30 Day Monster Girl Challenge: Day 7 - Plant Girl

Poisonous plant girl, Belladonna. She's tiny but deadly. Her design is inspired by the Kisenian flower from Sailor Moon. Kind of a quickie, but I like her :3  

30 Day Monster Girl Challenge: Day 6 - Spider Girl

Chilly spider girl. 

30 Day Monster Girl Challenge: "Day" 5 - Mermaid

Sooo. This isn't my original mermaid. The first one I made, a few weeks ago, is cute but boring. I've been stuck! It's strange, because I love mermaids and used to draw them all the time. I guess I wanted more of a concept, though, rather than just a cute merlady. My boyfriend is in the Everglades for an internship, counting invasive fish and plants and things, and visiting gave me visions of muddy swamp mermaids. This girl is based on the invasive walking catfish... certainly she could not have been found naturally here! She is originally from Thailand but was left in the swamp by a sailor who was afraid of commitment. Eh.

"Day" 5... it's been so long! But I have sketches ready to go for the next few. Look for them. I promise!

30 Day Monster Girl Challenge: Day 4 - Naga

Finally back to these! I have sketches for four of five more ready to be finished, but I just haven't had the time. Here's my Naga, modeled after an Indian Viper. She's much sweeter than an actual viper. Maybe because she doesn't have the fangs. 

30 Day Monster Girl Challenge: Day 3 - Slime

It's hard to pet cats when you're a slime :(

30 Day Monster Girl Challenge: Day 2 - Centaur

My Little Centaur ♥ Inspired a bit by Zambicandy's stylish ponies.

30 Day Monster Girl Challenge: Day 1 - Harpy

In the spirit of Halloween this year, I've started on the 30 Day Monster Girl Challenge! (careful, NSFW at times...) Here's my day 1, a skateboarding harpy. She kind of cheats by grasping the board with her claws and pulling higher jumps with her wings, but I won't tell if you won't. 

I'm sure I won't be able to do these every day, but I'm at least going to work my way through the list no matter how long it takes. Excited to make cute monster girls! 

Monday Mix: Inspiration: Lisbeth Zwerger

Today's Monday Mix is dedicated to one of my favorite children's book illustrators, Lisbeth Zwerger. Zwerger's is a name I heard often in my illustration classes because of her distinctive style. Her simple but lively characters are usually set in some ambiguous space, often just a loose watercolor wash, with a muted color palette. She uses a lot of favorites of mine like ochrey browns and grayish blues and bright red highlights. I also love her line quality - so loose and free, yet so descriptive. She is a modern master reminiscent of Rackham, Dulac, Anderson. I truly love her work!

Monday Mix: Inspiring Installations

Hi all! It's been a while - between starting a new job and just being generally busy, I've been forgetting to blog! And to draw. It's bad, I know. But things have started to calm down, and what better way to start back up than to share some things that have been inspiring me lately? I've always admired three-dimensional art; it's something I feel I don't have the mind power to do, to think that way, so it's both inspiring and extra impressive in my mind. Installation art takes the three-dimensional concept to a completely different level. Though we're missing out on the personal, physical aspect of these works, here are some that are just as amazing through photo/video.

♥ Magic Carpet by Daniel Wurtzel. Simple, but beautifully mesmerizing. This reminds me of doing fabric studies back in school. I love painting fabric... I want to pause this video and paint the shapes in midair.



♥  Spread and Return Point by Bartek Swiatecki  The sense of movement in these images is incredible. Like stills from a sci-fi film.

♥ Plexus no. 3 from the Density of Light by Gabriel Dawe. Made with thread. I'm dying to see these in person, to see how each thread and each color overlaps the other. The combination of hard geometric shapes and soft, blurred edges is unreal. 

Friday Figures

(I don't watch Game of Thrones, but a friend commented that from this angle he looks like a young Khal Drogo.)

Click "read more" to see them all! (nudity, obvs)

Friday Final: As the World Falls Down

ACEO size (2.5" x 3.5"), colored pencil and white ink

My second submission for LACT's I Love the 80's Trading Card Initiative! Dream sequence Sarah, from Labyrinth. The July 30 deadline is fast approaching; if you want to participate (you don't have to be a Jacksonville local) click here to see the call to artists for guidelines, etc.  

Wednesday WIP: ACEO

ACEO work in progress - guess who! 

