Object Lesson

Just a little to show, from way back in the fall.



This is an articulated (gasp!) anteater, made from Super Sculpey. The limbs are attached with metal fabric snaps, which allows them to rotate on an axis. It's an interesting application and was sort of a stepping stone to these guys:



These are toys with interchangeable magnetic limbs. I like the shape and funtionality of these guys, but the paint gets me down. Luckily my final project for licensing (lasting for the next six weeks) will be expanding on this line with (at least?) four more animals. Look! Sketches!





I'll be redoing the kangaroo, anteater, polar bear (although he may become a panda), and giraffe. Opinions on the other creatures would be super appreciated. (The class had votes for the kiwi, the turtle, the iguana, and the hare, for the record.)

A Long Time Later

Okay! After a couple of near tries, I am finally, finally updating this thing, and the result is what can only be refered to as an art dump!

Granted, it's only four pieces, wretchedly photographed, but each is so terribly new and unique.


This is a gouache color study for an N. C. Wyeth painting. I did the final in acrylic glazes for my Colorworks class, only to find out during my critique that the image I was working from was far, far away from what the original painting looked like. Still, the whole thing made me take a very patient look at color and the use of glazes, and this study reminded me how very much I love gouache, even when it isn't entirely cooperative.



This was a three-week in class painting, using acrylic glazes again. Please ignore most of the painting; I'm posting this because I love the face of the woman in the coat. I did it with some careful observation and just three glazes. It's these sort of almost-effortless, almost-accidental successes that make me feel comforted as an artist (and more so as a student).



Here is yet another example of mushy anatomy for an artistic anatomy assignment, but I love the shapes of color. I did this in sepia and white conte crayon on really soft, tan paper that turned green as soon as the conte hit it. (Thanks, color theory!)

I whiled away my entire afternoon on this last piece. I've been dying to play around with Sculpey and actually make a real, live object, so this is a 3d model of a character I designed for my Colorworks final. (It's three or four sequential pieces, about a boy who's obsessed with birds and what ensues. I'm hoping to use the cuteness that is so omnipresent in my illustration pieces along with a bit of darkness. It's always a fun combination; I just have to consciously try to keep the bite in my work.)

I used Styrofoam and armature wire inside so, sadly, I probably won't bake him.





And here he is on an Altoids tin, for a sense of scale.



Coming next: work from my comic book class and a pile of weird sketchbook drawings, hopefully within the next few days.