You have control, as long as they are not shared uncolored via print or digital media. They are for personal/institute use only. You are welcome to tell others about us, but because their purchases help the social programs we support, please don't give them out or claim as your own.

As mentioned, the coloring books help social programs. There is more about this in the post about the social programs, but in breif, these books and all artwork, products, and prints resulting from them qualify for the supporting of said programs.

If you have any questions, please feel free to comment below. I will be thrilled to answer them and share with you everything we are doing with this great project.

I have also attached a composite of several images resulting from the Horses Coloring Book for you to see what the coloring book is to determine if you would like to support it. Currently, at my support level (as of 2/22/2019), I can afford to average one coloring book image posted to the group a month at a minimum. Sometimes there will be more. With more supporters, I will be able to guarantee the time afforded to produce many more, so please spread the word if you like what you see here.

Information about my social services projects - the coloring book project:

Above you can see more about the personal project information about my coloring book project, but I also want to reach out to help others with my work. One of the ways I want to do that is with my coloring books.

As mentioned in the story about my coloring books, coloring is highly therapeutic and I have seen the effects of it personally and first hand (check out the story about my foster children and coloring in the post above), and I want to afford that opportunity to everyone regardless of where they are coming from. I also have a deep concern about children in “the system”, individuals in physical or emotional rehab (due to my mother’s recent serious healthcare issues, and concern for the financial under-appreciation of our educators, caregivers, as well as the dwindling support of quality art programs in the education system. You may think this is a huge range of causes to support, but I really do have a viable way to support them - with your help.

For each sale of a digital coloring book, any art produced from testing the coloring book pages or produced which inspired the coloring book pages, as well as products with images of said art, I will produce a print coloring book, package it with a supply of colors/pencils/markers (whatever is appropriate for where it is going) and deliver for free to special programs. If you buy a coloring book, you can put a special program on the list to get a delivery. To shop my art and products produced from my art check out my web store at https://www.mooreartbylucy.com/gallery. Each item will individually explain what it does.

Prior to delivering, I will contact the agency/hospital/rehab center on the list, and ask them what is appropriate to provide for gender, age, skill, situation, etc. and I will allow them to place an order for types of coloring books (subject matter) and coloring supplies, to be delivered to them so they can be put to the best use possible. In this shipment, I will provide them a way to buy digital versions (if it fits their needs) at a deeply discounted cost. This way each purchase of the coloring book will share the therapy, beauty, color, and creativity to countless other people.

Where possible, I will deliver them myself, video the delivery and allow you to see your purchases hard at work and how much joy it brings to others. When not possible, I will blog/photograph/video as much as possible of the gathering process so you will know where it is going and what we are working on together.

Additionally, some of the coloring books will also make donations to programs doing work related to the subject. For example, one coloring book I am working on is of endangered, threatened, at-risk animals, and so a portion of the profits will be donated to agencies working to protect the animals depicted. Each coloring book has its own subject, so each one will be denoted individually where donations will be applied.

Information about my social services project: Art For The World:

Many of my physical products (clothing, bags, purses, home décor) have social impacts as well. Each of these products has different ways it helps the global community as a whole, so please make sure you check out my web store at https://www.mooreartbylucy.com/gallery. To find the products that fit this program, go to the “Swag” category and shop there. Each item will individually explain what it does.

I have a couple more social programs in the works in my mind, and I will update this post as I get them more fully fleshed out and functioning.