Crafty Afternoon

This past Sunday I hosted an artsy afternoon for a bunch of my art friends - we got together and gossiped and ate and did some collage. Here's one of the pieces I came up with - super fun!

Illustration Friday - Robot

Two posts in one day?! Unheard of! But since this week's Illustration Friday theme is Robot - well, I got some of those! Here's one I did last year, he's a 3 color screen print. Hey little fella!

Playgrounds and playtime and playing around....

Here is my submission for Lilla Roger's Global Talent Search, round 1. The assignment was to create a journal cover for Paperchase, in the theme of playgrounds, and use the word "Journal". I created this piece in my new technique of sketchy-lines in Illustrator, and had fun with a really unfamiliar color palette and textures. It feels good! I have no delusions about making it to the next round, but used this opportunity to add a new piece to my portfolio and to continue the theme this year of "Vita gets her groove back."

This journal cover, however, was actually piece # 2 in the GTS planning stage for me. I started out sketching an idea that has been rolling around in my mind for awhile now, of a girl soaring in the skies, held aloft by a handful of balloons, set against a dark stormy sky. I sketched it out, and set her above a playground (thus fulfilling the requirement of this assignment) and began the piece in pastels. SUPER FUN. However, as I was working on it, it didn't feel like something Paperchase would use for a journal - it's to illustratey, and too dark and sort of moody - and really, who would want a weird depressing journal cover?...... so thats when I hit pause, and went on to my second idea, which was the one I submitted.

Here's a snippet of the first pastel piece. I'm going to finish it, because I think it has great potential, and I am playing around with collaging in the girl's dress and balloons. And I think I'll erase the kid's in the playground - I like the idea of her floating in a world alone.... sort of spooky..... Since I never do any artwork thats dark like this, I want to go for it. All in all, I'm happy to have come out of round 1 of the Global Talent Search with possibly 2 portfolio pieces.

Playing around with photoshop

I did a little playing around with my paintings from Make Art That Sells, in photoshop..... it totally changes the mood of the piece. You can see the original colors here.

All about Jimmy Thunder

me: hey did you see my blog post today?

JT: oh, you mean the one where you didn't talk about your loving boyfriend who's so awesome and didn't complain when you abandoned him and didn't spend time with him while taking that art e-course? The one who loves you and takes care of you and made you ice pops? That one? Yeah, I saw it.

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Happy Anniversary, Jimmy Thunder :) Your day has come, here on Life with Sam....

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This is my boyfriend, known on my blog as Jimmy Thunder.

Doesn't he look like a model in this photo? I think he's the handsomest boy in school.

He loves me and takes me places, like in this photo where we are in Franconia Notch at the Basin.

He likes to wear his winter hat in the summer. And then gets mad when I call it his "winter" hat.

It's a knit cap, JT. Of course it's for winter. But I like how he looks like a bad boy in it, what can I say?

He loves my dog Sam.

So sweet, right?

And Sam loves him too.

They're playing fetch. Sam isn't running away from him, I swear.

He can be a goof for the camera, a lot.

And likes to send me silly pictures when I'm not around.

Yes, that is my underwear.

He's great at the "selfies".

And makes me smile.

He's outdoorsy.

And isn't afraid of my own goofy side.

We're cute, right?

hahaha!

And he's a very very talented musician.

That's how the Thunder rolls, baby.

Have I embarrassed you enough, JT?

I wonder what he'll say about this post. His mom reads my blog :)

MATS Week 5 - Gift, plus my thoughts on the experience

Week 5 assignment

The final week of Make Art That Sells part A found us learning about and exploring the Gift market, and our final assignment was to create art for a zippered pouch that was jam-packed and hyper-lush, using imagery from our collections from earlier in the week, plus any other art we had created from the other assignments, if we thought it fit. I based mine on my favorite watch (which I wear for special occasions only) that belonged to my grandma. She received it for her 16th birthday, and it has her initials engraved on back. Its a lovely delicate art-deco piece, and I love love it.

I created this one digitally, scanning in my ink sketches, including hand-drawn numbers and words. I used Illustrator, and layered lots of different items and patterns on top of each other. All in all, I like the composition, and love the numbers and the big watch image, and that I used sketches again within the final art. Color for me has been so tough lately, though with this week's instructions telling us to make the art hyper-lush, I didn't worry too much about color, since I needed to use as much of it as I could. After loving the sketching part, I brought it into the computer, and the from that point on I wished I had done it with more traditional mediums, like collage or cut paper, but with the 4th of July holiday this week and commitments, I did not have time. Sigh....

Make Art That Sells - my thoughts at the end of Part A

All 5 of my assignments

This is going to be disorganized and rambly, but here we go:

I am SO GLAD I took this course. I needed a kick in the butt in regards to my art, my style, my technique, and this class has been a great start to getting me down a new path. I broke away from the computer, like I wanted to, and even created one assignment completely in traditional mediums (Week 4, Wall Art). I fell in love again with simply sketching, and sketching almost everyday. I got my ass kicked by color, and that is far from over. I learned a lot about 5 different industries, and what they each look for in artwork - and that was great, though it wasn't my main reason for taking this class, however in learning so much, and I also learned that I don't know a lot, and that was a great lesson in itself. 

I'm scared and sad the class is over - and I am really really looking forward to Part B. But I'm super glad that Part B isn't until October, because my brain is so full and exhausted from the very intense past 5 weeks, that I need a few months in between to digest, review, and keep creating (and I miss my friends and want to enjoy summer a bit).  I have visions in my mind of perhaps a couple directions I want my work to go in, and I'm really really eager to get started on them. 

I feel like I am at a crossroads in my career right now - and that the past year or so has been a battle - a battle to create a lot of art, even though some of it I wasn't loving, feeling discouraged and lost and envious and stressed and unsuccessful. Of feeling overwhelmed and tired and that everytime I put a pencil to paper it had to come out a masterpiece. And I'm a pretty smart girl I think - I know that those feelings and thoughts are ridiculous, and that I do have a talent, and that I'm putting all this pressure on myself which is completely unfounded. I have a few clients, and I love working for them. I had lost my joy in creating art, and I want to find it again. 

A very dear and smart friend of mine said to me once when I was going through a bad breakup years ago, that I need to be kind to myself. Her words really rang true for my battle-worn heart at the time, and still ring true today while I'm dealing with a battle-worn talent. So I'm going to be kind to myself by taking some time to find my joy again in my art, to figure out what that means, to explore new mediums and techniques, and to find some honest feedback and also love and support. It won't happen overnight, but I've always loved the process of creating art, so the next year or so should be really really good for me.

What do I collect?

For this week's mini-exercise for MATS, we've been instructed to gather "collections" of our own and photograph them, then start sketching and painting.... hmmmm I don't collect anything. No figurines of birds, or vintage letters, or mugs or whatever..... this is tough. I've gone around the house and pulled together a few things... still working on this. Much of it belonged to my grandma - I guess that's a reoccurring theme for me these days. Tomorrow I'll take pictures of my plants - there's quite a few of those.

Sam's collection of toys, which he immediately jumped on as soon as I starting taking them out of his basket

My grandma's crocheting supplies, doilies and buttons

My grandma's extensive sewing kit

Jewelry from my jewelry box - I don't wear a lot, and don't own much

A collection of items that belonged to my grandma, that mean something to me