appleheadart

Trick or Treat

2011-10-31T10:40:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween everybody! I hope I . . . er I mean Yvette gets a lot of twix bars.

Ornaments

2011-09-01T17:33:00.001-07:00

I know it's too early to start talking about Christmas but I'm getting a head start by making some swinging ornaments. I want to make a bunch of these, they're so cool! Made with sculpey and acrylic paint.

portfolio

2011-08-28T15:09:00.001-07:00

I am working on creating new portfolio pieces to send out. I'm trying to focus on children's publishing, books, magazines and the like.

trees

2011-08-23T09:18:00.000-07:00

John, Yvette and I went camping in the Shenandoah this weekend and I painted this scene next to our cabin while Yvette was napping. The sun was beating down and my gouaches were drying out before I could get them onto the paper which was a challenge.

still life

2011-08-21T10:32:00.000-07:00

Just for practice.

More sketchbook

2011-08-18T19:01:00.000-07:00

Colors

2011-08-17T08:34:00.000-07:00

I went with the last color study. I think next time I do these I'm going to make them a little more detailed.

And the finished piece.

I'm pretty happy with the way it came out. I think taking the time to do the value and color studies and the underpainting are worth it. I was influenced to do this piece after reading James Gurney's Color and Light book. I wanted to try a glowing light effect.

Painting Process

2011-08-12T09:52:00.000-07:00

I am trying to go about this painting in a more planned and thoughtful way than I have before. Here is my sketch.

And here is my very loose value study.

Here is my underpainting. I would still like to refine the background a little more. I want to keep it loose but it's too rough and flat right now.

Color studies to come next.

Sketchbook

2011-08-08T16:06:00.001-07:00

More sketches done today.

Sketchbook

2011-08-07T17:12:00.001-07:00

A page from my sketchbook.

Rambles

2011-08-06T19:19:00.000-07:00

Lately I've been making drawing and practicing art more of a priority for me. It's been really hard with a baby trying to get anything done but now that she's getting older I'm able to have a little more time for myself. When she's taking a nap or just being good keeping herself occupied, I'll turn the TV off and get to my drawing table. I'm getting older too and it makes me think about is this the life I had envisioned for myself when I was younger. The answer is mostly yes, I have a family that I love, I'm happy, but the one thing that is missing is a 'career'. I made the decision to stay at home with Yvette and leave my job as a web designer but it's getting closer to the time I need to get back into the workforce. The one and only thing I have always happily envisioned myself doing (since I was eight years old) is being an illustrator. I went to art college but that just led to web design to pay the bills. Ever since then art has been more of a 'hobby' something I do when the inspiration hits but I never really honestly put in the time and practice it takes to get better and gain the confidence to put my work out there. I'm sort of at a crossroads in my life and realizing that if I ever want to make this illustrator dream a reality I had better get serious and start drawing. So here it goes!
Anyways sorry for the ramble and here are a few recent pieces I've done all for the sake of practice.

Some life studies

A quick painting for my grandparents 50th wedding anniversary margaritaville-themed party invitations that I was asked to design.

As Oprah would say I've had sort of an ah-ha moment as of late. I've known about underpainting and have tried it many times but until recently I never really understood the importance of it or how to correctly use it. The values are probably the most important thing in a painting and I have always struggled with creating strong contrasts in my work. I've been paying special attention to the values in my underpainting and then very carefully adding the colors of corresponding values on top, quickly and without fussing with it. Before I would try to blend and work the paint too much causing the underpainting to mix with my color layers resulting in a lot of muddy tones. So this small and very quick 2 inch study was the first time I felt like I 'got it'.

After that I thought I'd try my hand at something a little more involved. Still working small, loose and quick I copied a Gil Elvgren painting. Granted I came nowhere near Elvgren I still felt that it worked and I was improving, a good feeling.

So to learn even more about values I've been re-reading Andrew Loomis's Creative Illustration book and making small value study thumbnails. A practice I will keep doing from now on. Here is just one. Working small, loose and quick helps me to only focus on the large masses of value and not to worry about line and detail.

