Rachel Jones Art

Oh yeah I have a blog here

2012-01-19T19:55:00.000-08:00

Derp I still have a blog here I have to update sometimes. Enjoy! (click on the pic to see the larger piccy on deviantart)

Pinecone study

2011-08-11T16:01:00.000-07:00

A short little pine cone study--hoping it will somehow make me better at scales and feathers on wings.

Color added

2011-08-08T18:02:00.001-07:00

Spent another hour adding color, felt like leaving it here, because if I add 5 more minutes I'll end up adding another hour, how things go...

Black and White short study: Sanborn park

2011-08-08T16:25:00.000-07:00

Again trying to get used to trees (Because trees just kill me) I did a black and white study this time, I'll put color in later. Spent only about an hour and it was killer. Trees, youknow--you think you're finished and then you realize there's so much more that needs to be done.

Landscape

2011-08-04T15:52:00.000-07:00

It's been about two months so I think I should post in here again. I have been doing my studies, but work and etc caught up with me. Now that I'm in between jobs, I'll have time to post again.

So here's Sanborn Park here in Saratoga. We went camping last weekend, and I went up a little bit early to catch the light at the twilight hour (ok, maybe it was late) anyways, I have a real problem drawing trees, and since I want to get a lot better at that: trees.

Also, I'm using photoshop for this one (I usaully use painter) and I want to try and get as good at photoshop as I do at painter...and it's almost the same but just...I just miss my easy to reach brushes. (although I do like how it feels a lot more simple on photoshop than painter, because I can't go all brushes crazy ((although hypothetically I still can, it's just more work)))

A short study--about 2 hours, 40 minutes

apple #5

2011-06-09T23:23:00.000-07:00

kinda felt ill today...still drew an apple, though. ... another quick study...

apple study 4

2011-06-09T14:53:00.001-07:00

finally found some apples. Did a short study and forgot to post it, my bad.

lime study

2011-06-07T16:12:00.000-07:00

Very short study of a lime cuz I'm short on time today

fruit-a-day 3

2011-06-06T12:11:00.000-07:00

a lemon

Apple a day #2

2011-06-05T18:37:00.000-07:00

Forgot to post yesterday, it was another pear.

apple a day

2011-06-03T13:48:00.003-07:00

Ok, it's a pear, but I'm still going to do a fruit a day challenge to get back in the swing of things.

Back

2011-06-03T10:59:00.000-07:00

Hi all, I put this this blog on the backburner, and continued to do art but just never blogged about it. I'm thinking of heading back to school, which means I have to start padding my portfolio with studies and etc as I prepare (not to mention I have to take that GRE and I haven't done math in a while. Shoot.) So that means my art blog is back! and here's some clouds from my sketchbook that I sketched on the plane. I know it says 100 clouds, but I got distracted halfway through and started drawing furries.

Blog Overhaul

2010-10-13T18:16:00.000-07:00

So basically I'm going to be doing some spring cleaning to this blog, to make it more of a professional one. Yes, I have my portfolio to be professional, but basically it's just a hop skip and google search away to this one. So, from here on out you can find my weird posts over at 3 AM octopus, because I'm going to only do art related stuff on this blog now.

Seriously this time, too. I'm going to focus the blog. Finally. Focusing the blog...focusing the blog...

Color testing

2010-09-22T12:58:00.000-07:00

I just can't decide which one. Of course, I'm leaning blue...

New Painting only 30% done

2010-09-14T13:00:00.003-07:00

So James thinks that it looks like her butterfly hat is eating her.

Is this a bad thing? Anyways, soon to have a portrait painted for the face.

Possibility?

2010-09-13T10:01:00.000-07:00

Actual Illustration

2010-09-09T13:37:00.000-07:00

This totally happened to me once, stuck in the worst venue of my life with the worst singer of my life and an accordian for 2 hours.

Yes, I'm still illustrating. I found out ppl seem to like my humour stuff. In fact, this is now a Halloween card at Etsy!

LOL this blog is a joke

2010-09-08T11:08:00.000-07:00

I never post art in here anymore! This blog has turned into such a joke!

Really, it's because I'm busy. I'm doing large scale peices that are 3 foot by 2 foot and I've never done anything that big before--well other than that 10 foot mural but it deosn't count because it was black and white housepaint. I took a picture of one for you. It's still super unfinished and I hate the color I'm putting in for the sky--I'm going to change that.

Case you're wondering about the deeper meaning of a landscape of a california condor painting a landscape: I decided to make it based on artistic creativity and it's relationship with creation and destruction (in this case, destruction embodied in extinction.) There's more meaning behind it. I kind of make up meaning as it goes, youknow? So long as I have something to tell the San Jose indies when they drop by.

I'm currently trying to save a struggling image which has a whole womb + egg visual going on (it's not phallic, don't worry. you wouldn't even notice unless I pointed it out to you) but it has this random portrait in it that is done so well technically I don't want to erase it. But lo, here it goes: I'm going to erase it...

....

Check out this shirt!

2010-08-17T12:00:00.001-07:00

Shruti wearing our shirt--you should buy one for yourself...!

Pictures of Carmel

2010-08-17T11:00:00.002-07:00

Isn't this forbidden island awesome!?

I don't know why I never posted these! They came out real nice although it was with my not so great camara. Anyways, I'll stagger the posts of Carmel pictures, because there's like 30 of them and you don't need to see that all at once.

Cesc Fabregas shirt is up!

2010-08-10T12:31:00.000-07:00

Buy this shirt!

http://skreened.com/artcart/cescret-weapon

I know you want to! It will make Shruti and I very happy!

Gallery!

2010-08-05T13:58:00.000-07:00

So I have this great friend of mine, Auriana, from my old Architecture days (ya, it was a while back) who got a job at a Yoga/Salon that has a gallery space. She was so wonderful to refer me to her boss and get me a month to display my work! Hurrah! My first gallery show in California! And it's connected to the San Jose Art walk, that is done down first street (and if you know First Street you know what I mean, it's a super hippie/artsy street, I love it.)

In fact, its my first gallery show where I have to fill the entire space with just myself (uhhh) by a week before November (double uhhh) and while I know I can do it, I just went from doing nothing, to doing EVERYTHING (especially when I want to finish a book for a client by the end of this month ((Triple uhhhhhhh). It's great. I actually enjoy having a busy life.

Anyways, here's a recent commission I did for Shruti of Cesc Fabregas, who plays soccer.
It will be on a yellow shirt. (I watched about 40 minutes of slow-mo soccer kicks to find this pose. Most of the ones online are groin kicks or backflip-kicks, both of which Shruti thought weren't exactly real to the game of soccer, although I secretly wanted them to be.)

However, depending on whether or not she'll be printing white and black, it could also look like this.

I think both are cool. (too bad you can't see his face when it's this small) The white and black thing was a happy mistake, in the end. The final shirt to be sold soon in online-stores--I'll put up more info for any soccer fans out there reading this after Shrut's figures out the details.

Sick Rachel Makes More Bad Art

2010-07-26T15:05:00.000-07:00

I'm fascinated by how badly I paint when I'm sick. I mean, how is it that being sick impairs you from thinking artistically? It's like your body is that in tune with your artistic ability or something, so when it's off.

man it is off! This is so funny to me--I woke up today and was like--this, what is this?!

And yes, it took me two hours to do that many strokes--it's a total of 5 inches that are very poorly rendered. If you can't tell, it's a flower. Backlit for some odd reason. It looks like a funky pancake like I dunno.

And then the very next day I do something better in 1/4 of the time. Sick Rachel is weird.

See how I draw when I'm really sick

2010-07-25T13:24:00.000-07:00

today on 3 AM Octopus, I talk about how to find where someone lives in the hills of Los Altos/Saratoga with some really poor drawings. It's great.

http://3am-octopus.tumblr.com/post/858068162/sick-drawing-post-see-how-i-draw-when-im-sick

Epiphany + Cats

2010-07-07T14:28:00.000-07:00

I had an epiphany yesterday:

I used to care about being creative around other people. It felt like this:

And while I can draw in front of people, there were other things I could not do. Like, if I made up songs I wouldn't play them. If I made art I'd show it, but I'd usaully purposefully stick in a lot of photo-realistic representational stuff amidst my cartoons.

I remember going to a children's book conference just a year ago, showing my stuff and almost passing out because I knew there were only 5 other illustrators there so mine was sticking out like a freaken sore thumb... that and I hadn't slept the night before but thats just insomnia.

But now I just don't care anymore. At all. Now I do comic books of cats and stuff and I just don't care. I paint what I like and send it off saying "Here's my annoying portfolio. Sucks to be you because now you have to look at it!" Without worrying if they'll rip it in half like I did in college.

I play my weird jazzy stuff on the piano as I have fun with a-tonal chords and composition and it probably sounds awful. Its great, I've been freed from sone inner fear, and I don't really know........when that happened.

But yesterday I noticed it. I mean, even back in College I never made up stuff around the roomies unless they asked and that I think only happened once or twice.

But now, only 1 year later, I have a style, I shop and I don't think "uh...is this--what is this?" like I used to think as I shopped for clothes--i just don't care and I buy it--which doesn't sound all that impressive because girls generally do that shopping sort of thing, but I'm really picky and so I usaully only buy clothes 3-4 times a year.

