Have a Happy Late Halloween, All Saint's Day, and All Soul's Day

     Now for those of you who may remember. On Labor day I mentioned I created a different image and wasn't thinking so straight or should I say in following creativity and ignoring reason and purpose. I don't regret it cause I like the piece though I'm sad that I wasn't able to come up with something better for Labor Day. 

     Anywho this image I think fits for most of these holidays. As you may already know, October 31st is All Hallows Eve, November 1st is All Saint's Day, and November 2nd is All Souls Day. Death and Halloween go hand in hand, so the picture fits in that aspect. Plus the spirits around it help it fit for what I ended up deciding this picture is great for All Souls Day. She has Forget-Me-Nots which in the flower language means true love and/or memories. So, I created a little story to go with this; I may explore into it further and expand upon it.

   She had died long ago before her lover. She was lost in death and didn't wish to move on, so she became a ghost. But alas the world of death and ghosts was not easy and didn't let her get more then a glimpse of her love before being drawn into the underworld. She manage to escape, however time is hard to keep track of in death. It feels so meaningless. She found the living world a very different place then she remembered. After much wandering, she found her lover's grave. She silently wonders whether or not he became a ghost, but decided if that was the case they would of found each other already. She leaves forget-me-knots upon his grave for every symbolic date she remembers. Yet still unable to move on.

   I got to admit the game, Geist Sineaters, is quite an inspiration for all death related themes. I highly recommend it if you like role playing dice games, here is link for the quickstart which is free of course.

Strange Fairytale ~ Rose

     I was wandering through the Grimm Fairytales when I ran into a strange and short one that pique my interest; it is called The Rose. You can read the tale or others through the links. As a quick summary of the tale:


              A girl goes to the woods on a regular bases upon her 
         mother's requests. One day she was having trouble and 
         gone a good distance when a strange boy helped her. 
         Upon arrival of the destination, he disappeared.
 
              Her mother didn't believe her till one day she came 
         back with a rose. The boy had told her that when it bloom, 
         they would see each other again. One morning the mother 
         went to see why her daughter wasn't up. She found her 
         dead upon the bed with a smile, then she noticed a rose 
         was in bloom.

     I've interpreted the story for these works of art.
The boy was a ghost hence his sudden disappearance and the girl's death when they rejoin. Based on this I decided the rose must be blue for many reasons. First it is mythical impossible rose. Second is the color itself is somber and relates to death.

     I also picked it due to the symbolism of the blue butterfly, which I figured could be translated to rose or added to the original story. They are suppose to be the passing of a soul to many, rebirth of life, and the wishmaker. All of which fit this story well.

    As for the look for the look of the girl went with a commoner look. I wasn't sure about the rest, but ended up making her have a darker blonde hair and green eyes for some contrast against the blue of the rose. The lighter skin was for the youth and near death herself look, though had debated about whether I should darken it.

    Sorry for the slow posting on this blog. You'll probably see more of this character and other images related to the story of the Rose in future blog posts.
   

Save the Frogs Art Contest

    As mentioned in my Twitter account. The deadline for Save the Frogs is coming up quite swiftly, this October 15, 2011. You can enter both digital and traditional work. The limit being 3 pieces and one must follow the guidelines listed upon the website.

     The images you see are my submissions to the contest. The first piece I called 'Frog Words' which is to the right. I always wanted to try to create an image with words like you would see 60's and 70's Posters, and this was the result.

    The other was an idea formed after some idea forming. If I could I would make words that state 'Do you prefer to see real frogs or just origami ones?' with the 'Save the Frogs' as the next line.If I hope many of you decide to participate. It will be great to see the results of this yearly event.

Jade character progress

Here is progression of the character, Jade for the new blog coming soon. The bottom image may look different due to the server taking some time to change the image or should I say update.

As a side note, fixed a problem with the Wallpaper page on my website, so enjoy the wallpapers.

Busy Visitor Week

    I got distracted so haven't updated as I've should have. So apologizes to all. The picture above is a self portrait reinterpreted for my boyfriend whose birthday was September 26. I've been going all over the place applying for jobs (projects), hiking, watching movies, and more. It's been interesting...and hectic. So hope you enjoy the piece and enjoy this month of All Hallows Eve. 

Sketches for an art for friend

    This is some sketches for a friend's, Mikie's, character Rose. She is wearing Lolita fashion, which the first set of sketches are studies for. The others are ideas of what her character would be doing in Wonderland for a photo shot. So hope you all enjoy these sketches. The final piece will be in Watercolor, which I'll upload when finished.

Utah State Fair

    As you may or may not know, the Utah State Fair is here. It is one until September 18. I recommend going not only for the usual rides, animals, and shops-but for the unusual. This year they have Sea Lion and Australian animal show. Also there is wonderful flower, vegetables, and fruit contest. This year they have a pumpkin that weighs 395 pounds! It is cool to see.

     The have the usual assortment of farm animals such as rabbits, chickens, bulls, cows, sheep, pigs, and goats. There is also an Emu. They are currently holding a contest to name it; I've entered. They of course have the various of arts to see and upgraded the creative arts into a bigger building. So there is more to see and enjoy. The featured artist in the Fine Art section are amazing. So go see both the usual delights and new ones. ((The image is obviously inspired by the giant pumpkin and Australian wallaby with rabbit, goose, sheep, and emu in background.))

My Sister's Wedding: Robot Cupcake Monkey Themed

       When this posts, I'll be in California at my sister's wedding. In the illustration here I made my sister, Evelyn Conners, into a monkey. And her husband(on the day you see this), Eric Lang, into a robot. In case you've haven't guessed by the picture, they are having a Robot Cupcake Monkey Wedding. Which is interesting to try to get things theme to. It will be unique and interesting (and a bit of an adventure knowing my sister). So, hope you enjoy the imagery. 