The Magician's Assistant

2011-07-30T11:24:00.000-07:00

New painting! I'm not sure why she has a mustache but it's cool.

Sketches

2011-06-09T18:30:00.000-07:00

Some sketches from the National Gallery this week. I'm really loving using mid-ground paper, I'm going to keep trying it for awhile.

Geisha

2011-03-21T07:28:00.000-07:00

My grandparents came for a visit last week and they were looking through some of my old paintings. They liked the Valentine Geisha I did for my little girl so I made them a new geisha painting while they were here.

Practice

2011-02-21T15:44:00.000-08:00

Here are small practice paintings that I worked on yesterday. Each is about an inch or so big. I was trying to focus on having a strong contrast between the lights and darks. It is something that I struggle with and am trying to improve on. I think that the stronger the contrast between values, the better it looks. The top two are copies of Gil Elvgren and the catwoman is my own. I can see that mine lacks the strong contrast and I need to push this further in my work.

Valentine

2011-02-15T18:28:00.001-08:00

A valentine painting for my little girl. She likes elephants.

rainy day girls

2011-02-07T17:50:00.000-08:00

Finally a new illustration. I've been in a creative dry spell lately which is mostly due to a very demanding toddler. Free time to myself is long ago a thing of the past. However she was in a quiet mood today and I was able to get this painting done which I've had in my head for a while now. It feels so good to paint again! I also joined a weekly life drawing class starting tomorrow which I hope will continue to get the creative juices flowing. This was painted with my new acryla gouaches which once dry are like acrylic in that they can't be reworked but unlike acrylic (which I find can look plasticy), these have a nice matte finish. I give them two big thumbs up!

Newish paintings

2011-01-13T10:01:00.000-08:00

I've been in a landscape-y mood lately. Here are some paintings I never got around to posting. The lemon tree (painted in oil) was just finished this week and is my favorite. I was playing with the effect of blurring edges and keeping the brushstrokes loose and sketchy. I really love it; it makes me long for summer.

New painting!

2010-09-20T10:39:00.000-07:00

It's been a while but I've finally got a new painting to post! This one is in acrylic and started out as a pack of barracuda, but I wasn't happy with it (and it didn't help that John said it looked like it should hang in a seafood restaurant) so I painted over the barracuda and now it's a mermaid. Much better.

Sketches

2010-07-01T20:18:00.000-07:00

Some sketches from recent trips to the Smithsonian galleries. And Ann-Margret, just because.

The Zombies are coming. . .

2010-05-18T11:08:00.000-07:00

It's the time of the season. . . a new acrylic painting. My husband has been talking about painting some zombies for the past week and hasn't gotten around to it so I decided to do one and show him up.

Commission

2010-04-12T17:26:00.000-07:00

Here's a commission piece I just completed for a happy couple's engagement party. I hope they love it as much as I do and I wish them the best! I really love the look of gouache on colored paper I will definitely be experimenting more with it. And as a side note I've just returned from New York to see the art of Tim Burton exhibit. I was in heaven and I've never felt so inspired in all my life. I love you Mr. Burton!

Let's make some lemonade!

2010-04-05T10:23:00.000-07:00

A gouache painting inspired by the warm sunshine-y weather we've been having lately.

Art for sale

2010-03-31T14:01:00.000-07:00

I have opened up an etsy shop selling original pieces for very good prices. Come by, check it out and get yourself some art!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/appleheadart

Alice Progress

2010-03-29T12:44:00.000-07:00

So I didn't finish it before the movie came out. . . but after watching it I was inspired to begin working on this painting again. I decided that the dark background wasn't really working for me so I painstakingly painted a medium grey background around all the flowers. . . and decided I still wasn't satisfied so I painted this light blue color over that. I think it's looking nice, I'm just excited to finally be getting close to having it finished. I don't know why but oil painting takes me forever!

