Creation

I finally got a chance to finish an image I started back in the summer. Originally I had titled it 'The Sorceress' but as I worked, I felt the image was less about the woman and more about the process (hers and mine.) I finished the piece a few nights ago and changed the title to 'Creation'.

Inking my sketches from Europe

We got back from our 2 week trip around Europe on Tuesday. Now that I have adjusted back to eastern time again (and not just falling asleep at my desk) I am starting to play with the sketches I collected.
I found myself pretty well enraptured with the buildings in the areas we stayed in and spent a lot of time sitting outside pen in hand drawing cityscapes. (Or in most cases, villagescapes!) I loved the closeness of Bruges, the colors of Munich and of course, the canals in Amsterdam. Each city had so many beautiful squares, streets and hidden corners that it would have been impossible to draw everything that struck me. For this reason, I brought 2 cameras :)

I am starting to ink a few of the sketches I made in Munich (might as well go in chronological order) and am hoping to throw a few washes over each one. This one in particular was created at Marienplatz, a medieval square in the middle of the city.

Added Kimbra to the Gotye Painting

I've had Kimbra's 'Settle Down' on repeat all evening. I love it. The Barbie, Ken and Barbie v.2 motif is killer. I meant to paint both her and Gotye into the piece I did a few weeks ago - and finished adding her tonight.

A few more acrylic transfers

'Pidgeon', acrylic and paint marker on 8 x 11 wood board.

'Pigeons on wire' also acrylic and paint marker on 8 x 11 wood board.

I used a gold pigmented base for the background, which isn't incredibly visible in the scans.
More transfer experiments follow :)

Gotye painting on 0 hours of sleep...

In the process of staying awake all night (to hopefully jolt my body back into a normal sleep schedule for a weekend in Michigan) I stumbled across an excellent video by a very excellent musician. Gotye's "Someone I Used to Know" has been on repeat for the majority of the evening, night and early morning. My goal for the night/day was to finish a set of new transfer images - but after a few hours of his music and being so struck by the visuals in this video I decided I probably needed to try to paint it.

Now that I have done that, I should probably go chug gallons of coffee if I hope to stay awake until this evening. My body doesn't seem to stay awake as well as it did in college...

Breaking in the new cintiq!

We made it back to Miami from Boulder in one piece - which is awesome, considering we decided to drive the entire 36 hour trip in one go. The ferrets weren't exactly pleased, but we supplied them with a bounty of treats... so they can't have been too upset with us.

Upon getting home, we found a stellar deal on a Cintiq (wooo craigslist!) and I found myself upgrading from the 12wx, to the 21. Seriously, it's a whole new world. It took me a few nights to get used to it and I still haven't grasped all of it's capabilities - but it is definitely one of the better investments I could have made this year.

This little guy was made as a practice image on the new cintiq, based off a 'hallucinogenic spirit guide' character concept from conceptart.org. I missed the deadline for submission but was still intrigued by the idea. I wanted him to be friendly, beckoning and full of ideas we haven't found yet. Somehow that part manifested as a yellow glow in my head.... perhaps I just miss the Michigan lightening bugs :)

Whirlwind Summer...

What? It's mid-July?? I have no idea where spring even went and it's already halfway through summer?

We've been in Colorado for about 3 weeks and though we have been super busy, it has been a wonderful time. The vibe out is here is fantastic and I could see myself living here, no problem.

As our level of busy-ness with our current project is at about 11 (on a scale of 1 - 10) I have not gotten much chance to paint. I am knee-deep in a pretty emotional portrait, but being surrounded by the scenery here I am finding it hard to focus on the face. Good thing I packed my seldom used watercolors!

I've decided to step back from the portrait (even though I enjoy it) and focus on where my attention seems to be constantly drifting. To the Mountains! The Flatirons, to be exact. I've been carting my watercolors and a convenient pack of postcard sized paper to the park across our street and have been trying my best to practice landscapes. Landscape work has always been a stretch for me, but I am finding the super small format keeps me from getting frustrated and encourages me to move quickly.

I also want to start painting the more interesting beer bottles I have started collecting. There are tons of local, delicious (and cheap!) breweries in this area, which results in some pretty nifty beer bottle designs. I'm hoping to do one each weekend :) Drinking beer, for art!