Olga Stern

FUN

2012-01-19T19:30:00.000-08:00

This is what i feel like I am doing most of the time.

Testing Crayon stlye development Stern Family stories

2012-01-05T21:01:00.000-08:00

I think this is pretty well the style i will be sticking with for the stern family stories book. With painted acrylic backdrops for the characters or maybe a mix of both i need to test out a story image next.

First Painting of 2012

2012-01-02T14:21:00.001-08:00

The first painting of 2012. Bring on the new year! Painted at my friends cottage.

Stern Family Stories book character development

2011-12-06T14:48:00.000-08:00

Final " A World Ends" acrylic painting

2011-10-29T18:35:00.000-07:00

I finally brought this painting to completion. Now I will be moving on to my childrens book !

Dream

2011-09-21T22:40:00.001-07:00

Its A Small World Show

2011-09-09T05:44:00.000-07:00

My contribution to the it's a small world show at gallery nucleus.

http://www.gallerynucleus.com/gallery/exhibition/326 I am very exited to be participating in this show with many talented artists!

If you are in the area you should all go check out the show!

Acrylic_Painting_Process_August

2011-08-10T20:04:00.000-07:00

I have not been posting on this blog as often as I usually do beacause I have been busy tinkering away at this painting. It is my first large canvas painting in a very long time and I am exited to be creating something in real medium for once besides quick studies. This is not the the most in focus picture but the best I managed to take without a tripod.I still have many many details to continue creating and more water effects and fish and clothing textures. I have learned so much already painting this and am exited to see what it will look like when I feel that it is complete.

Lake Simcoe

2011-07-16T20:19:00.000-07:00

Process on the" A World Ends" Acrylic Painting

2011-06-07T17:44:00.000-07:00

This is the continued process of my acrylic painting, as you can see it is very very far from being completed. This is a photograph of the painting, and the colors have been slightly saturated and scued from their real life appearance unfortunately. I will try to post the final as close to the real thing as I can.

3 Paintings from my Surf trip in Costa Rica

2011-04-09T21:03:00.000-07:00

Cuesta Arriba Hostel and some surf boards

Cuesta Arriba Hostel 2 floor

I just got back from about a 5 or 6 week trip to Santa Teresa Costa Rica. I was there in the same place surfing the whole time, and had an amazing amazing vacation. Had many adventures, met many new and glorious people, and had a little time to do these 3 acrylic paintings of the beach and our hostel!
Now on to real life.

Process work photoshop paint over "A World Ends"

2011-02-07T20:45:00.000-08:00

This is a photoshop paint over of the rough sketch I blocked onto canvas for the Large painting I am working on. It is 16 by 20 inches, so in reality not that large, but for me it is huge as It will be my first large canvas and acrylic painting of my inner illustrated world that I have attempted in a very long time. Next step is a few more little touch ups and figure me outs on this photoshop document and then I am heading into the real painting!
Very exited.

2010 SUMMER PAINTING annnd SKETCHBOOK DUMPEROO

2011-01-19T19:48:00.000-08:00

Summer painting of the back yard. I started painting with acrylic a while back. Maybe not the best photo of the painting the colors and values look a bit twisted I will have to tweak.
This was pretty much one of my first large attempts. It was uber fun, and helped me figure out that I have no idea what I am doing but I have love doing it, and that I need to paint way way way more . I am hoping this next large canvas painting the sketch of which I posted in the previous post will be a more thaught out and embellished attempt.

Next are excerpts from my 2010 work sketchbook. I paint backgrounds all day, and take little breaks here and there to draw my co workers or scribble little thaughts.
I think this one is pretty self explanitory.
Yurie Rocha and Joel hard at work.

Randeep Katari
A drawing made after watching this clip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6yuR8efotI
this cellist is amazing.
Trevor Dalmer
This and the two below are of Deanna Marsegliese.

Adam Earle.
Le layout crew.
Jeff buckley singing Dream Brother.

REAL PAINTING " A world Ends" Progress work

2010-11-28T18:00:00.000-08:00

I've dissapeared for a while from painting in photoshop. So the posts are less frequent. Above is an image graphite on canvas so far, just the block in really for a new painting. I will post process as I go. The finished product I hope will be uber detailed and Art deco/ Art nouveau fabolous. I am getting most of my inspiration from that perioud, credit of inspiration especially goes to Wolfgang Hildensheimers short story titled " A World Ends", and Marchesa Casati.

