Swiftwater's Monte Carlo

Ideally this would have characters as well. I had this whole scenario planed out in the thumbnail stage, but time is getting really short for me to put my book together, so that will have to wait. This is Beaver's new "lodge" after he breaks off from Soapy's gang.

Soapy selling Soap

"Soapy" Jefferson Smith got his nick-name from his soap scam-a name the public called him, but probably never used to his face. He would gather a large audience and pretend to wrap bills around some of the bars. Then he would auction off the bars, claiming that there could be anywhere from $1-$100 in the a bars. He would have members of his gang mixed into the audience and they would "win" big. The audience would get very excited and the bidding would go higher.

Gold was also an excepted currency back then because many of the miners would come straight from the creeks to the saloons and that's all they had. For my story, gold is the only accepted currency to put more value and greed to it. This is Swiftwater's (Beaver) first human experience and he realizes that their greed for gold can work in his favor.

Force workshop with Mike Mattesi

Mike Mattesi came to our school to do a 2 day workshop on his Force philosophy. These definitely aren't my best life drawings to date, but I think I was starting to get the hang of the energy and strength that he was talking about, especially with the two drawings on the right. These are a mix of 30 second-3 min sketches. He wouldn't allow us to look at the paper while we drew, so please excuse anatomy that's off.

Broadway Street, Skagway

Eagle notices a young prospector walking by, overwhelmed by a list of more supplies he has to buy before he climbs the Chilcoot to get to the gold fields. Bear is oblivious to everything except his new-found addiction to coffee.

Mae Field's Turn-A-Round

This isn't an exciting post, but it fulfills some of the technical nonsense that is required in this kind of project.

Lynn Canal

The Klondike is all calm and peaceful until the people arrive...

I want to push the scale of my shots. For example, in my nature shots, my characters are extremely small compared to the vast landscape that they are in. But in the city shots, the characters are pushed right up into the camera. While you may be the big man in town, you are small and not-so-important in the big picture of the world. This is a life lesson that Beaver learns throughout the story.

Klondike Tale Story Beats

These are the working thumbnails that may progress to finished pieces, or at lest color scripts. These are not storyboards, so ignore the camera jumps. There are many gaps as far as the story is concerned, but I hope you get the gist.

Best Friends

I don't believe that it's ever been confirmed or denied (Jeff, help me out here) that Jeff's Parlor ever was a brothel. It was however, Soapy's gambling den, bar, and home base. But for the sake of our story here, we're going to say that it's a brothel as well. I'm also not sure if the use of the dolls went outside of Skagway and the Klondike. If anyone's so interested, look up the Red Onion in Skagway-you can still buy one!

Slim-Jim Foster

I've been debating if I should post Slim but finally decided, why not? For those who know Skagway history, this might be interesting. Slim is one of 2 (as far as my story is concerned) of Soapy's sidekicks. He was also known as J.H., W.E., W.F., and probably many other aliases. Slim probably wasn't half this dorky in life, but his name alone inspired me to portray him this way.

Traditional Tlingit Eagle

This isn't as perfectly symmetrical as it should be because I sketched it free-hand. The purpose of this little exercise was to figure out the patterning on Eagle's (as human) blanket so I can start his turn-a-rounds....this should be fun...

Fall cleaning

Technically it's still summer here in California, but my clock has always been stuck on Alaska time, where it's currently fall, borderline winter. I was just cleaning out my office, prepping for next semester, when I came across these sketches I did at workshops over the summer.

Wildlife Sketches

I drew these from life on BART...

...OK, So I was looking at photo-reference. (But I really was on BART.)
Obviously these aren't according to their proper scales, or this would be the largest beaver ever.

Dolls for Sale!

I know that these girls look like they've been around the block a few times...because they have. But don't worry, they are still "Top Shelf." If you were to buy one of these dolls, it wouldn't be this cloth rag that you'd be getting, it'd be the real thing! A doll laying down means that her owner has been bought for the time being, and a sitting doll is ready for some fun!

