The Proverbial Question

 "I'm a starting artist. Should I work for free?"

[click the link]

[hahahahahahahahahahaha. In reality, weigh the pros and cons. Sometimes, the pros do outweigh the cons.]

Coming Soon: Edible Art Adventure

I have never made a wedding cake in all my life, but a friend is getting married and she was only going to have cupcakes to keep the cost down. I told her, "What!? I will make you a cake topper at least!" How hard can it be? I have watched cooking shows since I was a little girl (I actually preferred them to Saturday morning cartoons). I bake/cook all the time (mainly cook, but Matthew never complains about my baking, except that I don't do it enough to satisfy his sugar cravings :D).

What will the outcome be???

I like adventures. For Samantha's sake, I am sure this one will be perfect.

PS- Plein air didn't happen today. The weather sucked. Will try and make up for it next week.

I Got My "Official" Badge On

As the saying goes, since I am on FB now, I must officially be a real illustrator, right?! Guess I should get to work on making some real paintings to sell!

I also work as a graphic designer and am currently designing logos for Arctic Rescue, Utah Paw Power, and Alaskan Malamute Assistance League. If you have a job for me, be it illustration or graphic design, send me an email! I would be happy to discuss working with you.*

Click on the image to check out the new page (and LIKE it, please!):

*I apologize, but I do not work for free and only very rarely for trade.

Practically Mooing (and this one actually has some of MY art)

I like my steak pink, flavorful, juicy, and tender (and preferably FREE). In cooking the perfect steak, one doesn't want to under cook it, because (honestly) I can't do bleeding food. It should be dead when it is handed up to me.  Art is the same way. At least, it ought to be.

In the past I procrastinated assignments, then rushed myself, got fed up with the piece because I was tired of cramming it down my throat, then stopped caring altogether and once it was done enough to get an, "OK, fine," from a professor, it got put on the back burner with the all-too-familiar thoughts, "I never want to see it again," or "I'll finish it later. Much later." I have a huge issue finishing works that I have started! I was thinking the other day how I don't have any pieces of work I really care for in my portfolio and bemoaning my experimentalist self in college. However, looking through my ample collection of stuff, I realized I have a ton! Okay, well, several. Only none of it's done. The dirty truth: I am an over-achiever at never finishing. (Pray the BFA has better success.)

The good thing is, after being out of school almost a full year, looking back on some of these "rare" pieces I think, "Huh, I'd like to try that again. I can do that better," or, better yet, "Hey, that's not so bad, I really do want to finish that."

Here is a taste of some of my undercooked work:

The oldest. It's almost four years old.

A cover for a favorite book, The Perilous Gard (a gard is a castle). This depicts the main character, Kate, and in the background you can see the Fairy Queen, The Creature of the Well, and Christopher. Between 1.5-2 years old

I  had a hankering for an Indian-goddess type figure and her tiger. I forget what type of bird I drew, but it's a native species of India (I think)... also about 1.5-2 years old

And there's more than this! Eek.

Double Dipping

So I have been combining some sketching with making cards for family members. I have also been on a learn-how-to-use-watercolors phase. They are really quite fun... I messed up with the Merlin, I made him too dark to begin with, and the scans have made all of them darker still. Ah, well. C'est la vie! The outlines are in black acrylic ink... the ink, I adore! The watercolors are taking me a bit to slow down with. I have a bad habit of rushing when painting, and paint is not something that enjoys rushing when you are accustoming yourself to it.

Let me know what thou thinkest, O Great Web World.

Black Bear Cub

Merlin

Scarlet Ibis

Eve in the Garden

This was a piece I did based on the style of Gustav Klimt for my computer illustration class. I think it could have turned out better, but it's not terrible. This work is for sale, if you are interested. The largest you can have it printed is 13 x 6.25

My final for my 2D class, Fall 2007

My favorite is Somnolence, the green lady. This picture was heavily influenced by Alphonse Mucha--in fact, you might say it's a tribute to him. He's a famous (or perhaps, the most famous) art nouveau artist. She is pictured in BYU's Inscape magazine, "a journal of literature and art." She didn't make it to the front page, sadly. She is on page 18 instead. The blue face was a rhythm project for class. There isn't much rhythm, in my opinion, but it definitely reflected how I felt at the time... which was a little nuts. The third is two paintings of my friend Bruno. he looks like he's in pain, but in actuality he was laughing. They were supposed to be studies of high value paintings (right) and middle value paintings (left). Lastly, the girl in the red jacket was my final project for the class. I ran out of time, so the face, hands, hood, background, and sleeve were all very hurried, which resulted in a terrible image. The part that bothers me the most... well, never mind about it. I spent the most time on that blasted pattern on her jacket (it's very nice btw. It's of a firebird, surrounded by a sun, moon, and star). What did I learn from this experience?

FOCUS ON THE IMPORTANT THINGS!

Ask me if I remember this lesson in a month, eh?