I UPDATED MY PORTFOLIO BLOG YEY

2010-11-04T21:21:00.000-07:00

portfolio blog
click on older posts at the bottom to see the last 3 pages of the portfolio

I finally updated my Etsy shoppe !

2010-10-09T15:05:00.000-07:00

So, I am experimenting with selling some prints of my illustrations online using an Etsy Shoppe.
I have the print store shoppe linked to the right.
It has been sitting empty void of any prints and very lonely for a long time now, so I decided to finally get organised and update it yey! Enjoy.

So as you can see I am still going stong with this tiggy winkle thing. This is a more thaught through breakdown on the hill. So now all the paintings done for the tiggy winkle story line up. YOu can see ms tiggy winkles cottage way way up ontop of the hill and you can see the stile lucy falls asleep on its at the base of the hill. And you can see Lucies family home aswell and the road leading out of the picture to the rest of the town.
Next to animal characters and plants of the hill.

The inside of Ms. Tiggy Winkles Cottage

2010-09-29T20:34:00.000-07:00

Lucie enters into Ms. Tiggy Winkles house at the top of the hill.

Tiggy Winkle's house further development

2010-09-11T19:02:00.000-07:00

Lucy in the Flower Feild

2010-09-02T05:35:00.000-07:00

Sketch done at work as a small breather.
Lucy sitting in a felid up on the mountain on her way up to the peak where Ms. Tiggy Winkle
resides.
Random sketch done after watching "The Exploading Girl

Barcelonetta Beach Acrylic paintings

2010-08-14T09:35:00.000-07:00

Whent on an amazing trip to Spain recently. Did not have too much time to paint or sketch as I had too many places to see too much other fun to have. But I was able to steal away a lazy afternoon to paint on the Barcelonetta beach strip in Barcelona. I braught a little acrylic kit with me on the trip. A bit of a pain to put together. But it proved to be perfect!

Montetristo evening party rats

2010-07-12T21:34:00.001-07:00

Next in the series. When I finish them all then I will insert the text under each image, they are meant to be viewed with the text really like little illustrations to a kids book. Im not sure if i will suck it up and leave it or redo the one before this with the gondola...theres alot bothering me with that one.

" A World Ends" continued

2010-06-22T20:53:00.000-07:00

A little side note...A page from my sketch book drawn after watching Monday's game, Brazil vs Chile.

One of the paintings for the series, guashe on watercolor paper and pencil crayon. I plan to put it all together with text and all as I get more o f these painted. Mid way through painting this I started getting frustrated with myself becuase I was finding that either the characters or something about this piece was feeling cartoony, not sophisticated, and I meant for it to look sophisticated. With time I hope I can achieve that.

" A World Ends" ,Wolfgang Hildesheimer 1916

2010-06-13T21:18:00.000-07:00

I have planned out a series of illustrations based on the short story by Wolfgang Hildesheimer,
"A World Ends". This is a little illustration I did as a test to sort out how i can paint them. Probably a few more tests to follow before the final.

rough color Ms. Tiggy Winkle and Lucie Emanuelle

2010-05-24T20:56:00.001-07:00

First try at color for the 2 characters and height and shape relation. In the story Lucie is much bigger then Ms. Tiggy Winkle as the latter is a hedge hog.

I spent most of Monday outside painting with real paints ( acrylic) on canvas!!! They are large paintings and I have to photograph them to post if I chose to as I can't decide how proud of them I am. I have not painted with acrylics in about 5 years or so...exuses exuses. But I feel rusty.

Lucy and Ms. Tiggy Winkle enjoy afternoon tea by the fire.

2010-05-14T20:41:00.000-07:00

Lucy Heloise Emanuelle and Ms. Tiggy Winkle character development

2010-05-06T20:57:00.000-07:00

Further Lucy Heloise Emanuelle Development.
I'm working on loosening up in my line especially in my paintings. Some experimentation is coming to blogger soon in thinking in the form of some composition illustrations for the Tiggy winkle project, I'm exited.

First attempt at the "Tiggy Winkle" " Uhti Tuhti" character.

Some more development. Trying to pick and explore the face shape and movements.

More development paintings for " Shtern Family Stories"

2010-04-18T12:54:00.001-07:00

More development paintings for the childrens book I am working on. Pencil crayon and guashe on watercolor paper.

final piece " Lucy discovers Ms. Tiggy Winkles cottage, way way way at the top of the hill"

2010-04-10T16:47:00.000-07:00

I cant seem to place why the things I post lately appear blurry. Frustrating, anyone know?

