Gosh Darn Stars

I’m still working on the star veil that I started a couple weeks ago….I can sense what I want, but I cant seem to create it… I want to capture the feeling I get when looking at art nouveau designs… something a little romantic, a little moody, idealistic, and iconic… just simply a blanket of stars. A friend suggested just jumping in with both feet, but I don’t feel good about starting until I can at the very least map out an idea of my “feeling”…but I think I’m getting closer, I’m much happier with these layouts than the ones I started with….


In the mean time, I snagged some car magnet material from work (from jobs that needed to be reprinted for some reason or another), and I’ve been scheming ideas for giant refrigerator magnets….my first instinct was very girly: flowers, bamboo, etc… then I started thinking of childlike images like monsters and robots… we shall see.

Simple update

This week I’ve been working on a dance veil covered in stars. I thought it would look cool to have a dancer twirling in a blanket of stars. Simple enough… but as I started mapping out sketches I quickly realized that because this is such a simple idea it can go wrong very easily… I’ve been playing with simple grids, different arrays of randomness, having the stars go from big in the center to small on the edges, and visa versa…I tried so many different arrangements that I actually started dreaming about them! But I think I’ve got it figured out, now for the daunting task of putting those plans into action.

Dance Veil

In American belly dancing it is common to dance with large yardages of fabric.... it is thought to be "middle eastern" but it actually isn't. America has greatly altered belly dancing through the years (or in kinder terms, put a modern spin on an ancient dance form). One of the alterations we have made was the idea to dance with a veil (aka: large yardages of fabric)... it was an American woman with a slouching problem, that studied under a ballerina who got the brilliant idea that if the woman had to hold the corners of a veil in the air as she entered the room it would force her to walk in with a bold/graceful/commanding presence. Many took a liking to the veil and it has become a part of belly dancing all across the nation. Unfortunately all these veils that people use are rather simple, with solid colors, maybe a subtle pattern.
In effort to dwindle down my art supplies I thought I would design some dancing veils that are a little more conceptual.... the photo above is a crude shot at my first of the series... but I think it will look awesome floating through the air as the dancer spins and twists the fabric... and I made the center more calm because the center of the fabric is most visible when the dancer holds the fabric still against her body as a screen with the silhouette of her body dancing behind it.  Can you picture it?

Time to clean out the art studio!

I've started a new mission called "use up all my art supplies".... for a while I was just tossing the excess (keeping the good stuff, of course)... but I hate wasting perfectly good supplies, and I'm tired of storing so much, so I've decided to set up an Etsy account and start making crafts I can sell online. The photo above was my weekend craft :)

Drawing Club Epiphany

Went to Dr. Sketchy's again tonight.... It was hotter than hell. Still enjoyable, but man, I felt like I was in Cuba! I had an epiphany tonight... I'm still rusty with my drawing skills, and for the first half of the night, I laboriously struggled to get all my proportions right, drawing then second guessing every line... then half way through the night, I got my underlining draft set up, and just boldly drew the line that most caught my eye as dark as I could... before when I was drawing and redrawing everything I was almost getting detracted by the model... I would fall in love with the curve of her nose, or the highlight on a knee... and then struggle getting all the pieces to fit together correctly.... once I boldly/brashly started committing to lines, I realized I don't need to final piece to look 100% like the model... she can be there as a reference instead of a subject. (This concept goes against all five years of drawing classes in art school).  But, suddenly I started having a lot more fun, and started coming up with more successful drawings. I’m still rusty, but it's a step in the right direction.

Macabre Flowers

I like how you can say anything you want through abstract art, and no one has to know...they may get the vague gist of what you were thinking... but they will never be able to precisely say what was on your mind. Abstract art to me, can be kind of like talking to a therapist, all kinds of stuff is said without any veils of "maybe I shouldn't have said that." But looking back at what transpired can make one feel very bashful.

This drawing was done after a date that went very well... I was contemplating the loss of past successful relationships, and the giddiness of finding someone new that I'm quite fond of. I didn't intend to say any of that when I sat down... I had just said good night to my date, and then sat down with my sketchbook and my mind started roaming. Looking back at the piece brings back my thoughts very vividly, but I am quiet grateful that it will not have the same effect for the spectator.

Craft Day

A friend of mine decided to host a craft day that was open for each of us to bring our own project. I brought a couple projects with me, but then decided it has been a really long time since I last posted on this blog... so I decided to work in my sketchbook instead. It's always a gamble to work in front of other people. I get nervous knowing that others can see my work, which in turn causes me to create bad drawings. Beyond that, it's very rare for me to draw with a vision if I'm in a social setting with my sketchbook.... I'm not thinking about what my doodle "should be"... instead it is a spontaneous dance, every step is a surprise. I make a mark, then react to that mark with another mark... sometimes I end up with really interesting stuff, and some times it just turns into chaos... personally I think this piece embodies both categories simultaneously.