Happy 2008!

Happy New Year everybody! Sorry for the lack of posts lately - I tend to get caught up in Holiday madness and don't settle down until the middle of January. The good news is that even though I haven't been posting, I have been working on a bunch of things over the last month so I will have plenty of posts to start off the new year. Not something that I can say very often.

Recently I started attending a weekly figure drawing class in Berkeley and I must say it feels good to get back into the swing of drawing classes. This particular class is great because everyone comes in with all different types of materials and all sorts of neat things happen. So far I have just been using my good 'ol bic ballpoint pens in my shiny new Fabriano sketchbook, but I might get creative in the coming weeks. Anyway, I thought I would share some sketches from this week's class before getting to bed tonight. Anybody else excited for Sketchcrawl next weekend? I know I am.

Have a great Monday!

CTN Holiday Group Show!

As I mentioned earlier, a couple of my pieces will be featured in this year's Creative Talent Network Holiday group show at Van Eaton Galleries in Sherman Oaks, CA. If you are in the area, stop by on Thursday, Dec 6th between 6 and 10pm for an evening of holiday cheer, food, and some awesome comic and animation art!
There will also be a selection of original mini canvas ornaments for sale, with 100% of the proceeds from those purchases going to the Starlight Starbright Children's foundation, whose mission is helping seriously ill children and their families cope with their pain, fear, and isolation through entertainment, education, and family activities. But that's not all - there will also be a 10% discount on any item in stock in the West Gallery during the show. Admission is free, so come support a good cause and get some holiday shopping done at the same time!

You can find more information on the show here.

Excess

This was originally going to be my submission for last week's Illustration Friday topic - "Zoo" - but it unfortunately took longer than I had hoped. Luckily, I think it still works well (maybe even better!) for this week's topic - "Excess".

There is a bit of a back-story for this illustration. Apparently, I look like a lion. Really. I was informed of this in the sweetest way possible by a co-worker's wife one day while standing in the kitchen at work. I was also told that if anyone says otherwise, they are lying. So don't even try, because it won't work. Basically, I have A LOT (i.e. "Excessive"amount) of hair. It looks like a mane. So much so, in fact, that at first glance it might be startling. You might think that a lion is walking around the corner. But really, its just me. So don't worry too much.

Here I am with a lion. We do have quite a few similarities, but I hope this illustration will help you to tell us apart. Thanks for stopping by everybody! Have a great weekend!

Small Scale

I was asked to paint a 4x4 inch canvas that will serve as a tree ornament at an upcoming gallery show in LA (More information on that to come shortly- I promise!). It has been a looong time since I worked on something at such a small scale, so I thought this might fit nicely with Illustration Friday's topic this week. I tried to make something that might work well with my other two pieces that are in the show which are both - you guessed it - mermaids. I'm kind of ridiculous. Anyhow, enjoy!

Finished.

not much different than before, but a little more interesting I hope.

Hats!

Here is my IF for this week. I've been telling myself to work on my Christmas card design for a while, and this topic gave me the perfect excuse. I'm not quite satisfied with the design for the card just yet, but I figured I would go ahead and post it since I'm running out of time before Friday. I'll post the final design whenever its ready. Yay for elephants :)

Have a great day!

Trick or Treat!

All week I have been trying to make something for IF's new topic - Trick or Treat. Alas, it just wasn't meant to be. Between work and outside projects and Halloween planning and celebrations I have not had time to paint anything new. However, we did have a Halloween party tonight at work, complete with a pumpkin carving contest. While my pumpkin didn't win anything, I think it will work fine as my entry for Illustration Friday this week. This little green pumpkin decided to trick or treat as Medusa this year - a costume that works well with its complexion:) Maybe I'll post another small painting before Friday, but in the meantime....

Happy Halloween!

Ofcourse I painted another mermaid

What else would I paint? Actually, I painted this little lady over the weekend for an upcoming gallery show in LA. (More details on the show to come later...) Since I had already decided to enter one of my previous mermaid paintings in the show, I thought it would be appropriate to go all out mermaids for this one. This piece was painted with watercolors and acrylics on watercolor block. I'm not exactly sure where the inspiration came from - I was looking at a lot of portrait images over the weekend. Anyhow, Enjoy!

Update:
At the time of this post I didn't want to give away my Halloween costume. No, I wasn't a geisha-mermaid, but I was a geisha. That means this counts as a "Trick or Treat" illustration, right? Certainly this mermaid could be dressed up for some trick or treating. Why not? Anyhow, I hope all of you IFers enjoy this one. TTFN!

Extremely Good Cause

Another stretch for Illustration Friday, I know. My friend Bill and I have been working on several pieces each for the Berkeley-East Bay Humane Society's 2nd Annual "Purrr-casso" Art Sale and Gala, and I FINALLY finished mine. The only stipulation was that the art needed to be cat themed, so this is what I came up with. The proceeds from the show will benefit the animal shelter, which runs on donations alone. I love having the excuse to make art for a good cause....makes me feel all warm and fuzzy. Anyway, if you live in the Bay Area and like what you see, come to the show on Sunday, Nov. 4th. You can read more about it here. Hope to see you there!

Have a great weekend!

Wedding

I'm back after a very busy, exhausting, and ultimately fun month. When you only go home to visit once in a year, there are a lot of things to do and people to see in a very short amount of time!I was actually only gone for two weeks, but I needed another two weeks to recover after the trip. Plus I have been sick for the last week, so hopefully I may be excused for my lack of posts...

I actually have some other projects a-brewin' that would better suit this week's Illustration Friday topic of "Wedding" but none of them are finished....or have even been started for that matter. If I'm feeling especially ambitious, I might try to get one done and posted before Friday. I might.

This is actually a piece that I was hired to do as a birthday present. The recipient is from Virginia (but living in California) and misses the turning of the leaves that you don't see as much here as on the East Coast. I can relate to that - fall is beautiful in Pennsylvania. I thought it would be appropriate for the "Wedding" topic because of the couple in the image. That, as well as the fact that I am going home in a few weeks for an autumn-themed wedding. The oranges in this painting are the colors for that wedding, so it all fits....sort of. Anyhow, enjoy!

Have a great Monday!