Monday Sketches - Just Keep Drawing

I've officially decided that Monday Sketches will be an every-other-week segment until further notice. Life's been pretty crazy as of late, so remembering to keep at it with a weekly post is not as easy right now. 

This week, I have a few school assignments to share with you, and some personal projects that have stemmed from the fact that my Midpoint Review was not approved. 

It sucks when something you've worked hard at is (essentially) rejected, but after a couple of weeks of fretting and worrying, I think I'm starting to think a little more clearly about it. In the end, I just have to keep drawing and keep working - and I'll get there. Like Dory says in Finding Nemo: 

Just Keep Swimming!!

Image from http://blogs.disney.com/oh-my-disney/2013/06/26/the-best-dory-quotes/

Without further ado, here is the art for the week!

My next big Advertising Illustration class assignment is creating an Ad based on a genre. Being the big Jane Austen fan I am, I chose Regency Romance as my theme. I sketched out a few thumbnails, and the instructor ended up choosing number 4 as the best one to work from.

After taking some photos for reference, I managed to piece together my images to create a final sketch/tonal drawing of the image in Photoshop. I think once I start throwing in color and playing with media, this will turn out to be a really nice image. I'm thinking either watercolors or gouache would do nicely, as long as I don't focus too much on the linework. Last time I focused on line, it ended up in a not-so-great grade. No fun! 

For Interactive Illustration class, we're starting to build the environment for our character. For my fortune teller, I placed her in a run-down room filled with odds and ends to bring back the Steampunk quality to the image. Astrological signs, tarot cards, drapery and electric lights all pull everything together. Looking forward to starting to create this in Adobe Illustrator!

Butterflies are one of my favorite things in the world, and after playing some in Adobe Illustrator I decided to make a fun, light hearted image with lots of these little guys! 

Playing with media and styles here with this fashionable lady. My husband challenged me to combine a couple of art styles, and his suggestion really has helped me with understanding and coming to terms with the rejection from my Midpoint Review. His support has been invaluable this entire time, and I'm so thankful for him!

In this image, I used a reference I found on the internet and just drew. I did a lot of crosshatching and shading, and the end result was a lot of fun! I might try experimenting with it some more. 

 

One of my favorite artists is Duane Bryers, who created pin-up art of this adorable and fun-loving character, Hilda. She's a chubby, chunky ball of energy whose every illustration is colorful, sexy, and exudes confidence. It's this character that helped me with finding a voice as a Body Positive artist. In this image, I copied an image of her to get a feel for the vignette style art that's so common in Pin-Up drawings. It was a lot of fun, and I hope to do more - only with my own characters!

You can find out more about Hilda and see more of Bryer's paintings at this blog post here.

That's all for now, until next time!

Monday Sketches - Catching Up

Things have been so hectic lately, I haven't had a chance to do Monday Sketches all month! Depending on how my schedule goes in the near future, this segment might become a Monthly thing rather than Weekly.

So without further ado, here is an image post of all the stuff I've done in the past month or so, so enjoy!

Captain Marvel/Ms. Marvel is my current all-time favorite super-heroine right now! She's awesome, so I had to draw her, naturally. Ms. Marvel was specifically commissioned by a friend of mine. You can buy products with these illustrations on them at my Society6 store here.

Working on expanding the subjects of my personal advertisement projects. My Thesis Review is coming up soon, so I needed something to add to my portfolio! Took some references from the internet and sketched and rendered everything in Corel Painter 2015.

School's been keeping me busy, so here's a look at my latest project - an advertisement for Whitman's Chocolates! The first image is a couple of color studies, the first one being what I went with. The completed image was done in watercolor, pencil, and pen, then digitally enhanced. I added the slogan and the Whitman's logo to complete the Ad. 

NFYW had lots of fun and amazing things to offer! I wish I could have done some more sketches, but these definitely made me very very happy. <3 I was so happy to see plus size models walking down that catwalk for Project Runway!

In addition to fashion sketches and advertising illustrations, I also dabble with Medieval illuminations from time to time. Here's an example I did a few weeks back, based on a manuscript featuring St. Michael and the Dragon.

Being a Body Positive advocate, I felt that this older illustration of mine needed a bit of a pick-me-up! Loving the #AllSizesMatter campaign idea. I might do more of these! You can buy prints of these gals at my Society6 store here.

