100 days of whatever

There's this trendy thing that pops up on Instagram yearly where half my feed picks a thing to do for 100 days and does it. I thought it was pretty dumb when it started last year, but by the end of it felt bad for not playing along. (So much for avoiding peer pressure.) 

I decided I'm doing 100 days of watercolor. Although, at nine days in, I also have a really nice start to 100 days of cupcakes and cheeseburgers. 

Actually, yeah, let me just take a second to pretend I am a food blogger and acknowledge my current cheeseburger fetish.

Look at that beauty. I'm not going to be one of those obnoxious vegan-ish types who claims that a meat-eater wouldn't notice the difference. Because really, it's made of beans and rice and oats and quinoa, there's a fricking difference. But I will say, as someone who really loved cheeseburgers before becoming allergic to dairy and then becoming too neurotic to eat meat, it's really good. Oh, and it's sturdy enough that you best believe I will be popping some on a grill this summer with my carrot hotdogs or whatever the hell bullshit I am into in a few months. 

Anyway, now that that's out of my system. Here are the watercolor things I've done that I like so far.

In addition to focusing on watercolor, I am also focusing on not using grids/ any other high precision techniques. I do my sketch. Add my paint. Be on my way. It's a lot faster and less stressful and also more beneficial to actually brushing up my "look at a thing, art the thing" skills.

Hair is another soft focus for these.

I was so happy with this rose. I didn't have a lot of time/energy this day and flowers usually just muck my shift up.

This was the view out my first apartment and it cracks me up because it looks like the nicest apartment ever. In reality, this was the place where I woke up one morning, went to check on the lizard and found that ants had crawled out the electrical socket under this very window, dismembered the crickets we had bought and were dragging their severed eyeballs back into the outlet. They also didn't keep their big ol' Eucalyptus trees trimmed properly so we got a knock on our door at 10pm from the upstairs neighbor informing us a branch had fallen and dented the shit out of our car. Also. There wasn't assigned or enough parking, so we got back at one am from seeing a movie and had to just spend the rest of the night driving out through the desert until people started going to work. I could go on. This shoebox of an apartment was a little bit of a heckhole, but we were just married and it was in our price range, so it was our heckhole. 

And here's the view from the lower balcony at our current place. Which is a lot less of a heckhole. 

So that's been what I have been doing. Daily poetry for National Poetry Writing Month, Watercolor a day, too many cheeseburgers and cupcakes, a stupid amount of interviews. Trying to smoosh replying to letters in that list. Maybe I'll do a letter a day once the Poetry thing is over.

Has it been a year?

April 5th, 2017 I pulled out a sketchbook with a few half-assed drawings and shopping lists in it, tore those out and started actually keeping a sketchbook/low key art journal for the first time since high school.

Now, a year later, I filled my third (fourth, if we want to acknowledge one of the books was done both fronts and backs).

It was a trip flipping through all the pages last night. There, in sloppy sketches, short notes, little pictures, was the full last year. Roadtrips, early character sketches, pie journaling, child obtainment, court process, the great 2017 migration, bad days and good days and holidays. It felt impossible at the time for me to even finish the first sketchbook, I'm really happy now I started then.

Anyway, here's a few highlights of this sketchbook.

No cover-art this go around, save for this derpy lil dragon. No title either. Just straight into it.

I did mostly watercolor again, but I used it in a lot of different ways and styles.

I caught a few memories that had been floating around in my head.

And started a project illustrating and recording my dreams. 

The dream paintings, like everything else, didn't stick to one style either. This is my favorite one of them, I think, for how understated it is.

I drew/ painted/ carved a fair amount of skulls. "Memento Mori" was probably written/painted in here more than any other phrase. I spent a lot of time meditating on the transient nature of life and detachment from self the last few months. Which has somewhat helped in my creating, as a person paralyzed by the idea of perpetuality, it feels a pressure off to live in the moment and not focus on always attempting to make art of eternal great importance. Ironically, in accepting this, I have created more artwork that I think I will still find important years from now.

And sometimes, when I was not busy basking in the comfort of my mortality, I found time to draw some dumb shit that makes the kid laugh.

More dreams. I liked this one a lot, very loose and dream-like.

I took more time to paint from life as well. The kid plays some beautiful music and I sit on his floor to paint a lot and just spend time in proximity of each other. It's nice. He lets me pick out sheet music for him to learn, which is an endless source of amusement.

We even took a trip to the park and I painted the little coffee shop building there. I had no idea I would love painting buildings so much.

Still at the park, a quick study of the ground and the sky.

The last page. 

I've been thinking a lot lately about the little red pump by the pond in my grandparents' backyard. I would spend so much time playing with the pump, using a cottage cheese container to pour water in and pumping my arms frantically to try to get the water flowing. I felt like that pump this last week, like I just needed some water and faith and flailing to get myself going and where I wanted to be again. And that maybe I need to accept that sometimes the pump will dry out again and I'll need to start over again with my cottage cheese container and flailing.

