Save the Date!

Hello one and all!

I apologize for my absence. But I wanted to share some art that I have been working on lately. My cousin, Julie is getting married next Fall in beautiful Durango, Colorado (SO excited for this wedding because I've never been to Colorado!) and she asked me to design her Save the Date cards! How could I say no?!

She was kind enough to let me post some of the work I've done so far for the cards, so here it is.

About a month ago, Julie and I got together to discuss rough ideas of what she wanted the cards to look like.  Since her wedding is going to be in Colorado, she wanted a rustic and natural theme. To represent nature, she thought a tree would work well as a central image. She also wanted to incorporate herself and her fiance, Jake, into the tree somehow. This is the first idea I came up with. A tree with their initials carved into the bark surrounded by a heart. Very rustic and cute, indeed.

She mentioned that she was thinking about her wedding colors being navy blue, lime green and blush pink so I tried to add those into the composition as well.

As for text, I plan on doing hand-written lettering. At this point, I'm still unsure of the exact date of the wedding so I can't go ahead with that part yet.

I also did another variation on the tree. Instead of the names carved in, I did the initials as part of the branches themselves.

I like this one, but I personally think the other one will look better once the text is added.

Julie did make the suggestion to simplify and just use navy for the trunk of the tree and the branches and lime green for the leaves. Simplifying usually makes things look more polished and it did. It was a great suggestion! And for a card that is mostly for informational purposes, simplifying is always a good idea. So here is the first variation after I made changes.

This one pops just so much more against the white of the paper. I really like it! In the end, it is Julie's decision, though.

I plan on working some more on these. I'd like to re-do the second variation in just blue and green as well.

Congrats to the happy couple!

Oh, and my mom is commissioning me again to do the 2012 family Christmas card. So stay tuned for that! And as usual, the card will be up on my Online Shop for purchase before the Christmas season!

Art from Michigan

I did manage to do a few pieces while I was in Michigan. One of them is a work in progress...and I do hope that I can get some paintings out of the many photos I took (all of which can be found here), but here they are nevertheless...

Red Lighthouse

After a few (failed) attempts at trying to sketch the lighthouse and then paint it, I just decided to go for it and paint without sketching at all. Just painting on paper was something I had been itching to do for a while, but I just hadn't the time or the inspiration to do so. It felt really good finally getting to do that. This piece was the first painting I did on the trip and I did it on-location at Holland State Park (aka Ottawa Beach) whilst sitting out on a pier across from the red lighthouse. I was looking around to see if the lighthouse actually had a name, but I think that the only name it has is the one affectionately given by the locals, "Big Red". This piece was kind of a "warm up" painting, of sorts. I like how it turned out, though. I was very loose with detail. I wanted to be. I knew this wasn't going to be a detailed highly rendered illustration with varying micron pen lines and such. I just wanted it to be splashy and just defined enough that we know what it is. I painted this piece around Noon-2 pm so the light was very direct and unfortunately, I think the composition suffered for it. There weren't as many lights and darks on the lighthouse. It was just kind of one tone.

Clouds Over Holland

This was my favorite piece I did on the trip. I sketched it out while on location at the pier on Holland Beach (the exact same location of the previous piece) and then painted it back at the house. I sat there mesmerized by the cloud formations over my head. There were puffy cumulus clouds and wispy stratus clouds, clouds that may or may not have been airplane exhaust...they were just beautiful, and then add to that the Michigan coastline that just seemed to stretch on forever going from light green, to dark green, to teal, to blue and to purple as it stretched towards the horizon--absolutely gorgeous. That is why I prefer to draw natural things to man-made structural things, I just find them more aesthetically pleasing. I tried doing this piece in a similar style to my Rocky Pemaquid illustration. While I was sketching the coastline and water and sky, a sailboat passed by so I thought I would include that as well...though I just kind of roughly sketched it and followed up with a reference photo later. I hope to frame this piece. I really like it. 

