Illustration 3: Final

"It's so subLIME!"  My husband was helping inspire me while I worked on my final painting by coming up with lots of lime-related puns.  This painting was an editorial illustration of an article about the lime shortage.  Apparently lime prices have skyrocketed as Mexican tree disease, drug cartels, and bad weather have caused a shortage. (you learn something new every day!)  As Andy said "these sorts of articles are really putting Mexico in the LIMElight, aren't they?" :)  Anyway, this was my idea of how to convey the main points of that article in an illustration!

Illustration 3: In-class work

Hello!  Here are some of the in-class and other assignments that we have done in my acrylic painting class.  We had a lot of fun trying new things in class and keeping ourselves creative.

This assignment involved using visual metaphors.  I was working on using light washes to give it a dusty look.

I tried something new and used gold foil to emphasize the "halo" aspect of the lasso!

This was our very first assignment in this class-- I was just trying to get the hand of acrylics.  I realized during this piece that I needed to buy some much smaller brushes (those paper lines are thin!).

This was an in-class project.  We were working off very old photographs and using layers of washes.

We experimented with collage in class too!  It was fun creating different patterns and colors and putting them all together.

We used fashion photos and film stills to create color palettes and composition studies.

I forgot my palette the day we did the color studies so I used a piece of watercolor paper.  It ended up looking like art itself!

Illustration 3: The Tailor

Another assignment we have had in my Illustration 3 class is to do an illustration of either a tinker, a tailor, a soldier, or a spy in a precarious situation.  I chose a tailor.  Most of the people in my class who chose a tailor seemed to create slightly comical images of them all tangled up in their thread or something.  I decided to illustrate a Jewish tailor in WWII era Germany being forced with his fellow Jews out of their homes.  It was a little darker than the other themes.  But I still wanted it to be a more innocent-looking illustration-- such as one that could be found in a children's book.  It was also supposed to have an analogous color scheme.

I did my line drawing with pen, scanned it, and printed it out on Arches cold-press paper.  I then painted the whole thing in acrylics, scanned it into photoshop where I added some patterns and touched up some areas.

Illustration 3: Star Wars

I am taking the Illustration 3 class right now.  It is an acrylic-based course.  Acrylics have been a bit of a struggle, but I feel much more confident using them now than I did at the beginning of the semester.

One of our assignments was to illustrate a vehicle used in another time or place.  Obviously the vehicle I decided to paint was an X-wing fighter.  I completely dedicate this piece to my mother for instilling in me a life-long love of all things Star Wars.  

Part of the assignment was to incorporate texture.  I used acrylic matte medium on the x-wing and death star areas and created texture by dabbing the wet medium with a paper towel and scraping it with the end of my paintbrush.  It created a cool effect!  I am quite pleased with how it turned out.

Annual Student Figure Drawing Show

Hello everyone!  I promise that I'm still doing art, I just haven't gotten my class projects back yet.  But when I do get them back they will definitely be posted on here!

In the meantime, I wanted to do a quick post about the Annual Student Figure Drawing Show.  I had two pieces selected to be in the show!  I was very honored-- especially since my work was up next to such wonderful art done by my peers.  One of my pieces (the ballerina girl) won third place in the show as well!  I thought I would post them here for those of you who would like to see them.  (If you have been following my blog for a while you may recognize them as I have posted them before)

And thank you to everyone who came by the show to see my art-- I really appreciate it! :)

Illustration 3: Oil Painting wrap-up

Hello old (and maybe some new) friends!  I haven't posted anything new for a while because I didn't have much to show until the very end of last semester.  Each oil painting takes quite a long time, so there aren't as many paintings total.  But here are the final three paintings I did in Illustration 3!  This current semester, in Illustration 4, is all about acrylics-- so get ready for some of that in the next few weeks!

This was a reflection study.  I did it of my husband, Andy deciding whether or not to shave off his mustache.  He really didn't have that much of a mustache, but the painting kind of turned him into Tom Selleck.

Here is my original sketch for the piece

And these were my digital color comps

This was an in-class figure painting day (with a live, costumed model).  I was loving how this was turning out and I am sure this was going to be my best painting, but because of my Folk Dance rehearsals/performances I only got to work on it for one day.

This was my final painting for the class, and I think it turned out pretty well!  I decided to try to merge my love of figure drawing (which I feel comfortable/confident doing) and oil painting (which I struggle with).   So here is me figure drawing! 

My original sketch

My digital color comp

Also, during those Folk Dance rehearsals I sketched some dancing girls!  What cute little Welsh clog and Italian Tarantella dancers!