Yo Ho! Suddenly I see...

Since I've added mostly Juried Show pieces from Freshman year so far, I decided to add the last two entries of this sort. Yo Ho (above) was done with acrylic on illustration board and is 25 X 25 ". It won Best of Show in the Illustration category. This piece was another "Copy from Master", in which we had to take something about an original image that we liked and crop it, change the concept, or change the coloring. I cropped Yo Ho and exaggerated the characters. I also waited a bit too close to the deadline to get to work, and ended up painting all weekend long (well, until 5 am on Sunday). One of my first artwork all-nighters, but definitely not my last!

 This last piece, Suddenly I See, is one that I entered into the Juried Show of '09 but that wasn't selected by the jurors. Instead, it was shown in the Rejection Show held in the Finlandia Reflection Gallery, the student-run art gallery on campus. Suddenly I See was done with graphite on illustration board. This piece is a self-portrait of many different emotions.

Heyyy (Insert Roof Raising Gesture)

I just wanted to give a shout out to my photographers and assistants this time around... without them I would have had a lot more trouble documenting my work. It was windy that Saturday, and I didn't think far enough ahead to realize I would need at least two pairs of hands - one to hold the backdrop and one to point and shoot. Luckily, sisters are always around! So thank you to Rizzle, for taking photos; Ponch, for loaning me your camera; and Rolu, for snapping cute shots of me while I was struggling (see above). You girls rock!

 Oh yes, I was designated backdrop holder.

Sorrow

Here's more work from Freshman year... Sorrow also made it into the Juried exhibition of 2009. The original assignment was to illustrate the concept "sorrow" (I know, I know, I went all out with the title!) The roses are done in colored pencil (they took forEVER) and the rest is brown, white and black charcoal pencil. The 'Copy from Master' piece (below) that I did earlier in the semester definitely helped when it came time to work with the shading and tones on the weeping girl's face.

This is my version of Leonardo Da Vinci's La Scapigliata, which seemed fairly easy to emulate. Then I got started, and the closer I looked the more I realized just how complex this deceptively simple portrait really is. I guess they don't call him a Master for nothing.



A Furball In The Hand

I've compiled the majority of my work and started the documentation process, so I can finally begin to unleash it. This is a pen and ink piece, dimensions 8.5 X 11", that I completed freshman year. "Furball" was selected to be shown in the Juried Exhibition of 2009 at the Finnish American Heritage Center, and won Honorable Mention in the Freshman Foundation category. The assignment was to pick an animal to capture the effects of fur/feathers with pen, and I simply couldn't resist that face. Who could?