My first oil painting!

So... I love oils!
I don't think I did it right. I did not size the canvas first?
Anyway, I am happy with this portrait but i'm open for suggestions!
Thanks

cake 2

So I had this really cool idea of doing a Degas inspired cake. I wanted to use a Degas painting's color palette and do a kind of tie-dye effect with two or three colors and use whoppers with pearl dust to look like pearls. I wanted to make a standing ballerina of gumpaste (flat) on the side of the cake.
Well...
The idea changed to include whipped cream between the layers and hardened chocolate as a shell on the whole cake.
well...
I just made a big mess and it does not look very good but this is all about trial and error. I am just experimenting and experimenting tastes good!

cakes?

The outrageous price of college has made me rethink my future.
Illustration is not a career that will pay off loans for a school that costs 40 G a year.
I thought about animation but quickly realized that I could not spend that much time in front of a computer screen.
I thought about teaching art. For a long time. And my boyfriend told me honestly that I may not be cut out for dealing with bratty kids... i think he's right.
I need to do something creative and with my hands.
So right now I am thinking about cake decorating and getting a business degree.
It is still a baby idea, but I wanted to try my hand at it.
Here's my first attempt at fondant and handmade sugar flowers.

Portrait progress for friday

I went to a mini- critique today for my drawing class and got some tips. Professor said I need to work toward more opacity. I agree. I am just nervous because I don't want to lose allll the drawings underneath. I started by putting streamers on the petals because its cheap, linear, and has a cool texture similiar to flowers.
I also painted with some ketchup around the edges of the petals. It gave a neat, aged look on the edges and represents Ashley's messiness... I rarely see her without ketchup or barbecue sauce on her clothes.
Here are many of the flowers I pressed for this project. I have only put one on the drawing so far. It is a really pretty circular weed in the center of the orange circle. I don't know yet how and where I will apply the rest but I am excited about including them!
There are some flowers I did not put on this sheet because they were so incredibly frail that I could not get them off the book pages where I dried them.
This is great! The text actually looks really cool showing through the translucent petals. And again, can describe Ashley's love of books and writing. :-P

Portrait progress

The above is just a non-related sketch I did and liked.

I chose to add a little three-dimensionality with blossoming, lotus-like petals. Then I chose to add lines extending to the edges of the page (they are faint and light blue right now) to show a flower being pulled into blooming before its ready (remember, everything about this project is SYMBOLIC)
The red -looking dot in the center of it all is actually bright orange in person. I did this with transparent orange paper and just rubber-cemented it on top of the drawings... some of which I darkened the outlines to make sure they show through.

abstract complete

I was unable to get a good photo, but my abstract figure drawing is complete!
I also posted my favorite figure study from today.

Almost there...

Aw man at the finals! I just finished week 8 of spring quarter. Two more to go!

I have one more test and one more quiz to study for in Art History II. I love that class and I always go home so inspired but I HATE the stress of studying for a test. Its this feeling you get, cramming the night before when you don't know if you've studied enough or not. Then you feel sick to your stomach as the professor passes out the test... the moment of truth. When I get the test, I am so afraid I will forget everything that I end up with hand cramps trying to get the information down so quickly.

In Drawing and Design for Illustrators, my final is to design a book jacket for a creepy novel. I chose Beloved, by Toni Morisson. I read this book in highschool and loved it.... i beloved it. lol
This one should actually not be too bad because we were assigned it on Monday of week 8 and have until monday of week 10. Much less stressful than the last assignment for this class (the Dancer project below).

In Drawing III, I have to finish my abstraction project that I was given an extra week on. I really like the project but the problem is, I am working on it at the same time that I am working on my final project for this class which I am more excited about.

For the abstraction project, we used a large paper ... I think 50 inches by 18 inches and transferred at least 20 figure drawing from class on the paper overlapping each other. We also chose a color palette and stained the paper with one of those colors (I stained w/ blue-green) and we were not allowed to use that color again on the drawing. So what I want blue-green, I have to let show through. The spaces left by the overlapping figures are then to be filled with distinct mark making similar to the mark making used by artists like Van Gogh, Boccioni, Picasso, Cadmus, Chuck Close, etc... So the drawing starts from observation (of the nude models) and is then abstracted sometimes to such an extent that it will appear non-representational. I am leaving some figures visible though but only like 3 out of 20.

