New Work: Sticker Sunday - "Bubble Gum Machines"

Yummy! Even though gum ball flavors lasts all of 20 seconds, I still remember LOVING them as a kid. This is a fun little design I did a while ago, focusing on different gum ball dispensers. I knew the actual sticker sheet was going to be really fun. Even though I didn't have anything to do with color or material selection, I think it turned out great!

New Work: Sticker Sunday - "Bug Collector"

This was a sketch I did a while back as well. I figured it went with the Spring season, so I decided to share it here. It was kind of an interesting theme and I thought I did a pretty good job with the sketch… but this was not one of the vectors they asked me to do, so someone on staff did the vector artwork and color selection. They obviously did not care for my butterfly, I guess they felt something a little more traditional was called for.

Update: Masterworks - Artwork Sold

As I hurt my drawing hand on Friday, I wanted to make sure I took some time to heal properly. When I found out the Masterworks show was looking for volunteer "sitters" yesterday, I figured it would be a good way to avoid working/over using my hand, and visit the show again (not to mention just getting out of the house!) -- there also happened to be a colored pencil workshop going on at the show - with renowned colored pencil artist Melissa Miller Nece - so I got the visit the attendees (many local CPSA group members) and listen in a bit as well -- Bonus!

When I arrived, I discovered my favorite, award winning, piece had sold. Of course, I'm glad it sold and someone loves it and wants to take it home and cherish it - it makes me happy I've made someone happy. At the same time, I'm sad. It's so hard to let go of my artwork - which is probably why I don't do much gallery work. But, I really should grow up a bit and get on with the business of art -- this is what I do, and I'm good at it. There's really no need to be a starving artist after all.

New Work: Sticker Monday - "Cherry Blossoms"

Whoops, late again. I try… mostly I'm good about posting these updates… unfortunately I injured my drawing hand on Friday and had to give myself the weekend off! Fortunately, I'm healing fine and all appears to be be well on the mend.

So, these are my cherry blossoms. I actually finished them a couple years ago now - so I can't rightly call them "new work", but what are you going to do? The artwork did not change much from sketch to my final vector artwork, but you can see they did change the layout quite a bit after final art was submitted. Usually, they like smaller icons - after all, the smaller the icons, the more icons fit on a sheet, the more perceived value of the sticker sheet. But they enlarged the overall icons here, and it apparently worked. It has been a best seller for them - so much so they came back asked for several more "blossom" designs in this style with different colors later on.

Update Masterworks: It's Official… Again!

On April 1, at the Masterworks Show reception, I was awarded 2nd place in the Colored Pencil Miniatures category. WooHoo! My piece, "Massive Sky, Sandias" was the winner… which just happens to be my own favorite of the three pieces I submitted. Here is a picture of me with all three of my entries hanging at the show:

It was a truly fun evening. Each year I go to this show, I recognize more and more faces and they recognize me, I'm really starting to feel like I "belong". Shocker! I know. LOL

New Work: Sticker Sunday - "Living Green"

This is another one of my older designs that I never really got to show off. The request came in right after "Green Living" was all the new rage. This was one of those strange, kind of tough-to-nail-down, icon sheets. I was worried it might not translate, but in the end I was very happy with the results. Don't you just love my mushy little not-quite-a-Prius? Cars and transportation vehicles have never really been my thing, so I made it more of a caricature of the actual car - but I really like how the whole sheet came together. Like my Gardening post from a few weeks ago, this seems to tell a little story about being more aware, conscientious, and conservative when it comes to our community & world environments.

Live Model Drawing Session

My local CPSA district chapter (219) had our monthly meeting this past Saturday and we had a special treat! The meeting theme was portraits and one of our members brought in a live model so we could all sit and draw together. It's been a long time since I've worked from a live model - I love my photo references, but it was fun. I really enjoyed the pure drawing time. I wish I had spent some time doing quick gestural sketches, but since we were focusing on portrait, and the model wasn't moving or trying different poses, it didn't really make sense to do them.

So, here's our lovely model, her name was Nafshiyah:


I started with a warm-up sketch in graphite:



And then I decided to try my colored pencils… which is a little tough given that colored pencil doesn't really erase - it's more of commitment:


This is a little test I threw together in photoshop - an overlay of my second drawing and my reference photo. Looks pretty good! I impressed myself!! But I can see I've made the eyes too large, plus low and to the right (set back on face) - which led to a displaced ear (also too low and set back), but it appears to be approximately the right size. Which is funny because one of the members walking through the session commented that she thought it might be too small. ;)