Monday, February 28, 2011

St. Patty's Day is coming


In honor of St. Patrick's Day, here are some old linocut prints I did last year. Want to see them on a shirt?  Check out my shop

Friday, February 18, 2011

Sketchbook Pro 1st sketch

After reading a few blog posts here  about Sketchbook Pro, I decided to download it and try it out for the 15 day trial period.  In honor of my 5 1/2 month old's dinner tonight, here is my first sketch.  I went a little overboard with the blur tool, but it looks better than it did before the blur. 

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Logo Design

So my new years program totally went into the crapper like a week into it.  I blame a very sick infant who had to go to the doctor 4 nights in a row, including a trip to the ER, who then passed her illness onto the rest of the house.  Oh well.  While I haven't been working on all of the things I had outlined, I have been working on some art.  Here is a logo I designed for a start-up law firm:

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Hurry! Ends soon!

I really wish I had posted about this earlier, but there is a great sale going on at http://zero2illo.com/store/community-super-sale/.  Tons of great resources for illustrators for a low price!  It ends in like 6 minutes, so hurry!!!!

Monday, January 03, 2011

New Year, New Blog, New Art

I don't really like to make New Years resolutions because, well...I pretty much suck at keeping them. Doesn't everyone? I guess that's why we just keep making the same ones year after year. Don't get me wrong, I know I need to change. A LOT. Instead of trying to lose 20 lbs, eat healthier, exercise more, and solve all of the world's problems by the end of the week, I have one goal: be a better artist. Wow, couldn't get more specific could I? Nope. Because I can't be more specific. I don't know what it means to be better or what it will take to be better, but I plan to try lots of different things and just see what happens.

I am instituting the Couch to Illustrator (C2I) program starting today. Instead of sitting on my butt thinking about what I could be doing to be a better artist, I'm going to actually do something. And maybe...just maybe, I will see a change. Hopefully this time next year I will be able to say that my little plan was a success.

The C2I program includes the following (I am open to more suggestions by the way):

1. DRAW EVERY DAY! I think this is pretty important because like most skills, if you don't use it, you lose it. Practice makes perfect. Insert any other corny saying that applies. I will draw something every single day. I'm not saying I will create a masterpiece everyday, but I will put pen to paper, brush to canvas, or stylus to tablet for at least 30 minutes each day. Perhaps it will be doodling, or maybe it will be a photoshop painting that takes me weeks to finally finish, but rest assured, something will be happening. Every. Day. (This is probably my most lofty goal, but I think it is also the most important)
2.  Blog once a week.  If I'm drawing everyday, I shouldn't have a problem scraping together a blog once a week.
3.  Figure out my own style.   There are so many illustrators whose work I love.  They all have such completely different styles.  I am a master at copying anything, but I haven't quite figured out my own personal style yet.  By drawing everyday, I'm hoping something starts to emerge. 
4.  Spend each month working on a different technique for creating art.  This is all part of figuring out my style.  I have the most experience with pencil drawing, so in order to diversify, I will spend a whole month learning and practicing different mediums.  I know a month isn't much time to master anything, but I think it is good enough to see where my strengths and weaknesses lie.  This list may change, but right now it looks like this:
  • pen/ink
  • gauche/gauche resist
  • watercolor
  • colored pencils
  • oil pastels
  • linocut
  • illustrator
  • photoshop
  • painter
  • scratchboard
  • charcoal
  • carbon dust
I think this month I will get back to basics and do some charcoal drawings.  The monthly mediums as I am calling them, may or may not be a part of my everyday drawing.  But I will make sure I devote plenty of time to each medium.

In addition to helping me improve as an artist, these things will help me build my portfolio.  My ultimate goal is that by the end of one year, I will good enough and diverse enough to start some freelance work on the side.  During the year I will also work on research, marketing ideas, and create a website.

So what was I saying about making impossible goals???  Wish me luck interwebs peeps.

Thursday, March 04, 2010

I totally won an art contest!

Ok, I didn't win in the sense that my art was judged to be the best. To-may-to, to-mah-to. Sparky Firepants posted a contest to draw Sparky based on a picture he provided. The only rules were it had to be digital, had to use the picture provided, and had to be submitted by Friday. The 1st 10 entries won. Well I managed to whip something up and get it in quick enough to win!

Here is the original picture and my (very quickly done) drawing. I inked in Illustrator and did a quick paint job in Photoshop.

Thursday, July 30, 2009

It's been too long :(

Sorry for the lack of updates....I haven't had much time to draw, paint, or even doodle. However, I took the day off work on Monday and spent the whole day working on designs for my CafePress store. Please check it out to see some of the new designs.

