Update

Hi everyone. A little update: I am moved and now have a little office space seperate from my bedroom to work in. . .I am more settled in than not. . .and I am back from a visit back home. . .so that means I should be posting more here. . .I hope!

A few weekends ago, I took a trip to Montauk on what turned out to be a very rainy weekend. . .this is a quick little watercolor I did inbetween torrential downpours.

Enjoy.

"Where have I been?. . ."

. . .you may ask. My apologies for failing to flood the net with drawings. Life is happening and a lot is going on. I am currently in the middle of trying to find an apartment and move by June 1st, so I doubt I will have anything till after I move. I've also been swamped by freelance, so please forgive me. I will come back soon.

Let there be nothing. . .

. . .but inspiration!

The time has come. . .when I have nothing to post! (Well to be honest, I have old sketches on post-it notes I can scan in, but I want to offer something fresh) I promise you that it is not due to idle laziness. I've been working too much. But during the time it has taken me to save large photoshop files and take a quick "break," I have found some cool inspiration. So this is what I'm posting for this week:

Check out:

John Nevarez-hot stuff.

Stephanie Lo Stimolo- this is what I want to do!

The Consumption of Time. . .

Such a limited resource. . .although ultimately very unlimited as it always continues on and on.

I've been very busy and have been working nonstop for work and not for me. I just acquired another freelance project- a digital painting for a Spongebob game. So, yet another reason why I won't be able to do my own stuff :(

Shame on me- when I had time to be productive, I wasn't. . .but hey- we all need breaks right? Yeah, I needed a break and to take care of things.

I picked up the 2006 Writer's Market book so that I can try and get some writing published. There are so many things I want to do that I end up being scattered and not getting anything accomplished. . .so as long as I am working towards creative goals, then I am moving in the right direction.

So my one moment of sketching bliss was at lunch this week. Over the weekend I thought of an image with a three eyed frog. I don't know if this relates to my goal of trying to combine two very different interests in order to make my life more complete. On one hand, we have the art which seems all very self-serving to me. On the other hand, we have the desire to do something for the greater good- primarily something related to the environment and social change. So the only way I can see marrying the two is if I can do images that in someway move people or motivate people to change or think. . .so I thought about 3 eyed frogs. Why 3 eyed frogs? A la "The Triplets of Bellville"- Darwin, mutation, environmental contamination, etc.. . .and then my mind automatically went to the fastastical and in some way off topic, but also very on. A frog catching a little human "fly." Didn't get that far in my lunch sketch, but here it is. It definitely can be pushed. . .so I shall play with it more if I decide to settle on this.

Burned out on Adobe Illustrator and Freelance

On Wednesday, the Freelance God pointed his ever so massive and burdensome finger at me and said "She looks lacking in work-I can fix that. Make her work during the day and night. Give her freelance and make sure she says yes!"

And so I was given freelance work and I said yes. And each time I do that, I really wonder if it's worth the money. No, I don't think it is when my sanity is at stake. So this is the partial reason why I have no new drawings to post. But I am posting a sketch that is only 3 or 4 weeks stale and, to stoop even lower, my self-portrait I painted a 2 months ago just to practice painting. I know people have seen this one, but not *Everyone* has. . .so there ;p




I may have more to show regarding this sketch in the future. I'm thinking of doing some illustrations featuring this creature.

The Art of the Corpse Bride exhibit- NYC

Hi everyone. Here are the pictures I promised from the art of Corpse Bride exhibit that was down in Tribeca. Enjoy! Art of Corpse Bride

If the drawings could talk

At last- my second post! It looks like Thursdays will be my scan days because I don't have a scanner at home (well, my scanner is still in CA believe it or not) and this seems to be a convenient day to stay at work. Thank you everyone for checking this out and posting supportive comments. It means a lot to me :) Aye- such warm feelings during the bitterly cold winter. Okay- enough sappiness ;p

I saw an exhibit on the art of Tim Burton's The Corpse Bride in Tribeca on President's Day. There was some nice conceptual art plus actual maquets which were beautifully done. I'm sure some of you have the Art Of book, but I did take pictures and will post a link once I get them up on the internet for your viewing pleasure.