Yet now, although I'm still picky, I'm actually finding stuff. Of course, this could be because I moved to California and I just like the style here better than Utah...I dunno.

So, because I no longer care, lets talk about cats.

I'm still working on my neices comic, about a stray cat with only one ear lost in a world of magical evil dragons and cats (seemed like a good nemises of eachother) and I want to get it to the third chapter by her birthday (24th, Pioneer Day.) I've gotten intrigued with the weird and sort of creepy story, so I'm officially going to make it better than it has been--I'm going to do a second draft!

but here's some clips of things to come. No, it will not be pencil-tastic like it is right now.

I've been building this paralell world for it, one that has no sky, and characters that don't live on Earth but like to copy Earth. So the characters that go between Earth and this other place get some culture shock that is unsettling (the name of the other place is still undecided, it has to match their language, which is still up in the air) .

Making cats look like Egyptian Gods while still dressing them in modern clothes is also a fun thing. Except for the Himalayans who are obese nudists. Because every comic book needs nudity.

Whats odd is that only 30 minutes a day got me 30 pages by now. Amazing what an outline does for me.

Visual pun, see? Train wreck? I guess I'll find out next draft through...

LOL

2010-07-06T16:38:00.001-07:00

Oh Almaden!

2010-06-24T15:00:00.001-07:00

I was driving to work through this shopping mall down Almaden, happened to look to my left and stopped when I saw this:

Too bad I only had my crappy camera. But it was just the perfect little house with the flowers and all...I feel the need to paint it. But I shouldn't pull out my easel in the middle of a parking lot.

I know I said no more than two posts a day for me

2010-06-19T22:08:00.000-07:00

...but I totally just downloaded a font and the only reason I did (other than it was free, apparently bug-less, and decent) was because it was called "Parsel Toungue" and I clicked the button and I downloaded it without any other thought.

And then I realized something, and I will tell it to you in Parsel Toungue.

Bee

2010-06-16T12:11:00.003-07:00

There was a bee in my garden and so I took advantage of that.

I also finally painted those cookies and they turned out better this time. No jupiter, though, sorry.

Finally got a real camara!

2010-06-14T12:09:00.001-07:00

I have a big girl camara now, which is fantastical for everyone because now I don't have to borrow everyone's camara every time I need to reproduce something, that and the quality is like this:

which means that my illustrations are going to come out a lot better. I've been struggling the past year with reproducing and so now I hope the struggle is over. And what does this mean? It means Etsy!

So now I'm slowly packing my stuff into card packages on Etsy under pthaloazul. Yes, I spelled phthalo wrong. But it was taken already and it's a shop name so it doesn't matter really.

etsy.com/shop/pthaloazul

At my doorstep

2010-06-11T21:56:00.001-07:00

Fantastic clouds lately.

I Make Logos

2010-06-04T15:23:00.000-07:00

New Logo project underway, he wanted a Victorian, Fleur-de-lis, controlled chaos. If that makes sense...anyways, here's some from the first run. They need some tweaking.

The Day Without Art

2010-05-28T12:18:00.000-07:00

So I was getting some bad art-anxiety. I'd sit down at my desk and feel dizzy, I'd pick up a pencil and feel this pang in my gut. So I decided, since I was slowly painting myself into a box and nothing I was doing was looking any good, that maybe I should step back from art for a little while and come back to it again with a different perspective. Which is pretty normal for the creative world, to stop what your doing for a while and calm the heck down.

So I decided I would go 24 hours without doing any art, and what I discovered is that I have almost nothing else to do. By getting rid of all my usaul distractions I pinpointed what has been bothering me this whole time, and I compare it to a little voice in my ear that talks in all caps, saying

"LETS DRAW GEORGE WASHINGTON FIGHTING A ZEBRA ON A FLYING SHARK WITH A BOOMERANG!" (yes, these are the thoughts which often drift through my mind) and I'd have to tell myself
"No. I am taking a break from art."
"C'MON C'MON! WE'LL STICK IN SOME NARWHALS! YOU LIKE NARWHALS!"
"I will draw Narwhals tomorrow. Today I am taking a break from art."
"BUT IF YOU DON'T DO IT TODAY THE IDEA WILL BE GONE FOREVERRRRR."

and thankfully the idea is gone forever because what the hell?

So, to try and starve the little stupid little voice I did some more excercise than I usaully do and tried to take a couple of naps. I played piano (which I decided wasn't visual art so it was OK) until my pinkies hurt. It was really really boring and I thought to myself "Is this what normal people do when they have a day off of work? This sucks."

Throughout it all I kept getting these pangs of guilt saying

"WE HAVE NOT DRAWN ANY CATS TODAY. SURELY YOU CAN DRAW JUST ONE CAT." and I'd ignore it to read this book on Russian Communism (which is some reasearch for a pet project of mine that might not go anywhere if my History is incorrect) and my guilt would say

"ARE YOU REALLY GOING TO GO A FULL DAY WITHOUT FIGURING OUT HOW MUCH CLEANING SUPPLIES CAN BE MADE INTO A PAPER LANTERN? A FULL DAY WITHOUT PAINTING THESE COOL CLOUDS?"

and I'd say "Oh crap those are really cool clouds." but decided I would just admire the clouds and let them go. Like normal people let clouds go.

and so I thought the best thing to quell my inner super-ADD art-anxiety voice was to go back to learning programming. So I was reading through my Flash Actionscript 3.0 book and I was still having problems

"CAN WE NOT MAKE AN IPHONE APPLICATION WITH THIS KNOWLEDGE? THATS NOT A TINAC OR ART, HUH? CUZ IT'LL ONLY NEED LIKE ONE OR MAYBE TWO PICTURES, RIGHT?"

and I was going to give in to the stupid little voice, until Apple and it's horrible Monopoly stopped me, because in order to make an Iphone App you must 1.) Own a Mac 2.) Own an expensive program for the mac 3.) Own an Iphone 4.) Give them some more money and 5.) write it in XCode because Iphones apparently don't take Flash.

And so I went to watch TV, and it was at the moment when I was watching Cops that I heard the voice die

"AAAAAAAMUSTDRAWSOMETHINGTHATLOOKSLIKEAPINEAPPLEBUTISACTUALLYARACCCOOOOOOOOOOOOONAAAAAAA"

and it was dead. And so now I'm back and I feel so much better! I'm totally ready to go back to work. Yay!

And I still drew George Washington, but in a way that is a lot more senseable and less havoc than on a narwhall fighting a zebra.

Finding my 'zone'

2010-05-25T11:55:00.000-07:00

So I was reading some stuff in my inbox, I'm suscribed to this mailing list for writers by David Farland (free, for those interested in writing. Talks a lot about himself but he knows himself best so...) and he's an epic fantasy writer which isn't what I'm really into or anything, but still good basics of story to know as I get ready to enter into the Children Book World, and he said something that hit on the head what I'm doing wrong with my drawings.

Kinda weird, yes? It always blows my mind how similar the process is for art, music, and writing.

Anyways, he was talking about how when we do programs that stress us out, or when we work under stress we produce a lot of stuff, but he said

"I find that I have three problems when I’m writing while stressed: 1) I lose my sense of humor, and my tales become darker and grimmer. 2) Because I’m trying for a high page count, I take less time to think about plot twists. Thus my tale becomes more predictable. 3) I take less time for wordplay, and I find that my style suffers. " (DF)

Which is exactly the problem I have with my art! It's dark, its grim, I make a lot of it but its getting too simple (see my excuse of a mermaid) and my style has been meh.

So maybe I just need to relax more?

I've realized as I've been underemployed and at my parents house, forced to relax, forced to sleep-in, forced to not work (Because there isn't any), forced to not date (because its one of those times in my life), and where my only real paying job is a super-easy service job for a nice old lady, I have had something unforseen come out of it: my expression has improved--a lot--not in my art, but in my piano playing.

I'm not even focusing on piano right now. I don't play nearly as much as I did in college or high school. But my expression in the piano playing touched on my sketchbook (because, to me, playing the piano is like the sketchbook, and when no one's around I make up a lot of good/bad songs like I make good/bad drawings.) And so I looked at my sketchbook, the one place I was never stressed, where my line quality was the thing that my teachers loved and kept wanting me to do, but, by the time it was a final painting would dissapear under layers of stressful paint application, and saw it was a distinct and different style I always had but never really paid attention to.

So I'm thinking I should...not stop painting...but produce more drawings. Somehow keep that spontaneous and more humorous energy all the way through the painting and finished stages. Basically I need to calm down and relax. I'm not the only one in this situation. I've met dozens of others, who have 'real' careers with math and logic and things that actually make money who are also unemployed. I was never really any good at this whole relaxing thing. Now I'm going to stress out about it.

card possibility

2010-05-24T17:00:00.001-07:00

What did I do today?

2010-05-19T11:30:00.000-07:00

I painted a cookie to look like Jupiter.

See the Great Red Spot? See it? No? O well. At least it tastes good. Got the cookie from Icing on the Cake in Los Gatos. Mm. I love that place.

