Pigment Miasma

Nothing can replace value studies as the most important part of the creative process for me. Though having a respectable palette to use and abuse does come close.

Um, what?

I'm a bit in shock right now. Just now I found out that one of my pieces made it into the 2009 Society of Illustrators Student Scholarship competition, so this will be my third and final year in the student show.

It also means come May 6th through June 6th there will be a large empty space on my wall where this painting used to be:


In all, 34 Ringling students' pieces were selected by the jury. I'm especially excited to see my friends work in the show. To McLean, Schin, Nick, Francis, Gail, Adam, Sarah, Arrolynn, Lara and Ben, congratulations!

To my instructor Regan Dunnick, thank you!

Printmaking and a painting

My grandfather makes small metal vehicles and other objects, cars, tractors, trains, bulldozers, excavators, et cetera. Last summer, my grandfather and grandmother asked me if I wanted any of the creations, and I came away with the Model T and the little windmill that became the subject of my first woodblock print.



This deep copper plate etching was in the acid for about five hours. I used China marker and lithocrayon to explore different etched textures in addition to using the asphaltum.



My antique Arvin radio only gets AM stations, takes four C-size batteries to power it, and the grill reminds me of fish scales. Linocuts are not for me, but I do want to try making my own stamps.



Tearing up the surface of a copper plate with a mezzotint rocker over and over is painful work for my right arm, but the results are exciting. The texture is gritty and adjusting the values is much easier to accomplish than with aquatinting. Mezzotint wins hands-down against modern aquatints.





Almost two years ago ago, the price of gas was $2.95 for Regular Unleaded. It was high at the time, and now I wish it was that price, especially with the long road trips that I'll be making in two months.

Fall Semester (in part)

For Gary Kelley's blue conceptual illustration assignment, I did a portrait of Alice Roosevelt Longworth. Alice blue is a light or steel blueish-cyanish color that was favored by Alice Roosevelt Longworth, daughter of Theodore Roosevelt. In my view, her wit and her mouth was the most dangerous part of her, especially for her time. I painted her portrait with her mouth covered, like a concealed weapon.



Each year, the illustration seniors put on an exhibit at the end of the year of their thesis work. To advertise for the show they make a themed poster featuring pieces by every senior in the class. In the past five or so years, the seniors have made self-portraits for the poster. This is my submission, combining oil painting and pen drawing.



This summer I had entered the Illustration West 46 Exhibition of the Society of Illustrators LA. Four of the pieces that I sent were accepted! The pieces are:

Swatts Portrait 2.

The scarf has been adjusted and the glove has been painted over to correct the values and draw the viewer's eye to the face. I've posted the full image to my site, so I won't repeat it here. Instead, I have enlarged scans of some of the areas from the painting that I like, for different reasons.

The simplicity of the buttons and the use of the underlying texture are all things that just fall into place here, against the expression of the paint in the lines of the jacket.



The way the dark yellow-green of the arm and the black bag becomes silhouetted against the warm-tinted concrete is so simple and effective. I also just enjoy the edges and the ground showing through the paint, adding texture to the paint.



The figure in the background is only paint-strokes, fully describing a person against the wall. Nothing more is needed.



The face fought me, as I painted it, scraped it off, and painted it again over and over, to good results. I really like the accidental yellow-green over her shoulder into the subway platform.



Closer up on the eye.



And my favorite part, although I can't really explain why, is the hair to the left of her face, against the blue support. Purely effortless.

Summer Summary

The summer began with the continuation of my internship for the Ringling Design Center, working everyday up until the Illustration Academy 2007. It's a life-changing gift to go to the Academy. I was particularly grateful to be in attendance for a second year, because it was more relaxed and comfortable, as opposed to the first year when I was painfully shy and intimidated.

The best assignment of the academy for me was Mark English's, in which we were limited to illustrating a conversation in a cafe scene, using only two values per object with a 20% difference between the values.



Utilizing such restrictions, I was able to complete another piece like my "breakthrough" piece from last summer.



During Doug Chayka and Jenny Kostecki's alumni week, I used pen and watercolor to illustrate Chapter Three of Pinnochio as a two page spread.



I'm in love with how the lamp turned out.



For the conceptual portrait assignment from Anita Kunz and Jon Foster, I painted a movie producer remaking quality Asian films into "American spectacles."



I scanned it in two parts because a) it's too big for the scanner and b) the still-life objects are better than the figure anyway.



For my reference, I made the props and set it up as I needed it, using Gumkid as a model. The reference was half of the fun.



After the Academy, I flew to Minnesota where I visited family and friends, attended my sister's wedding as a bridesmaid, browsed the dusty goods of the local antiques store, explored inside a huge No. 2523 steam engine locomotive built in 1916, and toured a wealthy farmer's house built in 1893. The wedding was the most exciting part of my trip, as evidenced with my sister in the photobooth.

Swatts Portrait

This is a preview for a portrait in progress of Sarah Watts. The scarf might be an iffy area for value, but the part that I definitely need to change is the glove that she's wearing (yes, it's a glove) because it is far too distracting. I'm thinking argyle.