In Memoriam: Sandy Hook Elementary School

It’s been exactly one month since the tragedy at Sandy Hook school in Newtown Connecticut occurred. At the time, I had written a poem trying to capture some of the emotions of the moment, and now have decided to illustrate the poem and post it here in remembrance of all those who lost their lives that day. My thoughts and prayers are with them and their families today. 

It's almost time for the New Year. . . Goodbye 2011

  My goal was to have my website filled with new art by the time the New Year rolled around. However, with family things and whatnot, that has not happened. I am a little disappointed about that, but I did take the time today to come up with a revised design for the website with a couple of new pieces. I want to execute a couple more ideas I have floating around in my head and then I will put the new site up. Stay tuned! (my new goal is Jan. 31. Maybe by putting that here, I will actually get it done!)

Anyway, I have been hinting at a couple of pieces I was working on as Christmas presents which I can now post here.
The first was a set of "paintings" I did for my mom. She has a flowering plum tree in her front yard that she loves. So I did a drawing of the tree as well as a close up of one of the branches.

the pencil drawing

with tissue paper

with tissue paper

the pencil drawing

She loved a recent pencil drawing I did so I decided to keep the original sketch. I scanned it into the computer and then printed it on card stock. Using matte medium, I glued tissue paper over the drawings. I was pretty happy with the result. 

Another piece I did was for my sister. Last summer, I was able to spend a weekend at the beach with her and her family. From the trip, I got a lot of amazing photos. So I decided to do a painting of her children.

The first is the pencil sketch I did from the photo reference. The second is done in watercolor and pen and ink. I was really happy with the result as it is something I can add to my children's illustration portfolio.

2011 has been a good year for me. I graduated from the BFA Illustration Program at FIT, found a part time job working with great people, started this blog, met a bunch of great illustrators, and got a website up. I am excited for what the new year will hold: a new portfolio and hopefully some illustration jobs!
Happy New Year everyone. May it be better than 2011!!!

Some Documentary Art

Hello!

Now that I am done with my undergrad (hooray!) hopefully I will be able to share more of my art with you. This work is from my class with Bil Donovan, a Documentary class where we went around the city and just drew people in the environment. The first one is one I did at Grand Central in the food court.
This second one is portraits of my classmates; the weather wasn't great for going outside but this was fun to do .This final one is from the Museum of Natural History.

These are done on watercolor paper toned with gouache and ink (except the dinosaur one is not toned). They are drawn with pen and ink.