Looked at too many depressing blogs

2010-05-10T17:44:00.001-07:00

I was looking around at some other blogs yesterday, at the really artsy ones with the vintage and the prose and the dresses and the 70's style collages, and I felt with a pain of regret that I really wasn't one to dwell and sink anymore as others dwell and sink in the blogsphere in a thoughtful pretty way.

Don't get me wrong, I used to write a lot more. I sometimes put some prose in it with quite a bit of the sinking and the dwelling, sometimes too much so, because the prime reason I stopped was because I was tired of the dwelling and tired of the sinking, and I had all these words that needed to be written but I didn't know where they went or even if I wanted to write them down. And so I wrote a bunch of sappy songs about it.

That being said, I look at where my blog is now years and years later, and instead of being clearer because it isn't wrapped up in the sinking and the dwelling, it's confused and complicated.

I started this new blog to try and find a voice, and I find that I'm still searching. And I can't push from my head words from an old doctor I had at a walk-in-clinic who told me, quite frankly

"what are you going to do when you grow up?"
"I dunno."
"I don't know either." And I stared him down and he suggested, "I just keep trying out until I know."

which isn't really the thing you want a 60 year-old doctor to tell you before he does minor surgery on you, but thats life for you. An endless search for a type of vision and distinct voice, and by the time I find it I might already be dead.

But the one thing I can promise, is that, at the very least, I won't get stuck talking about my 'darkness' or any of the other sinking dwelling terms that permeate through this emo blogsphere in vintage colors and super-saturated filters. Since I've been there done that, and while I might not be the same writer that I was, because I remember being wittier and I remember being more clever, at least I'm not that same writer that I was. And that I know worth something.

So I'm reminded of another thing I learned from an old teacher of mine that when you feel like you're drawing worse than you were in Kidnergarten--it means your about to grow, you're about to get better really soon, and you just have to keep pushing it and you'll be better than you ever were before it.

and I think I know why now, it's because I know how faulted my art is, and that's the problem with being an artist and the ability to be an artist all in one. Like you can always be a good accountant when you graduate school, but not in art. Art is a life-long process without anything test to show how good you are, and you might never be 'good artist' as long as you live to yourself while everyone else insists 'of course you are.'

So I'm in a slump to try and be better, using everyone elses ideas to try and fix my artistic problems. I've been reading other peoples lives as if it were a premonition of what mine could be. I've been trying to copy other people's trends thinking 'will that sell?' and while that's good to a point, I still wonder in the midst of it...but what do I really want to do?

And apparently all I still want to do is draw cats and fat chickens. Sometimes penguins. And people in weird outfits with long skinny legs.

Finished it!

2010-05-03T12:14:00.001-07:00

Yes, I finished the Baroque/Dragon inspired cosmic book spiral!

And it doesn't make my room too crazy.

actual art

2010-04-24T17:33:00.000-07:00

I have a new goal, and that is to do a head painting a day. Just a sketch because I'll stress myself out if its a full rendered out painting.

Also because I feel like a super lazy artist lately. Half because I'm between commisions. I need to finish a mailer or something.

Because I felt like I was spamming my own blog

2010-04-24T15:06:00.000-07:00

I have moved my TINACS to a different location. There were just so many of them and it made my blog look all confused to be a tutorial blog and a finished art work blog for my illustrations. So from here on out I'll post the finished product, but the tutorials will be on my blog thisisnotacraft.blogspot.com drop by and see the one post so far of my TINAC list, my wire medallions.

Sidetrack Saturday!

2010-04-17T19:42:00.000-07:00

(London Jewellry School)
My internet was out for a real long time today, which was a downer, but at the same time kinda good for me, because if I get hooked to posting, then I become one of those Blogger Boobs with constant 8 posts a day and I don't want to be that person.

But I do want to post something for Sidetrack Saturday, and my TINAC this week is a little something unexpected, it's called Wire Wrapping a Stone :

no, I didn't make this, or take this picture, and I forget exactly who was the dude that did.

I feel like posting other people's stuff, because what I made is kinda so-so, see:

this is what I put together. Took forever, my thumbs hurt. I had a lot of problems because A.) I didn't set it up right and B.) I didn't use enough wires to make an edge and C.) I didn't straighten my wire and it shows. I have to post what other people made to make up for my semi-disaster, so on with other people's mesmerizing creations before I tell you how to do it.

talitha gems

Care More

DawnEllenDesigns

Care More

talithagems

So OK, the cooler part of this is that it doesn't take a lot of material to do. It only takes some of your round-nose pliers (and whatever random sized pliers you happen to have around) and about 20-40 inches of wire. A Rock is also necessary, but in my case I used one of those weird little bobbles I've been making for the intent to sell (if I ever feel like my products are good enough)

Another cool part of this, is that a 10 dollar rock and about 1 dollar of wire turns into a 50-70 dollar pendant. Woo-hoo. Takes practice, though, this was a very difficult TINAC. I had a headache.

The only decent tutorial I found for this, also, was at a site called Tumble Weed Glass

all the other tutorials either a.) cost money or b.) have some pretty awful video on you tube or c.) some bland tutorial with not enough details.

It's kind of sad, because if you do a Google Search on Wire Wrapped Pendants, you'll see that there is a very fine line between something that is cool looking and something that is tacky. Very Tacky. That, and wire is a little bit unforgiving.

However, there's something about using a bare rock and just a wire that makes it an experience for me that surpasses the confines of typical 'craft'. There's nothing I hate more than having to buy lots of little accesories to make just one project, and I feel like projects like those tend to be money-making schemes by some co-op somewhere pushing Cri-cuts down everyone's throat. One of the reason's I abhor scrapbooking and I try to, at all costs avoid Micheals and Roberts and try to buy all of my art supplies from Home Depot or Dickblick.com .

Not only that, but I've noticed there is such a lack in tutorials (other than the basic frame that can be found at tumbleweed) becuase the prettier part of the wire art really relies on the form of the rock, which is different for every peice. It's something that can't be a general format tutorial.

So go pick up that shiny rock that's been sitting in the back of your closet, some old jewelry wire you were going to use for something way-back-when, and try it out, because it's a nice Saturday Project and its hella better than this chunky-munky knitting craze.

looking through the archives

2010-04-15T21:23:00.000-07:00

Whilst searching my computer for those gesture drawings I drew two years ago, I stumbled upon this picture I took of the Saratoga Heritage Orchard and realized I wanted to post it, but never did.

I didn't notice that pile of rocks when I was taking the pic, I wonder what its for?

and this is my last post for today. I think I'm starting to get annoying now with all the updating but no commenting on other peoples posts.

Still drawing

2010-04-15T19:37:00.001-07:00

Silvia and Harriet really hated their Prom. But they did have neat dresses.

horse

2010-04-15T19:28:00.001-07:00

A Horse and his Whisperer.

Still drawing concepts, will still be drawing until I have 15 pages of ones good enough for show

2010-04-15T12:48:00.000-07:00

This looks a looot like this guy I used to know in High School. But he'll never see this. I think like 10 people total look at my blog. Actually, this looks like 3 guys I used to know. Hm. 3 different guys that all act a lot of the same so whatever.

In other news, I do my best work when I am frustrated/drawn out. (no I am not talking about above picture. Maybe I'll post my other stuff...)

I suddenly feel the desperate urge to make more concept art

2010-04-14T13:35:00.001-07:00

Shoot. I need a lot of children's concept art in like two days. Shoot.

I feel like every time I find a job to apply to I have a weeks notice and it's a different type of art than what I was just doing. But at least it's doing something.

Rough Draft

2010-04-10T16:46:00.001-07:00

We'll see if this goes anywhere. but this is where it is right now. I'm playing with digital brushes again.

Sidetrack Saturday!

2010-04-10T10:09:00.001-07:00

Today's TINAC for Sidetrack Saturday is probably one of the coolest things I've seen in a while. It's called, and be ready for this:

Pies Baked in Tiny Jars.

I love Pies. I love tiny things. I love tiny things in Jars that you can give to other people. I also happen to love portion control. Why did it take so long for someone to figure this out?

Anyways, here's a picture of it after it's cooked and un-jarred.

The picture and idea are thanks to NotMartha.org and her wonderful camera skills. And here is the link to the Tiny Pies in the Tiny Jars. (http://www.notmartha.org/tomake/piesbakedintinyjars/)

I want to try this out, but my whole family is on a serious diet and my Mother is seriously doubtful about these because she is a pie purist. But it worked for NotMartha, it should work for everyone else. I also have to find a Mason Jar with the right lip, and my Mom is also a canning purist, so all of our lips don't work for this. One day. One day I'll have my tiny pie in my tiny jar.

This is what I feel like today

2010-04-09T15:16:00.000-07:00

Robot

2010-04-07T16:58:00.000-07:00

Today for my goal I used green, and green inspired me to draw a robot and I don't know why. A Robot with three fingers. There's no inside joke it doesn't mean anything at all.

My watercolors still look kinda tortured, but at least my ability to take a decent reference shot of my pic has improved. A little.

PS I usaully hate robots, but today since I woke up I had 'Yoshime' stuck in my head and out came robots.

2nd day of my goal

2010-04-06T16:28:00.000-07:00

Second day, still guash. It turned out silly because I shot it with light coming from only one direction, my bad. In other news, I love stripes.

I'm glad I got a new scanner and all but...

