Christmas Crafts

W oolen headbands made of old sweaters were a few of my gifts this christmas! Cute, inexpensive and easy!

Luuurve box lit up

zoetrope

 S o there's the final zeotrope design. I have two different versions, and tried making them both today... they ended up a little more like a sad 12 year old's craft hour than I'd hoped.

"How could a man be so strong..... yet so tender?"

S o I spent quite a bit of time struggling, trying to figure out how to present the material I'd collected for "love". I began by collaging a bunch of the images from the romance novels, ripping out the pages, and scanning and printing out images from the front covers. I ended up with several large sheets of images that looked like this:

So my grand vision at this point wasn't to display the collages on the wall as images, I was quite excited about making them into a lantern of sorts, because they glowed quite nicely. This is the above image, with a light behind it:

I think that looks pretty cool. I had several sheets of these, and despite the fact they looked great lit-up, I couldn't really figure out how to construct said lantern, or how to present what I had....
Also, a lantern wouldn't really mean very much to the subject matter.
 So, I became a bit disheartened.
However, while doing a course reading, I came across this:

It's a pattern for a zeotrope from the graphic novel "Jimmy Corrigan, the smartest boy in the world". I scanned it, printed it out and attempted to make it with some success (it's very tiny).
I then decided to convert my Harlequin Romance Collages into the shapes from this design, to create the schematics for a Harlequin-love zeotrope. They look like this:

Hopefully, once I scan in all those little pieces (in a layout similar to the original pattern), they will be able to be printed out, and crafted into little love zeotropes for any and all to enjoy. My one regret is that lovely glowing paper aspect of the collages won't get explored, and it feels like a bit of a missed opportunity...
I have yet to actually draw the moving image, which is the centerpiece of the contraption... I hope to get on that. Soon.

it's a harlequin romance

T he theme of our next project for drawing class is "love". I was rather stumped at how to represent this, because it has such a dangerous potential for extreme cheese. I decided to go and pick up a bunch of Romance novels from Salvation Army as a starting point, and I'm so pleased I did. I have povided here a few that I scanned, they are a delight. And if you think the covers are atrocious, just imagine the contents...

Let's wait.... update

U pdate!
[Bahh Glare on the top half]
Some have said this painting looks like a festival, some have called it vair creepy. My painting teacher said I must have an interesting brain. (Compliment?)

let's wait for our bodies to age

T hrough the forest
Down to your grave
Where the birds wait
And the tall grasses wave
They do not
know you anymore

Dear shadow alive and well
How can the body die
You tell me everything
Anything true
-Fleet Foxes

Cut, then Paste, then Paint

I 've recently taken to painting from collages. You'll probably recognize this one, the reference to my most recent painting:

I've made a few more, and have already started painting from one of them... (the first one)

Hamilton

T wo weeks ago we had a little comic-booking seminar with a guest teacher, Amy Lockhart, in my drawing class (unfortunately not in time to be helpful for my last project). She showed us some animations and some of her own work, and her favourite comic books, and then we did a little sketch of our own. We were to start with a character design ( a few views of the character) and then work the panels off of a single sentence, ie. I was writing an exam, and my pencil broke. I did a few little character ideas, but my favourite was dear Hamilton, the Farmer's Melancholy Son. He was doing his chores, when he got egged.

And if you think he's got mummy/daddy issues, you'd be right.

Theatrics and gender

Full View, 13 panels

1-3. (Are you nervous?)

4-5. (Time to get ready)

6-7. (What makes us this way? GET ON STAGE!)

9-10. The performance of a lifetime... between the curtains it always works out

11-12. APPLAUSE!... But what's the powder hiding?

I guess underneath we're all just naked.

Under da SEA

C ostumes!! Villlllllllains!!
Also, check out our SPOOOOOOOKY apartment

Almost doneee

Draw draw draw

M ore panels.
The plot is pretty ambiguous the start with, but I suppose it's even harder to guess it in the order I've been posting the images!!

More Graphics

I have been working relentlessly(ish) toward my drawing crit, which is quickly approaching this friday....
Here are a few more installments!

By-the-by, check out my friend/ fellow artist/ roommate's (Ariana's) newest painting --> http://cruddysugarlemonade.blogspot.com/2010/10/violet-b.html--> It is of me, being really beautiful.

SEA WITCH

N ormally I don't post anything but art BUT I feel that my Halloween costume this year counts as such. I am rather proud, and also glad I'm done so I can accomplish other things (hem hem school).... Can't wait to see what it will look like with the hair and makeup!

Stacks of snacks



oil, 40x50 (I think)



I 've continued with my mushrooms in this painting..it's a very earhty-tone forest painting, although right now it looks a bit under-the-sea. I'm trying to make them light and fluffy like crinalin in this one.

Graphics

B eginnings of my next drawing project. It will hopefully be a wall-comic, as in, the panels will tile the wall like a giant page in a book. Debating whether or not to leave the bubbles blank in the end.

Odd Doodlin'

A lil' party to jump-start October

Mushroom Table

F orest snacks?

Bugging out

 T weedle dee, tweedle beetle


Sitting 1



Sitting 2

This is my first painting for (guess) painting class this year! It's 20x28" (I think), oil on canvas.
Still in progress. We showed up to class that morning and the professor announced we were not doing the model painting as planned, and basically we were to forge ahead on whatever we wanted.
 I had nothing prepared, so I just grabbed my sketchbook and started this painting, essentially based on a doodle (You may recognize this beetle character-thing from earlier works).

I really don't mind it. It's kind of funky. I'm afraid I'm loosing the lightness and looseness though that it had at the start, which is a common issue for me when it comes to painting. It's a very spontaneous sort of thing, though, so I'll just keep working on the little guy and see where we go. I'll scan that sketch later.

Gulping Guppies

2008

T he first class, we were assigned to re-do an older drawing that we didn't like.

I generally hate really by-the-book assignments like this, but what can you do.

I picked the above one, which I'd given to a friend, which I didn't like so much... it's just kind of quick. I liked the nosey, mouthy premise, though, and did a more compositionally resolved and refined drawing of it.