Jolene's Illustration Blog

The Gravity of the Situation

2011-12-15T23:41:00.000-06:00

A little late this week on my post, but unfortunately I was laid off last week from my tree job. Though that's not the reason I didn't get it done over the weekend, I tend to like to work late into Friday night putting the finishing touches on my science illustration, but Friday I was off seeing Les Miserables. It was a wonderful and spectacular night for a cruddy day.

I wanted to do an illustration on a French scientist, but I got into reading about the Higgs Boson. Then that led me to reading about the graviton, and gravity. So this weeks post is on the theory of gravity.

That's right, the theory, we still have not been able to prove it due to not being able to prove it's elemental particle of the graviton. Gravity itself is defines as a natural phenomenon by which physical bodies attract with a force proportional to their mass. It is known as what gives weight to objects with mass.

It is theorized that the exchange of gravitons on the quantum level is what gives objects the attractive force. The graviton is part of the quantum field theory where nature is mediated my 4 elementary particles: electromagnetism (photon), the strong interaction (gluons), the weak iteration (W and Z bosons), and the graviton. The reason why that it is hard for us to detect a graviton is because now we lack instruments that would be able to record one. Also, earth own gravity isn't that strong to observe.

Thus my reason for the ice skater, she illustrates someone who has to balance against gravity. Use it to her advantage to dance across the ice. It also shows how weak earth's gravity is. We can easily work against it in bursts. You can jump off the planet, you can also stand a pin on a magnet and keep it from falling down.

I feel I've barely touched on this subject, and I would hate for this post to keep on rambling on of random facts and theories. If you want to learn more on the complexity of gravity from how it effects us here on earth to the universe you can read more on the wiki, where I get most of my information. Also, if you are more interested in the quantum level of it, you can read more of the graviton here.

No Science, Just Christmas

2011-12-04T18:48:00.001-06:00

My Christmas card is ready for 2011! Had a nice Thanksgiving, and my holiday cookie baking is done for this year too. Now, I just have to do that shopping thing where I get presents for people.
I drew my naughty little Autumn, again for this years card. She does love Christmas, she thinks of every decoration as a shiny new toy for her. I haven't gotten my tree up yet, but I'm sure when I do I'll find her in it again this year.

Tree Monster!

2011-11-20T13:09:00.001-06:00

Sorry, no science illustration this week, due to the holiday season. I have some Christmas cards to get done before Thanksgiving. So instead enjoy a picture of a tree monster I made at work. Hopefully, I'll get a post up next weekend, or the week after. I'll be in Milwaukee for my family, and won't have access to a computer.

I hope everyone has a fun and safe Thanksgiving, eat lots of Turkey!

Owl does not give a hoot for twitter

2011-11-12T00:02:00.001-06:00

Scientist use Twitter to track our mood

Scientist from Cornell University studied tweets from 2.4 million people in 84 countries to track how people feel at different times of the day. The looked for key words in tweets to determine how we were feeling. They found that we had more positive tweets at the start of the work day, that led to more negative tweets, and then our mood peeked again in the evening hours. Also, it did not matter what country you lived in for this happiness peek. The one abnormality was the night owls. It turns out that people who are night owls will only peek in the morning, and not hit that peek in the evening.

Right now it's late at night, and yes, I do feel way past my peek. Maybe I should have listen to the study and have waited till morning to write this, but I figured I was on an art roll. Tomorrow I'll be taken away by Skyrim. Then I'll do research for the next topic I would wish to illustrate!

This is the New York Times article on the Twitter Topic, I think it does a better job at explaining if you would like to learn more. Click me!

It's not good to see red

2011-11-06T15:11:00.000-06:00

Red's involvement in evolution

Browsing though Science Daily I found this article on the effect of color in our evolution. The article is about a science experiment that was performed on monkeys. Both a male and female human would wear different colors when feeding a monkey an apple treat. The colors of green and blue had no effect on the monkey, but when the human wore red they would steer clear of them. The researches believe that the aversion to red is an evolutionary adaption, that we ourselves have.

Well, back to work tomorrow for me, and in relation to the next illustration I'm making, I'll probably be more happier in the morning. Then happy again in the evening when I can go home.

I'm Back From Space

2011-11-05T09:01:00.003-05:00

I've been away from this blog for far too long. To get me back into the blogging mood, I plan to combine my art with something else I love, science. Here is the first illustration in my science series on this blog. I want to pick articles to illustrate, but for today I have some facts about the eighth planet from our sun, Neptune.

Neptune was named after the Roman god of the sea, and is the forth largest planet, diameter wise, in our solar system. It was discovered on September 23, 1846 by Urbain Le Verrier, who mathematically perdicted Neptune. Neptune was not discovered by viewing it, but by observing unexpected changes in Uranus's orbit. On July 11, 2011 Neptune had completed it's first orbit around the sun since we discovered it.

Even if we could withstand Neptune's cold, stormy, and methane atmosphere we still could not live long enough to be one year old on the planet.

You can find out more about Neptune and many other things at wikipedia. My original interest in the planet was sparked by the Scientific America podcast. Go find on i-Tunes, and listen!

Happy New Year, Here's a cupcake

2011-01-22T22:46:00.004-06:00

I'm still accidentally writing 2010 when I write checks. I also had the honor of being the first work accident at the plant I work at. I have smashed my right hand ring finger in between two pieces of metals in a test machine I have to use. I fractured the tuft, the bone at the tip of the finger, and my nail had to be stitched back together. I'm doing fine, and the finger will eventually look like it's twin on the left hand. It's been annoying trying to type, write, or draw. The bandage on it just gets in the way.

