Illustration Friday - Multiple

A Likeness of Sorts

The Jane Austen Extravaganza on Masterpiece Theatre has made my winter. The stellar part is that through some delightful fluke of the cable gods we pick up the Boston, New Hampshire, and Maine affiliates, meaning that I can catch the episodes on multiple days!

Anyhow, there's one part mid-way through "Pride and Prejudice" where Elizabeth is examining a collection of miniatures and I was thinking of that looking at this photo. I've been working on some tiny portrait pendants and the above is one of them. I have a bit of a weakness for making very tiny things, so these necklaces were right up my alley. And speaking of miniatures, Artists and Ancestors is a terrific blog that features miniature portraits.

Other likes and loves:
*Tazo Orange Tea (Tazo has a pretty spiffy site, some fun bells and whistles)

*Etsy on Martha Stewart's show this Friday

*Alison Krauss and Robert Plant. About an unusual a pairing as you can find, but a delightful listen

Books, Blueberries, and Blushing Roses

Some sketching, while thinking of balmy breezes, fireflies flitting, and blueberries ripe for the picking.

I had a swell weekend, the highlight of which was visiting my nieces. And while driving about the commonwealth of Massachusetts with them we happened to drive past the Louisa May Alcott house. A moment of geeking out in the backseat ensued for me. Regrettably, the house was closed, but that's on a "to-do" list for spring. That and the Swan Boats.



I'm not much for roses, but tea roses are another story. Much less ostentatious, slightly Victorian in demeanor, and delightful, in short.

Green Tea

When I was making this the fish pattern on the paper had me thinking of koi ponds. I've always wanted to live someplace with a koi pond. This could be slightly problematic owing to the fact that I'm really bad at remembering to feed fish. So I think I'll stick to house plants.

Illustration Friday - Theory

Better late than never, here's my Illustration Friday for the week. Roswell, JFK, Hoffa - conspiracy theory anyone? Take your pick.

At this moment

Liking as of late:
Creme Brulée coffee, the wonderfully kitschy Ultra-Lounge recordings, revamping old shirts (above), slowly increasing amounts of daylight, and running (albeit rather slowly).

Illustration Friday - Choose

I can't ever make up my mind before the barista's ready for me to order. Thank goodness they're patient!

So Practical

Lately I've been using bits of paper from leftover projects to make ACEOs. They're a great way to try new techniques (hello gouache) and use up the bits of collage materials I've accumulated over the years. The "so practical" text was actually from an essay I found jammed in some used sheet music. Reading through it, the paper looks like an essay written for class on a piece of music called, "The Water Lily." I can't find the student's name, year, or any other piece of information on it, which somehow lends to the mystique. Much more so than one of my belabored freshman year essays from metaphysics class...*

*The American Image - The Photographs of John Collier, Jr.: I was poking around looking for some images of Aroostook County Maine last week and stumbled on Collier's work. Really wonderful glimpses into daily life in the '40's, way up North.

*I took philosophy. At 8:00 AM. In January. Now that was a lesson in endurance!

Meanderings

Sorry for the sporadic posting. To put it in perspective, I've fallen asleep on the couch three nights running. I'm operating on "e" at the moment...

But before I forget, go check out the Lovely Hearts exhibit online here at Artstream Gallery's website (I have a piece in there). The show is a wonderful benefit with some terrific work. I'd planned to go to last Friday's opening, but was foiled by the weather (ugh). If you're within driving distance, I'd highly recomend a trip to the gallery, because it's pretty darn swell too.

Happy Friday-ing to you all!

1, 2, 3

Here's a step by step look at an illustration I'm working on. The top is a very rough thumbnail; I usually do quite a few of these. Most end up in the trash can. Once I find something that feels like it's coming together, I'll work up a slightly tighter sketch. At this point I start using tracing paper to work out elements/combine aspects from different sketches. Basically at this stage it's lather, rinse, repeat 'till things start to come into focus. Working on tracing paper is nice too because it allows me to flip the image to see any idiosyncrasies. I find a lot of times my brain knows something is off, but can't pinpoint it until hitting this stage.



The middle drawing is right after being transferred to board. I then make sure there's no wobbling coffee cups/jumping cats/or sizable activity on the Richter scale before going any further (to avoid future unpleasantries). I use watercolors and occasionally colored pencils as far as traditional media goes. I've been experimenting with gouache lately and am really liking it for giving me vibrant colors.



The third drawing is where I've brought the piece into Photoshop and I'm messing with some of the colors and trying to pump up the intensity a bit. A lot of what I do color-wise is done digitally from start to finish (particularlly if there's a quick turnaround), but I'm trying to split the difference a little more between digital/traditional lately.

So that's that. Number three has a very long ways to go, so I'll post some of that when I'm finished.

29 Days

I like February. January seem so long and grey, but come February there's slightly longer days, an overabundance of chocolate, and an excuse for me to bust out the glitter and make Valentines.

But it's still winter, so time for another scarf:



I'm rediscovering the first season of "Alias." Watching that nights, I have to do something to validate getting sucked into the world of SD-6! Enter, crochet.