One Song Album Covers

I listen to a lot of music... or more accurately, I listen to a little bit of music a lot.

I was thinking the other day I wanted to go ahead and paint some of the album covers of stuff I listened to all the time because, well, I am pretty sure I can see some of these album covers when I shut my eyes by now and I need the practice. 

I took it a step further and went for painting album covers as their songs came up on shuffle, one album cover per song. I went through the effort to link the actual album covers in case anyone is curious since these aren't exactly iconic albums.

Speed is not my strong suit. Neither is my taste in music. 

6:18 

A Violent Emotion, Aesthetic Perfection

I had plenty of time to sketch out this cover and slop on some color, even enough time to recreate the ugly sofa. At this point I felt good about the whole ordeal.

4:53 

Anything that gets you through the night, Edge of Dawn

This album cover was a lot more difficult. The art focuses on the hand of the man in the ill fitting suit, everything else is blurry, her head angle is stupid and I spent too long sketching, wasting valuable seconds on the crappy lettering.

4:19 

No Instruments, Neuroticfish

I got to spend these four minutes wondering what the hell is even going on with this album art. Bald woman with horrible breath holds arm at awkward angle to consume mortified fish. Yes. Solid design choice.

5:30

The Hunter, Mastodon

Ok, for real, this album cover features a photograph of an absolutely gorgeous surreal wood sculpture that would take me the entire album to do justice. This is actually one of the ones I am happiest with.

5:09

Random is Resistance, Rotersand

There is so much going on in this album art, I didn't even try to sketch it first. I went straight for the kill and realized I have no idea what a helicopter looks like but that's ok because the people who made the album art didn't seem to either. 

6:44

blood spills not far from the wound, Aesthetic Perfection

Another one I am happy with. I really love this album cover and would have liked to have spent more time on it. 

4:53

How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful, Florence + The Machine

The hardest part of most of these was not being able to actually let the watercolor dry at all between layers. It was a choice between bleeding and a sort of blocky frantic look. Turns out I like blocky frantic. 

3:22 

Filthy Apes and Lions, Mark Stoermer

There is so, so much going on in this album art and I knew three minutes was not near enough time to hit everything. It was also after midnight by now and I was running low on steam.

4:07

The Looking Glass Society, Ashbury Heights

This is what giving up looks like. The kid and I affectionately refer to the lead singer as "the sad mirror eyeliner man". So I prioritized those traits while laughing maniacally. 

And that was valuable insight as to how I spend my Saturday nights. 

Art Escape (Celebrating Forever) 2013

 Ah, 2013. Going to college, way into mail, lamenting the fact I did not do as much art (or writing!) as I used to. The perfect conditions for an art journal to emerge into existence.

Unfortunately, the best pages in this journal are way too personal to want to put online. Like holy shit. So let's snoop at a few tamer ones.

Oh hey, what's that on the cover, is it that one picture?

The first page, to be contrary, was a collection of reasons I didn't think starting an art journal was a good idea. My favorite one: "Journaling is for self-important assholes who draw too many self portraits." eeyup.

Crane your neck and squint. So much texture on this page. The mellow background is so rare for my work, I love it.

I used to paint and draw a lot of peppers. Why peppers? I'm allergic to most flowers. The stamp I was testing was for... I don't know what it was for. I know for a fact this juxtaposition was to make good use of space and not intentional content wise, but it's a pretty good snapshot of my personality at the time, whatever that means.

This page cracks me up. The exercise was from a book on journaling (not entirely sure which one). I have no idea what I had against ascots, or business law, or half of the things that make up my "inner critic". I will chalk up the anti-starbucks sentiment to being a Seattle-ite coffee snob though. 

This post is a continuation of my old sketchbook series. For the last installment, click ye here.

Deep Dark Secrets + Happy Thoughts

So some fucker keeps making posts about her goddamn comp books and after enough posts about them and obsessing over how cool and fun it looked, I decided to make one...

under the conditions that I was a) not keeping it and b) not blogging about it. 

The last thing I needed was to be self conscious while I worked on this bullshit, especially since I have been posting so much of my art on instagram. Actually working on this project made me realize I have to cut back on that, even at the cost of not being as "present" on social media. As much as I don't do well in a void, I don't do well without my void to retreat to, either. 

The reason I didn't want to keep it was the same. I wanted to be able to put whatever I wanted in it without worry about who around the house picked it up and read it. Without worrying about myself reading it. 

With that said, here's the cover and the 6 pages (out of 40+) that I am ok with sharing. It's been sitting under my desk in an envelope for a few weeks now, I really gotta get it mailed off.

The cover. This comp book was a Christmas gift, otherwise I would never have just had one on hand and therefore never done this project.

Learned a few pages in that you really need to tape 2 pages together or you get bleed through awful. I should have just bought, idk, a fucking sketchbook.

Also. I go through a stupid amount of black watercolor.

There are definitely a good few completely silly pages. It is Deep Dark Secrets AND Happy Thoughts, after all. I lost my shit the entire time I was making this page. Still lose my shit looking at that mug sometimes.