But, I can still do art. I wanted to do some painting, but I don't want to get the finger dirty. So I did more digital art, and after being inspired by Mary Blair I did this quick doodle. Sorry, that I haven't kept up with the daily art promise, but only thing I can try to do is keep this updated as often as I can.

Have a move coming up soon, staying in Minneapolis, but just getting a better apartment. I'll have my own little studio space now! So I'll be busy for a little bit getting settling in.

The Cat is Sniffing my Foot

2010-10-23T21:19:00.003-05:00

So I may not have anything new here to post of my own work today, but I do have some awesome visuals to post from Aaron Draplin's "Thanks MPLS" art show. Just got back from going to see the show with my boyfriend. As you can tell from the pictures it was coolness on a giant wall of orange.

Me and my boyfriend also went to see Aaron Draplin speak at Mankato University, and got to meet him there. That was also a great experience and very inspiring for myself.

I recommend going to see it yourself, it runs till November 20. You can find more info on it here.

New Website

2010-10-22T20:07:00.002-05:00

Nothing new to post today because as soon as I got home from work I set to work on starting to get my new website up. So hopefully soon www.judzie.com will be up and running agian.

Just doodles Today

2010-10-21T17:34:00.002-05:00

It's the end of the week and I'm pooped from waking up at 5 A.M for four days in a row. So today is a post of doodles I have done at work. I work in manufacturing at the moment, and at times there is long periods of time when you are waiting on a part to get done in a machine. So I take that time to work on art. I either try to think up some logos, or just free doodle. These doodles are a series of girls with pets. The last is a finger puppet I made out of yellow tape. Have I mentioned how boring waiting can be?

Thanks to work I have come up with a design plan for my new family cook book. I hope to post some of that work soon on here.

Gotta run!!!!!

2010-10-20T15:17:00.002-05:00

Just a quick post today, I have just returned home from work and have to leave again. The inspiration for this came from my manufactory job. They have adjustable clamps to hold items together, and on one of them someone put a "M" in front of the "adjustable" that is molded onto the clamp. So I thought I'd have some fun with it and make a mad adjustment type play. Might just have to scan something from my sketch book for tomorrows logo-a-day, I won't be here to mess on my computer tonight.

A Logo a day

2010-10-19T16:23:00.002-05:00

I am going to try to be active again in updating this blog. For now I'm trying to do a logo a day or week, or on some regular schedule. I've been busy with my new apartment and working my day job. Day job is adding more hours to it, so I don't think I can do this on a daily basis. When I find time to doodle at my job I doodle logos for just random people and things in my life. Today's logo is my lovable little trouble maker of a cat, Autumn. Wish, I could put this on her little water dish that she keeps knocking over.

Summer Post

2010-08-08T10:42:00.003-05:00

Haven't post on here for awhile now. I still have been working on illustration, and decided to post a few that I've worked on since my last post. The above is something fun for summer. I was just doodling one day, and the cat made me giggle so much I decided to flesh the idea out into an illustration. A favorite thing of mine to do during the summer is go out in the evening to an ice cream stand and just sit outside enjoying a cold treat in the warm evening.
This illustration I wanted to try to work with line. I don't have many illustrations with line unless I ink them first. This one I did fully digitally, but if I was to use line again I would want to use ink. It's a more easy way to control the stroke mark, and I don't like how the computer does it. I have a tablet, but using a plastic pen is different from metal and ink.
This last illustration I made during the winter olympics. I'm not a big fan of winter, I like it for about a month and then I'm sick of it, but watching the winter sports on T.V made winter fun again. So I decided to give color to winter like the olympics did. It's not a long cold bleak season when you are out having fun in the snow with a friend.

Happy Christmas

2009-12-23T21:12:00.003-06:00

Decided to draw a Holiday illustration this year based off my cat. She's one of those cats who love Christmas trees. She loves it so much she practically lives in it. She also won't let anyone near the tree, if you try to approach it she will attack. She's arranged the tree skirt as a bed, and the presents under the tree as a little fortress wall. So she inspired me to create a Christmas image about her destructed love of the holiday. It started out as a pencil drawing weeks ago, and I was finally able to color it in the past couple days. The holidays is one busy time of the year, and I was Christmas cookie baker this year. I enjoy baking very much, and I love being creative with it.
On a side note, I did very well with the MCAD art sale. I'll try to post something on it later. I wish everyone a Happy Holidays, and a shiny New 2010.

I'm still here

2009-10-01T10:42:00.005-05:00

It seems I have forgotten to update this blog for a little bit. It doesn't mean that I have not been doing anything creative. I've been in Minnesota now for a couple of months, and so far for a job I am a apple harvester that does illustration work on the side. Here are just a few things I have been working on.MCAD art sale is coming up again, and this year I'm making Christmas cards. This is the template that I'm printing out on some card stock. Then I will be painting it in and gluing little pom poms to the penguins hats. I'm also planing on some paintings, and I will be sending what I have left of my calendar prints again.

Currently, where I am living in Minnesota does not allow me to have my cats with me. So as a little tribute to the cats in my life, I drew and inked them. I will color them in after some previous work clears up. I wanted to capture each of their personalities. Mr.Kitty is a vicious sweetheart that loves to roll in dirt when you are petting him. Scamper is a cool, calm cat, that mostly likes to nap. Autumn is a little ball of energy that wants to explore and play with anything and everything.

The above image is a little project I've done for the Franklin Historical Societies October fest. Hopefully, the image is moving, if not he is suppose to be drinking his beer. The society wanted a little German Guy to send along with their news letter. I drew him out in marker, and then changed him to vector in illustrator. I then moved him to photoshop to animate him and add a few finishing touches.

