Here's a little cartoon version of myself.
Showing posts with label art. Show all posts
Showing posts with label art. Show all posts
Sunday, April 26, 2015
Saturday, March 28, 2015
Monthly Self Portraits: March
I don't usually dress up special for my monthly self portraits. However, this month, I combined my March self portrait with my Wet Paint Weekly Workout. The assignment was to create a colorful self portrait inspired by the artwork of Frida Kahlo. So, I put on this fun dress, a head scarf and a little lipstick and started drawing. Also, I normally only spend up to an hour on my monthly self portrait and my workout, but it's been awhile since I've used oil pastels and I forgot how much I love them. I got lost in this piece and the next thing I knew three hours had passed. As much as I love using markers and paints, I really think that oil pastels are my medium. They just come so naturally to me.
Wednesday, February 25, 2015
Monthly Self Portraits: February
Here is my February self portrait. I call it "In motion, going nowhere"
Wednesday, February 4, 2015
Monthly Self Portraits
I mentioned in a previous post that I spent 2010 drawing a self portrait every month. This is true. Each month, I would pick an art material, take an hour or two, and draw or paint my mug. It was fun, but it also grew tiresome. In May, I was so sick of my face that I drew my legs and that's OK. I thought I might do this for the rest of my life and have a unique record of my personal growth, be it physical and artistic. That didn't happen. But with some urging from my mother, I decided to take it up again. So, five years later, I present to you my January self portrait.
January 2015
It looks kind of distorted and like I'm about to cry because this January I feel kind of distorted and like I'm always on the verge of tears. It was a rough month.
Monday, February 2, 2015
1960s Doppelgangers
I've always felt like I was born in the wrong era. I'm not a millenial. I'm old fashioned. I love vintage style. I just never felt like I belonged here. In reality, I'm glad that I live in this day and age because I do appreciate the opportunities and advantages that I have and I know that I can still maintain a relationship with the past...or with my past self.
Is it just me, or does this 1960s fashion illustration bear a striking resemblance to yours truly?
I believe in past lives and I take comfort in thinking that maybe another version of me did get to live through my favorite eras and that's why I'm so drawn to them in my current state.
Here's another example of a 1960s doppelganger. Back in 2010, I did a project where I drew a self portrait every month for a whole year.
That spring, I did a couple of sketches out of a 1960s sewing magazine.
I know, for cute!
A couple months later in June, when looking through my sketchbook, I noticed that my drawing of this woman looked surprisingly like me.
This is mostly due to the fact that I had been drawing myself a lot at the time, but even if I hadn't been so focused on my own image, most people, when drawing somebody else tend to subconsciously adjust features to be more like their own because that's what they're familiar with. I also changed the color of the shirt to be red instead of blue based on my own style preferences and I didn't indicate that she was blonde. All of these subtle adjustments to make the drawing my own actually made it a drawing of me.
After five months of self-portraits, I was a little sick of drawing myself, so I said "perfect" and used it for my June self-portrait.
The one tell that this is not an actual drawing of me is the fact that she's wearing shorts.
While this isn't quite the same as a doppelganger because the actual model doesn't look like me, it's an example of how I identify with this era and subconsciously incorporate myself into it.
Anyone else feel drawn to a certain time in history? Or have you ever found your doppelganger when looking through old photos or magazines or while watching old movies?
Friday, January 30, 2015
The Amazing Masking Pen
Let's talk art supplies for a sec. I bought this masking pen a few months ago and then completely forgot about it.
Ever since I started doing these outfit drawings, I've struggled with patterns. I love to wear them, and drawing them is fun, but it takes a lot of effort and it's very time consuming.
Then, just this week, I remembered that I had that masking pen and proceeded to kick myself for not utilizing it as soon as I bought it. It's amazing. It raised my pattern drawing level from here to here. I used it on the super complicated pattern of the vintage dress above and it was a breeze. This masking pen is now one of my favorite art supplies, ranked right up there with the Pentel pocket brush pen. And that's saying a lot.
Note: After receiving comments on Facebook, I realized that non-artists have no idea what a masking pen is or does. A masking pen is like a paint marker that contains masking fluid. Masking fluid is a liquid version of masking tape. It's like a liquid rubber that, when dried on paper, resists water and is easily removable by rubbing or erasing. Watercolor artists use it most. They will apply the masking fluid in all of the places that they want to remain white and then paint over it. When the painting is dry, they will remove the masking fluid and have nice crisp white highlights that are otherwise, hard to achieve. I use it in patterns so that I can mask out all of the little detail stuff and then color the background color over the entire thing. When I remove the fluid, I can then go in and fill in the details. It's a lot easier then drawing all of the details and then trying to fill in the background around them. This is especially true when the background is a darker color than the print.
Sunday, January 4, 2015
Wednesday, May 7, 2014
Daily Comics: May 2nd - 6th 2014
May 2nd 2014
May 3rd 2014
May the 4th (be with you) 2014
May 6th 2014
Sunday, March 16, 2014
Vanishing Snow Brings a Variety of Shoes.
Monday
This fantastic dress makes me feel like a 70s stewardess, in a good way.
Tuesday
Similar earrings - Icing
Ooh stripes and florals. It's not something that I do a lot, but I like it.
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Ooh stripes and florals. It's not something that I do a lot, but I like it.
