Natalie Farrell Art, Photography & Writing

Merry Christmas, San Diego

2011-12-27T11:54:00.000-08:00

Popped My East Coast Cherry

2011-12-14T17:35:00.000-08:00

On the 7th of December, I was very fortunate to take a trip with my boyfriend, Danny, and my best friend Shane to Dan's hometown in Cliffwood Beach, New Jersey for his brother's wedding. It felt so refreshing and wonderful to be on the opposite side of the country. Everything in his hometown seemed old fashioned, the air was crisp, and the trees made the atmosphere almost like I was up in the mountains... just without the mountains itself and altitude sickness. ;) I felt right at home there.

On the 11th, we took the train to New York Penn Station where I got to not only see the city for my very first time, but also met up with my cousin, Heather, whom I hadn't seen since 2002. It was a full day of walking, the whole entire time, and everywhere I looked I was in "awe". My time there was very short since I only had a day to be there, but it was a wonderful and breathtaking experience. My fish eye lens was the SHIZ in the city!

On the 13th, we had to come back to the whale's vagina, and I all ready want to go back. I'm so glad I got to finally meet my boyfriend's family and friends, see where he grew up, and take a trip to New York and see my cousin and her fiancee. This last week was the greatest moments of 2011 for me.

Rod, Stephanie, & baby Keiran

2011-12-04T18:14:00.001-08:00

Today, I got to do my first photo shoot with my dearest friends, Rod, Stephanie and their soon to be baby Keiran. For some reason, I was pretty nervous about this because I've never done a photo shoot before. It was a lot of fun, and taught me on what I should and shouldn't do for the next time. I'm pretty happy with the turnout, but I also see a lot of flaws with some of the photos. I didn't have a tripod, and I sometimes went a bit too fast to the point where some photos aren't centered, the lighting is off, or the colors might be a bit blah... but it is what it is. These are some of my favorites that I posted below, and here's the link to the rest. Hope you enjoy them, Rod and Stephanie! And many congratulations to the two of you and your soon to be baby Keiran. :)

fish eye

2011-12-01T18:20:00.001-08:00

Got my brand new Rokinon Fisheye lens today and caught this beauty right in time for the sunset at Moonlight Beach.

Needless to say, I can't wait for my trip to New York so I can use this thing in the city.

More photographs

2011-11-30T16:07:00.001-08:00

Went to cloudy Moonlight Beach to take a few photos before I had to run to my car from it being very windy and cold. Not good for someone in shorts and flip flops. Either way, they were doing construction down there so it wasn't a grand ol' day for some photography.

Last but not least, this is a photo of my parent's house with their Christmas lights up. LOVING this camera.

Stay tuned for more photos when I get my new fisheye lens tomorrow (!!!)

New Camera, New Photography

2011-11-29T15:26:00.001-08:00

I got a new DSLR Canon Rebel Camera for my birthday, and I couldn't be having more fun. These pictures were taken just outside of my friend Shane's house. I love the tree in his front yard. We don't get much of a fall here in California, so it's comforting witnessing SOME trees that change. More photographs to come later.

Different style

2011-11-11T17:41:00.001-08:00

Some fun random sketches I created. My intentions of these pieces was to try a different style which I was inspired with from a TV show I watch, and to see where it'd lead me. I had fun with the borders. The second image "Bound forever" I drew all out and then used a program to make it smoother.

Under The Umbrella Tree

2011-11-01T18:40:00.000-07:00

DanDeLyons

2011-10-28T13:41:00.000-07:00

Halloween Pumpkin Carving Fun

2011-10-25T22:58:00.000-07:00

After over 15 years give or take, I finally got to carve myself a pumpkin for Halloween. Every year I would think to myself that I'd need to do this... but never got around to actually DOING it. So this year, my boyfriend Dan, friend Shane and I decided to get up off our bums and drive to Bates Nut Farm to grab ourselves some fresh pumpkins. I was also able to snag some Pumpkin Butter which is absolutely DELICIOUS!!! Every spoonful is seriously like eating pumpkin pie.

Anyhow, we got our pumpkins I would guess about two weeks ago? And finally we decided to carve them. I, unfortunately, thought it would be a FANTASTIC idea to carve a side portrait of Dan's and my beloved bearded dragon... due to the fact that I had plopped him on top of my pumpkin and he just stood there looking like godzilla on his throne. Who wouldn't be inspired by that? Well, it turned into a mental chaotic disaster since I only had steak knives, a cheap arse pumpkin carving tool which later on broke, and Dan's razor tool. And not only that, but his scales would have taken forever to carve.

