another port for a friend

I'm really happy with the way this one came out, got a few things figured out:

Love and coffee,

~Anne

BJ Final

The final piece for the commission of the grandsons:

Love and coffee,
~Anne

Business Card

Completed one commission in the wee hours this morning and realized I need to print some more business cards. Then I realized I had never posted my card here, and after some thought I decided to take my phone # off the internet version of the card, just wanted everyone to see the design:
The drawing is borrowed from a computer Ill project. I'm happy with it.

Love and coffee,
~Anne

UPDATES!!!

This piece is fighting with me every inch of the way. I'm to the painting part and at times I think it's just a little too big for this technique, but I know I can do it. The drawing was tough too, but I got it:

And then there's the piece for our friend Chris. His daughter is so cute that she's actually making it harder, it's gonna be a real challenge to do her proper justice. For example, I initially drew her and thought the drawing was done. When I got to school to scan it I realized how off it was and ended up erasing nearly the whole drawing, but to good end. Here's the final drawing for that piece:

Last for this post is the thumbnail for the piece with Lydia's kids. We met at the beach early in the morning and I got some good shots to work from. My favorite ones didn't show the kids' faces so I decided to do additional portraits so she has each of the kids and also the group shot. This is entirely selfish, of course. It allows me to do the painting I want, who would say no to bonus art? :)

And that is all for now!
Love and coffee,
~Anne

Commission work

Having received new photos for my commission for the portrait of the two boys I made up two new thumbnails:
I, of course, preferred the less formal, less posed image on the left, the photos I would be referencing were very nice, the older boy looked like a cherub in his photo. I left it to the commissioner to decide and he seems to be a fan of formality, so formal it shall be. :)

Did I mention I am trying to finish this piece by the end of the week? I also have a second commission to finish by the end of the week, for our friend Chris. It's a portrait of his daughter, for his wife for their anniversary, which was passed before he sent me the reference. She is seriously adorable (even if you can't tell from my thumbnails):
I was concerned that he wanted her whole body in the image and I was having trouble making it work so I drew the above thumbnails and asked him. He said he prefers the bust and that made me happy. ^_^

The drawing for the two boys is done, the background is a little crazy, but I am confident I can make it work. After these two I have another commission for another co-worker at the census, also of children, and then I have some older work to catch up on. Lots to do before school picks up.

Love and coffee,
~Anne

New project

Having brought the portrait of Robert to work to deliver, I was offered a small commission by another of my census workers, it'll be a painting of his grandkids, for their mother's wedding anniversary. He would like me to incorporate a bunch of things that the two boys like. He brought me a bunch of photos of the boys and I came up with two thumbnails:

I am really hoping he'll go for the first one, it'll be a lot more fun to work on and I really think it'll just be a nicer piece...

Love and coffee,
~Anne

A portrait

I have been working at the census and not finding any time at all to do artistic or creative things. This has sucked. Alot. So, I asked one of my co-workers, a fellow by the name of Robert:
If I could perhaps paint his portrait. He agreed and I brought my camera to shoot the above photo. My hope was that having someone I see everyday waiting for artwork would prompt me to make good use of what little time I did have between shifts. It helped. I soon showed him the drawing:
And then a painting:

I think it's good, I'm pretty happy with it.

Love and coffee,
Anne

Summer Began! A personal post.

So far summer has been pretty alright. My camera, which I thought was broken, just had something lodged in the lens cover, which was remarkably easy to fix once I caught on.
I planted a garden early in the summer, while I was still looking for a job. Liv and J came and helped, it was a lot of fun. Then I got hired by the census and since then I have had so little time to do anything at all that I've been going a little crazy. I'm good at data entry, great even, but it's boring. For awhile I kept hoping I'd get fired for lack of work but things have picked up again. I still have high hopes that I'll be without work for most of August so I can get some work done, especially on Matt's goblin story.

Love and coffee,
Anne

The end of the school year 4/4: Installation part 3

One of the most awesome projects we had this semester in installation was the outdoor project. We went to a horse pasture owned by a friend of Wendy and had about two hours to decide what we were doing and where and then to execute the piece. I was thinking about my grandfather who lives in California and after a little while this piece just sort of happened. I gathered all the fallen branches from around the tree and wrapped them carefully, stacking them and interlocking them. I think it became a very pretty piece by the end.

Love and coffee,
~Anne

The end of the school year 3/4: Installation part 2

My first attempt at setting up this piece was a disaster, it was a windy morning and by the time I got the class there to look at it it was just a bunch of cigarette butts scattered in the courtyard. This time I soaked them in a bucket of water all night so they would not blow away but even still the piece had to be smaller than I had intended because halfway through the bucket the butts I had put down first were drying out and starting to blow away. Even still I'm happy with the piece. It was actually rather pretty while it was set up. Maybe next time I shall soak them in oil...

Love and coffee,
~Anne

The end of the school year 2/4: Installation part 1

Installation was a really fun class and I think it didn't get as much of my attention as it deserved sometimes. This project is an example of that. We had to come up with a participatory art project. I wanted to send postcards and I had an idea that had to do with hallmark and sending kind words that have nothing to do with you or your loved one because you didn't write them. It was a good beginning but I started in on the project without ever figuring out all of what I wanted to say with it.

Love and coffee,

Anne

The end of the School Year 1/4: Figure

Not much to show from figure painting this last semester. I really feel like I didn't learn anything the whole time, I don't have a better sense of painting with oils, I don't have a better grasp of what colors to use and how to apply them, in general I feel like the only thing I got out of the class was a feeling of frustration and despair toward oil painting. That said, here are two of the few paintings I was actually happy with from the semester. There's another one I would like to post but the file is lost.

Love and coffee,

~Anne