Watercolor tree

So, you've sort of already seen this picture, but here's a better version. 

"Winter Tree"

I was a bit apprehensive about tackling this kind of subject matter. Normally, all the meticulousness detail and ambiguous color gradients of the tree would keep me from trying something like this, but I loved the image so much that I decided to give it a shot. 

Guess it just goes to show that the risk is worth the final product. One of my goals in art is not to stick to the things I'm comfortable with, but to push myself to try new and challenging ideas. It's also nice to be able to see that your abilities have grown and improved. Knowing that something which used to give me trouble isn't so hard anymore is very rewarding.

Well, I must be getting off. I have a few things to take care of, then I'm going out to lunch with my mother-in-law. I might even go get some shoes that I've been wanting. ^_^

sincerely,

me 

All done!

I know this is breaking the unspoken rule that you can only write one blog post per day, but I just wanted to let you know that I finished the coating process without any calamities. Considering the problems I've had with this stuff in the past (if you recall, I mentioned it back in October), I'm very thankful everything turned out so well. I'm one step closer to actually get them on the restaurant walls.

sincerely,
me

Good News!!!

Guess what?! I made it into that religious art show I entered a few weeks ago!!! Super excited! Now all I have to worry about it not ruining the piece when I coat it with that toxic smelling, preservative stuff. No pressure. ;-)

As far as that goes, I'm ready to tackle round two today. If all goes well and no terrible misfortunes befall me, everything could be done this evening!!! I'll keep you posted on my progress.

sincerely,

me

The results of 2-3 months of work

Hello!
Today, I decided to lay out most of the art pieces I've been working on for the past 2-3 months. Here they are.

I have to confess, I wish I had more to show for my efforts. But still, it's a decent bit of work. Most of it I made to hang in a local restaurant. You've already seen most of this stuff, except for the watercolor up in the top right-hand corner, which I finished yesterday. I really should have taken a picture of it today, but that just didn't happen.

Because it was so nice and non Januaryish today, I started the process of coating my collages with the toxic smelling stuff that keeps them from fading. So far, everything has gone very well; no chalky residue has dared to ruin my pieces yet!

Again, sorry for not updating sooner. This week has been kind of turbulent; but here I am, on the other side and still in one piece. I was able to get rid of some emotional baggage I've been carting around for awhile, which was a huge relief. It's kind of amazing how long we can carry old burdens we don't have to bear.

Anyway, my brain has stopped working, so I should really end this post and get ready for bed. Good night!

sincerely,
me

Sisters!

Hello world! Sorry I've been away. I really did mean to post before this, but life got in the way, as usual. The following portraits are of my sisters and part of the reason it took me so long to post was the fact that I messed up the one below and had to start over. (Yeah, that was a sad day.) But I triumphed in the end and I'm really happy with how everything turned out. So, without further ramblings, here are my sisters.

The initial sketch,

And the final! This is my sister Christina. She's the youngest of the three of us. Part of me still can't believe that she's nearly all grown up already. Admittedly, I chose a kind of tricky picture to work from; but I think the painting turned out well. She kind of looks like a fairy tale character to me.

And here is Hannah, the middle sibling. The picture I worked from was taken a few years ago when she  was extremely allergic to a lot of things, including airborne mold. In order to go out in public, she had to wear a surgical mask to keep from breathing in the mold. She's doing a lot better with her allergies now and only occasionally has to wear the mask. I really like this picture because it is a tribute to all the challenges Hannah has overcome.

I know I'm biased, but I think I have some of the most gorgeous siblings ever! 

Sincerely,

me

Hello! Got a watercolor to share with you today. With this one, I decided to skip the pen work I usually add for the supremely sophisticated reason that I didn't have my pens at the time! I'm happy with it though. I used to rely on the pen lines to add structure and definition to the colors, but it's seems that they aren't as essential as they used to be. 

Neighborhood Wolf

And of course, I forgot to sign it again! I have a terrible time remembering to sign my work. It was never something that was stressed at my art school, so it hasn't become habit yet. Don't worry, I'll add the signature later.

Yesterday, I went on another book buying spree. My score: 23 books and a blank journal. The price: $24 with tax. Needless to say, it was a library sale. ^_^ I got soooooo many good books; The Whipping Boy, A Wrinkle in Time, White Fang, Heidi, Around the World in Eighty days, A Cricket in Times Square, A Year Down Yonder, King of the Wind, The Family Under the Bridge, From the Mixed up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh and several others. I'm planning on going back for a second round on Saturday. You can never have too many books, right? Just a house that's too small. ;-)

sincerely,

me

Blue and Orange

New collage!!! I finished this one awhile ago, but I didn't like the way the threads looked when I glued them down. So I flipped the grey piece of paper over and recreated the effect, this time using a different gluing method. And then I ended up changing the composition slightly. But it's done now and ready to be varnished, whenever I get around to that stage. 

The colors in this piece make me so happy! ^_^ I know they have the potential to completely kill your eyes when you look at them, but hopefully I successfully avoided that problem.

