Inspirations: Random Sketchbook Pages

My sketchbooks tend to have pages filled with random bits of whatever I find in them. Here are some of those pages from my current sketchbook.

Roy Lichtenstein styled self-portrait

I painted this as a demonstration piece for my 8th grade students. They've been making self-portraits inspired by either Roy Lichtenstein or Shepard Fairey (a project inspired by one I saw in Todd Stahl's classroom when I was doing my student teaching). After learning about both artists and taking reference photos to work from, they selected the style they wanted to work in and then transferred their photo to a drawing on 14" x 18" illustration board using the grid method.


Here are some samples of my students' work in progress. For most of them, this was their first time attempting a self-portrait. They're just wrapping up this project now and we're starting a ceramics lesson.

Inspirations: Local Artists

This weekend I went to the Salt City Urban Art & Craft Market. It was a great show with a lot of inspiring work being sold by area artists. I was practically drooling over all of the gorgeous letterpress work. I had some birthday money in my pocket, so I was able to take a few cool things home with me to continue the inspiration.



This felted owl is just too adorable! The artist has more work on Etsy at Peaches Products.



I'm planning on framing this notecard by Ink and Wit. There was a gorgeous calendar that the artist had put together that I really wanted to bring home, but it was a little out of my budget range.



I was determined to bring a piece of letterpress artwork home with me and wound up settling on this sweet little 10" x 8" winter themed print by Pistachio Press. They also had some gorgeous stationery. Their work is also available through their Etsy shop.

A quick glimpse of my classroom

I can't believe that I'm starting my fifth week of the school year already! Time is flying by. As such, I thought I should capture a quick glimpse of my classroom during this time. My students have been working on drawing the still-life arrangements that are on the tables. The bulletin board in the back has a display on the Elements of Design. I started the display with just a couple of images for each element and then my students helped finish it by bring in their own examples found in magazines, newspapers, the internet, or even from their own drawings.

Commission: Emma

I finished this commissioned painting at the end of August, but I waited to post it because it was being given as a surprise gift to some family friends. It's a painting of their dog, Emma. They had seen the painting of Marley that I had done as a gift for my parents and said how much they liked it. As a surprise for our friends' wedding anniversary, my parents commissioned me to do a watercolor painting of their yellow labrador. It was an interesting commission job because I had to sort of sneakily get some reference photos of the dog from one of their sons (facebook to the rescue!). But the painting worked out well and the friends who received it were really happy and surprised.

This painting was done with watercolor and acrylics on watercolor paper, measuring 12" x 10" and completed in August of 2010. Some in progress shots of the painting can be seen here and here.

My Classroom - Part I - The Front Door

This week I've been working on setting up my classroom and getting things ready for the start of the school year. Getting the classroom exactly the way I want is going to be a constantly evolving process throughout the year, but I'm happy with the progress I've made so far. I've been documenting everything with photos as it goes along because I know I'm going to want to look back on it. I still have more to set up next week before classes start, but in the meantime you can check out the door to my classroom. I finished decorating it on Wednesday.

1971 - finished illustration

This illustration is inspired by a photo of my uncle Jonathan with one of his motorcycles in 1971. I found the photo at my grandmother's house and was immediately reminded of famous images of motorcycles with movie stars like James Dean and Steve McQueen. The picture was started on watercolor paper with brown colored pencil and ink washes. All color was added digitally painted in Photoshop. The final illustration measures 27" x 18" and was completed in August of 2010.

Some in progresses versions of this illustration can be seen here. You can see that the piece originally had a shorter composition but I widened it as it got closer to completion and am much happier with the final composition. This picture is one of those pieces I started a while ago and had to keep putting it on hold for various reasons. However, this piece will be on display at the New York State Fair from August 26th until September 6th, 2010, which was great motivation for finally finishing it off.

Prints of this illustration are now available through my print shop!

Watercolors at the art desk

I'm working on a commissioned painting today and thought that I'd share a couple of quick photos.