12:15 PM

Hey! So every Monday I’m going to be doing a live art piece, and share the work-in-progress on my blog.

This week has a theme, because I’ve been meaning to keep up with Illustration Friday; this week it’s FIERCE. And since I happen to be pretty fierce, I figured this would be an awesome week to try it out!

So here’s the canvas, a medium sized 18×24 incher which has been sitting on my easel the past couple hours, TAUNTING ME.

I’m not taking any of that crap, not from a canvas. Eff you, mister blank canvas. Raaahr!

(back in 15; gotta get some stuff together!)

kay.  First things first, gotta get warmed up. I need to feel….. fiercer.

Warpaint, pigtails, lipstick, hawt jewelry, check!

Stripey stockings, purple shoes? check check.

Very ferocious Dancey-Dance? You know it.

What has this got to do with art? Gotta get in the mood. I’m feeling the hot pink and orange, i think.

So then we need the usual, less exciting supplies:

• paint
• brushes
• clear water
• pallette
• whatever else i find laying around, ha

ok, time to stop goofing around, and get to work!

So, I haven’t been so very bloggy this week, due to some fabulous misadventures in Maine, and the fact that the gallery was trying to steal my soul. Four workdays standing around for no good reason makes Annie a very grumpy girl.

I did make friendly with a new artist, though. Her name is Jen Maestre, and we have a few things in common: we both went to MassArt, we both like making stuff out of unexpected and unconventional materials, and her studio happens to be in the next town over from where I grew up (and i’m invited to go visit, squeee!). Oh, and she likes beadwork- and we all know i love beads- so there’s another thing. But anyways, her work blows my freaking mind. Check out this sculpture:

Here’s her website. She also has an Etsy, where she sells these amazing jewelry pieces made out of laminated & sliced up colored pencils.

Drool. Just drool. I bought a pair of earrings and rocked them in the gallery the other day. I think we might be looking into carrying her work now : )

In other art news: TOMORROW IS MONDAY, AND YES, I AM DOING ANOTHER LIVE PAINTING! I noticed some people were bummed last week because they missed some of the action, so I wanna make sure you all know when to check in and see what I’m up to. I’ll be starting tomorrow at noon sharp, because I have a plan and I want to prepare a few things first.

So see you all tomorrow : )

11:00 AM

Ok, here we go. I’ll be updating this entry, every 15-30 minutes or so, as I add more and more to may new painting. Right now it’s a large, intimidatingly BLANK canvas just chillin’ on my easel. But i work fast so it shouldn’t take too long.

First i need a few things, which i took the liberty of photographing earlier:

The Canvas, of course.

Lots of Paint. I ain’t picky. I buy the 50 cent stuff at AC Moore, heh.

Paintbrushes (while i’m cheap on paint, i will spend major dineros on these. I’ll also use whatever’s at the hardware store, though, haha.)

Clean water. Two jars, because i’m lazy and i hate getting up to get clean water.

I wash & save all my styrofoam trays, they make handy paint palettes : )

Some serious moxie, and a large brush, haha

Now what??

Squirt some right on there…..

Get the brush wet:

spread it around…..

New color!

Working fast now…. i haven’t even rinsed off my brush.

Interesting.

because i work fast, it’s still wet, though, so if i want to add anything else the paint will turn to mud.
I am impatient, so i got out my hairdryer.

The rabbit wants to know what all the ruckus is about.

Then i threw on some bright green.

What do you think so far?

12:40 PM

I feel like making a mess.

Here’s a trick: get the brush REALLY WET:

Then glop the water all over some fresh paint, and let it run down the canvas.

Mmm, drippy.

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1:10 PM

But it still needs something…..

How about a bronze border?

 
And then some blue paint, for a little punch….

And then i added some purple. Here’s the finished underpainting.

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1:50 PM

Time for spraypaint! whee!

Let’s not spazz out on paint fumes TOO MUCH, k?

Golden microcosms.

Goldfinger!

Splatterpainty! like supernovas and stardust.

Told you i work fast!

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2:30 PM

This is going a little slower than usual, because have to stop and take photos and edit/ upload them. But i’m enjoying documenting my process, so.

Anyways. Time to draw something.

These remind me of nerve endings. I like scientific / organic forms.

And a figure begins to emerge……

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3:20 PM

Kept you in suspense, huh? i started fleshing out some details.

I had a moment of inspiration right here…. what to do with the other arm….? I like to make my stuff a little edgy, but not too serious. At first i thought it would be an angel, but that’s wicked cheesy.
I thought maybe it would be interesting to have the figure holding some balloons. That lead to ->Helium-> Molecules. And then my brain went all haywire, and the concept came together. Just like that. Just now.

An expression takes shape.

firming up some linework:

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4:20 PM

Time for black paint, and a fine brush:

Painting in the linework

There she is.

the linework is finished….

I started filling up the balloons : )

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5:10 PM

Can’t let the girl go nekkid, now can we?

All smiles….

Painting in some flesh tones:
 

And some vivid hair!

            
It’s getting there…..