Interesting

2009-06-28T15:52:00.004-05:00

I've been stuck in Minnesota for over a week now. Not that I mind it, I would very much love to find a job and stay here. I initially came here for my boyfriends college graduation, and am just staying to drive him back to Milwaukee with me. He still has a job to work this weekend so I've been stuck with just my new computer all day. I love my new computer, it's so nice having a large screen, and photoshop opens in 2 seconds.

While being bored and messing around with my new computer I decided to make a new background for my twitter page. It's of my cat Autumn, and now she will watch those who look at my twitter pager, or when I check tweets. Her eyes really do get that big when you play string with her, or catch the mouse. She just gets so focused on one thing and then pounces.

It's summertime now, so if you are having great weather go out and enjoy it! I have this week!

It's yeah Fan yeah Art yeah

2009-06-11T21:27:00.003-05:00

E3 was about a week ago now, and a game I'm looking forward to was announced, Final Fantasy XIV. Not much was released about the game, but just enough to have me greatly looking forward to it. I don't normally create that much fan artwork anymore, but being this excited I just had to create something. I was in a creative block, and figured why not create my own vision of Final Fantasy XIV. There isn't much visually of the game released thus far so I do not have a lot of reference for this. In fact this picture, figure wise, has no reference at all. I just drew out the figures, added known character features to them and dressed them how I pleased. The background is going to be a major challenge for me, so I'm mostly using a picture from the game trailer for it.

This week I am getting a new iMac! I decided to put my tax rebate to use, and my current iMac decided it didn't want to work properly anymore. It's still working but it's annoyingly slow. Creating the above image in photoshop is taking me longer then usual because this computer really can't handle it. It's also going to be nice having a 24 inch screen to do art on. No more straining at an image and hope that I did something right. I'll actually be able to see now. I'm only hoping it comes before I leave for Minnesota again. My boyfriend is graduating next Friday, so a big Congratulation to him! If anyone needs a great graphic designer, I know one. He's going to hate that I made a reference to him in a blog post.

Final Product "To Ride a Turtle"

2009-05-26T22:17:00.004-05:00

As an experiment I think this illustration turned out successful, but as an illustration over all it does need it's improvements. I chose a cut section of landscape because I would have been bored and disappointed in it if I just left it as an 8.5x11 rectangle. I find it boring to just create everything in a rectangle. So I like to change up the shape, the size, how it's positioned, or break it up into smaller groups. I like to think the girl is breaking free from her rectangle, and slowly escaping on her turtle.

The next step

2009-05-22T21:44:00.002-05:00

I should stop posting when I'm pretty tired. Nothing really comes into my mind to type about. Only that I spent another day on this, and still just playing around how I please.

Colors

2009-05-21T21:56:00.004-05:00

Decided to try something new, and just plain fun. Obviously, still working on this, but decided to try to be vibrant with the colors. Drew this all out with no reference, so it is interesting to me how this will turn out.

See Ya Laters!

2009-04-24T15:45:00.005-05:00

Finished the sister to the first cloud bunny a couple days ago, but have been busy packing and preparing a portfolio to show. I'll be gone the rest of this week in North Carolina, going to the Triangle Game Conference. This will be all around new to me. Never been to North Carolina before or to a game conference. I'm looking forward to it greatly! Just kinda sucks I have to go alone.

FInishing up portfolio

2009-04-21T22:00:00.004-05:00

Working on the sister image in Cloud Bunnies. Hoping to get this one done, and then get portfolio together. Leaving this Saturday for North Carolina, and what I have together is what I'm going to have to show to people. Well, comments will be helpful, but I do wish I had a little bit more time to polish my portfolio more.

Cloud Bunny Revisted

2009-04-11T12:27:00.002-05:00

I should look at all my artwork on my boyfriends monitor. All my stuff ends up so muted when I work off my I-mac monitor. It really doesn't look muted to me while I'm working on it.
So I'm currently in Minnesota and was showing my boyfriend my artwork. That's how I found out how muted my stuff looks. Used his CS3 to tweak "Dark Cloud Bunny", making it not so dark anymore. Wish I started work on my other cloud bunny, but I got Star Ocean this week for my birthday. Maybe I'll get a new computer with my tax refund, it would be nice to actually know what my digital artwork looks like.
Spent the past two nights making Easter bread for a MS walk fund raiser. If you don't know what Easter bread is, the kind help make was a potato bread with frosting on it. We make it in the shape of a basket holding a bunch of little eggs. It's really tasty, and pretty too.
Excited because Final Fantasy Distant World tour is in town tonight, and I'm going to it. Going to dress up nice and my boyfriend does too.

First Cloud Bunny, First post in April

2009-04-02T13:55:00.003-05:00

Dark Cloud Bunny

Finally, stop poking around and finished the first cloud bunny. I should start cleaning up and packing for my trip to MN. I only hope that the weather improves, and that my car makes it.

Done working for the night

2009-03-31T22:07:00.002-05:00

She has skin now

She still needs work, but I'm going to bed. Happy April Fools to everyone:P.

The reason for the links instead of an actual picture is because the picture contains a topless lady.

Last Day of march

2009-03-31T14:36:00.004-05:00

This week's picture is a link

The time for spring is coming, at least I can hope it is. So I'm starting two illustrations under the title of "Cloud Bunnies". It's just me playing with photoshop again. Not going to post much today because I want to get working on this. I will be gone into Minnesota again next week.

Finished illustration

2009-03-25T15:26:00.005-05:00

I love illustrator. Here's the illustration done with illustrator with the photoshop image of how rock rat works.

