Hello!

Annie has moved to a new online location!

You can find her at:

www.anniemcbethillustration.com

instagram: @anniemcbeth

facebook: @theanniemcbeth

twitter: @anniemcbeth

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youtube: Anniemcbeth

The Apes of Eden

Hi Guys! 

I wanted to drop in today and show you a final painted piece that wrapped up last night. Today I'll be scanning it into photoshop and fixing anything and/or adjusting any colors if need be. 

This is a cover for a self published ebook entitled "The Apes of Eden" which will be out as soon as the client and I get everything together. I'll be posting more on the release if you guys are interested in downloading. 

Here is a quick shot of the original painting (pre-title).  

The book is based on a tribe of intelligent Apes years into the future and one's quest to record their history onto tablets. It is also written in Iambic Pentameter which makes it a very unique and interesting read. 

Hope you guys have a great week!! 

October 2013 Update

Hellooooo out there!! 

I have not been back in here in a VERY long time. I decided I needed to give you a quick update on what has been happening in my own little corner of the universe.

First, my personal freelance business has really picked up!! This has been incredible and I've received orders and commissions from people outside my friend and aquantance circle!

I had to put a cap on taking any more commissions for the month of October because I got so busy!

Now granted, I had also picked up 2 other short term side jobs while doing this, so my time has been limited.  But had I not capped it, I still would have had to put off some of the incoming requests.  Those lovely people are waiting patiently for me to finish up and take on their projects in November. It's been a really interesting fall! I'm so thankful that people are coming to me to help create their vision. 

This is an underpainting of a book cover I'm working on.  Such a cool opportunity!

2ndly, I've sort of dropped into the world of Disney and shoes....

What in the world?

Random, right?

For the month of November, I've recieved 2 requests for painted shoes and multiple requests to recreate scenes and characters from Disney films.  Hey, there are worse things than getting to paint your most favorite things in the world, right?? haha!  I'm loving working on those and it puts me in my happy place.

That pretty much sums it up, I don't have a lot of spare time right now and actually I'm liking it.  Sure I'm tired and I try to take quick naps here and there, but I'm so friggin PRODUCTIVE!!  :)

I'll leave you with a quick sketch I did last night while I was literally waiting for some paint layers to dry.  

Have a great week everyone!

Dr Who Shoe Commission

Hey Guys!!

I can finally show you all one of the projects I've been working on!! The Recipient has had them shipped to her and she loves them. :)

I was asked to do another pair of shoes, except these were to be themed after the British series Dr. Who.  Megan sent me a clear idea and inspiration photos for the tops of the shoes, but let me have creative license for the sides and the back.  I had a really fun time working on these and I even added a few extra things to make them extra Epic! You kinda have to when you're dealing with a Dr. Who commission. Just Sayin'...


Anyway, here is the front of the shoe that was designed by the client. she wanted the lace area to mimic the wardrobe of her 2 favorite "Dr's".

Side view, I painted a Galaxy theme and added in a glitter to the star area so the sun will make them sparkle!

On the backs, I painted a Dalek - 2 separate robot characters that go with the light/dark of the front of the shoe

Here's another view of the 2 side by side

Here's the video I shot for Instagram.  You can really see the sparkle on the sides!

Now, for the extra EPIC part! I couldn't get a photo or a video of it as the camera just could register.... but these shoes GLOW IN THE DARK!! Yup! That's right! The front white sections of the Tardis, the stars of the galaxy, and the main front light area of the Dalek's all glow in the dark! I can't tell you how many times I took them into a dark room just to see it all glow again. haha! 

If you're curious what type of shoes these are, I believe they were purchased at Walmart, but they're basic "Keds" type canvas shoes.  If you're interested in having a commissioned pair from me, I can paint on any canvas shoe surface.  I've also done a pair of Toms. I use regular acrylic paint and craft paint, neither will come off with water.  Once the paint is on, it's not going anywhere unless for some reason the fibers of the shoe come off.  I mix the paints with a certain amount of water so it really soaks deep down into the canvas.

Thank you guys for checking out my work! I have had a some interest on doing another pair so I hope to have another version to show you!

Have a great week!!

New Studio Space!

Hey guys! I FINALLY am able to show you the new area I've built up for my studio space.

I have one room to myself so I had to make it functional as a computer desk, painting desk, bookcase, and all over storage.  It was a big task but needed to be done as I had a huuuge mish-mash of old furniture barely able to hold all my "stuff".  It's amazing how much you can accumulate in art school...