2010-04-05T14:58:00.001-07:00

...unfortunately this came out like this. Don't bother with an Epson V30. This looks cooler in real life.

O well. Anyways, I have a new goal, a new little black and white or one-tone figure a day. I need to draw/paint more non-digitally.

Sidetrack Saturday : 2

2010-04-03T13:11:00.000-07:00

This blog looks like I'm totally distracted now, because I haven't been posting my illustration, but none of my illustrations are done yet, so I'll go along with Sidetrack Saturday anyways.

The other day I found the coolest tutorial for using wood inlay technique to put a monogram on your stuff. It reminds me of Victorian knick-knacks so I love it, and I'm trying it out with my brother's scouting wood carving kit from about 15 years ago. We'll see how it goes, I guess. At least see how much I can get done before I need to go back to doing real work.

Next Large Project

2010-03-27T14:04:00.000-07:00

So I was jumping around the internet, wasting my time when I came across this intriguing book-wreath. It was intriguing not because I want to make something just like that, because it's in a frilly wreath shape and thats fine and all, but who wants a wreath when you can make a spiral? Like a really big dragon/baroque inspired spiral?

I was feeling like my studio was empty without that big mural in it anymore, and I needed something else big to fill the space, so I tapped into my inner studio artist and a 30 minute project has turned into a four hour This-Is-Not-A-Craft project. Plus, I wanted it big enough to fill the space above my bed, because I can't hang anything heavy there since I live basically on top of the San Andreas Fault.

In the other tutorial they had a foam mold, and molds don't come in swee spiral shapes, so insead I had to make my own out of wire. I used copper wire because we have a lot of this around (my Father also has his own this-is-not-a-craft, but for engineers, where he tries to place a ham radio inside of every empty container you leave around the house, from altoids, to fishing poles, to the entire computer room. This is why we have lots of copper wire)
this is me using copper wire as really big chopsticks. That should be a new fad: really big chopsticks. Anyways, since I needed two for the size of this piece, I clamped them down in our sautering area (we are nerds we have a sautering area. Usaully for chip-boards, I'm the only one that uses it for art)

and sautered away. Holds up nice.

bent it into shape. covered that shape with a mix of fun-foam and newspaper. I've decided after trying both that newspaper is easier and quicker than fun foam, which was a hassle and I used up almost all of my glue doing it. With newspaper you don't even need to glue, just needs rubber bands and yarn to string it together.

I took my Jane Eyre, my five dollar spend from three years ago that ended up being the worst classic I've ever read. Jane Eyre is like the Twilight of their time. Yes I meant that. Some people really like Jane Eyre and they are allowed to, but I think it is absolutely rediculous.

using flat pages makes a round shape like in the original tutorial. but I didn't want that, I wanted scales/wings.

One and a half hours later:

It's going to take me years but I'm excited about this TINAC.

and the wire holds up super well. Takes up enough space in my studio that my freinds and family think I'm an artist again.

Sidetrack Saturday!

2010-03-27T13:38:00.000-07:00

So it's Saturday, and Saturday is the day I save for random useless things that I refuse to call crafts. Things like bookbinding and making random belts out of clothesline. So, since it's Saturday I'll share some of my better This-is-Not-A-Craft's, how about that?

Todays This-Is-Not-A-Craft (better known as "leci n'est pas une Craft")I learned from my roomate a few years back, the Cranky Kleptomaniac. And no that is not her username, she really was a klepto potty mouth and this was about the only usefull thing she offered to my life and well being (other things she offered include how to swear like a banshee over the phone to the landlord, not doing the dishes for three weeks out of spite to the landlord, and crochet)

you start out with these glass baulbes that I know every child within the United States collects, trades, and swallows by accident. They sell them next to the plant section at Micheals, and the bigger you can get them, the better the pic comes out. I avoid the irridescent ones. Only because i think it's kind of tacky.

I don't like things that make me use their images when I can do a better personalized job myself. So I printed out my angry penguin. He's super simple because this thing is 1/2 in . My Cranky Klepto used photographs when she did this and it came out absolutely terrible. It was too much detail in a bauble that distorts the picture anyway.

glue on with thin super glue so's not to leave bubbles.

place, then cut.

voila! Thing is, the paper can easily come off so I put on a backing with some fun-foam that my neice left behind here.

but it's hard to cut exactly, to cover the edge it just needs something like ribbon or something

and that is the finished TINAC Now ready to be either glued onto buttons, books, bags, and sent to all the neices and nephews so that I can be remembered as the 'fun aunt,' which has become increasingly important to me as they have gotten older and more picky.

Off of Hiatus

2010-03-18T09:56:00.000-07:00

This project was put on the back burner for a while, but considering how commissions are turning out, it looks like I'll have to start pushing more of my own work out there.

They're such large files, that I got sick after trying to condense two of them down and decided not to condense the rest.

Final one looks like the stacks of paper are floating. Weird. I'll have to fix that.

Art for my neice who likes creepy stories but hates to read

2010-03-17T16:06:00.000-07:00

Never done anything at all comic before, and as a lot of you know, I didn't even read comics until about 2007 when I was stuck on a week-long road-trip with 8 illustrators and animators who tutored me all in the basics of comics AKA why the never ending fight between Batman, Superman, Spiderman, and ninjas is basically never ending (and all the details of why Captian America was so boring that he deserved to die). By the time I was done with illustration I feel like I minored in comics, but still never actually attempted one.

But now since its the recession and I've nothing better to do, I've been making little stories for my neices and nephews, and one has a thing for creepy Tim-Burton stuff and she really, really hates to read ( a shame!) . So I'm making her a creepy comic about hairless cats who are taking over the world that live in an alternate Cat-reality and can only be stopped by other, much better looking cats. Type thing. we'll see how this goes.

And then I did the first page and realized I made something that looks like Lady Gaga Fanfiction. These take forever to make! I've done about 10 pages and I've dropped the ink and switched to pencil and it's still...quite the effort! What do you people with more comic experience do to make it go faster? Or is that not the point?

Monterey and the Aquarium

2010-03-17T15:36:00.001-07:00

went to the Monterey Aquarium to see it's new Seahorse Exhibit--and it's so cool! I didn't take any pictures of the Seahorses, I just drew them. They have seahorses that look exactly like dragons. Man. And in most of the deep sea exhibit there isn't enough light to draw, so I took pictures. Pictures with no flash that still came out cool

Wow. God can make even glowing snot look really, really cool. Because that's basically all that jellyfish are: Glowing Snot.

there were 5 billion little kids.
And I've never seen them feeding the Jellyfishes before, but this is what it looks like--a puff of misty Jellyfish food. I don't know what's in it. Can you spot why this is a Northern California beach in March? a.) no swimsuits, just jeans and sweatshirts b.) more treacherous giant human sized rocks than humans. This is why we have the best beaches in the world, because you don't ever have to shave and you generally have most of the beach to yourself.

these are awesome because they're constantly pulling food into their mouths with those little feelers. So cool!

Photo problems

2010-03-12T12:51:00.001-08:00

I'm frustrated because I can't get a decent shot of this finished mural. The reason? I just don't have a good enough camera lens and I just don't have 40 feet to back up in, which is why it came out a pixelated mess.

Just know that in real life it was painted with finesse and contrast and without the blurry mcblurry all over the place

again with the size:

It was really tough to give it a cohesive look when it's this big, but I really am happy with how it turned out, although I am not happy with how it's photo-reference shots came out.

'Toga

2010-03-10T13:46:00.001-08:00

So I decided that in order to have more "joy in the journey" I should take photo's every day. Cuz, while starting an art career is really hard, truly, it is mostly really boring, very truly boring. It's a lot of waiting. But I don't really believe in waiting for life to start, so, since this is a blend of personal blog and art blog (my porftolio being totally seperate) here's some photos.

(not to mention that art is pretty ugly until its final stages, and I'm tired of posting ugly art for a while. So this is for the meantime.)

I decided to start with my home town, Saratoga. We live in a forest, although surrounded by cities. I think people are surprised to find out that, although I'm from the heart of city-dense Silicon Valley, I'm actually from a city that pretends to be a small town for tourists.

and if you closely you can see vineyards! Still hanging around and I honestly don't know how, but they're pretty.

I started taking pictures and realized cute things about my boring town.

I love this sign because the kid wrote it in not only bad english, but also bad Chinese, and even tried to replicate the logo. I have no idea what '88' stands for. but kids are funny.

this is the bakery where I discovered Jones Soda when I was 11 years old

and it closed down! In fact, all of the businesses in my downtown that were really...rediculous and I never understood why they were in business are closed now, including the grocery that only sold expired food and the really ugly antique plate store.

We discovered our kitty wants to be a vegetarian. But we still love her. We had to build a special cage unit to keep her from eating our seedling tomatoes.

but she devoured my tulips I bought at farmers market.

Colleen atwood: Amazing

2010-03-10T11:35:00.000-08:00

So I just saw Alice in Wonderland and thought that it was pretty meh. which is what I knew going into it. However, the costume designs are incredible! (and my favorite dress is probably floating around on the internet somewhere but I have no idea how to find it) So I looked up Colleen Atwood, two time Oscar winner, and realized that she's basically done every other film I've looked at and thought "well...at least the costumes were good." (not that every movie she does costumes for is meh) and I tried to find her illustrations for the outfits, and I was blown away by how they have really...no details and yet she can make an outfit out of them. How do costume designers do that?

