Lemonade

Some quick watercolors from yesterday. The middle one was tricky, I got a new sketchbook about a month ago and hadn't really worked a lot in it until yesterday. The paper repels water, it's really hard to work on, so I've had to figure out how to paint without washes, and with dilluting the paint as little as possible. I also just started a portrait of my sister in oil and should be done with that soon too.
I couldn't believe how hot out it was today, like in the mid 80's. Not that I want to be ridiculously freezing, but it isn't even snowing in Minnesota, which is the only reason I'm going there.
I saw The Queen today and it was really good, if that's your sort of thing. I'm also going to look forward to Curse of the Golden Flower, if for no other reason than it looks very pretty and probably epic, though there seem to be a lot of push up bras.
And this is probably my last post of the year. This year has been insane. I wouldn't want it any other way.

that broke

Superfast (uh but still heartfelt) christmas gift for my mom, and a quick watercolor of my backyard as the sun was setting the other night.
Hope all had good holidays.

what okay

an invasion of bunnies

Christmas came way too fast, and seeing as it's still in the 70's and 80's it still feels like october. It's still nice though, to be home for a bit and let the days drag out. Time at ringling always moves too quickly, and suddenly, you're a junior and first semester is over what?! For once I don't feel (completely) like I'm just here to be waiting to go back to school, but actually enjoying time with my family and time to paint and get caught up on work and eat real meals and sleep til noon and not constantly feel like the world's gonna implode. I'm getting a camera for christmas and I hope to take a lot of photos of people and places around here before I head back.
youknowyouknowyouknow

.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

quilts

Paint what you know? I know quilts and tea and slightly anxiety ridden women.

Sarah (who never updates her blog..) said to me last night, when I was freaking out over a dumb painting, that, isn't it funny how a flat surface and some oil and pigment can completely change our emotions and all that other junk. It's a weird predicament, to care about something inanimate so much that it has that much bearing on your life. A little break will be nice.

And then back to work.

aboline

Sketchbook! Some of these are a bit old, Volker still has hair.






















And also an illustration



This was an open assignment. I was trying to draw a memory I think I had of new england when I was very young. I'm not sure if it really happened or not. I think that would be a cool theme for a series of illustrations, "stuff that maybe happened". That and I wanted to draw sheets. I need to figure out how to work and not tighten up on bigger pieces. Pratt recommended I look at J Muth and I think you should too. If you like watercolor. His are sweet without being saccharine or tacky.

Final projects and things being completed. I want to maintain this mindset over break and paint a lot, see if I can find some cool subject matter in NPR, and maybe coerce Watts to go landscape painting with me.

This semester has been supercrazy.

jazzy

24 hour comic we did a few weeks ago. Text later, maybe.










I'm living off of tea and various granola products. Doing magazine layouts melts my brain. Reading comics to keep sane. Looking forward to Minnesota and things to come.

yola

they are friends i spose.

Only a few weeks left in the semester. This is good and scary. Winter break will hold- sister graduation, possibly north georgia, definitely land of lakes and snow and more snow, and definitely catching up on other projects and letting all of the knowledge and pratty-zen-like wisdom marinate until I maybe start to get it and step it up and start doing something I'm happy with.

til then

somehow

I've been keeping a collab sketchbook with some kid I know and it's been pretty fun. It's kind of refreshing to work on someone else's lines, and have them work on yours. These are a few pages.
More Prattwerk posthaste.

little fingers

Another watercolor technique that uses ink and charcoal and other things. I like what I can do with this one.

Recently I've been putting a lot of thought into what I want to do with comics. One of my big hurdles was being unsure or unable to decide on what kind of look I'd want it to have. Pratt's techniques have been useful in that regard, as the drawing is very fresh and direct (something I'd want) and still has an emotive quality (also something I'd want). The story is the hardest part at this point. I have a very brief sketch of an idea of what I want to say, it's just always been hard to flesh out a story, make it something worth your time, worth my time. We'll see, I spose.

lucas?

CNN devoted a whole article to this.
The picture that accompanies this made me happy though. Just because you know the guy was all excited to dress up in his nice purple shirt and hold the kitties.
But yeah, this is CNN's 5th most important story in the united states today. Awesome.

ginger

Pratt showed us an interesting watercolor technique, similar to that of Burt Silverman, where you treat the paint more like oil, push and pull lights and darks. I think I'd use it only for creepy images, but still a fun excercise. Volker post apocalypse, and some creepy lady from a photo book I have. The third one is a one hour thunderdome I did the past week, topic being "shoes." Last one is a watercolor I did a few weeks ago, but that I finally found stuffed under my couch, and got around to scanning.

cradlesnakes!

I finally got my sketchbook back from Illest of Ill. I think this has been my favorite sketchbook to work in, at least in a long while. I felt like the smaller format made it easy to catch a moment, convey a mood, tell a story, whatever. Assume everything means something or everything means nothing, either way I really liked this one. The bottom painting is a crappy photo of a painting I did of my friend Adam staring down some unknown dangers in a dark alley. The two above that are some quick watercolors.
Exciting.

thumbwrestle

If I could find people that would hire me to work no larger than 6x8 I'd be set for watercolor. Bigger than that and I c h o k e. But I had forgotten how much I love watercolor. I have not found a more satisfying material to work in. Just need to make it work.

Open your windows, it's beautiful outside.