Anyway.

After hunting around, I came upon a blog that held the perfect plans to my dilemma, you can read about it HERE.

Long story short, I was able to get all the parts I needed from Ikea and local hardware stores and I built the PERFECT workstation!! Here's a couple views of what I put together...

(I apologize for the fuzziness in them, due to how dark it is in my room all my working lights are pointed towards my desk.... doesn't help with photos LOL)

You can tell it's quite a bit different than the inspiration photos of her blog, but we both have different needs of our spaces.

Now for the components,

*The main desk I got years ago during art school.   It's built like a drafting table and can be hinged up and down.

*2 IKEA Expedit shelving units on each side.

LINK

* Then I have a piece of white shelf board I bought at a local hardware store, sitting atop each of the shelving units creating a deep shelf above the desk.  These were made for closet shelves I believe.  It's a heavy duty board that has a rounded edge so I didn't have to paint anything. 

*Underneath the top shelf, I have a floating shelf out of the same piece of board as the top.  I bought 2 cheap shelf hangers and fit it directly above my computer. A lot of my easy access tools are up there as well as some fun inspirational things. 

*Right up snug next to the right shelving unit is an Exedit bookcase I bought years ago.  This has been an amazing piece of furniture for me. I tilted it on its side and fit it perfectly alongside the shelving unit. 

LINK

As you can see in the pictures below, I have some drawer sets and cupboards in the shelf boxes.

These are amazing! They're shelf inserts from.. you guessed it! IKEA You build up the shelves, fit it into an insert box and then slide it into the square space of the unit. Brilliant. 

LINK

LINK

Now the rest of the contents of the desk were made up of many of my existing materials.  The only other things I purchased from Ikea were 5 packs of cardboard magazine boxes to hold upright materials like specialty papers, job files etc... I plan on covering those with fun papers to add a pop of color to the dark and white look to the desk.  

LINK

So there you have it! I'm super excited about this space and if you have checked out my post of the Fox and the Hound painting I did, you can see that a full size canvas fits on this desk! It has also been bolted to the wall so there's no danger of it falling over or moving around.  I'm so happy I discovered Jen at I Heart Organizing  Her idea of the desk was just incredibly inspiring and perfect for what I was looking for.  I think for everything - mind you, I already had the desk and the double Epedit unit, the cost was around $250. Which is nothing compared to what you would pay for a unit like this already put together.  And it's completely customizable! 

I'm still adding touches here and there, I lined all the drawers with fun paper and eventually, I'd like to cover the desktop in glass and be able to slide inspiration pieces underneath. But as far as adding anything else, for now I'm set! On the walls around the workstation, I'm collecting inspiring artwork and hope to have my own little art gallery all around me while I work.  That's an ongoing hunt :)

If you have any questions on how I put this together, please let me know in the comments and go check out Jen's blog!! 

Little bit of Disney lovin'

Hellooooo my friends!

I've been working on something that has probably been THE most fun painting I've done to date and it was close to my heart for multiple reasons.  You guys all know my love of Disney and it's no secret  how much I enjoy watching the films. Well, one of my close friends is expecting a little boy and for his "gift", I painted a huge acrylic canvas with a scene from The Fox and The Hound that she opened at her shower last weekend.

It was one of the most rewarding "jobs" I've done and I can't wait to see it in the nursery in Portland.

I spent probably about 30ish hours working on both the background and the 2 baby characters.  I was extremely lucky to find incredible references for both as well as extra sets of experienced Disney eyes to critique for any proportion issues.  These two stole my heart and it was difficult to wrap that canvas up to give it away haha I wanted to keep it!

I'm waiting on a good quality final picture to show but here are some behind the scenes shots of the process and a quick shot of the finished piece that was taken at like 1am.

I drew out the initial illustration on the canvas with pencil. The canvas was prepped with Gesso. 

A side view to show how huge this thing was! It was about 3.5ft x 4.4ft. Took up my whole desk! 

The next step in my process was to get a base wash down to help hide the white of the canvas and to establish my darks. 

At this point it was about 6 hours in that night and I was getting a little... Uh ...

tired. I needed to really be "one with the characters" LOL 

Even the kitten had passed out on me. 