Something I thought up at 1am

2009-03-25T13:48:00.004-05:00

Trying my hand at creature development. I was having trouble trying to fall asleep one night, and what I do to lure me to sleep is to let my imagination just go wild. It went into a world of creatures, and thought up this guy. I just call him rock rat because I'm not that great at naming stuff. I'm not done with this design yet, I'm going to illustrate how he works. He's an underground creature, that digs a hole for himself and leave his rock top to stick out, and he just waits for prey. When they come closer he springs a surprise attack on the soon to be dead prey. Someone should really let me know if something there is a creature already like this. Childhood memories can sometimes come back in the worst ways.

I'm still trying to prep my portfolio, and get it ready. All I have to say is I really hate my old InDesign. I have one of the earliest versions of the program so it is really basic, and I really miss short cuts for it. I learned the most updated version while I was still in school, and trying to work backwards is just frustrating. I'll figure something out, and hopefully put together a nice portfolio.

Only other thing art wise to say is that I've donated a painting to an auction that benefits cancer. I hope it can at least makes 50 bucks to donate towards the cause. This leads to a good tip, it helps to keep extra artworks around. I was asked on a short notice for a painting, and with doing portfolio stuff too there really wasn't time to make a whole new painting. Thankfully, I had paintings left over from the art sale that were ready to go on being sold again.

Working on Creating

2009-03-19T15:25:00.004-05:00

I'm so slow on updating this, but a lot has been going on. I visited the Twin Cities to pick up my boyfriend, and took him back to see the musical Cats. I was suppose to go to a Madison's International Game Developer Association meeting, but ended up driving my boyfriend back to the Twin Cities. I discovered while there that the Twin Cities chapter of IGDA was having a meeting so I went to that one. My reason for doing that is mostly due to the weather. It's amazing how quickly blizzard season ends and spring starts in the Midwest. I would also like getting out of Wisconsin more.

I will be going to the Triangle Game Conference in North Carolina at the end of April, mostly because the Game Developer Conference in San Fransisco costs too much. I also have family out in NC, so it will be very nice to see them.

Before I go I am working on updating and renewing my portfolio. The above is something I just finished. Was trying a lot of new things on it. First off I did a full body character with no lines, that I took if off a sketch I did, and I fixed it along the way while coloring. Then I tried to place her within an environment. I'm trying to do less abstract backgrounds, so I've been looking for reference at some old landscape paintings. This one I was looking at watercolors of ancient roman ruins. There is texture that I painted under the layers on this too. So for trying to put all this together for the first time, I'm quite please on how it turned out. Still things I wished turned out better, but it's always fun to try.

Lesson Learned

2009-02-17T22:26:00.004-06:00

Spent millions on cat space suits and this is what we get!

Never leave cats in charge of protecting your planet. They have other things they find more important.

I felt like revisiting space cats in a different medium. I have been stuck in an art slump of what to draw, or something just isn't working out how I want it to. When that happens it's just best to think of something weird and just create it. This is the first piece I've finished that I've made entirely on the computer. I have other ones, but I'm not as satisfied with them. I still prefer pencil to paper first, and then transporting it into photoshop.

Sneak Peek

2009-02-16T20:55:00.004-06:00

A sneak peek of what I'm currently working on. Felt a little bored so I'm illustrating a little life lesson you never knew you needed to know.

Updates on other Pages, Now on this blog!

2009-02-14T16:06:00.004-06:00

Two unrelated looking pictures, both are from something that I am working on. The above picture is just the header for the gaming blog I am working on. Something I just quickly threw together. I'll be posting about Braid later on that blog. I spent Friday night finishing the game.
Next picture is from a figure drawing class I took in college. I recently went though the stack of drawings I keep under my bed, getting myself all charcoaled up, I picked out a few drawings to update my portfolio with. I wish I had a better place to keep all my piling up artwork, then under my bed, or in a portfolio in my closet, or behind my bookcases, or under my window. Maybe I just need a bigger room.

I have a the plan for my new website all drawn out and ready to go in my sketch book, but the only problem that remains is getting it to code form. So as I figure that out, please enjoy my blog updates.

And Happy Valentines Day everyone^_^<3!

I tried again

2009-02-08T21:08:00.004-06:00

I did another remake from another character design I did in 2002. I'm trying to do something new, and experiment every time I remake one of these. I love just playing around with photoshop, and painting with it. Even if something doesn't turn out the way I wanted, I had fun with it, so move on to the next try!

Lynete 2009

I actually do start off with a sketch and then just turn the line off once I have things mapped.

Somewhere in the process.

Lynete 2002

My Dream

2009-02-07T22:16:00.005-06:00

What probably made it clear to myself what I wanted to do with my life was Final Fantasy 8. What is odd is that I do not own a copy of Final Fantasy 8 or have played it all the way though. It isn't the game itself that inspired me but the strategy guide. My friend, at the time, had somehow got her hands on the guide and for months we would obsessed over the game designs. We never saw a game that looked so good before, and yes we missed when Final Fantasy 7 came out. We would draw the characters over and over, and then we thought to come up with our own. Summers were spent creating stories and drawing characters to go with them. I decided then that I wanted to do something with the illustrative arts. Below is the progression of a character that I originally drew in 2002, while I was in high school. His name is Ketsuki, and I only wish that one could also improve themselves on naming stuff.

Ketsuki 2002

I've been thinking lately to go back and revisit all the characters that I just kept creating over those summers. Trying to see if I can also revisit the dream I had so many summers ago. Below is the coloring process in photoshop.

Ketsuki 2009

Job Searching, Anime Watching, Game Playing

2009-02-04T13:08:00.005-06:00

I don't have the inked image of this ready to go in a .jpg so enjoy the pencil sketch.

