Hear Ye, Hear Ye

I recently did this little illustration and designed a poster for a church event. It was a lot of fun.

 I really thought--not even a year ago--that I would just be a traditional artist my entire life. Lets just say I am NOT a techy person, and the thought of combining computers with art produced a sort of glazed-over eye expression, and desire to run out of the room.  But, I am pleased to annouce that even I...the girl who did not own a cellphone until my 2nd year of COLLEGE, or who cannot figure out Pintrest or Twitter, or who can't stand smart phones, is in love with making digital art.
 Seriously people--if I can learn to draw and paint digitally, anything is possible (and I am still learning so much!) I've only been tinkering with painting in Photoshop since January, but I don't think I will do anything else. Working digitally, you have an incredible capacity to edit your work..which I LOVE--because I am not very neat when I sketch and I hate redrawing things a million times. There are also quick effects you can apply to your images that make them more interesting (warm color glazes, texture...)
Another huge plus of digital art? Lets just say trying to paint with a baby in the house would be basically impossible! The no-mess factor is a huge plus!

So, alas, I have joined the thousands of other illustrators, and jumped on the Photoshop bandwagon!

I know, I know, DAILY drawings mean I am supposed to post them everyday. I won't ramble on any excuses, but I WILL post my abso-fav children's books, as of late! (now do you forgive me? Of course you do!)

Here are my two ABSOLUTE favorites from childhood. I would get these weekly from the library and beg and beg my mom to read them again and again. My mom actually bought me both for a graduation gift. I LOVE the illustrations. So captivating!

The next two are ones I have discovered fairly recently, but they are also wonderful. I love going to the library with my little boy and getting a big stack of children's books. These have some of the best illustrations I have seen in a while. I LOVE any book illustrated by Robin Preiss Glasser (Fancy Nancy is hilarious!)

So there you go...a few books with incredible illustrations to inspire you. I am definitely inspired! 

7th Grade Revisited

My husband and I met in 7th grade. It is really a wonder that we ever saw anything in each other, because we were both at the peak of our awkward/ugly years. Thankfully live does exist beyond Puberty Palace, and we have both blossomed and matured somewhat. But, for fun, I decided to revisit that "wonderful" time in our lives. Here's a little background and explanation. And, let me add, that while this may look like a goofy little sketch it is surprisingly accurate.

Once my 4th grade librarian made the horrible mistake of telling me I had "eagle eyes." I probably found a book quickly with the Dewey Decimal system, or something. Anyway, to live up to this name, I began to squint all the time, so whenever anyone would see me, they would think to themselves, "My! What Eagle Eyes Ariel has!" Truly. This squint quickly became a glare. People then told me I glared all the time..(which I did, because I had Eagle Eyes) so I began to open my eyes really, REALLY wide, and NOT smile. So in EVERY picture between 7th and 8th grade, I either look like I am glaring you down, or like a deer in headlights. I also always wore pigtails.

My husband was really short and always wore this neon orange polar fleece vest and pants with a zillion pockets. The color of his pants in the sketch is not an exaggeration. Neither is his smile.

Good times.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy.

Polly Want Paper?

I wasn't really getting my sketch on today. I did several and they were gross, so realizing that my baby will only stay asleep for so long, I drew this one really quick. I actually like it. There is something wonderful that happens when you sketch quickly and don't really worry or care too much about what you are doing. You get better lines and your drawings tend to be more expressive. It is definitely easy to overwork a drawing or painting--and let me tell you, I have spent many a long, long night, overworking until my contacts are so dry they are suctioned to my eyeballs, and I have redrawn the same line probably 50 times. Good times. Quick sketches are something I am trying to do regularly to keep my quick sketch muscles fired up.

Holling Hoodhood

I just finished reading The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt, which is possibly the best novel I have ever read in my life. I LOVED it. I really only read young-adult novels, because, I guess they keep me entertained and they tend to be short and sweet. I get so sad when I finish books. Its like this whole world opened up to me, and I made friends who I laughed and cried with, and then all the sudden, 294 pages later, it all ends. I usually drag out the last few pages as long as I can, but sooner or later, it happens, and the book is over. So here is my way of dragging out The Wednesday Wars. The main character, Holling Hoodhood (quite the name, I know), is never described physically...so here is my quick rendition. Awesome book by the way. You should read it. It will make you want to eat a cream puff or two, run at 'tempo' pace, and have nightmares about rats (not want to..actually have the nightmares. Maybe I should do a sketch about killer rats??)

A Sad Little Robot

Here is quick sketch of a very sad, broken-hearted little robot to brighten your day.

The Tree of Life

I have been aching to do a traditional painting. I am really pretty new to painting digitally, but it's all I have done for the past several months. And, as you can probably imagine, my little retinas are sick and tired of staring at the monitor for hours and hours.

 So today, I blew the dust off my watercolors and got artsy. I do love the wonderful ability you have to edit your art in Photoshop, so I did tweak some things digitally.

This is a painting of the Tree of Life, as described in a parable in the Book of Mormon. The tree represents the love of God, and the fruit, is Eternal Life through his Son, Jesus Christ. The point of the parable is that we can each partake of the delicious joy that comes from being a disciple of Jesus Christ. I personally love that story, and I have done several different paintings of it throughout my life. This is just a quick sketch and painting, I really only spent about 30 minutes on it, but I had a lot of fun. Merging watercolor and digital painting is a lot of fun, and it can really open a lot of possibilities. I am happy I tried it, and I will definitely do some more 'merging' in the future!