Inspiration

It’s hard to know when inspiration will strike. As a matter of fact, I can pretty much bet on it not striking more often than it does. So the fact that nearly every time I close my eyes I can see a new idea for an illustration makes me think something is wrong. Am I some experiment like Kyle XY (curse you, ABC, for canceling my mindless guilty pleasure)? Could my brain be genetically programmed to COME ALIVE two months after my 24th birthday? Could it be stress mixed with caffeine mixed with procrastination? Yes, probably.

Here is my attempt to start visually recording what’s going on in my head because this won’t last long. I can already feel the ideas slipping away…..stopppppp……noooooooooo……crap.

Please no one sue me for stealing your images. (the fabulous dress on the lower right is from Mod Cloth, www.modcloth.com)

Tess

This is Tess. She’s the spoiled daughter of a wealthy oil tycoon. See how she’s looking to the left? She’s eyeballing her nicer sister’s fiance who she will soon try and seduce but will fail, estranging her sister, her father (who was previously blind to her weasely ways) and her great aunt Roberta.

Tess’ family will exile her to the outskirts of town in a small cottage where she will be forced to be alone and think about how rotten she has become. Eventually, she will embrace her new, plain existence and become a nature lover, marry a handsome farmer and have 9 kids.

Crazy Old Mr. Smith

This is Lord Strathcona also known as Donald Smith. Apparently, he was a real person with a real Wikipedia page. He had something to do with the beginnings of Canada but who cares about all those facts and dates…

I think he looks like a crazy old man who probably lived at a dilapidated mansion at the end of the street. He was always a little eccentric but after his wife died he regressed into his isolated world. He has an extensive moth collection he keeps in his study and yells and shakes his cane at the neighborhood kids if they get too close to his rhododendrons. They were his wife’s favorite.

Deep down, though, he’s still a kindly old man and will eventually befriend a cheery local girl and her orphan friend and they will hang prisms from the windows and watch the rainbows they make on the wall. Oh, wait.

Who do YOU think he looks like?

Sunday Bulletin Sketch

Yard Sales

We had a yard sale today. The point of yard sales are to get rid of all the junk in your closest you don’t want anymore. We all know this. But when someone strolls through your tables of junk, picks something up, then puts it back down again, the first thing you think is, “what is wrong with you people?! How can you not want all this great stuff?!” and the next thing you know you’re running after them with a lopsided, handmade mug screaming, “BUT IT’S ONE OF A KIND!!!!”

At any rate, I sold two sculptures I pulled out on a whim ($5 a piece. That’s right. Look out, Jackson Pollock.), our house is much less cluttered and my body has recovered from the heatstroke I practically suffered in the sweltering California heat.

Speaking of heat, that stuffed duck didn’t quite make it:

Blogging Blues

Hello my little chickadees,

I’ve been stricken with the blogging blues. The symptoms usually manifest themselves in this order: 1) coffee, 2) instant blogging mood!!!!!!!!!, 3) begin sarcastic and slightly hysterical post, 4) hit by sudden realization — no one cares about how many episodes of The X-Files I’ve seen today, 5) discouragement, 6) Netflix + Nutter Butters —-> Face (counterbalanced, of course, by daily cardio and strength training workouts.)

Anyway, so that’s why I haven’t been around. Alright, enough of that.

As a late birthday present to myself, I’m going to see Toy Story 3 this weekend. I can pretty much credit my love for animation to the first Toy Story back in 1995 (though I didn’t know it at the time). Toy Story 2 was better than the first one, so I have high expectations for the 3rd.

I’m not worried:

And lastly, here’s a portrait I did for some friends around Mother’s Day. Doesn’t she look like the Gerber Baby?

“Christmas Break”

A Couple of Final Projects

A commissioned portrait of my great aunt. Colored drawing pencil on toned paper.

This was the culmination of my color theory/watercolor class last semester. I cried bitter tears over this thing. We had to copy a masterwork. In my case, I chose a background from the original “Snow White” (1937). The finished project ended up lighter and cooler than the original.