I'm on the job hunt. So if anyone wants to hire and illustrator/designer type person, I'm your girl! Like the title says I have been job searching and then playing games or watching anime. Down point is I don't have money to get and play new games, and I have a lot on my list that I want to play. So I'm going to have to wait till April for my birthday to some new stuff to play. Next down point is I hope I don't blow the money I saved up on paying my student loan, that money was going to go towards moving.

On a past visit to Minneapolis I stopped by Fort Snelling with my boyfriend. I enjoy visiting historical sites, and learning little odds and ends of history I would never know about because I don't seek this information out. While visiting these historical sites the fist place I go to is the gift shop. I bought "Ackermann's Costume Plates Women's Fashions in England, 1818-1828". I'm thinking of starting a collection of interesting books I find at these historical sites. It's that book I bought that inspired the costume of the girl up above. The pencil isn't even the final drawing, I tweaked it after scanning this image in, and it is inked right now. The inked image is a painter file now, so I just loaded the pencil jpg. Right now I'm trying to color her using Corel Painter, but my love and loyalty is probably always going to lie with photoshop. Digitally painting is interesting, but yet doesn't work out as well as actually doing it on canvas. I have more control over my paints in real life, then a computer program that is programed to only go so far with a brush style. Though it is a nice program that with some getting use to, I could push to work for me.

The February that didn't exist

2009-01-15T18:25:00.002-06:00

The bad news for me is that my temp job is done at the end of this month, so I have been job searching pretty hard this month. Unfortunately, I have found a career path I would like to pursue, but I have like nothing for it. I don't feel like going into detail about it, but just going to say I wish I knew this like 4 years ago. Kinda sorta did, but never thought too much about it till now. I don't think I'll get that February calendar done this month, but I will reuse the image for another month. Sorry, if anyone was looking forward to it but I need to find a new way to make money.

The above picture is part of my unfinished work file. It's an illustration idea, where I would make a picture of characters from different Japanese folk tales. Then I was going to write up the short stores along with it's posting. I was going to try to do this all digitally, and so far I wasn't liking how it was turning out. I'm thinking of revisiting some of my old works that I stopped halfway though, and finally finish them.

Now it's time to continue thinking of what my skills are good for!~

Happy New Year!

2009-01-08T20:38:00.005-06:00

Yes, I know posts have been slowing down here, but that is bound to happen when the holiday season hits. Everyone is busy around that time of year. I haven't gotten much done art wise lately, but I am working on February calendar, and I have good news about the January calendar I made! It is now featured on Smashing Magazine! So go check it out, and the other calendars that talented artists made.
Now, you might be wondering about the bunny. It's an art project I did in drawing class freshmen year of college. We had to study light at different points of the day. My room mate at the time just got the Monty Python rabbit from "The Holy Grail" for Christmas so I stole it and drew a series of pictures about it. Trying to make a somewhat boring assignment into fun narrative.

Watch out don't let the bunny eat you!

I had a good Christmas, and I hope everyone else did too. Got nice piratical stuff from the family and I bought myself a x-box 360. Everyone loves getting a toy every once in awhile, and I usually end up buying my game systems for myself. So I've been playing with that lately, but I hope to get something posted on February this weekend.

I don't draw dogs often

2008-12-12T22:27:00.004-06:00

I was commissioned to draw a pet for a Christmas present this year. The request was to do this in charcoal. Now, I haven't touched charcoal in about 4 years. Once I fulfill my required drawing classes in college, I shut all my charcoal drawing materials in my dirty art bin hoping to never have to draw another still life of blocks and bottles. Thankfully, I haven't had to do another still life but I broke out the dirty art bin to work on this picture. I'm not totally satisfied with the work because I only had tiny pictures of the dog to work off of. Never been a big fan of charcoal mainly due to how messy it is, and how it's not very permanent.

Another reason I'm not a big fan of charcoal now is what happened while I was working on this picture. I left my work area to watch some T.V, and when I got back to my table there was charcoal everywhere. It was batted all over my table, smudges all over my artwork, and black dust all over the carpet. Now it didn't take me long to find out who made this mess, all I had to do was look over to find a sleeping kitty on my bed. It was easy to tell that she was the culprit because her four little white paws had magically become 4 little grey paws. Anything messy is sure to attract this fuzzy destroyer. This is one reason why I would like to have my own studio space, at least someplace I can keep the kitten out of.

2009 calendar is here!!!!!!

2008-12-03T18:34:00.002-06:00

1680x1050

January is ready! I worked the whole weekend designing these desktop backgrounds. Surprised me on how long it takes to get everything the way you want it to be. It would have also helped if my illustrator worked. It hasn't worked since I dropped my computer. It got dropped while I was taking it to the mac store for an upgrade. It's the only thing that stopped working after I dropped my computer. It has problems changing a file over to photoshop, and it will crash if I have photoshop open at the same time. It also will randomly decide to forget a layer, or go weird if I try to change a shape. A Mac book pro along with CS programs are at the top of my list to get when I finally get some money to spend. I only wish they didn't cost so much.

The links to the rest of the sizes. Choose the one the fits you best!

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/13SucYuvzSTH4feHGBo4_A

1920x1200

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/XbG765hbJqhtc2f__MVrXw

1600x1200

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/MjtMB2MH64QyExoGHayzcQ

1267x950

The cat is biting my foot

2008-11-29T22:33:00.006-06:00

It has been awhile since I have updated this blog. After I went missing for Halloween, I just decided to take the rest of the month off.

