Character- Mr. Beaman

Sometimes a simple line and shape drawing is all you need to give a character some expression.
Here is today's character, Mr. Beaman. This design was used on a shirt where the students asked me to draw their teacher, Mr. Beaman on a bike.

Character- Henry the Owl

I think I'm going to try and do a character study at least every other day to help keep up my illustration skills. My process is usually step by step. Here is how I create a lot of my digital drawings:1. sketch out a rough (and I mean rough) idea
2. outline that design on a separate sheet of paper
3. scan into the computer
4. go over the shapes digitally and add colors/text.

Today's Character-- Henry the Owl
Today happens to be 1-11-11. January eleventh, of 2011. :) Those sort of dates don't happen all that often.

Kodak

Kodak the cat. This is pretty much what our cat likes to do all day when he's not playing in his box and getting toys out everywhere. If only I could train him to pick up his stuff after playing!

IF- Deja Vu

Here is a quick graphic for this week's word Deja Vu. Anytime I feel I've experienced deja vu is when I dream something and then later something similar happens in awake life. I haven't had this happen for a long time though. Actually, it's been a while since I've remembered a bunch of dreams. It's definitely a cool experience. Does anyone else ever have dreams where they see people but not their faces? I'm sure that is a symbol for something but then again, just about everything supposedly means something special in a dream. My dreams always have a lot of water in them. I think that means emotions or change. Not surprising since my life has changed a lot in the past few years. So far, it's all been pretty good change. This image was inspired by a poster from a Lincoln High School play in Des Moines. I once dreamed I saw a guy like this walking in New York, a few years later when I visited New York City, I saw someone similar walking around Times Square. Deja Vu.

Sleepytime

Tired today. Very very tired. I definitely need to go to bed earlier. But I'm never tired at night. It's the curse of the artists I say!! All my creativity comes to me at about 11:30 at night. Doesn't go well with my real-life schedule of getting up at 7:00. Ugh.
I wish I could do this today instead. I can't really remember the last time I just slept in the sunlight. Probably more than a year ago. That's sad.

Actually, the last time I sunbathed was probably when I went to Cancun over a year ago. And to be honest, I didn't spend that much time in the sun then even. Chad and I decided we'd visit Mexico during hurricane season. Yes we are what you would call - spontaneous decision makers. Still fun time though.

IF- Resolutions

My New Year's resolution is to paint and draw more for fun. Too often I just end up using my art talent for solely jobs and work. Sometimes I forget it's actually my hobby too. So I bought a bunch of canvas, my boyfriend gave me a ton of art supplies and I've been sketching ideas like crazy! Not a bad start.
So this time next year, I'll have much more artwork to show.... here's hoping. :)

Also, here are my secondary resolutions I'd like to accomplish this year:
* Lose 10 lbs. (I think this is just about everyone's resolution)
* Run the Chicago Marathon
* Save more money
* Learn how to play full songs on the acoustic guitar (instead of mindlessly strumming chords)
* Spend more time with my grandma.
* Read at least 4 books.

2010 Christmas Card

A little belated, but here is our Christmas Card for this year. I have started getting in the habit of drawing a card of Chad and I each year. Sort of a fun tradition. I was out of the blogging habit all week last week. My company closes down during the week between Christmas and New Years and to be honest, if I don't have to sit in front of a computer 8 hours a day, I tend to avoid it during that time and focus more on studio stuff. This year I painted paintings for my family for the holidays. Definitely will be posting those later today.