The final shot before I wrapped it up! As you can see, the acrylic has a reflective shine to it. I'm hoping I can get a clearer image once it's up on the wall and not facing at an angle. 

Hope you guys like it! It was just a joy to work on and I can't wait to do some more painting! 

Hope you all have a great week, summer is almost here!!  

Teapot Mouse

Hey guys!


It's been a while since I've shown myself over here.  I promise I'm still alive and plugging away on stuff.  When you're not able to devote a full time schedule to your passion its really hard to fit it in while you work to take care of necessities. Luckily, Ive been blessed with multiple outlets that are allowing me to make ends meet and keep up with all I need to.  Sad part is that a lot of my time for my personal work gets put on the back burner.  Hopefully this summer, I'll be able to kick start that while I'm on break.

I wanted to drop by and show you an illustration that hasn't made it up on the blog yet.   The final illustration ended up being a bit 3D with added elements but I don't have a picture of it :(

This illustration was for a baby shower for my niece last spring.  It was on the front of the invite and we actually glued a real goose feather on the hat so it looked like it was stuck under the ribbon.  It curled forward and made a really cute addition.


Hope you guys have a great weekend! I hope to have more posts in the next couple months. :)

Studio Space Update

Hey Guys!!

Really fast update, as it's 12:30am and I have to go back to work tomorrow (I LOVE 3 day weekends!).

I have all my parts together! ...wait, what?

I have all my studio parts together! haha!

Both sets of shelves have been put in, both bookcases, drawers inserted, doors hinged... it's been a LOT of work! But it's going to be so worth it in the end.  Now comes the daunting task of finding all the extra bits and pieces a home.  Or the trash. (that's another tough part)

I promise you a final reveal and "studio tour" when all is put back together.  You'll get to see my little bit of room/office/studio. :)

New Workstation!

Hey guys!

I wanted to share a new project I've got going on, it's called...

"OPERATION: WORKSPACE"

If you're like me, when setting up a desk in the beginning of your career, school, or hobby as an artist.  It's hard to go out and know exactly what you'll need.  We all start with a desk or table or some sort of solid surface, maybe a couple bins or boxes to throw paint brushes in or one of those rolling plastic carts.  You never realize how many different art supplies you're going to accumulate throughout the years and your space has to grow and expand to hold everything.  

What started for me as a nice wide artist table and a single drawer cart soon expanded over the years to include 3 more plastic drawer carts, an old short bookshelf that stacked under my table - filled to overflowing, an under the bed pull out bin, a tall bookcase packed with art/inspiration book,s and a full drawer of my own dresser. *sigh*

There's got to be a better solution. 

There is! 

First I want to say that I most definitely need to go through and purge old supplies before reorganizing.  Oil tubes only last so long outside of school... 

The first thing I needed to figure out was storage space and surface space.  I needed not only to have plenty of places to store supplies but I needed them accessible.  Digging through 3 drawers before finding a certain paper isn't efficient.  I also needed to make sure that my actual table was as open as possible.  One major change in this set up is the addition of a desktop computer.  Thank you Apple for making an all-in-one; it needs to be able to slide all the way back when I get out any kind of paint or messy mediums. 

On another note, I also need it to function as an office space.  I never realized how much "office supplies" fall side by side with the art pencils and my monthly bills have no where to land. (in turn they clutter up the desk.... and the problem starts all over again.)

It's a tall order to find something that specific and if you start hunting around the internet for such a station, you're gonna end up spending a TON of money.  

Then Pinterest came to my rescue!! (Have I mentioned I love Pinterest??)

One of my friends posted a picture of a pretty little office desk and in the description she said it came from an amazing organizational blog. iheartorganizing.blogspot.com "hmmm..." I thought.  So I checked it out.  

Scrolling down the list of projects on the blog my eyes fell upon this...

I clicked. 

All the world's problems were solved. 

Ok, not really.  But this was exactly what I was looking for!! It was a 5 part blog post about how she created this desk and the awesome part about it? It was completely customizable for anyone! 

This is the design she had come up with on Excel and posted it as a road map to her plan.  It included all kinds of cubby holes, drawers, boxes, and the same computer I have! 

Best of all, the components to make up this type of workstation, are easily accessible.  The two shelves on the side are IKEA bookcases, the top is a piece of heavy board set on each bookcase, and the shelf in the middle is it's own.  I'd use the desk I already have in place of buying anything new - I love it and it's perfect for what I do. 