This month I went to see the the MCAD Art Sale. It was a last minute decision to head up to Minneapolis. I mainly went to Minnesota to pick my boyfriend up to visit me in Milwaukee for thanksgiving week. Wish I could have spent some of my money at the sale, but my budget doesn't really allow much spending. It is pointless to buy art for myself now because I don't have anywhere to put it, anyways. I'm asking for some sort of art storage system for Christmas. Either archival boxes, or a small flat drawer cabinet. I did manage to sell off 3 prints from my 2008 calendar. So I made a little bit of pocket change.

Almost done with getting a design down for my January 2009 desktop calendar. When I finish tweaking the design I will have it posted to download. The illustrating part of it was fun to do, but now that I'm on the design part I can't help but get frustrated at it. It will get done though!

Above I drew a 15 minute sketch of my kitten Autumn. Even while sleeping she is not easy to draw. She moves every 30 seconds to a very different position. The only time she is not a blur of kitty destructive energy is when she is sleeping. When she is awake you can bet she's finding her way into something. Her favorite activity is taking stuff apart, or stealing my stuff. She is also handy at times too. If you leave the shower door open she will pry the drain off the floor and clean out all the hair that gets clogged down in it. So anyone want to hire my plumber cat?

Happy Halloween!

2008-10-25T16:02:00.004-05:00

Finished the image I was working on for Halloween. I love it when the end of the year comes along, there are three great holidays right in a row. Halloween has to be the most fun to illustrate for though. I'll be gone for next weekend, going to spend Halloween in Minnesota. Hopefully, I can get back to moving there since I won't have a job in Milwaukee anymore. Below I posted the picture with none of my line work, I just fine it interesting how it looks without the definition of line work.

The little kitten is doing fine, she's growing everyday. Growing both in size and destructiveness. She certainly finds her way into anything, and her favorite activity is to bother my older cat, Scamper. I hope that eventually they will get along. They do sometimes sleep together, but when both are up Scamper wants nothing to do with the little fur ball.

No art but new kitten

2008-10-18T17:05:00.002-05:00

Was planning on finishing my Halloween artwork during the week, but life happens. On Thursday, my uncle sent my family an e-mail about a little kitten they found wondering around the sidewalk by their house. Then had posters up for a week, and no one contacted them or came looking for the kitten. So he then asked the family if they could provide a good home for a kitten, and being I'm one kitten short of my limit I adopted a new cat. Her name is Autumn, due to the season she was found in, and her coloring. She is a very sweet and loving kitten. We suspect she is a bangle tabby, or at least has some in her. Above is the picture of my oldest kitten Scamper, and below is Autumn. They're both in the process of getting use to one another. I'll try to finish the Halloween picture this weekend. I have been so busy with my temp job that they even had me work this Saturday. So I'll be passing out early tonight.

Passing Out

2008-10-13T22:05:00.003-05:00

Posting this illustration every time I spend sometime on it. Now I sleep because I have to get up early to go to a job I won't have long.

Double Posting

2008-10-12T22:00:00.004-05:00

Halloween is coming, so I wanted to make a quick little illustration for it. So here is the pencil for my little vampire. Just need to ink and color him in. With Halloween coming I have been on such a vampire kick. Though, my favorite and first anime movie was Vampire Hunter D. I also read the novels, and am looking forward to this months release!

Just doing whatever

2008-10-12T14:16:00.006-05:00

I did not get that painting done last weekend, and in fact I have giving up on that painting. It would take me too much time to finish before the art sale, and once it's done I don't think I would want to sell it. To attempted to try to get some paintings done, today I went outside and painted some flowers in the garden. Going outside to paint just reminded me how much I hate working outside. The paper is blinding and fall seems to be the season of Japanese beetle attacks. My arms and legs are actually bitten up by these little pests. A warning to those who try to watercolor outside, hornets seem to be attracted to watercolors. One wouldn't leave my brush and pallet alone. I had to give a brush up to it if I didn't want to be stung. After I was done with my painting I reclaimed the brush, those things aren't cheap to just give them to an insect!

Almost done with another acrylic painting, I'll post a picture of it because it is too big for my scanner. Still going to scan some of it because I have a nice texture going on it and can always reuse that for a photoshop thing.

Last note is I'm out of a temporary job soon. So back to the job pavement, though not like I've gotten off of it.

2008-10-03T21:28:00.003-05:00

I almost finished January's illustration, I think this can still be considered a work in progress. It's mostly done but I'm uncertain about that bird. I was told that it could some color, so I added a little red bird. Different from what I had in mind for the illustration, but I hope I tied him in. If he just isn't working I can easily make him disappear. Poor little bird, I'm willing to off him.

I'm pretty satisfied with this illustration otherwise, and I'm looking forward to a 2009 project with these PJ characters. I was asked when I posted just the ink work on how I inked the bushes. I made them by dipping a little wire brush in ink and pushing it on the paper. Liked how they turned out.

I've been pretty busy this week. My temporary job is in a rush to get a ton of product out the door, so I've been buried in work there. Stuff that would normally take a month to finish is expected done in a week. So, that's fun. Otherwise, worked on this illustration in my other waking hours. Now this weekend I need to get another painting done for the art sale. I hope to have something new to post here at the end of this weekend.

The time for January Begins!

2008-09-28T21:02:00.005-05:00

The only thing I was able to accomplish this weekend was a start on my 2009 calendar. This is the inked illustration for January. 2009 is going to be year of the ox/cow/buffalo, pick what ever name you want to use, I've seen all three used. My theme of the calendar this coming year is going to be these little animal pj characters. I'm trying to choose certain animals relevant to the months, or just picking them because I want to draw them. But for January the reason for the cow makes sense. If you were born in 1985, like I am, you are year of the ox. So I'm excited about 2009 for this reason.