Bob

We did a figure drawing session on the last day of the trip. It was very quick, only 15 minutes and I think we had planned to do more, but for some reason, that never happened. I think we got carried away watching covers of Gotye's Somebody That I Used to Know on YouTube. These things do happen. It was good to see that I still had it, though. I haven't done a lot of figure sketching in a while. I think this sketch of Bob turned out nice...although everyone said I made him look younger. Not necessarily a bad thing!

Red Lighthouse II (WIP)

The last evening of the trip, a few of us headed back to Holland Beach State Park. I had a much better experience that time...aside from the bugs. The lighting was much more dramatic in the evening as the sun began to set. The lighthouse actually reflected had off the warm-toned waters of Lake Michigan. I was going to do a simple color-blocking technique, but since the paint was drying veeeerrrrry slooooooowwwly (because the air was so full of moisture from the lake) and everything was running together (AND the bugs would not leave me alone), I vowed to finish the painting at a later date. I wanted to try adding some detail into the lighthouse with micron pens, over the paint which is not something I usually do. We shall see how that turns out. I'll keep you all posted.

Michigan State of Mind

I just got home yesterday from a four-day trip to Saugatuck/the Michigan Coast with the Sons of Turner. You all that read my blog probably didn't know I was going on such a trip because I don't believe that I mentioned it on here, but it was a lot of fun. I wish I could have had a couple more days just to spend time with people and paint a little more. The trip was on a much smaller scale than the trips the Sons usually take, like for instance the one we took last year to Maine, so there wasn't as much to see and do in the time we were allotted, but I think if we had more days, we could have traveled around more and found more things.

I did have a lot of fun, though. I was more productive than I have been in months in terms of my art, so that alone was great! It was really nice getting to see people that I haven't seen in a while too.

While I was there, I felt very relaxed and just being there by the lake, surrounded by friends, it dawned on me that life shouldn't be rushed--or rather, my friend Dani just kept telling me not to rush my paintings. I would sit there staring at the lake, or the rocks, or the beach thinking "What do I paint?" and she would tell me "Just don't force it". An idea for a piece of art comes naturally. You shouldn't have to force yourself to paint something just because it's sitting there in front of you. You have to really think about what you want to capture and "feel" the composition coming together. You have to be excited by it. I kept going back to how I felt after the Maine trip with all my photos but very few "good" (in my opinion) paintings and looking at the photos and thinking Wow, that would make an awesome painting! I want to paint that! But instead of a photo, I was still right there looking at the lighthouse or the sail boat. It made me more excited to be there in the moment, and in turn gave me a bit of inspiration. I hope that makes sense. It made sense in my head.

So I will do my best to scan those paintings and sketches I did. I do have a few pictures I'd like to share, though, of course...

I should mention that the weather was absolutely GORGEOUS the entire time we were there. Like it wasn't too hot and the sky was exceptionally clear. Unfortunately, I got a little sunburned.

Ooh and this too...

A couple of weeks ago, my mom asked me to do a retirement card for one of her coworkers. He is apparently a fan of the Three Stooges so I was told to draw them on the card. I typically don't draw these types of characters, but the card actually turned out better than I thought it would.

I looked at a picture and used pencil and micron pen to ink it in, then added tone with light washes of watercolor.

We added the lettering to the card later. I am told that my mom's coworker really liked the card.

Oh hey, there!

Yes, I am still alive.

I wouldn't necessarily call that a hiatus. I would call it working a lot and not having a ton of time to do art, which is very sad, I know. I still have a few things I want to show you guys, though.

First of all, if you don't know me very well, you probably don't know that I am obsessed with the British Period Drama Downton Abbey. You also probably don't know that I get obsessed with most British Period Dramas that I watch. Anyway, I started watching Downton Abbey last Fall when I checked out Season 1 from the library. I was immediately hooked. But after watching that, I sort of forgot about it and went on with my life. Then randomly last winter, I was flipping channels one Sunday evening when Masterpiece Classic on PBS came up and said "Downton Abbey". It was maybe two or three episodes into the second season, but I watched it anyway and with Doctor Who on break until next Fall (I believe), Downton Abbey quickly took it's rightful place as my favorite TV show!