Anyway, It had too much CGI. I'm getting sick of this new wave of Super-CGI that's come about since Avatar. It might look almost real, but doesn't convince me that it's not fake, it just makes it...a CGI movie. What so bad about making a set?

And I never want to see this glowing ultramarine blue matched with a warm gray ever again. I am so sick of it! It was all over Avatar, it was all over this movie (on the cat) and it's all over every video game in the past five years. Other colors can, indeed, glow in the dark.

Farmers Market

2010-03-08T12:43:00.000-08:00

My town has a Farmers Market just down the street from where I live. I'm bummed that I didn't take a picture of a.) the local singers who are all sorts of fantastic (this week the singer came with a bubble machine and sang folk stuff from the 70's) and b.) the Honey. We have this place that sells all these flavors of honey and its sort of addictive. But don't try ginger honey because it's like slurping a red-hot through your nose. You'll feel it for hours. I know.

I really liked these precariously bunched beets.

Because its the Chinese New Year season, abouts (because it lasts for a while) there's orchids all over the place, stacked so it was like being in a little forest of orchids. My mom insisted that even I could keep one alive. I guess we'll see.

I got this purple kind. I haven't named it yet so it hasn't gotten sick and plopped over from exhaustion like all of my other plants.

Mural is almost finished

2010-03-08T12:40:00.001-08:00

I wish I didn't have to use flash to make these come out, but my table is sitting in the place my tripod would be. So o well. When its all done, I'll get a good shot of it to have and hold...I guess. Just know that in the actual mural all the lines are straight (I spent like a whole hour just making them straight)

All that's left is feet and outlines and noodly bits. Like the shadows just need to be wiped with a sponge, really.

mural update

2010-03-05T11:03:00.000-08:00

look at this, two updates in a row!

Anyways, went back to attack the dress on the chick on the right. She went sleeveless, not sleeveless, had all sorts of sleeves in many different shades of gray, and now I think I'm going to take her back to sleeveless. I also blocked in some shadows on the floor.

I spent a while on this painting yesterday but it looks like there's not much improvement because of this pearl necklace. Man pearl necklaces take a long time.

food I ate, things I saw

2010-03-04T14:37:00.000-08:00

So, since I am an artist and all, I thought maybe I should make my blog more artsy, so first things first, I need to take a meticulously planned out picture of my food. Because thats what artists do. On every blog ever written.

I should have found a weird doily or something--or speckled it with powdered sugar to give it that 'frost' effect...but this will have to do. Microwave lasagna. mmm. on a warped, plastic liner.

As I was making my lasagna I decided to let it sit in the microwave and rest after cooking like it tells you toon the box, which is something I've never actually done before, and in that time I went outside and took some pictures of our garden.

I used to love this tree as a kid because all of those flowers that grow on it have a soft skin like a cat--its really trippy, and I missed these trees when I went to live in the desert.

There's a perfect x on this little log.

when this leaf dies it looks like a cheeta--how does nature do that? I know. its mold.

I love my red cabbages--because they look like alien plants with those black leaves!

Man I love the shape of cabbages.

I fell in love with the colors on this leaf.

The name of my mural is: "Professor Hull was right. AKA Saved by Photo Reference"

2010-03-04T11:58:00.000-08:00

I need some way to remind myself to do things like update my blog. Like, I dunno...that daytimer my Mom forced on me at Christmas (and every christmas of my entire life since I could write) However, I always forget I have it.

So here are the belated stages of the mural! I feel like Andrew Wyeth, with his lifesize paintings of knights fighting on horses and Robin Hood...but at the same time I reaaaaally....dont.

PS, the halfway points to here must have gotten corrupted or something on my camera. so you just get these two updates. this was from about earlier this week

close-up of the couple on the right that has been a mess this entire time. Thank goodness for photo reference

the band came out nice, though. The right trumpet kind of huge. We'll see if I have time to shrink it later.

Here's a more recent revision I did to save that poor confused woman's dress.
It made me breathe easier this way. but now she has a confused feather on her head.
close-up on band. Sorry, I had to use flash, it isn't the brightest day. It's also slightly tilted so you get the picture at an angle.
specially on his face down here.

I fixed James' face eventaully. For a while there it looked like he had been punched in the eye. My freinds James and Sarah posed for every one of these couples and the musicians. So I decided to put them with their actual faces as one of the couples, and that ended up being the problem couple. O well.

James and that guy in the middle's face was taking me an hour to figure out before I pulled out my photo-reference. I had no idea that I'd need it so bad. Something about painting big makes proportional mistakes kinda...glow.

But things are coming together. It should be done on time next Wednesday. I'm excited for it.

next stage. the stage where the 8 foot mural threatens to squish me

2010-02-20T13:49:00.000-08:00

here's the composition we decided on, glamourous 20's dancers (charleston just wasn't the right mood) and a brass trio.

So I toned it and it managed not to fall over on me. hooray! This took some blue tape that I can't actually tape myself because I'm too short. I toned it and it turned out super dark, which is what happens with latex paint, I guess. (it was a really thin coat, too. The stuff doesn't thin out at all, it's going to be a beast) and I pulled out the projecter and got this.

I'm going to definately change the posture of the stiff couple on the right. They're very straight up and down, especially because her hips are blocked by that sleeve, giving the impression that she's a square, and he's on his tippy toes and I'm not sure why, but the rest of it came out way better than expected.

Something I learned: black charcoal goes on housepaint and really rough canvas like drawing on paper! It's feels very natural. It just doesn't smear the same way, which is fine. It also deosn't really erase which is what happened to that dudes face.

Also, This is the first time I got to draw a figure bigger than about a foot and a half tall--those guys are four feet--yes! It is better drawing bigger. I want to do all my illustrations like this now.

commision

2010-02-15T18:45:00.000-08:00

I've done like a million fairies recently. Its funny, all of a sudden everyone wants fairies... I tried out doing all the color on painter. It's supposed to be pretty mainstream. Speaking of mainstream, I applied to a bunch of competitions thinking that something will come through, all that came was a waste of my money and no marketing for Rachel. Maybe my problem is that I don't know where the fairy princess competitions are. Where are the fairy princess competitions?

mural project

2010-02-15T18:06:00.000-08:00

So I got this new mural project for a Charity event thats 20's themed and its pretty much the biggest (size wise) thing I've ever worked on.

If you look closely at the picture you can see the frame that's so big its hard to tell what it is.

we clamped it to some boards. Far from sounding like a drum when you tap it, but they wanted it to be rolled away after I was finished with it.

here's a picture to illustrate that it's about 7 feet wide and 8 feet tall!.

I'm five feet

and standing on a stool. This will be fun!

sketchbook

2010-01-26T12:32:00.001-08:00

First off, my website (still in the works) can be seen here

www.rajillustration.com

unfortunately it uploads the old version of my portfolio, which is not good, but I'll fix that soon.

I found this great quote today, its about writing but works for art, too:

"When a teacher (still a dear friend) of mine in graduate school suggested I ought to be a writer, I was appalled. "I don't want to add another mediocre writer to the world," I said. She helped me (it took years of nudging) to understand that if I wasn't willing to risk mediocrity, I would never accomplish anything. "

-Katherine Paterson Newberry Winner of "Bridge of Terabithia"

Speaking of Mediocrity--my sketchbook!

This is Ms. Kitty! She always steals my 'think spot' and sheds it up, but I love her anyway.

Update

2010-01-21T12:28:00.001-08:00

Time to update this blog!

I went through my portfolio and fixed a bunch of things that were problems. Most of my stuff was just too dark and it needed extra help. Among those was fixing my nanny picture so it had more...temperature contrast, if that makes any sense. Y'all probably can't even tell the difference, but its different. I'll just put the two that were the most different.

Other than that, my more recent projects have been sent off as christmas presents before I scanned em. They weren't really portfolio peices anyway. I managed to finish my portfolio book, because I realized that I have to compete with Graphic Designers for a publisher, and Graphic Designers make sweet looking books. Who would have thought my weird Bookbinding habit would actually be worth my time one day?

The cover, for now. Its polka dots! Yay. I'm obsessed with polka dots right now and it seemed good for the demographic I'm aiming for. We'll see how long the sleeve lasts. I might just have to put something else on the front because it ended up being mighty a-lot of polka dots.

then I was looking through this portfolio magazine that had this add for cutting lasered patterns into your paper, and it was so freakin cool that I decided to copy it a few places within my portfolio. Just a few places becuase this took way longer than I thought to hand-cut, and because they tear themselves apart when they're on consecutive pages from eachother. It was a fun experiment, though. I was worried about it being too scrap-booky, but since it's all placed on white it didn't turn out that way.

there were more, but these were the biggest spots, later I got more reasonable and made the cut-outs smaller.

On another note, it is raining dogs and cats all over Northern California, so much so that it actually hailed on me! I thought I would go through this winter without hail, for a change, but o well. It turns out my sunroof leaks like mad in the rain, and I had a bucket collecting water overnight and it filled it almost completely full, and then splattered all over the rest of the car. I felt like I was trying to keep a boat afloat, taking a bucket at my flooding car, but now that its been caulked with silicone rubber, we'll see what the rain does now...

what is going on?

