Up, up, and away

Hey there blog readers!

Today I'm headed out of Brooklyn, off into the wild blue yonder. My very talented, lovely sister is currently an art conservationist at the Mauritshuis, and I'm off to pay her a long overdue visit.

And what better time than to post a recently-finished piece... it seems thematically appropriate, somehow. This piece is from a personal project I started a few weeks ago, and this particular painting is actually the third in the series. I have the other two images all sketched out and ready to paint, but I tackled this one first because it was my favorite. (More posts about the project when I return.)

Up, up, and away!

Next post from the Netherlands!

Gym inspired doodle

2012

New Years resolutions stress me out. I just don't like them. Whether it was trying to get organized, exercising more, or eliminating m&ms from my diet, January's well-intentioned resolution often became December's guilt trip. Rather than continuing to fall into an inevitable cycle of December angst, I decided not to make any more annual resolutions.

While I have stuck to my resolution against making resolutions, I do, however, think it's valuable to have goals and high hopes. So this year, I made a list of hopes for 2012. Rather than pressuring myself to be someone I'm not or do something that will make my stomach lurch with guilt come December, I did a little journal doodle about angst-free things for the new year.

And I can say with certainty that the year is looking like a happy and hope-filled one.

Auspicious beginnings

Happy New Year blogville!

I hope everyone had lovely celebrations. I rang in 2012 in Brooklyn with champagne, fireworks, and some of the folks I care for most in this world. I have a good feeling about this one... good things ahead.

Taken in Prospect Park at midnight.

In the meantime, I just wanted to share the view outside my studio window on this lovely, chilly evening.

Chanukah birdies

Hey there folks!

Another holiday process post about my promo piece. In that first post, I mentioned that I did two new pieces for my holiday promo this year. One was a small piece for the back - Christmas with Coco and Oscar - and the second, a new Chanukah related piece. I deliberately made the Chanukah piece slightly ambiguous. When you look closely, you might have an "aha" moment, but then again, you might not. You might just think it's a pretty spiffy winter-holiday-related painting of some penguins and a flamingo.

As mentioned in that first post, I came up with a vague idea for some holiday penguins, and I ran with them.

Here's a quick run through of the penguins and the beginning painting stages:
(Apologies for the crappy resolution/color balance. I'm having some trouble with my camera, and I neglected to scan the piece in-process. Oops.)

 Penguins... check.

And we're done.

Sort of.

I actually ended up doing the entire piece over. First, I wasn't super happy with the flamingo. I thought he could be better. Second, I thought my Chanukah birds just might be tooooo ambiguous. Third, I wasn't thrilled about some of the color choices. So I adjusted the sketch and started the whole thing over. Success.

Happy eighth night folks!

Night number seven

A little something sweet for the seventh night.

Christmas Process

 Merry Christmas to everyone celebrating!

Today I'm going to share a bit of holiday process work.

For my holiday promo, I did two small new pieces - one Christmas themed and the other (if you're looking closely) Chanukah related. Rather than coming up with all new characters, I decided I wanted to play with two recent and familiar faces.

My first step is always visual brainstorming. This is my favorite part of the process. I try a whole bunch of ideas and see which fits best. My first idea for this little project was a Chanukah Coco & Oscar image.

Nothing really seemed quite right, and I almost abandoned Coco & Oscar in favor of a handful of penguins. (Fear not, I didn't abandon the penguins entirely. They'll make a reappearance in a post next week...) 

Until finally I tried combining holidays and came up with this.

And this...

Bingo!

After all of the brainstorming, I prep the final piece. I take my final sketch and do a really loose version on good paper.

I use those loose guides to do a new sketch on the good paper. At this point, I make any necessary adjustments to the characters and composition.

Once I'm happy with the characters, I can start painting.

Until finally...

Merry Christmas!