Illustration Friday: Refresh

With one day left, I jumped on it.  This made me miss my dojo loaches.

It has arrived…

Not me, It, but the Self Portrait Project from Art House! It’s a 4 in x 4 in gallery wrapped canvas, primed and ready-to-go! I’m currently trying to figure out just how many of my personalities I can fit on this bad boy…

There’s also a note card explaining the rules – the same stuff on the site, just in paper form (easy for those of us that get cranky from staring at a screen for too long).

Who else has done this?! Tell me! If you haven’t yet, I still suggest you swing over to the Art House Co-op and see what projects they have going on there (for free and for dollars).

The Sketchbook Project 2012…

Has gone the way of The Fiction Project.

This is Procrastinator 2: (Putting Off) Judgment Day. In this version, everyone (including Terminators) plops down on the sofa and nothing gets accomplished because they’re too busy watching American Dad and eating hummus with crackers. No one dies and Linda Hamilton doesn’t develop arms that could break Chuck Norris in two. Nope.

I should now tell you that I started writing this post on Saturday (2 days ago). On Saturday I was under the impression that my Sketchbook Project had to be post-marked by January 21st. Clearly I missed that, so I did what I typically do every time I feel defeated: I give up and internally give my self a “talking-to” about why I suck and how I need to take a course on the Meaning of Time and How it Works, or something like that.

Pouting, I opened Opera and headed over to the Art House Co-op to check out the other artists and see what was going on with them, and pout some more. When I did that, I saw a date: January 31st! I realized that I originally misread it (I do this frequently – numbers don’t look like they’re supposed to in my head) and I still had time!!!! Yesterday, I whipped out a bunch of drawings that don’t make one bit of sense and finished the Sketchbook Project. Today I put the book in a bubble sleeve, weighed it, slathered it with stamps, and shoved it in the mail-hole. Fingers crossed that the postage on USPS is correct!

Woohoo! This might be the first time I have completed something within the time frame I am given! I would celebrate, but I have to go watch It’s Always Sunny so I’ll celebrate later…

Tinker Bell taps out…

It’s 5:03 a.m. and I finally finished the painting for Rick. The final stretch – adding glitter paint – was the most fun! Fingers crossed that a fixative will hold and not run…

Here it is…kind of. I couldn’t seem to get a very good picture. Perhaps it’s because I’m tired.

Illustration Friday: Highlight

I immediately thought of text being highlighted (this specific writing). I suppose that’s not too bad, except this is supposed to be an illustration of some kind. So I stuck with my text idea, but also tried to scratch out (badly) an illustrated hand. My hand, to be clear – that is how I actually hold my pens and pencils. Not paintbrushes, though! Enjoy!

If you were a fairy….

Where would you live?

In November a friend, Rick, asked me to paint a picture for his little girl. He digs my style and wanted a picture made that incorporated Tinker Bell. His daughter is MAD for Tinker Bell. Not only was I flattered that he asked me to do this, but I was also nervous. The initial thought I had is my style and Tinker Bell do not go together at least not in an age-appropriate fashion. He chuckled at that Statement of Truth and was confident that I could pull it off.

Because of the hecticness of November, I got a late start on the painting. Then because of my nerves and previous experiences with doing these kinds of things for family, I kept thinking I cant do this!, “He’s going to hate it!”, “She’ll have nightmares!”, and so on. I didnt know what materials to use, I didnt know what colors to use, I didnt know what kind of landscape or background I needed, etc This is when I took in a breath and asked myself:

If you were a fairy, where would you live?

Hooray for an unbridled imagination! Channeling not my own inner little girl, but what I know from Ricks little girl, I started getting these images rapidly firing off in my head. Bursts of colors and happy and light and fun! Exciting and pretty! PINK PINK PINK! Sparkles! Glitter! I’m sure princesses and ponies belong in there somewhere. I do have to admit, working on this has been hella fun – his little girl is a GIRLY girl…possibly the girliest little girly girl I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting.

And so here I am, paint brush in hand, trying my best to piece together all those pictures in my brain, make one big picture, and slap a Tinker Bell on top! By the way, Tinker Bell has been giving me a hard time. Seriously. WHY am I having such a hard time drawing her?! I has taken me for-ev-er and I still don’t have her right.

Here is a glimpse at this WIP:

Illustration Friday: “Separated”

It is Wednesday and in 2 days a new theme will be given on Illustration Friday, but I ‘na care…I wanted to do one right now so I did.

I LOVE MS PAINT! I do. It has been a favorite of mine since high school “supposed-to-be-working-but-goofing-off-instead” time. And when I’m sleepy or just need to move my hands without much thought, this type of drawing appears. Paint, colored pencil, marker, and now in MS Paint. Naked lady with blocks of color separating her. Apparently I enjoy that sort of thing.

Here it be, yo.

Illustration Friday’s “Vanity”

Before drawing this I wanted to doodle a bit to prepare for whipping out “Vanity”.  That’s what I told myself anyway.  I spent over an hour working on some eye as “preparation” and completely forgot about I.F.  Hand tired, back and neck cramped and on fire I scratched this thing out.

A chick.  A pile of bodies.  A hand mirror.  What else could anyone ask for?

Illustration Friday: “Silent”

A quickie!

Illustration Friday’s “Fuel”

A few years ago I discovered this gem of a site “Illustration Friday”. It’s perfect for us creative cats who need a bit of motivation or fun. Because I’m absent-minded and a procrastinator, I have posted a total of maybe 3 illustrations. That’s about 1 per year! Yeah…

So, this week’s topic is “fuel”. There were many thoughts that swarmed around in my head and a few drawings were made, but I just couldn’t feel them. And then I got it.

Backstory: On October 19, 2011 the Dalai Lama lead a day long prayer and global fast in honor of the people of Tibet who have self-immolated, were killed, or are jailed for fighting for human rights. This day of solidarity was something that I wanted to participate in and while I’m not religious and have few true beliefs, one strong one is that I believe that our minds are incredibly powerful and even sending out positive thoughts/energy can have an effect. Although I’m terrible at being calm and clear headed, I chose to fast and (try to) meditate in support.

I sometimes use candles to help me focus on something and nothing while meditating. I used a tea light and as I was drawn into the flame, I experienced some slight visual disturbance – enough to give me an image. The base of the flame looked like the silhouette of a person sitting in a typical meditative position. Of course it looked like it was surrounded – or on – fire. That made me think of those that self-immolated. I continued on, but the image didn’t leave my head.

I chose to illustrate that image for “Fuel”. To me, it goes beyond thinking of fuel as an accelerant. The fuel is many things: oppression, hate, desire for change, self-sacrifice, a statement. Thinking of the ancient elements: earth, water, fire, and wind, fire was the only one that could produce a chemical change. Anything could be something else.