Reflections on painting pottery....and kittens!! :-D

This is going to be a different sort of blog post. For on thing, it's a day late (sorry about that). For another, it's not about the art I usually do. 

A few weeks ago, I had the chance to go to a "paint your own pottery" place with a few friends. Since coming up with an idea on the spot is hard, I worked out a design ahead of time, a little rabbit sitting on a crescent moon. Which brings me to Reflection 1: don't try to paint a complicated design (like a rabbit sitting on a crescent moon) on to a piece of pottery. You will save yourself so much stress!

Anyway, I met up with my friends at the pottery place and picked out something to paint; a cute teacup and saucer. After spending way too much time picking out my colors, I sat down to paint. That's when I realized that my design folly. I spent the next two and a half hours stressing out over whether it would turn out, till we had to leave because the shop closed. Which brings me to Reflection 2: if you're going to try to paint something complicated, don't start it two hours before the store closes. It's not enough time. 

Here's how the teacup and saucer looked when I left the shop.

I have to say, I was extremely discouraged. I felt like I'd wasted time and money and hadn't even had fun doing it! Jon was a trooper and put up with me as I lamented the whole way home. He also assured me that my pieces weren't as bad as I thought they were and that they would look much better after they were fired. I knew he was probably right, but had a hard time believing it.

I spent the next few weeks purposefully not thinking about the teacup, until I finally got it back. Here's how it looks post firing.

Which brings me to Reflection 3: the firing process really does wonders. Even if you do everything wrong, like I did, you can still end up with something nice! It's a magical, ugly duckling-like transformation!

And thus concludes my pottery painting story. Lesson learned; don't make things unnecessarily  complicated and don't stress out so much! Hopefully I remember that if I ever paint pottery again!

One last thing, Jon and I got KITTENS this past Monday!!! :-D Yuna is the grey tiger and Koji is the black; they're both adorable little trouble makers and we love them so much already!! ^_^

onward and upward,

Bethany

Skill building: Poses

One of my "goals" (a term I use loosely here) for this summer was to get some figure drawing practice in. I haven't been highly successful at it, but did manage to do a few studies based on reference from some Athleta catalogs. (Which, btw, is a fantastic source for action pose reference!) Here are a few of good ones. 

onward and upward,

Bethany

Ladies of Liberty

Since the 4th of July holiday weekend was pretty hectic for me, I decided not to do a normal blog post that Tuesday. However, I wanted to do something to honor the occasion; something simple, something with a subtle, patriotic vibe. Since I'm reasonably confident in my ability to design girl characters, doing a "Lady of Liberty" seemed like a good option. 

And then I thought it might be cool to do a couple of "Ladies of Liberty" and to infuse some diversity into the idea. And thus the project went from a "simple" concept to something that took more work and thought than I'd initially planned. :-/ But I'm very happy with the results! I posted each of them on Instagram, but wanted to share all of them together here. Enjoy! ^_^ 

onward and upward,

Bethany

Portrait of Hannah and Evelyn

Another project I finished before going on art break was a small watercolor portrait of my sister Hannah and her baby Evelyn for Hannah's birthday. It was a spur of the moment thing and compared to how long the "Phoenix Warrior" painting took, this one was a snap. It actually felt great to finish something I liked in such a short bit of time!

Anyway, on to the artwork.

I worked off of a photo of Hannah and Evelyn I really liked (one of the reasons why this painting came together so quickly). I made a few minor changes from the original photo while sketching it out, so that it would translate better as a painting. And, of course, I forgot to take picture of the sketch stage. Again. =_= Here it is after being inked.

To keep it simple, I decided to just use shades of brown, rather than full color. I also think that helped give it a simplified, classic look. 

After that, I bought a frame for it and sent it on it's way. I really, really love how it turned out (which feels rare, unfortunately) and Hannah loved it, too! ^_^

onward and upward,

Bethany

"Phoenix Warrior" painting commission process

Back from break and I've got some new stuff to share! Right before taking some time off, I finished up a painting commission for my friend Brandon. He asked for a piece of fantasy art with an epic looking warrior in it. After a lot of brainstorming, I came with the idea of a warrior silhouetted against a fire bird. Here's my initial composition thumbnail. 

I did a bunch of rough sketches to figure out the armor, helmet, and weapon details.

I also did a small, painted thumbnail to figure out what colors to use.

I even did a digital mock up version to help me think through how the lighting would work.

With all the prep work out of the way, there was nothing left to do but start (which is always really scary!)

(Also, sorry for not including a picture of the drawing before I started in with the watercolor. I never seem to remember to take pictures of paintings when they're in the drawing stage! :-/)

Painting this was definitely a nerve-wracking process. One false move and the whole thing could be ruined. But through persistence (and praying), I got through and am pretty happy with the final results. Brandon really liked it too and it's now happily sitting on his wall. :-)

onward and upward,

Bethany

MerMay '17 pt. 2

Three more mermaids for MerMay! These might be my last ones. I kind of wish I'd done more of them, but my heart wasn't in the challenge this year like it was last year. Fortunately for me, mermaids can be drawn at any time of the year, not just in May! ^_^

Also, I will be taking a two week break from blogging starting next week. I've decided to schedule more art breaks throughout the year in the hopes of avoiding burn out and other unpleasant things. See you then!

onward and upward,

Bethany

Rat Dragon (a break from Mermay)

Sometimes, in the midst of the general overwhelm of tasks and responsibilities that seem to define what it means to be alive, you get a bizarre little distraction. This week, I was supposed to be drawing mermaids, working on a painting commission, developing a web comic project I dearly hope comes to fruition, and surviving the onslaught of life. Clearly, there is no room for anything else. And yet, when this dragon idea plopped his smug  little self on top of one of my other projects, I shoved everything else aside and sketched him for pages, trying to figure him out. 

After lots of terrible drawings (more terrible than the ones pictured here), I decide he was a Rat dragon, that he was greedy, mischievous, bratty, and probably considered by most to be a nuisance, and that I totally loved him. 

Sometimes, a bizarre little distraction is just what you need.

onward and upward,

Bethany