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I finished a new piece for my portfolio!  This was a fun one. I've been wanting to do an Illustration of the Firebird for a long time. I saved a JPEG periodically as I worked, so you can see how the picture progressed. When I was done, it occurred to me that the composition had a sort of twisting shape not unlike the golden section... so I grabbed an images of the golden section from the internet and put it over the picture. It doesn't fit perfectly, but it fits oddly well for something that was not intentional. Progress photos from sketch to finish:
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Lately I've kind of been working through a portfolio overhaul. I've had to sit down and say, what do I like to draw? How do I like to work? What do I need to work on? What are my strengths? As I've worked through answering those questions, I've created several "Portraits" of some of my favorite characters from my favorite books. I've learned a lot doing this project, and plan to keep adding to this set. So far, I have six portraits. Here they are, in no particular order: 
Ani, from The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale This book has been a favorite for a long time. When I first read it, I loved the fact that I looked a lot like the main character, Ani, with long blonde hair and green eyes. I realized that all of the fanart I've seen for the book shows Ani's long blonde hair. It is an important part of her character and important to the plot of the book. But she spends much (even most) of the book hiding her hair and dying her eyebrows dark to disguise her identity. So I thought, why not do a portrait of her as she would appear for most of the book--not a long-haired princess, but as a goose girl with a scarf covering her hair. 
Attolia, from the Queen's Thief series by Megan Whalen Turner So many pictures of Attolia show her proud, her head held high as she looks down her nose at you. I've drawn some of those. But for this one, I wanted to show her feeling a little less secure--still beautiful and queenly, but like someone who would ask, "Who am I, that you should love me?" 
Iselle, from the Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold Most of the portraits here are of the main (or at least title) characters in each book, but not this one. I was intimidated by trying to draw a beard on Cazaril and trying to get it to look right. Iselle is such a great character in this book, though, I wanted to try a portrait of her and try to capture her personality--smart and capable. 
Lord Peter Wimsey, from the Lord Peter Wimsey Mysteries |
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As you can see from the string in the photo at the top, I strung mine into a necklace, but you can use these for any kind of St. Patrick's decorating you want to do.
Does the shape look familiar? That might be beecause you can use the same shape for a slightly different craft on Valentine's day: http://www.sarahluann.com/blog/paper-heart-baskets
So maybe St. Valentine and St. Patrick were friends or something ;-)
Have fun!
Does the shape look familiar? That might be beecause you can use the same shape for a slightly different craft on Valentine's day: http://www.sarahluann.com/blog/paper-heart-baskets
So maybe St. Valentine and St. Patrick were friends or something ;-)
Have fun!
So as I've been trying to put together some new work in "my style"--whatever that might be--I keep hitting walls. What do I want to do? What are the defining characteristics of "my style"?
What do I even like?
So I decided to do an exercise I've seen a few times on other artist's blogs--an "influence map". This seems to have been a thing a couple years ago, and I saw a bunch of them around and then the trend kind of died. I liked the idea of it even though I never really used it until now.
So, here it is:
What do I even like?
So I decided to do an exercise I've seen a few times on other artist's blogs--an "influence map". This seems to have been a thing a couple years ago, and I saw a bunch of them around and then the trend kind of died. I liked the idea of it even though I never really used it until now.
So, here it is:
The map is arranged the way it makes sense to me--its my map, I can do what I want ;-). Obviously, I'm in the center. The artists whose pieces actually touch mine are closest to the type of style I'd like to work in. The bigger the piece, the more I'd like to emulate their work in my own.
A little about each artist:
1. John Singer Sargent--The man was crazy awesome at what he did. Painterly portraits, fabric textures described with just a few brush strokes, expressions and colors and shapes that tell you about each person. Man, that guy was crazy skilled. His piece doesn't quite touch the "me" in the middle because, most days, I don't want to paint portraits, I want to paint stories. You can argue about how different those two things if you want, but in any case, If I could create pictures with a fraction of this guy's skill I could die happy.
2. Norman Rockwell--also doesn't touch the little "Me" piece in the center, but I seriously love so much of his work. His story telling ability, his sense of humor, and especially his ability to manipulate the human face into any expression while still maintaining its real-ness... wow.
3. N. C. Wyeth--wow. This guy was awesome. I kind of want to be N.C. Wyeth. I could say that about most of the people on this map, but I'd probably say it about him the most. Could we please go back to the golden age of illustration where novels were illustrated with awesome huge painterly colorful paintings? Because that would be awesome.