More Klondike/Tlingit characters

All of these are still a work in progress:

Wolf as human,
Bear as human (the ambiguous cup with steam is coffee-Bear becomes highly addicted to coffee),
and lastly (for now), is my main villain, "Soapy" Smith.

Eagle as Tlingit Chief

I know that the bird posting is redundant, but it's pretty far down on this blog by now. Eagle will be in his human form for most of the story, so it's about time that I finally designed him. He's quite hostile and put off by the Klondikers who invade his land.

Swiftwater Bill/Beaver

This is also a working design for Beaver, who is the main character of my story. His alter ego/human form, Swiftwater Bill, is upside-down on his stomach when he's a beaver. Belittled by the other 4 spirits, Beaver finds popularity and success in the human world to the point that he forgets that he's the the guardian of the lakes and rivers.

I discovered quite early on that beavers are quite dorky animals, and it took me a long time to get his human form figured out. There will probably still be some minor changes, but it's getting there. The real Bill "Swiftwater" Gates (the original, not the PC guy) had a "Prince Albert Physic" and as it turns out, quite the pimp.

Skagway building and sign sketches

These are just some preliminary/inspirational sketches for Broadway Street, Skagway (Alaska), as part of my thesis development. In case you haven't been following my blog, or talking to me recently, the year is 1898.

Skagway Nightlife

These started out as a simple workshop sketches last night, and then evolved into Toulouse-Lautrec color studies.

Jungle Book Characters

I drew these characters way back in my Creature Design class, but didn't get around to coloring them until quite recently.  The initial project was to do a twist on the Jungle Book, and I chose to do an Australian theme.  I water colored them to keep up with practicing that technique, and chose the color pallet as I went along (based off of some cool Aboriginal art I collected along the way).  Although I like how the colors turned out individually, I wish they were more united as a group of characters...some planning ahead would have helped. However, as an experimental piece, I have to say it was quite fun anyways.

Spring 2009 Workshops

I didn't get much time to go to workshops last semester, but here's a synopsis of what I was able to do.

"The Selfish Giant", story by Oscar Wilde

  ...'My own garden is my own garden,' said the Giant; 'any one can understand that, and I will allow nobody to play in it but myself.' So he built a high wall all round it, and put up a notice-board.

    TRESPASSERS 
    WILL BE 
    PROSECUTED

    He was a very selfish Giant.

The poor children had now nowhere to play. They tried to play on the road, but the road was very dusty and full of hard stones, and they did not like it. They used to wander round the high wall when their lessons were over, and talk about the beautiful garden inside...

...Once a beautiful flower put its head out from the grass, but when it saw the notice-board it was so sorry for the children that it slipped back into the ground again, and went off to sleep. The only people who were pleased were the Snow and the Frost. 'Spring has forgotten this garden,' they cried, 'so we will live here all the year round.' The Snow covered up the grass with her great white cloak, and the Frost painted all the trees silver. Then they invited the North Wind to stay with them, and he came. He was wrapped in furs, and he roared all day about the garden, and blew the chimney-pots down. 'This is a delightful spot,' he said, 'we must ask the Hail on a visit.' So the Hail came. Every day for three hours he rattled on the roof of the castle till he broke most of the slates, and then he ran round and round the garden as fast as he could go. He was dressed in grey, and his breath was like ice... 

(finally spring came)

...only in one corner it was still Winter. It was the farthest corner of the garden, and in it was standing a little boy. He was so small that he could not reach up to the branches of the tree, and he was wandering all round it, crying bitterly. The poor tree was still quite covered with frost and snow, and the North Wind was blowing and roaring above it. 'Climb up! little boy,' said the Tree, and it bent its branches down as low as it could; but the little boy was too tiny.      And the Giant's heart melted as he looked out. 'How selfish I have been!' he said; 'now I know why the Spring would not come here. I will put that poor little boy on the top of the tree, and then I will knock down the wall, and my garden shall be the children's playground for ever and ever.' He was really very sorry for what he had done...