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

painting on old books

I've seen this a lot lately, and think it is really cool. So here is my 1st attempt. The drawing was just a quick doodle I did that was very similar to another drawing I saw. But this was more for trying to figure out how watery to make the paint, and things like that.

Tuesday, April 07, 2009

tattoo design

My friend Kim asked me to design a tattoo for her. She really wanted her kids initials (J & A) using an elvish font. She was hoping to incorporate their birth dates as well (10/2 & 10/7). She wasn't sure how to bring all of this together, so that's when she called me in. Since she is a big Lord of the Rings fan I decided to incorporate a design from the movie. When I saw the White Tree of Gondor, I thought that would work well with the initials:

This is my initial marker sketch.


This is the cleaned up vector image.

Monday, March 02, 2009

Lino-cut prints

It's been a while.....

I started playing with linoleum blocks over the summer. Here is a series of 3 prints I did:


Thursday, July 31, 2008

Days 7-10


Not very good, but I guess that's the point of this exercise.

I only spent about 15 minutes on this, but I think it is cute.

Again, not much time on this, but it is a quick sketch of an idea I have for a character.

I spent way more than 30 minutes on this, but I love it!

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

100 Themes

Many of you have probably seen this before, but just in case I am posting it here also. As soon as I finish my 21 day creative exercise, I will be doing this 100 themes challenge. The goal will be to create an illustration for each item on the list. If anyone else is taking part in this, please comment with a link to your blog/portfolio.








1. Introduction
2. Love
3. Light
4. Dark
5. Seeking Solace
6. Break Away
7. Heaven
8. Innocence
9. Drive
10. Breathe Again
11. Memory
12. Insanity
13. Misfortune
14. Smile - Doodled
15. Silence
16. Questioning
17. Blood
18. Rainbow
19. Gray
20. Fortitude
21. Vacation
22. Mother Nature
23. Cat
24. No Time
25. Trouble Lurking
26. Tears
27. Foreign
28. Sorrow
29. Happiness
30. Under the Rain
31. Flowers
32. Night
33. Expectations
34. Stars
35. Hold My Hand
36. Precious Treasure
37. Eyes
38. Abandoned
39. Dreams
40. Rated
41. Teamwork
42. Standing Still
43. Dying
44. Two Roads
45. Illusion
46. Family
47. Creation
48. Childhood
49. Stripes
50. Breaking the Rules


51. Sport
52. Deep in Thought
53. Keeping a Secret
54. Tower
55. Waiting
56. Danger Ahead
57. Sacrifice
58. Kick in the Head
59. No Way Out
60. Rejection
61. Fairy Tale
62. Magic
63. Do Not Disturb
64. Multitasking
65. Horror
66. Traps
67. Playing the Melody
68. Hero
69. Annoyance
70. 67%
71. Obsession
72. Mischief Managed
73. I Can't
74. Are You Challenging Me?
75. Mirror
76. Broken Pieces
77. Test
78. Drink
79. Starvation
80. Words
81. Pen and Paper
82. Can You Hear Me?
83. Heal
84. Out Cold
85. Spiral
86. Seeing Red
87. Food
88. Pain
89. Through the Fire
90. Triangle
91. Drowning
92. All That I Have
93. Give Up
94. Last Hope
95. Advertisement
96. In the Storm
97. Safety First
98. Puzzle
99. Solitude
100. Relaxation

Saturday, July 26, 2008

Days 5 and 6



My 80's robot, complete with wrist bands, leg warmers, and scrunchie. He's dancing...doing "the robot" of course.



I don't know what this crazy old guy is pointing that gun at....maybe a dancing 80's robot.

Thursday, July 24, 2008

Doodle on Crack


I doodle a lot....I couldn't stop adding to my doodle from a few days ago and it got a bit out of hand.

Day Four



Day four of the 21 day creative exercise. A little back story on this one....my dog is a little too friendly at the dog park. So we started calling her our little pug slut :-)

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Day 3 and Illustration Friday




Day 3 of the 21 day creative exercise. Also my submission for this week's Illustration Friday topic "enough."

Sadly, this little guy would never be tall enough.

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Day 2




I haven't been able to get into any books lately....maybe this is why.
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Doodle

 
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Monday, July 21, 2008

21 Day Creative Exercise



I've decided to start a 21 day creative exercise. It is best explained here. The rules I have set for myself are to spend between 15-30 minutes each day drawing anything I can think of, as long as I don't use any photo references. The reason for this is that sometimes I spend more time looking for the perfect picture of what I want to draw instead of actually drawing.

This is what I came up with for Day 1. I can't tell you what it is, but I think it is something I will revisit later. I think it could be really cool in color.