Day 28-30: Work on Muse Christmas Competition Designs

So it's that time of year again. I've been working in my studio all evening. My eyes are tired. This is a layout I submitted last year, and it wasn't selected. This year is my third try. We'll see what happens. New layout will be posted soon. 

Day 26: Create a composition

This is a composition I worked on today. It will be the next painting....

Day 23-25:

Day 23.  Create portfolio pages or prints using the best paintings. Here is one of them....

Day 24-25.  Take family photos at Thanksgiving. The next day create a scrapbook page layout using some of the photos.  Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.  Check out the cool carpet pattern...

Day 22: Draw something and blog about it.

So I couldn't think much tonight. Been a long day, so I was doing some silly scribbles in my sketchbook and found a snakes head in it, so I decided to draw it. The one on the left is from the sketchbook, the one on the right is a larger version. My scanner isn't large enough to scan the entire image, and I was too lazy to scan in the other half and piece them together. 

Day 21: Design a Mailer that looks as professional as possible.

I've been working on a few more possibilities.  Still can't decide which one to use.....

Day 18 & 19

Day 18: Create a cartoon character in vector format (Adobe Illustrator)

This took me almost 4 hours to complete, but I enjoyed it a lot. I don't do vector art very often, so I'm a little slower than the pros. As for Day 19 there is really no art to post. I took a trip to Barnes & Noble to look at children's books and novels, and make a list of publishers and the illustrators that worked on the books. Until next time, Happy Drawing. 

Day 17: Build some compositions

I've taken animals and placed them in these surrealist environments. It's amazing what you can come up with when you take a little break from building concepts. 

Day 16:

Draw something and blog about it. Big congrats to Bradley Cooper for making People Magazines top 10  Sexiest Man Alive. I might agree on this, but there are a lot of sexy men in this world. Hee. Hee. Anyway, I thought I would draw a portrait in honor of this award. 

Day 15: Continue animal sketches

I learned that Chameleons have the cutest feet. Lizards are adorable creatures. 

Day 13&14

So I decided to crunch 13 and 14 together, due to unforeseen circumstances.  While day 13 was to draw something and blog about it, day 14 was about researching animals and doing sketches and share on blog.  I decided to investigate frogs.  I'm trying to find ways to stylize them, but it turns out it's more challenging than I thought, so I thought I would start out sketching their anatomy, and the second drawing is my attempt at doing some modifications. I think I need to draw more of these to get this down. Cats and Fish are a lot easier for me to stylize than frogs.

Day 12: Paint something fun and blog about it.

This is a digital painting of a dragon that I started in Photoshop. As you can see it's not quite finished. This is what I've got so far. 

Day 11: Design a postcard mailer

I thought I would find a way to fit more works of art on one postcard. 

Day 10: Do a portrait.

Tonight I did a portrait of Edward Norton as the Illusionist. Great film, and amazing actor. It's not finished, but this is what I've got so far. 

Day 9: Work on animals for quilt blocks

So my mom is working on this quilt and I've been working on the drawings for the quilt blocks. Tonight I drew a sheep and an elephant. 

Day 8

Draw something fun and blog about it.  It seems that since Halloween is over, my creativity has been drained. This is what came out of my brain today.... Interesting.

Day 7

Select highlights from old Sketchbooks. Scan them in and save them for records. These image came from Sketchbooks I kept starting from 2002 thru 2003.  In some ways, I was better because I was drawing a lot more than I am now. 

Day 5 & 6

Day 5: Do a quick study painting of one of the Characters. This is what I have so far. I will probably revisit this in the future for refinement.

Day 6: Look for patterns in the carpet at church and draw what you see.  Have you ever looked at a textured wall, or the mixed colors of threads in carpet and seen faces or other patterns?  I have. So as I was looking at the odd faced patterns in the carpet, I felt it should be documented. This character kind of reminds me of the Tim Burton Film The Corpse Bride, one of my favorites. Plus I love anything produced by Tim Burton, so I guess it sort of slipped out. 

Day 3-4

A drawing of a decorative element, and cartoon studies of people.

30 Day Challenge: Day 3-5

Day 3: Observe any objects or decorative elements in every place you visit. Keep them for memory and sketch them out on a piece of paper.
Day 4: Start building drawings of three different characters of people you have searched online.
Day 5: Do a painting study of one of the three characters.

~this is a work in progress. Pictures will be posted upon completion~

30 Day Challenge: Day 1

Nov 1, 2011: Day 1. Photograph up to 6 different Objects surrounding the neighboorhood that are of interest. Create a letter sized page and arrange or modify photos in a professional, yet interesting way. You may refer to Communication Arts Magazine for creative ideas. Okay, so I cheated a little on the second image because I only used 4 of the images, but I like it better. 

One Week Left....

I present you: My Pumpkins!

Alright. It's something.....

My latest postcard mailer design.

And now she has a king...or the king has her.

