RC the Iguana

This is the first time I have done a pet portrait of an iguana and a welcomed change from a dog or cat. He is so colorful and beautiful in person and I hope I've captured him well. This is a well doted-on iguana and loves to have his head patted. It's done on 8.5 x 12 pastel paper in colored pencils.

A Little Time to Play

These ATCs are for a swap on International Women and I couldn't resist the temptation to join the swap. My next collaborative moleskin will be on the theme of Ancient Egypt and so I began with this Egyptian royal lady for practise. I have a November swap partner who want's a Japanese lady, so this Japanese lady will be the model for her card. In San Diego, you see plenty of beautiful Mexan ladies in traditional dress of all kinds, but I especially love the embroidered flower dress or blouse and own a few myself. Not only are they beautiful, but they are comfortable. I also own a few kimonos, but I only bring them out to show - never to wear. I also love Ireland and love Celtic art, here is a flaming redhead. You could never tell, but I have quite a bit of Irish and Japanese in me, and I came out looking like I could be from any country with dark haired brunettes.

Collaborative Moleskin Journal

In my previous posts, I mentioned that I'm involved in a collaborative moleskin journal that is traveling to 8 artists from IATC. My journal's theme for this group is "Famous Blond/White-haired Persons" throughout time and it's now on its way to Canada. It's been fun coming up with a story to illustrate based on the theme of each artist and I'm not so scared about making the intitial mark as I was with the first journal. One artist's theme is "Dark Fairytales" and she began her pages with "Snow White and the Seven Ghouls". The next artist did a modern day "Hansel and Gretal" with the evil witch being axed in a cute scene with a candy house and gum drop bushes. My story is "Little Red Ridinghood" involving a twisted hunt with Little Red as a vampire. As the hunt reaches its conclusion, I can see the trees turning completely red.

With the next journal, the artist based her theme on "Flash Tattoo," a theme I was hesitant about. I'm a bit squeamish about tattoos due to the needles, blood, and the pain thing, but I do love the art and the stories. I did a little research on tatoos, made one of deck project cards on my niece with an Ed Hardy design for the background, and I also designed a tattoo of a willow tree for my friend's son which a;; helped me warm up for this theme. This artist does beautiful Japanese themed art & people and I saw that she liked geishas, all my favorite themes. I wasn't sure if she wanted figures with tattoos on them, or the tattoo design itself, so I combined them both. My story is of a floating world of clouds with a geisha who exposes her tattood back looking at the tiger on the other cloud. With 2010, we enter the "Year of the Tiger" and can finally say goodbye to this very unsettling "Year of the Ox". The chrysanthemums is the flower for November and adds a nice design & boundary to end my page.

Michaelangelo's David

I had to immediately sign on to the "Michaelangelo's David" swap on IATC as soon as I saw it posted. I remember in art history class, that all the previous "Davids" from other artists were small in stature and delicate. Michaelangelo, however, made this huge David with every detail masterly carved and smoothed. I wanted to catch the expression of the anticipated wariness in this David's eyes as Goliath approaches and the atheletic vein running down David's arm and hand . Of the four cards, I think these two came out the best. I love working in graphite and find I'm much more loose than say, markers! There's something about markers and pens that screams you can't make any mistakes and it's so all hard-edged-boundaries...it just intimidates me. I still struggle with markers and with illustration although it's been over a year and I still haven't found my niche. With graphite, I find that you can make as many mistakes as you want - you just incorporate it into the full expression! I also love the shiny black contrast of the soft 4b pencil in the background.