2010-01-11T13:50:00.000-08:00

So I've finally stopped taking classes at any school, I've sat myself down and I've told myself, "Now you are done with school and you are not going back to school until you work on something having to do with the Degree you worked 5 years for." and for some reason that didn't have the effect I so desired of myself.

I attempted to make a portfolio, and failed a lot of times trying to use Tween Classes in Flash CS4 (shouldn't be difficult, but it is for no reason) so I went onto Wix and it sort of um...well you saw what happened in the blog entry right below this one. It's quick to make but the end result is very slow, too. Needlessly slow. I don't know how their script is writing out this type of pull menu, but the other ones I've seen are a lot quicker. How is it so slow? Why can't I just get my Tween Classes to work and make one myself half as slow!?

Look at me, now I'm turning into a Flash-snob, too? Thats the thing about art, you start doing it and then your snobbery has no bounds. Not even the internet is safe and the internet is pretty tacky by default. For now. Maybe someone can change that eventually? I mean, I appreciate what they're doing with Chrome and Bing but its still pretty much the same boring mainstream browser that everyone has. /theinternetistackyrant.

Its getting tough to work like I used to! Its an art bum-day, where I look at what I'm doing and I've said "yes this is the best that I've ever been, but I'm still at the worst of where my career is going to take me because I've just started, after all" and it is a bum-day.

So I wondered, how do other artists get a pick me up during art bum-days? I know that Rockwell and Michealangelo had seriously awful bum days but they seemed to get over it and go back to work. I looked to others who work really hard, and I think 'well a lot of them have kids relying on them' and I remind myself that Rockwell and Michealangelo aren't really the people we think of as 'fatherly.' Michealangelo was single for pretty much his whole life with only a few scattered romances here and there who's credibility is questionable, at best.

So is there a secret handshake to shake off the bumminess? Is there a special drink to--OK, there is--but is there a special boosting...non illegal...thing...that just gets other people passionately for what they're doing when they feel like its an art bum-day? Other than the obvious 'put your butt in the chair' method, which does work to an extent.

pianists

2009-11-17T18:18:00.000-08:00

trying out more digital painting techinques and getting faster at it. I am not so fond with what I ended up with for the Background but I don't think I'd be satisfied with it unless I were using real paint with real texture and I'm too lazy to print it out for that degree. Because no one's buying it. speaking of buying it, I've started revamping my portfolio as to compete with the graphic designers. I don't even know how to explain it, but if I talk about it here, then maybe I will finish it?

that book I was doing

2009-11-11T16:23:00.000-08:00

I really need to finish this thing. PS wow that came out way too dark. Its always great when you shrink something down to 500 px.

After finishing this step of the process I think I'm going to change the composition a bit, pull that thing out of the corner (i didn't realize how heavy it would be once it was darker) and such (not to mention working on the waves.) But I've been trying out this new painting technique that is so much better than what I used to do on my B+W's. I realized just recently that I still didn't know anything about photoshop when I graduated college. Luckily since I've been learning a lot through these little practices.

I really need to scan the bottom layer better, (this is just a photograph of my tracing paper, which isn't too hot) I did it w. mechanical pencil on tracing paper. Mostly because I don't have this problem with smudging that other people have, and it erases without that dental bzzzzz of an electric eraser when you use something stronger to draw with. I'm going to give in and go to Kinkos to get a really nice architectural scan. Because this isn't ready to be dummied into a book. Especially with this composition, anyway.

ghosts

2009-11-05T11:54:00.001-08:00

So right after we saw the neighbors cat get mauled by a bobcat in our backyard, we later the next day saw that same exact cat strolling around the back yard! weird! Probs there's a couple black and white's running around but it spooked me out for a couple of minutes.

LIGHTFIGHTER!! ps this is a joke

2009-10-24T15:25:00.000-07:00

So Katie and I were driving down to Big Sur the other day and realized there is this strange offramp into Santa Cruz called Lightfighter Ave, and she really wanted to see a superhero based off of it. On the way were a lot of creepers on the side of the road like you generally find around that area, and then Lightfighter was born.

To fully appreciate the tacky graphic design you must go to Santa Cruz and the camping areas nearby, where the 60's never truly went out of style and marijuana is smoked freely on the street corners (medicinal, of course). That and a strong obsession for the Earth and a strong conviction that a lot of people are going to light it on fire. That and I didn't spend tooo much time on this.

poster

2009-10-22T17:58:00.000-07:00

Its kind of fun to come up with fake band names for my fake band posters, although this one is a bit too bizarre and not really my ordinary style, I have finally decided that, after years of quandary, I do, in fact, enjoy the color orange.

I needed more graphic design

2009-10-21T16:02:00.000-07:00

Some rat died in my studio and it smelled so bad I couldn't do art for a while. True story. But today its better. I was playing around with something and it ended up looking like a band poster so I made up some band so I have some graphic design to show if anyone asks. I'm desperate to find some type of style I stick to and I don't know if I really have one yet. Even still.

Although I finished and realized its kind of unmarketable but whatevs. I was bored.

I don't know which one I like more, actually. And I'm thinking, it might help me if I do a bunch of these 'band/movie posters' just to make some portfolio I can actually show.

halloween concept

2009-10-06T19:19:00.002-07:00

working on a creepy house concept. I don't know if I like this one. I think I'm going to take out the chick in the front and move that staircase, deos anyone have ideas?

recent mailer

2009-10-06T19:16:00.000-07:00

The last time I printed out this yellow it came out this sweet neon green. Hopefully it'll happen again. If not I guess I'm ok with yellow.

But I still love Chevy's

2009-09-29T19:08:00.001-07:00

Just when I was starting to feel OK about my height, I got mortified at our family's favorite restaurant.

I mean, I'm only 23 and that guy was 5 years younger than me. But apparently no matter what I wear or do I will always be about 6 years old. At least to Chevy's.

The latest landscape. I'm starting to get these cloud thingies.

birds

2009-09-24T17:39:00.000-07:00

I have no idea if I'm improving. I'm getting faster, at least.

landscape8

2009-09-18T15:25:00.001-07:00

I went through some pretty ugly landscapes before I landed this one. Kind of funny how you think your getting better then you get a lot worse before you get better again.

Did that make sense?

todays landscape...

2009-09-12T15:43:00.000-07:00

Yesterdays went so bad I didn't post it. but here's todays. I'm working on clouds. Again, I've no idea who took this photo but it helped give me great practice so I don't take credit for the composition at all.

But I did paint a portrait. And I hated it. So I'm not posting it. I'm not good at painting realistic things with Painter, and parts of me are like "why are you learning how to paint digitally when you already know how to do it by hand again?"

Man, the only problem with getting in a rut and stopping what your doing to 'discover what you like' is that you end up worlds behind where you should be. Maybe its a good thing I can't get a job and I have so much time to do all these studies?

Whats really funny is that I also have all the time in the world and my social life just dropped a lot. This would be a huge problem if I still wanted to date. But I'm quite lucky, yousee, because I'm so sick of relationships that I don't mind spending a lot of my time with my tablet and the end of the garden's tomato crop. Otherwise this might be a huge depressing problem.

PS, saw Nine and I didn't like it. Its like watching a video game: Not rendered to movie quality, the storyline was quick and choppy, no depth to the characters, but at least the character design was spot on.

clouds bleagh

2009-09-10T18:39:00.001-07:00

Clouds are so fussy. I keep thinking that in time they'll get easier...but its been years and they're still tough.

my latest mailer.

landscape 3

2009-09-07T12:15:00.000-07:00

again, I can't take credit for the composition. I was thinking about it...and legally can I even put my signerature on it? So I didn't. This is just for practicing.

2009-09-05T12:51:00.000-07:00

so here's today's landscape

And I decided to start doing heads again, mostly because I found this one with crazy lighting and I wanted to try it out. I'll probs never do that to myself again.

Also, a business identity for a client.

art!

2009-09-04T15:01:00.000-07:00

I know I haven't been updating any art at all lately--in fact it looks like I haven't been doing anything. Thats because...I haven't!

The great thing about graduating during a recession and then being unemployed without any ability to get any work anywhere (even in retail and food handling), is that it gives you a lot of time to figure out what you want to do versus what you're doing. This is because there could be nothing else in your life to possibly distract you.

So anyways, I looked at all of the career options available, and I knew that some things were going to happen because I can't stop doing them (like writing my little stories) but other things would involve some more effort and would require a lot of time (like a career in a company).

So I made a pro's and con's list for every career I've been interested in, and I think I should say for anyone who's going through the same exact thing, is that when I looked at it from far away I realized that every creative career, let it be in Film, Video Games, Books, Graphic Design, Architecture--they all had the same problems with the same types of people except we give them different names. Projects will always take 2-12 years to finish. Accountants will always get in the way whether they work for a book marketing company or the City Commitee. Creative things will always be watered down to Hollywood soup cuz it sells.

So I may as well fess up to reality and do what I'm good at, because being unemployed, while it is nice for self reflection, is quite depressing.