The cool thing about those bookcases is that you can buy inserts for the cubby holes that allow for double drawers and cupboard doors. 

I'm so excited to get my version of this set up.  I won't mimic everything she did, she went into a lot of detail with wainscoting and molding along the top and bottom.  I don't necessarily want to do that right now, but the general idea and set up is brilliant.  She also went with an all white theme, I'm going with the black/brown version of the bookcases. 

This was her final outcome.  So cute! 

My table will come out much further than a regular office desk and it's perfect!  I'm still thinking of what configurations I want with drawers, shelves, and doors.   

Here's the link to her beginning post: Custom Desk you can follow along to see how they put everything together. 

Do you guys have any tips or trick on organizing an artist's studio? 

Any thoughts on the set up or improvements you'd make if you built one?

The Paperman illustration

Hey guys!

I do have something to show you that was finished up over Christmas as a commission :)

I don't know how many of you might have seen the Pixar short "The Paperman" but I've heard it's really really great.  In all reality, what Pixar short film isn't great? exactly.
One of my good friends approached me about recreating an image of the two main characters he'd found.  He and his significant other had seen the film together and instantly fell in love with it, it was sort of "their movie" so to speak.

The original image was found online and if anyone knows where I can link back to the artist, please comment or message me (I believe it was from a Tumblr account).

Anyway, this is my version of that image.  It was done in cool grey prismacolor pencils on a warm grey canson paper.  I loved the feeling of being able to take the neutral tone of the paper and add in my own darks and highlights.  It's much different from working light to dark.

Hope you guys like it!

I may do some more Disney fan art on here, I really do love drawing different characters. :)

Facebook Giveaway!

Hey guys!!

*Sigh* Yes, I'm still alive.


I wanted to send out a short blog blurp about a facebook giveaway for my Illustration page!

I recently hit 100 followers or "Likes" and am hosting a giveaway for a hand drawn original postcard by yours truly to be sent out to the winner.
I'll be posting the official rules, start and ending time tonight on my page so if you are not presently subscribed to my page here's the link to do so Annie Hobbs Illustration - don't miss out!

I've not only got the give away to announce but I also have a pair of blank shoes ready for paint AND a new commission piece to be posting about!!

See you back here soon!

Most amazing Ariel Balloon art I've EVER seen! 

Online illustration videos & courses through Folio Academy!

Hey guys!

I wanted to share something with you that I'd heard about before but hadn't taken advantage of until recently.  As an artist, even though I'm done with school, I'm still very much obsessed with gaining as much knowledge as I possibly can about my craft.  I think it's important to look at different people's processes and constantly try new things. It's how we develop what works and what doesn't work for each of us as individual artists.

Well, I came across a site through several mentionings by other artists I follow called Folio Academy.
It's a great resource for anyone looking to get into Illustration, Children's books, etc but it also offers courses for traditional media techniques as well as digital work.  Even if you've been in the business for a while or have just finished school, I think there is plenty of information still applicable for anyone.

I recommend everyone to go at least check them out and see if there are any courses that strike your fancy :) I've been going through the "How to Illustrate Children's Books" and there's a ton of great advice and information through out. Very helpful and interesting.

*Edit*  The guys have just come out with a new tutorial on getting artwork ready for ebooks!


Go give 'em a look-see!

Hope you guys have a great week!!

Elephants & Tap shoes

**This was supposed to have been published a while ago, but somehow the scheduling part of blogger didn't go through. Oh well! ;) **


Hey guys!

I wanted to share a project with you that I finished up last month for a good friend of mine.  I illustrated a piece for her as a graduation present.

She and I have become pretty good friends over the last year or so; we met in the local community theater and have bonded over a few shows, tap dancing classes, and Disneyland trips.

She is a very creative person, loves to dance, and loves loves LOVES Pinterest! haha so I knew I needed to make her something inspiring that she can relate to in all her crafting a pinning endeavors. It started off pretty sneakily with me sending random texts asking what her favorite animals were... "I need some cute animals to draw, what's your favorite?" I asked.  Her reply was elephants, dinosaurs, baby orangutans, and baby tortoises.  Well, that would be an interesting illustration! LOL

So I got out my sketchbook and proceeded to study up on these.

sweet little elephants

fuzzy orangutans

I posted these to my facebook page to show that I actually was taking her up on the suggestions.  Meanwhile on facebook, I was completely going stalker- status on her pictures page.  It's an odd thing when one finds themselves zooming in on a friends facebook picture and studying the detail of their cheeks and how their eyes are positioned on their face...

