Halloween Fun

A while ago I designed a new character while watching a Photoshop demonstration by Michael Bear back in July. His subject was a boy and his dog, which quickly turned into a ghost dog. I was very interested in this match between boy and dog and drew up some sketches.

 

Bear is a golden retriever mix with an incredibly long tongue. Barry is the classical blond haired, blue-eyed boy, with a lobe of bow ties.  After designing the two, I drew some activity sketches for them and thought it would be fun to give them some friends. During a head drawing session, I found 2 such people. Seen below, Ryan was the name of one model and I felt the name fit the face very well. His sister is based off another model but with a name change to fit her dress-wearing-tom-boy attitude.

This month I thought it would be fun to dress everyone up. I had originally planned to do 13 images for the 13 days of Halloween, but ran out of time so instead I focused on the individual characters.I painted them with gouche on illustration broad, then put on backgrounds in Photoshop. The logo was designed in Adobe Illustrator.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Count Barry.

She-wolf Delilah.

Mummified Ryan.

Bear is the red dog, 2nd in from the left.

Gouche Test - Barn Owl

This semester I'm taking a Media Experimentation class. So far we have done an photo rendring in oil and a painting in the style of Mark English, but the next assignment is a gouche painting. I've worked with gouche before, but that was very in a very limited setting and without much instruction or understanding of the medium.

Needless to say, I need to practice.

I drew a quick sketch of a barn owl and then layered it with gouche, sticking to a lavender-yellow, warm theme. The paper is just the cut out from a matte board I cut yesterday (black-black core).

Tools: gouche, matte board 5x6in
Time: 35min

The Beginnings of a New Medium

I've only ever played around with watercolor as a child and once in high school more professionally. Finally, this semester, I've been able to take a watercolor class. i am very excited because it is a medium that has always interested me. The painting and reference photo is from an assignment from last weekend, to paint a single object still life. I chose my friend's Scentzy, disassembled it and added a flower and leaf for extra color. My class was very pleased with how it turned it, especially my instructor, so I won't be touching this specific piece, but I plan doing better work than this. I just need more practice. 

POKA DOT-Z

What girl doesn't love a good poka dot?

Obviously, this piece is inspired by the common poka dots and all its cute wonders at how versatile it is in both color and fashion. 

This drawing I did back in March, planning to paint in watercolors, but was switched to a Photoshop painting due to the small size (9x12in.) and my inexperience in watercolors. It has been a joy and wonder. Deciding on the technique I would use for this. In the end I decided to go with a simple round brush and layering everything with a normal-mode layers and using the opacity of the brushes to create shading. The poka dots are all made from different techniques from simply putting down dots, to putting down the color first then creating dots with the eraser tool. Then different sizes were used so there would be more contrast between each girl.

Value is still an issue for me, but I don't feel that brings this piece down because of that.

Its so much fun to work with these characters as they are my best friends, and being able to bring out their characteristics through stationary actions and clothing compositions.

Before and After

I've been taking a Head Drawing Class this semester from an amazing artist, Leon Parson. The first assignment of the semester he had us do our best heads in charcoal on some regular printer paper. As you can see I already knew some things to watch for, but still very inexperienced. The second image was done today, the last day of class, in oil pastel on Canson paper. There are some errors that have since been fixed, but the progress is still evident.

New Sketchbook, New Pen, New Furture

 Last Saturday I felt like I needed something else to draw in and so I went to the local craft store Porters, and bought this really nice, bound book. The paper is the perfect weight and I just love using it.

The first image I drew was an old aspen tree that was down the street with a Sharpie pen with a chisel tip. It was hard to draw because the wind was blowing and drying out my pen, but I love how it came out. The other image I did the other  day of my classmate. I chamoised the area first then erased out the half tone and then drew in more definition with  my mechanical pencil. It really does look like her, I'm pleased.

This is what my work area looked like when I got home: computer, cantaloupe dinner, water, sketchbook. Got to love it.

Drawn in my new favorite pen. Zebra Sarasa, maroon, size 0.7.

(Original Image, not mine, just found in a Google Search)

Creativity in Food

Today's lunch is brought to you by the letter "M" - for Mexican!

