It's nearly DECEMBER!!

Holy Cow, has this year flown by already!
I can't believe Thanksgiving is now behind us and the New Year is creeping up.  It's good tho I guess to have 2011 almost in a close. It's been a hard year for a lot of people I know and we've all been ready to start afresh with 2012.

However, we still have a good 30+ days left that we need to get through :) And within those are more days of school annnnnnnd..... CHRISTMAS! I absolutely love Christmas time! I think my favorite part of it is the atmosphere of warmth and being with family... oh and the smells! I don't know why but this part of the year just explodes with yummy smelling things.  Candles, baking, pinecones, christmas trees, fireplaces, and even the smell of your heavy coats haha! I'm completely soaking it all in!

This part of the year is always super busy with so many things happening at once. As most of you know, I am teaching in a couple elementary schools and this next week I'm going to be starting a new art curriculum that will run til the end of the year.  It's a great opportunity and a fantastic experience, I think, to be able to see how these kids respond as they don't have a regular art program built into the system.  I'm a little nervous but I think it will work out fine.

In other news, I've been spending most of my time outside of work  down at the local community theater.  We're putting on the show "White Christmas"! It's full of tap dancing, jazz numbers, fantastic costumes, and a really really great cast.  It's been so fun to be a part of it! I'll be glad to have some time to myself after all this though haha, it takes a lot out of you. We've been going since October and we open next friday.

With all this going on, I'm sad that I haven't had time to get more work done. I really wanted to have a Christmas postcard to send out but every time I have a day free, I'm either down at the church helping my dad out or I'm getting costumes ready, time just seems to fill up magically!  I am working on a special commissioned Christmas project for a friend that I can share after the holiday.  Its going to be so epic, I can't wait!

Until then, I hope and wish all of you a very special and memorable holiday!

"oh... I love... my pretty little flower... "

Have you guys seen Young Frankenstein? You know the little girl who's sitting by the well that sings that song? well, that's all the words and she repeats it over and over and over and over... and I've had that in my head the whole time I was painting tonight. So... TAG, you're IT! heehee

Tonight I was working on the cover for a commissioned booklet.  I forget how much fun watercolor can be. It can also be a bit intimidating if you try to think too much about it. But I find that if I just jump in and work from the lightest to darkest, you at least have a game plan. The rest will fall into place.

I wanted to post up some work in progress pics and then post the final image :)


This is the beginning stages, I worked up some washes of lights and since this flower was so vibrantly red, I didn't have a lot of yellows or pinks to add in. I don't normally like "local color",  which is basically light and dark of the same color hue, so I've tried to take some liberty and add in different tones of red. 

here you can see a bit more, I've used some magenta and added in some yellows on top of the red. To get the deeper tones, I did washes of pure violet on top. It doesn't change the red too much but definitely makes it richer.

Here's the final image :) after I was finished, I scanned it and removed the paper scribbles in photoshop and enhanced the red back to the original color.  The scanner sometimes tends to wash things out.

Hope you guys enjoyed this! I certainly got into the mode of painting and this project inspired me to keep these paints out!

Have a great rest of your week!!

Plantable Seed Paper

Hey guys!

Sorry I've been so MIA lately. Summer has been a busy time! You'd think that not being employed would give me more time on my hands, but apparently word gets around that you're available haha.  I went a lot of places, helped a lot of people, did GREASE at the local theater, and got a job! I'd call that a successful summer :)

The last few weeks have been pretty busy still, I started at my new job about a month ago and it takes a bit to get into the schedule of things and teaching is a whole new experience for me. So far so good, though! I've begun the design and editing for the Womens' Society booklet this year and that segues to the topic of this post.

I came up with a garden-esk theme for this year.  Last year was fancy jewelry and lace so I wanted to bring something to this one to make it rival the former.  I'm watercoloring a bright floral design on the cover, then inking it, and as end papers to the booklet I'm adding in some plantable seed paper! I'm really excited to see how the ladies react to this part. They FREAKED (in a good way!) over the actual lace I included last year as end papers, and as they pretty much all have gardens I'm hoping this paper gets the same reaction.