Lucy Arrives at Ms. Tiggy Winkles House at the very very top of the hill ANNNND Sketchbook sketches

2010-03-13T15:50:00.000-08:00

Rough block in colour wise for the next tiggy winkle piece I am working on.

Shtern Family Stories Book development

2010-02-28T21:50:00.001-08:00

Guashe on watercolor paper.
More development for the kids book I am working on.

Attemp to Paint real life with guashe " A"

2010-02-27T13:50:00.000-08:00

Cold Canadian winter. Booo.
View out of my parents kitchen window.
I really want to learn to paint. So until I find a good teacher I will teach myself. I plan to paint every weekend, still life, views out the window, etc.

Lucy Arrives at Ms. Tiggy Winkles House at the very very top of the hill ANNNND Sketchbook sketches

2010-02-22T14:48:00.001-08:00

block in painting rough values.
I am thinking of painting some of the cactus designs I had developed earlier. And trees at some point for the other levels of the hill as I develop this story further.

Since I have not posted sketches from my sketchbook in a long time I decided to do so this time.
My Mother and her Brother Genya amidst an important family discussion in Kaliningrad Russia.
My friend Christina discovered this French Cultural Center in Toronto. I like practicing my French so we go and sit on fold out chairs in this little quaint french environment and listen to different musical performance guests they bring in. The week I did these sketches it was a concerto ...they played a Philip Glass song I really like. I kept drawing the one dude playing the chello because he was really funny when he concentrated and he was a redhead and super skinny which made it even better.
The couple on the right hand page was the best dressed couple I have seen in a long time. I like clothes....so I notice.

"Have you seen my hankercheif?"

2010-02-13T22:27:00.000-08:00

Painting for the tiggy winkle story playing with brush stroke and texture. This is in the beginning of the story. Lucy wakes up and cannot find her hankercheif. So she asks the animals at the farm first if they have seen it before she ventures up the hill.

Tiggy Winkle project continued and a painting for my grandma

2010-01-23T08:07:00.000-08:00

Guashe on illustration board. My mom is heading to Kaliningrad Russia to visit my grandmother Natasha who is very sick, I painted this piece for her . The text at the bottom translates to " Me and Babushka building a world from moss , popsicle sticks and acorns." One of my favourite pastimes with my grandmother along with making dumplings, sewing and visiting the zoo.

Re-developing the Lucy character from scratch. I am going to base her on my best friend Heloise Emanuelle Kimberley Apesteguy Reux. Just waiting to scan in some of her kid pictures for reference. Make this character come alive.

This is the rough beginning of one of the several pieces I plan to do continuing the Tiggy Winkle visual development project I was working on about a year ago.
I plan to juggle that and my book illustrations.

Twisty Head business men cntd...

2009-12-10T23:08:00.000-08:00

The next piece I am working on. Decided to post my process.
I am doing a few more of these themed twisty business men lighting studies. I feel like I am getting better with the whole lighting , colour thing. Yey! Hammer hammer hammer away.

More kids book character development.

2009-11-27T22:20:00.000-08:00

This one is a little harder to develop. More coming up.

Oh and completely random. I decided to draw a girl. I dont usually like drawing this sort of thing. But I did today.

Allright so more lighting studies?

2009-11-25T22:05:00.000-08:00

And I am still continuing with the kids book characters.
The story stars my family and a budgie named Ronik.

Character development for my kids book

2009-11-22T19:51:00.000-08:00

Im playing around with designing the characters in my kids book. These are pencil crayon and guashe. Hit and miss so far.

More Twisty Head Business Men

2009-11-10T00:57:00.000-08:00

Cntinuation of lighting studies with Billy

2009-10-25T15:14:00.000-07:00

Why does blogger do this? This blurry image thing. Anyone know?

Yey I have a little store where you can buy Prints!

2009-10-23T01:27:00.000-07:00

I started a little store with Etsy. I am going to be selling prints of my illusrtaions on there!
I am really exited to see if the store will get off the ground.
I hope you guys enjoy!

Curious?

Click HERE to check it out, or click on the banner above.

Twisty head business men

2009-10-03T21:34:00.000-07:00

Learning how to light compositions. Some are from my head some are with the help of photographs.
Not sure why this image loaded into blogger all fuzzy. As a jpg it looks clean. Strange.

