Zoo...week 1

I am taking a class on animal drawing at the LA Zoo (through the animation guild) and I had a pretty successful first week. The teacher wanted us to loosen up our work and try drawing without looking at the paper, use continuous linework, or draw with our off hand.

My most successful drawings of the day were partially blind...i'd occasionally look down to see if I was more-or-less on track. what I liked about them was the fact that I got in so much more detail then when I tried to use the construction approach to building the animals (think boxes and spheres to create the volume).

I also used my brush-pen a bit and enjoyed working with that too.

My husband is awesome!

Yay! He got my site running again. Huzzah for the husband!

Technical Difficulties

Most likely, you won't be reading this until after the problem has been solved. There have been technical difficulties on my end...namely, my website is down. It is down for the very silly reason that the domain name registry was not renewed on time. Oops. We are working on solving the problem and hopefully we'll be up and running within a day or so.

Regardless, it sucks. (especially since I haven't posted anything since May 17th!)

Dragon Blossom

This is my newest piece, Dragon Blossoms, created for our very very good friends Jenny and Philip and their son Gavin. I've been promising them a piece of art for years now, and I finally made good on my promise. We gave it to them today, and they loved it and I got an "ooohh" and a giggle from 2-year-old Gavin. Obviously, it was a hit all around!

The blue pattern/color on her kimono matches a plate I got for them years ago, and this piece is a nod to my first oil painting of a little girl in a kimono holding a giant umbrella while tea rains down and turns into flowers. Philip always liked that piece and wanted it or something similar. I tried a couple of different compositions, but wasn't happy with any of them, and once I drew this little girl, I knew I had the perfect drawing for them.

If only it had a ladybug or frog....well, Jenny, maybe next time!

Illustration Friday: Contagious

Achoo!

I couldn't pass up using this piece I did last year as this weeks Illustration Friday. It gave me a very good reason to finally get it scanned and in my digital gallery.

I'm very happy with the irradiated tones of greens and yellows in the piece. I had a lot of fun working on this one. This was the result of a month+ of a continuous cold. I used my artwork to vent my frustrations, and I think it turned out rather well.

This is NOT the promised piece that I mentioned in a previous post, just a great reason to post more of my finished artwork.

Still to come...

I posted some of my zoo sketches, but then I felt that the image sizes were too big, so I took them down and will repost tomorrow at a better size. I might also just pull out my favorite drawings from the bunch since there are about 10 pages of sketches, 5-6 animals per page.

Monkeys and Giraffes...oh my!

I've been killing three birds with one stone with these animal drawings: 1. practice drawing animals, 2. create some fun (and simple) animals for my friend's daughter's room, 3. do some character studies for my Traditional Animation Basics 2 class. In the TAB2 class, we're going to be using the 12 weeks to create a 30-second animated PSA! How cool is that?

Since I never animated before the TAB1 class, I'm kind of nervous, but I'm going to jump right in and give it a go. If nothing else, I feel that I'm really good at brainstorming, researching and coming up with ideas/unique perspectives.

All the realistic-looking sketches are from photos off the internet, but the cartoon-y ones are my original creations. Besides for the 3 crazy giraffes, my favorite one is the mom and baby giraffe. Incredible original photo here. I may have played up the size of the baby's ears a bit much, but they make him just too cute!

Sneak Peek...

Well, I should finally have some finished art up for you soon! I'm estimating that I will be able to get finished up with my current project and have it all scanned and ready by early next week. In the meantime, here's a little hint of what is to come:


Next, I think I'll be working both on my Fleeting Turtles piece and on Onion Boy. I think I want to have them both going at the same time so I don't get bored. Also, I'm starting Onion Boy off with a LOT of sketches and studies. I want to get his face more expressive then the original images, and get him a better dog....I'm thinking a beagle, because I want one. Also, we have one that lives in our complex that I like to pet and say 'hi' to.

The paucity of posts

There is a reason for the shortage of posting artwork on my part. While I was in Florida visiting family, my grandfather gave me a draft of his memoirs to read. I read all 42 single-spaced pages in one sitting. I was so fascinated by his story and seeing him both excited and embarrassed by showing someone else his work. We talked a bit about the memoirs, and one of the things I mentioned was that I would be both happy and eager to design a book cover for his work. That is, after all, what I do for a living.

In the course of things, I also agreed to edit his memoirs, and so I have been hard at work on his project. It is VERY slow going, and it makes me have so much more respect for all the editors that I work with. They look at words every day, day after day. I couldn't do it; it's tiring. I'm going to start working on the first cover comps soon, so hopefully I'll post some of my graphic design work for once.

As much as I want to further my own art skills, I am very passionate about giving my surviving grandparents another reason to keep excited and interested in life. Luckily for them, they have a very large family that gives them many reasons.

Illustration Friday: Heirarchy

"There be only one hierarchy in the west....MINE!"

