Full sketchbooks, hurricanes and birthdays

These are the last three pages in the sketchbook I was working on. I actually worked all the way to the last page, which is unusual for me. Normally I have at least 20 some blank pages at the end that I never got around to filling. I wonder if anyone else does that. I also always leave the first page blank, like the first few pages of a book. I do that with my journals too. Anyway, on to pictures.......

Kinda morbid, I know, but it turned out nice. I'm usually pleased with the results of my depressed sketches. Plus, I usually feel better afterwords. 

I guess this is the first "self portrait" I've posted. I was playing with a cartoon/caricatured style, which I want to develop some more. I look like I'm twelve or something, but that's actually kind of accurate to how I feel at times. 

And here's one of my husband, Jon. He really does like his swords! :-)

Oh, and remember how I mentioned I was cleaning my studio? Well here's what it looked like before I started.

I really wish I could say it doesn't get this bad very often, but that wouldn't be very truthful. However, after a few days spent almost entirely cleaning the studio, it looked like this....

Tada!!!! Isn't it beautiful. You can see the floor and everything! ^_^ Grant you, it's not quite that clean at the moment, but let's not focus on that part.

In other news, my birthday was yesterday!!! I'm kind of ignoring the fact that I'm a whole year older now than I was before. I guess everyone does that at some point. My husband and I were going to go to the Philadelphia art museum to celebrate, but Hurricane Irene decided to come and visit instead. We ended up camping out at my husband's parent's house where we all had cupcakes and watched "Up," one of my favorite Pixar movies. The storm didn't really hit us too hard, fortunately. It took a few trees down and flooded some areas, but it was nowhere near as bad as some other places (for which I'm very thankful). Jon and I came home Sunday afternoon and finished the day out with our favorite parts of Fantasia and Fantasia 2000 (also on my list of best movies ever). It was a pleasant, laid-back birthday, which was fine by me. And what, you might ask, was my favorite present? Volumes 3-9 of the graphic novel series Bone!!!!!!!! They're my favorite graphic novels and I now own the complete set in color!!!! ^_^

Watercolor, mixed media, etc.

Well, its been about a week since my last post, so I should probably put some more stuff up. Here are some studies/experiments with watercolor mostly. 

This one is base on some eye shadow ads. I love painting eyes.

This project was inspired by a bunch of left over thread from some sewing projects. (Probably should have pitched the threads, but that's aside the point.) I wanted to see if I could do something more abstract and this is where I ended up. Not sure if this is an area I'll end up developing, but it was fun to play around with something different. 

These are some sketches and studies of a creature called a pangolin in preparation for a larger project. I'll be posting about that little adventure soon. 

Like I said, love painting eye make-up. 

A few gesture drawing of our gerbils. I should really do some more of them sometime, but the little ladies are so fast that they're kind of tricky to draw. 

Most of this stuff is a few months old, but I wanted to get it up here before I start adding new art. I have a few projects going and hopefully they'll be ready to show soon. I'm also in the process of clean/reorganizing my studio, so I'm trying not to work on too many things till that's finished. 

Sketchbook pages 1

Seeing how this is an art blog and all, its high time it had some art! So I'll start out with a few sketchbook pages! 

My husband playing his guitar. 

This is one of those "wow-this-turned-out awesome-totally-by-accident!" kind of sketches. I based it off of the outfit I was wearing that day. Maybe someday I can be this cool on purpose. :-)

Ya, I was having a rotten day when I drew these two. They turned out pretty nice though. 

 Generally, the stuff I draw that's made up isn't usually too good. That being said, I think this cow looks great for something I drew without any reference.

This one turned into a shading study. Just in case you can't read my sloppy cursive, I wrote "red shoes or  angry yelling men".

Hello!

First, a little bit about me; my name is Bethany and I live with my husband and our four gerbils. I'm a twenty something, although most of the time I feel a lot younger. I'm also an artist, which brings me to this blog.

I've never tried anything this ambitious, but I hope to use this blog as a virtual bulletin board for my artwork, a place where I can share my creations. My other interests will also probably end up here, which run to the thoughtful, the silly, the cute and the down-right nerdy things in life.

I tend to be a little on the scatter-brained side, so my postings will probably not be as frequent as they should be, but I will try and add something new a few times a week.

And now, onward and upwards!