What is it?

2009-07-22T07:06:00.001-07:00

He learned to play.

Continuing my little inuit kid illustrations for fun. More to come.
Its kinda read from bottom to top.

Inuit kid meets Bear

2009-06-25T18:57:00.001-07:00

I have a hole little story worked out for the kid finding the trumpet, so im posting as i go.

Its finally warm enough to paint with pastels again

2009-06-21T14:55:00.001-07:00

INUIT TRumpet kid continued

2009-06-06T21:36:00.001-07:00

Ill keep posting my process. I am trying to develop this character further.

Inuit trumpet kid

2009-05-18T15:21:00.000-07:00

Inuit trumpet kid exploration for a illustration I plan to do.
I'm gonna to post process work as I go.

These 3 pages of drawings are exellent examples of how dead characters can look when you dont think of the personality of the character when you draw. I have not really drawin characters in a long time and this time I can see I was mostly thinking of it just being cute and having a nice shape.
I am not going to take these down. But I see alot of issues with the "life" of the characters in many drawings. This makes their eyes appear " dead" aswell.
Soooo. I am gonna do a bunch more showing my progress.

Sketch

2009-04-29T20:46:00.000-07:00

One of the first times I have had time to sketch in a long time. SO im posting it.I miss sketching. I ran out of free time to do so a while ago but I might have a small window to just sketch for myself for fun with no expectations. No finished piece required.

FReelance Backgrounds

2009-04-18T18:22:00.000-07:00

Hey guys. These are some freelance bgs I did a while back. They are meant for a messeging program, so the composition had to be roughly the same for each to fit the characters in in the foreground. Also these are the roughs of the bgs, next stage was to have them cleaned up in flash.

CHiMneys and RoofTops illustration

2009-03-09T18:49:00.000-07:00

Annnd the final image. I am starting to learn about textures. I cant believe I didnt use them before. I ended up going with number 3 due to a few people stating that the lighting in that seems more believable then the other colour I was playing with.

These are colour trails for the image below. I am not sure which is best to pick I would love a second opinion. So feel free to let me know which colour choice speaks to you.

Sorry for the lack of posts. I feel guilty.
Ive been juggling many things at once. But I want to make sure I make time for my own work starting now, even if I am super busy.

This is the black and white block in composition sketch. I am not sure exactly what I mean by this piece. It was just an image that was cooking in my mind for about a week or a few days and I decided to jot it down. I am going to play with some colour versions of it and then start the final. It will be fun to make the smoke in the piece beautiful. I am exited.

MAYA gets married- I drew sketches

2009-02-02T10:08:00.000-08:00

I have been really busy with freelance work. Trying my best to carve that path of work out formyself. I am also working on some new personal illustrations. I have a few ideas. I will share those soon. For now here are some little doodles of funny people and events at A wedding. Make sure you read the writing that goes along with the little doodles, its what makes them interesting in my opinion.

REPOST finished guashe paintings and painting comps

2008-12-20T15:27:00.000-08:00

I finished the paintings with REAL PAINT! Guashe to be exact on illustration board. The top ones are the guashe versions and the bottom are the original photoshop comps. I stuck to making things flatter as I have not painted in a while. But my next paintings in guashe I am going to round out more and add more texture and depth to.
I really enjoyed working with paint, I miss being able to hold my creations in my hands.It is so different working in photoshop. You do not get nearly the same feeling after you finish a piece, its living only on your screen.

Hope you guys enjoy. I think my next project is going to be a little childrens book full of small clips from my childhood adventures. Not sure yet. But I am exited to move on to something that allows me to be more creative then I allowed myself to be when building a portfolio in search of work in the past months.

SOme studies of Tiggy Winkles house INSIDE.

2008-11-06T11:29:00.001-08:00

This one is of the kitchen, living area. Lucy is supposed to feel too big for the space she is in, since shes a full grown little girl and Ms. Tiggy Winkles house is built for a hedgehog/Ms. Tiggy Winkle.

This one is a reverse angle with a clearer view of the laundry washing area.

This is one of my small drop down views of the cottage interior, that i did first to figure out where everything goes in Tiggy winkles living space.

Ms. Tiggy Winkles residence with a beatiful view of the Ocean and little boats.

