So, I saw this fashion blog recently and a couple of the images inspired me to depict my District 1 ensemble for the Opening Ceremonies of the Hunger Games. For those unfamiliar with the Hunger Games, after the tributes are selected(to compete in a televised fight to the death), they are showed off to the Capitol during the parade of the Opening Ceremonies and are all garbed in really outlandish outfits that are representative of their District. District 1 is the luxury items district. 

The concept behind the outfit is to resemble a white diamond, so the tributes’ bodies would be painted white, and there would be structural, prismatic shaped translucent fabrics containing fiberoptic material that would wrap around the figure to create the effect of a jagged, jewel-like texture. 

Also I thought you might like to see some of the process work for the piece below. 

Also, Blythe Russo and I have some time again to pick back up on our character sketch blog Glitter and Graphite! As our welcome back post, we each depicted our favorite Harry Potter characters. It was a close call for me, but I think it had to be Fleur Delacour. Goblet of Fire is my favorite of the books, and not to sound superficial, but I relate a lot to her in the books. I also identify with certain aspects of Hermione and Luna, but I think in the end, Fleur is who i have to hand it to, haha. 

Keep an eye out for this next weeks post with the goal to design a mermaid character. This has actually inspired me for a small project that I'm looking forward to sharing with you guys, but I'm going to have to keep it under wraps a bit longer! In the mean time, I hope everyone is having a wonderful new year and you haven't given up on those resolutions yet! 

Happy New Year!

I just wanted to take a moment and wish all of you guys a happy new year! I know that I for one am excited for all of the prospects this new year holds! I haven't set my resolution in stone yet, but it definitely involves keeping up with my sketchbook more and not just working on so many finished illustrations. I got a little bogged down on the idea of creating as many portfolio pieces for a while, but I read an interesting article recently about how not everything you do needs to be a finished or portfolio piece. It helped remind me that there needs to be more of a balance between sketching and finished pieces. The case used to be that I pretty much ONLY sketched all day, every day and never finished any solid illustrations, haha! Then when I reversed the process and was only creating to make finished works, I think I sort of put myself in an unintentional block by limiting what I was allowing myself to do.

Anyway, with those thoughts in mind as I move forward into the next year of artistic growth, I look forward to seeing where my work goes! Expect a lot more sketches to be popping up here and there and more blog updates. I'm holding myself to updating at least once a week this year, because it also forces me to be sure I'm generating work! With that, I bring you the first watercolor sketch of the year, another depiction of Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games. In case you haven't noticed, I'm a tad obsessed with the books ;)

Girl on Fire

I'm currently planning out a large illustration of Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games, but the books are really important to me and I want to make sure I really get it right. So I've been sketching up Katniss in a number of ways and this is one of the more finish sketches so I thought I might just throw it on the web to share with you guys!

Testing new techniques

So I got some advice from an illustration rep recently and she had some great suggestions as to directions to start taking my work. I took a lot of what she said into consideration as I finalize some new portfolio images for my grad school applications and decided to trie doing some acrylic work. I did this piece as a mock book or graphic novel cover. I played around with some type treatments, but I want to mull them over with some graphic design friends before I post them all over the web haha. Anyway, I would really love some feedback on this piece, as I definitely plan to continue exploring this method of working.

If anyone is curious as to the back story of the image, it is inspired by an original Hunger Games story... don't act so surprised! I also recently did a watercolor illustration for a made up children's story about a dwarf king's magic goblet. Really, I just wanted an excuse to draw someone wrinkly with a big nose haha.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful December so far!

Rue's Death

This image has been sitting around in my sketchbook for ages, so I took some time off from all my preparations for grad school apps to have some fun and bring it to a finished piece. Though I've done many Hunger Games inspired pieces, I realized this is the first illustration I've actually done based on the book. I hope you guys who are fans enjoy it! For those who haven't read the books yet, hop to it! There are just seeping with inspiration! 

Where is this year going??

Wow you guys, I can NOT believe that it is already December! What the heck happened to this year?? I was banking on a few more months, but ah well! Time wins out over me again! This past month or so has been just absolutely insane with all the children's painting lessons I've been teaching on top of getting everything ready for my graduate school applications. I'll be sending those off next week, so keep your fingers crossed for me! 

I do have a couple small projects I can share with you for now though! I was recently commissioned to do an illustration of a family friend's Christmas cards this year. And I also participated in a little art trade with the fabulous artist, M. Mosley! Her work is so bright and fun, so it was really enjoyable to do a rendition of one of her characters! More updates to come over the next week or so! Things will be winding down again once all of my grad school apps and portfolios are sent off. I'm really looking forward to working on some personal projects for a bit! 

The new ABC show Once Upon a Time has really rekindled my love of fairy tales. For a long time I kept pushing this concept aside because I really wanted to break away from the Disney era of my life. Thankfully, this show has brought me back to my roots and reminded me that what I've always truly loved is the fairy tale itself, not just Disney.

In the very first episode, one of the leading characters had a line that really stuck with me. "... the most important thing anyone can have... hope. Even the possibility of a happy ending is a very powerful thing." 

After fooling around in my sketchbook, the idea for this image came about, and I hadn't played with my watercolors in a couple of weeks so I figured I'd whip them out. I'm trying not to get too set on working solely digitally, because I love being hands on too much to just drop watercolor completely. I definitely see myself continuing to move further in the realm of digital media though.