Sketches

  The image you see to the side is a sketch I did in pen when I finally came up with an image to do for my sister's wedding. Today we will be driving down to California to attend. So a small road trip of sorts. I have some other random sketches added below of ideas that will be art on this blog eventually.

Labor Day

     

                The first celebration of this holiday was back September 5, 1882 (A Tuesday) in New York City. It was only in around 1884, it was proposed to be the 1st Monday of the month. It began as a Working Men's Holiday. Now days it just a day we try to take off, celebrate with fireworks, bar-b-ques, etc. Just remember this holiday is for all us workers. Our hard work has a purpose and is good to pay the bills. Let's continue to keep up the good work and enjoy this day.

                 As a random side note, I was doing a completely different type of illustration for this day that ended up evolving to an illustration better suited for All Soul's Day. So, you'll see it November 2 of this year. 

New Header

I got to messing around with my header/title so it went from this

to this

So does it look better to you? Any thoughts, opinions, suggestions?

Shuan character progress

Still not happy with him. I'm working on improving my male character painting skills.
Or should I say creation skills, easy from a single image. Harder when not.
In order of completion (old to newest)

Some art in progress for Paola Banco

     These are some of the sketches to color sketches to the beginnings of more refined art. These pieces are for a 3 series ad campaign on children's hunger and food insecurity taking an unique approach on the subject; a horror like feel with the emphasis on the lack of food. These illustrations for Paola Blanco's Portfolio; she is an advertising student who is directing the campaign.

    I think I made the first set too dark. The middle set girl's hair feels like it needs more work. The last set feels like it needs something, but it could be fine the way it is when text is added. So, any thoughts, suggestions or comments about the work?

More great references for art

Wonderful poses and angles and ability to move it 360 due to the 3d models
Donations of course appreciated here.
http://www.posemaniacs.com/

References by creatives for creatives: searchable photograph references.
Donations to the reference gallery appreciated here.
http://morguefile.com/

Human Anatomy Photo reference (though it is mainly free samples for a pay website of references)
http://fineart.sk/

Nice set of references images that are organize by the left side bar. It has a variety of plants, places, and water scenes.







A good place for buildings, still lifes and places with easy navigation.
Donations of course appreciated here.
http://www.photos4artists.co.uk/

Wet Canvas has their own reference library created by users, and can
only be accessed by users, so get a free account.
http://www.wetcanvas.com/RefLib/

Other things for detail anatomy of muscles, veins, etc.

Game to learn anatomy
http://www.anatomyarcade.com/games/PAM/PAM.html

Body flash reference and anatomy (A bit hard to navigate, but very nice)
http://www.getbodysmart.com/

Amazing Face Reference

I discovered this at random. I was looking for something else all together when I stumbled into this hidden amazement. Artnatomy is as it states the art of anatomy. It specialize on the face and emotions of a human. This can help with all sorts of different expressions, both extreme and not, with it's 21 expressions. Not to mention all the options it has with the different muscles movements under your control.

It can be used online for free or pay a small price of 30 Euros or 45 dollar to have it at your fingertips for whenever you want (They have it in English and Spanish as well as for Macs and Windows). So get a drawing and enjoy.

Linda's Art and Frame Gallery

Just went to the gallery of the student works from Linda's Art and Frame. As you may or may not know, I was a student of hers beginning when I was 12 or so. Linda was the one who first taught me oil painting techniques; I continued lessons till late high school. She taught me valuable lessons and would gladly to recommend her as a teacher for all ages.

The artwork in in display at the Schorr Gallery within West Jordan City Hall
8000 South Redwood Road, West Jordan, Utah 84088

Unfornately the open house has already past. But the gallery is open
Monday through Friday till September 24th
10:00 AM to 5:00 PM

There are original paintings on sale as well as miniatures and prints.

Corel Painter Crash Saves

I know it's been a problem to many people including myself. We all know as great as Corel Painter is; it has a bad tendency to crash. Then it would of course save your work as a painter file, which when you tried to open in Painter will claim to have a memory problem: Mine usually stated, does not have enough visual memory for this action. This of course is a bogus, but won't changed the fact all that work is lost in that saved file. The only solution in the past is always save multiple times, but we all forget at times.

Well, not anymore. I discovered that GIMP, a free program similar to Photoshop, can open painter files and save it in Photoshop format without any trouble. I discovered this after losing an hour's work and happened to have downloaded this program recently to try out for fun. I decided to see if it would open the file and it did. I tested it several times and every time without trouble it opened the Painter file and allowed me to save as a Photoshop file that would open just fine in Painter. It is amazing and worth it; don't worry about lost files due to painter crashing ever again. ((To the left is their logo, all rights of that image belongs to them))

For those who don't know where Corel Painter puts the recovery file, check your Document files and look for a folder called, "Recovered". Inside will be the random recovery file saves from when Corel Painter crashes. All you have to do is open the file in GIMP, and save it in PSD file or whatever format you regularly use (as long as it isn't a painter file anymore it should work).

Hope this helps people as it did me. If you have any questions about this feel free to leave a comment and I'll get to you as soon as possible.

In Progress Autumn Webb

I have redone and redrew this character soooo many times. So I figured I would post the progress and the current final of her. It is in order of completion (first attempts to last), just the digital works.

So what do you all think of the versions of her? Any favorites?

 I will be using the last two for her blog that is coming soon.