Hey, remember when this was WHITE?? hehe.

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6:15 PM

look what a mess i made. yeesh.

Girl can’t go out without her makeup.

Check out the copper & gold highlights.

Touching up the lines i smudged….

Adding some details:

Ready for her closeup….

Almost finished!

I’m going to add a few details here and there, along the molecule/ helium theme. Maybe some diagrams drawn in the background.

Now that i look at her, she eerily resembles a girl i worked with at the gallery, which is kind of funny.

So, i’m kinda tired. I’m going to take a break for a bit and have some dinner, and later tonight i’ll post the completed painting! Thank you so much to everybody who came by and cheered me on and put up with my gazillion pictures, hahaha. This was so much fun! You guys are awesome.

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11:25 PM

So, WOW. I am tireder than i thought, and it’s dark out so the light in the studio sucks, so I decided to hold off on adding more until tomorrow. I will be adding a few more details to the piece because it’s nagging at me, it’s not really finished. I mean, it could go on forever and ever, but there are still a few elements which I’d like to tweak.

Here’s another photo of the piece; and a goofy one of me after i got all cleaned up to go out to dinner.

(Notice Matt’s handpainted robot clocks in the background; we’re both super artsy, hahaha…. clockzilla.etsy.com! )

Aside from that, I can’t even tell you how fantastic it is to get all this wonderful feedback from you guys, plus all the discourse about art and creativity that’s been happening. So! Awesome!

Next monday is also an art day, so if you guys want to see more of me painting in my studio, I’m all for it. Be there or be square! I’d really like to do this kind of thing regularly, and maybe throw in a few contests / giveaways/ tutorials in the future. I am totally open to ideas, so bring em on!  : )

So over the past few days I’ve put a whole bunch of prints and jewelry up for sale in my shop, including these lovelies:

We checked out the Farmer’s market in Roslindale village yesterday; they’ve got a nice little setup in the park with a couple of local growers, some greenhouse supplies, baked goods, handmade soap and a handful of other vendors, as well as live music. There was a pretty steady flow of people browsing and socializing (including us), so we’ve just about decided to give it a go ourselves in a couple of weeks. Hey, why not? At the very least we get to sit outside on a nice summer morning and drink coffee and talk about art.

I did find a lovely pair of earrings from one crafter; i especially liked the way she made the earwires (she got all excited and told me she bends the wire around a sharpie marker to make the loop, and we all know about my affinity for sharpie markers, so….). Plus I’m a big fan of turquoise and gold, so i’ve been wearing them all weekend.

And i’ve been busy making more stuff, too. As usual. I seem to mostly waver between painting and drawing, alternating with days where all I want to do is pore over my bead stash. The bead stash is now larger than life. Sometimes i forget to make dinner, because i am so engrossed in whatever i am doing, and then the boyfriend and the rabbit start sighing and whining and hassling me because they are starving to death, and that’s about when i tell them both to go eat some cookies or something and quit bugging me. hehehe.

So, here’s two new drawings; they’re a little more editoral and less idealized. I’ve been getting my inspiration from the different characters and realities in my day to day life, I suppose.

Fashion Sense

Baby Girl

I feel a bead craving coming on now, hah.

So I’ve been doing some leetle paintings. It’s kind of stupid, the stuff that gets me going, and I’m always prowling around AC Moore of all places, thinking up wicked things to do with bits of wood and fake flowers and doll heads.

Eventually I just ended up bringing home the bits of [overpriced] wood. And then i painted stuff on them! And drew pictures on them!

Star

Aurora

Mariposa


Uncaged

They’re all about 3×6″; I think i’ll prolly put a couple up for sale and then make prints available as well.

And speaking of painting, I’ve had this big blank canvas (we’re talking 24×48) just chillin’ on my easel for an ill minute; in light of my recent endeavors I think it’s about time I did something with it. So I thought maybe I’d pick a day, maybe Monday, and post pictures updating my progress throughout the day, in real time here on the blog – from blank canvas to ugly mess to finished masterpiece. I work kinda fast and sloppy (har!) so it’s not like it’s going to drag on and on for eons getting this thing done. Hopefully it will be a fun experiment, and if the results are good maybe i can do this more often; so if you’re around on Monday, come check in on how it’s coming along.

Ok, now for the rabbit; lately he’s been obsessed with going OUTSIDE. As soon as he hears the front door open, he is immediately in the hall, nudging my ankles to get by and out into the yard. He has an excavation project he is working on, you see, and it is very important.

He dug this all by himself. He gets his little feets in there and is all like digdigdigdigdigdigdigdig, and then he pops his head up to scope things out and his wee face is COVERED in dirt.

This is a not-dirty face, shortly before starting his little project.

 I’ve been so gosh-darned busy running around these past couple weeks, it’s a wonder I’ve gotten any drawings done. Which reminds me, I still have to share the lowdown on 1.)”Dirty Smelly Noisy” opening in Lowell two weekends ago, and the 2.) “Good Luck Bad Luck” show up at the ellO gallery on Friday nite. Both were pretty successful in the art-schmooze department.