I haven't posted to Illustration Friday in a while, so it feels good to be posting again. My original sketch was about the hierarchy of siblings, but my husband rejected that. When I showed him, I got a shrug of the shoulders and "Eh..." So I tackled the concept again this morning and am much happier with the overall result. The thumbnail in the upper left was my second attempt at getting the body movement down and I used that as the study for the final sketch.

I think he'll be added to my list of sketches to turn into final pieces. Everyone who regularly posts finished color illustrations every week has my respect because all I get done are sketches.

LA Times Festival of Books

I went to the Festival of Books at UCLA on Saturday, and of course, went straight to the children's stage. I'm just a big kid, after all. I got to see a number of author/illustrators, including Robin Preiss Glasser and her Fancy Nancy series, Eric Carle of The Very Hungry Caterpillar fame, and Anne Dewdney and her Llama Llama series. While I loved listening to Eric Carle speak and it was fun to watch him draw, I think Robin stole the show with her outfit and her 'explorers extrordinaire.' Having a better seat for Robin Price's may have helped too.

Unfortunately, I didn't get to meet them, as there were hundreds of people there in groups. One adult would sit with the kids and listen to the authors/illustrators, and the other adult would stand in the looooooooooooooong autograph line. *sigh* Maybe next year, I'll try to go with Jenny and her son, Gavin, or Mahta and her son.

The only person I wanted to see that I didn't get to see was Jarrett J. Krosoczka, who's blog I follow. I was just leaving class about the time I went on stage. I did get to meet a number of other illustrators and authors who were in some of the booths around the childrens area: Sunny Seki, Renee Ting, and Mark Teague. I bought their books and got autographs from them all. I walked away with 6 children's books for myself, 2 for friends, one young adult book, and a very large bag of cotton candy.

...Oh and a number of sketches I did while I was there. I'll post those seperately.

Robin Preiss Glasser and her explorers

...the great seat, which I lost because I was hoping to get an autograph.

Anne Dewdney

Eric Carle drawing

The closest I got to Eric Carle

Sonny Seki

Mark Teague drawing a dino for me!

Sleepy...

I missed drawing class today. It sucks, but I'm too exhausted from traveling last weekend and all the activities at work this week. After spending a few hours with MANY rambunctious 8-9 year-olds, I think sleep is on the menu. More drawing and posts to come, including one of my favorite drawings from life drawing last week. But for now, bed.

People in airport

Faces

Travel and drawing

I went out of town this weekend to visit my grandparents. It was a very good trip and I got some sketching done while I was traveling. Drew the plane above...the first time I've ever really drawn a plane. I'm pretty happy with it, although I think I foreshortened the body of the plane too much--planes are BIG. Really happy with how the wing/engine turned out. Friday, I'll be posting a number of sketches that I've had in my sketchbook for a bit and have been meaning to get up here. (Tomorrow I have class).

In particular I want to post the drawings I've been working on from the Facial Expressions book I got for my birthday. Some of them are frustrating, some of them I like a lot. All of them are good practice. As I am determined to get better at faces and people so I never can use the argument "I can't" again, so are my friends determined to help me. Thanks to everyone who has supported me and continues to support me.

Illustration Friday: Fleeting

"Once a year, with no explanation, all the turtles went fleeting."

This was a LOT of fun to draw. It's the kind of illustration I like doing the best: silly, whimsical and cute! I also liked researching all the different sails to use on the 'boats'. One day this WILL be a full-color illustration.

The story of stuff

I just watched a really interesting online video about the consumer economy:

Story of Stuff

It will really make you think about your life and things you are doing well and things you (I) probably should change. It is moments like these where I wish I could work on graphic design without having to print all the disposable marketing materials.

It made me think about wanting a simpler life, and I remember watching design shows where people moved to the middle of nowhere, built their dream home and live leisurely with their focus being on family and spending time together. I always wondered why they did that and if they would be bored...then I realize that for the first week or so I probably would just want to read, read, read, but eventually I would get tired of reading and miss working on art, then I'd work on art. I think I would eventually find a balance of reading, art, family and fun that I could enjoy...Maybe I just need to go 'Under the Tuscan Sun' and get a ramshackle house that I have no clue how to fix up but enjoy the journey and the people along the way. I could see it...one day...

Illustration Friday: talisman

This actually turned out a lot softer then originally intended. I guess I just like pretty things.

New Blog Header

I posted a new web header that actually matches the name of my website! Imagine that. Eric think's it's too big, even though it is the same size as the previous header. What does everyone think? Do you like it? Should I shrink it? Should it be more colorful?

Daily Sketch 29: Zoo on Saturday

Here are many of the sketches that I did on Saturday when I went to the zoo with Tabla. I didn't realize just how many sketches we did until I started scanning them. The most frustrating animal of the day was the giraffe, particularly because that was the one I wanted to draw the most. Eric suggested that I try drawing them a bit more in my whimsical illustration style. I suggest more practice.