I'm sure it's hard to tell, but he is making snow angles and is going to be watching the snow fall. I have yet to color in this image, but with my somewhat busy/lazy weekend this was all I was able to finish. As soon as I'm done with this image I will post it on my website as a calendar page, and it will be available to download. So you may use it however you want.

MCAD Art Sale

2008-09-20T18:46:00.003-05:00

Is going to be November 21 and 22 at Minneapolis College of Art and Design. I'll be selling 10 prints from my calendar, and hopefully five paintings. This is the first painting I have completed so far to sell. I call it flying fruit, and it's painting on left over board from my last painting. I like to not waste materials, they cost too much in the first place to just toss in the trash. Everything that's left over from a painting can be used for another one. So using this art sale to create some paintings on left over board I have around. I'll post more paintings for sale when they are ready.

My Card~

2008-09-19T20:35:00.002-05:00

Look, what just came in today, my new business cards. I thought it would be good to finally have a bunch that I can hand out to people and attach to my artworks that I'm selling. A week ago I started on the idea of make a business card, and racked my brain on what it should be. I didn't feel like making a whole new illustration in a short period of time for it. Instead I ended up going into the old illustration files and went with my one of my favorite pieces from my senior project, watermelon lemon aid. After cutting it back to be just a watermelon, I tried for hours to get a typography I liked on the watermelon part. Nothing was working, and it was just looking all disconnected. Now this is where having a graphic designer for a boyfriend comes in handy, he solved my whole problem of type and placement of stuff on the card in 15 minutes. He came up with a solution that I should have the other side of the card be pink and have my information. Now it looks like I sliced open my watermelon creation just so that you may know who I am. Enjoy my sacrifice! Poor little watermelon.

Update on the T-shirt Idea

2008-09-14T12:48:00.012-05:00

I've have been wanting to make this lemon shirt for a long

time, now. So I finally did it. If you want to you may buy this

shirt off of http://www.zazzle.com/Judzie . Thank you, if you

do, but I don't make much money off of it. Zazzle people are

certainly making a killing off of other peoples creativity. There is also a button, and if anyone wants a button of any of my artwork I can make it.

Those aren't a pain in the butt to get or make. Off to work on some more ideas!

Painting Complete

2008-09-13T16:01:00.015-05:00

The commissioned painting is finally finished, and I have lots more

yet to do. Lots more just meaning art wise, not just paintings.

This painting was inspired by partly my friends favorite two colors,

and by Japanese design. I found this pattern on a kimono,

I only wish I knew what it meant symbolically. Wish I could show

everyone how this looks in real life because I love texture when

I paint.

And this painting has layers and layers of it with in the black. I never use colors straight from the tube, and black is my least

favorite color to use. This is my first attempt at using so much of it, and cutting back a lot on my colors. It was pretty fun to make,

and challenging due to the fact I had to use a ruler, a lot. The lazy

person in me just wants to just use a computer and make it do the

proper geometric shapes for me.

Though, the reason why I'm more busy now is I'm getting ready to

sell some artwork at Minneapolis College of Art and Design art sale.

So if you live around the twin cities area, come on down for some

arts you can buy. It takes place in November, and once I get

everything squared away for it on my end I'll post more details.

Another thing I'm playing with right now is making buttons and

t-shirts. I'll post those when I get them done.

One last thing is in part with my website redesign, I'm planing on

making a monthly calendar that people can download and print

if they would like to. I think the illustration for the first month might

be in the running for helping with my website design. I'll see when

it gets done.

Opps I've Moved!

2008-09-07T15:50:00.006-05:00

So working on a new layout for website. I'll be moving from jjmooncat.com to something that matches my blog and makes more sense for me to use, www.judzie.com. To let people know that I've moved I decided to make an "Uh-oh I've moved" illustration. It's essentially me very cutely stylized in kitty pajamas. I went with just using one color range on this, my eyes aren't really brown, but the pallet ranges from orange to brown.
I'm sure everyone does this, but this is just me playing around with my layers. I took away my ink worked lines.
And this is the face only. It's so much like a cu pie doll.

My painting is almost done, and it would be shipped out this week, except I forgot to take old packing material from work. Thankfully the person commissioning me to do this isn't in any hurry to make his walls cooler. I think it's looking great so far, can't wait to post it.

Gone this weekend~

2008-08-28T20:59:00.002-05:00

So quick update before I'm gone. Going to Minnesota this weekend to spend time with my boyfriend and enjoy their state fair. Wish I could stay there permanently, but so far with how jobs are going, it isn't in the cards.

This is a mock up for the painting I'm working on now. I've changed the colors around because too many were associating the colors with something bad. So switched the colors around. I'll post the painting when I'm done with it in the coming week.

Now to finish packing, and then rest for a long drive tomorrow.

The solution for work boredom

2008-08-23T23:21:00.003-05:00

To pay the bills, at the moment, I work a temporary job at a board shop. The shop basically makes boards that run drives, that run other machines. Like manufacturing machines for food products. I prepare the parts to be placed into the boards, and I get these sheets that tell me what to do. On these sheets are pictures of what the parts should look like. I always catch myself doodling on these sheets and making them into little creatures. I like making the boring technical drawings become so much cuter and fun!

The story about the tape cat at the top of the picture is this week was a very slow week for the shop due to inventory, so I kept myself busy by cleaning my work space. In the cabinet that I they keep tools in I found three rolls of yellow tape. No one uses this tape any more and they just decided to keep the rolls in there for some reason. I decided I'll find a use for this tape. After finding nothing I could tape, I made a cat out of the yellow tape on scrap paper. Now, I don't have a lot of work art in my sketch book due to I usually am actually working. Though from time to time on breaks I find the time to do a little something.