So naturally, I did a little fan art, and I do plan on doing more...

I did sketches in my sketchbook first of the Crawley sisters of Downton Abbey

I looked at pictures of the actresses and tried to pick out their unique facial features to turn them into caricatures. Luckily each of them have such unique facial structures with a lot of character so that made my job easier. 

I then did something I rarely do...I scanned the pencil sketches and put them into Photoshop (and let's be honest here, I don't have the most advanced version of Photoshop. I worked with what I had) and rendered the colored parts digitally using layers. I was going for a more breezy, sketchy and simplistic look since that is the style I use when I do traditional art as well. So here is how they turned out. 

Lady Mary Crawley

Lady Edith Crawley

Lady Sybil Crawley (aka Sybil Branson)

The three of them together

here is what they actually look like if you are unfamiliar with the program.

Like I said, I would like to do more of these. I would definitely like to try my hand at drawing a few of the men of Downton Abbey. These little sketches actually started out of trying to draw some Mary/Matthew fanart.  For some reason, I just could not get Matthew's face right. I would also like to possibly do some Avengers fanart. I just saw the movie last week and absolutely loved it. I'm not usually a big superhero fan, but I truly enjoyed that film. 

Happy New Year!

Hi there! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and a fantastic New Year!

Sorry again for my lack of updates, but now that Christmas is over, I wanted to show you the gift(s) I painted for my dad. My dad is a card collector and one of the types of cards he collects are called sketch cards. They are cards with sketches on them (I guess as the name might imply) done by artists of tv characters, movie characters, whoever. My dad didn't want me to spend any money on him this year for Christmas, so I decided I would do a few sketch cards for him. I used a theme of his favorite tv characters and I thought I'd show them here.

Buffy from Buffy the Vampire Slayer

for each card, I sketched out the portrait in pencil then inked it with the 005 Micron, as well as outlining each silhouette with the Sakura Brush pen. I wanted a sort of emphasis there. I have been reading graphic novels lately (the Jane Austen ones by Nancy Butler, if you must know) and I noticed that the illustrators (like Janet K. Lee) often use a heavier line to outline. I liked the way it looked, so I tried to incorporate that with my style. For color, I used a monochromatic approach with a simple wash of watercolor and a little bit of walnut ink for some added tone. I tried to match each color to the character being presented.

Rick Grimes from The Walking Dead

Walter White from Breaking Bad

Dexter from, well, Dexter

Violet Harmon from American Horror Story

These were actually really fun to make. I might do some Doctor Who ones in the future since that is my favorite show. My dad really loved these too. It goes to show that you don't need to spend a ton of money on a gift that someone will love, and it shows that I can paint more than just teapots and cupcakes.

Holiday Greetings!

Happy Christmas Eve Eve, all!

I know I've been absent from this blog for nearly two months. In my defense, a lot of things have been going on to prevent me from updating regularly. One of them being, I got a job. It's not an art job, unfortunately, but it is paying the bills, which is mostly what matters right now. I can still do art outside of work, which I have been doing.

This year, I designed Christmas cards for both my family and for my aunt. I thought I'd show them now. It may be a little too late to purchase them, but they are for sale in my online shop ...in case you want to get a head start for next year.

This is our family Christmas card this year, designed according to my mom's specifications:

front:

inside:

And the one I designed for my aunt, it's a bit of a different style. She wanted a sense of movement and something involving birds.

front:

inside:

Anyway, I hope anyone reading this enjoys the art and has a wonderful holiday and a very healthy and happy New Year!

<3 Emily

And it's finished!

