Mona the Manikin

So this is the actual watercolor still life of Mona the Manikin.  My teacher gave her a different name.. yeah......

If I could go back I'd give it more highlights and work with lighting better.... but after the thousands of layers... it's difficult to go back.

This was alot of fun to do... I miss painting people.  I'm not amazing at it.. but I feel comfortable painting faces.

In a few days, I'm going away and I'll be on a plane.... is it possible to draw on a plane?  I haven't been on one forever and I don't know how bumpy it's going to be.

Animals

Watercolor... Illustration project for an article.. I just spent 5 hours matting a piece.. I'm tired.....

Dead and Lovely

I love Tom Waits.


This was inspired by his song, Dead and Lovely, which was in Wristcutters: A Love Story.  Awesome song... awesome musician, awesome movie. Despite the morbid pen drawing.. I'm quite happy right now.

My next piece is something for my boyfriend's birthday tomorrow. I'll load it as soon as I can...

Mona Distorted

Art can be therapy, and it can also cause distress.  Lately, I’ve been creating a lot of work that I’ve been unhappy with because it’s been overworked in a style that’s not even my own.  I’m trying to impress the teacher and the “invisible client” ... but I’m not impressing myself or creating anything that’s “me”.  I need to find my own style before I can start creating pieces that I’ll like and that people will like. 

     The fact is, I like working loose, not completely realistic, yet not abstract.  I like interesting, vibrant, dull, and monochromatic color schemes, penwork, lots of messy lines… and I love figures/ people - that aren’t completely realistic. From now on... I’m going to try to create things in school that are MY style... whatever that is. I know I’m not the only artist trying to find his or her unique style... we all deal with this inner struggle.                                            It’s quite a pain.   You go through this melodramatic artist in a crisis phase where you begin to doubt your own work and wonder if you should really be in art school.  I would consider this my style... and this made me happy.  I think the solution is pretty simple….

Anyways, this is based off of my watercolor still life of Mona, an armless manikin. 

MISSING!!!!

   So the Great Burgerelli appears to be missing.  He used to be in the Red Eye (A free Chicago newspaper) every last Thursday of the month, but it's been two months since I've seen his wonderful descriptions of hamburgers.  It's possible I could have missed him but the last time I saw him was on a Tuesday.. so that worries me. I'm not a huge fan of hamburgers.. but his way of describing food could make me drool over baby food.  After reading one of his articles I start craving hamburgers and fries... and as I said before. i don't even them that much.  I always looked forward to  his articles, and if he's gone, dead, or if the mafia got him, I'd be pretty upset.  He is the greatest hamburger critic known to man, and he will be dearly missed (if he really is gone).

The Great Burgerelli is owned by the Red Eye or Metromix people ( I honestly don't know.. he is a mysterious figure).  The above drawing was done by me.. but i do not own the artwork.

Unfortunately I haven't gotten any artwork back that I can post up.. so it's probably all going to come at once.. I apoligize.  this entry was just an excuse to say that.

http://chicago.metromix.com/restaurants/bar_review/burger-time-cortlands-garage/650259/content

New Balloonman Character: Hint, he likes time

I'm trying to create more characters for my balloonman series, and this one a an elderly man who is obsessed with time... he carries several amounts of watches, sundials, pocket watches, and he lives inside of a building similar to Big Ben, but not Big Ben.  He's always on time, he's extremely exact with every second... he evens times his 2 minutes and 34 seconds to smell the flowers every thursday.

This was a quick pen drawing I did.. Enjoy!!!!

Star Gazing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crXjfHls3fU

     A quick pen drawing of the ballonman and his girlfriend!

     My boyfriend are celebrating 20 months this week and on really clear nights, we like to watch the stars.  Unfortunately, clear nights are rare, and most of the time we only get to see a few stars.  But once in a while the sky looks like it's been photoshopped and clarified to the max.  It's amazing how something so still could be so entertaining to watch.
    The best place to watch the stars from is on a slanted roof with blankets.. and you basically just nest up there........... someday we should make a fort up there.
     It's an amazing feeling to have been with someone you're so comfortable with and that you share so much with.  He really is a lot of inspiration for me.
     Anyways, hes majoring in film and wants to be an editor/ director... here's a video he recently did for school!  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crXjfHls3fU

Fly Away

This was a quick pen drawing I did to get back in a "flow" .. whatever that means.  But i plan on doing alot more of these that are going to be Balloonman themed.  The extremely messy cross-hatching was done on purpose.. but I'm not entirely sure it was successful. but this was fun to do... and super easy and fast.
Enjoy!


