Thing-a-day.com

My least favorite haircut ever, especially on corporate dudes who thinks it heps up their suit.

A girl who looks like she’d be a patron of the revolutionary Biba store in the early 70’s. Apologies to Andy Warhol. Just a doodle with some color applied.

Thing a day 20

Originally uploaded by emberlexi

Yup, day late, and definitely a dollar short

I’m trying out some quick
sketching. I was watching the Beatles’ first trip to the US and did four pages of sketches… this is just one.

More doodling on spreadsheets… this time something ‘old Hollywood.’

At a local bar with waiter on hand and nearby conversations. I was actually sitting on a stool but I think I look better crouched in the corner.

A pencil drawing of the photograph I used in the previous layout mock-up for my website. I’m planning on inking this in sumi-ink, similar to a couple of other illustrations I have done to get a more graphic quality.

Why dogwood flowers? They’ve always been a favorite blossom of mine, and I think they’re also the flower of my state, so i think they’re fitting. The form of the branches reminds me of cherry blossoms, too, so it ties in with my Japanese theme hopefully without being too overt.

I feel I have a solid design concept for my website now, so I hope to push on and have all the graphics knocked out by Monday and start throwing it together into actual pages over the course of the week. I’m really excited, I might have a marathon working on it the rest of the weekend!

I need to hone my drawing skills…

And today…

It would have been even better to have drawn this from life.

Pencil & multiply layers/pencil tool madness

Six kinds of folds. These will eventually be examples for a rant on how fabric folds work.

She looks a bit resistant…but still beautiful!

Thing a day 12 - a cup

Originally uploaded by emberlexi

Back to drawing. My art teacher says I need to work more on shading &
value. So here’s another attempt. My perspective’s a bit off.

I spent a couple hours at the cafe. I’m very fond of chai and mechanical pencils.

Finished another Circle Piece this morning.

You can see more linked here.

-Robyn

One of the things I enjoy most about selling on Etsy is the camaraderie. Which makes it pretty natural that I love my street teams (organized groups of sellers who work together for the greater good of all). My favorite group is the one I started nearly a year ago. Although I have since handed off mod-ship, the group still has a large piece of my heart.

Today at work I was struck with the idea of creating and printing a second buisness card which declares me a “Proud Member of FAE Etsy” (FAE stands for Fantasy Artists of Etsy). I would stick this in with orders and in my promo packs that I give out at shows. Hopefully, people would check out our website (and our other members!).

I left the post-it at work (d’oh) so I redrew it in more detail at home. I envision a plain white background, some pretty lettering, and brightly colored little dragonlings.

The one in the middle needs some more work as he is a bit…odd right now. (Also, the actual web address is http://fantasyartofetsy.webng.com/ , I just couldn’t write small enough (!) to fit it in where I wanted to in the mockup.) I’m really digging the idea. I just need to get a fully complete sketch and then find a digital designer to work their magic.Then off to overnight prints!

I thought about making my buisness cards double sided, but I think I will stick to two cards, since my flowers have nothing to do with the FAE group.

So, I recently acquired Amano, a collection of Yoshitaka Amano’s printmaking work.

I’ve been studying the way he draws his faces; they are really interesting, expressionless heiroglyphs.

There are some anatomy issues going on here, even after I did a little plastic surgery in Photoshop, but it was really refreshing and challenging to work in pencil again after so much time relying on ink, which is a much more forgiving medium for digital work.

This was really fun! I asked my partner to hand me something I could hold, but I didn’t look to see what it was. I drew the big one in the middle first.  I knew what it was right away, of course, but it was interesting how details I could only feel were different than ones I could see. Next was the lower right one - looking only at the object, not at the paper at all. I think it’s my favorite. Top right, only the shadows. Lower left, concentrating on texture. I remember now what the fifth one should be - draw only the outside edges of the thing. I’ll probably add that in, *maybe* even re-scan it. Later.

This weekend I went to see Crispin Glover present his film, “What Is It”, at the Oak Street Cinema. He also did one of his notorious slide shows featuring his modified books. It was an interesting evening, to say the least. He did a great job of explaining the film, and while I don’t always feel that film should be explicated to be meaningful, this added to the whole experience. I came away with an appreciation for his risktaking filmmaking - which few people seem willing to attempt now.

Eric observed that he looks a lot more like his Dad in person, and somehow that set off interest on my part to draw him. I don’t think I quite nailed it, but it was a good exercise because he has an unusual face but quite subtly expressive. Pencil on vellum, 8:30 p.m.