I'm Still Here

Hi everyone!

Life has been busy over the past year since I started this blog.  It's been the best year of my life thanks to the decision I made to quit my job and go back to school for design.  I've met new people, had some great teachers, learned gobs of new things, and created like a mad woman.  And it will be continuing for another year.

This semester, I'm taking 3 art classes- life drawing, digital drawing, and art history; and 2 web design classes- HTML and Dreamweaver, and Flash.  It's been a crazy start to the year!  I have no doubt that I'll continue to learn at least a handful of new things every day.

Lately my mind has been going crazy with plans for the future.  I have a new idea at least once a week.  Business ideas, specialty areas, websites I want to create, freelancing, new techniques to try... the list goes on and on.  My husband hears me say all the time "Andy, guess what..." and then I get all serious and excited with probably this crazed look in my eyes like an animal that's been in a cage for the last decade and now is finally free to roam around.  I guess I'm nuts; but in a good way.

A fun project I have in the works right now in my digital drawing class:

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Abstract Pastel Drawing

School update!

 

One of our drawing projects this semester was to take a still life and abstract it.  We first drew the still life realistically (mine had a pedestal, grapes in a small pot, two flowers in a large bottle, a leafy plant in a pot, flourescent lights and poles in the background, and lots of tall leafy greens in the foreground). We then studied the objects and broke them down into basic shapes.  Then we did some sketches and chose one to be our final drawing while focusing on shapes, lines, overall composition, and a split complimentary color scheme.

 

We could decide to what extent the abstraction was (mine was on the far end of the spectrum), what colors to use, how the objects would be arranged, if we wanted it to be flat or have dimension, and if the space would be realistic or ambiguous. 

 

Here's about halfway through, as I was getting my basic colors in place:

 

 

I gave some objects some sort of dimension with some highlights, and I wanted my space to be ambiguous- so I tried to have my objects "fall into" each other, overlap in odd ways, and not make a lot of sense. 

 

Close to being done, with some colors that have yet to be blended & some spaces yet to fill in:

I really like how it turned out!  It has been, by far, my favorite drawing to complete.  The process was enjoyable from beginning to end.  I think abstraction is my thing. 

And here's some details with just a few of the many many many things my amazing drawing teacher has taught me! 

I love you, school!

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Abstract Pastel Self Portrait

Art teachers must love to have students draw self portraits, because this is my third one in my first year of school. 

If you missed my first two, here's my digital portraits here, and my painted/ stamped one here.

This one, we did with soft pastels, and it had to be abstract using complementary colors.

We were asked to take time studying our face in the mirror, and thinking about the planes of our face and what basic shapes each feature looked like.  Some of my shapes were just too weird... I hated making my nose like a triangle or rectangle, and even the basic circles for eyes were not doin' it for me.  I tried a couple close-eyed versions, and turning my nose to the side in profile, and that was better. 

So here are some of my sketches along with my first try which I didn't love. 

And here's the final version along with some close ups!

I blended everything on the face, smoothed the streaks in the hair to make them less dramatic, added some highlights and left the background streaky with a smorgasbord of lines.

What do you think?  Kinda creepy, right? 

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that one time i drew the unclothed mannequins

Here they are in all their glory.

Snicker, snicker... giggle, giggle... tee hee hee...

But in all honesty, I am so proud of this one (Though PLEASE ignore that horrible bottle!  I mean come on, Emma, ugh.)  I am incredibly happy with how much I've learned and grown in a few short months. 

I was nervous to draw "humans" because I haven't taken the life drawing class yet, but I ended up loving it.  My favorite part is the speckled front mannequin, I like the dimension I think I was able to give her, especially in the collarbone area and head.  I also like the left side of the drapery and the antlers. 

In other news:  this is my 100th post!  Perfect.

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the saga of the pastels

I mentioned in my last post that I've been struggling somewhat with using soft pastels in drawing class. 

Well, here's how it all started. 

I spent a whole day doing this drawing, my first pastel drawing, and then about 10 minutes after finishing and cleaning up, I was hit with the worst stomach flu ever of my life.  I then spent the next two days feeling sorry for myself and for my also-sick husband.  And I began associating my horrible nausea with my pastel drawing; therefore scarring me for life. 

Seriously, I couldn't even look at my art supplies or those cups or reindeer or any part of that still life for days.  When I had to go to drawing class 3 days later, I was practically horrified. 

But alas, me and pastels are working on our relationship, and I think it's about back to 100% okay with each other. 

Sooooooo, back to this assignment.  We had to set up a still life with an analagous color scheme and draw it using pastels, with some parts realistic and some parts abstract.  We could pretty much decide how it would all work together, but it was practice for our next 3 big in-class pastel drawings, which are to be realistic, then abstract, then non-representational. 