So, I don't know why I haven't updated lately, but I finished the four-piece flower set I was doing for my aunt about two weeks ago. I guess I have had a few things going on since then that have prevented me from posting it on here, but here is the final piece finished:

 Those are Cornflowers, which before I did some research on, I knew very little about. They are actually really pretty blue and purple flowers. I gave all four paintings to my aunt a couple weeks ago and she was really pleased with them. I was so glad. I held them up against the wall in her living room and they coordinate with the room's color scheme very well. I had been keeping that in mind the whole time I was doing this project. I am also happy with this set. I would gladly hang them on my own wall, but I'm especially happy that my aunt liked them.

I also have been just working on random little paintings here and there. Sometimes I just get the urge to doodle, and with that, comes the urge to paint that doodle. It usually happens late at night too, like as my eyelids are starting to droop and I'm yawning every five seconds. That is just how my mind works, I guess. So I thought I'd just show you some of these little doodles.

 I actually did this because I wanted a new icon/profile picture for some websites I am on, like twitter, facebook, tumblr. So far, I've only put it as my twitter icon. I wanted a look to my twitter account that was completely done by me. So this is me in a nutshell, surrounded by some of my favorite things as cute little icons--a starfish (for my love of the ocean and the beauty of the sea), a teacup (do I need to explain this one?), a heart (because I follow my heart, not my head, usually), a bunny (because I love cute animals), a poppy (my favorite flower) and nail polish (because I like to paint my nails). It's a more cartoon-y, cute drawing of me. I am not that cute, but I think it still looks like me because of my purple glasses, scarf and of course a cardigan. I also, am exploring the idea of my own handwritten font/logo. Whenever I hand-write things, they always end up in this sort of style.

 

 

two more logo designs with a tea theme...which leads to the next set of doodles...

Guess what. These are actually painted using tea! Go ahead and call me crazy, though I really don't think it is that insane. I am definitely not the first person ever to paint with tea. And it is actually not the first time I, myself, have ever painted with tea. When I used to work on school projects in Grade School and Middle school and it required an aged look to the paper or something, we used tea to do that. Tea staining gives an antique look. I used that same idea here. But I wanted to be literal about it. I drew some little teacups (each with their own unique pattern and shape), then used hot tea to do a wash over them, then added watercolor. I used Earl Grey and Green Tea. The Earl Grey, being a black tea, gave a darker wash to the paper, while the Green was a lighter, more yellow-toned color.

I actually used the teacups as my twitter background. I like how it came out. I think I will be doing more tea paintings in the future.

Two more finished!

For the past month or so, I've been working on this series of four pieces for my aunt. So far I've finished three and am currently working on the fourth one. Just wanted to show the two newest ones to you all.

 Hibiscus - I really like how this turned out. As I am painting these, I am noticing that I go through many stages of how I feel about piece. I start out hopeful that it will turn out nice. Then I become frustrated that it doesn't look good and I don't like it. And then eventually I grow to love it. When I was working on this piece, the hibiscus flowers were my main source of frustration. Flowers are difficult to paint. I think it's because they are so delicate, you want to say as much as you can without making it look too heavy. The good thing about the style I work in, is that I'm not going for realism. I'm going for a likeness, but in a breezy, illustrative way.

Queen Anne's Lace - I became super frustrated with this piece. When I first started painting the stalks, I guess you could call them, they looked like palm trees on a beach in the sunset. Not what I was going for. The purple-y part you see at the top was perhaps a bit too pink at the time and it just looked very tropical. I was going for more of a starry, country meadow look. I suppose the orange frisket I was using (I will get to that later) for the "lace" part of the flower didn't really help. Queen Anne's Lace isn't your typical flower. When most people think of flowers, they think of petals, not little white, furry, bumpy things on the tops of stems. Not to say that this isn't a beautiful flower, but it is an unconventional one. I decided to just go with a speckled white look which makes it look like a cluster of white on top on the stem. While I was painting over the little frisket dots, I decided I needed more of them, so I went through again, over painted paper and made more dots. That is actually the first time I've ever added frisket over paint--surprisingly. I was hoping it would add some depth. I think it helped.

