Meeting an Inspiration

Today I went to a children's book store for a booksigning and heard a talk from Chris Van Allsburg. His speech was inspiring and definitely motivated me to get my stuff done for the rest of the semester. He said that he is self taught and his advice to young artist's was to just keep going at it. Do what you want to do and do it all the time. He enjoys what he does and loves having control of what he draws, which is why he writes his own books as well.

Or Maybe, Bathroom Stuff

Or Maybe, Rocks

Or Maybe, Game Pieces

Option ?

Drummin'

Here is the start of a colored page. I'm trying it digitally and have to figure out a way for my illustrations to match my text

Or Maybe, Kitchen things

Or Maybe, Things you find in your couch

Or Maybe, Pots and Pans

Or Maybe, Crayons

This is the crayon one... I might change a few things but that's what it gets for now.

Or Maybe, Tools

Or Maybe, Random

Or Maybe, legos

Here is some type I've been playing with. It is for my children's book.

Beginning stage of a Children's book.

Here is a spread, in its very rough stage. I hand drew these and scanned them in. I would like to try and digitally color them so we will see how that goes. Lets face it, the digital world can't be avoided forever.

Dancing

I love to paint and these two paintings show how I can get lost in doing so. I am also a dancer so I was able to relate to what the figures in the painting are actually doing. These were both very fun to do.

First Book; Cattywampus

Here are some pictures of the children's book I did last year for class. The inside pages are mostly just rough black and white sketches. There are 2 spreads and a single page with complete color and finished illustrations.

A tiger and his wood

Here is an editorial piece I did a few months ago. I really came out of my comfort zone for this one, only because I am not very into the gossip of things, especially when it comes to more famous people. In this I suggested that yes, Woods focuses very hard on the sport of golf, but like anyone else... sometimes he has his mind on other things.

References?

When you are doing work for something and you need a reference, the easiest one to use is yourself. I thought it would be fun to show how I am using myself as a reference for my newest children's book this semester. It's a bit of a sneak peek but I think it will be ok :)

Second Children's book

For my next children's book that I am doing for class I want to play with the idea of a child learning what the imagination is. I'm not sure how I want to word it quite yet but I am playing with the idea of how as a child, we used simple house hold items to help take us to another world. Like if you were going to sword fight a dragon, you could wear a colander on your head, have a pillow case as a cape, a pillow for a shield and a ladle as your weapon of choice :) This is just a sketch of what I had in mind.

Sketch time.

I was at a party and as a typical artist I felt like drawing. Here is a sketch from my sketchbook. I didn't like the drawing that was previously on the page so I just drew over it. Sometimes it gives a cool effect to a drawing if you layer images like that.

One more portrait.

Forgot to put up the last portrait. This one is done with acrylic paint on cardboard and sand paper. It kind of came out like a side walk chalk drawing.

Self Portraits

This first face is made with melted crayola crayons. I sat down at a table with a torch and went at it. A new way of coloring and it was alot of fun.
This one is all sewn together. I made a drawing on tracing paper and then with the sewing machine went on top of a grid of fabric I had also sewn together.
This was the first of six self portraits I completed. My dad got me the wood burner and I wanted to experiment with different lines and textures.
This one was gouache, sharpie and some yarn glued on top for extra emphasis. This was the final of the six and by this point, I was beginning to know my face more than I ever thought I would.
This portrait I experimented on more fabric but this time squirting ink right out of the bottles.

New Computer!

I finally got a computer after a whole year of waiting. I can update my work, but not until it loads on to the computer from my hard drive. Be on later tonight!

Ugh...

So I find myself still being lazy in the summer days. Still cleaning and trying to make space to do some kind of work. I opened my sketchbook for the first time in weeks today. Didn't do to much but it is a step in some kind of direction. I plan on getting a computer by the end of the month so I can finally post some pictures. And once I find my painting supplies (hopefully this week), I will get started with some new watercolor studies. I think I will work on some landscapes from around my parents house. Here are some pictures. One is a view of the pond and the other is a photo I took of my nephew while babysitting.

Mural from Summer of 2009

Here are some photos from a mural I did over last summer. It is at the local swing dance club. They were having a themed dance "Under The Sea" so they asked me to paint the mirrors. These are some of the characters I came up with. It was difficult at first to think of how I could relate dancing to Under the Sea but I think I succeeded. After drawing it all out it took only 5 hours to paint. I had a total of 5 colors to choose from. Sometimes I work better with restrictions and time limits.

Lizzie Borden

Lizzie Borden had an ax,
She gave her mother 40 wacks.
When she saw what she had done,
She gave her father 41.

My assignment was to paint Lizzie Borden. The poem above basically describes who she was. This is my progress so far. I still have to add color.

Childrens book spread.

Text for this page is: And as we are floating, something catches our eyes. A field full of flowers and blue butterflies.
I'm still working on my layouts for the other pages but I wanted to start painting one. I used watercolor and some of the elements of this painting will be used for my cover as well.

Start Here, Go Anywhere

I was given the phrase, "Start Here, Go Anywhere." My professor says that my grade may not be the best because he doesn't feel that I am being myself in my work. Nothing says SAM like crayons so this is what I came up with.

Pick up lines

For anyone who knows me, they know that I love pick up lines! They are always a good ice breaker and make great awkward moments. I had an assignment in 2009 to type set a book and create it. Instead of taking an already existing book, I chose to write a book of all my lines. Here are some pictures showing the book and the box that I made with it. I sewed a cover for the box out of an old pair of jeans and made sure that the back pocket was just inside the lid. It's a perfect sized pocket for a book of pick up lines. In the box itself, I made a pouch with the zipper and button. On the last page in the book it says that if any of the lines in the book are successful, you better check your zipper. When you look inside you see condoms. I love projects that allow me to be creative and make people laugh and I had plenty of fun with this one!

It's been a While.

It has been way too long since my last post. Sorry, but I swear more will come very soon. I'm in the process of so many projects right now so I will have plenty to show really soon. That's what happens when you are in your second semester of your junior year. Especially at a school like Pratt!