Since Dan is able to spit out artwork like no other, I had to give my pumpkin carving a rest for a day or so. Finally this afternoon, I decided to just go for it and turn it into some random...thing. It was a little annoying because I was forced to use my bearded dragon's one eye and his ear as two eyes, but it was also fun to create something out of a failed attempt. So I just carved whatever, wherever, even if it didn't make sense. I almost wish I had bought a few more pumpkins because carving it was very therapeutic for me. It also got me into the holiday spirit. I hope this motivation actually gets me inspired to put effort into a costume for this year......

And.... THE FINISHED PRODUCT!!! Dan's crazy decked out pumpkin is on the left, while mine is on the right. I'm very satisfied.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Quick Sketches

2011-10-14T21:23:00.000-07:00

Did some random sketches tonight which took about 30 minutes for all four. Just playing around and not really caring about mistakes and what not. The material I used for this was Natural Vine Charcoal.

My favorite out of the four is the one of my family's and my dog, Eddie, who recently had to be put to sleep three and a half weeks ago. I have a different drawing I've been working on of him that will have its own post with a memorial of Eddie.

Don't blow up!

2011-09-09T11:16:00.000-07:00

On Monday, I had asked Dan to send me a nice picture of himself because I wanted to paint a portrait of him using my new oil paints. He, of course, decided to be funny and sent me a silly picture of himself ...and in my opinion...looking as if he were trying to let out a big fart. HAHA. So, I decided to draw a caricature of him like that in my sketchbook.

I used prismacolor sketch pencils, prismacolor fine line markers, a markette pen for the tip of his hair, white out for the shine, and prismacolor colored pencils & art stix. This whole thing took about two hours. One thing I'm upset about is that I didn't make him fat enough, but I still am pretty happy with the outcome. Click on the pictures to enlarge.

Moonlight Zen

2011-09-05T20:06:00.000-07:00

One of my all time favorite beaches I love to go to by myself, or with friends, is Moonlight Beach. This special place is where I love to take walks, swim in the waves, lye out while blasting hard rock music or reggae through my headphones, whatever have you. For quite some time now I've always wanted to paint this beach, and finally I got the opportunity to today.

I did this painting off a picture I took on one of my walks. I used, of course, oils. One of my favorite things about oil paints is that when you mess up, you have plenty of time to fix it. The hard part is, it's a piece of work to get your paint brushes cleaned up. Well worth it, in the end. This painting took about 3 and hours to complete. I'm pretty satisfied with the outcome, although I'd like to learn more on how to make sand look more presentable and real so my next beach painting can turn out even better.

Here's a look at the picture I took as my reference. Thanks for reading. :)

Quick Fix

2011-09-05T16:03:00.000-07:00

Today has been a wonderful Labor Day. I woke up at 4am being thankfully interrupted by thunder and rain. I was instantly happy and soothed. I fell back asleep and woke up again at 8 smelling the after affects of rain from the asphalt and the mud, all being carried by the wind and into my room. Today I had to paint. I lit two candles that both smelled of bamboo mist/coconut, and I just went for it.

I am the worst at being a perfectionist when it comes to hanging things up on the wall. ;) Moving on, these three paintings I did were quick, fun and easy little warm ups. I haven't been the best at keeping up with making art in a long, long while, so messing around with my oil paints was a great warming up experience.

The first painting I did this morning is an abstract mess with colors, and in the middle is of a girl holding tightly to her man during the storm. Every individual has their moment where they can be at their lowest, but having that one person they can lean on and love always makes a difference.

The next piece I quickly slapped on blues, greens, reds and yellows to create a fast wave. Not a favorite, but still had fun painting this. I wanted to add texture to this painting.

Lastly, I've wanted to practice quickly painting the human body in an abstract, somewhat shadowing yet beautiful form. This, I'd have to say is my favorite out of the three just because I was most happy with the way it turned out, especially in such a fast pace. My goal in my next paintings is to get more detailed and concentrated with my work, but I'm pretty happy with what I've done today. Happy Labor Day!

New supplies calls for new art work

2011-09-04T22:52:00.000-07:00

I had an great opportunity to go to Aaron Brother's for their major Labor Day weekend sale, and bought a mountain top of art supplies: New paints, brushes, canvases, prismacolor pencils, sketchbook, and prismacolor sketch pencils. With all that, I had a little fun.

This is a painting of a raven I did for my best friend, Shane. Three years ago, I painted a fast warmup painting of a raven (shown below) that I used for an art show I participated in at the Kava Lounge, and Shane really wanted something like that, except he wanted the background to be black and blued as opposed to the red. I originally was going to pretty much paint a duplicate of that, but instead I came up with wanting to add a tree, the moonlight and the bird flying. He was very pleased with the results. The choice of paints I used for the blue raven are oils, and the bottom raven I used acrylics.