During my morning class, I kept wondering about what to have for lunch, and I remembered a can of black beans in my cupboard. I also have bell peppers that I bought last week, some corn that needed to be eaten, and half a tomato that needed to be used up. So I made Mexican black beans. It turned out really good!~

I've discovered as a college student that it is really hard to cook from a recipe, mostly because I don't have everything in a recipe (I didn't have garlic, lemon juice, or cilantro), so when I want to make something I've never made before like Mexican Black Beans, I just find a recipe, consider what I have, then make something up!

Creativity is key for every artist. Cooking is just a way to practice it and eat delicious food at the same time!

Creative Perspective Project 2 Overview

 I'm so glad I get the opportunity to take a class called Creative Perspective this semester. It has really opened my mind to the possibility of actually drawing a room in perspective rather than just drawing a room. With the semester half over, we've gone through 2 drawings with 3 more to go.

This Project is number two. A 2-point perspective interior based off a villain of your choice or creation. I made a villain with a mix of both. Meet CEO Ursula. Even from project one I was imaging Ursula in modern times smirking out of her pent office suite at the poor souls she has yet to make suffer.

 

After designing her character, I scowered Google images for a suitable room to base myself on. A forever process, so many images and only one idea. Granted, I attempted to design solely based on what is in my head, but sometimes it still doesn't turn out how you want. Finally I found something and was able to base a ground room off of it.

Usually I prefer to work traditionally, just a pencil and piece of paper, but my mind wasn't working with that, so I switched to digital. My favorite program right now is Paint Tool SAI, I find it easier to manipulate than Photoshop, but I use that as well.

Next more reference searching!  It can be really interesting what you find when you research for one thing. Like I was searching for a desk and found this octopus table instead, and then it clicked to have an octopus theme and quickly my search was focused to maintained that feel of tentacles.

Sadly, I do not own a DVD of Disney's "The Little Mermaid," but I was lucky to find that someone had posted on Youtube video clips of just Ursula. It helped me so much in making sure to add things she would have in her cave (which is actually a sea dragon's rib cage, to be exact.)

 

All of this gets drawn in, moved around, and scaled and stretched to fit the space. Then because I draw on separate layers, I was able to separate all of my objecst so that I could see them better for the final drawing.  

 

This drawing got rather messy, so before I went to get it printed so I could trace it onto my final Bristol paper, I went back and re-inked everything to be clean and precise.

The final image. Of course, there are still some errors but the assignment is done... for now.

Thank You to Wonderful Men and Women

Every Sunday at church, I stay awake by sketching images of times with my friends (mostly made up) which help me to concentrate and listen to the Spirit. Today I felt the need to make an image in honor of  Memorial Day. This is my thank you to all those men and women who've served this country in the past and continue to serve us today.

In my process for making this image, I decided to leave out facial features and many details in order to try and keep your attention focused on the angles of the bodies in pulling/pushing the flag into its home position seen as the spot of light. Everyone works together because a nation cannot stand alone.

Based off the image and statue of "Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima," I hope to inspire the same message of strength.

I am the Owl Lady

Owls haven't been my favorite thing for very long. I grew up like every other American girl, fantasizing about horses. But around my junior high and high school years that devotion began to lift and I started drawing more things than Arabians and Friesians. Then in my second year of college I took a class called "Color Theory." Our teacher asked us to choose a theme and design our work around that theme so that we would have a unified portfolio by the end of the class. I'm still not sure what made me choose owls but I did and so, in that class, I became known as "The Owl Lady." Then that same semester, I chose to draw an owl-lady for my metamorphosis in my Drawing 2 class, and because I had one friend in both classes, the title was expanded from one class to two. And then I just became engrossed.

Let me just say one thing, however: I loved owls long before the owl craze began.

So now friends and family give me all sorts of owl paraphernalia (ie. necklaces, blankets, cups, towels, books, etc.). And I love every second of it.

My bedroom. Can you count all the owls?

Creatively Charged

Shall we start off with an introduction? My name is Lara Stewart and I am crazy about art, after all its my major. People have asked me where this passion came from and, frankly, I couldn't tell ya, maybe from my creative parents or maybe I'm just blessed. I'm an observant person who just loves looking at light and shadows and the different casts of color they have. My teachers comment that real artists stare at the strangest things and understand what others don't see, and I truly feel that I do that. Just today I noticed my best friend's chin has a slight dimple when she talks.

I don't think I'm crazy. Just creatively charged!