 ... So he crept downstairs and opened the front door quite softly, and went out into the garden. But when the children saw him they were so frightened that they all ran away, and the garden became Winter again. Only the little boy did not run, for his eyes were so full of tears that he died not see the Giant coming. And the Giant stole up behind him and took him gently in his hand, and put him up into the tree. And the tree broke at once into blossom, and the birds came and sang on it, and the little boy stretched out his two arms and flung them round the Giant's neck, and kissed him...

Pantheon of our class gods

This was the last project for my Dynamic Character and Environment class.  The 7 of us made up our mini culture based off of random newspaper clippings our friends and family members provided for us.  Each of us then had to come up with a god (left to right: Cleric, Provider, Healer, Leader, Artist, Warrior, and Wizard) based off of our blind picking of newspaper "artifacts."  This is my rendition of the 7 gods from the sketches I created and received from my classmates.  The character I came up with is called Poye, the Creator (old lady in the middle).

...oh yes...Octo-Mom had to make a cameo as our Wizard.

Bonanza and Eldorado Creeks

When Beaver, the spirit who cares for the creeks, is influenced by human greed and power, the land takes a devastating downfall. Eagle and Orca are overwhelmed by the destruction of the men's new mine camp and realize that it's a direct result of Beaver's absence. Eagle then goes to Beaver's lodge to try to reason with him...which for the time being doesn't do any good...

Canadian Mounty and a Pimp!

Sorry that I don't have anything more exciting for March...I'm actually working hard on some real work that I will post in a few weeks.  Thanks Matt for the great Mounty and Pimp costumes!  They were great!

The Selfish Giant Characters

For the rest of the semester in my Watercolor class, I will be working on illustrations/visual development for Oscar Wilde's "The Selfish Giant."

Tarot Reading

For the first project of the semester, we had to re-create our interpretation of our tarot reading that was done in the first week by our teacher.  The class relies deeply on myth, symbol, and dream.  In my case, I incorporated dream images that I've had over the past few weeks and various symbols significant to my life into my tarot cards.

Klondike Kate, Mae Field, and Madam Burnet

This is my first pass at the three main women of my Klondike story.

Bear and Wolf

Bear is a jovial character, and the abstract symbolism on his paws is a version of Salmon that the Tlingits use. The face on his back represents Sam McGee, a man that he becomes very close with in the story.

Wolf, although a protagonist in the story, acts as a Hades-like creature to the humans. The people are greedy and corrupt both to the land and each other. Wolf governs their consequences. He is Eagle's opposite (represented on his back), and therefore his ovoids are upside-down(negative). The 3 "U-forms" between his eyes are potlatch rings that will be translated into a hat when he is in his human form.

Eagle

This is a revisit to Eagle as I am refining his design.  Eagle is the top of the totem, and most powerful spirit both in my story and Tlingit culture.  The hands on his chest foretell his ability to transform into a human.  You can't quite understand his other symbolism without me posting Bear, Wolf, and Beaver yet, but Bear's repetitive Salmon design is Eagle's eye.  The "eyes" on his neck and knees are positive (upright in Tlingit design), where on Wolf they are upside down because Wolf is the spirit of the Underworld like a Hades in my story.  

I'm also including a working version of the five spirits in traditional Tlingit coloring so you can enjoy their awesome graphic style.  I have yet to do other color options for Beaver, which I will post soon.

...and yes, Tlingit Eagles have "ears."

Drunk girl...and a parot

Again, this was the theme that the model was acting on in a workshop I attended last month.  These were done in 10-20 min.

Elephants

Thought I'd show you my elephant and elephant creature-thing I did last semester.  Why does the potentially dangerous elephant have cute Disney eyes, you might ask?  I'm not really sure, except that the odds that I had a Disney movie playing in the background while I was drawing this are exceptionally high.

Sketchbook...again...

I don't have much to say about these, other than they are from a few pages of my sketchbook...

Orca

Orca is one of my Tlingit spirit characters for my thesis.  He is a shamanistic spirit that is always changing in color and symbolism as the story progresses.  He has 3 forms: wooden totem pole carving, smoke-like wind, and whale form.  In this case, he has abstract symbolism of the other 4 Tlingit spirits of the story: Eagle, Wolf, Bear, and Beaver.  The colors are adapted from the Lynn Canal where the story takes place.  I'll post those other characters soon...