.... anyway....


After getting the sketch of her face down I began to work on the composition of the piece.  I knew that I wouldn't be able to put in all the animals she wanted so I started out focusing on the elephant and a little monkey.  In the end, I had to edit out the monkey as the elephant stole the show. It just would have been too distracting as I illustrated the lettering as well.  When I got to the lettering, another text was sent "What are your favorite colors?"... so sneaky ...

Here are some process shots...

sketching out details of her face

I sketch ideas down and then use tracing paper to clean it up and get a full image

redrew the image on watercolor paper with my light box

illustrated Inspiration quote

why wouldn't an elephant wear leg warmers??

totally want to steal her outfit...

final framed piece 

I'm so happy with how it turned out.  That elephant made me giggle every time I looked at her.  Although, the best part was giving it to my friend.  It took all of my will power not to drive over to her house the second I finished, pound down her door, shove it in her face and yell "LOOK WHAT I MADE YOU!!!"  hahaha I'm a horrible gift giver, I can never wait!  I still had like 3 days before her party too.

Anyway, she did open it and she loved it! It lives in her house now above the fireplace tap tap tapping the night away :)

Upcoming Painting Project: Siren of the Sea

Hey Guys!

I know. Again I've taken my sweet time on this blog.

BUT I do have something I'm working on right now to show you!

The time of the year has come again to work on the booklets for the women's society.  I've had the privilege of producing them for the group for the last few years.

This year, I'm combining my love of the sea and a vintage flair to theme the book with mermaids a la the Coca Cola ads from the 40s and 50s!
Here's a sketch of the cover illustration...

She'll be sitting on some rocks and have a string of pearls hanging from her neck to her hand. The rest of the booklet will have ocean spot illustrations with shells, seaweed, sea stars etc.  I haven't yet decided on what element I'll add to make it pop.  I've had lace and flower seed paper in previous years.  

Check back again for the final illustration photo and some progress shots!! 

Have a good weekend!  

Disney Vinylmation

Hey guys!

I'm still alive!

I've just started the design work for a really exciting project, Vinylmations!  The first one is going to be more like a mural than a specific character or object but the theme is going to be Disneyland :D (of course)

I don't want to get into too much detail yet, as I'm just in the beginning stages of it and I don't really want to get my ideas out there before I start working on it.  A lot of people work on Vinyls and I want mine to show mine at it's completion - not that I'm so famous everyone will be dying to copy me LOL but I do want to keep the design safe.  I will be taking progress pictures to show you though when I do post the finished one.

To start off with, and to not leave you without any eye candy, here's a pic of the very beginning of my design process.  My friend bought be this sketchbook at Walt Disney World last year and it has the coolest stencil attached to the back! So much easier than trying to find a pattern online or having to take a straight picture for the right dimensions.

just make sure you have it right side up - the hands are different ;p

Here's a quick pic of the two large vinylmations I have.

The purple paint can be very easily painted over with a white base.  The green looking one, however.... is Glow-in-the-dark!
Whatever surface you DONT put paint on will show through and glow in the dark or under a blacklight.  You better believe this is being put to use in my design. ;)

Thats it for today! Hope you guys have a great rest of the week and weekend!

Ready for the Summer!

It's summer time! YAY!

This marks the first summer vacation I've had since being in school.  It's a little weird but oh so sweet! haha 

My teaching position has finished for the school year and I don't have to be back until the end of August.  Besides having a side job thats about 10 hours a week, I'm pretty excited about having some down time to work on my stuff.  (As I type this, I'm in my pajama bottoms and have a furry purry curled up in my lap) I have so many things I want to accomplish and I know that I desperately need to get rolling on them.  Here's the perfect opportunity! 

I'm currently sketching out some summer ideas to hopefully put on some cards.  

fat babies are so much fun to draw

I'm still working out some other ideas and I need to clean up and tighten this one but it's a start! 

Does anyone have any recommendations for art prints of your work? Do you send the file and have them shipped to you? Who do you use and is it reasonable?

Thanks for any advice!

Stay tuned for more work :) 

Drawing Nights and Doodle Parties!

Hey guys!

Hope you all have had a fabulous week so far, the weekend is almost here again! YAY! (I'm pretty sure I can make it one more day.... focus Annie...)