I ordered multiple sheets of this 8.5 x 11 petaled paper.

If you are interested in looking up how this works, I ordered from this company: Botanical Paperworks They have some big clientele such as Starbucks and Martha Stewart, so I'm really anxious to see it in person. Actually, I remember getting a Starbucks card for Christmas that came in a plantable little envelope. I didn't plant it because it was so cute, but it was remembered for sure!

The week that just kept on going!

Wow! what a week!

Talk about having a billion things going at once.  It's times like these where I really need to set up a calender/scheduler thingy.... it's pretty sad i don't even remember what they're called.  You know, those things where you write down what you have to do.... oh a PLANNER! ahahahaha! Yes, Yes! I need one of those!

(that whole paragraph is proof I do not premeditate my blog posts... maybe I should start)

Anyway, yes last week was crazy with a capitol C! It was filled with tech rehearsals for Grease (just in case you didn't know, I'm cast as Patty Simcox :) with our local community theater), I was trying to get all my costuming accesories together for opening performances all weekend, I had a job interview on thursday that I GOT!, I then had to get a ton of paperwork together for the hire packets, I had a freelance job for 300 tickets plus flyers and posters that I designed and had to get printed - which I did myself as well as cut, perforate, and bundle everything, I went into the theater to help paint for a bit... the list just went on and on!

But I can say that everything was done on time and the week flew by!  With it came two huge accomplishments as far as my little business goes.
1. I rocked the heck out of those tickets and flyers for a new client that will hopefully be repeat business. *fingers crossed*
2.  I landed a job that involves me teaching ART! I will still have time to do my freelance on the side and I'll be getting paid to develop the arts (music, drawing, and maybe drama) in elementary schools.

Another cool thing about this position is that, from what I understand, the Art section they've been doing the last 2 years is relatively new.  The program for many many years has been a lot of music and drama.  I'm the only "artist" of the group.  I'm excited to be able to help/work with the other staff and figure out new ways of teaching the basic concepts.

This week has been pretty busy too, but not nearly as hectic as last.  I'm hoping to have a couple things up to show you guys soon.  The last couple projects haven't really been things that I can put on here because of personal/contact info and to blur it out would be the entire thing.

So hang in there with me :) I promise to have some stuff soon!

Hope you all have a fabulous week!

Illustration update

Hello to all this fine hot July day!


Phew! this year seems like it's going by like lightening! I can't believe it's already at the halfway point. It's sad really that there hasn't been that many things this year that have made me stop and appreciate it. I'm sorta just going a light speed and paying it no mind.

Anyway, I wanted to give you guys a little heads up on some projects I'm working on. I've been given the opportunity to pick up a couple freelance projects this last week that are exciting and I have an interview for the Arts Technician job within the school district this Thursday! Wish me luck! :) It would give me a great opportunity to make a bit more $ hourly than my last job and still give me more day time to do freelance. Now that I have my website up and running, I need to focus on getting content up every chance I get.

That's it for now :) I'm off to do a bit of designing. 

Hope everyone in the US had a fabulous 4th of July holiday!

Tooodles!

Disneyland's Soundsational Parade!

Another Disney post?!

Yes! For those of you who don't like Disney (to each his own) I promise that this has a tie-in to Illustration! :)

The newest parade at Disneyland Park was designed by the Illustrator team of Kevin Kidney and Jody Daily.  Both have an extensive amount of previous work that has been available at the park.  Besides the parade they've had a lot of acknowledgment for their sculptures of past Disneyland merchandise and attractions. The parade floats you'll see in the pictures below were designed first as paper sculptures! That's right... no clay, no plaster... only paper! Then obviously they were built to full size after "fine tuning" (haha!) everything.