I suppose I was on a bird kick today because the following piece is what I did of a bald eagle. Oh man, these birds are INSANELY bad arse. I mean, I never KNEW they could prey on DEER. Check it out HERE. Yeah, crazy ridiculous, right? Awesome. Well, getting back to the point, I decide to draw this magnificent creature using my new prismacolor pencils on one of Dan's mat boards. Sorry, Dan... I had taken three about a month ago. But you have a GINORMOUS everlasting stack, so, I think you'll be okay. ;) Any how, it didn't quite turn out the way I wanted it to, well, at all more like... but I still enjoyed drawing and coloring this piece and was just having fun.

And last, but certainly not least, I HAD to use my freshly new sketchbook. Dan was on my mind, so I decided to draw him. I had searched his Facebook photos to find my "picture victim" and alas, he had a good one in his carving pumpkins album.

It has been a fun day. More projects to come. Thanks for stopping by. Ciao!

Extraordinary Machine

2011-08-23T22:21:00.000-07:00

"If there was a better way to go then it would find me. I can't help it, the road just rolls out behind me. Be kind to me, or treat me mean. I'll make the most of it, I'm an extraordinary machine" ~ Fiona Apple

Fiona Apple has been someone I have admired since I first saw her on television with her music video Fast As You Can. Her music, lyrics, and talented live performances performing on the piano glued me constantly to the screen. Recently, her song "Extraordinary Machine" had really helped me feel upbeat and inspired me to draw her. Please, Fiona... make a new album soon. It has been far too long.

Break

2011-08-01T14:23:00.000-07:00

Today, I decided to draw Saul Williams, an intelligent man that has a lot of energy, power with his words, and attitude. He's a poet, a songwriter, and an author. This was just a short sketch for fun.

Here's a taste of Saul's music. One off his new album called "EXPLAIN MY HEART".

Tunnel Skyline & A Horse's Portrait

2011-07-30T19:03:00.000-07:00

An attempt at drawing a pacific ocean wave with the San Diego skyline on the inside of the tunnel. I drew it out and colored it with Dan's new Prismacolor pencils (shhh) on one of his mat boards (again, shhhh) and used toon paint and a program for effects and color boosts.

Next is another doodle I did capturing a horse on another one of Dan's mat boards. Thanks for all the supplies, Danny! ;) His constant spurts of art work has pushed me to become inspired, and although it's not exactly how I'd have liked for both pieces to have turned out, it still feels good to kick myself back to drawing again. For the horse, I didn't add any special effects. It is what it is. I had a cheerful experience drawing this one specifically because I jolted back to my childhood love for horses. One of my goals this year before I turn 27 is to go for a ride.

Get Your Dirt On!

2011-07-05T14:42:00.000-07:00

I've been slowly getting myself back on the art track, which has felt pretty good. I got a call from an old friend of mine asking if I could draw a t-shirt design for her boss. It's for a kid's camp, and the theme is called "Get Your Dirt On". The kids will have fun activities to do along with a crazy obstacle course that involves: water balloons, shopping carts, a huge duck boat, hula hoops, LOTS of mud, basketball, and more. This is what I came up with, and they loved it:

Next is a piece inspired by my boyfriend, Danny. We were at the Del Mar Fair walking around and stopped for a beer break when he asked if we could draw while we relaxed for a little. I gave him a look of yes - but I am very uninspired... but he encouraged me to let loose and just draw. So I did:

Thanks for stopping by. Happy belated 4th of July, and cheers!

Good morning, Oceanside Pier

2011-06-05T12:00:00.000-07:00

Just a quick little warm up sketch when I woke up this morning. I looked outside and saw how beautiful it was here in San Diego. I truly do cherish my home. For my sketch, I wanted to originally draw one of my favorite beach spots: Moonligt Beach that's in my hometown of Encinitas, but I decided to go for the Oceanside Pier where it's one of my favorite spots to bike ride. You can't exactly bike ON the actual pier, but there's a boardwalk that's perfect for bike riding. For the sketch, I didn't use a ruler (as you can probably tell) and I tried to go as fast as possible. I wanted to let loose and go with it, just to see in the end how well I was able to capture the Oceanside Pier and warm up my sketching skills. Any way, here's the original sketch from this morning:

I then decided to try out my Photo App on my iPhone and came up with liking both these settings:

For my next project, I plan on painting a picture of moonlight beach using oils. I love the ocean, and I especially just love the atmosphere of the beach. It will be a fantastically fun project!