P.S. The great Burgerelli is back!!!!

Donuts

One of my recent projects was to paint sweets.  I decided donuts would be fun, and so did many other kids in my class.. so it didn't stand out from the crowd at all.  But for realistic donuts, I'm kinda proud of this. Done with watercolor.

Actually, I wanted to start a project really different from what I'm used to.  I'd like to venture into the realm of stop motion animation.  If anyone has good tips, please share. I have some plans.. but I'm going to wait to say anything.  Sorry for the insanely boring entries...

Candyland: Halloween Themed

Another project for Illustration, but I think I'm going to fix this one up.  Our assignment was to take some kind of game and create an ad for it.  My group chose Candyland and decided (or our class decided) to try a Halloween themed version.  But i need to fix the depth of the piece, and fix up colors... something with me and color schemes, I focus so much on them but then forget everything else.. and in the end, I'm still not happy with the colors. Otherwise, not much to do with say for this. Done in watercolor and concentrated watercolor.

I actually have a secret project I want to start for the summer.. more to tell later!

Electric Chair

     Finally, a new image to post... sorry about the wait. 
This was an interesting project, because we basically got a very rough drawing that someone else did and had to redo it in our own style, and finalize it. All mine was a business man in an electric chair.  I'm partial to this painting because it took a lot of setting up and planing to get it right.  And in the end, I'm not sure how to feel about it.  there are things I wish I could fix, but I guess its at it's point in the "pyramid of doneness".  This was done in watercolor, goauche, and concentrated watercolor, which I love and hate.

Heart Chicago Motel

My most recent watercolor project was to paint a sign, and I chose the Heart Chicago Motel sign which I thought was near my house, but I was wrong. It's a nice sign, but the motel looks sleazy.  Anyways.. can't write much because I barely get any time to do anything online.  I have no internet at home (insanely slow dial-up isn't real internet) and that severely what I can do online... not to mention networking.  Anyways... I want to start commissions soon to get some money for school.  More information later....

Guitar Center Catalog

 

     This was for a project in Illustration where we had to redesign a catalog.  I really wanted to do a loose style and I thougt a guitar catalog would be perfect for that.  But it seems like the more you redraw something, the more strict and dull it becomes.  My first drawing was really expressive, and I liked it.  I wish I started straight from that and not deal with all of the comps and sketches.  But tha's not the Illustration process, is it?  That's why stuff outside of school is sometimes easier to work on.. and I end up liking it more.

Anyways, about the piece itself,  it was done in watercolor and touched up digitally (the colored swirls mainly).

More Digital Paintings... "PB and Jelly" and "Creepers"

I'm still getting used to the tablet, I can imagine something amazing in my mind, the only problem is recreating it.   But the tablet is a lot of fun to use.. I just need to practice, and this is what I have been doing the past couple of days.  "PB and Jelly" was originally going to be multicolored.. but then it looked too chaotic, so I chose a limited color palette.  The swirls were unintentional... I messed with the smudge button and decided to go along with it.  I really want to try this one again.. Maybe give it more detail.  The only problem is that my photoshop program can only handle so much.. it's very sensitive.

     "Creepers" is based off a shirt I bought from Threadless.  It's one of my favorite shirts and it has these adorable monsters creeping out from behind buildings.  Mine is nowhere near as good as that.  But it was something quick to do, along with the Jellyfish piece.  Hopefully I'll do some things that take a lot of time.  I just need a lot of practice.. and I'm sorry I'm subjecting you to my test pieces.

Campaign Logo

This was a logo I had done for my boyfriend's friend's dad who is running for Commissioner in his area. He asked me to make a logo for his brochures and his website. I've only done a logo once before for my astronomy club in high school which was supposed to be used on the sweatshirt, but unfortunately never got made due to the lack of funds and participation from others. It's very simple, but I think that's what I was supposed to do. I'm not a graphics major, but some experience would be good, especially for a resume. If you want to know why I used a tree, his idea is to for his district to go "green", so therefore; a tree. I really wish I knew how to use Illustrator, I'm sure it would have looked a lot better and would have been done faster.

By the way, I would love comments lol.. I haven't gotten a single one yet -_-