4. J. C. Leyendecker. Man, that guy knew how to use a paint brush. He has the most deliberate brush work I've ever seen.
5. Alphonse Mucha--he only gets a little sliver, because I don't really want to be Mucha... but I do really like to draw pretty ladies with swirly hair and drapey clothes. And this guy is seriously the master of pretty ladies with swirly hair and drapey clothes.
6. The Secret of Kells. Yeah, it's a movie, not an artist, but this movie really helped me to understand how much I love simplified shapes and highly stylized characters. I love watching it to this day. It doesn't touch "me" in the center of the map because I don't really want to make movies, but I want to make art with cool textures.
7. Jake Parker. Above my computer I have a little not to myself, which I picked up from this guy--"FINISHED, NOT PERFECT." I need to remember this, to help me to push through to the end of each project. I think this saying is great because it addresses what I see as two of the most common problems creators have--either jumping from idea to idea without finishing any of them, or not moving on from one idea because they have to noodle with it until it's perfect.
In addition to the "FINISHED, NOT PERFECT" mantra, watching and listening to his videos about sketchbooks has really helped me to love my sketchbook. I'm not sure I can say I ever really loved sketching before--It was something I did because I was an artist and I was supposed to. Now, its fun. I don't really like drawing robots or monsters or anything that Jake seems to love drawing, but he was a huge influence just for helping me to love my sketching.
8. Tom Whalen is the king of vectors and color schemes, in my opinion. Ironically maybe for someone as in love with painterly art as much as I am, Illustrator always made more sense to me as a way to work digitally. Photoshop just frustrates me. I would be for book covers or childrens books what Tom Whalen is for movie posters.
9.Tom Duxbury is an Illustrator I only came across recently, but I love his simple shapes and color schemes. He is definitely one that I'll keep track of.
10. Margaret Chodos-Irvine makes the coolest prints--to illustrate childrens books! She also writes. Yeah, basically I want to be her.
11. Charley Harper is known for his simplified animal illustrations. Look them up, they're super cool.
12. Shaun Tan wrote AND illustrated my favorite short story collection of all time, Tales from Outer Suburbia. Each story in it has a different illustration style, but each style is well executed and interesting. I love his textures and weird creatures.
13. Jon Foster paints the coolest book covers ever. And he works both digitally and traditionally, sometimes moving back and forth between them for one piece. Cool, eh?
14. Gregory Manchess does awesome painterly illustrative work.
Whew. Looking at this list, I'm inspired and intimidated. I've got some work to do.
By putting this together, I am able to see some gaps in my work that I need to fill. They are:
1. Backgrounds/environments. I'm bad at them. I need to do more with them.
2. Textures. I love it when people incorporate textures into their work, but I haven't done much of that lately. I need to figure out how to use them more in my work.
3. I seem to have two loves--painterly, on the left side of the map, and shape-y (pretend that's a word) on the right. This might mean that ultimately I'll have two portfolios. I think that first I'll work on shape-y, and then after I've got that together, I'll move to building up a portfolio that is more painterly.
This ended up being a really fun exercise. If anyone else puts one of these together, give me a link! I'd love to see it.
A little about each artist:
1. John Singer Sargent--The man was crazy awesome at what he did. Painterly portraits, fabric textures described with just a few brush strokes, expressions and colors and shapes that tell you about each person. Man, that guy was crazy skilled. His piece doesn't quite touch the "me" in the middle because, most days, I don't want to paint portraits, I want to paint stories. You can argue about how different those two things if you want, but in any case, If I could create pictures with a fraction of this guy's skill I could die happy.
2. Norman Rockwell--also doesn't touch the little "Me" piece in the center, but I seriously love so much of his work. His story telling ability, his sense of humor, and especially his ability to manipulate the human face into any expression while still maintaining its real-ness... wow.
3. N. C. Wyeth--wow. This guy was awesome. I kind of want to be N.C. Wyeth. I could say that about most of the people on this map, but I'd probably say it about him the most. Could we please go back to the golden age of illustration where novels were illustrated with awesome huge painterly colorful paintings? Because that would be awesome.
4. J. C. Leyendecker. Man, that guy knew how to use a paint brush. He has the most deliberate brush work I've ever seen.
5. Alphonse Mucha--he only gets a little sliver, because I don't really want to be Mucha... but I do really like to draw pretty ladies with swirly hair and drapey clothes. And this guy is seriously the master of pretty ladies with swirly hair and drapey clothes.