Mary Poppins

2010-02-06T18:35:00.001-08:00

I'm really happy with the way this one turned out.

Keiko

2010-02-04T21:47:00.000-08:00

Something a little different. I'd love to be able to paint more realistic a la Robert McGinnis (who is one of my favorite artists). Something to work towards.

Mouse love

2010-02-03T22:14:00.001-08:00

l'amour

2010-02-03T22:09:00.000-08:00

A pink cupid because I have Valentines Day on the brain lately.

The Bride

2010-01-25T20:31:00.000-08:00

Yet another Bride of Frankenstein. I don't know why I love her so much, but I do.

Valentine Geisha

2010-01-24T16:43:00.000-08:00

This is my baby girl's first valentine so I thought I would start a tradition and make her a new Valentine painting every year. This will be her first one. I've made one for my husband as well but it's supposed to be a surprise so I can't post that one until after V day.

Alice progress

2010-01-22T20:47:00.000-08:00

My progress on the Alice painting so far. I'm pretty sure at this point nobody is reading this blog except my cute husband (hi Mr. X) but if anyone is out there I'd love to hear your comments, get some feedback and meet new artist friends.

Alice

2010-01-06T12:27:00.000-08:00

Here is an oil underpainting work in progress for a new piece about. . . . . . Alice in Wonderland of course. I really want to finish it before the new movie comes out, that's my goal. I work on it just a little most every night. It is modeled after the Disney version but I didn't want it to be too literal with a hookah-smoking caterpillar and all that jazz. I was actually more inspired by the nutcracker suite segment of Fantasia than Alice, hence all the flowers. Once I glaze on the colors it will be very colorful much like my earlier squid painting. (or at least that's the plan.)

zombie

2010-01-06T12:25:00.000-08:00

Here is another sculpture I made way back around Halloween time that I kept forgetting to post. Zombies are cool.

Happy Halloween!

2009-10-24T16:28:00.000-07:00

I thought I would try my hand at sculpting something, after being inspired by watching Mad Monster Party. She's very Tim Burton-esque which I love.

Fancy Lady

2009-08-30T23:29:00.000-07:00

Painted in gouache.

Girls In Space. . .

2009-08-26T21:16:00.000-07:00

When hunting aliens one should always use caution.
This painting started out as an oil painting many months ago. I overworked it so much that I started to hate it. So I decided to scrap it all and start over, this time using gouache and watercolor. I'm much happier with this one!

Cuteness

2009-07-22T11:17:00.001-07:00

Okay, that's enough cute animals for now.

Animal Portraits

2009-07-20T16:25:00.000-07:00

I love these little guys! I painted them in pastel (my old friend). I might do a few more little creatures, they're just so cute. I think they would be perfect to hang in a baby's room. . .

Animal Parade

2009-07-08T12:36:00.000-07:00

So here is a new painting I did last week, painted in gouache. It was nice to step away from oil paints for awhile and get back into gouache, it's so much faster and I like that instant gratification. This one is pretty large at about three and a half feet wide. I would have made it even larger if I could find a piece of watercolor paper big enough! I prefer painting large, when it's too small I feel as if I don't have as much control over the paint. I wish now that I had given it some sort of background though, it feels too plain.

Lillies

2009-06-05T12:19:00.000-07:00

I just finished this oil painting yesterday. It's a gift for my mom to hang in her zen-like living room. I'm really loving oil painting the more I do it. It takes a long time to finish each piece (at least for me) but it's worth it. I'm halfway through a new one involving spacegirls. I'll post whenever I get it done.

summer sketches

2009-06-01T17:32:00.000-07:00

I just got back from a week at the beach and I sketched these colorful little guys while sitting under the umbrella. I'm planning a new oil painting of the blowfish.

Talisman

2009-04-08T10:07:00.000-07:00

I picked these little skeleton statues up in Mexico on my honeymoon. I consider them good luck.

