So much for the fanfare!

For Califur, which has a safari theme, I decided to be non stereotypical and do a safari of Aussies! What's this well built dingo looking for? a baby?



This is the left most panel of my africa piece. IF I finish ALL of them before Califur, I'll make one big assembled print to have matted and framed for sale at the con.


This is the flyer of my show that's up until 5/30/09 at the Sweet Spot cafe 7811 Aurora ave N Seattle.



These are pieces from my show. There were 28 total pieces. Eventually I'll post some photos of the reception. I was all dressed up with no one to impress.

After all the work I put into it and money I spent of food, the reception was a bust. Very few friends showed up and no random walk-ins. But it's really the fault of the location: it's on Aurora/highway 99, there's no parking and as much as I told everyone I knew and The Stranger and The Time and The Seattle Weekly, my publicity skills fail me. I do however have Califur coming up in June and that's always a blast and a half, especially since I'm not with my ex.

Yesterday (5/17/09) Nicky and I got to go to the spa and talk about exes and my current and how she and I hadn't talked in over a year because of that whole messy situation. we discussed all the friends and contacts I've lost since that whole business. she came to my show btw.

In other news, I've finally gotten my new g5 tower up and running. Steel is a big powerhouse and transferring all the data from Sphere and Horizon via Alexandria has been a pain, but having finished chronologically ordering ALL my artwork, I feel really good! That done, I'm able to show off some of the recent artwork of done. Enjoy!

I ALWAYS say this, but more coming soon!

Celebrating Ecosystems

I finally received my painting process pictures from my boyfriend's camera and can show them off.

Step one shows me applying the blue masking fluid. I heavily masked this piece to be able to do many layers of washing for the underwater parts of the composition. The nib of my Quikmasque bottle jammed, so poured some out and applied it using a paper clip. Took FOREVER!

Step 2 shows the basic wash over everything that's underwater. the dark blue stuff is the dried masking fluid as I prepare to paint the sky.

Step 3 shows a lot of work darkening the sky and doing a little outline of the underwater animals.

Step 4 shows masking off the underwater animals. the masking fluid is light blue and opaque when it's wet. As it dries it become transparent and a darker blue.

Step 5 I used standard blue painters tape the mask of the large areas and did final darkening in the sky.

Step 6 I have finished the washes underwater and removed all the masking fluid, except on the narwhal's head.

Step 7 I have re-masked certain things (the squid in front of the sperm whale, the stuff in the sand, etc) and finished the land animals. 7a is a close up.

Step 8 the sand is being painted, the ice berg is nearly done and the two big whales (sperm and humpback...haha) are basically complete. the salmon are finished and the belugas are nearly done.

Step 9 is more refining. the masking fluid is off of the squid and I'm starting on the spotted seal and the narwhal.

Step 10 the narwhal is done and I've added shadows, especially on the ice berg.

step 11 I'm working on the northern lights. Without a good reference photo it' really difficult. The rest of the animals are being colored in. the piece is almost done.

Then the final. In the last stages I added highlights with white acrylic (gouach takes too long to build opacity). I also worked heavily on the Aurora Borealis at home with a photo on my computer. I used the same colors in the aurora as reflections on the white objects (ice berg, snow, polar bears and arctic fox).

This piece was much less complicated than the Puget Sound piece, but it wasn't as familiar.


Taking the challenge concept much farther, I doodled up a thumbnail of the African savanna. The problem is that Africa has so many different ecosystems (though we usually only think of the major three) and Africa is home to mostly mega fauna...aka BIG animals. While doing my research, I decided that there are too many species to fit in just one piece. Because African plains are basically earth and sky, I did a horizontal composition. I also decided to make it a triptych (a three paneled composition made from 3 compositions). The left most panel represents the desert which transitions into the grassland dotted with Acacia trees and with a river ruing through it. the in the right panel the plains transition into a rain forest. If you look at the sketch, in the rain forest area there are more animals than in the entire Amazon piece! right now the final line art for the desert piece is done and I'm starting the center panel. I'd like to have the line arts for the whole thing done before i leave for Australia.

I have a concept for my Australia piece in my head already and I also intend on doing the Everglades soon thereafter.

Late breaking...aka current events

I'm trying to get this whole art thing off the ground...again. It was up for awhile and then I realized 'hey...this whole furry art thing is expensive and difficult to compete with the likes of Dark Natasha and Michele Light...so I won't. I'll do my own schtick for awhile and see how that pans out. So far, not bad. Not making any decent money at it but it keeps me sane.

I'm trying to branch into the kids art market, though lightly. I don't do cartoony stuff well. I try to make my stuff as accurate as I can (under it all, I am just a nerd) but not uber intense so that it doesn't have a broad audience appeal. These ecosystem pieces I've been doing are a great test for that. I'm forced to step outside my comfort zone of cats and draw other animals (oh god, ungulates, no!) for a change. Each piece is very research heavy. Don't let an art teacher or anyone EVER tell you photo reference is a BAD thing. There's no way to see all of the species in these pieces in real life or in a stuffed collection, even at the American Museum of Natural History, which is by far my favorite museum. I'd rather someone research the hell outta something than it look like a mishmash of ignorance (like this stupid mural in downtown Laguna Beach with a whale shaped like an Orca, but colored like a Grey Whale. I mean WTF?!) Now, I'm not saying go copy a pose of a bird right out of a book. Chane a foot or wing, or flip it. research doesn't solve for talent either. *eh hem*

So, in light of that, so fun stuff I've been working on:

I finished the "Arctic Circle Ecosystem". I'd have to say the Aurora Borealis gave me the most trouble. Everyone knows what the Northern Lights look like (I haven't actually seen them for real) but you go to paint them and they fall flat. So, once I was home on a day off (I painted on my lunch again) I sat at my art desk with a great photo of the Aurora to paint from. I used some gouach (gouche?) on this piece in the lights and the iceberg and the Belugas. Nothing is to scale, but it's a great 'whimsical' painting. One of my illustration teachers in college used to say 'whimsical' like it was a bad thing.



Next is the secondary line art for my next 'ecosystem' piece: Africa! It started as the savanna only, then as I was doing my research (there's that buzz word again) I discovered, there are so many different animal species in Africa, more than we really think about. Africa really is a big continent, but it is dominated (lucky for me) by 3 MAIN ecosystems (please don't kill me real scientists): grassland, desert and tropical forest. These are what I chose to highlight. Not every creature exists alongside every other, but I threw as many animals in as I could for the sheer joy of challenging myself. Africa is land of the mega fauna...ie: big freaking animals. It's difficult for me to find fish species and insects, but images of elephants, lions, gazelles, cheetahs, apes, giraffes, hippos, crocs, fish eagles, etc. abound. With so many species, it was hard to do a vertical composition since there are primarily two leaves of sub-ecosystems: land and air (water makes 3 as in rivers). I decided to make it a horizontal composition. After finishing my thumbnail sketch of the savanna piece, I realized I wanted to show more, so it's a triptych. 3 compositions in one. It's going to take and very long time to do, but I'm up to the challenge! Each piece will be a separate 10x16" piece, that will be digitally joined into one. This way I can still work on ONE AT A TIME during my lunches at Daly's. I have my next one planned too: the Everglades. Knowing me I'll do one inspired by Australia. I'd like to have Africa done before I leave for Aussie on Feb 25th, but if not, it'll be there when I return.



I hope you all enjoy what I've been working on. One day it'll payoff I'm sure.

More to come.