Frequently Asked Questions

Can I use your art on my webpage?

Yes, but only if you meet a few requirements.

• Your webpage is not-for-profit. If you wish to use any of my art for commercial purposes, please contact me at alr@thirdroar.com and I will discuss possibilities with you.
• You do not modify my images in any way.
• You include "© Amy L. Rawson" on any page that displays my art.
• It would also please me greatly if you would include a link back to my website, though I don't require this. If you wish to do so, please link to http://thirdroar.com/.

I am always flattered when someone likes my art enough to want to include it in their own website. All I ask is that you remember this is my livelihood. Artists make money by building a name and reputation. If you don't give me credit for my work, no one will know who I am or where that art comes from, which hurts my ability to make a living.

Can I put a link on my site to Thirdroar?

Absolutely! Please link to my front page, as other pages may change over time but the main page address will remain the same: http://thirdroar.com/.

Can I be notified when you add new art to your site?

Absolutely! I have an email announcement list that I send a note to whenever I upload images of new works to my website. If you'd like to be added to the list, drop me an email at alr@thirdroar.com.

Why is your website called Thirdroar?

It was a spur of the moment decision several years ago. It's actually a Pink Floyd reference. You're supposed to start playing "Dark Side of the Moon" right on the third roar of the MGM lion at the beginning of the film "The Wizard of Oz." If you do, the music matches up with the action happening in the film. My husband and I tried it one time and got to joking that "thirdroar" would make a good domain name. I'd been looking for a domain name to use to start up a website for my art portfolio, so when we found that thirdroar.com was available I snagged it and it's been mine ever since. I'm not a huge Pink Floyd fan, mind you. It just seemed like a suitably obscure name for a domain at the time and now I use it out of habit.

How long did it take to do that?

I get this one all the time, and it's a very difficult question to answer. The only truly accurate answer is "My entire life." This is because art is an ongoing process, and every project I work on teaches me something new. I couldn't have created today's piece of art without all of the things I tried and learned from in all the days before today.

However, I realize that people mostly just want to know how many hours I put into a given work. I understand this, because we're all used to thinking of time as money and breaking things down into dollars per hour. Even so, figuring up the number of hours I put into a project is still difficult. Where do I start counting? When I first had the idea? Sometimes an idea will linger in the back of my mind for months or years before I actually create it. When I doodled out the first rough sketch? When I actually started painting or sculpting? Do I count research time? Often I will spend many hours researching my projects, especially the fabric sculptures. Do I count drying time? An oil painting has to dry for six months before it can be varnished, for example. All of these things make it difficult sometimes for me to come up with an accurate answer to this question!

Okay, what I really wanted to know was how accurately your price reflects the amount of time you put into a piece. So, how do you price things?

It depends on a few different things. For oil paintings, I take the size of the canvas into consideration (larger paintings I price higher than smaller paintings). I also consider how many actual painting hours I spent on a piece. For example, "Deluge" and "Old Copper Teapot" are the same size canvas, but I spent nearly four times as many hours on "Deluge" so it is priced higher. For sculptures, I tend to price based on how complicated it was to make. A silk pegasus may be larger than one of my human figure dolls, but it is much less complex. Generally speaking, higher priced works involved more effort, time, and supplies for me than lower priced works, though I often think I ought to just start counting how many hairs I've pulled out during any given work and calculate prices based on that.

Are prints of your paintings available?

Prints are available for some of my paintings. You can find information regarding availability of prints in the lower right hand corner of each individual gallery page. You can visit the Thirdroar store for more information.

Do you take commissions?

Yes. You can find more information about commissions here.

Would you work with a photo provided by the client?

Yes, but there are a few requirments it must meet. It is best for it to be a photo that you have taken yourself. If it was taken by someone else, you must have permission from the photographer for me to use it, otherwise I would be in violation of copyright laws. Also, the photo must be of a decent quality for me to create a good piece of art based on it. I would need to see the photo you want me to work with before agreeing to a commission based on it.

Have I seen your artwork somewhere else?

Possibly. My art appears on various websites. Here are a few different places you can find me:

• My Epilogue Gallery - a website devoted to scifi and fantasy art.
• The Dollmakers Show-n-Tell - I'm a member of the Dollmakers List and I frequently post my work in the group photo gallery for that list.
• The Clubhouse - this is a web forum mainly for hobbyists who build garage kits. There's a subforum there specifically for the sculptors of such kits, and I like to read and post there sometimes. My username there is DraigAthar.
• Conceptart.org - I sometimes particpate in the forums there, especially the Daily Sketch Group. My username there is DraigAthar.
• My LiveJournal - I keep a daily journal of my art life. It's full of sketches, doodles, work-in-progress photos, and general art rambles.
• My husband's PhotoJournal - since he's my photographer, often images of my artwork show up in his PhotoJournal. His own work is pretty awesome and well worth a peek.
• WetCanvas - I sometimes post in the WetCanvas forums, and I've done several demos and articles for them that you might run across. My username there is DraigAthar.

Do you do logo and advertisment design?

Not usually. I have not been trained in graphic design, so logos and ads are not my forte. I've been known to whip up a quick banner ad or website graphic now and then, but you'd probably be better off finding a graphic designer to fulfill these sorts of needs.

I have another question ...

Email me and I will do my best to answer it! Contact me at alr@thirdroar.com.