Poetic Ocean Apples

2011-06-04T00:16:00.000-07:00

Got motivated by a friend of mine to create more artwork. It's been extremely hard for me this past year to get down and get creative. It's as if I've lost every ounce of creativity due to either stress, changes, health, who knows. I would think having a significant other who's an artist would allow me to open up more creatively, but it seems to do the exact opposite for me. Instead of being able to spit out new artwork of my own, my artwork starts to turn into something HE would make. Doesn't really sit well with me... I need to have something come from my OWN thoughts/images I have in my head.

So here's the start to a couple things I played around with on paper, then uploaded on my iPhone none-the-less (*rolls eyes* yeah, well I paid for some awesome art apps that I need to finally put into good use!) and used a program called Cartoon Art to color in, and another photography app called Photo Studio to add some cool effects. Technology is amazing now a days, and since I don't have the money to buy amazing, and yet expensive art programs for my computer, I figure this is the closest thing I have. Please bare with me, I'm a bit rusty not having drawn in a long, long while.

First one is a random plain ocean wave coming up towards an island in the sun. I was trying to make it look somewhat like a graphic design, just plain and simple. It didn't turn out at all the way I wanted it, but I thought I could possibly see this in a children's book or something.

Next one was a little tough for me, and I'm not pleased at all with the likeness, but I figured I'd just play around with it. It's supposed to be a caricature of the talented singer/songwriter that I have loved since middle school: Fiona Apple.

There's lots of things very wrong with her caricature, but that's okay. She can look like a zombie.

The last drawing I made was of another singer that I love named Poe. Never heard of her? Check out Angry Johnny Haunted and Hello. Again, not too happy with the turnout, but it's not terrible in my opinion.

Okay, so goal for this summer is to kick myself back into the art gear and get better at drawing/painting. Thanks for stopping by!

California

2011-02-19T14:29:00.000-08:00

Only some out of the many reasons why I love my home so much.

New Painting

2010-12-14T20:16:00.001-08:00

Fresh new painting! Right off the bat. Santa, give me more paints! :)

The finished product:

Titled: And So I Fall in the Color of the Leaves

More to come! (I'm in such a good mood right now)

Christmas Painting

2010-12-13T23:36:00.000-08:00

It's that time of the year where I feel warm and cozy. The weather is cold (well, supposed to be. San Diego decided to play the random weather card on us and made it 80 degrees for today.) and Christmas lights are everywhere. Today, my boyfriend Dan and I decided to check out Rhino Art since Marco gave me a $25 gift card to that place for my birthday. We picked up some canvas paper and headed home to paint, taking the scenic route with the ocean.

Once we got back to our apartment and finished setting up our paints and brushes, Dan took out his art book to find some inspiration. He and I are opposites when it comes to painting and drawing. For him, he can spit anything out randomly when drawing an abstract picture, whereas for me I have to actually take my time to come up with something good. When it comes to painting for me, I can just go for it, whereas he has a difficult time. It has to be precise for him.

So far, this is what we have to start for our collaborate abstract painting. It's got a Christmasy theme, almost as if Santa got tangled up with the tree and ornaments. We might add more tomorrow after the paint has dried.

Titled: Slip of Santa

I then proceeded with a new sheet of canvas paper to paint my own abstract painting. Both were used with acrylics.

Titled: Friendship Never Melts Away

I wish paints weren't so darn expensive. ;)

Doodle

2010-12-03T22:12:00.000-08:00

Quick sketch of my love. Went a bit overboard with the lining and shouldn't have done it as thick and noticeable. Lots of things aren't lined up correctly. It's my first sketch in awhile so I'm a bit rusty. Thanks to Dan and Marco for kicking me back in gear.

Splatter

2010-12-02T15:05:00.002-08:00

Playing with a program.

Boredom

2010-11-30T22:26:00.000-08:00

A result of boredom, and I'm not even close to being finished. It's just a doodle, not exactly sure where I'm headed with this. Believe it or not, it actually took a couple of hours.

B&W

2010-11-16T14:18:00.001-08:00

Oceanside Pier

Things She Said

2010-11-04T03:52:00.000-07:00

Crimson and clover, over and over

2010-09-03T00:56:00.000-07:00

Daily life

2010-08-24T11:35:00.001-07:00

"Superhero" Comic

2010-07-30T21:30:00.001-07:00

Kaman's monthly art party. Theme: Superheros.

So many legoheads

2010-07-27T01:05:00.000-07:00

Title says all. Oh, and Angelina Jolie.

This last picture I saw on a friend's facebook page. It really left me thinking how wonderful a quote that is, so I had to post it.

