Yay for finals week!

I have done sooooo many paintings this semester! 15 for my class alone! Not including the three digital paintings I have done for the book or the chalk the block, or any thing I have done in my free time. Holy moly. This is a sneak peek to my latest and greatest and final piece for the illustration 2 class this semester with Bob Barrett. He has been a great teacher, I have learned tons thanks to him! Wish me luck to the critique on Thursday and my french test! :D

Semester Paintings

 




So we're about half way through the semester and I have been doing a lot of paintings for my class. I think it's about time I post these so you guys can see what I've been up to along side of learning french and planning a wedding and working. :) All of these are done with oil paints. And there are tons more coming.

Happy Halloween!

So I have had some good things come to pass and some not so good things. As far as life in general, amazing! As far as art, I couldn't be more frustrated. I have been working on a book for this guy who wants to publish these African folklore children's E-book. It's way cool! I finished the first book with 15 illustrations no problem except he wanted the resolution to be hire, but no problem, he loves them overall and wants me to do two more books great! Well then my computer dies. Along with it my photoshop program I have been working solely in for the past few months to get these done. I get a rental computer with all the gigs on it so I can continue working on stuff until I get a new computer and then, bam! My tablet dies! And I just got both of those in the spring! So now even with the rental computer I still can't do much with the next book I'm supposed to be working on. I haven't posted anything really since the chalk thing because every time I go to draw something that isn't for class I feel guilty kind of because I know there is this project I'm supposed to be doing, but I just can't do it. My lovely fiance is kind enough to let me use his tablet and photoshop on occasion but I still don't get near enough time to work on it. I have done a lot for my illustration class however and I shall post from that soon, but in the meantime when I have truly felt the urge to draw I have and it's Halloween so I had to do something for it even if it was quick and still left unfinished, here are two recent drawings of mine. I drew them in my sketchbook then brought them onto photoshop and just photomanipulated them to give them color. More stuff to come!

The Pumpkin King and the Ghost

Trick of Treat

Chalk the Block Won Best of Show!

      It all started a week ago when Josh came to my apartment dressed like a pirate, dressed me like a pirate and drove me all around Provo in our pirate ship (car with pirate flag sticking out the top with blasting Pirates of the Caribbean music.) to search for buried treasure. We first stopped by Pirate Island where we first met, then to the Castle Amphitheater where we went the night we started dating, then on to Rock Canyon Trail where the treasure was sure to be hid. It was deep in a cave and I had to dig it out, whence I did, he pulled me off the trail and got down on one knee pulled out the ring box from inside the chest, opened it and looked deep into my eyes. He then said, "Sarah, I love you so much, and with all of my heart I ask you this, Will you marry me?" I blushed and giggled and of course said, "Yes!" 

That was the first step. 

We got an email saying there was an open spot at the Chalk the Block festival at the shop at River Woods the next upcoming Saturday. We took it up of course, just for fun. It was on our list of things to do for a date and this was the perfect opportunity. Josh went ahead and whipped up a rough sketch on photoshop and gridded it out. After I finished all my french homework and test reviews, we got our tape and our tape measure, my camera, some extra chalk and headed over to our spot at about 5pm on Friday.  We knew there was a contest going on, but we did not go in to win, though we did joke about it a little bit, it was purely fun for us. Since it was both of our first times doing a chalk piece at this magnitude and also our first piece together ever, we were absolutely ecstatic to hear our number called for best of show. I could not have done something like this without Josh. He is absolutely amazing and we discovered that we work awesome together. I hope we do more stuff like this in the future. 

We used the soft pastel chalk that was handed out to us and barely used one box. It was an 8'x8' image and we completed it with 7 hours total working time. We started with the sky and worked our way down. Josh did mostly the right side and I did mostly the left side. Pictures of the step by step process can be found here on my facebook profile page. 

Two Things:

First: I am getting married in December!!! Aahhhhhh!!!!!! :DDDD

Second: I'll be chalkin the block come Friday and Saturday Sept 21-22 at the River woods in utah county, if you happen to be around come check it out. I'll be doing a collaborative piece with my new fiancé, Josh Keele, his blog here: http://joshsimagination.blogspot.com/. It will be our first one together and I am really excited!!! I'll post pics up after the event.

Summer Sketches!

These are just things I did while I was at work and on break.

These were some of my favorites I did of coworkers with super powers:

Blast From The Past!