2008-11-01T11:53:00.000-07:00

This is Ms. Tiggy Winkles house. Its located at the top of the hill that is on the outskirts of littletown beside Lucies family farm. I based Ms. Tiggy Winkles little house on Holy Austin Rock houses that are located on Knivers Edge in Staffordshire and are carved into old sandstone rocks.

This is a rough drawthrough of the house to help me figure out the structure of it and the rocks surrounding it.

These are cactuses that would grow ontop of the hill around Ms. Tiggy winkles house. Things at the top of the hill are more magical and spikey, so the cactuses fit. For a while I was considering placing little snow patches at the top of the rocks, but decided against that for now.

Next to come I want to do some poses for Ms. Tiggy Winkle herself. I finished her rotaion but since its technical I wont post it. I am going to draw some perspective plan layouts for the inside of the house at the top of the hill. Then do some coloured beat boards.

More Tiggy Winkle development

2008-10-29T00:16:00.000-07:00

This is the Reux family residence, a farm on the outskirts of the town of Couillure in Southwestern france. Their house stands right on the edge of the hill leading up to Ms. Tiggywinkles house. I am going to draw that next.

This is the 2 level of the hill up which Lucie climbs. On this level grow Lombardy Poplar trees and burshes. I am going to colour some of the trees and bushes that I have been designing. And eventually colour some of the compositions.

I have been referancing a bunch of photographic referance and art and illustrators european and american for many of these drawings. There is soooooo much beatiful work out there, and so many beatiful places. At times its very overwhealming and really hard to narrow in on how you would like to portray the images you have in your mind. Whats nice is that as I get older I am getting closer and closer to captuting what I see in my head.

LUCIE

2008-10-23T16:07:00.000-07:00

This is lucy in colour. I am not 100 percent happy with the expression on her face, in the poses below there are nicer less scary looking expressions. But this gets across the volume and colour of the character. I wanted her to resemble a little doll. Hope she does.

This is Lucie in poses. Below the drawings I wrote out a breif summary of what her character is like. Before I did these I did a technical turn around of the character which I will not post cause its technical and boring. I will just include it in my portfolio. It really does help turning your character around for me for posing.

This is a break down all the fabrics that Lucy is wearing. I spent alot of time thinking about her costume, the textures and the patterns and the victorian little girl clothing fashions.

I am working on doing the turn around of the Tiggy winkle character right now, then I will pose her and lucy together. Then next comes coloured environments, beat boards and a bunch of location studies of Mrs. Tiggy Winkles house itself and all the cool little victorian washerwoman props and tea sets. I am looking foreward to doing that should be fun to create all that stuff.

LUCIE Emanuelle Apesteguy-Reux

2008-10-03T20:40:00.000-07:00

SOO this is Lucie Emanuelle Apesteguy Reux, the main character of my version of the Mrs Tiggy Winkle story by Beatrix potter. Lucie is a little girl about 7 years old who is absent minded and really friendly. She quite often loses her pocket hankerchief and cant seem to keep herself clean, often dirtying her smock. My Lucie is named after one of my best friends, Heloise Emanuelle Apesteguy Reux. I wanted her and all the other characters to look like they were from a puppet ,doll environment. I am going to see what I can do to adjust my environment a bit when I texture it to make it fit.

These are the first few drawings of the tiggy winkle washer woman character. She is a hedgehog, who lives at the top of the mountain beside the village of littletown. She is very cute is often out of breath and has little wrinkly fingers from soaking all the little animals laundry.
If you guys are lost about what the Tiggy winkle story is. Read it! I dare you. I put the link below,a few posts below.

LUCIE walks up the magical hill up up up away from Littletown

2008-09-19T13:42:00.000-07:00

Further environment development work for the Tiggy Winkle story by Beatrice Potter. In this image Lucy has just started off on her jurney up the magical hill above Littletown , at the top of which Tiggy Winkle herself the hedgehog washerwoman lives. Next I am going to start developing what the characters in the story look like and what their houses look like. And I will do more pieces like these for the rest of Lucys jurney.

The story is set in Couillure a small french village in France, during the Edwardian era. Above is the first batch of sketches for the Lucie the main character. I have not given her a last name yet. She is probably going to change considerably as I need her to fit a specific mold thats sitting in my head, and she needs to look french and she needs to mold well with the other characters.
I researched alot of french childrens costume from the edwardian era. I found some national costumes in the brittany area. They wore these pretty little lace hat things I'm going to try to encorperate into the Ms. Tiggy Winkle character.

