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!

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.

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.