6. The Secret of Kells. Yeah, it's a movie, not an artist, but this movie really helped me to understand how much I love simplified shapes and highly stylized characters. I love watching it to this day. It doesn't touch "me" in the center of the map because I don't really want to make movies, but I want to make art with cool textures.
7. Jake Parker. Above my computer I have a little not to myself, which I picked up from this guy--"FINISHED, NOT PERFECT." I need to remember this, to help me to push through to the end of each project. I think this saying is great because it addresses what I see as two of the most common problems creators have--either jumping from idea to idea without finishing any of them, or not moving on from one idea because they have to noodle with it until it's perfect.
In addition to the "FINISHED, NOT PERFECT" mantra, watching and listening to his videos about sketchbooks has really helped me to love my sketchbook. I'm not sure I can say I ever really loved sketching before--It was something I did because I was an artist and I was supposed to. Now, its fun. I don't really like drawing robots or monsters or anything that Jake seems to love drawing, but he was a huge influence just for helping me to love my sketching.
8. Tom Whalen is the king of vectors and color schemes, in my opinion. Ironically maybe for someone as in love with painterly art as much as I am, Illustrator always made more sense to me as a way to work digitally. Photoshop just frustrates me. I would be for book covers or childrens books what Tom Whalen is for movie posters.
9.Tom Duxbury is an Illustrator I only came across recently, but I love his simple shapes and color schemes. He is definitely one that I'll keep track of.
10. Margaret Chodos-Irvine makes the coolest prints--to illustrate childrens books! She also writes. Yeah, basically I want to be her.
11. Charley Harper is known for his simplified animal illustrations. Look them up, they're super cool.
12. Shaun Tan wrote AND illustrated my favorite short story collection of all time, Tales from Outer Suburbia. Each story in it has a different illustration style, but each style is well executed and interesting. I love his textures and weird creatures.
13. Jon Foster paints the coolest book covers ever. And he works both digitally and traditionally, sometimes moving back and forth between them for one piece. Cool, eh?
14. Gregory Manchess does awesome painterly illustrative work.
Whew. Looking at this list, I'm inspired and intimidated. I've got some work to do.
By putting this together, I am able to see some gaps in my work that I need to fill. They are:
1. Backgrounds/environments. I'm bad at them. I need to do more with them.
2. Textures. I love it when people incorporate textures into their work, but I haven't done much of that lately. I need to figure out how to use them more in my work.
3. I seem to have two loves--painterly, on the left side of the map, and shape-y (pretend that's a word) on the right. This might mean that ultimately I'll have two portfolios. I think that first I'll work on shape-y, and then after I've got that together, I'll move to building up a portfolio that is more painterly.
This ended up being a really fun exercise. If anyone else puts one of these together, give me a link! I'd love to see it.
I feel like I've finally had time lately to start thinking about my art, what my style is, and where I want to take it. I want to get ready to send out mailers, but I want to rope in my portfolio and give it a bit more cohesiveness before telling any potential employers to come take a look.
The first thing up is a new logo. See it up there? I finally decided that I just needed to see what it looks like. I think I like it, but don't love it. However, I like it better than the plain text that used to be up on top, so for now it stays.
The first thing up is a new logo. See it up there? I finally decided that I just needed to see what it looks like. I think I like it, but don't love it. However, I like it better than the plain text that used to be up on top, so for now it stays.
I focused mostly on my initials, so its more of a monogram kind of logo. There were a couple other concepts I liked, but I didn't feel like they read as easily, so I stuck with the simpler design.
Also, being a illustrator rather than a graphic designer, I'm better at appreciating good font choices than making them myself. Its something I'm working at, and I'm much better than I was, but its still a struggle.
So, that's what I've got so far. In the next couple months I'm planning to do a major portfolio overhaul and do a bunch of new work in a more consistent style--the new Rapunzel piece is a start for that. I actually played around with the idea of doing a silhouette of Rapunzel with her wagon of hair for my logo--I may yet figure out something to do with that.
More new art will be here in the next few months. Stay tuned!
So, that's what I've got so far. In the next couple months I'm planning to do a major portfolio overhaul and do a bunch of new work in a more consistent style--the new Rapunzel piece is a start for that. I actually played around with the idea of doing a silhouette of Rapunzel with her wagon of hair for my logo--I may yet figure out something to do with that.