Here's how the drawing went.  I decided to simplify and abstract the tulips, ornaments, and apples.

And a side by side for my mom :)

I'm happy with how it turned out, but ARRRGGHH that was a bad day!!!




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Australian Animals Fabric + Contest

 

This week's Spoonflower contest is all about the amazingly loveable animals of Australia!  I had so much fun designing this fabric and I love the way it turned out.  Today I thought I'd share my design process.

 

I tend to get an immediate picture in my head when I first start a design, whether it be fabric for Spoonflower, a print or card for Etsy, or a project for school.  But once I have an idea to start with, it may change depending on how it looks once I start sketching things out and arranging them on the computer.

 

I'm lucky to be in a graphic design program that is part of what I believe is a solid art program.  My teachers believe in learning traditional art methods as well as the Adobe programs.  Even though it is just a two year program, it includes three semesters of drawing, as well as separate 2-D and 3-D design classes, in addition to many others.  My graphic design teacher also emphasizes sketching several thumbnail ideas before beginning work on the computer, which I love.

 

For this fabric, I knew I wanted to include animal silhouettes, so I began by sketching the animals I chose.  Absolutely nothing fancy.  

 

I scanned in my sketchbook pages, darkened the lines using Levels in Photoshop, and then placed the images in Illustrator so I could trace the outlines, fill in the shapes, and fix up anything that didn't look quite right.

I have to admit, I was sort of impressed with myself at this point.  It was like "ohmygoshthosearesocuteANDYCOMELOOKATMYANIMALS!!"  God bless him for looking every single time I asked him to :)  And I hope I'm not totally immature and annoying for getting excited about making something I think looks good.  But look at the funny kookaburra with the big head!  And the tough little cute ferocious tasmanian devil!

Next up was the fun part- arranging everything!  Here's where I played with colors, created my color palette, mixed up the sizes, duplicated shapes, added the circles and background, and made sure it looked visually balanced and would repeat well as a fabric design. 

At this point, I am sort of thinking about composition and design elements that I've learned in school, but a lot of it is also just my natural instinct, and what looks right to me.  I spend a lot of time making small adjustments, scooching objects a hair this way or that, changing colors, scaling things up or down, looking at the spaces between objects, etc. until I'm satisfied with how it looks to me.

I did some things in this fabric that I think give it depth and interest, such as overlapping the shapes in the foreground and adding the on-purpose unevenly spaced horizontal and vertical lines in the background.  It was amazing how much adding those stripes changed the way the whole design looked!

Here's how the design repeats at the size of a fat quarter for you sewers and quilters out there.

 

I think it's my favorite fabric creation so far!  What do you think? 

 

If you like it, please go vote in the contest!

 

Is your creative process anything like mine, or completely different?



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This update brought to you by...

Hello from little Pep Pep!

I've brought out the "big camera" as I call it and have started practicing with it again because I'm in a digital photography class this semester!

We have not one, but TWO local professional photographers who are team teaching it; and I feel like I have just won the lottery!  Not many people get this opportunity, I don't think. 

Classes are going well, and this semester will be different because I have two classes that are not art related.  One is business math and one is computers.  I'm actually excited for the math class because unlike a lot of people, I really like math.  In fact, it was my first college major!  Ha...  me and my majors have been around the block a time or two.  But me and math didn't last too long once I sobbed my sorry way through Calculus II. 

You guys, I am trying so hard to find time to blog, but after taking some time off around the holidays, I'm slow getting back into it.  I've been brainstorming what it is I REALLY want to say, show, and talk about.  Is it school?  Design?  My career change?  Literacy?  Daily life?  DIY Projects?  I'm trying to figure it out, but I hope to be back more regularly soon. 

Is there any type of post you like the best?  Should I have a focus, or just do what I feel like from day to day? 



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MIA update!

I have a little breather this weekend, and gosh darn it, I miss my blog!

So I wanted to take a quick minute and update you with some recent things that have been going on over here.  Or should I say 'ova hee-ya'?  Does that make me sound cooler?

Ha oh that reminds me of how I love that song "Cooler than me."  Anyone else?  You think you're cooler than me?  Yeah, you're probably definitely right.

Anyways... gosh I missed my blog.  It's my place to say whatever floats my boat!  Like 'floats my boat.'  Or 'for pete's sake.'  I love that one.  I remember hearing it a lot growing up.  "Oh, for pete's sake!"  What does it even mean?  (Ah, I googled it- and found it's a way to not be blasphemous- http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-pet2.htm)

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Okay so that was written on Friday, when I was like "oh yeah!  time to do my blog!"  Except for it was a fake out, and now it's Tuesday night.  But here I am, and here's some recent drawings I've done!