So I'm going into a type of artistic deep-cleaning. An art DeTox. I need to get back in business and draw every day. Get it so I can draw on a professional level. So ya, I'll update on this blog again.

PS Don't take a class on CAD. Its illustrator but stupidly ugly. Not even they-didn't-know-any-better ugly. Its just ugly. So ugly. Like they tried really hard to make the ugliest program make some of the most beautiful things. I hate CAD. But I'm learning it because 1.) apparently I might need it one day if I'm reaaaaally in a bind and 2.) apparently non-art people respect a CAD professional when they want to hire you as a designer. Sure. and 3.) this class is mindlessly easy and I like to draw everyone else in the class in my sketchbook.

Ps, want to see my sketchbook?

this whole page sucked and then I got a hand, and I was so happy that I felt like only posting the hand

more hands.

no one can read my handwriting. The great thing is it doesn't matter what personal things I write in my sketchbook. No one will ever know. If you can read this you get a prize.

boy on the left posed like that for me. He's my old Yoga buddy.

I always draw fat cats and girls that are super pissed about something.

So I've been looking at the Avalanche Artist's blog, and I found a fun excercise where you take a drawing you found on the internet and then take only an hour to take it from start to finish. I think I'm going to start doing one every day. Here's today. I ran out of time to finish the trees and its overall bleah but one day...one day I can do these conceptual landscape thingies. Make em glow. One day.

back to art

2009-08-29T21:41:00.000-07:00

You know what? I have too many hobbies. I also have Actionscript coming out of my ears and I still can't pull together the website I have in my head. What I realized is that there is no simple quick way to do it, no simple way to copy paste code anymore, you actually have to get your hands dirty or it just won't work.

So now this blog is back to a normal blog again instead of a flashblog because that was just frustrating. Will this blog ever have a steady purpose?

On a positive note, here's something for my next mailer, school themed. Kid with a dragon/alligator in his desk. Hopefully it'll come out cute. Cute was what I was going for.

I've also decided to take some classes at the college near me to see if I like architecture, and also because it only takes one year and a half (maybe) to get an Associate Degree and then go on to get a Masters (this is my Plan B). Its a bit more school...but its something to do as I wait for illustration to kick off. I'll be honest, if my Plan A deos work out, then I'll drop my Plan B.

But it takes years to write a book, and years to get it published--which I am down for--but I don't necessarily want to do all of that at my parent's house. Things are good though, there's a lot to be said for homegrown tomatoes, and I get a lot of homegrown tomatoes.

liszt and Chopin dream sequence

2009-06-22T17:04:00.000-07:00

So I decided to make a picture dedicated to Liszt and Chopin and in the end got something that, after I looked at it for a while, could be a really nerdy tattoo.

To explain the picture, Liszt (on top) was an extravagant performer in Paris, and at the same time was Chopin (bottom), a hermitish composer. They're two pianists that are opposites of eachother but were freinds during their lifetimes. Apparently at every one of Liszts performances, women threw their gloves and their flowers at him. He'd throw off his glove from a balcony and they'd freak out. He was pretty much the first rock star. But a rock star playing Rachmoninoff.
Chopin got really sickly and had a lot of failed relationships and went down in history as the boy that dated George Sands. George Sands decided to break up with him because she's unromantic like that.

Shakespeare

2009-06-12T17:48:00.000-07:00

So today I realized, as I was cutting dozens of little copper wire peices for a Ham Radio order (my part-part-time job) that I've been really tired lately. I wasn't sure what to make of it. I'm not sick, I'm definately not working myself too hard--what is it?

And then I realized what it is--my body is trying to hybernate through the recession. Like a bear. Instinctually, every time I hear something about the economy I have to take a nap. It's the weirdest thing, and it's getting worse; Every time I hear Obama's voice I start yawning and gorging on cheese and berries and tearing apart cars with my bare hands and eating their packs of oreos and marshmallows.

So here's something I've worked on. I thought maybe I should do a series of historical portraits in Black and White, and I don't like this because it looks too much like Shakespeares portrait.

that and I've never been able to get down his last name. My next portriat will be better, more original. It's going to be Lizst and Chopin. Because I'm obsessed with piano, hopefully I'm not the only one that will get the reference.

Aliens VS Sasquatch

2009-06-10T20:48:00.000-07:00

I have not updated this blog in a long time, not because I haven't been doing any art, but because I had a qualm with having a blog that I know should look quasi-professional. Keeping it Quasi-professional stressed me out, because blogs were not invented to look at all that way. So I made another blog for my portfolio, RachelAnneJonesPortfolio.blogspot.com which has nothing that you haven't seen before. It needs its own help; my portfolio needs to be reproduced a lot better and I need more black and whites since those aren't very strong right now.

Until then, I breathe a sigh of relief that now this blog has the potential to be a lot more fun.

My days since graduation have been sort of uneventful, this is mostly because they are much, much shorter. I get out of bed at 9:50 and I try to go to bed at about 10:30. In fact, I don't think I've made an effort to sleep this much ever since my Senior Year of High School, back when I liked naps.

I Take that back, I've only truly napped once in my entire life: I'm an insomniac.

So I try to go to bed at about 10:30 because my doctor orders me to, but I don't actually go to sleep until 1:00 and then I wake up at 4:30 for no good reason and don't sleep until 6:00 and then wake up at 8:00 feeling that wet and awful morning nausia and then pass out for five minute spurts dreaming strange dreams that have something to do with dozens of Boiled Eggs, Deforestation, and Nightcrawler from the X-men.

I wish I remember what it was about because then I could brag fanfic rights and never, ever write it beyond this image.

End of story: I hate insomnia.

I've burned through some books and here is my opinions on them:

"Hunchback of Notre Dame" was one of the most beautiful Analytical Essay on French History I have ever read, second to Les Miserables. The actual plot, making up of only the last third of the book was rediculously awkward (as all victorian novels are), but as Hugo tells us in the last chapter, Well, hello, it was supposed to be a tradegy. I killed everyone and their bodies bounced off of rooftops in glorious detail. I hung them by nooses and made you travel through time as their bodies, embracing eachother for millenia, decomposed into bones and then broke apart into millions of peices at a single touch.

And I was like Disney, what the F? This sick story is now a musical?

But as a book, It's a beautiful book and he writes incredibly and everyone talks to eachother in Shakespearian.

But I'm pretty happy I was kicked out of Lit AP so I never read this in High School, because its really a long description of French history and geography secretly talking about the Frech Revolution in which Victor Hugo played a part. Why we have kids read books like these before they learn World History I'll never know.

"Nation" by Terry Pratchett was very good. Intense, which is the direction he seems to be going now-a-days, but still has the joy that his earlier books have. Its a wonderful description talking of what is faith, what is the difference between honest questioning and doubt and the more aggressive attacks on faith. It also talks on racism, British society, death from tsunami, all that wonderful stuff that shouldn't make a story that is kind of funny. Like all good British Satire, he follows a strange formula of "I will at first tell you there is no God, and then tell you there is, and then say there isn't, and then suggest of course there is, and then reject what I just said and confirm there won't be any way its possible, and then at the very end say just kidding, there still is, but leave it really open ended so it sounds like a cool twist."

It isn't part of the Discworld series, too--rare for him. He is one of my writing heros because his words are like butter on a biscuit, adding flavor, joy, fat, a whole lot of things that Hemmingway would think is unnecesary but we all know is grade A what sells biscuits every time.

I started reading "Dune" and while I am somewhat fascinated I am also somewhat creeped out. I've been reading it pretty slowly. For some reason every time I put the book down after reading I want to take a really long shower.

But Sting was in it so its peachy keen!

Other than that I've been working on my art and my stories because getting a job is futile and I've decided I've done all I can do, so right now the best thing is to get myself with enough stuff so that when the economy comes around I'll have several different stories and drawings to dish out.

So, bored as I am, I thought to take a plunge and start on a YA--not like I've ever taken a creative writing class--but I have taken a business writing class and attended some conferences and read the books from the many creative writing classes that I had to drop from schedule conflict--that I thought it would be something to do with my time that isn't solitaire. I write and read enough anyways that it just...happened. Its a story combining North American and European folklore to make something that sits in between Fantasy and Sci Fi. Its got perks like alchemy, Sasquatches, Ghosts, lake monsters, artists, and a really wierd road trip through the North East.

I never thought it would go anywhere, but now that I've somehow written 65,000 words in about a month and a half I thought maybe I need to do more research so its more legit instead of a fun thing to do with my time.

So to research I've been gleaning The History Channel on what I like to call "Speculative Wednesday," that has everything I need to inspire some weird types of book in my genre. Features that discuss the possibility of things you just don't think about, like Alien Nazis.

Because Nazis aren't weird enough? Oh History Channel, it's embarrassing to see you dress this up as History but I can't keep my eyes off of it. Now show that episode again about the mediums that work in the White House and have saved us from the Vietnam war. Yes. Just like that.

So I thought Aliens were a fascinating folklore and I decided what better (and safer) place to find Speculative rants than on the History Channel Website? And there I found a chatroom from the future. Yes, the future: Someone insisted that Obama is an Alien and will start World War 5. No one really felt like questioning about World war 3 and 4, and I can only assume that it is because, to them, it has already happened.

