WIP Wednesday 7 AUG 2013

I've been slowly matriculating my blog postings to my website in a effort to cut DOWN on the number of times and places I need to login.  

I will post here on a weekly basis my most recent WIPs.

I hope you will continue to follow along.

Love & Hugs!

Jenn

What's Old is New

I've been working on my painting skills with some old sketches.  I think, deep down, I am really fighting the urge to work with the real stuff: gouache, crayon, cut paper; you know, the scarey things that go bump in the night and make you wake up in a cold sweat screaming "WHAT IF I MAKE A MISTAKE?"

NEW

OLD

NEW

OLD

I think I am finding a happy medium, though!!!

*pun* 

Drawing Inspiration

"Don't give up on trying to do what you really want to do.  Where there is love and inspiration, I don't think you can go wrong." ~ Ella Fitzgerald

A big struggle of mine, often, has been WHAT to draw...feeling inspired!  That hasn't been the case lately.  I am full to BURSTING with ideas.  The struggle now is getting them all down on paper.

It is when I decided to tap into the well-spring of MY HEART that the greatest inspirations have started to pour out...my characters are gaining more life, more validity and becoming much more honest!!!! My lines are becoming more confident and I think I am becoming a better emotional storyteller.

I am starting to see LOVE on the paper

Recently I stumbled upon the story of Tarra & Bella! 

*yes, I know, apparently I've been living under a rock since I am just now learning about this dynamic duo* 

I allowed myself to feel all sorts of painful emotions and realized the best way to cope would be to tell their story in my own words...

their's is a wonderful story of friendship and loss.

Sad

Endearing

Enduring

& ultimately inspirational!

Hug A Bug...

Or a tree... 

Or a cat...if you prefer.

Haven't had much time to do anything other than doodle but I am keeping the pencil lead sharpened and this chipper gal keeps popping up in my sketchbook.

Hope to be back in the studio this weekend...now that all the bits and bobs are hooked back up and put back into place.

Can't wait to incorporate elements of these two techniques into my process:

Digital Watercolor by Tracy Bishop

From Sketchbook to Screen by Renee Kurilla

*the world feels wide open and full of possibility*

HUG IT!!!

Stuck...

I won't go into the details...but I am stuck...been stuck...trying to become unstuck.  Ever get that way in life? Creatively?  How do you become unstuck w/out becoming unglued?

Still sorting out this one...Dad's arm needs to move, need to add a moustache, I don't like how the bed blends into his pants and the negative/white space is driving me batty.

IF: Yesterday

"Today's mighty oak is just yesterday's nut, that held its ground"

~David Icke

Working on painting a commission piece based on one young lady's many yesterdays with her dad

who died a few years back.

Let Them Eat Cake...

No PIE!!!!

I'd forgotten how liberating working on tracing paper can be.

Also, how liberating loose leaf can be.  Something magical happens when you feel free to turn the paper around...or wad it up and pitch it out.

I become less married to the sketch and and less afraid to start over when something isn't working.

Why do we feel the need to memorialize our sketches?  Does the author feel compelled to save every first draft?

Procrastination Never Pays...

HA!!! I am so stressed about getting my entry completed for the Tomie dePaola Illustration Contest that I find myself doing things like this as I work into the wee-wee hours of the morning (after my 9-5)...

and asking myself questions like: "Does midnight Pacific time on the 14th mean, like, one minute after 11:59 pm on the 13th?  Or, does it mean no later than 11:59 pm on the 14th?  Oh, wait.  Pacific time...*runs off to Google the time difference between EST and Pacific because she thinks it is 4 hours, but...* Ok, so does that mean no later than 4 AM on the 14th EST or ..."

You see??????  Stress ball.  At 1 AM this morning I discovered that the noses and hands of three individuals had all magically shifted, so the hunt was on through 100MB of layers to find where the errant appendages had been misplaced.

Here was my progress onWednesday night - last night I added a guy, two girls, one cat, a wig and half a man.  His other half is all I have left to go.  Oh, and somehow getting this beast condensed down to a 5MB file.

The final is supposed to be in black & white, but I struggle with values so it has been easier for me to paint in color and then convert.

Are ya wondering, yet, what passage I chose?

*giggles*

(I am so wishing I had started this months ago)

Headshots!

Working...working...working on style and technique as I prep for the SCBWI-Carolinas Regional Conference in September.

I am just LOVING what I am doing and hoping it shows!  What are you working on?  Feel free to share with me your link.  I try to keep up, but an woefully behind.