Helpful Hand

Another idea by Chris, drawing by me!

Lost Sock

What does a Moose do when he can't find his sock? This-

*Idea by Chris Gagon

Decembear

HohoDooDa (Holiday Doodle A Day) is here! Here is today's sketch:

Art By Linda Silvestri, host of HohoDooDa!

Bird Day

Happy Bird Day Birthday Card 

Movember

Happy Movember!

Art Power: CAEA Conference 2014

Art Power: CAEA (California Art Education Association) Conference 2014  was a blast! Thanks CAEA! I am not only an illustrator, but an art teacher and in both careers it is important to network and attend conferences such as these to stay connected with others with common interests, passion, and purpose. There were some wonderful workshops, speakers, and art teachers that inspired me to be a better artist and teacher! I am overflowing with new ideas that I want to implement in my classroom. Below are some highlights and quick resources from my experience!

Workshops: 2-D Animation(Tami Lincoln), Online Art Tools (Cris Guenter), Art Program Goals (Samuel Swail),Creative Quill Pen-Blick (Linda Carter), Gelli Arts Printmaking (Jennifer Marquez), Traveling Sketchbooks (Donna Banning), Handmade Book Ideas (Kathy Olsen), Observational Drawing (Wei Xu), Using Museums in the Classroom (Mallorie Marsh), National Art Honors Society (Linda Brown, Lucy McHugh) , Da Vinci Initiative (Nancy Hines). Keynote: StevenHickner, Kevin Staniec, and Nirvan Mullick.

RESOURCES:

NAEA: http://www.arteducators.org/

CAEA: http://www.caea-arteducation.org/

YAM: http://www.arteducators.org/news/yam

Online Art Tools &Apps 

list form: http://cguenter.weebly.com/free-online-art-tools.html

visual form: https://www.blendspace.com/lessons/Nlw6RshFG2fagQ/free-online-art-tools-where-the-wild-things-are

ipad: https://www.blendspace.com/lessons/nWWHWVzDh1BwcQ/art-ed-apps-for-the-ipad

Bulb (Online portfolios, image organizer): https://www.bulbapp.com/

Affordable Sketchbooks for art classrooms: http://www.sketchforschools.com/

Traveling Sketchbooks and Sketchbook Ideas ( Be involved if you are an educator!) cover illustration by moi: http://www.caea-arteducation.org/traveling-sketchbook-project

Circle Painting (community, school art activity) http://www.circlepainting.com/tablet/index.html

Identity and Art Presentation: http://msmernickart.weebly.com/educators.html

Contemporary Portrait Artist: http://kehindewiley.com/

Contemporary Photographer: http://www.jr-art.net/

Airbrush Artist Malcom McCrae: http://www.inspirethroughart.com/

Design Strategy Thinking: http://www.creativityatwork.com/design-thinking-strategy-for-innovation/

Observational Drawing from a Mathematical Approach:  https://www.facebook.com/DrawScientifically

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0079QJ7CA?btkr=1

Bowers Museum: http://www.bowers.org/index.php/education/k-12-for-educators

National Art Honors Society: http://www.arteducators.org/community/nahs

Imagination Foundation: http://imagination.is/

Caine's Arcade: http://cainesarcade.com/

If you have any other art teaching links please share! 

youarenowacat.com

Presenting youarenowacat.com where everyone is turned into cats! I will be completing cat drawings galore so feel free to check it out and comment if you want to be turned into a cat.. a cat drawing of course. I am also participating in inktober, an ink drawing a day in october which I have been posting on youarenowacat.com but will also post non cat related things here as well. Happy Cataween!

Flash Animation Class! Intro to Zephyr the Space Cat

As I practice sketches to honor Robin Williams, and get together photos from Comicon for upcoming posts (I know I am such a slacker), I will leave you with something else for today. I took a Flash Animation class last Spring at Laguna College of Art and Design and it was a blast! I had the pleasure of taking this class the first time it was offered by Sierra Lewis, flash guru and art director at Renegade Animation. We worked from concept to storyboard, recording sound (Andy Pluma stars as the voice), animatic, to final...well, sort of. I have a long way to go. Though I have always been in love with animation- especially the likes of John K's Ren and Stimpy and other 90's Nickelodeon shows I have not studied the fundamentals for animation or traditional animation yet I dared myself to try flash and boy I am glad I got a taste. It not only gave me the tools to someday perhaps explore more digital formats for children's books, but gave me a deeper appreciation for animation in general. "Pizza Time" is my very first animation and it demonstrates the "tradigital" animation technique- basically drawing each frame digitally. Maybe 200 drawings. The most challenging on this one for me was learning how to make the cat walk back to the table. There is some improvement from my initial animatic to the final. " Moon Jump" demonstrates application of a rig where all of the parts you need for the animation are created like a puppet of sorts, and you just move each part to create your animation. The most challenging for me in this was trying to draw the mouth movements. Enjoy!

Character Sketches

Character Sketches

Lion Mom

In pretense to launching youarenowacat, I drew my friend Sonja as a big cat lion mom for her birthday. I tried out some of the holbien gouache I bought at comicon. Stay tuned for Youarenowacat.com !

Cat-a-logue

So much to cover from comicon, but that will soon come. In the meantime, have a look at a made up cat magazine I just made.

