I’ve been mostly preoccupied with settling down into my new home, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been doing some kind of art. I’ve been doing a lot of playing with techniques as well as doing a lot of promotional works — working on my second portfolio book, promotional postcards, some client work — so I’ve managed to keep myself busy when I’m not running around getting things for my new apartment or applying for jobs.

Anyway, here’s some fun stuff I thought I’d share. First, just a collection of lighting tests I did. The subject matter is very boring — random girl’s faces OMG — but the purpose of the exercise was to play with mediums and lighting, not have some brilliant concept. These are very quick studies, about 30 each.

The next is a little treat — a preview of the cover of my new portfolio. It’ll be done by the end of this month, so check back later!

I meant to post these on Friday because one was a submission for Illustration Friday but Telus decided that i didn’t reeeeally need to use the Internet, so I didn’t get to blog it until today.

The theme was “Infinity”. It was a pretty random sketch that kind of fit. I am also adapting it as a small painting for the local gallery’s annual Pick-a-Painting fundraiser.

This actually comes from an episode of Ghost Hunters (some people watch Big Brother… I watch paranormal reality TV); they were visiting a house were the children had claimed to see a boy with “black hair, black eyes, a black mouth and a black nose.” It was the visual of the black nose and mouth that creeped me out the most, so I was compelled to draw it. I’ll paint it once I have more of a drive to paint.

This is one of my favourite observational sketches from the summer; accompaning my close friend to watch a soccer game, we mostly watched the crowd instead of the game. They were much more entertaining, as you can see.

Seeing as this is quite a tedious task from my iPhone, I may save the rest of my sketches and comments for when my Internet connection is restored. You can view them here if you are impaitent, but you’ll have to wait for my insights. Soon!

Things are a bit hectic my first week back as I’ve just gotten back to work, all my friends are returning from THEIR respective studies and there’s a few events that I am helping plan/prepare for so… whoo! This is a quickie, to say the least… it was done in an hour. The concept was something that I thought about for a bit, a bit earlier, but actual execution was only an hour. I think a big reason that it went so fast is because it is TINY (72 DPI) so it was easier to work that way.

Anyway, my concept was the “love of theatre”. You know those people who live for theatre. But somehow, they always seem to know people who despise the stuff, but they get dragged along anyway. It was also a bit of a reference to the classic theatre masks.

I’m most happy with it, aside from the empty audience. But it gets the message across, andd it was fun and some good practice during a very hectic week! I hope I can keep up with this resolution, because it seems worth while.

Anyway, part of the point of this blog is to encourage me to continue to work once I am free of school. To challenge myself while I am back home, working for the summer and a bit longer. Improve on the parts I’m not happy with, further develop the things I am.

Two of my goals this summer is to practice painting more, both digital and traditional as well as work on my lighting. Environments too, but that’s for another post that actually relates to the work!

Anyway, here’s a little scrap I did a few weeks ago that was an exercise in just that, as well as an effort to subdue the stress that had already begun to well up. So, its of Sailor Venus, from Sailor Moon, my favourite character in my favourite series as a child. A little nostalgia to escape the impending doom future.

Also, you now get to check out the nifty little thing I whipped up to add art to my blogs! Just click to see it in all its glory.

I’ll have more to show/upload once school is done. I’ve also added some more work to the portfolio, if you care to check it out.