Squid Alert

2009-03-20T09:12:00.000-07:00

Finally finished! I just completed this painting yesterday, the paint is still wet. I have been working on it for a long, long time and it feels really good to be done. It was painted in oils and started out as a monochromatic grey painting and then I added layers and layers of glazes to get the colors I wanted. It was very time consuming since I had to wait for each layer to dry before I could add a new one (usually a few days or more). It's also a pretty large painting, 36x24''. The colors turned out brighter than I had imagined but overall I'm very happy with it. On to the next one. . .
It fits into IF's topic 'Subtract' because I subtracted some of the squid's anatomy to make it more stylized. Your comments are always welcome and thanks for looking!

Contained

2009-01-12T09:00:00.000-08:00

Originally I planned for this girl to be riding a giant bear (which I think I will still do) but here is a sketch of her in a birdcage. I like the idea of it but I don't think I'm going to take this one to a finished stage.

Resolve

2009-01-08T07:39:00.000-08:00

This is a color sketch of a small piece of a large oil painting I've been working on for the past eight months or so. I work on it a little here and a little there, but I resolve to get this painting done in the next month! Wish me luck.

2009-01-08T07:34:00.001-08:00

Mexico; here I come!

2008-12-12T08:04:00.000-08:00

balloon

2008-12-03T08:08:00.000-08:00

Here is my submission for IF's topic 'balloon' As soon as I saw the topic this image popped into my head. It was really fun to paint this one. As always thanks so much for all your comments!

red riding hood

2008-11-28T10:22:00.000-08:00

Here is my take on one of my favorite fairy tales. Painted in gouache.

I got tagged!

2008-11-22T19:16:00.000-08:00

I got tagged by the very talented Senta
If you haven't checked her blog out yet, please do so now, she does amazing work and I especially love the way she draws the lovely ladies.

These are the rules:
1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Mention the rules.
3. Tell six quirky yet boring, unspectacular details about yourself.
4. Tag six other bloggers by linking to them.
5. Go to each person's blog and leave a comment that lets them know they've been tagged.

The details about me:
1. My favorite color is purple
2. I still have my childhood teddy bear
3. When I was little I used to want to grow up to be Elvira Mistress of the Dark. (I still love her!)
4. My socks never match
5. My feet are always cold
6. My favorite superhero is Superman (but Batman has the coolest villains).

The people who's work I admire and am tagging:
1. Jeremy Vanhoozer
2. theartofpuro
3. Vanessa Brantley Newton
4. Kate
5. Doug
6. C.B. Canga

Pretend

2008-11-16T20:08:00.000-08:00

When I was a little girl I used to pretend that I had a pet monkey. Sometimes I still do:)

Serendipity

2008-11-14T10:01:00.000-08:00

I painted this little dancer last night. When I scanned it in, there was this weird shadow across the image, that I actually liked so I duplicated the effect with paint to make a subtle background.

Wise

2008-11-10T18:52:00.000-08:00

I went for the cliche. I have always loved owls and I have never painted one before so I thought now would be as good a time as any. This style is a little different for me. I wanted to paint something without any shading, just flat blocks of color and patterns. (I've been re-reading The Art and Flair of Mary Blair). I'm still experimenting with colored papers and trying to work the paper's color into the design.

More cats

2008-11-04T20:21:00.000-08:00

Here is a small painting of my two cats Veronica and Betty. I was experimenting painting in gouache on colored paper. I like it but I need to practice some more.

Repair

2008-10-24T08:42:00.001-07:00

Just one kiss will 'repair' him.
I thought it would be neat to show the second one too (on the black background) which I painted over a year ago. It's really cool for me to see my progress and see how much we continue to learn and grow as artists as long as we keep trying.

Holiday Cards

2008-10-20T09:20:00.000-07:00

Here are my second and third holiday card designs. I also created these in Painter, which I am still trying to learn. So far I really like it. Painting digitally saves a lot of time, and it's much easier to correct my mistakes. However I still prefer painting the traditional way but it's good to try something new now and again.

