Painting Kick

I came back from the most amazing week ever and all I wanted to do was paint random things. So I did. Here are the final products.

They just simple, loose studies; not too realistic but still capturing an interesting mood. I really like how they turned out. Btw, painting artichokes, very challenging. 

sincerely,

Beth

Destruction vs. Documentation

Last night, I was in an apathetic, destructive mood. Like the "take a baseball bat and mindlessly break everything you own, then set fire to the rubble" kind of mood. No, you don't need to call a doctor for me; I'm blaming this one on hormones. Anyway, instead of decimating all my worldly possessions, I decided to try something more productive, purging old sketchbooks.

This is the first time I've sat down and gotten rid of old sketchbook drawings; I found myself a bit conflicted at times. And, since I seem to be having a really hard time putting all my thoughts into readable, blog post form, I'm going to write a vs. list instead.

1. Shredding badly rendered images is therapeutic. vs. All art, even the bad stuff, has some inherent value.

2. You can't keep every single thing you ever drew. vs. Documenting your progress as an artist is helpful, encouraging and may be interesting to others someday.

3. The world does not need to see ever single mistake you've ever made. vs. Bad artwork is an honest refection of your skills and ideas at the time it was created.

4. Destroying bad art work boosts your artistic average. vs. Bad artwork is part of who you are.

Like I said, conflicting stuff. In the end though, it's all about balancing the two mindsets and coming to a compromise. I got rid of some of the more pointless sketches while still keeping the stuff which reflects my artistic development, good, bad and ugly.

sincerely,

Bethany

Pomegranate Still Life

Remember the painting sneak peek I showed off last Tuesday? Well, here's the finished product, as promised. I think it turned out rather well. Lisa, my mother-in-law was very pleased, which officially qualifies it as a success. 

sincerely,
me

Sneak peek

Just wanted to share a few detail shots of a painting I've been working on for my mother-in-law's birthday. It still needs some work, but I have till Sunday, so it shouldn't be too bad. Hopefully, I'll be posting the final product next Tuesday. 

sincerely,

me

On going art projects. And Post 100!!!

In addition to a ton of short terms projects, I also have a few long term art goals for this year, one of which is my Doodle Project. My goal is to draw a (nearly) daily doodle for all of 2013! So far, I've done pretty well; I only missed two days last weekend. I've also created a tumblr account to document my progress. Check it out here http://bethanylizette.tumblr.com/ or at the link on the sidebar at the bottom of my blog page.

I'm also working on a 52 Self-Portrait challenge and I will share some of the results periodically.

Also, guess what!?! This is my 100th post!! I have to admit, I can't believe I made it this far. I mean, it took me long enough to get here, but the fact that I'm still plugging away at this blog is impressive in and of itself. Thank you so much to everyone who has ever read, commented or encouraged me. Cookies and chai all around!!!

sincerely,
me

Painting endeavors

Remember how I said I got water mixable oil paints for my birthday? Well, I figured I'd better post some of my "attempts" so that you wouldn't start suspecting me of falsehood. Bear in mind, I have two years of oil painting rust to work through before I render anything remotely decent, but in the spirit of documentation, I'm sharing these early studies. Please don't judge them too harshly.

This one's my favorite; I might even try and develop it a bit more. I think it's a whale shark. (Also, apologies if you happen to be afraid of sharks. Or whales.)

It's not my finest work, but we all have to start somewhere. Hopefully the next set of pictures look nicer.

sincerely,
me

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

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

Watercolor portrait: Mother and Child

This is the other piece I plan on submitting to the art show next week. Its another one of my watercolor collage hybrids. There are a few things I'd change about it if I could, but over all, I ok with it. All I need to do now is get it framed and wired, then I'm good to go.

sincerely,
me

Illustrations: Jon and Me

One of my drawing goals is to develop an "cartoon" version of Jon and me. Here's my (very rough) progress thus far.

I actually figured out how I wanted to render Jon pretty quickly. I'm still working on getting him drawn consistently, but I like how his features are represented. I had more trouble getting myself figured out, as you can see below.

I finally stopped failing quite as badly as I usual today. I think I've finally gotten most of my features figured out except for my eyes. I can't tell if I want the pupils to be circular or elliptical. But still, progress is being made!!

And on this page, I was playing around with integrating anime style expressions. (Anime expressions are totally the best!! ^_^) I'd say I've achieved moderate success on that front but I have a lot of work a head of me before I get into a good grove.

That's it for today. I'm off to watch the newest episode of The Legend of Korra on the interwebs and eat rice and sweet potatoes for dinner.

sincerely,

me