But that will have to be later, because really i just wanted to do a lil show and tell of three new drawings.

Hey, Squirrelfriend!

Rare Birds

Owl & Moon

At some point I’d like to sell these as prints, but that is going to take a little more contemplation. I’m also thinking about divvying up my Etsy so it makes a little more sense; one for jewelry, one for art, and another for supplies. Right now everything is a mish-mash and doesn’t really hang together, and i feel like stuff gets lost in the pile. But we’ll see.

So i was a busy little photographer-bee yesterday, playing with my beads and taking pictures of things and drinking WAY TOO MUCH dunkin donuts ice coffee. Wheee!

And then I put a bunch of new stuff on the Etsy, including those button rings I made a while back. It’s looking like a total mish-mash in there, photos, all kinds of jewelry, drawings, beads, beads, beads. I have to figure out a way to organize that stuff and pull it all together.

I’ve also been working on some more upscale jewelry pieces, using pearls and gemstones and semi-precious stone beads and sterling. I have nine gorgeous necklaces made up so far, and I spent the bulk of my day yesterday photographing them from every possible angle. I got quite a few gorgeous shots, which is really satisfying. Feeds my jewelry jonesing as well as my macro photography lust.

The amethyst and pearl one at top left is one-of-a-kind and available in my shop; there’s also a grey green labradorite pendant with pearls and silver, too. More coming soon : )

Well, I’ve got everything framed and ready to go for the Good Luck/ Bad Luck show at the ellO; we’re making a trip up to Portsmouth his afternoon to drop it off. I struggled a bit last night with writing my “Artist’s Statement”, because I kinda dread coming off as a pretentious snot (I mean, I am a snot, but i don’t want to sound like a snot) and it’s a pain in the ass to have to summarize stuff you’ve already spent weeks and weeks drawing. I mean, I’m an illustrator, for chrissakes, it’s pretty much my job to make pretty pictures which are completely self-explanatory. And now i have to write stuff??

I think i did okay though.

So that’s that. And here’s a sneak preview of everything framed.

And that’s with a capital “O”, especially in regards to Crocs.

You gotta understand, i live in a college town, and a kinda stuffy fashionless northeastern one at that, so wherever there’s a campus nearby you see the denizens rocking their sweats and some TERRIBLE examples of bad bad bad footwear. In winter, it’s the effing Uggs, which need to be banished to the eighth level of Hades, pronto. (You suck, obnoxious mindless college girls in filthy Uggs!) And in the transitional seasons -let’s face it, it’s always transitional in New England- everybody rocks the crocs. Man o man, i hate those things- the ugly plastic duck looking ones, anyways. There’s even a website and a flickr group dedicated to hating on crocs, so it’s not just me. For kids (or people who work with kids) I’d say they’re acceptable, since they’re easy to clean and are comfy, but nine times out of ten when I see an adult scuffing around in them, it’s clear they’re just being a lazy slob. Lazy is okay sometimes, but you can tell most people wearing a beat up pair of Crocs aren’t even trying, even a little, and keep on wearing them till they are falling apart and reeking and disgusting.

George, for example, rocks Crocs with socks. Enough said.

Then again, a gentle reminder form the chilled-out side of myself says: Hey, people can do what they want, don’t get so bent out of shape. It’s not that important. It’s just shoes.

But it’s not actually the shoes themselves that bug me; it’s the mindless trendy herd mentality which gives me the heebie jeebies. And the way i see it, the shoes you choose say a lot about yourself. If you’re too lazy or slovenly to get something decent, or to bother considering anything outside the default trend, or, at the very least, go out and get a new pair once the old ones get all jacked up…… well then, I will have an Opinion about your shoes. And by extension, about you. Sorry.

it’s madness, i tell you.

But I caved, and i am now making my fashion confession public. I actually went and bought some Crocs today. But they don’t even look like crocs! Well, not too much. Last night my coworker was rocking these pretty ballet slipper slingbacks in silver, and they made me do a double take. Honestly, i was surprised. And once she swore up and down how comfy and nice they were (this, by the way, was coming from a very stylish girl), and me being in need of a pair of comfortable flats, I resolved to investigate further.

Hey, I am allowed to change my mind. So, I found these in turquoise. Turquoise is all kinds of awesome, and they look comfy, and not too vulgar or plasticky. Yes yes.

I got inspired by my pal MuertaVida‘s charm bracelets, and since I somehow have a ridiculous amount of shrinky-dinks and beads around (whyyyy does that somehow sound dirty….?), I decided to try my hand at creating a cha-cha bracelet of my own. Which I will never wear, but still. This one features individual characters from my “Nine Divas” illustrations.

There’s a glass birdie and a silver fish in there somewhere.

And this one has a hipster girl, and a plastic owl, and a big fat ORANGE pearl, yum.

I dunno if i’ll make more of these, these sorts of projects are a little tedious for my taste. Plus I don’t want to piss off the bracelet queen of southern california…. but maybe i’ll stick this on the Etsy  anyways.