Girls, Girls, Girls

I'll be honest, it's been a really rough time for me as of late. Hasn't stopped my creativity though, I've been working on some black and white paintings for Dan's cousin, Derrick. We talked a bit about Maleficent, since I went to see it and thought it was AMAZING, and he has yet to see it-but loves Angelina Jolie. So I decided to draw him a portrait of her. I know the eyes are extremely large but I decided to keep them that way-mostly because it makes me laugh. My dad, who is my all time favorite critic, always comments on the "anime eyes" since I'm pretty well known for them. haha. Still, I had a lot of fun with this and it really was a good break from life. I'm not sure what else is so come for me drawing, or otherwise but I hope for only good things.

Double Feature

It is rare for me to post more than one drawing in a span of a day, and even more odd is drawing two completed pieces in a span of two weeks or less...and yet here we are. I never thought I'd get back to this time. The time where my creative mind wants nothing more than to paint and draw and create. It's such a great feeling and it isn't going away any time soon. I have plenty of projects coming up, some not as blog worthy as others but you can bet you'll be seeing a bit more of me in these coming days.
That being said, here is my friend Jess and her boyfriend. Jess saw my Captain Hook piece and asked for a drawing of her own. Her anniversary is coming up so how could I say no?

Captain Hook

If you are as obsessed with Once Upon A Time as I am, then you absolutely LOVE Captain Hook. So naturally I had to draw this piece. It was done in charcoal and I really drew it for my friend Meredith for her birthday...belated albeit. I drew him, framed him and placed him in the center of her desk at work to discover the following morning. It was brilliant and times like these I really think about how much I'd love to receive such a gift myself. Still, he sure is fun to look at in any dimension.

Third Time's A Charm

There's a bit of a back story for this painting. Rita commissioned someone to photoshop a portrait of her family a few years back, because her son had passed away. Her granddaughter was not in the original picture but her daughter was. The picture was less than flattering as her daughter was hung over that morning, so Rita had asked for a different picture to be put in. Somehow there was a miscommunication and the hungover picture remained. A few years later, Rita's daughter begged her mother to have the picture redone correctly. She commissioned my brother to redraw the image and add her granddaughter. Somehow, my brother still ended up drawing the wrong picture of her daughter! Still hungover! Rita told her daughter that her brother was looking over her with a sense of humor because he apparently would not let the fact that she was hungover that day, pass. Years later again and Rita called me to see if I would be up for the challenge. I'm happy to say I have succeeded in at least ridding the drawing of the dreaded hangover. I haven't shown Rita her picture yet, but I am hopeful she will like it. In other news, Riley's due date is only 2 weeks away! We are anxious and excited and the nursery is complete. Now it's just a waiting game.

Riley's Nursery

It's a girl! Haha. Yes, Dan and I are expecting our first child in June. We are very excited for our little "Rabbit" as we called her before we knew her sex. I had a rough first trimester and found I could only really stomach salads and fruits so I nicknamed her Rabbit and it's basically stuck. haha. Riley Rabbit. Has a pretty nice ring to it. Anyway, I've always wanted to do the artwork for my kids nurseries and I found this really cute picture online. I did add the "Highlights" magazine (Dan and I both loved that magazine as kids) and I added "Pickles the Rabbit" who is sitting by the basket. Dan bought me that stuffed rabbit right before our first ultrasound and she has been my company through the whole pregnancy thus far. I think for my next paintings I will continue to sneak Pickles in random places, just to keep the theme.

The Year Was 1912...

Coincidentally it's been one full year since I drew a movie scene. It certainly didn't feel like that long and yet it was. Rather odd how time has been escaping me lately. Nevertheless, here is Jack and Rose from Titanic-same watercolor and conte as usual of course but maybe it's just me but I think it's better than Becoming Jane or even Singing In The Rain. Still, I apologize for the low quality of the image, I never really bothered to compare my photos to another camera until recently and boy is my camera...basic. There is so much the camera doesn't pick up in this piece but I'm going to Staples to get it scanned so that I can have a better copy. It would be interesting to see a side by side comparison at any rate. I've been trying to think of other images I would like to paint-not necessarily movies but poses or expressions that evoke some kind of emotion in me. I like works that I can look at for long periods of time and still find new things I hadn't noticed about them, even though I painted them and that sounds quite impossible. Anyway, I hope something comes up soon because I've been itching to paint but because my process of finding images takes so long, I'm usually not up to the work by the time I'm done my research. That is, if I find anything I can be obsessed with for a few weeks. It's similar to finding a good book, I feel like I double my efforts to make sure I have an interest in the story just to fall in love with the characters and undoubtedly be disappointed by the ending. Needless to say, I am a very cautious person...or perhaps overly paranoid...then again, what's a week in the world of art, hmm? Bonne Chance!

Bernadette Peters

I found this picture of Bernadette Peters online and I love it! So I decided to paint it with watercolor and conte, as per my usual. Haha. I watched "Into The Woods" the other day and she is amazing in that show. My brother got a chance to play Prince Charming in his high school rendition of the show and I remember I helped him learn his lines and the songs during that time. We had so much fun, dancing around the living room, singing "Agony." I thought for sure I'd get into acting after seeing that show. I wanted to play the witch, Bernadette's part, or the Baker's wife. I saw Bernadette Peters once live at Symphony Hall in my Junior year of college, I skipped work that day I was so excited to see her. I had terrible seats but you'd never know with Bernadette's outstanding performance. It was amazing. Anyway, after I found this photo I knew I had to draw it and I hope I gave it justice because she is not a face you wanna mess up on. haha.