More new art will be here in the next few months. Stay tuned!
What symbol represents a blog?
Well, just.. a blog.
This is the tenth in my WHATS YOUR SUPER POWER? series. Do you know what that means?
I finished it! Hooray! I'm so proud of myself.
This is far from the biggest project I've finished, but its one of the few that was completely mine. Not an assignment for work or school, no credit from anyone else but me.
And, independent of this project, I've been blogging much more regularly than I thought I would when I started a few months ago. It's actually fun. And also a super power.
Well, just.. a blog.
This is the tenth in my WHATS YOUR SUPER POWER? series. Do you know what that means?
I finished it! Hooray! I'm so proud of myself.
This is far from the biggest project I've finished, but its one of the few that was completely mine. Not an assignment for work or school, no credit from anyone else but me.
And, independent of this project, I've been blogging much more regularly than I thought I would when I started a few months ago. It's actually fun. And also a super power.
And you can get it on a shirt.
ALSO. Guess what came last night--just in time to post with the last entry of this series?
MY SHIRT! I had Richard snap a quick picture of me in it. Against a wall, because thats where pictures always turn out funny looking, so I have an excuse ;-).
This one is a little embarassing. Not to mention ridiculous. Because really, why would an animator want a shirt I designed when they can draw so much better than I can?
Don't argue. You know it's true.
It took me so much scribbling and erasing and tweaking just to get this little sequence of a simple blobby figure.
Well, it is what it is. I did my best. I don't claim to have this super power.
Yet.
Don't argue. You know it's true.
It took me so much scribbling and erasing and tweaking just to get this little sequence of a simple blobby figure.
Well, it is what it is. I did my best. I don't claim to have this super power.
Yet.
Click here to get it on a shirt.
Some people are just super cool and their brains work in ways that I just can't comprehend.
Me, I feel proud of myself when I plunk through some music that somebody else wrote. And I've sung alto for long enough that sometimes I can make up a harmony for something that doesn't sound too bad.
But I can't actually make up songs myself. That takes serious skill.
Or should I say a super power.
Me, I feel proud of myself when I plunk through some music that somebody else wrote. And I've sung alto for long enough that sometimes I can make up a harmony for something that doesn't sound too bad.
But I can't actually make up songs myself. That takes serious skill.
Or should I say a super power.
Click here to get it on a shirt.
This next one is probably the most mysterious to me. I'm proud of myself for just knowing how to drive a car. (I can now drive stick--are you impressed? Yeah. Didn't think so.)
But what the heck goes on inside of a car?
I really don't know.
People who have this knowledge are really impressive to me. Like, super hero impressive.
But what the heck goes on inside of a car?
I really don't know.
People who have this knowledge are really impressive to me. Like, super hero impressive.
Click here to get it on a shirt.
Use this link to get free shipping on anything in my shop.
A few years ago, I happened to be reading in "my spot" in my college apartment--the end seat of the couch, nearest to the table lamp. I don't remember exactly what I was reading, but I know around that time it was likely to be something by Elizabeth Wein or Dorothy Sayers. I do know that I really wanted to be paying attention to my book, but one of my roommates had a guy friend over, who I think she kinda liked. While they talked, she admitted that one of the things she really wanted to do was write for children.
This guy didn't think that was cool or interesting. "Oh, thats easy," he said, and made a sort of scribbling motion, showing how effortless it would be to write a children's story.
I wrote a somewhat less coherent blog post about it at the time.
I still have a grudge against that guy. And I only met him once.
Well, maybe grudge is the wrong word. I'm just very frustrated by that attitude in general, and in my mind that guy is kind of a representation of anyone who thinks writing is easy.
Writing books is hard, people.
Especially books for kids.
Its basically a super power.
This guy didn't think that was cool or interesting. "Oh, thats easy," he said, and made a sort of scribbling motion, showing how effortless it would be to write a children's story.
I wrote a somewhat less coherent blog post about it at the time.
I still have a grudge against that guy. And I only met him once.
Well, maybe grudge is the wrong word. I'm just very frustrated by that attitude in general, and in my mind that guy is kind of a representation of anyone who thinks writing is easy.
Writing books is hard, people.
Especially books for kids.
Its basically a super power.
Click this link to get free worldwide shipping
This link goes directly to the shirt (but won't give you free shipping): http://society6.com/product/i-write-books-whats-your-super-power_t-shirt#11=49&4=101&5=17
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