mmm.... wine

I did a lovely vector illustration tonight for my college friend Annie. She is making t-shirts made for a bachelorette party (she is the maid of honor) - they are going wine tasting and then gambling (they always go together). I had some fun with this... Illustrator is a fabulous program. I probably could have spent hours on this tweaking the shapes making them all beautiful, but there are other things on my to-do list to check off.

(can you believe it? 3 new posts and a new bonus sketch in one night!)

driving on the 101

Driving in a car is hard. The pen bounces in very unpredictable ways. The color on this is not very accurate - I have a really hard time scanning things in accurate color. I have an Epson scanner, anyone know of a way to get good scans out of it? (she asked her 1 faithful reader)

Don't Drink and Draw

Andrea told me not to drink and draw. She was right. The scribbling got a little out of control. Filling in large areas of dark value with cross hatching is NOT ideal.

banana peel

REVISE 5/30/07

I colored the peel and liked the way it turned out. I almost went to paint the background the dark mahogony of my desk, but then decided I liked the peel standing alone. I have learned that my hi-tec C's are not waterproof.


At work yesterday, I ate a banana. Then I drew the peel.

I can't exactly whip out the watercolors at work. It's hard to squeeze a sketch in as it is. But I do plan on coloring this - It's on my long list of sketchbook work and actual illustrations that I plan on doing. Tonight after work, instead of doing artwork right when I got home (which is usually 7:00), I went to a friends house, at chinese food and played the Wii. I had never played it before, and I think I needed it - I have been feeling very stressed out lately with things - it was so much fun! I Haven't played a video game for years. Not since college probably, when I was REALLY bad at Tony Hawk. I think I gave up video games after attempting that game.

Now it's time for bed, gotta wake up at 6:00 tomorrow and do it all over again. But I won't leave my sketchbook on the scanner like I did last night... I missed my moleskin today.

I have decided I'm just going to stay up tomorrow night until I finish Dwight. I think that all-nighters are the only way I will be able to get any of my personal work done.

the next ani difranco?

This past summer, when we went to get out nightly dosage of caffeine at Big E's, there was a little open mic thing going on. This chic was pretty rocking. I snapped a crappy, blurry photo of her with the intentions of drawing it someday. I think the drawing could be better.... I used to always draw with pencil and ever since last year I have been making myself draw with pen. It's hard to look at a line and say "damn, that's in the wrong place" but there isn't much you can do about it. But I can definitely say I have improved! Here's my first drawing from my first Moleskin sketchbook after the illustration Academy. Actually, I kind of like it.

Work.

I spent my lunch break yesterday sketching the building where I work (7th floor). There's this huge, lovely landscaped plaza with lots of palm trees that leads from the parking garage to my office. This is drawn from near the garage towards my building. I intended to draw our neighboring building too, but my lunch hour was up. I'll finish it next time... if I find the time to take a lunch break!

My company, Eastdil Secured, had a going away party for one of our guys who is moving to London. We were out LATE. I showed my drawing to some people and they said "You should be an artist." Ummm... that's the idea.

Tonight is the season finale of the office. My new friend Angela, who I met at the Illustration Academy in San Francisco this spring, gave me some excellent critiques on my Dwight sketch. I will work on that tonight while watching. I promise I'll finish it soon... the plan is to have it done by the end of the weekend.

highlighter art

Back from the cruise. It was fantastic. I'm super busy finishing up my art history class and I will be able to post some fun cruise drawings. For now, enjoy the lovely highlighter art that I did at work today. It really helps me to take a break and draw - it helps clear my mind when I get Designers Block. I guess it's like what cigarette smoking is for other people. They take "smoke breaks," I take "art breaks."

I don't like the fat juicy pen that I drew this with. I am definitely preferring the Hi-Tec C's that I got in Japantown... I just didn't have any available to me at the moment :)

birdies of the 405

Every morning, these birds are posted up on the same section of the wall along the 405. It's like they are there to watch the spectacle that is the Morning Commute in LA. I was going slow enough to take a snapshot as I drove by, then drew from that. This is sort of an old drawing, but I haven't had time to do anything fresh and new and fun because I leave for a cruise TODAY and had a lot to take care of before I left.

That being said, I will not have any posts for a week or so - but hopefully I get lots of good sketches in on my trip!

more class time doodles

a puppy (from one of our practice files in class)


some students and notes.

I learned that I am incredibly interested in typography. I really enjoyed looking at and drawing letterforms. They are so carefully designed... and they end up so tiny in the end.

dwight

A sketch for my Dwight illustration. I'm pretty excited about this piece, because who doesn't like Dwight? I think the color is going to be really important to this piece... I picture a lot of beiges and neutrals. Should have a finish by the end of this week!