Wednesday
Gray Tan Stripes Henley Mini Boots Pennies. There's nothing I don't like about this outfit. My cartoon character might wear this.
This is my crazy lady tunic. Go ahead. Take in all of this crazy.
And this is my crazy lady dress. Seriously, I like this dress in theory, but it just doesn't work on me. If I do up the top 2 buttons, the dress pulls because it's too tight across my chest. However, the empire waist is very loose and makes me look wide. I always have to wear a shirt under the dress and and I've tried belting it to make it fit closer to my body. Bottom line is, it's more of a hassle than it is fabulous. I'm getting rid of it. Maybe there's a barrel chested woman out there with no boobs who this is perfect for. Actually it's probably perfect for a man.
These shiny red shoes are really fun to draw. In fact, most shoes are really fun to draw.
Wednesday, March 12, 2014
Metro Sketchers 3 Year Anniversary
A little over 3 years ago, my friend and co-worker, Liz wanted to start a sketching group. She thought it should be something casual, open to anyone, and have monthly designated locations. The first sketch outing that we did was at the Como Conservatory in March of 2011. It was a cold day, but it was sunny and warm inside the greenhouse. At that time, there were a hand full of sketchers in attendance. We all knew each other and were able to sketch in each other's company or steal away for a quieter experience.
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| Drawings from the first Metro Sketchers outing |
This month, the Metro Sketchers revisited the Como Conservatory for their monthly outing. The number of sketchers in attendance was vastly multiplied and they were joined by a Kare11 camera crew. Here is the story that aired on Sunday.
Since you're on this blog, you might have recognize that the story included my drawing of dresses that I use as my title banner. This was drawn during an outing to the Midtown Global Market. I can't quite remember if this was a planned outing or if we were taking refuge from the May Day parade in Powderhorn park where it had started to snow. Either way, it was one of my favorites. There are so many interesting people, locations and merchandise to draw in that building. Not to mention the food. I assure you, I devoured a torta from Los Ocampo on that day. No regrets.
Along with the annual visit to the Como Conservatory, there are other outings that have become traditions. I personally, love the portrait party. Everyone gathers at someone's house and we all sit around a table and casually draw each other. This weirds some people out, but I find it very fun!
My friend Angela, who is a lot of fun to draw.
Here are Gwen, Suzanne and Paul. Boy, do I like to go nuts on the red hair.
While you're busy drawing some one else, there's always someone drawing you. Here's my portrait done by Suzanne Hughes.
This group meets the first Sunday of every month at different locations around the Twin Cities. While, I always want to attend, I find that I'm usually busy on Sundays and can probably count on my fingers the number of times that I have attended. Either way, I love that I am a part of it can't wait for the next one.
Drawing chickens in someone's back yard
Tuesday, March 4, 2014
I Never Win Anything
I love ModCloth. I think they have a great variety of fun clothes, a good range of sizes, great customer service, and while the prices are sometimes high, they have good sales. So when I saw that they were having a textile design contest, I was all about it. I thought, I'm a shoe in. I have a good eye for color and creating patterns comes very naturally to me. My only problem was that once I found out about the contest, I only had one week to submit. I worked at it and this is what I came up with. Personally, I love these patterns, but of course I'm biased.
So I submitted on time with all of the required criteria and waited for the results. Guess what, I didn't make the cut. When I heard the news, I was a little distraught. I wanted to know why. What were these judges looking for? So I waited until the public voting stage of the contest to see what textile designs were considered better than mine. I was expecting greatness. They're good, but not any better. Once I looked closely at all of the accepted designs, I realized that they're all blue and mauve, two of my least favorite colors. Really blue and mauve? What year is it?
Then I remembered that there was a guest judge who is the costume designer for Portlandia. I'm guessing that her favorite colors are blue and mauve and that I probably wouldn't like her.
Even though I didn't win this contest, I determined that I'm a natural at textile design and am considering pursuing this further. Any advice on how that is done would be greatly appreciated.
Wednesday, November 20, 2013
In Production
The Holidays are approaching, which means that I am in full on production mode. As an artist, I am usually invited to participate in a few art and craft sales around this time of year. As a painter, I don't readily have a whole lot of inventory that can be sold at such sales. Patrons are looking for gifty purchases under $50. Most of my paintings are over $100. These do not sell at art and craft sales. Because of this, I have gotten creative with what I have to offer.
Last year I bought a ton of interesting picture frames from Goodwill and framed a bunch of prints of my original artwork.
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| sampling of framed prints |
I sold quite a few of these over the Holidays and since then, but I still have a lot left. I didn't feel like doing the same thing again this year, so to add on to this lot, I decided to take up one of my old past times - sewing.
I used to try to make my own clothes, but was never very good at it. I was, however, good at simple sewing, like making pillows and tote bags. About 6 years ago, I made my first bag for a friend of mine as a gift. She's been carrying it around every day for 6 years and this is what it looks like today.
It's been well loved, that's for sure! She asked me to repair it, which I intend to do, but in the meantime, I made her a whole new bag. It was frustrating at first, working the kinks out of myself and my sewing machine, but once I got the hang of it, I wanted to make more. After going through my massive fabric collection, I came up with some great patterns that I could mix and match to make a butt load of fun bags.
Here's what I've made so far:
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I can't wait to make more!
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