Sketchbook...

From my tiny, falling-apart sketchbook...




I went on a cave tour when I was visiting my parents in Texas. At one point, the guide turned off his flashlight so we could experience total darkness--besides a cave, the only other place you can experience total darkness is very, very deep in the ocean.

On-site Gouache

Hot on the heels of Landscape Painting, I had Illustrative Storytelling class. I painted with gouache on our first on-site day. 2-hour pose in Union Station.

Landscape painting!

Here are a few more images from my landscape painting class. The images below are (top to bottom): a page of mastercopies, a series of quick studies of El Matador Beach at sunset, and a painting from the hiking trail at the top of Lake Ave. in Pasadena.

Op Ed Final: Family Comic

For our Op Ed final, we got to design an Op Art piece. I chose to create a comic based on the parallel trips that my grandparents and I made from Maine to Los Angeles--theirs in 1946, and mine in 1998.

The piece was far more time consuming than I'd planned, but I'm really happy with the end product. I'd love to do more comics in the future.

Op Ed Ill...in color

A few weeks ago, we got an assignment to do a cover piece--that meant color and a portrait. From four article options, I chose the one on Stephen King. It was a book review, but most of the article was on King and his literary merits.

He says at one point that he was afraid of being brought into the upper-echelon literary fold because people would wonder "who let the barbarian in the palace." I based by illustration on his feeling of being judged by the greats (pictured below are Shakespeare, Bronte, Balzac, and Dickens). I'm thinking about going back in and including their names (duh). Originally, I didn't want the text to become what people focused on.

More landscape painting practice...

Live Assignment from the New York Times!

Our Op Ed Illustration class got the opportunity to do a live assignment for the Letters page of the Op Ed section of the New York Times. Like all their assignments, it was a super-fast turnaround. We got the letters packet on Monday morning, and had to have a finished illustration to them by 9am on Tuesday.

The letters addressed an Op Ed piece by John Bolton and John Woo, entitled "Why Rush to Cut Nukes?" Pretty self-explanatory. The letters all argued against their position, and for the New START Treaty for controls on nuclear weapon counts.

The bad news: I didn't get picked. The good news: They went with a piece by another student from our class, and the art director was so impressed with the selection of pieces submitted that she asked to do the live assignment again next term.

Here's my piece, followed by a link to the article and a great piece by my classmate, Julie Wojnarowski.

The article can be found at http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/17/opinion/l17nuke.html?scp=1&sq=why%20rush%20to%20cut%20nukes,%20letters&st=cse.

My Art, Her Body

I got the opportunity to do some chickadee tattoo designs for a friend (of a friend of a friend) recently. She ended up dropping the text since it would be too small and wouldn't age well. She went with the third chickadee.

I have to say, it was amazing to see something I created actually tattooed on someone. It was quite humbling, and I think the true honor of it is still sinking in.

More Op Ed Ill

Two more projects from Op Ed Ill class.

The first article was about an Afr.-Amer. professor who noted that 9 times out of 10, the only empty seat on the high-speed Acela train in New England was next to him.

The second article was titled, "How Not to Fight a Cold":

I'm still thinking about putting some color on it...

Millard Canyon, 10/31/10

Some recent paintings from my Landscape class