Drawing Mountains

I visited Asheville over the Easter holiday and couldn't asked for better weather. The sun was shinning and the mountains were stunning in the springtime. So, I took my sketchbook. Sitting on the balcony at Mt. Pisgah Inn, I began drawing the mountains before me. I tried pen, then pencil, but I was not pleased at all. I am learning that drawing on demand on location is not as easy as it looks.
I would love visit Asheville again with the pure intention of sketching. I feel like there, I could actually sketch and not have the police called on me.

Blogs that inspire Blogs

This is a really cool blog http://www.urbansketchers.org/ and it inspired me to start this blog. These are the best sketch artists out there. To join urbansketchers, you are selected by the quailty of your work. I could never ever imagine being selected, but it's an awesome goal and dream. Urbansketchers are all over the glode. If you are selected, you get a badge to put on your blog and you are linked up to the main blog.

I was suppose to be a Commerical Artist

I went to CPCC for a grand total of 2 weeks to become a Commercial Artist. I had already encountered the life of a starving artist, I'd spent all my money on text books, art equipment, and classes. When I got back to my car that day I got a parking ticket for parking on the white line. I was so mad that I quit school!! I went to business college instead.

Fortunately, I ended up becoming a Creative Director at where I work now, which give me plenty of opportunities to do graphic design work. Maybe the sketch above could have been in a national sales flyer at one time.

No, I'm not Tagging Your Neighborhood...yet

This is a sketch that I did while pretenting I was going to make a spraypainted  statement on the side of a building.  I always wanted to try this artform, but not go to jail. So to compromise, I have decided to use my sketchbook. It's so much fun coming up with funky letters and cartoon drawings.

I have really mixed emotions about graffti. I love it  as a artform, but I hate it when I see a building that has been newly tagged in my neighborhood. Oddly enough, I don't mind seeing it on a train. I remember enjoying reading the graffti on the bleachers at middle school and I even took a pictures. In high school, the graffti wasn't as cool for some reason. Maybe the rock you could paint out front took away all the fun of defacing the bleachers.

A Book Recommendation

Okay, I read that to keep your blog interesting, you must have variety in your postings. So, today I am going to talk about one of my favorite inspirational books for sketching. It's called "How to Keep a Sketchbook Journal" by Claudia Nice. As demonstrated on the cover, the inside is packed with snippets of her work from her outdoor adventures. I will sometimes flip through this book and to get inspiration on what to draw next. I have been on a few outdoor drawing adventures, but it was so hot last summer, that my last trip was cut short. So now, I cheat a little by taking a picture and drawing from that...it is almost just as good as being there.

Fun with Photoshop

Even though I enjoy sketching, I also love to play with Photoshop and Illustrator. I discovered that I can scan and import a drawing and enhance it with all kinds of features. I've included the original sketch and the after. That's why I never believe anything I see in the National Enquirer or in The Onion!

Moo

My mom was telling me about a cow she saw painted on a door. So I thought, how hard is it to paint a cow? Well, it's a little harder than I thought and this is the second draft. I had fun though! I plan to paint more cows in the future. Cows just make me smile :)

Gosh, I still Miss Them

Above are some live action sketches I made of my angelfish in 2004. They were lovely fish until the ice storm came and left us without power for two weeks. Those poor fishies froze to death. I felt so guilty that I didn't put them into a Ziploc bag and try to keep them warm. That's what I will do the next time something like that happens.

They were great pets because they were so interactive, staring at me while I worked on the computer. I have tried to keep other angelfish, but they did not live as long. So now I have my memories and my sketches of some really cool fish.

If You Give a Moose a Muffin...

I never lost my love for children's literature. A story book is brought to life by the illustrations--the cuter the better. So having the wonderful opportunity to work at an independent book store for a few years, one of my favorite tasks was to shelve the kid's picture books. Sometimes I got more reading done than shelving. :)

This is a drawing of the Moose from If You Give a Moose a Muffin By Laurie Numeroff and illustrated By: Felicia Bond. This is a great series of books that illustrate how much trouble you can get into when you give animals stuff--they always want more and more!

A Painting Inspired by artist Kim Parker

Okay, so I got this book from the library and I fell in love with Kim Parker's artwork. She mainly paints florals and designs textiles for home decorating.

So here's my knock off of her work.

Disclaimer: this was strictly for practice technique only.

If you want to see Kim Parker's work, visit her website at http://www.kimparker.tv/