2 Kayak trip to Georgian Bay-Mc Coy island

2008-09-02T08:52:00.001-07:00

I went camping again on the long weekend. We were lucky to have beautiful warm weather all day, and some wind to ward off the mosquitoes at night. Georgian Bay is absolutely beatiful. It is a vast stretch of water spotted by little rock islands that resemble giant whales rising out of the depths with all kinds of little fungus and trees growing on their backs. The water is gorgeous, because there is no sea weed, and the bottom of the whole lake is just large slabs of rock that glimmer if the water is shallow enough in all kinds of beautiful colours. When the sun sets, since the water is so clear and thus its reflection of the sky so accurate the horizon line dissapears and the little islands look like they are suspended in mid air. I found that when I swam out from the island into open water, I also felt like I was suspended in mid air, between the water and the sky.

Above I posted the pictures I made time to draw while I was there. The little slabs of rock in the pastel picture are the little spotted islands.

GEORGIAN BAY KAYAK TRIP PASTELS

2008-08-06T11:14:00.000-07:00

This past long weekend I whent up to the Georgian Bay in Ontario kayaking for a few days. I got burned, and did these pastels. The first one was done early in the morning as the sun was rising. The second 2 were done a few hours after.

Further Development -Almond tree,branch and blossom

2008-07-27T21:44:00.000-07:00

I fixed the foliage, so this is the revised and final version of the almond tree design.

Further development of the Almond Tree I posted below. I am still unhappy with the way I handled the foliage, so I am changing it to repost.

Individual Branch and almond blossom studies of the tree above.

AN interview with Trevor Jimenez about his student film Key Lime Pie

2008-07-17T13:52:00.001-07:00

My boyfriend Trevor Jimenez was recently interviewed about his student film Key Lime pie. Its been doing really well in film festivals and recently won the animated short award at the Dallas AFI festival.

Here is a link to the interview: http://spoileralertradio.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=357738#

Dont fret if its taking a while to load up, it does that for some reason.

Hill Level one Spanish Broom bush, Almond Tree- further development

2008-07-02T20:59:00.001-07:00

Further Spanish Broom bush development.

Almond Tree in BloomSpanish Broom bush

"The Tale of Ms. Tiggywinkle" by Beatrix Potter development

2008-06-26T16:04:00.000-07:00

So, some time ago now I decided to do visual development work on the tale of Ms. Tiggy Winkle by Beatrix Potter. I have set the story in Couillure France in the late 1800's, 1890 ish.

If you are unformiliar with this short story I highly reccomend that you read it. It is one of my favourite childrens stories, and if you read it then you will have a better understanding of what I am drawing.

You can read the story here:http://etext.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-new2?id=PotWink.sgm&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/parsed&tag=public&part=1&division=div1

The fallowing post is a really rough block in for the hill lucy journeys through and on the left is a breakdown of all of the hills levels. I did an enormous amount of research on the plantlife that grows in the region of Couillure in the south of france. The rough drawings I posted above are design studies for the first level with almond trees, spanish broom bushes and grass.

I will be posting process work for this story development throughout the next few months.

Annecy France,NY central park, greenwich village sketches

2008-06-05T16:11:00.001-07:00

Brooklyn Bridge
Central Park Boathouse
Bleeker and Morton st. NY
Bleeker and Mcdougal st. NY

I did not have as much time to sketch in France as I wish I did. Most of my time was spent being a tourise and at the Annecy international animation festival watching films. These are quick sketches of Annecy streets. I am going to make up for it by sketching in Ny this week. I am trying to sketch more in pencil, I always sketch in pen.

I am in NY for a few weeks, and then heading to France.
I am going to keep painting more more of these around NY, and France. I am really enjoying learning this medium. It is really pleasing to work in colour, outdoors in nice weather, and get messy. I started wearing a cooking smock when I paint, stops me from getting pastel all over my pants, however I still manage to get it all over my face.

Sketchbook

2008-05-14T13:17:00.000-07:00

A Fist Full Of Dollars
Grange Park Toronto

Flute Recitals

TTC Subway

ANDREW BIRD-Toronto Opera House

2008-04-20T12:37:00.000-07:00

This is the main part of a 4 part Andrew Bird piece I have been working on, inspired by an amazing concert of his I went to way back in September.I am still quite busy developing work for a new portfolio. I will post the last 3 parts of this piece as I find time to finish them.