Late

2008-10-20T09:09:00.000-07:00

I promised my mom a new painting for her living room months ago and I still have not finished it. This was my first attempt, but I wasn't completely happy with it so I'm working on a second version now. Since it's been months past the original time I planned on giving it to her, it is officially late. (sorry mom :)
p.s. Thanks to my good friend Shannon for his advice on this one.

Holiday Card 1

2008-10-15T13:16:00.001-07:00

This is going to be the first in a set of 4 holiday cards that I am making. This is also the very first time that I have used Painter and I absolutely love it! I can't believe I haven't used it before. I am so happy with the way this card turned out, I can't wait to make some more.

Strings

2008-10-14T07:06:00.000-07:00

Here is my submission for Illustration Friday's topic 'strings'. (Please click on the image for a better view.) These are a set of Christmas ornaments I just finished that are going on sale at a local high school's fund raising arts and crafts fair. I know the interpretation of the topic is a little loose but they all have a red string tied to them to hang on the tree, so I thought it fit. Thanks for looking!

Sugary

2008-10-06T07:38:00.001-07:00

Here is my submission for Illustration Friday's topic, 'Sugary'. I had a fun time painting this one.

Sunflowers

2008-10-01T07:48:00.000-07:00

Here is my submission for Illustration Friday's theme, 'packed'. This painting is 'packed' full of sunflowers and was a present for my grandmother who happens to love sunflowers. Your comments are always appreciated. Thanks for looking!

Black Seahorse

2008-09-29T10:03:00.000-07:00

Here Mr. Mackel, this darker one's for you :)

Seahorses

2008-09-28T18:45:00.001-07:00

I was asked to participate in a local high school's fund raising arts and crafts fair, so I am busy working on some new paintings to sell. I made these four seahorses to be sold individually as prints, and I really like the way they came out. I might make some other colors too, just for fun.

Halloween Kitties

2008-09-28T08:27:00.000-07:00

Fall is my favorite time of year so here is a painting I did over the weekend of my two cats, Veronica and Betty having some Halloween fun.

kids

2008-09-26T14:52:00.000-07:00

Here' s just a quick sketch I did of some kids. A young Jack and Meg White maybe. . . . ?

The Bride Part 2

2008-09-23T20:02:00.000-07:00

I just finished this illustration for the invitations for my bridal shower. It is pretty girly, but there's nothing more girly than a bridal shower, so it works. It's sort of the bride of frankenstein barbie-version. As always, your comments are very appreciated. My blog is only one week old but I have already gotten some very encouraging comments from people. Thank you everyone who has taken the time to visit my little blog!

Bee Girls

2008-09-19T07:27:00.000-07:00

Here is my submission for Illustration Friday's topic, 'clique'. This one was was painted with gouache, and I have included my initial sketch with it. (I think she looks a little cuter in the sketch version.) I hope you enjoy it. Your comments are always appreciated. Thanks for looking!

The Bride

2008-09-18T12:24:00.001-07:00

My wedding is coming up at the end of this year and I am designing the invitations for my Halloween-themed bridal shower featuring who else; the Bride of Frankenstein! I made this pastel of the Bride, but I think for the invitations I'm going to do something a little more cartoon-y. I will post the new version after I finish it. Any ideas/ suggestions are very appreciated. Thanks for looking!

witch bath

2008-09-17T08:33:00.000-07:00

I just finished this painting about two weeks ago. I was experimenting with oil painting on panel instead of canvas and I realized that it is not for me. It took three times as long to dry and I couldn't control the paint the way I wanted to. I'm not completely happy with this painting, but it was a great learning experience and a fun subject to paint!

first entry

2008-09-16T11:12:00.000-07:00

This is my first entry for Illustration Friday and my first blog post!! This is a pastel painting I did a while ago as a background for one of my animations from college. The animation didn't turn out as well as I hoped, but I do like the background paintings I made for it. I hope you enjoy it. Your comments/feedback and very appreciated. Thanks for looking!