Marketing Tuesday & Thoughts of the Day:  

While following my dream as an artist, I've been working on this 'Weird Creatures Museum' as a theme. I've also been brainstorming a product line to accompany this theme. I've been thinking of the possibility of designing face cards, perhaps making them more elaborate or non- traditional than the average deck of face cards. So far I've come up with the King and Queen of hearts concept. As far as producing the actual product, that will be a greater challenge. I've been pondering questions like, What type of printing resource should I go with?  Will there be separate set up fees for every different card?, etc. My plan is to come up with a layout for the back of the cards, which of course will have to be the same to maintain suspicion, and then keeping the different numbered suits simple, just like regular face cards, but  coming up with a concept for each King, Queen, and Jack for every suit... which becomes another challenge. This is what makes art and design so much fun. 

It's finished: I present to you, The Zombie Cats.

Halloween is in the air. Though it's still a balmy 85 degrees out here in Utah, and I still have green tomatoes that must get ripe before the frost, I always get Halloween fever early. I always think there is something wrong about playing Christmas tunes in the middle of October, but I have a deep love for Halloween the most. Must be the little pop-surrealist in me and my interest in Tim Burton movies.  My personality is just drawn to Halloween, and it's always the time of year where my creativity is on fire. Anyway, I thought I would avoid the cliche atmosphere about Halloween and go towards the Zombie route, only this time, it's cats. Hope you all have a lovely Halloween this year, stay tuned for more.....

Day 8-9: Getting there, but not quite finished.

Day 7: The pumpkins start to appear.

This has been a rather unexpected eventful week, so it was nice to have a night to paint again. So soothing. Anyway the pumpkins almost look better than the cats, so I'm thinking they could use a bit more work. 

Day 6: Left side almost done

Day 5: almost halfway through.

First zombie cat is starting to appear.

Day 4: First cat almost finished. He's got some stripes.

Day 3: Starting Detail on first cat.

Day 3 had to be cut a little short so I can still get my jogging in tonight. It's possible the cat will take a different direction. Not sure how I feel about it at this point. 

Day 2: Adding Details

Details are added to the trees. Cats still have to wait.....

Day 1: Blocking in

I'm left handed, so I think I will start building details on the left side of the painting starting tomorrow. I've already started on the tree. The composition was built from a series of scanned drawings in Photoshop and printed out in pieces and transferred onto Winsor & Newton 140lb watercolor paper that has been stretched onto stretcher bars.  I paint with acrylics. 

The Halloween Line-up.

I know. It's a little early for Halloween, and believe me, I am not ready in anyway for summer to be over. Just look at my tomatoes. There are only 5 small green tomatoes that still need to grow and turn ripe, and plenty of blossoms left ready to become fruit. Seems a little late in the year. Anyway, I thought it would be a good idea to start thinking about making the best Halloween Illustration ever, and a couple months in advance never hurts, so this better turn out fabulous. There will be more to come, so feel free to take part in this journey. Input is always welcome. 

Illustration Friday: Swell

"I'll never eat another Angry Bird again. They take so long to digest.  Bleh!"

Portrait Fun.

I present you: Reese Witherspoon. And by the way, I hear a rumor that August is Artist Appreciation Month, so all you artists need to get out there and strut your stuff. 

Marketing Thursday

This is my first attempt at a Mermaid illustration. I've always wanted to create a Mermaid piece. It requires a little thinking outside the available visual reference out there. Lots of fun. Painted in Acrylic on stretched watercolor paper.

Snail Painting. 1st Attempt: Digital

Okay, so. This is my first attempt at painting snails. It's possible to get this elaborate doing it digitally. Not sure I could pull this off with a real snail. I'll just have to wait and see, when I encounter one.

Marketing Thursday.

Yes. It's that time. It's the moment all of us dread at times, but the design part of it can be so fun, and why not make the marketing side of illustration fun? After all we are creative, and we are perfectly capable of creating a fun marketing experience for ourselves.  Anyway, this is a new and improved layout for a postcard mailer. In fact, I might consider this same layout for a single sheet mailer or e-mail sample as well. Please give me your feedback on this layout, it would be greatly appreciated. 

Need Help!!!!

Alright artsy friends. I need suggestions with this rough comp. Yes it's rather rough. Does her left hand look as though it might be resting naturally on the seashell behind her? I hope it's still large enough so you can tell what's going on. I would love suggestions. I'm going to be moving further with this on Wednesday night. Your suggestions will be much appreciated. xoxoAmber. 

The Weird Creatures Museum: The Goat & Dog Hybrid

Here is my attempt at creating my hybrid creatures. This particular animal consists of a goat, dog, perhaps even cat or squirrel. Notice they have claws instead of hooves. The males have horns much like a billy goat, and the females have a uni-horn, much like the unicorn, or perhaps it came from the unicat.  These creatures have heavy fur and prefer to live in Antarctica.

...and here's one I drew today.

I drew this one today......

Figure Drawing...from earlier this year...

I can't remember when I did this...It was at the Saturday Drawing Session in Springville....It was the model's last day...She'll be missed. She's a great model. I added the bubbles in case you are wondering.

Portraits of Geddy Lee - Drawing and Painting.

Here is the drawing. He had on a set of headphones, but I like his hair, more than the headphones, so they were eliminated.

....and this is the painting.