My friend Kisu who is smarter and funnier than I said this: "Nice art blog. Although, it would be more interesting if all the text were written from the point of view of the artwork. So then it would truly be your art's blog." And I am going to partially steal his idea and pretend that I am just as smart as him! ;p I shall ommit "all" and replace it with "some" so that it reads "some of the text." Give me a moment- I'll get to it.

Backstory: So I signed up for this Conceptual Art and Character Design class at NYU (Continuing Ed). It didn't turn out to be what I expected and was more geared to beginning students than anything. I was very disappointed because it sounded like it could be good and dropped it. For some reason, I'm under the impression that I missed out on something in school because I didn't take animation classes and think there's a class out there that will teach me something that perhaps I missed. But here are some sketches that were kind of for this class but most importantly for myself. More character driven:



This is for a character named Elan, Maker of Peanut Butter. There is a partially finished children's story to go with this that I wrote a bit ago. . .I just have to finish it! So, if art could talk, it would say: "Damn, you'd think she'd make me at least interesting looking. . .different you know? Instead I look like bloody Harry Potter! After a second pass- you think she'd improve?! Heck no! More Harry Potter! Just draw me a damn wand and I'll cast a spell that'll free me from Erin's pencil!"
Yeah. . .I'm sorry- I didn't mean to that. . .but you do kind of look like Harry Potter. I'll work on you some more, I promise.
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The old guy is derived from an idea about a farmer who is not really a farmer at all. Not really developed, so I am not going into it. I like the style- must have been a "good drawing day." The little girl- lunch time sketch at the front table where people were chit chatting about their children while glancing suspiciously over to me wondering whether I was drawing them or not. . .I wasn't! ;p And if art could talk: "What bliss- I came out on a good day. But where's the rest of me?! You gotta get beyond heads girl!" My response: Um yes, I do tend to do a lot of heads and upper bodies. . .gotta get comfortable with drawing the whole thing! Solution: Let's attend some life drawing sessions- I haven't been keeping that up and I know it would help.
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I wanted to see if I could draw anything beyond Dora and the Backyardagains. I really don't know the way I like to draw anymore and whether I want to go more cartoony or realistic. But I think something inbetween is nice. . .and my answer could be found in those I am inspired by. And the art says: "Awe, the cuteness! You know it's not in her blood. She likes to draw ugly and scary things. . .or well at least used to. So she gives me an ugly doll and sneaks it in that way."
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Some sketchbook pages. I'm almost done with my little sketchbook- yay! I can't wait to get a new one.
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I went to the American Museum of Natural History on Saturday to draw and see the Darwin exhibit. Rusty at animal drawing. . .even dead animals! I like the line quality of the Sambar though. Better than my previous attempt. When do parents become so stupid? How many times did an adult say, "What's this, a reindeer?" for the child to go "No, read the sign- it says it's a Sambar!" Very funny how many times you'll hear the same thing over and over as you sit there drawing. Two young kids (maybe ages 7 and 9) sat next to me as I was drawing with their own sketchbooks and their mom was handing them crayons of their request as they were drawing the animals. I was very impressed. I wish I had been encouraged to go sketching at museums when I was little. They seemed to be having fun and I tried to give them some encouragement.

And. . .now that this is the longest blog in history. . .I shall say good bye till next time. I probably won't be so wordy always.

*Erin

"When drawing was fun"

At last! I've decided to jump onto the art blog bandwagon. I don't feel I have been drawing enough and thought this would be a good way to try and keep drawing. I can't promise the most brilliant chicken scratches (although, I bet they're better than any farm chicken can do!), but I'll try my best to keep this up. I can't help but think of the little engine who could. . ."I think I can, I think I can. . ."

"The little drawer who could. . ." Well, I'm not so little anymore. . .and I don't think I can. . .
I know I can (although sometimes, I don't think I can. . .but that's in moments of frustration and we all have those every once in a while).

The other night, I was thinking about how I used to draw as a kid. . .and remembered those wonderful days of bliss when drawing was fun; when one could sit down with a box of crayons or a pencil and draw, draw, draw without hearing commentary from classes, teachers, peers, art directors, and the most critical self playing in one's head. The world was a lot more innocent back then ;p

So I thought for my first post, I'd post some sketches about my memories of drawing:







Hope you enjoy!

*Erin