We learned 1 point and 2 point perspective in drawing class for our last unit.  I was happy to do something different than still life, but it was a challenge for sure.  I remember in high school art class, the 1 point perspective drawing was my worst grade.  It was actually the exact same assignment as this...

... to draw the inside of any room we wanted... a dream room if you will.  I think I did much better this time around, thankfully!  It may look pretty boring, but it was hours of work, and a couple do-overs. 

And here's the big drawing we did in class.  Mine is a new building we have on campus.  We used black paper, black and white pastel/ charcoal, and one color of pastel.  I really love the look of the monotone, and I'm happy with how it turned out. 

Here's the calculations and planning it took to get this done... I could never be an architect!  It seemed like such a mess in the beginning, and for the life of me, I could not get those windows to be even without measuring them all and then scaling up.  I know there's an easier way... right?

 Also... here's a clue to what my life has been for the last few weeks in my 2D class...

Making a graphic novel.  In a group.  Soooooooooo not my favorite thing.  Yes, I checked this book out to make sure I was even doing it correctly...

So how have you guys been!??  Any other exciting projects going on?




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fall colors + a train and a bridge

Hi guys!

A few weeks ago, we had an assignment to draw a landscape using gray paper and charcoal.  We had to use the same techniques as in my pumpkin drawing.

I had a couple ideas of what I wanted to draw, but I decided to drive around for a while to check out some spots and see if anything caught my eye.  I knew I would be spending a few hours outside doing this, and wanted to find something good! 

Look what I found! 

How beautiful was this spot?  This awesome bridge goes across the Mississippi River downtown.  I saw this view as I was driving and probably about wrecked my car as I was looking around to see if there was anywhere I could park to get out and draw. 

I ended up sitting in this little grassy median, right as cars were making their way up the ramp onto the bridge.  I'd say approximately five million people passed me on that Saturday afternoon, and each one was wondering what the heck I was doing.  If I happened to be looking up as they passed, we definitely made eye contact as they craned their necks to check the crazy girl out.

But honestly, I could not pass up that gorgeous yellow tree, the train which Andy loves, and the way the shape of the bridge cascades into the distance.  Love!

Here's how it turned out.

And a side by side, or up and down, for my mom again :)

I don't think I nailed it as much as my pumpkin drawing, but I really like it anywho. 

Has anyone else been out driving around to soak up the last bit of fall before winter strikes?

Oh, and P.S. Trick or treat night was freezing this year!  We had easily only half as many kids as last year!  Did anyone's plans get ruined because of the cold weather?




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pu pu pu pumpkin drawing

For the last couple weeks, we were drawing this pumpkin/ fall/ awesome still life in drawing class!

Yikes, sorry for the really blurry picture- sometimes my little camera is not my friend when I don't use the flash... It's also not a perfect representation of how it looked to me in person from sitting at my desk, and things moved a little from day to day from being moved around the room- like the sticks....

But you get the idea!  This is actually how I cropped the objects for my drawing- there was also a mask and a mannequin and a little figure running from other angles.  So fun.  But I just couldn't get enough of the pumpkins, and that mirror!  How cool is it?

Our assignment was to use black and white charcoal and/ or white pastel on a grey tone paper, to start with a medium value.  I loved it!  We also had to use at least 3 of 4 charcoal techniques- smudging, hatching, cross hatching, and stippling.  My strategy was to get all the basic values in for the shapes and shadows, then smudge it all, and finally go in with the other 3 techniques to give texture and more pops of value everywhere. 

I'm really happy with the result!

Here's a side by side for my mom :)

Can you see all the techniques I used?  What do you think?

Happy Tuesday!  We'll be passing out candy to all the little monsters and princesses tonight over here.  How about you?


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Digital self portraits

So one of my classes right now is Digital Imagery, where we learn all about Photoshop.  I've done some things in Photoshop with photos, but this was my first project where we worked exclusively with the paintbrush tools.  It was challenging, but really fun, and I got to explore my style a little bit.  We had to paint our own self portrait, using a photo and sampling the colors from it to paint ourselves in a new layer.  The final digital portrait is completely painted, with no part of the original photo showing through.

Here was my first one, which I didn't really love.  But it was really good practice with different brush tools and shapes, blending the colors, and using lots of layers and effects to get the smooth look to the skin and trying to get the hair right.  It took forever!

Do you recognize it?  (Looks like I forgot the earrings... oh, and the slight bags under the eyes...)

