Artrage experiment

Just my first cut at using the software Artrage to digitally “paint” one of my drawings. I kinda like it. It was hard adjusting to the radically different interface (I’m used to Photoshop…love CS3!) but hey, it had some features that I couldn’t get in the beloved CS3.
This was a drawing I did on the fly, from memory…thinking of Ellen Page as Juno….just a fun sketch to kill time.

So, there it is…and man, is it late at night, almost 1 a.m. and I’m wide awake scribbling on my little tablet in front of the tele (Food Network…what else is on?) So pathetic. I have to get to bed…peace out!

Originally uploaded by NewLeafCreativeWorks

IF Topic: Tales and Legends

Eliza Dolittle is a character that has always fascinated me. I read the play, Pygmalion (George Bernard Shaw) in middle school and it was years until I saw Audrey Hepburn (one of my favs) play Eliza in the musical, My Fair Lady. I love the undercurrent idea in the story of Pygmalion that happiness isn’t a byproduct of wealth or social status. Eliza ultimately chooses her own happiness, regardless of the desires of the people who try to mold her to their ideals.

Admittedly, I am also fascinated by the romantic vision of Edwardian England and I love a good love story!

Later, much!
TT

Kipling’s Princess

Perhaps this might be Mowgli’s love interest in the Jungle Book. I do so love Kipling and read all of his stories as a young child. I remember feeling the terror inspired by Shere Khan, the tiger nemesis of all the jungle. I do love a good story and Mr. Kipling had a way with words.

Little Match Girl and Goldilocks

I’m currently inspired to create illustrations based on all my favorite childhood fairy tales. These are a few of the ideas I’ve been toying with . I have more! Hansel and Gretel will be posted in a bit and there’s some sort of Indian Princess that I guess is a nod toward my love of Kipling.

Illustration Friday topic: Hats

Ok, so it’s not exactly a hat, it’s a hood but I thought this illustration of Little Red Riding Hood was appropriate for this weeks IF topic. Why not?

new ideas

I have been working on sketches for a story idea based loosely on my grandmother’s stories of her young days. She was born in 1913, so she grew up in some interesting times. I am still formulating the characterization and plot lines but I thought I’d post some of the character sketches I was working on. It’s easier for me to draw the characters in a story, first. Then I work on personality traits and unique qualities they might have. That’s very different from illustrating someone else’s story, as you are given the manuscript and have to draw the character to suit the authors description. Both paths are fun, but it’s always more fun for me to do my own stories.

pen and ink sketch

Best Buds

I really don’t know where I got this idea to begin with, but it transmogrified into sort of a simplified representation of my daughter and her friend. I may color it digitally.

Portrait of C.J. (another meeting portrait)

Today’s unfortunate victim….staff meeting fun….

Portrait Sketch

I wanted to post this little sketch of yet another of my co-workers. Names have been excluded to protect the innocent. I think it’s funny that when I showed this particular subject my rendering of their face in my teeny little moleskine book, they were quite surprised. I try to capture the key elements of a person’s face and personality. This gentleman has very chisled features. He provided an interesting challenge in the drawing…and he was moving around a lot. That always makes for an interesting trip on the paper.

Nothing more to say. I’m off to the Mom’s house this evening. I’ve been rather busy…at work and beyond. I have filial duties to attend to.

Smack in the Middle

Middle School seems to be one of the most awkward time periods in a young person’s life.
I have a child right smack in the middle of middle school and it’s just drama, drama, drama on a regular basis.
I remember those horrible middle years (11 - 14). Needless to say, they were anxiety ridden even way back then in the 1980s.

Your peers hate you or like you depending on what day it is. Gossip flies unchecked through the halls. Everyone is busy establishing their identity — worried about the kind of clothes they wear, how they do their hair, whether or not they are accepted by the others around them.

I was a soft-hearted, creative (go figure), naive child who was a terrible nerd (and I still am). I was not at all popular. In fact, I was quite the contrary. I was not terribly well dressed due to the fact that my mother’s single parent salary couldn’t support the latest Izod and Members Only gear (remember those?). I wore many hand-me-downs and second hand store clothes (I remember this pair of red velvet bell bottoms I had in the sixth grade…oy!) Being a non-athletic, pudgy girl with glasses and long ponytails didn’t help things much either. I was teased mercilessly.

There were a handful of us girls, similar types who loved to draw and write, read graphic novels and watch anime and fantasize about being someone else other than ourselves. There’s safety in numbers, right? I can see all their faces and remember their names despite the fact that I haven’t seen them in a good 15-20 years. Susan, Tracey, Catherine, Jerri, — I wonder what happened to all of them. The best time of the day was our lunch break where we sat together, collaborating on some new horse-lover’s club, or drawing our favorite character or talking about the latest Star Blazers episode.

The funny thing is, my daughter is so much the same. She has her little lunch-bunch that she has melded with and they draw and talk and make up stories and characters. It is so amazing to me to see the parallels in our lives. The names and faces may have changed but at the heart of it, it’s the same story and song.

Life does go on. You survive all the adversity and realize that the things you were teased about make you wonderfully unique. If you are smart, you exploit that difference and make it part of that identity you sought out so long ago - in the surreal land called middle school.