Over arching theme.

This magazine clipping will never not make me laugh.

Stamp tests.

And the truth. I have always had a really weird hatred for comp books, probably the standard size, thin pages, boring covers, unforgiving binding, weird warping if you look at them wrong. But in a way, I actually enjoyed all those things while working on this. I liked that I had to tape pages together, I liked that it getting fucked up and crinkly and weird was inevitable, I liked the obnoxious lines through my drawings. It kept it casual.

I want to make another, or else adopt the lax nature into my written journals.

Probably not in another comp book though.

For Ferret's Sake!

Back in the fall, I wanted a pair of rats. But then I got a few messages from my friend asking if I wanted a ferret. And messages from her girlfriend about what a good ferret parent I would be. And snapchat after snapchat of said ferret. And assurance that the ferret was potty trained and the perfect fit for me as a person and... well, his name is Fenrir and I love him.

Look at that little face! 

So my little project last week was painting a portrait of him in his natural habitat- trouble. 

He inspired it, fittingly, by ripping the packaging open on this canvas while he was hopping around, chirping like a little jerk. 

I covered how I tackle pet portraits last post, so I want to focus on what made this piece especially fun.

The little toe prints that he's "in trouble for" in the painting. 

To get the ferret print effect without the fear of everything going to hell, we took Fen when he was placid (a rare occasion) gently dabbed his front paws on an ink pad and then pressed them against a sheet of paper. I cannot express that the only thing that made me feel more ridiculous than fingerprinting a ferret, was the fact that he went along with it so willingly. We took him to the bathroom to wash his little paws after and he grabbed the washcloth and wiped them off himself. It was criminally cute.

Armed with the prints, I carved little stamps of them. To make the prints on the canvas, I used the stamps and a very rough fan brush to lightly drag the paint like his fur would.

I was beyond happy with the end result. It ended up being the perfect cross between weird creativity that I crave and a flex of my technical skills (I even got to slip one of my hands in there.)

One for you, one for me

It's not Wednesday, but this is what I wanted to post about this last Wednesday, and by the time this coming Wednesday rolls around, I am going to want to post about the current projects I am working on now. So. Blog time.

I spent the last week or so working on a fairly large commission. 12 x 16 inches, acrylic, canvas, this:

I loved working on it. Genuinely, I really love working on commissioned work. Just knowing the painting is actually going to be loved and live somewhere besides my stairwell in what we affectionately refer to as the "limbo gallery" (or worse, in the closet) while it desperately waits for a home adds a whole level of motivation to my work. 

Commissions are where I really focus, use, and improve my technical skills.  

I start with the solid, well planned outline. Especially with pets I have to get general fur pattern and quirks down so that the recipient (in this case, the son of the client, it'll be a surprise birthday gift) knows it's THEIR pet. 

I usually start with the eyes. Sometimes I do eyes, nose, ears, sometimes I save nose and ears for later. Mostly depends what paint I already have out.

I focus, on all my work, really, the most detail around the eyes and rest of the face. The face usually takes about as long as the rest of the body combined.

I use reference pictures, of course. I used to use my laptop but now I print them out to size. Half so I can see them with my glasses off so I don't give myself a migraine and half so I don't get any more paint on my laptop. (Besides, I found printer ink for really cheap on amazon and definitely write it off as a business expense now, so I can justify myself.)

There was a time when my realism would be an aim for complete realism. It isn't anymore. I leave in brush strokes and raised bits of paint and little things that whisper "this is a painting". It's a lot less stressful this way, which makes the piece turn out better.

Cat number two, was of course added in the same way. Face, body. Then the white wall behind them sponged on, then the fridge painted in. 

Roughly, this took me 6-7 hours from deciding on the composition to finished painting. I only really spent about 2 hours at a time on it (I measure my time in Seabound albums, currently. So I'd listen to both their albums I really love and then quit for a while). 

And in between those times, I took a break from painting by painting. 

I had this idea for a mixed media painting with acrylic and oil floating around in my skull. When I sketched her out, I just had to follow through and do her.

She turned out, as my work often does when I am left to my own devices, a lot more grungy and dark than I had originally intended. Somewhere the whimsy was lost, probably in my mood this week. 

I let her oils dry before adding the rest of the acrylic.

And here she is. With wild flowers in her hair, waiting to be reborn. This was for me. 

It's funny, because if I were to pick between the two paintings to say "this is what I am capable of" I would tend towards picking her over the cats. I've noticed that time and time again, the pieces I like the most seem to be the least popular ones - wherever. If I post them on instagram or show people my artwork. Invariably, the work that I feel like is my style, my creativity, my spark, passion and good ideas merits a very lukewarm response compared to the rest of it. 

Which is, of course, a matter of taste and perfectly fine. Because canvas was buy one get two free so I got two extras both times I bought canvas for commissions this last week. I'll keep stretching my technical skills on what sells and my wings on what makes me warm.