Last week I was honored to be asked to participate in a Family Reading Night at a local Elementary School here in town. Although the main focus was obviously about reading and they had a big book fair, I was also set up in a class room to talk about illustration and host a drawing session! It was so much fun and I'm really glad I agreed to do it.

I did 3 sessions of 25 minutes to both older elementary ages and their parents/teachers. (In all honesty... the kids did better than the majority of the adults lol).  The kids were excited to be there and it made me happy to see them proudly showing their parents their drawings afterwards. I gave them the option of picking the subject to draw soooo what we ended up with was...
 Session 1: the penguin on my avatar. (Some of the girls saw it and wanted to try)
 Session 2: the character Bullseye from Toy Story BUT he had to have Mater (Cars) teeth.
 Session 3: a howling wolf and a rabbit. (the rabbit was hiding, I have a no blood rule lol)

It was a really great night and it made the kids happy and also excited for the art curriculum coming up in a couple weeks.  I didn't take pictures of the kids, I wanted to but then I was afraid of putting them up on the internet with out their parents knowing and it made me feel like ehhhhh maybe I shouldn't. And they were ushered fairly quickly to the next thing (and cupcakes!) so I didn't get to relish their drawings. Next year maybe!



Next up, I wanted to tell you about something that happened today that made ME so happy :)
In my classes I have a system where the kids work towards a reward at the end of each trimester. I have a giant candy jar on poster board and they earn "gumballs" (those furry pom pom things) with good behavior, participation, and a chance to earn bonus gumballs. IF they fill up the jar by the end, then they earn a fun day with a small snack and something other than the curriculum.  Last trimester I brought in Fantasia 2000 and had cookies. This time the kids decided they wanted to have a "Doodle Party"!

Try to twist my arm on that one! haha

Today I brought in some small pieces of sour candy for them (100+ kids!) and then I started them off on something fairly simple they could follow with. We ended up only being able to one drawing but we embellished a ton and filled up the entire page with drawing! That's hard for a beginner to do; I still struggle with filling the space.

This is from the first 4th grade class I did, they just have a regular overhead instead of a projector to draw from so I went with the white board/expo medium.

I was demonstrating different textures, this puppy cant make up his mind on fur haha

Oh man, my heart was gushing with all the cute little puppies popping up all over the classrooms! Their little toes! ooo! waggy tails! ahhh! and then some added in little drool drips! awww! I was so proud of them and best of all.... the TEACHERS were gushing over all the drawings! One of them wanted the kids to keep their papers safe so they could color them in later and then hang it up on the wall!

We had spiked collars, puppy hoodies, jewels dog tags, mohawks, surfing puppies, puppies breaching security fences... the possibilities were endless for this mutt!

I hope to have a lot more posts about stuff like this. Their art curriculum starts the week after next and it might be changing up from the norm because of some other projects I've been doing at other schools. We'll see I guess :)

Nothing is better than seeing a kid, child, young adult etc be proud of a drawing they did especially when they didn't think they could do it.



Til next time, I leave you with images of happy kids and chunky puppies!

I'm a Guest Illustrator!

How cool is that?!

The elementary school that I work at (I teach music) has asked me to come tomorrow night and teach a couple short drawing lessons for both adults and kids.  I'm so excited!

There is going to be another artist there as well, I'm not sure who yet, but she's going to be working out of a step by step book for animals.  I figured since my schooling is in Illustration, ie storytelling, it would be cool to take suggestions on what animal they would like to draw and place it in some type of storytelling image. Be it a bear in a Tu-tu tight rope walking or a sun bathing starfish!

If any of you are in the area of Fresno, come on down and join the party! It kicks off with pizza at 5:30pm and I think the sessions are like 20-25 mins. Enough to start them and if they want to finish them at home, they'll have an idea of what to draw.


I'll try to get some pictures and do a blog post after!

I'm still alive!!

Ack!! A month has gone by since I last posted. FAIL!

I'm still here guys, I've been super busy and technically I've still been working as a freelancer, but in a different category. I don't have a lot to show you because the work I've been doing has been along the lines of ... shall we say... "Social Media Consulting" for use in a creative field.  I've been helping a client work up a lot of social media sites, connect them together, create a website, link everything together.... phew! it takes a lot longer than you'd expect!