I showed the pieces so far to my aunt last weekend and she really liked them, so I'm excited to see them hanging in her living room soon!

Oh, and the frisket! I finally found a frisket that I love! I had been using Utrecht brand masking fluid for the longest time (which I really didn't like) and I have no idea why I didn't go buy new frisket. Well, when I was downtown a couple weeks ago, I went to Blick and asked one of the employees what she recommended for frisket. She pointed out the Blick Liquid Frisket in the little jar.

 The great thing about this is it is actually liquid-y! My other stuff was all gummy and really difficult to use. This glides on the paper like I'm using paint. It's great. And I like the orange color much more than that ugly yellow. It's easier to see on white paper and under paint.

The Delphiniums finished...now onto the next one

As you know, I am working on a four-piece set of paintings of different flowers for my aunt. The last time I posted, the first one was a work-in-progress. Well, I'm glad to say that it's now finished...

I tried to stay true to my style. I kept it pretty organic and natural this time (as the subject matter is flowers) and I didn't even tape off the edges of the paper, like I normally do. I decided to just stick with a hand drawn edge. I showed this piece to my aunt last week while it was still a work in progress and she was very happy with how it was coming along. I was relieved to hear that because I was just about ready to scrap it and start over. Personally, I love this piece. Blues and purples are colors I love painting with (because they are my favorite colors) and how can you get more light-hearted and ethereal than flowers? Love it! I'm proud of this.

The next piece in the set that I am working on is of Hibiscus flowers, which are another of my aunt's favorites.

 It's coming along. As you can see, it is far from being finished. I plan on working on it a little more today. But right here is two days work (and I don't mean a full 24-hour day, obviously). But I'm keeping with the natural whimsy of it. I'm using frisket again because I like the effect it gave the first piece. I'm trying to stick with the same color scheme (underlying blues, purples, pinks, and teals) as well so all the pieces go together. For this piece I added a hummingbird. My aunt loves hummingbirds. She has a feeder on her back porch and she enjoys watching the hummingbirds come to visit. They are fascinating little creatures. This little guy is going to be a red-throated hummingbird, which are the kind that live around this area of the country. Apparently, there are different ones that live west of the Mississippi river.

Updates!

So the Sons of Turner premiere exhibition was a hit, I am glad to say. Unfortunately, I could not stay the entire evening, but while I was there, we had a lot of visitors, which was great. My parents really enjoyed the show as well. I was glad to be a part of it. I believe the show is going to stay up the remainder of the month, so head out to the Ontarioville Art Center in Hanover Park if you're interested.

me with my artwork

Also, today, I started working on a commission I'm doing for my aunt. She wants four paintings of delphinium and hibiscus flowers to hang in her living room. It was nice painting today because I haven't really flexed my painting muscles in a few weeks...which is awful. I had been temping at my old job for a couple of weeks (which was also great) but it didn't give me a lot of time or energy to work on art. Now that I've got nothing but time, it's the perfect thing. 

I started the first small painting of delphiniums today. It's turning out a lot like an illustration, but I am happy with it so far.

It's quite whimsical (I use that word WAY too much), but I like it. It's really up to what my aunt wants, though. And this is a work in progress. The yellow you see on there is frisket (masking fluid). Ahh, my old friend frisket. Actually, we never really were friends. It's always so clumpy and it completely ruins my brushes. No! I do not use my quality brushes, but even the cruddy brushes I use become more cruddy when frisket is added. Note to self: find better frisket. I'm currently using Utrecht brand that I purchased for my Watercolor I class two years ago. Maybe that is is why it's so clumpy? If anyone has any suggestions as to a better brand of frisket, do let me know!

