Doodles n' Things

Monsters Monsters Everywhere

2011-02-17T22:17:00.000-08:00

_Watercolor

Long time no see! So sorry for falling off the face of the earth. Real life got kinda busy, but now I'm here, posting more arts!

I was asked to submit some work to a charity gallery called Power In Numbers, curated by none other than Nucleus! They are the coolbeans mcGee, where all the cool kids hang out. The first watercolor isn't up just yet, though you can the see the second one on their site right now! Check it out here! I feel like a mouse amongst so many giants. The talent is crazy good!

Anyway, back to monsters again! Monsters being fuzzy and warm and monsters being helpful by eating tomato and bologna sandwiches.

Happy Bday mom!

2010-10-10T19:35:00.001-07:00

_{_{Photoshop CS5}}

My mom spent the majority of her childhood sneaking into her neighbor's yard and hanging out in their fruit trees, snacking away. A lot of her friends would do the same, but she was the only one wily enough to never get caught. :)

Tried pushing my color palette in a different direction (read: not throwing down every dang candy-colored hue in the world) aaaaaaaaaaaaaaand I like where this is going. How about that.

"Mommy, where's Timmy...?"

2010-07-27T13:12:00.000-07:00

Timmy's goin' for a ride, y'all!

A birthday gift for one of my besties! I...owe so many friends birthday gifts, it's sad. OR awesome that I have so many friends! Too many frieeennndddssssssss!

Brush Your Teefs

2010-06-30T11:38:00.001-07:00

The little girl, Angie, who was featured in my first blog post makes another appearance! This time in color! I'm preparing a portfolio geared towards children's publishing (picture books, educational workbooks, magazines, etc.) showing little kids doing little kid things. Like brushing your teeth! That's very important, especially when you eat as much candy as Angie. This was originally a simple color comp for a watercolor illustration that got a little carried away.

Dalmatian sketches! One or two of these may make it to the watercolor stage. It'll be fun splashing down color against the white and black spindly little bodies.

GONNA KICK YO' FACE IN

2010-06-25T11:49:00.001-07:00

_{_{Kung Fu Panda © Dreamworks Animation}}

I've wanted to avoid falling into the fanart pit here, but some movies are simply too awesome to not pay tribute to! Kung Fu Panda came on t.v. last night, which got a friend and me started on some KFP doodles. I got Tigress and she got Po (who is so ADORABLY fat and roly poly!).

I was seriously all in Nico Marlet's* face, studying his way of designing, figuring out what details he'd include and how everything flows together to support one idea. A lot of my characters (and drawings in general) could use some focus, so this was a great exercise.

*_{If you don't know this guy, CHECK HIM OUT AND WORSHIP HIM. He's a designer's designer's designer!}

That kid deserves a gold star

2010-05-13T23:22:00.000-07:00

Ahhh~ Mother's Day. They deserve at least one day out of the year for putting up with our crap. And God bless my mom, she is AWESOME and I'll never be able to paint her enough gifts to show how much she means to me. This is a start. Can't go wrong with kittens.

One of These Things Does Not Belong...

2010-05-10T18:48:00.000-07:00

Every year for my Grandma's birthday, I make her a painting. This year I imagined how her lifelong love of elephants came to be (her house is overrun with plush pachyderms and ceramic... c..c...you get the idea). As a little girl, she worked on a farm feeding the chickens, caring for cows and such. One day, perhaps a particularly exotic animal snuck out of a traveling circus and sought refuge at her farm...

Frou Frou Finished

2010-04-22T10:57:00.001-07:00

Added a frame to that froufrou illustration! It definitely needed something to finish it off. I don't fancy myself a decorative arts person (I commend anyone who can create beautiful non-figurative designs), but gotta admit, getting lost in the swirls and petals was therapeutic. Maybe I'll dabble in it again. :D

Bed Buddies

2010-04-08T20:37:00.000-07:00

Just when you thought it was safe to hide under the covers...

I've had this picture in my mind forever and finally got it out. Is this creature kind or cruel? Is it an inch away from nipping off a little toe or is it as frightened of the dark as the little girl is? I'm not sure where my recent fascination with monsters popped up from, but expect more monster-themed illustrations.

I wanna be 6 again

2010-03-26T01:55:00.000-07:00

Well, not really, but I sure do miss recess.

Kiddos have invaded my brains! They're everywhere! Especially these two gals (Chloe with the bouncy-flouncy dress, and Angie the running-pouncing-grimacing one). They tell me that they want their own stories, not just content to do random things in white space. So, it shall be, my dears.

Giraffey Taffy

2010-01-13T20:00:00.000-08:00

WOWZERS! Two posts within the same month? What sorcery is this??

Giraffe! It's chewin' and chillin'. I had a block of hot press watercolor paper lying around, untouched, because I HATE hot press paper. Cold press is my one true love, but I've seen so many artists who are amazing at using hot press that maybe it doesn't actually require black magic and baby's tears to make good art with it.

It was really tough at first, but I managed to adapt to it and have fun! It's a different, misunderstood monster from cold press. I didn't give it a chance. Anyway, had some fun with watercolor, acrylic, ink (that bled in places), and colored pencils. Next time I wanna get looser and let the colored pencils stand out a bit more. We'll see!

Red pandas go RAAAAAAA

2010-01-06T21:16:00.000-08:00

Red panda! I need to add more animals to my portfolio and red pandas seemed like a pretty good place to start. Messin' around with simplified lines and shapes and muted colors. A part of me feels complete now that I've introduced Payne's Grey in the mix. Oh Payne's Grey where have you beeennnn all my life. Mixed with Cadmium Yellow it makes the most pleasant greens (far better than the scan implies) mmmmm~

I need to get out more, haha.

Arts farts!

2009-10-07T21:25:00.000-07:00

my poor poor little blog. just another one of my neglected, dusty corners of the internet, haha.

recently, i've been working on making my portfolio more cohesive and pinning down 2 or 3 styles. that way i won't look like a schizo and actually fool people into believing i have direction. it's still fun to go crazy with styles on the side though. :D

ANYWHO on to the arts hello.

turn of the century France, man, that's where it's at! i'm playing around with different frame designs to finish this one off. trying to push shapes and not be so ambiguous with shadows and colors.

this was already posted on my joint themed blog, but the concept was fun enough to post twice. there has to be some kinda clever pun involving jump roping with one's intestines, but i got nuthin.

My first post!

2009-06-19T20:10:00.000-07:00

in...well. You don't need to know how many years. Let's just get on to the artwork, shaaaaaallll weeee?

While watching Amityville Horror (1979), I was struck by Margot Kidder's beautiful, magical cheekbones and had to draw her. Of course, this looks nothing like her, but it was still fun.
This lucky ballerina was blessed with the gift of curdled legs.
Random gals who apparently know something we don't.
Pig tails! I think her name is Angie. We'll have to talk more.
I love cute little old ladies. So sweet with their woolen shawls and angry glares.

That's it for now! Thanks for looking. :)