Mad Tea Party

Another piece for Ten Paces and Draw's artist swap. This one was especially fun for me. I can't help but love drawing/painting hair and decorative details. Check out all of the original sketches and other pieces here.

Ten Paces & Draw

Last month I participated in Ten Paces and Draw's "artist swap." Basically they have a group of artists do pieces for a specific theme, BUT there's a catch: each artist submits a sketch and then is given someone else's sketch to illustrate. Kinda crazy right? Some crazy artist fun. Check out all of the sketches and finals here.

The theme was "Ancient Greek" and the sketch I was handed is based on the theory that the Ancient Greeks mythology about giants originated from a few Greek guys finding some dinosaur bones.

I'll be doing more of these artist swap things in the not-so-far-distant future, so keep a wary eye...

the birds

Once I was sitting on a beach in Seattle, when all of a sudden a flock of seagulls flew over my head and, while my head was turned, a seagull dropped a bomb right on my ankle...which also splattered on my pants and purse.

Gross.

I still like birds though. This piece proves it! It's a gift for my sister and still a work in progress but should be done soon.

New Irrational Fear: Urban Bears

Urban bears?!! *gasp!* Visit the Irrational Fears Blog for the complete version...

Babies Everywhere

One of my good friends is having a baby girl!! Crazy. Crazy exciting. We threw a little baby shower for her this past weekend. Here's the image I whipped up for the invites.

Speaking of this past weekend, I spent a good 24 hours of it in a color theory workshop taught by the one and only Bill Perkins. Yes I realize how nerdy a color theory workshop sounds, but let me just point out that color theory is actually quite awesome and intriguing. (Ok, so I'm a nerd.) The workshop was totally hands-on, meaning he had us paint all day instead of focusing on color chips (which are incredibly boring, believe me). By the end of the three days I had over 20 paintings on my hands, tired feet from standing and tons of valuable knowledge in my brain. I'll put a few up here once they're dry.

Paint-a-Sketch

My brother and I love to go to thrift/glorified junk stores. A while back we found a few really cool old books and decided to use them for "painting sketchbooks." We bought them, gessoed their pages and then...they sat on our bookshelves. The other day I was rifling through my stack of sketchbooks and stumbled across my nearly forgotten painting sketchbook. Remembering my past ambition, I finally opened it up, grabbed my paints and did a quick paint-sketch. 

That's the long story for: I did a quick paint-sketch. It was fun.

Newness

Something new: the poster for BYU's fall opera The Magic Flute. I actually liked the drawing a lot better than the finished product. Also, I discovered a newish look while going through the process of this one. I'm going to experiment; exciting.

Work it, work it, RE-work it

I gave this one a face-lift. Why? Because it needed one...and because I may or may not be a perfectionist.

Now This is Real Life

It's finally come, the end of my final (real) semester as an undergrad. I say (real) because next semester I'm only taking 6 credits, which are bookbinding and frame-building. Brutal, I know. So basically, I'm free of (real) school! I'm actually graduating and becoming a real person, what a lovely thought. All I can say is it's about time.

Here are a few pieces from the my last (real) undergrad semester EVER:

piece for "A Thousand Cranes" poster

piece for "Tartuffe" poster
(wasn't actually used; oh well, at least it can go into my portfolio)

Wallpaper my world

I just finished a couple of editorial illustrations for BYU's Center for Teaching and Learning. They're putting out a magazine called Inspire next month for BYU professors. Both of the illustrations are done in acrylic and colored pencil. The article titles are "Syllabus Builder" and "Podcasts."

The lady/Syllabus Builder was my favorite to do simply because I am obsessed with old wallpaper patterns. There is just something about their patterns and colors that make me feel so inspired. I especially love William Morris' wallpaper and fabric designs. In fact, while I was interning in New York last month I bought a fantastic book full of his designs. He was around during both the Arts and Crafts Movement and Art Nouveau, which are two of my very favorite periods. The artwork that was born during those years is absolutely gorgeous! I love the organic quality of the line work, the brilliant colors and the combination of modeled and flat objects. Basically what I am trying to say here is that I love wallpaper, William Morris, the Arts and Crafts Movement and Art Nouveau. Oh and I love peanut butter, but that doesn't really have anything to do with anything...