Apr-June '12 sketches

Well, I'm a fail blogger again. Its been over two week since I last wrote. I was posting pictures left and right for a while there. I've been fairly busy with other things, though. As of this point, I have three short stories in a done enough condition that I'm allowing a few people to read them (to supply critical feedback). I also have several illustration/writing projects in the brainstorming stage as well as the Pocket Universe collaborative project. So yeah; busy, busy.

On a slightly sadder note: one of our gerbils, Sheherazade, passed away about a week ago. :-( She was a most excellent little rodent and I shall miss her greatly.

It's been awhile since I posted anything from my sketchbook. With all my other endeavors going, my sketchbook has been a tad neglected. Still, there are a few things to show off.

A bowl of happy pudding

 Monocle dog!! His awesomeness can not be denied!

This is a doodle I did that ended up becoming a personification of anxiety. I imagine these little "anxiety demons" attacking people in swarms. Kind of creepy, I know, but I actually enjoy being able to personify it like this.

Like the image above, this is my doodled personification of apathy and depression. I see it as being a sluggish, sleepy creature that latches onto its victims, sucking away all their energy, motivation and joy.

Interesting monsters and creatures

Bits of downtown Allentown

sincerely,

me

Illustration project 1: The outlets

Here is my first Illustration project! I took the phrase "The outlets looked at me with such distressing expressions that I wanted to ask them what was wrong" and came up with an image and layout for it. For a first try, I think its pretty good. I can't decide if I should make the words "distressing expressions" look like the other words, or if they look ok as is. I love the style though; its definitely one I want to keep working with. The background is newspaper, tissue paper and white paint and the outlets and words are pen on newspaper and white paint. 

sincerely,
me

Animal illustrations

Hello all! I've decided to brush up on my animal rendering skills. Here are a few quick studies done with pen, clear gesso and black watercolor. It was kind of tricky to control, but the effect resembles an ink painting, which I think is pretty nifty.

Not thrilled with this one. I over worked the background.

Hope everyone has a lovely weekend!

sincerely,

me

2012 wall + These are a few of my favorite things; April and May

I know I'm cramming a lot into this post, but I wanted to keep up my monthly pattern of checking up on my 2012 wall and updating my current non-art interests. Due to reasons I can't quite recall, I forgot to post at the end of April, so I'm writing an entire for the past two months. 

So here's my 2012 wall. Admittedly, I haven't done much with in as of late, but hopefully I'll get some new stuff up there soon.

My in-laws went to Hawaii in the beginning of May and brought me back some nifty post cards.

And now, my favorite parts of April and May.

Learning the bass. I decided randomly at Easter that playing the bass guitar might be fun. I was much better about practicing in April than I am now, but I'm still plugging away. Jon is planning on writing music soon and I'd like to be able to assist him in the process.

S'mores! We made s'mores almost every night for a couple of weeks. Since a campfire was not readily available, we used the toaster over, which worked fairly well. 

The Earthsea Trilogy. I've been reading Ursula K, Le Guin's Earthsea books, The Wizard of Earthsea, The Tombs of Atuna and The Farthest Shore. They're an excellent example of well-crafted high fantasy. I'm especially fond of her magic system, which is based on calling things by their true names. So many authors have used this idea in other stories **coughcoughChristopherPaolinicoughcough**, but I'm pretty sure she was the first to come up with it.

Gardening. This year is my second attempt at maintaining a garden. I tried starting some things from seeds, but sadly only a few Zinnias and Morning Glories have gotten anywhere. My mother-in-law also gave me a bunch of tiger lilies, which I'm hoping with flourish. Pretty much everything else was already there. Maybe I'll add a few other things later in the season. 

The Legend of Korra. This is so totally my new favorite show! ^_^ It takes place about 70 years after the events of Avatar: The Last Airbender. The world, characters and story line are all awesome and the art style is gorgeous. The creators did a very good job of giving the show its own unique flavor while still keeping with the spirit of The Last Airbender. Jon and I have to watch it online because we don't have cable, which you can do on the Nickelodeon website. The hardest part is waiting for new episodes to come out each week. It's been awhile since I followed a show that hasn't been completed yet and this series has lots of cliff hangers.

 That's about it. Hope everyone has a good night!

sincerely,

me

Future goals and current experiments

So, I mentioned a few posts back that I've had some newish thoughts about where I'd like to take my art next. I've actually been considering my "art career" as a whole over the past few months and have come to the conclusion that I would like to pursue story illustration as my next artistic goal.

In a way, it's kind of surprising that it's taken me this long to realize this. I already have aspirations for becoming an author and I love books with pictures. Some of my favorite artists are book illustrators. My mom even told me when I was younger that she could see me becoming an illustrator some day. I just hadn't really considered it as an option to till now. I've never been confident that my skill set was suited for creating characters that looked consistent from any pose or angle.

However, after setting those fears aside, I've decided this is something I want to try for. I have a feeling it's going to take me a dreadfully long time to produce anything like a "finished piece", but I've already started playing around with different media. Here are some interesting things I've come up with so far.

Brown paper and ink

Clear gesso and chalk pastels. Together, they create a really interesting, paint like look.

Again, I was messing with the clear gesso/chalk pastel combo, except for the creepy mummy cat, which was colored pencil.

Pen on cloth

This on is colored pencil over clear gesso, which gave it a nice, chalky texture.

White paint and pen. 

Colored pencil and pen; a bit basic, but still useful.

Cloth, paint and pen.

Pen, clear gesso, chalk pastel and colored pencil.

Pen, clear gesso, colored pencil. I wish I hadn't colored in her skin so much.

Chalk pastel, clear gesso, tissue paper and pen.

I plan of posting a few more projects soon. I want to keep playing around with different materials as well as do some basic drawing practice and a few illustration studies. It shall be fun times for sure!

sincerely,

me

A weekend update

Just wanted to post a quick update on how the weekend went. Turned my work in for the art show on Thursday. God was extremely merciful to me because I felt completely calm and unanxious the entire time! After that, I helped paint at my church. We painted grass along the nursery walls and a large elephant, whom we named Harold, on the wall of the 3 and 4 year old room. I should totally have taken pictures to show you all, but of course I forgot.

Today, I found out that one of my pieces (the collage I did on the back of the canvas) wasn't accepted to the art show and had to go pick it up. Although I'm a tad disappointed, I can't say I'm that shocked that it didn't make it in; it was a risky project to enter. But that's what making art is all about, experimenting with new and possibly unpopular ideas. I still plan on working with the concept.

So there you have it, my weekend. On a whole, it was much better than I'd anticipated.

sincerely,
me