Christmas Card

This is a nice little piece of propaganda- I mean *gift* that I may be sending to all my friends and relatives. Showing them that I care about them, and encouraging them to hire me, or tell their friends to hire me, for design/illustration/freelance work.

Yay! Shameless self-promotion!

Enjoy the beginning of the holiday season :)

I made it look better.

Digital stuff

Digital illustration portraits: original, iconic, abstract, and literal.

I don't like it, but I have time to fix it.

Animal and bird painting practice

I'm trying to improve in painting birds and animals, and I'm trying also to get better with using guaches and watercolor. SO.

Turkey Vulture. Watercolor and watercolor pencil.

Elk. Watercolor, gouaches, ink.

Of course, the lighting in my kitchen is bad, and my point and shoot camera is worse, so these look nicer inn real life.
We just got a tree for the apartment. I'm pretty tired from hauling that and the groceries up with one of my apartment mates..... gah.

Works in Progress

Working on projects for my watercolor and gouaches class. I have to make at least 3 panels about the street that the art building is on.
So. Here is the work in progress:
They are sideways because my camera is a piece of poop and I'm lazy right now.

First panel

Second panel

I found this and wanted to share it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8xJtH6UcQY&feature=player_embedded#!

Watercolor and Guaches Practice

I've been doing some more practice with watercolor and guaches for my class. Also because I really need to get better with these media. I think that I'm making progress. And I'm staying home this weekend, so I can do some more hardcore painting practice.

Watercolor

Watercolor

Watercolor

Watercolor

Self portrait for class. Guaches

My camera is poop, so they're kind of blurry. I've done some figure drawing also, so when I get around to it I might post it. I think that I might play with these in Illustrator or Photoshop also.

Digital Illustration Portrait Practice

More portrait practice for digital. Live trace and other practice. Enjoy.

Live Trace Practice Assignments

Practicing live trace in Illustrator of digital graphic illustration. We are starting a self portrait project, so here it goes.

Playing around with the preset settings.

And with color.

I like the trippy looking ones at the bottom right, but I think that this one turned out the best.

Me in the Atlas mountains.

So there it is. Working on more stuff in watercolor and guaches, so there'll be some traditional stuff up soon. I painted from the model yesterday in class and it was like being able to see fresh again. I love figure drawing. It was actually the first time that I've painted from a model, and I've also only used guaches a couple times before with varied results, so it was interesting and a ton of fun.
Naples this weekend, so maybe some sketches of Pompeii and Herculaneum to come. I hope that maybe if we visit the theater quarter, I can take some photo refs/ sketches of the theaters so maybe I can work on a piece more geared towards archaeological illustration. It should be interesting regardless.

Halloween Masks and Amsterdam

I made two masks on Halloween: Guy Fawkes and a Samurai!

These masks were unfortunately too flimsy to wear out, but I like them anyway. The samurai printed really small by accident.

However, I did remember the 5th of November. IN AMSTERDAM!!!

Holiday lights!

A canal near our hostel.

The sign

Falling off the sign.

Occupy the Museumplein!

Wintery trees.

The park was lovely.

Flower market!! So many tulips!

Seedy entrance to the Red Light District.

WHAT NOW?!

Candace and I sitting by the canal before my camera died.

It was a great trip. The city was beautiful and fascinating. Some other things i visited not pictured (because my camera died) are: the Anne Frank Museum, the Van Gogh Museum, more of the RLD, the coffee shops, more of Vondelpark, churches, bars, and cultural stuff.
I loved Amsterdam. There were so many hidden things to see, and a weekend was definitely not long enough. We missed the Heinelkin Experience, and the night of museums (because we had to catch an early flight), the canal boat tour, or any formal tour of the city, the ferry rides behind the train station, the zoo, and the botanical gradens. Not to mention the tons of little galleries in the historic center. So. Contrary to popular belief, there is a LOT more to Amsterdam than sex and drugs (But that was fascinating as well....).
I spent most of my money on food and transportation, which was different from a lot of other trips where I actually bought souvenirs. One of my biggest regrets though, was not buying a cannabis themed Amsterdam snow-globe.

I definitely want to go back. The city has a wonderful lively atmosphere both in the daylight and at night. It is now on my list of places to look for a Masters program in addition to London and Chicago.

While I've been traveling though, I've noticed that I've missing some things from home more than I thought. Here's a list just because I'm feeling whimsical and nostalgic:

- My family
-Fall weather and a dusting of snow (Upstate New York can keep their blizzards though)
-The Woods (and nature in general)
-The hippies that inhabit The Woods
-Wegmans
-Cheesecake and backlava
-Peanutbutter
-Popcorn
-Apple picking and corn mazes
-Grandma's cooking (a total clichè, but it is totally true)
-Staying up all night in the Illustration studio and wasting time making forts with the couches and having dance parties.
-Real chamomile tea, not the weird powdered stuff I got from the grocery store by accident.
-Powdered sugar
-Being able to drill holes in the wall in order to better decorate my apartment.
-Decorating my own apartment in general.
-Jamaican food and my Jamaican friend (Robbin Edwards is my love).
-My room mates from last year (Robbin, Tori, and Jackie) and my non room mate room mates (Andrew, Angela, and TJ)
-Horseback riding
-3258 Party network
-Working and getting paid
-Saratoga Coffee Traders
-Kitchen appliances that work in a manner that I expect them to

But here are some random things that I really like here:
-Pizza Frita
-My new amazing room mates or The DeMacci Family
-Learning a new language
-Exploring a new city
-The rose garden near Piazzale Michelangelo
-Being able to easily travel to different contries
-Understanding a different culture
-An easier school workload
-Being able to drink at a bar and not getting carded.
-My awesome apartment

Of course there's more to each list, I'm just really tired from all the travel today and it's actually late.
So. Next week's adventure is actually within Italy. Naples and Sorrento! Last time I visited, I loved Sorrento, and the weather is good enough that I don't think that it will rain. I'm visiting Pompeii and Herculaneum again! Hopefully I'll get to visit Capri and wander around Naples for a little bit. And hopefully my camera wont die on me :P
Cheers!