Mmmmmm trompe l'oeil

So the only time I've actually ever done anything trompe l'oeil related, I was a sophomore in high school.
After studying it on and off for 4 years at SCAD, and seeing my fair share of it, I figure it only necessary that I finally visit it properly, and do some for myself.
Not to mention I think it's a vital skill to have as a scenic artist.
And well, I want that skill.
So, here is the latest portfolio project I'm working on...

I've only worked on it for a couple of hours, so it isn't much to show so far. I'm currently working on adding Shade and Shadow. I used the pounce from my sculpture projects, and just mirrored it over. It's only 2' x 2' so it's pretty tiny, and I'm having to work on it with smaller brushes. Not to mention is pretty much impossible to work on it on a stick, so I'm having a lot of bonding time with sitting on the ground.
It's great.
P.S. sorry about the shadow!

Who Knew!!!

I can do sculpture!
Here's some portfolio pieces I've been working on for the past month or so at Juilliard:
I have this tendency to terribly over photo document my projects with process shots, so I am bearing everyone from seeing a gazillion pictures, and just showing a few.
So I found this beautiful drawing of a piece of Gothic architecture. It is listed as a 'Wooden Boss'

huh.

I scaled it up to 1' x 2', and gridded it out in 3" squares. Then I Sharpied it in, and used it as a pounce that I've probably used about 20 times so far.

The sculpture was 5" thick. I glued 1" sheets of blue insulation foam together. The top piece of foam is missing here. This is my Subtractive Sculpture where I transferred the image to the foamboard, and with a Chinese saw, a box cutter, A LOT of Dremel tool-ing, and about 2 weeks of working on it on and off....

and putting on a layer of Sculpt or Coat and spraying a couple of coats of off-white paint I got this fantastic little piece of happy!

Yay!

For the other half of my portfolio project, I did the same thing, but using an Additive Sculpture technique. After about 2 weeks of finding objects to add, way too many Styrofoam balls, felt, shoe pieces, leather strips, string, wood, foam-core, matte-board, packing peanuts, paperclay, foam, animal glue tape, bogus paper, and what seems to be about 5 pounds of hot glue, the final result turned out a little more colorful then my Subtractive Sculpture.

I discovered the beauty of Aqua Resin, and put a couple of coats over it to unify the texture, and sprayed a coat of off-white paint on it, and this is what I got:

It's pretty spiffy. I'm happy with the way it turned out.

Now onto my Tromp L'Oeil painting of the same thing. Yay!

Busy bee with art!

I've been trying to keep my artistic brain juices going by trying to work on various artsy things. Been really into vintage-esque things, and really muted color pallets. Also line weight. I'm really digging variety in line weight. I'm exploring these more and more, and I'm really excited about it. But alas, here is some things I've been working on.

I'm trying to doodle fast, look less...

and block in color better and faster.

I made this bag for my boyfriend's sister for Christmas. It was my first real attempt at making a bag from scratch, on my own, without my mom helping me. I was really proud of it! When I gave it to her, I thought she was going to pass out--apparently that means she really liked it. Score.

Detail of the bag, and I put one of her favorite phrases on it. I did all the embroidery by hand. I really dig that kind of stuff---if I could make a living off of doing that stuff, I'd think about it.

This is kinda old. I'm still exploring this ''couples'' series that I've been working on for the last year or so. Maybe I just like inking things...who knows.

Catch up!

So I know it has been a while....there is no excuse
But for the few people who do look at this, I am going to try to recap the last 2 1/2 months in pictures via as many pictures of Dochas as possible!
So...here we go!

Christmas was good...it was pretty laid back, and quiet...and nice. (Dochas enjoyed her Christmas collar with all the bells on it)

I went to Savannah to visit my boyfriend, and all my wonderful friends still down there. It was great--too short. But then again, it's nice to know I don't have to do homework anymore

I turned 23 and my dad baked me a cake with teal icing with purple, white, and yellow polka dots on it. It was pretty cool, even though it looked like the cake belonged to a 5 year old. (p.s. the colors were my choosing)

Oh yeah...and in December I did my first freelance gig (YAY!!!), helping to paint scenery for "Pee Wee's Playhouse"...yeah, it's kinda nuts. And by nuts, I mean great!

More to come!