Here was my second one, which is the one I turned in.  I LOVED this style so much more!  It was made with bigger blocks of color, blended just lightly with the smudge tool.  I was going for an impressionistic look, and I am so happy with how it turned out.  (The colors look off because I printed it and then photographed it... the colors are much better in person.)

And here's the original photo.

How do you think they turned out? 

I am just so happy with all the things I'm learning!  I'm so thankful every day for this opportunity I have to be back in school and to be creative daily.  It feels amazing.  I have so many new goals and dreams for my future I think I could just explode!  In a good way.


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One of those weeks

You guys, last week was one of those weeks.  You know, the kind where nothing is really wrong, nothing horrible happens, but it just feels like something is off.  You know?  Like you wonder if you have a weird aura surrounding you, or like you need to go to a yoga class or a chiropractor or something?  Just little weird things happening one after another, added to just a busy school week.  Here's a few things that I remembered to write down...

1.  I spent time packing a lunch for myself, then put it in the freezer for a shot of cold before I left.  Then I forgot to bring it, of course.

2.  When I went to the campus Subway, they weren't taking credit or debit cards, and I didn't have cash.

3.  I had to buy black foam board to mount my final brochure design, and it ain't cheap ($5 a pop), but I measured and cut it for just one page, instead of both pages together, so I had to buy another board, measure and cut it again.  I was left with a bunch of small pieces that may or may not be able to be used.  Lame.

4.  On Tuesday, it was 4:00 pm before I realized I had my underwear on inside out.  Weird.

5.  On Wednesday, this was how much of my 2D Design project I had completed.  We had to mix paint to color match the correlating square from the actual picture we chose, to create an enlarged, pixelated version of the picture.  There were 768 squares and at this point I was averaging 30 squares an hour.  Oh and it was due Friday.  Total nightmare.

6.  I walked to and from my car in the rain at least 4 times this week.

7.  On Wednesday morning, I decided to treat myself to Starbucks and get rid of this bad aura surrounding me.  It wasn't until I had pulled forward and looked in my mirror to see the person behind me rolling down her window that I realized I didn't order!  Then I was stuck in the line with no way out and had to embarrassingly drive right by the window and get back in line.

8.  I had to spend 13 hours painting on Wednesday and Thursday to finish my project on time.  It was down to the line, for sure.

I'm sure more weird things happened, but I forgot to write everything down.  It was just one of those weeks. 

BUT, everything turned out fine.  I finished my projects, had a great weekend with Andy, and said to myself after each little thing happened "If this is the worst thing to happen to me, then I am a very, very lucky lady." 


Anyone else have a weird week?  


 


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My principles of design collage book

Hi everyone & happy Monday!

A few weeks ago, I completed a project for my 2D design class that took hours and hours and hours... and our relationship was definitely touch and go for a while there...

But when I finally finished, I could not have been more proud of the finished product!

The assignment was to:

1.  Make a book out of paper, chip board, thread, and fancy paper.
2.  Create a spread for each of the 8 principles of design, using both collaged images and hand applied media, to show complete understanding of each principle.
3.  Use cut out images from books or magazines in each spread.
4.  Add your own black and white "stuff" to each spread.

Here's my book!

Completely unnecessary disclaimer:  The obviously professional cut out images are not my own, and I do not claim them to be.  They were used in this project for educational purposes.

I really wanted each spread to have images that represented the principle, plus I wanted the collage as a whole to represent the principle, and I wanted the written title to represent the principle.

I spent forever finding images, planning what I could draw on each page, how I could connect everything, and how I could make sure it all came together to represent the principle of design.  I also spent a lot of time sketching the titles, writing them on graph paper, tracing them, and writing them in with ink.

Some problems I had included the book not opening and closing correctly (I had to cut it apart and make it again), the ink bleeding through (luckily this happened before I had everything glued in, so I was able to change some layouts to cover it up), and time management in general (I bet this took 20+ hours, which was frustrating to find time for in one week, knowing it was just worth 20 points!)

When I showed it to Andy, he said "Looks pretty cool... but I don't really get it."

Hahaha... oh Andy...

So... how do you think it turned out?  Do you 'get it'?  



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some things that make me say YAY!

1.  Colorful jeans that were on sale!

2.  Boot wearing weather! 

 3.  Showing my displayed charcoal drawing to Andy and 

my best friend Erin who came to visit!

 4.  Um, marbled mocha breakfast bread at Target?!?  

It's like my favorite Starbucks drink in bread form.  Hello, YAY!

5.  My pop art reinterpretation of Van Gogh's Sunflowers painting. 

 I'm so proud of how it turned out!  

Completely unnecessary disclaimer:  Van Gogh's original is on the left.  No, I am not claiming that work as my own.  It was used as a template for this educational project.

What makes you say YAY?

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