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Sunday, February 26, 2012


Results from one of the exercises in The Creative License. The assignment was to draw the contour of some objects on a shelf while keeping your eyes on the subject and not so much the paper. Filled in the details afterward.

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Yellena James

This evening I came across the work of Yellena James, an artist who grew up in Sarajevo who now calls the Portland area home. I like the use of color and incorporation of organic elements in her work. Nature can be an endless source of inspiration.




Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Every little thing



I usually get a ride home from work so while I wait I have a little time to get some reading in. I started going through The Creative License, one of the books I chose to take with me this morning. Inspired by one of the lists in the book, I decided to draw the contents of my purse. Today's items included the following:
  1. lip balm
  2. Canon Powershot Elph 100
  3. cellphone
  4. ID badge
  5. wallet
  6. USB stick
  7. keys
  8. headphones
  9. sketchbook
  10. The Creative Liscence &
  11. Zadie Smith's On Beauty
Fancy fitting all those things in there. I had to photograph the drawings in the basement, I can't wait until I have access to a scanner, it should make things easier. There is always the whole waiting for daylight thing but hey, can't have everything. In the meantime people, bear with me. Happy creating :)

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Making our presence known


Listening to: Andreya Triana feat. Bonobo - Hatoa

Hello, I'm still here.

Because of the warmer than normal winter temps, you can see some of the plants outside beginning to bud and push themselves from beneath the soil a lil early. Not quite Spring, but it's well on it's way. I don't envy the complete opposite of last year's super snowfall. This past week I've just been working, de-cluttering, and making time for some recreation.  Dropped off more books at the library this evening and of course couldn't leave without picking up some more. This week's art-focused picks - Drawing on the Artist Within and The Creative License. I've only had time to flip through them but I look forward to actually reading them soon.

Monday, February 13, 2012

A rose is a rose



I've been pre-occupied this past week so I haven't done much in the way of drawing. I'm in the process of figuring out what I need to do before I make the big move to Australia, with a little detour in between. Airline tickets, travel insurance, purging my possessions, the whole nine. Today is my one-year anniversary. Yesterday I was surprised with a delivery of flowers, the subject of today's sketch.

Monday, February 6, 2012

On Being Fickle

You may have noticed that between yesterday and today, the blog layout is a little different. OK, mainly the colour scheme, but if you happened to have been on the site when I was in the middle of trying this thing or that, you may have wondered -- what is this girl doing? Good question, I don't know. I've only had this blog for about a month so I'm still trying to figure out how everything fits together. What do I have to have to offer to my audience? Do I have a particular style that I'm trying to portray?

Even when I haven't been at something for that long, I still get these random urges to completely change things around. Sometimes you shouldn't mess with a good thing, and I'll try not to always give into my urges to change my mind on a whim just because I feel like it. If I do happen to do something silly please let me know--that is, if you want. Hopefully you'll actually like it!

Anyway, I think I'm fine for now. I'll incorporate things here and there as I find something neat or interesting to add. I have to remind myself from time to time that I can't always have things figured out all at once. As much as we'd like to come out fully polished and set to perfection in our initial efforts, that's usually not the case. Let's face it, it's fun discovering new things, yeah? Speaking of discovery, I came across Serena Olivieri's Tumblr page via Design*Sponge the other day She's a creative who does illustration and paper crafts.  Feel free to peruse her lovely work here.

Hope you all enjoy the remainder of the weekend :)

Sunday, February 5, 2012

Two Ladies


I was going through some of my emails to see if there was anything of interest I had scanned when I was in Israel. I took a creativity class last year and one of the first exercises we did was the classic ink blot exercise where you put paint on your paper, fold it in half and then see what happens. I think it usually looks like a butterfly but mine didn't turn out that way at all. Instead, I saw two ladies with lots of hair so after the session was over I filled in the details. Sometimes you find more interesting results in your unintended moments.

Illustration Friday - Suspense



This week's Illustration Friday theme is suspense. It immediately made me think of crime dramas and film noir so I decided to experiment a little more with ink. 

Friday, February 3, 2012

Test Run

Last week I had decided that it was time for another sketchbook. I still have pages left in an older one I bought but wanted something with a little less texture and more pen/marker friendly. I don't know how many reviews I read online, but after all of that I found myself in a paper shop after work a couple of days ago and settled on an ecosystem artist journal.


As it was wrapped, I didn't really know what to expect of the paper. The pages are really smooth and it holds ink fairly well without bleed through. This morning I pocketed one of my Faber-Castell brush pens and did a little sketch of a narwhal during lunch to try it out.


I like the look of pen work and plan to do some more in the future. In the meantime, I've been trying to work on the Oregon map during my off hours. Some things are fairly self explanatory but because I'm still not very proficient in Illustrator, and my vision is not quite formed, it's a little slow going. I'll keep at it though.