Mural Mock Up

I think the murals I have planned for the new house will restart my creative painting engines. This will have four layers: a base color layer that will open up on the ceiling to the blue that is already on the walls (adding clouds to soften the blue a bit), then a sponged on mist layer of a slightly lighter tone, then a darker than base color silhouette layer which will add depth and realism without me having to lose my mind painting every little thing, then a final full color layer that will be spaced out into "spots" of realism.

The thing about the Savannah mural I did was that was also 360 degrees was that I had to paint every blade of tall grass and it also was kind of claustrophobic because I didn't paint in atmospheric effects to lead the eye beyond the elements right up close. The effect was you were in a sea of grass, which was fine, but for a jungle if I tried that I would go bonkers fast. But, flipping through my many, many... MANY wildlife books, I saw that nature created a nifty shortcut: mist that creates shapes and shadows. I predict this will be much easier both to work on and to live with. I won't have to leave whole sections totally blank while I work on other parts of it. It will be like the jungle is emerging piece by piece.

The fun part, too, is auditioning animal/plant sources. I already decided it will be a South/Central American jungle, since I did Africa with my Savannah mural before. Almost chose Australia, but I really want toucans! I have my jaguar source, and a list of favorite plants from my terrarium building. Definitely a plus of home ownership: a JUNGLE Room! :)

updated Brady Bunch parody!

Redesign of Website take 2 or is it 3?

the white empty squares on either side will be horizontal scrolling portfolios that when clicked on will enlarge on a different page. The idea came from a book on new website design/ideas and I like the idea that a lot of my art could be quickly viewed all at once with the option of looking closer available. Clicking one at a time and even seeing a tiny preview thumbnail might slow things down in the fast paced art world. The light gray box in the middle at the bottom will be a news box with updates and hopefully release dates of future books. And I like the different backgrounds I got going on behind the design portfolios (argyle) and the illustration ones (floral/organic pattern). That's meant to show a left brain/right brain difference at work.

Now just have to sweet talk the hubby to build it :)

Art Deco Wedding Portrait

Holy god, that was a lot of frilly textures! Hahaha, it makes me laugh, cause I don't consider myself a frilly girl, and I think my wedding was restrained, but I had to go all out for the sake of the illustration :) Those who were there can keep a secret!

Salome Dancer

I'm taking some interest in Art Deco and Mucha in particular, so this is a belly dancer figure drawn in that heavily outlined way used back then... I like the flat use of color that was popular, too, back then, it's very graphic. I named it Salome because her expression looked like she was wanting a man's head on a platter... sometimes I don't get to choose!

zilker bridge

just a pen and ink drawing of the bridge at Zilker park for my 3x3" show

poster

the poster advertising the show... better get framing!

wombat

this just makes me happy... and I'm loving the handmade paper, it's like artist crack!

goat!

Here's a goat drawing I did in charcoal pencil... I like it because I came to that point where I don't think it'll pull through, but I played with it and now it's a keeper. It's going in my July 3x3" show...

logo artwork

A logo for a friend required some neat artwork, was fun to draw!

Ego Surgery

How would you show a man's ego getting medically taken out? Here's how I did!

Yoga Pretzel

One of the humorous illustrations for the "Yoga for the Pleasingly Plump" book I'm working on finishing (I didn't write it, just doing the illustrations!). Along with the technical illustrations showing the poses, I'm doing some fun "anecdotal" cartoons that go along with Keith's personal experiences. This one is about the fear and misconceptions that Yoga has... ie, getting stuck in a pretzel shape!

yoga cartoon

This is a rough sketch proposal that I just really like, it's about being "pleasantly plump" on a plane, how it's impossible to get comfortable, you spill over the sides, and of course he's seated by a cute girl and really thin guy...

hawk study

proud as a peacock

This is a digital preview of the silkscreen I plan to do (and I'm pleased just with this version!). The process of silkscreen is each color is considered a run, so this piece will have around 6 runs with 3 stencils cut out and doilies for texture, and a final "drawing fluid" run. Basically, it'll brush me up on doing these since it's been a decade since I had the class at Baylor! I'm looking forward to it!

start your silkscreens!

I made a small investment in a silkscreening setup so that I can make silkscreen prints (serigraphs) and also be able to silkscreen my art on tshirts and things. There's a lot you can do with Silkscreen, but it's that graphic look that I'm looking forward to playing with. This is a pattern I made of gecko feet that might be part of a background or laid over something... we'll see!

Mighty Texas Dog Walk

This was so fun today(that's Mike and Jill, I'm not in the collage), and I think I'll have to do an illustration or two from it. The weather was cool and the sky overcast, but the dogs were happy and perky. So many dogs and people, some in groups (like the poodle brigade and the corgi crew) I liked how the people and dogs were so varied and different, but we were all there doing the walk together. Have to say, the beagles and daschunds made the biggest showing, at least from where we were in the parade. And lots of tiny dogs were there, many in little sweaters and outfits. Hope to do it again next year :)

Wildflower Center

On my day off I loaded up the art bag and went down to the Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center and had a nice time taking pictures and drawing the flowers in bloom. Haven't actually been during the bluebonnet bloom and it was impressive.

self portrait

this was drawn over an actual photo of me, so the lines are true to life. Fun to do and I'm getting faster, too...

Ok, now let's blow the dust off this blog!

Well, I've had stuff going on, but that's no reason to neglect my blog. And truth be told, I haven't actually been much of an artist lately, so not much was going on in my head to talk about. I have been illustrating, though, and that's been running smoothly, but I'm way backed up on personal creative expression.

So I will endeavor to post some little doodle daily that I either do digitally or scan in. We'll see how it goes!

In the meantime...