Day Forty Six

Today’s post coming to you live (just barely) from the couch. I almost forgot about today’s piece; I scrambled last minute for the pastels and a piece of tagboard. As I sketched in pencil, I came up with the idea for what to do with today’s word. Oh yes...today’s word...

in-dus-try n., pl.  –tries The commercial production and sale of goods and services; a branch of manufacture and trade; industrial management as distinguished from labor; diligence.

After working for a bit, I decided to do sort of a sort of mirror image.

I liked the idea of the plants mirroring the buildings in approximate shape and size. I wanted to show the replacing of plants and trees with tall buildings and smog. (Just between you and me, I prefer the dark and grungy industrial wasteland to the picturesque field any day.) I think I would rather have spent more time cleaning up the image; maybe I will work on this idea for a print later on. Now that I have the rough draft, I’d like to see how a clean, bright silhouette would turn out versus the sketchy, soft lines created by pastel.

Thanks for reading!! Enjoy your night!

Xx

-r

Day Forty Two

It got cold again. Not that I would know; I didn’t actually set foot outside my house today... I drew the line at staying in my pajamas after 2 o’clock, and traded in my sweats for a pair of skinny jeans and the closest available pair of rather festive socks:

I believe I have fallen in love with pastels. For yet another day, I am using them to add dimension to my staple (pen and ink). Today’s word threw me; there are so many possibilities for this word, but I decided to go with a rather sweet and simple take on it.

dir-ty  adj.  Not clean; grimy; indecent; obscene; mean; despicable; lacking in brightness or clarity; relating to excessive radioactive fallout. v. To become or make soiled.

Looking for inspiration, I came across a song I hadn’t heard in a while...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MV1rZa9bUxA

I really like their style-that kind of goofy, energetic, crazy sound. Although I may be entirely misinterpreting it, I drew from this song, especially the chorus: “Do you really want to hold my dirty hand?” I liked the idea of a cute little character being more than a little in love. Judging by the insistence in her eyes, it may be unrequited...

I started with the girl, added a big heart behind her, and colored it and her cheeks in with pastel.

I’d added a few lines at her feet and coming up to add “dirtiness”, but used the black and gray pastels to add more to it.

I then added a little yellow to give it an even more childishly grubby feel. Ah, what a sweet thing.

I hope you enjoyed today’s piece! Have a great night and stay warm!

Xx

-r