I am working on designs for the story of Mrs Tiggy Winkle by Beatice Potter. I am nor sure If I have written that already, but I will also post some of thoes as they are completed. Im trying to work on my ability to use colour. It is something I dived into after this summer and really enjoy learning and improving on, so the Tiggy winkle pieces are mostly dealing with that and elaborating my skills of designing in 3d, using photoshop, and getting rid of my scratchy lines when I can.

PORTRAIT and a piece titled " HI "

2008-03-10T21:21:00.001-07:00

I am learning to paint.....with brush strokes!!!!!!!
.... in photoshop.

This is pretty self explanitory.

I live in Toronto....
And Trev lives in.....an Apple.

Im super busy working on a new portfolio with lots of new pieces

Maybe I will post a preview soon.

WINTER PASTEL

2008-02-19T14:56:00.000-08:00

I've been learning to use pastels and become sharper with colour and lighting since this summer.
Unfortunately I do not have as many chances to paint with pastels outdoors since it is winter time here in Canada, and I cant imagine sitting still in negative degree weather and attempting to paint using my bear fingers....I think they would fall off.
This is a study done of my back yard, as the sun was getting near setting.

I painted this looking out of the kitchen window, the lighting was so beautiful.

SketCHBook DUMP

2008-01-17T21:44:00.000-08:00

Cinderella MAN ( film)

THe GOod -The BAd- annnd-The UglY

Live Jazz

I've been sick for about 3 weeks now, but I'm on my way to a FULLlll recovery. So the Andrew bird piece was removed from it's temporary hold a couple days ago!

But for now...here are some sketches from my skechbook.

Drawing while watching a films is awsome when you're sick.

A Month of Trouble drawing/ How to deal with Your Emotions

2008-01-06T18:40:00.000-08:00

Sometimes force is a good thing.

My post is a bit unclear, but the piece at the top is the FULL piece...its an equasion. A+B=C.

ANdreW BirD process work continued

2007-12-23T20:27:00.000-08:00

Im starting the final linework for the andrew bird piece, above is the rough light and composition study. I got side tracked and painted some birds for fun, even though they are going to be tiny in the actual piece. ALso I noticed that the lighting on almost every other computer for the bottom light study seems to be alot lighter and with less contrast then on my own monitor....i dont know why thats happening.

Process work ANdrew Bird piece

2007-11-27T20:14:00.000-08:00

Research for the Andrew bird concept pice I posted earlier. Trying to draw lighting in theatres, working on combinig everything together for some more development pieces for the new post. It's helping me to do more research for each piece i draw. I hope it improves my ability to light, compose and convey my idea more clearly. And maybe with more time it won't require me to spend so much time on process work in order to get a mood or environment.

Summer Hansel and Gretel Character concepts

2007-11-08T21:13:00.000-08:00

I abandoned character for a while to focus on location design and colour. This is where I left off at the end of my internship this summer. Im going to try to get back into it. I find that I'm not confident yet in drawing boys and men. Drawing women and girls is eisier for me.

I want to get to a point where I am also able to accurately capture a large variation of personalities and character features that don't resemble my own.

PaSteL

2007-11-01T19:28:00.000-07:00

Pastel near work on a lunch break.

NEw Piece idea- Andrew Bird

2007-10-25T20:56:00.000-07:00

A month ago I whent to see my first concert other then the russian folk songs or classical concerts I have been to with my faily; Adrew Bird. I wanted to do a illustration. This is the idea sketch for it.
I recently started working full time 9 to 5 storyboarding. Im a rookie and still have tons to learn there. Its forcing me to be less fussy and work on my ability to draw characters in a more dynamic way and its forcing me to think about perspective. SOO I noticed that my compositions are very flat when i just sketch the first thing that comes to mind.
So for this piece I am working out small compositional thumbnails. I want to try and encomporate atmosphere if i can. So that is what i am working on in my spare time to keep myself artistically sane in my new adult working life.
I will post the process and compete piece soon.

STILL LEARNING- PASTELS BUTCHERED WITH FIXATIVE

2007-10-03T19:47:00.000-07:00

These pastels are the unfortunate example of what happens when you use fixative, and either use too much or spray too close...I'm not sure exactly what I did wrong. The one on the bottom was butchered the most. I tried to restore it in Photoshop but it lost a leg and an arm from the fixative.

I'm trying to play with pastels once or twice a week. It's a slow learning curve. For some reason I cannot seem to get the pastels to go smoothly. Maybe the paper I am using is no good...but most likely its me.

