pianists

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

landscape8

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...

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

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

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.

more

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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!

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

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

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.