I was making room in my old closet to put my suitcase in for the summer and I came across these old treasures. Each I think marks a significant point in my life concerning how I came to pursue my art career:

First drawing ever. I'm glad my dad kept it. I'm sure he had no idea at the time  what keeping this would mean to me years later. Yay for kid scribbles! 

Now for the second turning point in artist land: This had to be 2nd grade, because I think it was when I had barely moved to Texas. You don't think much when you look at it, but I received so much positive feedback when I did this originally, whether it was from kids hovering over me in amazement or teachers just being nice, it made me like drawing. I drew dolphins a lot back in the day because I wanted to be some sort of marine biologist dolphin trainer person but this was the first time I actually thought I could be good at drawing. 

Fast forward four years to 6th grade and ya get this beast. I look back on this piece and I am still proud.  It got 1st place and best of show. It was the beginning of a very fun and exciting road for me. I'm so grateful to have been able to develop this talent and I hope to keep working hard and following this path. I am so excited to see where it leads me! 

Inspiration

Inspiration. 
I love the feeling. It's like a deep burning in the pit of your stomach screaming at you. It is a huge pounding on your soul and you have to react to it or it will leave you so empty it hurts. 

I don't always act on my inspiration when I feel it.. some times I feel it before I visualize anything.. It's as if there is something so close to me that I am supposed to do and I can't quite reach it.. Some thing is screaming at me to pick up a pencil even when I think I don't want to.. Even when I do and bring it to a blank page nothing comes out, but it is so strong.. It's like when you see someone give a reaction like, "oh!" and then leave you sitting there thinking, "what? what is it? what happened?"

Some times direct thoughts will come to my mind, such as, "practice that shape.." or, "look up a picture and copy it.." but I can never seem to make myself happy from something I do by following the promptings that come to mind. It is disheartening.. and I then see work from those who participate in the same activity as I but with much more experience and I feel I am so close to their level, yet I am not there.. i feel as though I won't ever be happy until I reach a higher level of professionalism with the work that I do.. 

Occasionally something amazing happens, I feel a little singe that leads me to a successful zone in concentration that I won't escape for hours. Miracles happen in this time. I may not hear if someone calls my name, or get hungry, or thirsty, or take any naps or go to the bath room or put down my pencil, but I have a masterpiece at the end.. It's only worked out that way a few select times, and it is difficult to find that level of concentration in my life where I value so many different things, like church, family, and friends, and other classes at school.. 

A funny thing is that some times i am inspired to write, not just draw... oh you thought I was talking about writing.. ? of course you did, but of course you thought wrong, I meant to speak of my sketching and painting I do on occasion, but perhaps should do more of if I really were to raise myself a level. I am however as I say inspired to write as well. even if not about anything in particular and I start out speaking jibberish, I figure, eventually it will turn into something of significance.

Finally!

 When Women Talk, The World Listens

There ya go, finally some work from the class! Improved both of them from the originals I turned in. The above is for a fortune cookie assignment, the below is from our Book of Mormon assignment. 

Mormon 2

New Layout

I'm changing things up a bit. Today in my class we were given a little bit of advice as to how to make your portfolio a little more professional looking, so I took in some of the words and applied them here. I will also be making a new website to more clearly display my portfolio to potential job places. It will be super tight! This blog will still be more relaxed and I will keep up with what's new in the world.

It's been kind of a while, but no worries, stuff is coming! I just wanted to wait for the semester ended. I don't know why.. seemed right. Anyways, my digital illustration class is putting up a show, if you're in town you should check it out. which is actually one reason I have not posted it up here because I want people to go see it for themselves. Then I will post it here. The show will be in the HFAC on BYU campus, 5th floor east side, starting....... tomorrow! (would have been today if people hadn't flaked out on us :P no hard feelings..) And will be up for the next couple of weeks.

And that's what's new. The end.

NEW TOYS!!!!!

I got a lovely paycheck this past pay day and so I decided to reward myself in getting myself a present :) 

Creative Suite, which included Photoshop, Illustrator, and Indesign, ALL MINE! Ha! I decided to further treat myself to getting my own genuine WACOM tablet! And I still have money left over for rent next month! woo! Here's some fun I had tonight. It's not perfect but it is just to get the point across to how excited I am to finally have these tools! A whole new realm of possibilities have opened up to me and I can't wait to explore! 

Coming Soon! Be Prepared!

I've been posting up stuff from my sketch book, and those have been nice for sure, but I'm doing sooooo much more as of late. BIG things are in store, stay tuned! :D So excited! And I can't wait to share!

new sketch book stuff

I've been busy, but I haven't not been doing art. Here's the latest!

                                           

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