The final for this class, I am most excited about. It is a symbollic portrait of someone we know. I was going to do a portrait of Zac, my boyfriend at first but decided against it for several reasons. One, it would almost be too easy. Two, I thought this would be a better opportunity to learn something about someone else close to me... and flatter them.
I chose Ashley, my little sister as my subject....victim! :-)
I always would start to paint her portrait but always got distracted. I don't carry out half of my painting ideas. She is a big fan of my art and I wanted to make something especially for her.
And with this assignment, EVERYTHING symbolizes her personality.
The assignment- A 36" square paper covered with what my professor called a "kazillion" drawings of things that represent my little sister. I included at least 200 drawing of things like Ashley's favorite photos, 3 of her stuffed animals, her prom crossage, her fave animal- penguins, bookmarks, journals, her converses, tracks off her Wall-E poster in her room, her glasses, lollipops, the number 14, dreamcatchers, gothic style crosses, apples, and cut in half apples with the star showing, one of her headbands, her eyes, coke tabs, ... I think thats everything.
So the entire basis of the drawing is made up of 200 drawings of her belongings, off of which we are to make the rest of the decisions for the project.
The next step was to choose a compositional format that fits her personality. My choices are a circular composition, a square/rectangular composition, a trinagular comp, a swirling comp, a , a banded comp, a S curve comp,asymmetrical X composition, or a radial composition.
I thought about which of these describe her in my mind.
The circular reflects her love of polka-spot patterns but didn't seem to describe her personality. The square/ rectangle comp doesn't work for her because it suggests a personality that is eaither very boring or very stable. She's not that boring and because she is a young teenage girl, she's not that stable.
The triangular works because it is the compositional format traditonally used in religious painting, representative of the holy trinity- 3 points on a triangle and she is very religious. The problem here is that a triangle on its base again suggests stability and a triangle balancing on its point suggests extreme instability like in Edvard Munch's Scream painting. Neither of these describe Ashley.
The swirling radial composition implies chaos to me. Not Ashley.
The Banded Composition, I just don't like in general.
The S-curve I would be more likely to use for a curvy adult woman. It also suggests easy-going attitudes which isn't exactly Ashley.
The Asymmetrical X was almost my choice because it could look like a rising cross, again she is very proud of her Christianity.
However, I chose the Radial Composition. Reason being:
I am incorporating pressed flowers into the drawing because they symbolize her beauty, fragility, and the whole "blossoming into a young woman" thing. Using the radial format allows me to make the entire composition into a flower shape, who's petals become rays extending from the focal point.
The next step in the assignment was to choose an element to emphasize. Out of Line, texture, color, value and shape, I chose Value. I still have time to change my mind on this one, but I chose value because the radial flower shape can start bright and fade out to darks on the edge of the drawing. This will symbolize her teenage moodiness were she can go from "beaming" happiness to a little dark and depressed.
Also, I am trying to include her face (not a requirement for the assignment) and using value should allow the face to be visible without disrupting the "kazillion" line drawings underneath. Remember, I have to make all my design decisions based on these drawings, so I am trying to FIND her face withing these already present lines.
Then we chose a color palette that is representative of the subject. I chose a Tetrad of Baby Blue and Sunkist Soda Orange- the blue and orange symbolize Auburn- our hometown. Also the Baby blue represents her innocence and purity while the bright orange represents the energy of red and the happiness of yellow and this orange is also the color of her bedroom. The remaining colors of the tetrad are red-violet symbollizing her dorky obsession with the vampire books- Twilight and yellow green in the more 1970's green because this color is present in her eyes and this color looks best on her.

This summer is coming up fast but unfortunately I can't taste it yet because of these projects AND thinking about packing and moving out on time AND I just registered for 3 college classes online at Southern union- a community college at home that start MONDAY. So I'm starting new classes while finishing these. It will be worth it though. I am paying less than $300 for each of the Southern Union Classes whose credits will transfer back to SCAD but would cost me $3,000 each at SCAD! Awesome. I know.

I will be working again this summer. I am so glad Terri lets me keep my job over breaks. I need to be making some money since I am spending SO much.

I am also applying to other schools this summer. SCAD is great but the administration here is nothing but money-sucking whores. The president- Paula Wallace is one of the highest paid college presidents in the nation and I've heard she only wears prada shoes. Pshhhh... If that tells you anything.

I have a lot of ideas for my portfolio and projects for this summer and I am working, taking classes, I want to re-continue the Illustration Friday projects, and starting appliactions for a few schools. Lets Hope I don't get too lazy.

60 Dancers

yes. we were assigned 60 versions of one topic... on one page... in one week. It was hell. But I like the outcome.

figure studies

what we did in illustration class today...
I used chalk pastels and oil pastel and added turpenoid on the portrait

Hats of the World

This is the reason I haven't done the Illu Friday of last week. This is a project for illustration. We were to pick 6 countries and use their national colors to make a image that represented them. We were not to use figures or people at all. They were all supposed to be related by content and medium. I chose HATS! This was alot of fun. Oh yeah, and the 2 extras were to be our own made-up countries so I did a kids country and a pirate country by the names of Cannoli and Decatur. :-P
I chose to complete them using a really fun, exciting, scary, time-consuming technique I learned in highschool. You paint your image using white permanent gaouche or expensive temperas and leave all the lines you've drawn unpainted so the bare paper is exposed. After you let it dry for at least a day's time, you then do the scary part.... you cover the whole drawing with India Ink. Then you let it dry for another day. After that you gently rub your fingers over the drawing while running the paper under water. The magic is the ink comes off where you painted and stays where you didn't! You are left with a really cool, rustic-looking painting that closely resembles some printmaking projects.
Anyway. I am happy with it.