Huhu

2010-07-23T19:38:00.001-07:00

Taylor is in town, so I decided to draw him. I saw his caricature get drawn by Joe Bluhm yesterday at Comic-Con and learned a lot by it, and that's where I got the inspiration. I was proud, only because I didn't have a picture of Taylor and drew by memory. The rest are of random kids I drew, and of Dan. I like his nose in this sketch.

Today's sketches

2010-07-16T22:56:00.001-07:00

July stuff

2010-07-13T19:41:00.000-07:00

Been insanely crazy for me the past few weeks. Finally managed some time to update some new caricatures:

Marco holding up an Avril and Edward sign.

This I drew of Dan as Wolverine. I was practicing on drawing fast.

My high school best friend, David. He works hard in the military and doesn't spend his cash on crazy things. Instead, he is smart and puts lots in savings. So I drew him on a hammock with money galore.

These next caricatures are all from what I drew at the park today. First, as you can tell is Jacob, Bella, and Edward from Twilight. The rest are of random customers.

Steven Tyler

2010-06-22T19:24:00.000-07:00

Trying little by little

2010-06-12T21:02:00.001-07:00

Trying little by little to push my limits and improve myself. As someone who's never ever drawn cartoons before working for Kaman's, I feel this is such a great learning experience. My lines are still a bit blotchy and off, my coloring isn't as smooth to my liking, and my caricatures still need immense work, but I feel this blog will help me look back and see how much better I've gotten. Can't wait to see how I'll be a year from now.

So, the first caricature is of this brother and sister I drew yesterday. The little girl cried because I cracked a joke towards the very end saying that I drew her as the hulk. Woops. The parents and I immediately reassured her that she was a princess, and she was back to normal again. Second photo was an attempt to try to exaggerate Megan Fox. Don't ask me what's going on with the background... I don't know what I was thinking. But, eh, I'm somewhat pleased with how it turned out. Third picture is of one of my closest friends, Jesse. He's like family to me. I drew him as muscle man because I'm still trying to work on my bodies and make my lines smooth as well as being fast. Last, but not least, I drew my boyfriend Dan. Huhu. At first, I wanted his face to end with just his nose. For some reason, I felt the need to add his mouth, and then the rest of the body... let alone a background. I drew this pretty quickly, but gave myself a pat on the back for the result. Isn't 100% what I wanted it to turn out, but that's why it's good to learn. A bunch of kids commented on it as well saying it's funny. :) That's all for now, until next time. Ciao.

Paintings and Photographs flashbacks

2010-06-05T12:21:00.001-07:00

Some art and paintings from the past. First picture, though, is of a butterfly that randomly decided that Dan's and my room was the best place to be.

And more...

2010-06-05T11:40:00.001-07:00

The LAST two caricatures are of the wonderful Lennon Murphy, and of Michael Jackson. The rest are of people I drew at the park yesterday. Still need lots of work in my caricatures, but at least they sell well? Marco, I didn't use your work as a reference this time. ;)

More Caricatures

2010-06-03T22:27:00.000-07:00

Some other random ones I drew within the last couple months.

This is of my boyfriend, Dan. I realize I totally screwed up. It's MW2. Any way, he's pretty much always playing that game. I hope he knows that if he and I were playing on a computer, I'd totally "pwn" him, big time.

It was this couple's anniversary when they got this. The husband asked me to give him extra hair. Huhu.

I was impressed with myself on how I drew these kids. For me, I felt I was definitely improving on the hair, eyes, and coloring.

Caricatures, etc.

2010-06-02T22:18:00.000-07:00

Never really kept up with this thing. Always looked at all my other friends blogs because they're so incredibly talented. Lots of inspiration comes from my friends in my work, mainly body wise. They've helped me learn to transform my drawings more "cartoony" as opposed to realism. As my 2nd year working at Legoland goes by, my main goal is to use 100% my mind rather than have something to look on. Being a visual person sucks. ;) Enough ranting, here's my work.

This is a caricature of Will Ferrell. I was actually pretty proud with how it turned out. I made his face a bit too skinny, but for someone who's only been in caricatures for only a year, I had to give myself a big pat on the back.

I drew one of my best pals, Danny, who is like a brother to me, and his wonderful girlfriend Laura. He loves to give that kind of expression, and Laura just has an all around bright smile.

Last but not least, I drew these 7 kids at Legoland just this past weekend. I was extra proud of it because it took me only 20 minutes. One of my biggest goals for this summer is to test my speed so I can get extra fast for that extra cash.

Thanks for checking it out. More work to come.

Greetings, 1st post.

2009-07-16T18:02:00.000-07:00

I like, you listen. ;-P