The whole of the parade is based off of percussion instruments mostly. It kicks off with a drumline doing all kinds of tricks and beats as they walk down the route. Most of the performers in this part were actually in the film "Drumline" that came out a bit ago.  You can also see in the picture below that Mickey has a set of drums too! Disney hired professional musicians for a lot of this parade.

drumline, Mickey & Minnie

Aladdin comes up next, which is pretty much the typical float and belly dancers, I didn't get a very good shot of it. But the best part is the little monkey Abu who follows behind. He clashes his symbols in time to the music.  I don't think Abu has been a part of any Aladdin attractions before.

Abu

Then Ariel appears behind her floating sea creature dancers! Her float is so pretty with all the bright colors.  She actually spins around 360 degrees so everyone on each side can see her and what under the sea float would be without bubbles! The octopus has all sorts of movement up there on the top.

Ariel and Friends

This little guy was cracking me up! He was so random and was just chilling towards the back of the float haha I don't know if he has a counterpart on the other side or if there is a similar awkward type character but I had to show you guys.

Next up was a tribute to The Three Caballeros! They haven't been a part of a Disney attraction in a really long time. I love their costumes and little bubble butts with tail feathers! (is that weird? ... probably...)

Then came the token Princess float. The only real difference I saw in the float design was the addition of Rupunzel's tower.  But really, how many princess floats can one design before they all start to flow together? (I was always secretly glad Ariel gets her own float ;P)

Simba followed suit with his entourage of African dancers, Turk, and King Louie.  It was fairly simple in this section, but cool to see a throwback to the Lion King parade.  Simba's drum float is similar to the one you'll see Tinkerbell has in a bit.

Tiana and her showboat came right behind.  This one was pretty cool! The boat is modeled after the Mark Twain and included musical instruments in the architecture. The "water" reflected on the underside of the boat too.

Next up was Tinkerbell and some generic fairies.  Peter Pan, Captain Hook, Smee, and some pirates also danced around her float.  Tinkerbell, I'm pretty sure was a drummer too. She had some bongo type looking mushrooms at the top of her drum.

Last, but not least, comes my favorite float of them all! Which probably is exactly why its the big finale section.  Mary Poppins comes through with her gang of Chimney Sweeps and the most magnificently designed float I've ever seen.  It's so intricate and amazing.
The Chimney sweeps come through with their dance number and then Mary and Bert ride around on their carousel horses!

it's a BIKE!

Ok, now remember how at the beginning I told you guys that this was all originally designed with PAPER?

Here's the rest of Mary Poppins's float .....

It was so good!  Some parades are hit and miss (the ones you run to the attractions during) but this one definitely works for me.  I wouldn't mind standing and watching it more than once.

Now after all this, it makes me laugh about how many times uninformed people automatically think "books" when the word Illustrator comes up in conversation.  Now you can add "parade float design" to the list of examples to give them ;)

If you would like to see more pictures i took of the parade, here's a public link to the album on my facebook:
Soundsational Parade

I did it!!

I finally got my website up!!

Granted, I had to sway a bit from the original plan, but it's up and it's doing it's job! :)

I still have plan A, which is doing it through wordpress and headway, but I was stuck going around in circles to get it up.  I needed to work on more content, but I needed to learn how to import and set up all the pages, but I didn't have things to import, and I needed to get my business cards printed, but I needed my website up, but i had to learn how to import before I advertised... blah blah blah... (head bash against the wall)


SO! for now, I've signed up with Weebly.com and set up a simple website with my own domain. It looks awesome and I can direct people to a professional looking site off my business cards. It feels so good to have at least something up! Now I can focus on getting more work posted and marketing myself.

And Now... (drum roll please!) .... I present to you all, for the first time on the internet... 

my WEBSITE!

www.anniehobbsillustration.com

If you have any critiques or suggestions or anything, please leave a comment :)