More self-portraits.... these first two are self-portraits as a children's book character.

goache and watercolor

goache

First foray into the world of pastels (other than playing around on my own not knowing what I'm doing). Switched up my self-portrait expression cuz I was getting bored.

chalk pastels

tengu

Latest projects from Iconography. Assignment was to illustrate an aspect of a culture. I chose Japanese mythology, researched some creatures and decided to illustrate the Tengu. From the research I did, the tengu's purpose or behavior seems to have changed over the years. I focused on an older Buddhist belief that the tengu was thought to cause war and conflict. They were also thought to be able to possess people.

I played around with linocut for this one, and then painted the background separately with watercolor. I blended the background and figures digitally, because the watercolor paint didn't go so well on the rice paper I was printing on. Ended up with a mess. Hooray for computers! (sometimes). :)

linocut, watercolor, digital

linocut, watercolor, digital collage

Linocut print on rice paper. This print is what I scanned in to use with the final image. I wasn't sure how the overlapping colors would print, but they printed with nice transparency.

Lino blocks. Discovered this nice rubbery stuff. Nice for cutting, its inbetween the safety-cut blocks (little too soft for my liking) and the regular grey lino.

watercolor

Watercolor self-portrait from Illustration Essentials class. I enjoyed the layering process of the watercolors, and that you can do some cool effects with it.

In process pic.

These paintings were for Iconography class. We were to illustrate a childhood memory. I remembered playing old-school nintendo, and also going to the corner store with my allowance to buy candy. Sugary goodness...

the nintendo one is not really done yet.... background is not supposed to be brown, didn't get to it in time. I hand-painted all the nintendo controllers... someone in my class asked why I didn't use a stencil to paint them. I didn't even think of that at the time. *bangs head against wall*

acrylics

I'm taking a book-making class this semester, which is a nice change of pace from drawing/painting. This is the first project from book class. Bit of a learning curve in terms of production; I majorly underestimated the amount of time it takes to put a book together - especially with content. And figuring out the pagination and trying to do all that manually brought back bad memories of my old job - blargh.

Anyways, here is my very first book! All hand-made, the cover is silkscreened. Inside was created digitally. Book is bound with a pamphlet stitch.

I put in some fold-outs throughout the book.

painting painting painting

phew... long time no posting. This week has been busy... I've been painting frantically for the past three days. Why do I always procrastinate? Below is one of the three paintings I did this week, it was for Illustration Essentials class. This is in acrylics; the next project is watercolors, which should be interesting because I haven't used watercolors that much. Looking forward to it.

it's kinda weird staring at your own face for so long... a little awkward. Especially when working on it in class time. I wish I had played around with the portrait a bit more, mine is pretty boring compared to other people's (facial expression, colors, etc.). Next time gadget...

acrylics

in process pic. This is about 2 hours in.

These illustrations were for Iconography class. We were to interpret a short piece of text, so I chose some song lyrics. Something along the lines of "have you ever played hockey by the light of the moon? shinny on a sunday afternoon". I'm pretty happy with how these turned out, especially the ice-ish gradient in the background. These prints will be up in an Illustration Show at school, opening next week.

silkscreen print

silkscreen print

Black Swan

acrylics, watercolor, oils, pencil crayon

Painting in progress that I started yesterday. Back to the swing of things! Watched Black Swan on the weekend - good creepy movie. I could never quite figure out what was "real" and what was fantasy/delusion, and when I thought I had it figured out, it changed again.

With this painting I thought I would practice a technique we learned in illustration class last semester that I enjoyed. Involves layering of thin washes of paint, and then lifting out the highlights. Sort of working backwards from the usual light to dark.

And because I love seeing other artist's process work.... process pics!

Mid-tone color and starting on background. Not sure if my mid-tone was too dark? Natalie Portman has very fair skin, so I'm not sure if my colors reflect that.

Blue wash over red.

Drippys! I love drippy. They make me happy. :)

Lifting out highlights.


Thin oil wash for shadows.

Lifting out the lights again. One thing I like about this technique, it's a mix of painting and drawing, and you can work loosely and then tighten up later on.

Here I think I was adding more shadows, because I didn't feel they were dark enough with just the oil wash.

Adding details with pencil crayon, and attempting to blend the colors together better. Not done yet, still working on this stage. Will probably try to paint in the dress and feathers too. We'll see what happens....