I’m sure everyone has been wondering what i’ve been up to for the past however long its been. In short I have finally crossed over to the dark side a.k.a. the world of digital production art. I am learning Maya (of all programs!) and a compositing program called Nuke. “WHY” you ask? Because I want to make beautiful matte paintings like Dylan Cole and Yannick Dusseault! Go post production!!!

I also kicked out another little promo card for the salon today (because I know folks get bummed when I don’t post any pictures lol)

So here is the stock photo that I started with:

Several color corrections and a snappy slogan later:

There is a back to this postcard but it’s just type and that’s not as fun to look at as color corrections  lol

That’s all for now, stay tuned for more digital chatter and possibly screen shots of my totally riveting Maya project (go super cool BMW rims!)

April 24th @ 7:30 pm

Beauty (SALON)

235 Willits Alley

Birmingham, MI 48009

(248) 540-0046

Beauty (SALON) is located in Willits Alley, which is accessible from either
Maple (15 mile) or Willits Street. Parking is available on the street at either end of the alley. There is also a parking structure on Old Woodward, North of Willits St.

I apologize for the light interference there after I talked about all the colors in the white lol. You’ll just have to see it in person at the show on April 24th! That’s all for now stay tuned folks!

So I’ve been making this work without a set in stone direction. I started the tulips in the winter and I remember just being done with snow and sub zero temperatures so I made a temporary garden for myself. I didn’t think about titles or anything like that and the next piece, the irises, was the result of a challenge by one of my friends. I don’t remember what we were chatting about but she said to me “Heather what about irises? You never make those…” Which was true because in my mind there were plenty of other purple flowers to paint without feeling like I was ripping off Van Gogh…Then I got over it and made an iris piece to prove that I wasn’t intimidated lol. This one that I just finished came from a wispy frivolous daydream of a sketch. I actually almost decided against reproducing it in pastel because of a shadow that I thought looked good in the sketch but might be an issue in a larger version. Luckily it turned out alright somehow. I almost had a heart attack working with that much white space contrasted with such dark parts. One false move and you have to either pull a magical undo rabbit out of your hat or start over. But I digress. Here is the finished version:

I didn’t post the best pic of it because  you’ll just have to come see it in person at the show on April 24th. The title is pending as was the show title until last night. I’m trying to not rush into slapping titles on things as soon as I finish them. I’m finding that it’s better to chill with the work for a while and let it influence the next piece so everything meshes together nicely. I’ll be taking the next piece a step farther in the abstraction department and I’m pretty excited about it. The reference photo totally justifies my need to combine all sorts of crazy colors in the same piece for no reason except that I get so much joy from using and looking at them. That’s all for now, stay tuned folks!

I’ve also been doing a bit of designing just with type and hashing out ideas on the computer. Whether or not this is a good thing I’m not sure. While I do feel the need to be able to navigate the adobe programs I get out of sorts when I feel like I am forgetting how to draw. To counter this I’ve been doing a lot of scatterbrained sketches…more like mock-ups for future works. In the midst of all this digital business I started a piece that is half the size of the iris painting. The idea was that I secretly love girlie pink fluffy looking things with a bit of edge to them so I wanted to use a light pink oriental poppy as my subject matter.

The downside of  working during the wee hours is that your pictures come out a bit dark and gloomy so please bear with me lol. The cool thing about this flower is that it has super dark parts and this for me is the “edge” in the midst of all the “froufrou”

My new favorite soft pastel color by Sennelier? Nasturtium Orange. Sounds like a disease but it has the perfect blending texture =)

I also finally got to use this dusty dark lavender color that is in every set I get. Good thing I didn’t need that color until now because I’ve been using a ton of it!

I know you’re all dying to know if I’m planning on showing this work at some point and since we’re all so bored with the paintings that are currently up in the salon the answer is yes. I was shooting for the third week of april but one of my friends who has not shown new work in a while already nabbed that weekend lol. So I’ve decided to have the show on the following weekend, which is my birthday so it will definitely be a party. I just might make cake. Rather I just might attempt to

So this is where I’m at with this work and I plan to finish it in the next couple days. As always I’ll post update pics on facebook. Stay tuned folks!

So now I have three works to potentially submit to New American Paintings this month. I’m still debating on the next one…if I make the huge water lilies I’ll more than likely be out of pastel before it’s half finished…but if I go with making the smaller hibiscus I’ll be left with 30 different shades of black in my set and I’ll have to come up with some groovy way to use nothing but darks lol. Either way, I’m starting the next piece today so I’ll have time for little disasters and such before the 27th Here are the finished irises which if you haven’t guessed, I’ve titled “Iris it Were Spring”

That’s all for now, stay tuned folks!

I learned all about irises today on wikipedia. More like I learned what a lot of different people that have edited wikipedia have to say about them. My current favorite breed is called the samurai warrior and it’s pretty wicked. Also the fleur-de-lis is modeled after an iris, go figure. I could never figure out how to draw those things because I didn’t have a shape to compare them to… But I digress. Here is the progress I’ve made on my irises:

I probably won’t be blogging until after I finish the hibiscus piece but I’ll be sure to post photo updates on facebook and twitter That’s all for now, stay tuned folks!

In the meantime while I’m waiting for either the letter in the mail that will inform me of my instant fame I am finally making irises (after a couple years of debate, laziness, and lack of purple). It will be relatively smaller than former works (partially because the rest of the roll of paper is for the huge piece) so my palette is not as extensive as the last.

I’ve decided that I want to finish it today…but we’ll see how that goes

Stay tuned folks!

I started with tulips and daisies and worked my way through each color until I was satisfied with it.

When I started swirling in those background colors I thought for sure I was going to run out of the lighter green colors lol. I’ve got them down to pea sized nuggets of pastel. I left the other flowers as rough sketches for a long time because I just couldn’t decide what color they needed to be. It turned out that they needed to be a bunch of colors

I left the vines alone until the very end too. There’s nothing worse than having to make color adjustments on line work that is already built up with pastel. I did find a bit of white so I’m debating whether or not to rub the rest of it into the top parts of the image. For now it’s finished but I’m sure I’ll pick at it as long as it’s in my studio lol

Now I get to move on to the gimongous water lily project I’ve been planning in my sketchbook for the past week or so. This piece is called “Tip Toeing Though the Tulips” and will be up for sale on the gallery site in the next few days.
Stay tuned folks!