It quickly became apparent I had to make a decision between two things that cannot exist in my story at the same time. I had to make the choice between Aliens, or Cryptozoological animals like Sasquatch and land jelly fish and that is a hard choice I vacillated with for several days.

I thought...a lot of sources suggest that we are related to both aliens and Sasquatches. Therefore, somewhere out there is maybe a Human Alien Sasquatch. Which, again: can be all sorts of strange and possibly interesting book. But it probably won't sell unless the Human Alien Sasquatch has a romantic interest. I know. I could use an Edward Cullen! I can call him Cedward Ellen! Oh, the possibilities of obsessive love.

and I figured maybe I should nix the Human Alien Sasquatch idea. Forgive my sloppy drawing at such a random time at night. I always start thinking in comics late at night. Its weird because I never read/wrote comics. As you can tell.

So I made a T-chart of the pros and cons between Sasquatches and Aliens to see which is more interesting.

And then I slap my head and say 'ah! why have I been so stupid! Of course, Sasquatches win by a long shot.' Why?

because aliens are boring looking...they're stick figures with two boggly eyes. Why can't anyone get abducted who can draw?

QSL Card

2009-05-11T17:34:00.000-07:00

So what this is will take some explaining, becuase I didn't get what it was at first. It's called a QSL Card, and its a post-card that people who use Ham Radio order and collect. Whenever you reach another person on the Ham Radio, you send a card to them and they send a card back. Whoever gets the most win prizes. Generally, there isn't a whole lot on the QSL card, just the State your from (usaully a picture with the state flag or a b+W clip art of the shape of california on it) with the info about the Grid (CM87xg) and the Ham's caller ID (AD6ZH) and a graph that you fill out on the way.

So I branched out from the traditional Ham Style by stuffing some Bay Area feeling into it, and was shunned by a scanner that made the colors I painted come out sort of funky. I photoshopped the color back but it isn't in a place that I enjoy. I've stuffed local businesses into the background, including Google, Intel, Pixar, and one of the many missions we've got sprouting along the coast. As well, I made their graph they fill out into a computer chip to symbolize Silicon Valley, which isn't as legible as I hoped it would be. Not only that, but every Ham radio operater likes antenneas that are as tall as they can legally strap onto their cars, so the car pictured is Hammed out, in a way that really wouldn't fit through the bridge if you look at the dimensions of the picture. O well.

I stuck a Great White shark in it for good measure. Because we have a lot of those.

Updating as I'm braising my chicken.

2009-05-07T13:21:00.000-07:00

Mm...I really have to remove the fish on the bottom of this one. I figure, that if I do enough of these, I'll have enough good ones out of the crappy ones to show without feeling meh about it. Overall I have to get used to just using pen.

Heres something I did recently for my Brother Jared's Kid's room

I was having fun with texture. I don't know if you can tell from the scan, though. It was on a block of linen that was about 4 in x 4 in x 2 in and I went on with acrylic and acrylic modeling paste.

Also, I think I'm going to turn back to Guash for a little while, because I was expirementing about this time last year and I was thinking it would be fun to do for my next story after my BFA story on Johanne and Keplar is finished. It will look something like this...

Except creepy dude/bird duo/bad composition will not be present.

The Parable of the Food Network Extreme Challenge

2009-05-04T18:20:00.000-07:00

So yesterday I was watching the Food Network Challenge, and on came the "Cereal Bridge Challenge." It was exactly what it advertised, four contestants struggling to create a bridge replica out of mostly rice rispy treats.

As the talented cooks were showing their ideas and creating them in the time of 8 hours, something incredible happened: They all struggled to keep their bridges standing, despite all of their talent, 2 out of 4 bridges fell. And what really detrimented their ability was more of a character flaw than a technical one.

Artist one, some stoner/hippie/crazy gallery artist had the idea that they were going to put a bridge on its side and have little fishes eat it. To develop her idea, she cheated and used an iron structure she already made and started wrapping seaweed around it. People wondered "Sea Weed and Rice Crispy Treats?" and she said
"If you dun like, hon, you just don't know good art when you see it!"
type thing. Anyways, her giant bridge humiliation crashed and burned halfway through because she couldn't listen to people and get her head out of her image, and left the bridge standing on its side instead of just sitting it upright like a normal person. So, she spent the rest of the time harrassing everyone else because if she was going to go down she was going to bring other people with her. "Why does everyone take this so seriously!" She wonders...maybe because she just lost 10,000 dollars?

Anyways, Artist 2, some hard core I-only-do-it-my-way Artist saw what she was doing with wire and aluminum and was less than polite in admitting
"a true chef never uses anything but Edible ingredients."
So she goes to make her Bridge, and chooses the San Fran goldgen Gate, mostly because its super long and therefore prestigious. Like a true Chef would do.
However, her soggy crispy treats, no matter how long she crisped them under the broiler, sagged hopelessly under the weight of their own long bodies. The girl kept trying, refusing to use anything but food and doing it the way she learned and the way they have done it for 1000s of years or whatever and the Golden Gate tanked shortly after the Beastly Seaweed contraption.

Artist 3 grew up in London and wanted to make the London Bridge. Only problem, is that the London bridge is extremely delicate, and everything that should have taken him 5 minutes took 30 minutes.
"I just want to make everything perfect." he said, "Which means I need a lot of details. Details is how you win." So the man put his details all over his crispy treat/cardboard frame, never making it to the suspensions of the bridge because he thought they weren't perfect, so he left them all off. It was standing, but he turned it in unfinished.

Artist 4 had done one of the challenges before and admitted that he had lost because he did something unfinished. He made the Boston Bridge, hearty and crispy-treat worthy, spray painted the whole thing with chocolate, and it was ugly. However, as he went through creating the ugly thing bit by bit while everyone else had something glamorous in its way, he went at a pace he could do. The peice was done, the piece was finished, and he was astonished to look around and realize that the contest was really just between him and Artist 3.

So, Artist 3 and Artist 4 walk up to the plate and who won 10,000 dollars? The Artist with better skill who didn't finish, or the artist who made a peice that was sort of boring, but at least complete?

Artist 4.

It hit me in a funny way. I always get stuck on details so often, but really...really I just need to finish what I started and get out there. Otherwise I'll look pretty but outside of art, unfortunately (and I know, I live with an engineer) no one notices all those little things if its unfinished. I kind of hate but love it and need to remind myself of it.

more recent black and whites

2009-05-04T17:50:00.001-07:00

So I think I figured out how to make the crap scanner do better, which is a relief.

Anyways, another step closer to having enough black and whites for a decent portfolio. I've been really off lately, maybe its getting used to the weather or my new workspace with only Pandora to keep me company, who knows? Recent picture: kid breaking out of some palace somewhere abouts.

this is without some extra help

this is with the help.

And this is how much I could draw of my brother playing WoW before he had to go and watch the Daily Show and smile a lot. So yeah, its pretty unfinished but a fun go.

I made him some crazy colors. But I've never done a study from life on painter before, which was a good experience.

I love sea monsters

2009-04-30T10:59:00.001-07:00

So I started on some more black and whites. Before I made a set with charcoal--and they were meh, so I decided to replace my charcoal style with my pen style because I think I'm better with the pen. I made these two off of a sea monster idea I had in my sketchbook. Thing is, after I finished I realized that both my camera and the forty dollar scanner we bought three years ago isn't really that great for reproduction. Kind of a bummer. So these doesn't look nearly as nice as the horse chick I did at the Y. However, I'll take it as an opportunity to improvise with photoshop.

Here's two from the scan.

and here's two from the camera. I decided to add some tone to boost the poor quality of the shot.

Its funny how one benifited more from the scan, and the other benifited more from the scan. O well. At least its something to show for my time. Besides, I'll get a camara soon enough to get these to a professional quality of reproduction.

Another thing, acclimating is taking me forever. I swear I'm still sleeping 11 hours a day and I can't help it.

I finally have reference!

2009-04-29T11:42:00.001-07:00

My BFA Show.

I was asked several times of the symbolism behind the white squares. Sorry to dissapoint, but they are just text boxes. I wanted to give the book more of an old fashioned feel since it is about something that happened in the middle ages. I was also asked about the Symbolism of "BFA." It means Bachelor of Fine Arts. Anywho, the show was a success and it was nice to let people see what I do more than just my sketchbook and my lazy pictures I put on the wall.

latest drawing

2009-04-18T19:19:00.000-07:00

I decided to revise my cowboy digital disaster from earlier this year by starting completely over, and then just doing away with color all together.
And honestly after drawing that guy for 4 weeks I couldn't go back to it. So stuffed him in the back left corner and drew this.

I just finished off Emma, and I have to say Emma and Northanger Abby aren't my favorite Austins. They make me feel a little bit more stupid after I read them. Although, the chapter where Emma and Mr. Knightly are arguing about if any woman of good virtues are worth a man well above her status was worth it. Too bad it was the third chapter and by the end it feels like Austin says "Yeah she's worth it, but she aint going to get it." But then I read Lady Susan and felt better.

another revision

2009-04-14T12:51:00.000-07:00

This is guaranteed the only place on the internet you can find Lincoln, Warf, and Britney Spears in the same place.

My signature looks super dumb because I did it without the tablet. I'll fix that later.