Also I'm working on a Fluid Watercolor block that I bought at Blick the last time I was downtown. Unfortunately I do not have the kind of money at the moment to be buying expensive Arches blocks, so I thought this would be a good alternative, since a friend of mine recommended them. It's cold press, and I am now a hot press girl, but I don't mind cold press every now and then (that was all they had anyway). The paper is taking the paint well, and I tend to do a lot of wet-in-wet stuff, except the corner is starting to lift up.

Fluid blocks don't have glue all the way around the block like Arches ones do. They are just glued on two sides. I just thought this was kind of annoying. As long as it doesn't come detached all the way around, it should be ok. I guess I'm not going to be working on this for hours anyway. But that's just my little gripe. Otherwise, it's a great block.

Away From Home : The Sons of Turner Premiere Exhibition

 

This Saturday, September 3rd, at the Ontarioville Art Center the Sons of Turner will be exhibiting works from our annual trips that we take around the country. There will be pieces from Santa Fe, NM, Savannah GA, and the Midcoastal region of Maine. 

This is my first REAL art show, so I'm really excited! I'm also excited to see what everyone else has done. We have a lot of talent between us all as a group. 

I have one piece in the show, my Barn & Buoys piece that I painted from a photograph I took at North Creek Farm in Phippsburg, ME. I hope people can make it out and see what we, as the Sons of Turner are all about. Hope to see you there!

Books, Bunnies and Artist's Block

This week, I've been trying to break through my artist's block. It happens sometimes, every once in a while. I just can't think of anything I want to paint or draw. I have to basically force myself to do stuff--which isn't always the best thing. For some reason, I just haven't been able to find interesting things to work on or things that inspire me. So I turned to things that I know, just common objects.

So this summer, I've been trying to read most (if not all) of the remaining Jane Austen books that I haven't already read. I read Pride & Prejudice partially in High School and finished reading it afterwards, when I realized how great it was. Then last Autumn, I found Sense & Sensibility and Persuasion grouped together in a book at Borders (when it was still in business) for $4.99...and beautifully bound too. I read Sense & Sensibility and have yet to read Persuasion. Last month I polished off Emma and now I'm currently reading Mansfield Park. You might wonder where I am going with this...well, I decided to start doing more illustrations of just things that I like and are part of my life...along with the blind contour teapots.

You would be surprised how much people like these kinds of simple drawings. I put this up on tumblr and the last time I checked, it had nearly 100 notes. I try to make them simple. I want them to look like they were drawn, not like a photograph and not like a computer generated image. They're doodles. They're very whimsical and almost haphazard, which I think adds to their charm. If I wanted to draw a realistic representation of a book, I could, but, these sorts of things are so much more personal and I like that about them. And they are meant to be personal because they are my things, but also things that other people could appreciate. And no, I haven't forgotten Northhanger Abbey. I don't own that one yet.

I also experimented with something quite different yesterday. I was thinking about bunnies. I really love bunnies. I think lately, they have become my favorite animal. When I think about it, it makes sense. I was born in the Year of the Rabbit in Chinese Astrology--kind of a coincidence. So I wanted to draw some bunnies to use on items in my online shop. I haven't really drawn that many animals in the past, but an idea just kind of came to me out of the blue and I just went with it. But I wanted to work with it digitally instead of using paint, so it would be more changeable in the future. I started with a drawings of a  simple cute little bunny in a sweater (because what could be more adorable?)...

and added spots and accessories digitally...

I could change the color of the sweater, I could change the spots, and I could change whatever I wanted in Photoshop. Plus the texture of an actual knit sweater is fun. I can even make patterns.

This is really just the beginning. I do plan to do more bunnies, but I can also do other things. Right now, these bunnies are adorning baby clothes in my online shop, but I think that they would make great little trademarks for myself, considering how much I can change them. They could be put on Christmas cards and other holiday-related items (which I do plan on working on soon). I think if I changed the colors on them too, they could be a bit more sophisticated.

I still love watercolor, but this is a fun way to work as well and I like how versatile it is. Tell me what you all think.