In other news, those of you who've been with me for a while, know that I have been working with some local schools in music and in art.  In one school in particular, I've been developing an Art only  curriculum.  A lot of my time has been spent figuring out projects, how to make them last over a few lessons, and how to actually teach for understanding and not just copying.  It's a challenge! This group of kids are not the typical kids who would choose an art program over other electives so I've been dealing with a LOT of behavioral issues.  It's starting to turn around tho and their first project was a complete WIN for the class!  They felt good about it, the office staff flipped out and called a bunch of teachers to come look at the work.  They even asked to have some laminated and put up around the school!  Granted the work wasn't museum quality (remember they're 6th graders), but it was better than any of them thought they could do.  That's a success in my book :)

I start with the other classed in Art in a few weeks. I'm excited to see where those students go with the program.

I'll leave you with a couple sketches I've managed to quickly put down to paper in between.  Hope you all had a wonderful week and I wish you a restful weekend!

sketch of my puppy love

random doodle

What I Use

Helllooo fellow bloggers and blog readers!

Not much has gone on in regards to upcoming projects except for a freelance consulting type gig the last few weeks.  I client I worked with recently is getting a novel published and needed help setting up some social media sites (facebook, twitter, blogger, etc) as well as looking around for website possibilities.  Its hard to just jump in and try to get all that stuff set up at once. I'm glad I could meet with her and help her out :)

What I wanted to write about today is some of the equipment I use in my mini "studio". (In all reality, it's more like Harry Potter's "cupboard under the stairs"). I would love to upgrade a lot of this stuff but it all works really well and until I have the money to change it, I'm glad I have what I have!

* First things first! I purchased a 15" Macbook Pro in 2006 and this baby is goin' strong! I'm so impressed with Apple computers and glad that I decided to go Mac.  I'm thinking my next computer will definitely be a desktop with a bigger hard drive. This is a laptop (albeit an amazing one!) and it unfortunately cannot hold all the programs, music, pictures, and giant art files I have on here. It's just not big enough. If all goes well, this laptop will still be the travel buddy after I get the desktop. For more info here's the link to the most current version of my Macbook Pro. 

*Next up is my printer. When I purchased my computer through the educational program Apple offered, I could add a printer onto it.  The lowest one was free but they had additional options I could pay a little extra for. I think this one was $50 more. I could be wrong but I'm pretty sure.  I have a Canon PIXMA MP600 That has been a GREAT All-in-one printer.  It's definitely worth the money I paid for it. There are some issues with printing lines if the image is very dark, but most of the things I use it for are light images, scanning, sketch printing, and document printing.  It suits what I need and the scanning quality is really really good. The ink can be expensive if you buy it all at once but it's not too bad and its readily available at any place that would have office supplies (including Walmart).

*Sticking with computer electronics, I went to costco and purchased a 750GB Maxtor external hard drive.  I believe it was around $100. Again, it was around 5 years ago so I could be wrong on that. Ive barely put a dent in the storage space with all the files I have on it. I've also transferred over my iTunes and my iPhoto because my laptop hard drive couldnt hold all of the photo/music files I have haha!

*The next one, I'm super happy to own.  Last year, I used some extra funds to purchase a Wacom Intuos tablet! It's so much fun to use! I actually need to get back into using it. Sometimes when I just want to get the sketch out, it can be pretty easy to set it aside and knock it out with a regular pencil.  I used Wacom tablets in school and they're amazing to use.  I'm so glad I invested in one myself.  (maybe next will be the Cintiq.... ;p)

* Last but not least, I have a couple cameras I use to document my work.  The first one is a Nikon Coolpix 12 megapixel point and shoot camera. This is pretty handy because it's light weight, has different settings, can get amazing detail, and it's fairly inexpensive when you consider how much $$ you can spend on a big ol' legit camera.
I also have access to a Nikon D60 that I've messed around with a few times.  I'm thinking that I need to experiment a little more regarding artwork photography but it has potential to be a great tool.  And I know that Nikon is a great brand of camera. 
Finally, believe it or not, I've been utilizing my iPhone4s to take a lot of pictures of my work.  I don't know how they did it, but photos from this phone are incredible.  Its portable, easy to use, has a flash, and I can even add video documentation. It a great thing to be able to use.

Well, that about wraps it up!  I'd be interested to know what anyone else uses or has used, or even if they have opinions about what I use. Hope you all have a wonderful rest of the week and I'll see ya in my next post!