January is about half way over and so far, its been a pretty good month. I still haven't lost my "New Year's Resolution" spirit yet and I think I've don't a decent job of keeping busy. Hopefully I can keep this up as the months roll on. My 2012 Wall is still in use and I have plenty of projects in the works. I'm even trying to figure out some methods for keeping my studio cleaner! (I'll let you know how that goes. ) 

Oh, and I got a new toy! Jon gave me a netbook for Christmas, although it didn't come till last week, and  I've really enjoyed using it thus far. Unfortunately, we haven't figured out how to make it talk to the desktop, so I can't use it for everything yet, but that's ok. I bought the old computer game Myst and it's sequel Riven for Jon and I to play together. They're point and click style puzzle games with an extremely interesting story line. Myst has been really cool so far, although we get stuck pretty often and end up wandering around till the computer freezes and we have to stop. But still, it's been good so far.

Well, that's it for the moment. I've gotten better about posting more often, so you should be hearing from me soon!

sincerely,

me

When you're strange; faces come out in the rain/shower curtians

Hello. I have something slightly different in store for today. This is our shower curtain.

Lovely, isn't it? (I happen to have a fondness for silhouetted trees.) Anyway, as you can hopefully tell from the picture, this tree has lots of little branches that converge to make all kinds of odd patterns. After looking at these patterns everyday for days and days and days, you start to see things. Lines here and there start to looking like faces and forms. Does this kind of thing happen to anyone else? 

Well, after looking at all these faces in our shower curtain for nearly a year, I decided it might be fun (and probably extremely weird) to do some sketches of the stuff I saw and share them with you all.  So here we go.

So, do these things actually make sense to people, or am I just crazy? (Maybe I don't want the question answered! ^_^) Well, at least you got your weirdness quota in for the day!

Note: The title of this post is a line from the song "People are Strange" by the Doors. The first time I heard this song was by watching this super cool video. http://vimeo.com/3267562 You should totally go check it out if you want to see more cool/weird stuff.

sincerely,

me

Art piece for Faith through the Arts festival.

Hello to you all on this freezy cold January day! As some of you may know, I've been working on a piece of art to submit to the Faith through the Arts festival, a local religious arts event. The theme for the show was "Radiant Light" and you would not believe how hard it was for me to come up with an idea! I tossed around several concepts and even made a few artistic attempts before coming up with something I was actually pleased with. And here it is.

I'm calling it "Shadow and Flame", which hopefully isn't too cheesy of a title. When I showed it to Jon, he said the piece was "risky"; but art is supposed to be risky, right? I hope so. Well, I turned in my registration form and an image of the piece this morning. Now the only thing left to do is wait and see. I should find out Feb 6th. 

sincerely,

me

Fall '11 sketches

Here are my sketches from this fall. 

This one is based off of the ceiling of one of a church that my friends go to.

A few quick gesture drawings of my friend's pets.

A punk fox kid I did randomly

A quick collection of images and shapes inspired by a movie (Spirited Away) I was watching at the time.

More drawings of pets

Another composite style drawing of landscape elements

A composite drawing based on the motions of our pastor while he was preaching a sermon. (Don't worry, I was totally paying attention while I drew this. :-))

The backs of people's heads while sitting in church. (I promise I'm not a creepy stalker.)

We were playing through Mario Galaxy. ^_^

Little doodles

A few random, drawings; I'm still working on a stylized/cartooning look.

Quick study of two men repairing a room as seen from my studio window.

A cartoon style drawing of an outfit I was wearing.

For this one, I just made a bunch of scribble shapes and turned them into little things.

More people studies

I might end up doing more with this one.

So there you have it. I was hoping to finish my sketchbook by the end of December, but I still have a little ways to go. 

sincerely,
me

Thus begins the New Year

Hooray for another year! Did everyone have a good Christmas? Mine is a little difficult to summarize in one word. My Grandpa had a minor heart attack when we were visiting and Jon, Grandma and I ended up going to the hospital at 1:30 in the morning! It was a stressful and exhausting experience, but thankfully it didn't last too long. Grandpa's doing fine now; the doctors let him go back home a day or two before New Year's. Other than that, it was a lovely vacation! Jon and I traveled all over the place; visiting various family members and enjoying holiday cheer! We read The Best Christmas Pageant Ever (which, by the way, is a hilarious story that I highly recommend. It might get added to my list of Christmas traditions), ate lots of unhealthy food, played the super fun game Telestrations, watched a few episodes of the Twilight Zone, saw the new Sherlock Holmes movie (which was quite good), played video games and hung out with lots of fun peoples. However, as much as I liked all the festivities, I'm definitely happy to get things back to normalcy.

To get this brand new set of months off to a good start, I decided to try something a little more elaborate than just a list of goals. So, I created the 2012 wall.

I started with a clear section of wall space in my studio. (Well, as clear as I could get it anyway.)

Then I added all the project ideas and goals I've brainstormed so far. I also threw in the months of the year so that I can keep track of when I got certain things done.

My plan for this wall is multifaceted. I want it to be a space to store and access all the ideas that go careening around in my head. Once I've had the chance to do some of those ideas, I'll be able to track the progress I've made and the goals I've accomplished. I'm also hoping it turns into a scrapbook of 2012; a collection and documentation of all the things that happened this year.

I also started an "ideas" jar. Anything that doesn't fit or hasn't made it to the wall yet can go in here till I get a chance to sort it.

I have a feeling I'm going to need a bigger jar though. This one seems too small already!

So there you have it, my wall sized planner, calender and to do list! I'll be posting pictures of its development and expansion over the months. One of my other goals for this year is to blog more often. Not so sure how that endeavor will turn out, but I'll give it my best shot!

sincerely,
me