One of my other graduate classes is an Interactive Illustration course, where I'm developing a Dress-up Doll Game. My character is a Steampunk Fortune Teller, and boy I tell you vector illustrations are a challenge! I've been learning a lot, however, and I look forward to seeing how this project turns out. I've included the sketches, the flat colors, and the finished rendered character. 

Finally, a quick look at a sketch from a previous event I attended at LaCenterra of Cinco Ranch. Had a lot of fun!

Hope you enjoyed the return of Monday Sketches! I definitely will try to update more often with more art and illustrations! 

Until next time!

Monday Sketches - Exploring Corel Painter 2015

This week's post is essentially going to be a review for the digital painting program Corel Painter 2015. While I am hardly an expert on the program, I wanted to share my experience using it. 

Image from http://minus.com/liA2kxKRXdASk

My Digital Painting class for this summer has been a great insight on how to paint better using digital software.  Corel Painter 2015 is by no means a cheap purchase, but if you're an artist looking at mastering all media of art, it's a worthwhile investment. There are so many great options in painting in this program!

You can learn more about Corel and Corel Painter 2015 here.  

I've posted about this image before last week, but now I've actually begun painting. It's my final project in Digital Painting, and I'm celebrating my love of Plus Size fashion in an advertisement style image. Here we have a sketch of the image, laying out the landscape, the pose, and other details. 

This is always my first step for any painting, whether it's traditional or digital.

My first WIP has been worked on for about 2 hours, blocking in colors, getting the shape of the dress down and working on getting the shading of the form down. As you can see, the pose looks a little off. Her feet are pointed in one direction and her torso is twisted rather uncomfortably in the opposite direction.

Painting digitally is a little odd for me, because I'm used to relying heavily on linework rather than really building up a three-dimensional form using shadows. 

This is my latest WIP of the same painting. Here, I've turned the pose to make more sense, and I've smoothed out the ocean so it doesn't look quite so choppy. 

Corel has a multitude of brushes that are really handy when painting, and I think that's definitely the program's best feature. I think I used a combination of a calligraphy brush, a blender, and an oil brush throughout this image so far. 

Finally, something I did to step away from my school work. Loosening up my hand and drawing something more fun always helps me regain my ground and my focus when returning to a project. Here, I limited the colors to a soft pink tone, and worked on experimenting with painting shadows alongside the linework I really enjoy. 

All in all, Corel is a great program, and I definitely know that with practice it will be a staple in my artistic arsenal. 

Until next time!

Celebrating Tess Holliday - Image Post

Recently, I did an illustration celebrating Tess Holliday, a plus size model who's been contracted by Milk Management. She's the first of her size (22) and stature (5'5") to get a modeling contract! So to celebrate, I did an illustration of her. 

This post is only going to be pictures, so enjoy them! Feel free to comment!

And here she is! Queen Tess is what I'm calling this one.

Tess Holliday is absolutely rockin' it lately! You should look her up and check her out - she's amazing!

The Painting Process - A look at Eva's creative style

Today it was wet, cold, and gloomy. It was a day I was hoping to do some laundry, when the washing machine decided it had other ideas. So instead of letting the "blah" get to me, I decided to do some painting. When I started the sketching and inking, I figured that I wanted to do a process post dedicated to my art style. 

This painting was inspired by the beautiful Sarah at Curvilyfashion.com! If you're into fabulous plus-size fashion, I suggest checking her out. She's fabulous and fun, and her blog is amazing! 

Now let's get to it! 

My first step is always a foundational sketch. Simple shapes like circles and ovals help to flesh out and set a pose. My lines are really loose and light, building up the figure over time. Next, I use a variety of ink pens to get the linework in. I vary the line weight up to make the image more interesting. 

The next step is to erase all of those pencil sketches! While they make an image feel looser and spontaneous, I like the clean look of smooth lines. Once that's done, it's on to painting!

Step three is getting the flat colors in and start building up your layers for shading. My go-to paints are a set of portable Prang watercolors. They are the high-end brand of watercolors, but they're easy to use and have a good saturation to them. They've served me well, and I can take them anywhere!

The final step is using the metallic gouache paints! I've been playing around with the Winsor & Newton brand of gouaches for a while now, and they make my paintings feel really glamourous! They add a certain bling to them, and I can have fun and be loose with the medium for the final touches.

And Voila!! The painting is done! A gorgeous plus sized lady turned into a lovely piece of art! 

If you're interested in a commission or an art collaboration, just email me at evaduplanart@yahoo.com!