A spooky witches illustration for a witch-themed zine.
Tag: art
Travel
So there I am, sitting at my desk with a pencil in hand. I begin to draw. I draw a Thing, but it looks familiar. So I draw another and another. Everything I draw feels like I’ve done it before.
So that’s it. I’ve done it. I’ve drawn everything there is to draw. There’s nothing more I can do.
I’ve never been one to express my life through art. My inspiration comes from what I see and wonder about, not from emotion or circumstance. So if at times I find that I’m repeating myself in my work, I have to go somewhere else.
Art is about looking. If I’m in a place where I’m too familiar with my environment, I’m not looking — I’m knowing! Imagine only talking about what you know all the time. Nobody is going to listen to someone after they’ve spewed the same fifteen facts eight times in a row, so you have to learn something new. Travel is a great way to learn.
Although it would be awesome to cross an ocean, even the familiar can be new. I try to put myself in situations where I’m not on autopilot. I’ll go somewhere and be around people I’m not used to, smell new smells, taste new tastes. Then I have plenty of new things to draw, and when I come back I see things I was ignoring at home!
So if you feel like you’ve drawn everything in the universe and there’s nothing left for you to draw, you’re wrong. There’s so much stuff on planet Earth, and so much is happening to that stuff all the time. It’s great and horrible and amazing and it begs to be put down on paper.
Whether it’s for a weekend or a month, get on a bike or a bus or a plane, shake the cobwebs out of your eyes, and draw!
To those out there who use art to express your feelings: do you ever find yourself artistically “stuck” because you’re caught in an emotional loop? What do you do to break out of a repetitive emotional cycle?
Drawing with Purpose
Portraits are not meant to be photographs. Between cameras and Photoshop filters, anyone can make a stylized copy of their pet. That’s why, when I do a pet portrait, it’s important for me to get an idea of what each animal’s personality is and what the client loves about their pet.
The thumbnails (quick little sketches that come before the rough sketch) help me feel out what’s going to “fit” the dog. At this stage, there are no wrong answers. I try everything. Different angles, moods, orientations, and shapes.
After I’ve filled a couple pages with ideas, it’s time to edit. I consider the pet’s personality and the client’s personal taste. I settle on one or two compositions, clean them up enough so they’re understandable (thumbnails tend to be very small and very messy), and send them to the client for approval.
From there I make a series of small drawings to get a feel for the form. Once I have a sense of the subject, I can draw it in whatever pose I need.
I make sure the marks I make are intentional. The style of drawing should reflect the animal. When I drew Bunter, a quiet old Westie, I rendered him softly. This wasn’t a yappy, bouncing-off-the-walls terrier. Last year I posted a portrait of a German Pinscher, Cinnamon. Cinnamon is a bold little dog — she would not be recognizable in soft graphite!
Pets have personalities, and so do their owners. A pet portrait requires a unique mix of the animal’s nature and the owner’s personal style. So many factors go into a successful portrait, it’s important to be mindful of why I’m making the drawing as I draw.
Up, Up and Away
I painted this 24 x 12″ canvas in May of this year. It showed at the Orange County Fair from July to August, and now it’s back in my painty little hands!
I came to call them “melty ducks” and I like to think they’re mildly miserable in that melty muck. All of them are trying to pull themselves up and out of the goo, and now one of them has done it! He floats away uncertainly. The misery below is miserable, but at least it’s familiar. What about the others? Are they excited? Jealous? Proud? Indifferent? How do their feelings affect the one as he floats off?
Oil paints are goopy melty fun — the perfect medium for goopy melty creatures. I associate oils with school assignments, where we painted from life. I had never done a completely imagined oil painting. I started with a very dark blue base coat and worked the values up into the light. It’s still quite a dark painting, especially considering how bright my work usually is. It’s moody, but hopefully just enough to be eerie and not mournful.
If I were to do a second painting, I’d explore what awaits this floating blob when he finally turns his head up to the future.
This painting is for sale! Shoot me an email if you’re interested.
Why Cat
A short story in watercolor and ink.
Constructivist Croquis
For this project, I created a series of three ideas for fabric designs based on the Constructivist art movement. A stripe, a grid, and a paisley which all had to relate to each other using the same colors. After studying the works of Russian Constructivists like El Lissitzky and the Stenberg Brothers, I came up with the following designs:
I chose to draw from the Constructivists because my work usually features a very organic line, and I thought it would be interesting to try a more machine-like approach. It was a fun experiment for me, but I think it’s apparent that this style is a little out of my comfort zone. It was a challenge to figure out how to create something that resembled paisley out of such geometric shapes!
Here’s all the tape I used to mask off areas to get a sharper edge!
Roadkill
This semester, I’m taking a class called “Pattern Design and Print”. For this project, we needed to screen print four yards of muslin using the same elements in different ways. I work best when I have a theme to work off of, and the week before this was assigned, my friend’s dog had had an unlucky encounter with a skunk, stinking up her house. I decided to avenge my friend’s nose through art.
I preferred to use stencils rather than photo emulsion for two reasons: I could make stencils quickly, and I could change them out easily (I was only given two screens to work with).
I started by thumbnailing shapes for the skunk. At first I thought I wanted a linear skunk with its legs splayed out to the sides, but decided that didn’t create enough movement. I ended up creating a skunk that curved, which not only created movement, but could also interlock somewhat. I made three sizes of this design.
I experimented with the tire/road element throughout the process. I kept asking myself “How many different ways can I convey the idea of a road?”
Mixing the colors was fun, figuring out the different levels of transparency.
Anyway, enough talk, here are the results!
Cinnamon
This commission was especially fun. I was given total creative freedom, which can be either a blessing or a curse. In this case it was an absolute blessing because I had been looking at a lot of Peter Parnall’s work and I wanted to try something different.
I started by sketching the dog to get familiar with the forms, then I traced over my sketch with simple, bold, organic lines.
After transferring the lines to drawing paper, I colored each shape flatly with Prismacolor pencils and then traced over the lines with a 0.5 Copic pen.
The result was an exciting modern twist on a traditional portrait.
The Not-So-Perilous Misadventures of Detective Opal
I designed three characters in my character design class this semester. We needed to invent a protagonist, sidekick, and antagonist. I came up with a nervous turtle-girl and her faithful pet, a tiny cow.
Opal and Mimi try to solve mysteries in a big city in America in the 1910s (I just love the architecture and fashion of that time). Ms. Bonbidet is their snooty neighbor who says little girls should not be running around solving mysteries.
But enough exposition! Here are my development sketches:
The sketches were all done with Copic markers, and the clean up lineup was done in gouache and pen. I hope to do something with these characters sometime soon!
Baguette Tree Commission
I was given a lot of creative freedom on this 14 x 18″ acrylic painting. The clients wanted a weightless, inviting piece featuring a “baguette tree”, a feisty cat, and roses. Everything else was up to me, and once they told me how much they enjoy my crazy creatures, I knew this project would be really fun.
Artful Armadillo 