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!  

4/4/11 Sketch

I'm on a spending ban... which means of course that I want to buy EVERYTHING!

The nail polish brand OPI has a new collection coming out based on the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie. It features a lot of pastels for spring and summer with the funnest names based on the movie.

 

The one I'm particularly excited about is this one entitled "Mermaids Tears"

Mermaids Tears

 Isn't this such a beautiful color?  I have a crackle black nail polish I got a couple weeks ago also by OPI that would look so fun on top of this!
Other colors include:
Skull and Glossbones - a bone grey color
Steady as She Rose - a light pink
Planks a Lot - a purple
Sparrow Me the Drama - a cool bright pink
Stranger Tides - a sage green
& a Silver Shatter
(all of these will be out in May 2011)


Wait... Isn't this supposed to be a sketch of the day?? YES! haha Here's the tie in...

The name of this nail polish got me thinking. If Mermaid tears were sold as a medicine or herb, how would one bottle it?  They'd have to be some pretty intense glass or something to hold it in because from what I've heard about these tears is they can be pretty powerful.  I imagine you'd have to bottle in a thick glass like a pure oil with a cork top and it would be sold by a holistic (is that the right word?) shop.  You know, where you'd find crows feet, or sage bundles, or lizard eyeballs... (i dunno, go with it!)

So ya! that's my take on it anyway.  I'd imagine they'd be more blue that teal and be sparkly and shiny like pixie dust. What do you guys think?

Charcoal Drawings

These are some Illos I did during school in an Anatomy for the Artist class. Super fun projects and I learned a lot about using the space of the paper.


This first piece is of a made up creature. I combined a lion, eagle, and a mustang. It was really fun doing. This was the turning point in school where I realized the impact of this creature would have been stunning if I had done it larger...like a LOT larger!



This 2nd piece is a life portrait that had to be pretty much lifesize. I love saltwater fish and creatures so of course I turned myself into a mermaid! DUH! haha! this took two sections of 2ft wide butcher paper so you can see how big it is. It's very hard to get a photograph of it, but I need to document this better. So much fun to do, it kinda makes me want to do another...