Colored pencil assignment done

not very happy with it. but its due at 8am and I need sleep

color figure studies

In my 8am illustration class today we did color figure studies.
It was fun to play with paint and get 3 different distinct characters from one model.

Colored pencil assignment

the progress on my colored pencil drawing for my drawing III class.
I am finally starting to like it. I have never drawn this way before with colored pencils and it has proven to be tough. I prefer crayola over the prismacolors our teacher required for the project. :-P

illu proj 3

So I've begun my 3rd ILLU project. We are to pick 6 countries and use their national colors to create a picture that represents each country.
Then we are to make up two countries and make them go along with the theme of the rest.
I chose to do hats of different countries.
This is the experimentation with the pirate hat for my first made-up country.
I tried a watercolor wax resist. I tried a tissue paper painting. Then I tried a india ink, tempera resist which I liked best. It still needs working on but just posting the process.

Week Nine- "Fleeting"

I guess this isn't really a good interpretation of the word. I was a little confused by the meaning.
A new technique my teacher demonstrated... Black ink as a base then white acrylic as highlights then I thought it'd be cool to buy metallic pigment to mix in to make him even more reflective. I also used pen and white gel pen.

Week Eight-"Talisman"

Mixed mixed mixed media.
I carved linoleum for a print but never got a chance to take it to the print shop so I used acrylic paint which didn't work so well to I hand-colored it with watercolor, colored pencils, and ink.

finished?

I am not too happy with it but I can't work on it anymore. I am tired of looking at it. it's midnight and its due at 8 in the morning.

running into trouble

because our professor made us blacken some areas first, I am having a lot of trouble. I wanted to represent the least in focus areas as outlines but I can't get those parts of the paper white again. Ugh!

Tedious Drawing III assignment

Small portions of a very large, very scary 22 by 30 inch paper.
It is an interesting assignment. Professor wanted us to divide our paper into 5 fractions and leave 3 of those with white backgrounds and two filled in with compressed charcoal. I am still unsure why she asked us to do this.
Then she asked us to choose 5-7 objects to repeat across the page... filling the whole page. Now we are to create a composition with this load of junk already drawn by making some areas in focus and some out of focus.
I chose an asymmetrical X composition. This means that the crossing of the X will be my main focal point. This will be the bottle and a few parts around it.
Then the lines of the X get less and less focused as they get further from the bottle. The areas between the X lines will do the opposite. I posted the diagram if you're interested. I thought it was an interesting concept. The numbers represent how in focus each section is. 1 is the most in focus and 10 is the least in focus.

My First Illustration Assignment

Our professor gave us a list of characters- example: nurse, bartender, bishop, astronaut etc...
And a list of emotions- Example: lecherous, frightened, ashamed, disgusted, etc...
He asked us the design 12 characters by mixing and matching the different professions and emotions. He wanted 6 of the 12 to be drawn from behind so we would leran to show an emotion without showing a face.
He then asked us to pick 3 of our 12 to put into a "movie set" together.
He printed out 8 scenes and flipped them over. One by one, the class chose a scene at random. I got a subway scene. This is what resulted from the madness.
I wish he would've allowed us to use color.

Week Seven- "Poise"

Week Six- "Subtract"

Her candy was taken away. :-(
I am very unhappy with the arm in this drawing, it looks awkward.

Week Five- Legendary

Sorry its late! I have been so busy! But here is the LEGENDARY Loch Ness Monster!

Week Four- "Intricate"

It didn't really turn out how I wanted but I was going for the really ornate illuminated manuscript style. I will try the style again sometime.

Inkblot 2

Inkblot #2 w/ watercolor.
I love this new hobby. I found a teddy, a Pope, a chef, and an evil kitty in this blot.

Ink Blot Journal

So I found this portfolio website of an artist named L. Filipe dos Santos and I was really inspired by his "see-saw" drawings. He just squishes together a bunch of color and lets it dry then finds shapes in the blotches and makes some kick-ass doodles. I actually did this same assignment for an art class in highschool and thought it was kind of cool but never went back to it. This guy's take on the ink blot inspiration thing really amazed me so I thought I would try it again.

Week Three- "Breezy"

Illustration Friday Week 3! I am actually keeping up.
I used watercolor, acrylic, pen, and marker and added text w/ photoshop

Week Two- "Instinct"

I have decided the best use for the Illustration Friday submissions are to just experiment! I don't love this one but I have learned a little more about the mediums I used(watercolor, acrylic, gouache, copic marker, and pen)
Anyway, this one illustrates the word "instinct" as a shy baby monster hides behind his Mom.

Week One- "Celebrate"

Watercolor illustration on this week's theme of "Celebrate" from IllustrationFriday.com
Happy Valentine's Day!