Work in Process

2008-08-17T18:39:00.003-05:00

During July the Minneapolis Institute of Art had a special Japanese art exhibit going on. Me and my boyfriend both went to see it and while there I got inspired for a new illustration. At the exhibit they had a beautiful pair of screens and on each one was painted a group of cranes. All doing what cranes normally do but composed in a , what I would say, organized chaos. If I were to create my own screen painting it would be like the above picture. I choose my favorite subject matter, cats, and decided to have them play. This is only half of the illustration, there is a companion piece where you'll find out what happens to that string.

This shows how lately I've been coloring my art. I first draw out in pencil what I'm doing then I ink it. The thing is though, I don't like black too much. I only use it when it is necessary, even when painting I never use it. So I scan my inked lines into photoshop and change them to colored lines. In this illustration the lines will be the main color of the cats.

In other news I have been commissioned to create a series of paintings. I'll update with those as soon as I am able to. I need to go out and buy some supplies before I'm able to start on them. I do enjoy a good art supply outing~!

I missed last week!

2008-08-09T18:46:00.004-05:00

Had family stuff last weekend, but I'll try to keep this updated at least every weekend. Weekends where I'm not terrible busy, and so far that isn't a problem. The picture up above is of Cait Sith from final fantasy XI. So the character belongs to Square Enix and I just love it so much to make a fan art of it. I think she's a really fun character design to work with and had fun working with her. Her personality is so spunky and snooty that I just love her! I have had this inked and colored for awhile now and decided today to just put a background in. Mainly, because I found some free new stuff on-line for photoshop and I wanted to play. I'm trying to save for a new mac book pro with new photoshop CS3. When that happens be sure to expect a lot more computer colored stuff. I love playing around with new programs, would also be fun to get to use illustrator again. My current mac is getting on in years and just can't handle programs like it use to. I also kinda dropped it in the past, but it's alright, sorta...

It's Me!

2008-07-27T19:49:00.003-05:00

Just a quick self portrait . I'm aware I have no nose, but that's how I usually doodle people out. I think I look better with out a nose anyways! I wanted to try just doing the same thing I did with my diddles out on the computer. Also, used this as a time to have fun with photoshop brushes and to create a texture.

Working on another illustration at the same time of this one about Japanese Folk Lore. I'll post more about it later.

More sour then sweet

2008-07-21T18:42:00.003-05:00

This is the other illustration for the other word that was given to me. Well, first I asked for a food, and then later I asked for a description word. I asked later on so that the two words are more likely to be unrelated. I think my plan worked out perfectly, I would never think of a lime as arid. This poor little guy got lost in the desert, I only hope he himself doesn't end up like the location he's stuck in.

Random Drawings

2008-07-20T11:09:00.002-05:00

Sometimes I'll ask friends to randomly give me a word, and then I go off and illustrate it. Today I asked for food, any kind of food. The first response I got was pasta, but I've done pasta before and didn't feel like doing that again. So second response was taco.

I like doing fun food illustrations, in fact made a whole calendar about it. I love cute things, and they always turn out cute. Okay, most of the time they turn out cute, sometimes a little morbid.

Princess Process

2008-07-19T16:29:00.005-05:00

Just click on the images to get full images.

Like most artworks, it all starts with a pencil drawing. Normally there would be sketches before hand, but with this one I was going to assemble in the computer so I just drew.

First the boy was drawn out and now the girl is.

Then I inked in the guy.

Then the girl.

Then came the watercolor.

Then tried my hand at water coloring a forest. If ya look below at the finished forest you'll notice I painted more in photoshop.

Other elements that were and were not used. After drawing, inking, painting, I put it all into my photoshop on layers and moved everything around till I liked it. Fixed up areas I didn't like and added blur to the leafs before the guys head.

Finding a Princess

2008-07-19T14:58:00.006-05:00

Yay, my first post! I’ll start out with an illustration I just recently finished.

I wanted to revisit a story I wrote while I was in high school. It was a story I came up with my friend called Distone. The story came out of watching too much anime. The idea was a male college student works in a bookstore has a crush on a female co-ed. She needs a book from his bookstore one day, but it’s not in stock. So he orders it and delivers it directly to her house when it comes in. Well, somehow she’s kidnapped into another world and he follows. She’s taken off to some far away castle and he ends up in some tropical forest where he makes friends with a cat woman, and sets off on a journey with here. Where they meet more allies, defeat villains and ect. ect. till the girl is saved in the end. It’s what I could come up at 14.

Well, these two characters are part of the group of friends that go traveling with the guy. The girl is Lynete a princess who escaped from her war torn country, and is found by Ketsuki, a child from one demon parent one human parent. The image is of him finding her in the woods that he lives alone in. There’s more of a deeper story that I thought up for them, but that’s not important here.

The whole purpose of me making this image was to try something. I wanted to create a scene of some sort with ink and watercolor, but I wanted to assemble it in the computer. So that whole image does not exist outside of the computer as a whole. Next post I’ll show the process of how it was put together. I decided for subject matter I’d go with that story I wrote. Ketsuki is actually one of my favorite character designs I’ve made, so I went with a part of the story he’s in.

The reason I decided to assemble it is, I feel it’s much easier for me to create what I want with out a fear of ruining something else on the page. With all the images separate I can move around and change things, as I want. Also, I have been experimenting with watercolors and landscapes. I hate doing landscapes, but I should try every once in awhile. I prefer to paint nature with watercolors; the two seem to marry together nicely.

All I can think of to write at the moment, on to creating more!