Hark, A Vagrant Madonna!

And now for something less completely different... or: back to webcomics!

The next on my reader list is Hark, a Vagrant! by Kate Beaton.

Honestly, this is one of my favorite comics out there right now and I'll tell you why... If some of these had been shown in my history classes I would be less bored by history. I have found that putting difficult subjects in comic form makes me want to learn more about that subject; make sense? Not really. Ok, I will try again: History is totes boring to me. Always has been. Except for Art History, that is... and what little "actual history" gets put into art history for context is all I care about. This pains my husband, who is a history graduate and teacher. Part of what makes it so likeable, is that the famous (or not so famous) people in these comics are all humanized. Meaning I can relate to them in some way, which makes their plight or circumstance something that maybe I might just give two cents about.

My favorites: the covers, the peasants, and sexy Tudors, or anything with wolverine, the pony or her younger self too. Even when I have no idea about the subject matter, I still end up laughing and maybe even learning something, after I go look it up. But SHHHHHHH, comics are silly and rot your brain right?

My doodle for this comic has been daunting. I knew I couldn't pass by without doing one, but like I said, I don't like history enough to try and learn something new just for a doodle. I thought about drawing my husband in her style, but I can't cause she's too good at capturing that essence of a person in so few lines. Then I thought about asking him what his favorite historical figure was, but then again I might have to go look something up, so no.

Today I thought, OK, if I did a comic like this, it would be about art history right? So pick something from that... duh. I wanted to do a comic about Dali in his limo full of cauliflower since that story has always stuck with me, but it is funny by itself. So I started looking through all the images I have kept from my art history classes... Oh lord, the Spiral Jetty... that is only funny to a certain few of us I think. Ahah! That will do.

This painting, so strange with the proportions... With a neck like that, it's no wonder Mr. Giraffe liked her. And I am pretty sure that babies do not look like that.

30DC: Day 28: Anything You'd Like

Anything? Anything. I apologize in advance if you are offended. Also if you are, that's silly; everyone has a sense of humor!

My one of my drawing practicum final projects involved drawing a bunch of angel statues. I meticulously recreated the stony yet delicate expressions of sculptors who died centuries before I have ever even been thought of. Only after I finished three images (each of which took months to draw) and displayed them in a show did my professor say something that has stuck with me. "You know what would have been cool? To draw them with silly faces."

Too late then. But I haven't had a chance to do it. So I thought I might try it today. Of course I picked a day to do this when I have literally no time to spare for drawings. So that is why it is a day late.

I started off looking at images of silly faces from a Google search and found one I thought would be fun to try to draw. I had a general composition in mind and was originally thinking of a this angel I had already drawn. Thinking this might work, I placed the head to one side of my page... After getting most of the way though the face I decided I wasn't too happy with it, so I started looking for other faces to test. I found another I liked and since I had assumed these were tests before a real one on another sheet I placed it in the space next to the first. Only after I did that, did I realize there might be a connection between the two faces.

It was easy to see where it should go from there. These two, Gabriel and Mary, have been together in countless number of images already; why should they sit for all those serious paintings without doing a silly one?

PS: Thank you sooooooo much to you know who are, for giving me an awesomely amazing set of pens that made today's image possible.

Business Card

So I thought since I might be doing some freelance in the future, that I ought to have a good business card for myself. I came up with this. Most of the art on the card is mine (can't take credit for the love birds, except for the coloring) and has all of the info one should need to find me. Cute no?

Angelfish

Angelfish
Graphite, Corel Painter
Spring 2007

So here's one from before Adia and her Daughter, where I was still using Painter. But I like the cleaner gradations and colors in Photoshop better, and here I was still tracing over all my scanned graphite lines so it took forever.

Another Angel

Angel
Graphite
Fall 2004

So yeah, here's another angel. She's an older style with bad human figure proportions and hands, but I was really just playing around with lines. It's the wings that are different. Instead of just drawing a feather I tired to use the little lines to make them seem fluffy. Not sure if I succeeded or not but just thought I'd throw her up there, she is one of my favorites, even with all her flaws... It's her face.

In Blue

In Blue
Oil Pastels on Vellum Paper
Spring 2006

So here I was really just having fun with the pastels and the paper I had from the Angel Project. This is after Angel 2, but I really just let myself have fun with the colors. After doing the three Angels, I was really tired of black and white and gray.

Angel Sketch

study for Angel project
Graphite
Aug 2005

This is from the same photo of Angel 1, of course here it is uncropped. I really liked the pose in this one and there was going to be a bigger wing and of course more clothes an body. But for the sake of time I chose to only use the faces and shoulders so that the three pieces would feel more like a cohesive whole.

Angel 3

Angel 3
Graphite and Charcoal on Vellum Paper
Dec 2005

Here is the final piece in the series of angels. I really liked working on the little bit of wing and the hair. I hope the details again show through.

Angel 2

Angel 2
Graphite and Charcoal on Vellum Paper
Dec 2005

Here is the second of the three angel pieces I did. The first one is really my favorite, but that is because I feel it is more detailed than the others, of course the first took about 4 months to create and the deadlines for class were rapidly approaching to have the others completed. But again the dramatic lighting and the serene subject matter creates a great piece.

Angel 1

Angel 1
Graphite and Charcoal on Vellum Paper
Dec 2005

This is the first of a series of three angels, inspired by the photographs taken in Rome the semester before. In these works I was really focusing on the play of light and dark and all the mid tones. Also I had recently taken a human figure drawing class and was looking to continue to keep working on that discipline.

Pisa Cathedral

Here's another where my theme of angels creeps in. The fantastic architecture is overwhelming, but in this perspective it is the human relation to the space, and the immense feeling of space that is created by the building, that takes center stage.

Angel

Here's a photo from the Bridge of Angels in Rome. Taken during my semester there for school, it is the theme that I picked for myself. Aside from angels being my namesake, their serenity and beauty is what I aspire to. I have a series of drawings after more photos I took around Rome, which I hope to have up soon. Stay Tuned.