Christmas 2012 & Vacation RESET

CHRISTMAS 2012~

For the past few months I've been working  on a special Christmas gift for my wife...I can finally reveal it! My wife has been keeping a blog for longer than we've been married and I have wanted to contribute for awhile now.  Included below is 3 of 18 illustrations I created to supplement her blog posts and photos.  Follow this link  to view the rest: 

http://cbelle-adayinthelife.blogspot.com/p/family-album.html

(Btw the picture of the crowded room is my front room...and if you look in the right hand side you might be able to see me in my studio/office. yah....needless to say my wife and I are VERY excited about finally signing the Purchase Contract on the house pictured above. LOTS more room!)


 Vacation RESET~
Earlier this month I packed my family up and we went on a week long trip away from home. This trip was needed since it had been about 8months since I started my full-time office job. I didn't realize it, but I was going stir crazy and needed a RESET. Aside from visiting family and experiencing "THe Art Institute" of Chicago for the first time, I wasn't expecting to get much else from the trip, but the quiet and relaxing time gave me time to look at life from a different perspective.

Some of the perspective change was due to experimenting I did during some down-time with some basic art supplies I packed. I found myself pushing boudries, and having a great time (and yes...without my precious technology!)  The rest of the post is some of what I walked away with...So Enjoy!

"New QUICK process"
2012  Sketch

1. Concept: Come up with a basic/vague idea.
2. Development: Strings/specific facts, thumbnails, compositional experiments/decisions. (basically these will be your guide at all times.)
3. Vague Notion: Draw vague notion of composition lightly.
4. Clarify some of the vaguness. 
5. Solidify: make structure solid, hit value boldly, and clarify details more.
6. Trace Lightly onto final paper.
7. Let Watercolor do most of the final details. Then go in with Colored pencils.
8. Finalize all details with regular pencil. FINAL. DONE.

Here is a more complete example (I actually did this on my trip, in my sketchbook):

"Tea-time Catasrophe"
2012 Sketch

 After this point, I am going to try and make a finalized pencil sketch or monotone watercolor  painting based on it and more strings/research I make...then scan it in, edit it and color in photoshop (Like some of my older illustrations.)


My personal illustration creed for 2013 (New Years resolution? ) :
      Through the hands of angels... some Art, Music, Stories, is delivered straight from heaven to lift up, inspire, and strengthen the human race. 

     These angels are normal people like you and me, except they took their talents and spent years perfecting it in order to bring happiness to others. 

     I want to be one of those people, which means I need to lift my sites higher, and not tread through the increasingly empty wastelands of mediocrity and self gratification.