drifting off

I caught myself drifting off while I was listening to the teacher, I felt bad...then I thought this sketch was good for showing that there are worse ways that one could drift off.

Sea Dwarf

Hooray, I finally scanned my work from last semester!

This was for one of my classes I got to pick my assignments, which was cool. This one goes along with my selkie painting. I was reading Scandinavian Folktales and really enjoyed reading a story about a man's experience with a sea dwarf. I guess a sea dwarf is like a leprechaun of the sea, he is human on top and seal on bottom (almost like a mermaid). He's very mischievous and very tricky. Things didn't end well for the man who caught him, but then I'm not sure if it was the sea dwarfs fault or his own. I read it in a book or else I would post the link.

This is a color study I did by coloring my thumbnail in Photoshop. Even though it's just a thumbnail, I really like it. It has nice texture.

Oh and here are some fun watercolor studies I did while watching Disney's Oceans.

crumbling

 

I painted this yesterday from a little sketch I had done a while ago for a concept for Shakespeare's Richard III but I think it's interesting on it's own. It's a little creepy isn't it?

 

I'm sorry that it's been so long since I last posted and that I'm still only posting these faint drawings. I'm still trying to figure out how things are going to work now with my husband working full time and me being a full time mommy. It's even trickier to find time than I thought it would be. But I'm determined to find it! 

The top drawing is Tiger Lily and the bottom one is the mermaids. They are humans with mechanical prosthetic tails.

still not settled

Still in a hotel... Still working on getting a place, hopefully in the next day or two.... please!

This is the introduction of the villainous Captain Hook in a chariot pulled by his own men.

upheaval

The past few weeks we have been packing up our house and getting everything squared away for moving across the country. I am now posting from a little hotel that we are staying in until we find our new home. So, things are still out of sorts for the time being. 

This illustration drawing is an introduction to the lost boys as Peter is returning to the Neverland.

Sunday driver: a snails pace

So I posted this once already just a couple days ago and then it disappeared! It disappeared from two different blogs! That is just bizarre to me. So, here it is again. I was experimenting with a new style, I think I really like it. I think this is a fun concept. What do you think is the girl small or the snail big? 

the neverland

The children arriving in the neverland.

away

Peter leading the Darling children away to the Neverland.

wendy

Here is Wendy getting ready to sew.

peter pan

We have been illustrating Peter Pan this semester. The assignment was to design 16 pages of a children's book. We only need to bring one to full color, so most of these are just the drawings. I just recently decided on taking it kinda steam punk. It is more obvious in some pictures than others. This is a family portrait of the Darling children.

to the sky...

The reason I haven't posted in three weeks is that my husband went on a 5 day field trip to California, then I went for a week long field trip to New York (which was awesome!), and then I was playing catch up for my classes. For this piece, I illustrated the song "To the Sky" by Owl City for my class assignment. These fuzzy little guys just couldn't wait to take to the sky. I painted it in Photoshop. Here are some of my ideas from my sketchbook. I liked some of the vertical compositions, but alas, the assignment was to do horizontal.

selkie girl

Here is a painting I did not too long ago that I am very happy with. I entered it into to competitions in hope of getting in, but alas, it was for all for not... Nevertheless, I am still pleased with it. Watercolor on 190lb. Arches watercolor paper. She is a selkie, a seal that turns into a human. Some one has stolen her sealskin so she can't turn back into a seal.

fairy cookery

I made this for my favorite cousin (I have more than one...) Katie, who was just married yesterday. I didn't have a lot of time so this took 2-3 hours, if I had more time I might have done a little more with it. But as it is, I like how it turned out. It has strawberry hair just like my cousin's, I thought it would be a nice match. It is watercolor with inked outlines. I did washes and splatters on the paper so it would look like an aged and faded cookbook.

sketchbook

Here are some sketchbook pages.

extra! extra... windy

Sorry, I haven't posted in a month, but I will repent! ...maybe... Here is a painting I did at the end of last semester. The assignment was to a partially obscured figure. I wanted to do something a little comical and so this was my final choice. I borrowed my brother's trench coat and got my husband to pose for me. It wasn't windy the day I did the photo shoot, so I taped the newspaper around his head and found other reference for flying newspapers and flying scarves and coats (or skirts, what ever would get me the look I wanted). I like how it turned out. Below is a study (also last semester) I did in two three hour classes (don't worry the model had breaks). I really enjoy doing models in costume.

the four feathers

The assignment was to do a spot illustration for The Four Feathers. I incorporated four white feathers into an Islamic design.

little red

This is watercolor outlined with a fine pen. About 4 or 5 years ago I took some pictures of my little sisters in costume to use for art. So I've been wanting to use them forever and I finally used one and I was able to do it for a class! I have found more success with my watercolors by working out my reference ahead of time in photoshop so that I have a very clear idea of where I'm going, a necessity since watercolors are not very forgiving. I really like how the forest in the background turned out.

Here is the original photo I took. I didn't like the trees, they were too small so I found a better forest and created the reference I wanted in photoshop. As you can see, she also is not wearing a beautiful red cape. I looked at a lot of cloaked individuals to make up my own. And then of course I needed a wolf to stalk my little girl. My final photoshop reference is below. I don't worry about it looking perfect (she's not perfectly cut out and the cape isn't painted photo real) but it needs to show me that my final piece will be convincing.

reflection

This is an oil painting I did over Thanksgiving holiday at my parents house. I was assigned to do a painting of someone's reflection painted in an analogous color palette. I had a few different ideas all with children that I was thinking of doing. Here is one of my sketch book pages:

I chose to do a little girl scrutinizing and admiring herself in a mirror. I painted it in a yellow analogous palette (the color is not showing up perfectly in the photo but it's close). My four-year-old sister was a very willing model. The reference photo is below. There are a couple more little things I want to do, but I think it's getting there.

Bestiary

I am pretty happy with how this piece turned out. I painted it in acrylic and applied gold leaf. I wanted to capture the unique and distorted views of animals in medieval bestiaries. This is a whale. They believed that the whale would rest on the surface of the water so long that plants would grow on their backs. Sailors would then mistake them for islands and land on the whale. When they built a fire, the whale would get hot and dive back under the water much to the sailors' misfortune.

Down here is a study of a different design I did in watercolor. I donated it to the vending machine show at BYU.