Tiger...

...and a tigg-a-roo!  

These were my feline animal and creature studies for my Creature Design class.  I spared you the boring bone and muscle studies.  I'm working on coloring and putting them into scenes, so I hope to post that later.

Jellies!

The Creature Design class that I'm in took a field trip to the Monterey Bay Aquariums this weekend.  The jelly fish they had there were too beautiful not to share.  I really hope you enjoy them!

Quick-studies

I've been doing quick-studies all semester, but just haven't gotten around to posting anything till now.  These drawing are all done in 1-5 minuets.  Most of these are from this week.

Klondike Men Studies

It just so happened that the model in my Clothed Figure class this week was portraying the type of characters that I want for my Klondike story.  I'm currently really influenced by Impressionistic art and Toulouse-Lautrec.  Much of my story takes place in a saloon/brothel, so that was what I was thinking of while working on these.

Punk army guys, what?!

When I showed up at the clothed figure workshop this week, this punk-style model was trying to pull off a cheesy army costume, complete with NURF gun.  I couldn't take the session seriously, so I just characterized him the whole time.  Turned out kind-of fun after all. 

Some Monkeys

I did these about 2 years ago for my friend Alfonso's clothing label.  I feel guilty for not posting anything in September, so here's something.  I promise to post something classier soon...

If only there were Northern Lights in San Francisco...

...I would truly feel at home!  I wanted to try to integrate texture into this graphic style.  I like how the northern lights feel with a since of movement and flickering colors.  Quilting is a big part of Alaskan culture (I've never gotten into it, but can appreciate it), so it's some of those patterns that I chose to use.

Domestic House Wife

The title isn't meant to be derogatory; that's just the theme that the model yesterday was playing up.  The characters in my drawings really "just happened" as I was experimenting with styles and ideas.  I wasn't sure where I was going with them, but I enjoy the result.

Charcoal Drawings

5-10 minute workshop poses from yesterday and last week. 

Mae on the job

These are some pose ideas for Mae, one of the girls who reluctantly works at Jeff's Parlor.  Of course I'm still working on her design, but I like how she's faced away, isolating her from the viewer.

Road Kill Cafe

So, I absolutely HATE American food (such as fast food, especially from diners...) because I swear I've gotten food poisoning at least 12 times from them.  In Alaska, there's usually  only one choice of eating establishment, and it's most likely decorated with dead animals:  Ooooohhhh!!...Look at the cute bunny head on the wall!   I wonder where the rest of the rabbit is?  Wait.  I just found it-smeared with mayonnaise on my plate.

Good vs. Evil characters colored

Going from memory, I wanted to capture the obnoxiousness of neon matching "I love Alaska" t-shirts often bought from cruise-ship gift shops.  Bitsy, the pocket-dog above, does not "heart Alaska" one bit.

Colored Pirate Family

I tried out three color variation ideas for my pirate family.  Let me know which one you like best!

Thank You!

                                      

I want to extend a big thank you to everyone who made it out last night to the art and wine event.  The evening went amazingly well, with special thanks to Lena, Zoe, and Jenny at Artisan, and Megan from Jeriko Estates.  Thanks again for everyone's love and support!

My art will be up at Artisan until further notice, so if you didn't have a chance to come last night, I encourage you to drop in at your own convenience.  Check out artisanwl.com for hours and other events they may be hosting.

Art and Wine Event!

I have been invited to showcase and sell some of my artwork at Artisan Wine Lounge in Walnut Creek. I'm putting up 12 pieces later this week, and will have an official event Saturday, June 21st. The wine tasting will be from vintner Danny Fetzer's all-organic label, Jeriko. My husband and I have been members of Jeriko for about three years now, and have to say that his varieties are exceptional. Lina, owner of Artisan Wine Lounge will be offering hors d'oeuvres to pair with the wine. Please join for an evening of art and wine!

