[ monday 2005.11.28 ]
illustration friday: small

i wanted to do a double illustration for this- showing both my subject in a scene and also an up close view. for a few minutes i thought about doing a yellow-orange beetle, as those are common around here, but liked the contrast of the traditional red lady bug better. are lady bugs considered to bring good luck? i've always thought that the masculine lady bug in "a bug's life" was so adorable.

[ posted by beth at 8:55PM ] [ ]

a small little painting done in acrylic & ink on board. the greens in it did not scan nicely for me. oh well. my mind felt very free this weekend, and i did lots of sketches in my new sketchbook for upcoming projects. it always feels good to have a creatively productive weekend.

[ posted by beth at 10:04AM ] [ ]

i had some prior obligations last month that delayed me from starting on this. now that i have the time to dedicate towards it, you'll begin to see my progress posted. see the "plant an idea" winning entry & first sketch here. this is going to be fun! i'm so excited!

[ posted by beth at 7:52PM ] [ ]

last week, i headed out to my local bookstore. while browsing through the sketchbook/journal section, i spotted this blue leather sketchbook. now blue is not a color that i'm often drawn to. it is not something i'd ever buy for myself. but on that day, i saw the blue sketchbook in a new light. i saw it as a book of possibility. a book of something new. a new color sketchbook for a new phase, for a new beginning. it was all wrapped up in plastic, so i could not see or feel the texture of the paper. but i bought it anyways because i trusted that it would be just right. without a second thought i found myself at the cash register. only minutes after paying for it, i plopped down in one of the big leather bookstore chairs. i ripped it open and began to frantically draw on the spot (as another shopper was giving me a bit of a strange look). within 10 minutes i had completed a sketch, a sketch of something that surprised myself. the style was very me, very loose with softer lines. i did not stop and think about what i was drawing. i had no plan. it was very raw & real.

i was only in the bookstore that day for 15 minutes. it was 15 minutes that changed the course of where i was and where i was headed.

the blue sketchbook is something i'd never buy. but it was that very fact- that it was something i'd never buy, that ended up being the very reason i was drawn to it. sometimes you have to look outside of yourself to find yourself.

[ posted by beth at 6:09PM ] [ ]

i always think of holding hands under a night sky. this is especially nice when you are camping far away from the city and can see each and every star in the sky.

[ posted by beth at 5:42PM ] [ ]

"one and the same" - mixed media silkscreen version

i did my second pull for the lineart of the girls & butterfly. i mixed a little bit of black into the same brown that i used for the background pattern, just to darken it up a bit. then i painted in some washes of color for the boots, dress, etc. finally it was topped off with a gloss medium. you can see my original illustration here.

for my next silkscreen project, i want it to have more solid, bolder areas of color instead of just line art like i did here. i have a lot of fun ideas planned, now that i have a better understanding of how the whole process works!

[ posted by beth at 10:07AM ] [ ]

i've been experimenting with silkscreening this past month, and here is my first real results from it. the others were all just tests... testing paper surfaces, testing exposure times, testing registration. so far what you see is some background texture painted with acrylic on wood, and then my first color silkscreened on top (the pattern).

i'm reworking an illustration that i did earlier this summer called "one and the same". it is of two girls hugging one another. i'll post the completed painting later this week!

[ posted by beth at 11:27AM ] [ ]