Pet Gazette Project

Playing Dressup, Acrylic

the Sketch

I was delighted to find that our first project in Freelance class was for the Pet Gazette, a free newspaper that has about 50,000 readers on the South Shore, and always features great artwork on the front cover. The art is prominently featured without type or teasers over it. The inspiration for this piece came from thinking about what our pets are doing at home while we are away.

Some projects from 2009

Portrait of Julia Butterfly Hill, Acrylic

The Crop Circle Culprit, Acrylic on canvas

My Guitar, color pencil

Seeing Eye Dog, color Pencil

Love in the 21st Century, Acrylic

A Conceptual Portrait

Fancy-pants Andy Samberg, 12x16 Acrylic on board

I really admire artists like CF Payne, Dale Stephanos, Anita Kunz, Tom Richmond, Steve Brodner (& many more) that have the ability to capture the look and character of a person in their portraitures. I enjoy the slight exaggerations that are a bit more subtle and intriguing than the extreme caricatures in political cartoons. Although Steve Brodner's work is more along those lines, I saw his work at an exhibit at the Norman Rockwell museum and I was really impressed.

Some of the first memories I have of trying to be an "artist" as a teenager typically involved me attempting to draw the faces of my siblings or friends. Occasionally I will hear from an old friend and they'll tell me, "Oh I still have that drawing you did of me from way back when!" I seemed to always give my art away since I maybe have 3 or 4 drawings in my possession that I did before I started going to art school. I guess I'm learning to get more attached to my art, although I still go through phases where I can't stand to see my own work. (You'll never see a piece of mine hanging in my house, I would probably stare and obsess over it waaaay too much if I had it sitting in front of my nose all day.)

All that to say, I attempted to do my own caricature of comedian Andy Samberg last semester for a hypothetical conceptual celebrity portrait for a Rolling Stone article. I quite enjoyed the process and also the reaction I got from people. I think I will try it again soon.

A Digital Painting

Here's the finished piece (almost). I could probably spend another hour or so on it, but I didn't really know what I was getting into with this piece. It took long than I thought, and staring at a computer screen for hours on end gives me a new respect for graphic designers!

I just found out 3/1/10 that the little orange neighbor cat from my painting is gone missing :(

So sad.

So I added like 20 more layers, worked on the background features, tire, and ground, trying to keep it relatively loose, (although I did spend quite awhile on that tire detail)

I'm still a few hours away from being done.

So I've been laying down some underpainting layers, working mostly on the background, the fence proved to be more intricate than I first anticipated.

The key to making a digital painting work is making it look like it's not a digital painting. ..Easier said than done. But I was feeling particularly adventurous.

My neighbor's dog Elliot is the most adorable little old-man kinda dog, scraggly hair and wears knit sweaters. I decided to put him in my painting. As I shot photos of him in the back yard, some neighborhood cat, all orange and playful decided to get in on the fun and pranced around us. He actually let me place him in a strategic spot and I shot some more pics. He added a nice touch of color. I wanted to relay the sense I had of that crisp winter morning, the sun shining bright with not a cloud in the sky, animals enjoying the sunlight, without having to show the entire scene. I sketched out versions from various images I had and scanned it in to photoshop to start the tedious task of applying layers and layers of color.

Welcome to my blog! As fresh and new as a spring morning, there will be new posts and artwork to see shortly! Stay tuned :-)