Day Sixty Nine

I believe that I have a love-hate relationship with Valentine’s Day. Being an absolute girly-girl at heart, I love the opportunities (in fashion and art) for cuteness that Valentine’s Day brings. On the other hand, the forced and awkward nature of this holiday has always frustrated me. Nevertheless, I couldn’t help but create a Valentine’s-y sketch for today’s piece.

tights pl., n. A skintight stretchable garment, covering the lower half of the body.

As I was looking around for a piece of paper on which to create today’s piece, my eyes passed over the pile of Valentine-making supplies lying on the floor. Sifting through the pile, I happened upon a cute little white doily with the perfect amount of clean, white space at the center. Perfect! Having had my fill of the color red, I decided to keep it simple and go with my staple: black and white.

I wanted to illustrate a few different kinds of tights with this piece, so I chose three different patterns. I hope you enjoyed today’s post and had a fun Valentine’s Day.

Thank you for reading!

Xx

-r

Day Sixty Eight

I’m currently writing this post to the sounds of Justin Bieber. I apologize for any errors found in this post; half of my brain has liquefied and is currently bleeding from my ears. I spent the early part of today at a lovely Valentine’s party, and the later part making paper flowers for a younger brother’s preschool class. I think it’s safe to say, by tomorrow, I will no longer feel the need to celebrate this Hallmark holiday. But, for those who do; I wish you the best.

After settling in at home, I plopped down in front of the TV to work on today’s post. After procuring a bright white piece of tagboard and a sharp pencil, I was ready to begin.

I’d never heard today’s word before, but as soon as my gaze dropped to the clean sheet of paper before me, I knew exactly what image to build there.

com-mo-di-ous adj. Roomy; spacious.

As I looked at the 9x12 sheet of paper, I realized how rarely I make use of the entire space, and decided that today’s word provided the perfect opportunity to do just this.

I wanted to use as little detail as possible and let the mind create its own “commodious” space on the foundation that the illustration set. I went with a simple, cute character and a single Edison bulb at opposite ends of the paper to leave it very open.

As always, thank you all for reading; I hope you enjoyed today’s post.

Xx

-r

Day Sixty Seven

After finishing off the last few prints, and packaging up the Valentine’s order, it was time to head out to the Mama’s. Julia Child taught us how to make super complicated, super delicious mashed potatoes and, after eating as much (or more) food as I could, it was time to settle down at the table with some paper and a pencil.

I absolutely love today’s word. Maybe it’s just due to Johnny’s adopted last name, but this word makes me think of the delightfully grimy, often angry, always outrageous punk scene.

rot-ter n. A person who is really bad.

I love this definition. It is so simple; it’s almost childish. So, back to those *#$% punks... I wanted to illustrate a loveable “rotter” as opposed to drawing someone truly mean-spirited. I thought to myself, “What better to embody my idea than a strong, outrageous punk girl?” So, this is just what I drew.

I must say that I’m not entirely satisfied with this piece; I think there’s quite a bit of room for improvement, but it’s a start. I had a bit of trouble deciding on attire; the classic “punk” style is not one I am familiar with illustrating. However, after spending a semester of 8^th grade doing research for a paper entitled “The Origins of Punk” (Oh, how “angry-14-year-old” of me), I had enough exposure to get the basic idea. I stopped just short of adding safety pins; I desperately wanted to avoid going the Hot Topic route.

Thanks for reading, those of you that are; have a great night and continue to enjoy your weekend.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nlX7P0nhaI

Xx

-r

Day Sixty Five

Guess who’s tired? Me, that’s who.

After leaping from my bed at 9:30 (a certain coffee date with a certain grandmother having been forgotten) I proceeded to have the perfect, relaxing, whipped-cream-topped, mochalicious start to what I knew would be a long, long day. After that sentence, I feel the need to sidetrack briefly to apologize to every English teacher I’ve ever had for the “run-on sentence”. “So”, you ask, “what could you have possibly done today to warrant that kind of ‘run-on’ introduction?” Well, I’ll tell you...

In case you are unfamiliar with the lovely (and, at times, extremely frustrating) art of silkscreening, it goes a little something like this:

·         --Fine fabric is stretched over a wooden frame.

·        -- Light sensitive emulsion is applied to the “screen”.

·         --The emulsion is exposed to an image with UV light.

·         --The screen is washed, and the unexposed parts of the image are left, creating a kind of stencil.

·       --  Paint is applied to the screen, and squeezed through onto a surface (paper, t-shirt) to create a positive image.

Ah, the handy dandy information that comes from us lonely artists... Anyway, silkscreening is the medium that eight or nine hours of my day were devoted to. Having received a last-minute Valentine’s art order, I have spent the last few days shooting, editing, shopping, and, finally, printing. After repeating the above process exactly four times, every flat (and semi-flat) surface in my room was covered in prints and t-shirts.

As I fell onto the couch, I realized that not only had I not eaten in approximately 7 hours, I also had yet to complete the day’s work. Muttering to myself as I wiggled free of the cozy blankets I had wrapped up in, I decided I’d better get back to work before I lost consciousness.

Flipping through the dictionary, I decided to stop closer to the end. Fearing some obscure x, y, or z word, I stopped short of the true end of the dictionary. However, I still managed to happen upon a word I have yet to hear in an everyday conversation. (I plan to change this.)

un-der-brim The area on the underside of a hat’s brim.

I just love this word. With Valentine’s Day coming up (awkwardness and broken hearts, here we come), I wanted to illustrate a sweet, Valentines-y character. As I am not a hat-wearer myself, hats are not often present in my art. Thank you, “under brim”, for helping me to change that.

In keeping with the Valentine’s theme, I used light pinks and purples to color the character’s outfit. I like the touch of blue within all of that warmth; I think it keeps it from getting too blended together. For the hat, I liked the idea of one of those...I want to say “bucket hats” but I’m not sure what the proper term is for them...anyway, I wanted to have her wear an old-fashioned looking hat with a large, festive pin on the side. Although I ended up with more of a pink safari hat, I think the idea still comes across. I wanted to have the hat covering the majority of her face to keep you guessing.

I hope you enjoyed today’s post; thank you so much for reading.

Xx

-r