Hot Air Balloonin'.

So, more than a month ago I started brewing some ideas for a new promo card piece:




I picked the last sketch and worked right up to the color comp stage, but didn't get around to starting on the final until two days ago:

I tried to keep everything fairly loose, as far as coloring went.

Almost always I scan in piece and tweak the raw piece in Photoshop:

Most times I do simple color adjustments and clean-up, but I wasn't too happy with how the blue in the balloon came out so I fixed that.

Anyway, here is the final:


Media: ink dyes and color pencils on CP watercolor paper, gin*** + Photoshop.
****I often use lighter fluid to smooth out the color pencil markings (it melts the wax). However, today I couldn't find any so I used gin as a replacement. :x It worked okay but definitely not up to par with lighter fluid, hence the Photoshopping.

Some of My Published Works

...that I should have posted a YEAR ago.




in this:








the above two in these (same issue, different covers):


I really need to take better pictures...

(A Month-Late)

New Year's Resolution: Update this blog more!!

I have been TERRIBLE with this blog lately, and didn't help that my scanner had been broken up til now. Anyway, I promise I will be better this year! Here are some recent doodles to get the ball rolling once again.




I have NO IDEA what this is supposed to be, but I guess those are the best kind of doodles.


I want to do more story-telling-ish drawings like this.

Two Boys.

Couple more new pieces:


Gouache on wood, with subtle scanned textures added in Photoshop.


Ink dyes on illustration board, scanned textures added in Photoshop.

I've always preferred working on traditional media over digital but I really enjoy utilizing digital tools to enhance non-digital things.
The forgivingness and the range of possible experimentations of Photoshop is just as good as the unpredictability of traditional media.

Archive Galore

I have revamped the Home Base, and am moving some older pieces here for archiving:


A poster I did for Ska Weekend 2007. Spring 2007; Photoshop.


An editorial piece on women's pay equality, it won third place & honorable mention for a competition sponsored by American Association of University Women and SCAD Career Services Department. March 2007; Ink dyes, gouache, & color pencils.


A skateboard I painted in acrylics for a gallery show in Atlanta last summer.


Wine label design. Fall 2006; Gouache & color pencils.


Stamp design about childhood. Winter 2007; Photoshop.



Cover & pages from my children's book, which can be read HERE. Fall 2006; Gouache, color pencils, & Photoshop.


Painted from a life model, approx 2 hours. Spring 2007; oils.


Also painted from a life model, approx 2 hours. Spring 2007; oils.


Drawn from life, approx 30 min. Spring 2007; charcoal.


Assignment about this incident. Fall 2006; Gouache & ink.


Self-portrait. Early 2006; C.F. Payne technique.

Sidewalk Arts 2008

Yesterday I participated in SCAD's annual Sidewalk Arts Festival for the second time (last year was my first, though I WISH I had done it the two previous years before that!).

Basically, SCAD students/alumni/etc can sign up for a square in Savannah's Forsyth Park, in which we can draw anything using just chalk. It's a great festival, and I just love getting live feedback from pedestrians and fellow artists!

Some people (incl. myself) use water & various tools to smoothen the colors.


Unfortunately for us yesterday, it rained various times throughout the day, washing the drawings right off of the sidewalk. My friend Nick and I stuck around and reworked on our squares til the end of the day, though.

The finished piece! Yay!

Circus & Caricature of Me!

I thought it would be fun to make a little gif animation of how my final piece progresses--and figured I might as well post it up here:

(please give it a sec for the gif to load)
Here is the final product:

The following were used: concentrated dyes, bleach, color pencils, lighter fluid, & acrylic paint pens.

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Today in the Art of Caricature class, we had two caricaturists come in to do demos: Jeremy Townsend and Justin Galloway. It was phenomenal to see them bust out great line drawings one after another without any sketch lines.
Jeremy drew me!

(the actual paper's not yellow, it's just a bad quality photo)
I definitely learned a lot from just watching them draw-- They're living proof that, like with anything else, the only way to get better is to draw, draw, and draw some more.

Modernized & Urbanized

Little Red Riding Hood.

The wolf is going to be a creepy hobo.

Zoo Color Comps & Genevieve Kote

Here are the color comps that I had whipped up in Photoshop for the zoo mural art.

I ended up picking the bottom left colors for the final piece, which was done in concentrated dyes, gouache & color pencils. I think color comps are a great way to lay out any value/hue issues before getting to the final. In this particular piece I only varied the background color because I decided to keep the animals colors naturalistic (so there were no confusion as to what was what).

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The illustrator link of the day is Genevieve Kote, who is from Quebec City. She does a lot of freelance stuff, mainly for publications. I just love the whimsical characters, well-planned composition, and bright color schemes that she executes in her illustrations. She also has a great ability to depict any situation in a light-hearted, yet not overly-comical way.

She also has a flickr which has more up-to-date sketches &pieces.

Zoo Mural Art Concept

A value comp I did for a zoo mural. It's kind of hard to see in a sketch so small, but it shows a bunch of animals partying, dressed as another animal. I'll probably keep the colors naturalistic so there's no confusion as to what animal's what (it's already so busy!).

By the way, here's another illustrator link: Matt Phelan. He's a children's book illustrator, and I'm actually doing a report on him. He works mainly in watercolors + ink to produce simple yet unique imagery. I mean, how adorable is this??

I love his sketchy look! I tend to overwork in my final pieces, so I admire how he's able to keep the loose quality of his sketches whilst defining a certain environment/atmosphere.

Upload Overload.

Alright, I've got a lot to post today:

First off, here are initial sketches (from life) of my fellow classmates in my caricature class:


And here are the final finished pieces:

One had to be graphic/geometrical (top, dyes) and the other one more naturalistic (bottom, graphite).

We also did a fun little in-class exercise today, where we had to draw the Statue of Liberty in various facial expressions:

They were definitely fun to do! Why can't Lady Liberty actually look like one of those in real life? :D

Up next are a few random doodles in my sketchbook:

My personal (=not for class) sketchbook is a small 6"x6" square format, so I tend to just put it on my lap and draw things from all sorts of angles... hence the sideways bears... Sorry, I guess you'll just have to tilt your head sideways!

Another one, drawn during a long winded critique...*yawn*:


Finally, my friend Shiho Hoshino put up pictures of her worktable on her blog the other day, so I thought I'd be a little copycat and put my own up:

You can sort of see the finished version of the piece I had been working on...the sketch is in the previous post. I'll be sure to post a good res scan of that soon!