Caticon

In preparation for Comicon, I have created a postcard and t-shirt design. I will show a picture of the t-shirt later here is the postcard design with the process. Fun, fun! If you are planning to go to Comicon this weekend in San Diego, say hi! I am looking forward to some great workshops, panels (Walking Dead, Bob's Burgers, Community, Nerdist, Mythbusters are among some favs) seeing friends, and meeting other artists. I am also preparing for a personal project just for fun, youarenowacat.com just to well, you know, draw cats! Hence, the message on the postcard about it. I started posting people as cats on reddit here are some cat pictures from that and other cats: https://youarenowacat.imgur.com/all/. If you have any ideas of famous people, key figures in history, or people you know please send requests of anyone you want to be catified. Anyway, cheers to an exciting weekend!!!!

Final Postcard Design 4x6"

Direct Scan (loses some color in this process)

Inked Sketch

Initial Brainstorm sketches

Dance of Hope

"Dance of Hope" 6"x6" Ink and Watercolor Sketch

 The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh, our Literary Ladies book club choice this month has inspired me to do a small sketch tonight. The book is about how flowers hold different meanings so I painted daffodils today, the flower of "hope" in my search for an art teaching job for next school year. I have been interviewing at different schools as I wait to hear back I am crossing my fingers, and so are my daffodils! Though I have not yet found a replacement printer/scanner I was not able to clearly scan, though I like the old look the photo provides. May these daffodils also give you luck for your future prospects this year!

Edit: I got the job! Hooray!

Amy's Baby Shower

I painted this today for my friend Amy's baby shower, she is expecting her 2nd child soon! I forgot to get a photo of the piece with the frame on it, so I may add another photo to show that as well.

"For Finn" ~5x3" Acrylic on Canvas

sketch w/frame

Happy Daddy Bird Day!

Happy Dad's Day everywhere! Here is a painting inspired from one of the photos my dad took, his admiration of the beauty in nature reflected in his nature photography. Growing up, he always helped me to admire the splendor of the world around us, which I am thankful for!

 

Photo ©2014 Gary Soodak

Plein Air Painting

Uh oh, I may be addicted! Lately, I have enjoyed painting out in the wild aka "en plein air". Here are some photos from some recent adventures:

Starting with thumbnails sketches

mixing colors and toning the canvas

oil painting "in progress" Back Bay

watercolor Balboa Island

Dog Park watercolor sketch 

sketch on canvas, San Juan Capistrano

 working

9x12 ,Oil ,San Juan Capistrano train Station SOLD

https://www.etsy.com/listing/192627650/

Happy Mother's Day!

This is a scene taken from last week's juant in Laguna Beach when my mom visited me and my sister from the other side of the state. It is important to appreciate your mom more than one day a year, so Happy Mother's Day to moms all over the world, all year 'round!

Trés Acrylics

Here are three quick acrylics I have made for gifts in the last week! What fun painting in different media! I also liked experimenting with a more painterly quality. Almost done with my animation class, so I will post those soon. Will soon prepare for the next art adventure: Oil Plein air painting, any tips? Comment below.

Miss Giraffe 5x5 acrylic on canvas

Dandy Hedgehog 6x6 acrylic on board

Cat and Squirrel Garden  5x5 acrylic on canvas

Sister Birthday

It has been awhile since I have posted because I am working on top secret animation projects for the flash animation class that I am taking. I will post more on that once the projects are finished. In the meantime, here is a little momentum from the sister birthday last weekend. When I was 10, I wished for a little sister and I got one- on my Birthday April 26, 1993! So, ever since I was 10, my sister and I have been celebrating our Birthdays together. We will be planting daffodils soon, so here is our daffodil extravaganza to come!

When It's Easy Being Green

Sketch 3x5" Colored Pencil/Digital touch ups

~Happy St. Patty's everyone~

My favorite because everyone wears my favorite color! Cheers!

..Until the Cows Come Home

Today's painting was inspired by this silly little video I saw today where the cows jump for joy at freedom, or are stretching their muscles upon release. See the video here. This image of cows racing out of the workplace came to my head. Sometimes we just have those days......

Pen and Watercolor 2x8"

sketch

Smart Fish

Are fish smart? What do you think? Let's research it! I am reading a book called "Eating Animals" by Jonathan Safran Foyer, I am not that far into it but it is about, well.....eating animals. I just got to the part where it talks about how fish may actually be smart. It is said that fish may have the mental capacities of non-human primates. What can you find out? Comment below to share your findings! Here are some fish playing chess. Enjoy!

"Smart Fish" 5x3" Watercolor

sketch

“Animals are my friends...and I don't eat my friends.” ― George Bernard Shaw

"It's Business Time"

For Todd on his Birthday (yesterday technically) and recently entered the work force, so it's business time (as flight of the conchords say)! And party time! Woo hoo!

"Twitterpated" for Valentine's Day

Now this is what I call "twitterpated", have a Happy Valentines Day!

Ink and Watercolor 3x4"

twitterpated sketch

another sketch for love day

Holly's Doggy Design

This is a design I created for the lovely Holly for her bridal shower gift yesterday. Congratulations, Holly!

Holly and James Ink and Watercolor 8x10

no Ink version

sketch

The inspiration-Holly's Baby Amelie

*Update   more gifts- hand made napkins to go with glasses and framed picture!

Happy (Chinese) New Year!