I used to be into punk. True story. In high school I had pink spiky hair and I thought I was THE coolest listening to Operation Ivy, sporting ripped jeans, chucks, and safety pins on my Jansport backpack. Which all things considered was kind of hilarious. Kids are dumb, myself included. Ah well, here is a punk inspired girl. I don’t even know if she’d be considered punk… maybe sexy modern nouveau punk. I’m going to call her that anyway and there is nothing you can do ’bout it.
I just went to a lovely wedding in Las Vegas over the weekend. I am not a big fan of Vegas as a place, actually scratch that, if there is one place on earth I would be pleased as punch to not visit again it would be Las Vegas. I am however a fan of love, and friends, and weddings. So there we have it! To Vegas I went and attended a very sweet wedding with some very sweet people. Congratulations!
Figured I would update the proper blog. I have been updating Instagram, tumblr and twitter while I was gone. So here is one for the site. It’s nothing crazy. Little lady with a little pose. And back to the grind!
-Trace
Adam was watching really terrible TV last night, lets just say I had some time to doodle. These are some very pretty co-workers and fellow Imagineers. I added some fluff to them ;P I mean c’mon, I have a site called the chubby mermaid!
I cropped the bejesus out of this thing. I didn’t want to draw a background. LAZY!
xoxo
-Tracey
I’ve been drawing in my sketchbook a lot lately. It’s nice. My drawings are improving I think. I like just simple little red-line sketches in a book. They’re so easy and it’s less stressful than trying to make the time for a painting… not that I do many of those.
Tombow, col-erase, digi color washes
More sketchbook sketches. I always liked Ursula the sea witch, she has such presence. I think she might have been unlucky in love to have turned into such a cantankerous sea witch. Maybe her “garden” of poor unfortunate souls were really big jerks that deserved it. I’m willing to give her the benefit of the doubt.
Tombow, col-erase, and Faber Castell brush pens.
For reals though… sweet tap dancing Moses am I sore. I went to CrossFit 2 days in a row. Now that isn’t that big of a deal and normal for me, but ooouccchhh. The last two workouts were really hard. I am basically a little puddle of mush laying on the floor now. So here is a drawing. This is the only position that doesn’t hurt. Don’t forget to roll out!
It’s been a few since I’ve drawn a chubby mermaid, so here we go!
Done on real paper, with real markers, and real red pencil. Craaaazyyyy. I actually LOVE LOVE LOVE drawing in sketchbooks, it’s just that usually I am at my desk or laptop and photoshop means no messes.
Does anyone else have problems with finishing a sketchbook? I swear I have 40 just laying around randomly with only the first 3 pages filled in. Maybe I just like buying sketchbooks because it makes me think of potential drawings… and I just never get around to them.
ALRIGHT. Quit twisting my arm, I will fill one up this year.
xoxo
-Tracey
Last thursday at Imagineering we had the most amazing lecture by Nathan Fowkes. If you haven’t see his painting or been to a lecture you should. It was so inspiring that I am going to make it a point to implement his concepts into my own work. His mastery of value and color are just fantastic. He composes with light and shadow and everything he does is painfully good. So good in fact that while watching his lecture I thought to myself “shit, I will never ever be this good.” Obviously that’s not the right way to look at things. I will just need more milage. I don’t paint a lot, I mostly draw, and most of my drawings are almost technical and based on things that will eventually need to be built. So there is that… But you know what, I would like to be kick ass at everything.
These are two 20 minutes landscape studies from photos of Sedona Arizona. I think the comp on top needs to be simplified more, it got away from me. It was part of what Nathan was saying about picking what’s important in your artwork. There isn’t really a focal area in it. Live and learn, or in this case, paint and learn.
Carry on,
-Tracey
It doesn’t work out. Look at her trying to be sexy. What a mess.
I’ve never done animation. I don’t really think it’s a course Art Center College of Design offers. I was a straight up illustration major. At the time I was attending ACCD (2001-2005), there wasn’t an entertainment track. Publication was celebrated, everyone who was anyone did editorial illustration- or they’d suffer the harrowing hardships that is the fine art gallery world. I never really bought into that whole thing. I loveeee illustration and it’s obviously great. It takes a lot of work to create a story in a single image. Illustration has it’s value, and the skills I learned in the foundations at Art Center were beyond measure. I didn’t want to do editorial though, I am not one for continually trying to sell myself or hitting the streets with constant barrages of self promotion. (I know, I know, I have a blog now; the irony isn’t lost on me that I am self promoting).
Instead of going the editorial route, I wanted to have a “real” job or somewhere I could have some type of security. I have no issues psychologically with being a “corporate artist” in fact I rather enjoy it. I like working for Disney and I like the collaborative nature that a film, animation and gaming bring to artistry. While I am pretty introverted personally, I never particularly held much value in my work as an individual. So while I was at Art Center I changed majors twice to get classes I thought would be more valuable than Illustration 1,2 & 3 along with the other required editorial based courses. Instead I took film classes, storyboarding classes, and 3D modeling classes. In the early 2000’s computer graphics were just starting to get good, the computer was being utilized more and more as an industry medium and physical painting was on it’s way out. So I sort of paved my own way through the education system of Art Center and created what I thought I needed to make it as a corporate artist. I guess I was successful!
Though I don’t do animation I have been trying to get that style in my drawings. I love the fluidity that story artists and visual development artists have in animation. They have such a playful style and their line work and expressive drawings are enviable. Gestural drawings were not all that celebrated at Art Center. Realism and anatomy coupled with technique were definitely emphasized. As a result you end up with that cookie cutter design style you see from the students graduating from ACCD. Not bad obviously because they’re fantastic artists… just sort of stiff.
This mermaid has nothing to do with anything, though it is an animated gif.