The top pastel is of the park at sunset outside my home in Toronto.

The bottom one is of Liberty street near work on a clowdy day.

HANSEL & GRETEL STORY BEATBOARDS

2007-09-24T20:37:00.000-07:00

During my internship we were asked to each develop our own version of the Hansel and Gretel Fairytale. My Hansel and Gretel is set in late 1960s Georgia with a Ukranian twist. Hansel and Gretel live with their hippie parents in an abandoned freedom rights bus in the midst of a large sunflower feild. They sleep in tents and eat organic produce grown by their parents. Their parents dont let them eat junk food and force them to do yoga. One morning Hansel, the younger one runs away. Gretel the caring and goody two shoes sister runs after him. They are lost in the sunflower feild and come upon the edge of a forest. An attractive bright choo choo train catches their eye and they hop on...but as they travel through the forest the tracks of the choo choo start to roll on themselves and they have no hope of finding the sunflower feild or their home anymore. The train takes them deep into the forest as night creeps. Scared and hungry they travel through a long narrow tunnel at the end of which opens up a world of exitememnt. A magical house with a farriswheel, candy and cupcakes everywhere, fat petting zoo animals and endless magic. In the midst of this they meet what seems like a very caring elderly lady who acts absolutely crazy in a lovable way. She is feeding all the fat petting zoo animals tarts, cakes and mostly cupcakes. Hansel is intrigued by the candy he is not allowed to eat at home and pigs out. Little does he know that the cupcakes he is being fed are magical. All the fat petting zoo animals used to be kids. He turns into a pig and is adopted by the which as her favourite baby animal. She keeps him in a cradle in her room like a real ukranian baba yaga with lots of smothering and cupcakes. Gretel the goody two shoes she finds annoying and turns her into the caretaker of the whole establishment. Gretel brings slop buckets of cupcakes to the fat petting zoo animals thinking of a plan to free hansel from his enchantment. She soon figures out the spell and uses her 2 day old parents grown organic vegetable lunch taht is still in her napsack feeds her brother the organic food that will turn him back into a real boy. The which is given a taste of her own medicine when she is fed a cupcake disguised as a carrot. She turns into a dog and the fat petting zoo animals Hansel Gretel and their new little cute fat dog which travel back to their organic farm to help the other children.

Lesson learned. Listen to your parents. Dont be embarassed of your roots.

Sorry about the size of the images...i wanted them to be arranged sequentially.

OCEAN

2007-09-10T23:09:00.000-07:00

PASTELS AGAIN

2007-09-02T13:54:00.001-07:00

Random sketchbook dump, and pastels. The top is a study of my backyard, the bottom is drawn in high park. The bottom one was drawn with a pastel set i discovered in my room from a couple years ago. It was missing any reddish greens, so it was hard to get believable greens.
I had to wait at Union Square San Francisco by myself one day because i was waiting to do an orientation with a company called CDS that runs a program for foreign students coming to the states, so i drew the square.

The sketch of the fish was done in an aquarium in san fran. I was mesmorized. All anchovies do is swim in circles. There were over 500 of them in a huge tank just swimming counter clockwise the entire time i was in there they did not deviate off course. Also they have a hyper extended jaw, everytime they open their mouth it looks like they are disconnecting all the bones in their face.

LEARNING TO PAINT

2007-08-26T13:22:00.000-07:00

During my 3 month internship at Pixar i had the opportunity to study painting with pastels under Bill Cone. I have been wanting to learn to paint and understand colour for a long time and was very greatful to have that opportunity.
Learning about colour was an eye opening experiance.
These are the pastels from Bills class.
I wanted to post a couple of my recent pastels aswell, but i do not have the scanner connected yet. I will post them as soon as i can. I want to keep exploring the medium, i find that it is helping me alot with composition and my personal illustrations.

EMERYVILLE ROOM-MATE

2007-08-24T17:54:00.000-07:00

Katy Wu vs soggy cereal.

GUITAR MUSIC TREE

2007-08-06T13:39:00.000-07:00

A sketch coloured in photoshop.

SketCHes JUne

2007-08-05T03:25:00.000-07:00

W is for WHALE

2007-05-27T20:40:00.001-07:00

I like fish, ships,cities, scuba divers, and submarines.

CATZPER

2006-11-22T11:38:00.000-08:00

This is Casper...Casper wears a neon green and yellow scarf.