Fairy Layouts Colored

So, I woke up around 6am yesterday with the sudden desire to watercolor. I don't think I've touched watercolors since the second grade (I hope it doesn't show too badly), and I've absolutely never volunteered to get out of bed before 9.

Spring Workshop Sketches

These are a random assortment of 5-10 minuite workshop sketches I have done since February. For these ones I used charcol, marker, or pen.

Eagle awakened-SOLD

So, this is the final result of Eagle coming to life out of the totem. I'm sure I'll keep working with this idea at a later date. It would be fun to storyboard out the whole sequence of all the five spirits morphing out.

I'm working of the logistics of how my Tlingit totem will come to life. These are some color thumbnail studies I've started out with. For now I'm going to go with the bursting out effect (bottom left) because the whole smoke thing is a bit cliche. I also want to reserve the Art Nouveau smokey-wind idea for the orca character, who will "blow" out of the totem and into a real whale in the ocean.

For my Concept,Technique, and Illustration class, we had to paint a poster for the Academy that was 20*30 inches. This is what resulted of that. As simple as it is, I am pretty pleased with it.

Fairy Layout

I did this drawing as a final last semester in my layout class, but didn't get around to doing the value study until last night. The theme was for fairy who is an artist.

Concept Characters for my Klondike story

This week I was working on character development for my heroine, Mae Field, and main villain "Soapy" Smith. This is the first pass, so the final design may end up looking completely different.

Clothed Figure Workshop sketches

I did these yesterday in a clothed figure drawing workshop. My teachers all hate the ball-point pen I use, but I find it to be extremely convenient and ready-at-hand. It also makes me commit to my lines and eliminates any desire to erase.

Happy Easter!

This is another one I did a few years ago for fun. I was on this martini bar theme kick there for awhile.

Madam Burnet

This is also concept art for the Klondike Story. Madam Burnet is the Madam of Skagway and pushes her girls at Jeff's Parlor, the local brothel. Quite past her prime, she keeps her girls busy. I think I want her to be way more voluptuous

in future designs.

Totem

This is an idea I was messing around with in Photoshop late last night. My thesis will be based on Tlingit spirits in the Klondike Gold Rush, who can shape-shift between totem, animal, and human.

Old Illustrations

I did these back in 2005 when we were living in Park City, UT. Despite the 6 feet of snow we got every day, the LA crowd that came in for Sundance still tried to be impractically fashionable. These are a special breed of women.

Quick Sketches

Here are a few little sketches I did on BART the other day.

Love

This was for a little class assignment where the theme had to be Love.

Light study

I did this marker light study in a little cafe in San Francisco. I wanted it to have an Edward Hopper feel to it.

Concept sketch for Jim and Rita

This is a quick doodle before I did my final line-up below for my evil characters.

Good vs. Evil Characters

This concept was for the semester final in character drawing where we needed a set of protagonists and antagonists. The story itself isn't really developed but in a nutshell it's evil tourists who go to Alaska to harass the local wildlife.

Pirate Family

Here is a pirate family I drew for an assignment last week. They too dream of being in color someday...

Book Store

I did this as a wonky exercise in class the other day. I hope to finish it over winter break. Eventually, it will be a night winter scene, and yes, those are the beginning stages of Northern Lights.

Characters from Sketchbook

Various characters for various projects, and then some...

These are a few random sketches of character ideas from my sketchbook.

More Head Drawings

Here are a few more of my head drawings from the summer.

Back to head drawing...

Oil Paintings

This was for a composition class last spring, done in oils.

This is also an oil painting from last spring. This particular one started on a toned red canvas.

More workshop sketches.

Sketchbook

Just a few charcoal drawings from a workshop.

Another portrait from last summer...

Aaron-SOLD

This is a portrait of my friend that I did over the summer.

Alaskan Diner

I know Alaskans won't find this funny, 'cause it's pretty much the truth, but most other people can find the humor in it. Again, this is another recent layout which I will actually render out if I ever have the time.

Antique Clock Shop-SOLD

I finally decided to start blogging, being that it's much easier to maintain than my Flash website (which hasn't been updated since 2005-something). This is a layout I did recently of an antique clock shop.