It’s
been quite the year. I’m rather depressed about the state of the world,
but I’ve been very fortunate to have good things happening in my
personal life.
My
husband Dave and I spent the first half of 2017 hunting for, bidding
on, and finally purchasing a house, and then of course moving and
settling in (the latter process is still happening and probably will be
for some time).
The
house is in L.A. county,
albeit the very northwestern edge. We went from our Hollywood,
city-centric apartment to extreme suburban living in one fell swoop -
instead of hipsters and walking-distance bars and restaurants, we now reside
in The Land of Big Box Stores and strollers - but on the flip side, it’s
a 30-minute drive south through the mountains to Malibu & the
Pacific Ocean. The house itself is wonderful - old school
craftsman-style, with a beautiful backyard, wood beams in the living
room, and an original stained glass window in the dining room. It took
me some time to adjust to homeowner life, but I’ve been embracing the
new normal lately.
I’ve
also been fortunate to have a great art year. For those of you active
on Instagram, I post fairly regularly there and have made my account
art-centric (no personal photos). Here is some of my personal work that I hadn’t posted on the blog quite yet.
Self-portrait.
RIP Prince.
An inside joke between Dave and me... we got ourselves laughing one night imagining Agent Carter set in Boston (or Bahston).
Work from CGMA's Color & Light class, taken summer 2016
Work from CGMA's Color & Light class, taken summer 2016
Final painting from CGMA's Color & Light class, taken summer 2016
Model: Stacey Walker at The Drawing Club
Peter Pan interpretation
I
also finally, FINALLY completed a new professional concept art
portfolio for character and prop design, and I took it to CTN Animation
Expo two weeks ago. More on that in the next post...
Apr 4 - goats - research for the creature design project
Apr 5 - random giraffe professor
Apr 6 - I'm short.
I've now been keeping up with sketch-a-day for 3 months, and I'm so glad I have. Last fall, it was so easy to start my day, sit down at my computer in the morning, and think, "I'll just draw during lunch at work." Then lunch would roll around, and I'd think, "I'll just draw tonight." And then I'd go home from work, cook dinner, collapse on the couch and say, "I'll just draw tomorrow." But now that I've been keeping up with it for so long, it would actually be hard to stop, because I'd be ruining my own running streak. Some days aren't great (Easter bunnies). But some days I go to bed being proud of what I produced that day (Moriarity). And those days make it worth it.
Side note - Becky Kramer's Brother, the band whose poster I drew, had their first concert in a while on Friday night, and I was very excited to see that they had gotten prints of the poster! And not only that - they'd set aside a poster for me and all signed it. I may not be thrilled with the final result - but I have to admit, it was really special to hold a print of my first semi-official commission, and my first digital painting, in my hands. It's up on my home office wall now, serving as a reminder of what I've accomplished so far, and of how far I have still to go.
I love Mutts, and I love Carl Sagan (and I love love). However you feel about Valentine's Day, I hope you had a good one. For me, it's a day to remember how lucky I am to share my life with the many people I love.
Jan 2. Lesson of the day: I need to work from photo reference.
Jan 2 extra
I'm well aware this is not a sketch. Just a record of me trying out my new watercolor set and experimenting with layering/mixing. Thanks Kris for the lovely Christmas present!!!
Jan 3 - apparently the Christmas spirit does not subside even when it's well into the new year and you've been rocking it since before Thanksgiving
Jan 4 - Dave's parents' house. Foliage sucks. Shadow of tree across driveway looks like many-fingered devil hand. Much to learn.
Jan 5 - Dad and Pirate
Jan 6 - PHL airport
Sorry about the shoddy picture quality on some of these. Right now I'm taking photos with my phone, and good light on the go can be a little hard to come by. But I'll figure this out as I go along.
I'm going to post a daily sketch roundup here every week (or so). Right now planning on Sundays. But if you have a smartphone and you'd like to follow along in real time, you're more than welcome to follow me on Instagram. I'm a private user, but if you request me I'll be happy to friend you!
I am enjoying my new watercolors but I'm hopelessly uneducated in how to
use them (which is sometimes fun but mostly frustrating). I think the first thing I've realized is: work light to dark, back to front. This recent Armand Cabrera post, Learning To See (part 2), was extremely helpful in pointing out how to organize elements of a painting. (The whole 'Learning to See' series is good - part 1, part 3.)
If anyone has
any tips or knows of any good watercolor tutorials, please point me in the right direction! I've been rewatching some old Gurney Journey videos for inspiration and a bit of instruction. This one in particular was helpful:
Last but not least - for any of you making new years' resolutions, art-related or otherwise: here's a great article that I've been meaning to link for a while, 6 Harsh Truths That Will Make You a Better Person. I felt really motivated/affirmed when I read it, because it's really a list of things that I'd been realizing myself in the past year. It's tied up in the same sort of thing that I've been posting about a lot. Like Noah Bradley says: "Shut up, stop whining, and get to work." Nike says: "Just do it." Yoda says: "Do or do not. There is no try." That's really the biggest thing I've realized this past year: Is there something you want to accomplish? Either you're going to do it, or you're not. It's that simple.
At the end of 2011 I typed up a big long list of stuff I wanted to fix in 2013, with things like "listen to more new music" and "don't buy things you don't need just to qualify for free shipping." This year, I'm simplifying the process. These are my resolutions for 2013 - written down on a post-it note stuck up on the wall next to my computer.
If anyone knows of a way to embed instagrams into a blogger post... that would be most helpful.
My playmobil advent calendar
Tiny office Christmas tree
The homestead after a Christmas Eve snowfall
Snow cat wants to come inside
Baby Noah's Christmas nap
I hesitate to make this resolution because I don't know if I'll be able to keep it. But at least the willingness must be worth something... right? I'd like to do a sketch a day this year. As short as 5 minutes, or as long as an hour, however much time I can find. (Which of course I'll be posting on the blog.) There are some days where I just haven't found the time to draw despite my commitment to it this past year. It's a little difficult sometimes feeling very split between editing and art (and life!). But I'd like to try to be better about it this year. We shall see...
My biggest resolution this year is: THINK BIG PICTURE. I'm a very detail oriented person, and sometimes I can get lost in the little things. This applies to everything - to my art, to my editing, and to my life. It's so easy (for me at least) to get caught up in the day-to-day and to forget about my overall direction. But this year I'm going to work on actively changing that. So here's to 2013! I hope good things are ahead for all of us.