Friday Figures

Click "read more" to see them all! (nudity, obvs)

Friday Figures

So, since I plan on going to CoRK's figure drawing sessions regularly, I figured (ha... ha) that it'd be worth starting a new weekly feature - Friday Figures. Click "read more" to see these drawings in their entirety, since they obviously contain nudity (I've done the same for my last figure post as well)!

Wednesday Night Life Drawing at CoRK

Click "read more" to continue (nudity)... 

Monday Mix: Other Art

♥ My amazingly talented bff Chris McAlister did this mural... in 21 hours! He'll have a video of the process up soon too, so if you like to see gigantic amazing artwork being made, keep an eye out for that on his blog.

♥ Rebecca N. McKinnon writes about depression, motivation, and being an artist, as part of her new Wicked Wednesday/Sacred Sunday series. I love the idea and am really looking forward to this!

♥ And I just got my beautiful print from Amanda of Earth Angels Art today, of her piece "Track Ways". Do take a look at her art - it's so dreamy and magical, I love it to bits. Can't wait to frame this on my art room wall! 

Friday Final: Devilish

Devilish, digital

Playing around in Photoshop. I have a couple ideas for what to do with this... but we'll see. For now here she is. 

Brother and Sister, two years later

My most recent personal project, a rework of an older piece. Brother and Sister has been one of my more popular paintings, and though I loved the concept and held the painting dear to my heart, I've felt for a while that I should revisit it. The difference is profound, at least to me... I look forward to seeing where my work is in another two years! Here's a side-by-side comparison of the two: 

But her brother was already kneeling by the brook and bending over it to drink, and, sure enough, no sooner had his lips touched the water than he fell on the grass transformed into a little Roebuck. Sister cried bitterly over her poor bewitched brother, and the little Roe wept too, and sat sadly by her side. At last the girl said: "Never mind, dear little fawn, I will never forsake you," and she took off her golden garter and tied it round the Roe's neck...

After they had gone a long, long way they came to a little house, and when the girl looked into it she found it was quite empty, and she thought. "Perhaps we might stay and live here."

So she hunted up leaves and moss to make a soft bed for the little Roe, and every morning and evening she went out and gathered roots, nuts, and berries for herself, and tender young grass for the fawn. And he fed from her hand, and played round her and seemed quite happy. In the evening, when sister was tired, she said her prayers and then laid her head on the fawn's back and fell sound asleep with it as a pillow. And if brother had but kept his natural form, really it would have been a most delightful kind of life.

- Lang, Andrew, ed. "Brother and Sister." The Red Fairy Book. New York: Dover, 1966. 

(Original published 1890.) 

Wednesday WIP: An Assortment

Works in Progress

devil girl

a rework of an older piece... any guesses?

and now for something completely different. 

Monday Mix: A few inspiring things

♥ Absolutely stunning sculptures by Fernando Mastrangelo, made from sugar, salt, and other edibles.

♥ The "Geode" Street Art Project. I'd love to come across one of these in person. Magical.

♥ And! My friend Chris MadMan McAlister designs displays for our local Anthropologie - his most recent display features beautiful illuminated jellyfish: 

100th Post: Tote Bags!

 

Totes are ready! 

hannahbird.etsy.com

These are so much fun to make. Still working on the other designs, but for now here are these cuties. Cute animals. Forever. This also marks the 100th post on my new blog - a fitting celebration, I think!

Monday Mix: Camping Arty Sketches

This past Arty was so much fun. We went camping - it's hard to get much done when there are kayaks to boat around and dogs to play with and springs to swim in - but I did manage to use some time to sketch and paint. 

These are a few character sketches for a project. I'm obviously not as comfortable drawing boys, especially young ones, without references. But it helped to get something of a feel for the character. 

This is more like what my sketchbook contains as a whole. Girls everywhere. (And some Sailor Moon thrown in here and there for good measure.)

This is hopefully going to become a regular thing for the summer, and I plan on using these opportunities wisely; next time I want to draw and paint some landscapes from life, and maybe some wildlife as well, if I can. Looking at the stars and the Milky Way, and Saturn through the telescope, have got me thinking of celestial painting projects as well. Inspiring in many ways.

Wednesday WIP: Tote Bags

Fun stuff - lately I've been working on tote bags! I've been converted, so much easier than a purse, and fun to put super cute things on. I've got plenty more in the works... you'll see them on Etsy soon!