Happy Christmas Harry

Happy Christmas Harry

No, not Harry Potter, you nerds. It's an allusion to the image of the Madonna and Child and an ode to the reality of Christmas.

Hello again

  
  Yesterday was pretty amazing. Woke up early, went to the farmer's market then headed out later the the Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival. It was incredible. I bought a book from Jillian Tamaki at the Conundrum Press table. 
            

I also bought a book from the Unicorn Mountain artists collective. It's a collaborative book illustrating folk tales from western Pennsylvania.         










A bunch of my friends came and we hung out all day and the boys cooked us a delicious chicken soup. We also had hot spiked cider and garlic breads. A fun yummy meal! So today after much leisure and inspiration I sat down to make a version of a sketch I did in CA. My future husband, Tab Lloyd:

Some sketches

In lieu of any new work, and in an effort to have frequent posts I thought I'd share some sketches. Most of these are from SOI Sketch Night. It was fantastic and I'll have to go back in December. The other full page one is from watching videos/ movies on my computer. Which happens more often than I'd like to admit.

TV doodle

 

I'm basically working on trying to include multiple figures, more interesting line work and creating interesting/filled negative spaces. 

Thx. Giving

I haven't been home in over a year! Since my bf's wedding on Sep 18 2010. . . I will be on the west coast in a week. I can't wait. I cannot wait. Seattle + Bay area/ San Jo. DOGGIE and HIKING and BEACH and FOOD and FAMILY'/FRIENDS (same thing).

Studies for 5 stages of grease

This image looks highly sharpened for some reason. Anyway, just working on another personal project. I'm trying to re-introduce more mixed media into my work. I've been trying to critique and research how I can improve and there are a lot of ways. This study utilizes none of those. . . This also ended up looking like a friend of mine even though I referenced a completely random person.

Vectors

I just added a new page to my hideous WEBSITE. It's of some of the digital work I've done.

ILLUSTRATION WEEK

Hey New Yorkers, fellow illustrators, Illustration Week starts Nov. 4th. There are a ton of events going on at Society of Illustrators. Here's a link to the schedule of events.
http://www.societyillustrators.org/The-Museum/2011/Illustration-Week-2011/Illustration-Week-2011.aspx

OWS2/4

I do red and green a lot. . I think I like it better without the lettering? Also I've decided I just really suck at scanning and photoshop cause my originals always look so much nicer.


Just out of curiosity I layered the original sketch over the final and colorized the lines. Si o no?

1/4 OWS Portraits

Working on a mini series of portraits from Occupy Wall Street march. This is Allen, a really nice man  who I walked next to for a while. He lives Upstate and has been an activist since the 60s, like a lot of the people there. He was at Berkeley and in the Bay Area during that time and it was really cool to talk to him and draw him.

unfinished

RHYMES WITH SELF-DEPRECATION

Although I do like digital, I  miss the quality painting produces.

Strata #4 - Excerpt 1 from Quayola on Vimeo.


I will write more about this and another extremely poignant piece from the Creator's Project in DUMBO today after work.

Exhilarating march from SoHo to Times Square today!!! Illustrations to follow

SOI

Hey fellow illustrators, don't forget October 28th is the deadline for the SOI Annual call for entries! 

INFO

RiP

A little late, I started it this morning, but I had to leave for work:

Watercolor, ink

B/w sketch

Caricature film

One of the artists' blogs I follow, Peter de Seve recently posted this short film by caricature artist John Kascht.



It's a little dry, but great to see the dedication to his subjects and his craft. Also the way he handles his materials is incredible. Take a peek.

JJATDS

So I went digital for this guy. The gouache one wasn't looking so hot. And now with a few adjustments I can make some tee-shirts for you Jeffy! This would've been a lot easier if I had a tablet. Soon?

I honestly can tell if it's completely stupid or not.

I've got a big project (one of many constantly flowing around my mind that never get done) in the works.  Something like a full length graphic novel? Intimidating, invigorating. I'm still in the zygote phase of this project. It includes a lot of reading, writing and drawing. Would take at least a year. AT LEAST. Anywho, now I have to get started on the final drawing for B Smiff's drawing and do more drawings for the bosses website. When I'm not being so lazy, I'm so busy!

Piece.

Everyone loves doggies

Being a dog walker is awesome. I get to hang out with dogs and puppies AND I get to draw them.

I like the composition of the thumbs better, but I did the final at the wrong proportion cause I'm a dumbass, so. . 

 Buffy (puppy frenchie) with a stick. Her brother Watson, a black french bulldog waiting behind to snatch it from her.

Sophie (puppy Shiba Inu) and kitty playing with her leash

Illustration Friday-Perennial

Perennial, 4.5"x7" watercolor, graphite, pen/ink, digital.

I sadly had to look up what kind of plants were perennial. I saw two plants that remind me of one thing: home, California. They are the California poppy and avocados. I always miss the spirit of CA in the summertime, there's nothing like it.

Some process shots

I hope everyone's enjoying their summer!

What it says

Some prelims

The beginning of this post goes out to Jeffy. It should be a surprise, but the final is taking longer than I hoped and I wanted to show you water I'll be sending your way. (B Smiff if you're out there I'll be making you one soon too)

I'm going to do the real one in gouache, I think. And it'll look betta

Also, here are some bad scans of some watercolors I did for FK, which I don't think will be used:

They're pretty much just copies of the architect's digital renderings, and they wanted something more narrative. Which is what I'm working on now and will show once all that is done.

Whoa, it's been over a month since I posted

And Summer is already here. I've been up to lots of stuff, but moving slower at it than I should be. Once I wrap up this project I'm doing for Flying Kites, I'll be making a lot of my own stuff in self-promotion efforts. Whelp, that's all I got for now.

Happy Judgement Day!

This took me way too long to do. Like, more than 10 mins.

Illustration Friday-Safari

I didn't get a chance to create a new illustration for this topic, but I thought I could revisit an old favorite that fit the bill. I should probably revisit this method too, just for kicks.

Illustration Friday

No, I'm not always political with my illos, I love drawing weird people too. This week's topic at Illustration Friday is Lesson.

This week's lesson: Don't look under the table when the teacher is grading your paper. Some tend to get little too excited.

Kite Running!!

Alright yo's and y'alls,
I've got another week left to raise some big bucks for my Flying Kites Team. Any contribution will be matched by an anonymous donor. Please give anything you can and help these wonderful kids:  http://vimeo.com/16265991


Donate here:http://www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/colleen-sanders/bear-mountain-ny


If you donate, let me know and I'll draw you a pretty picture!

Oh ya

I did these for random craigslist person (never again). Just straight up vector portraits. He didn't like them all too much but I thought they were pretty OK for my first attempts.

Right now I'm working on some watercolors for Flying Kites, I'm excited to see how they turn out.

Flying Kites/ Northface Challenge

Although most of you are my friends on facebook anyway, I need to spread the word. Any little bit helps. I'm trying to raise $1000 by May, which is right around the corner. I'm doing work for a really important organization that helps displaced children in Kenya and they've put together a team to participate in the Northface Challenge in upstate NY. If you can contribute anything, please visit: 

http://www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/colleen-sanders/Bear-Mountain-NY

Hello Again

After a week packed with art fairs and events (I'm currently filling in for my roomie at a gallery), I've decided to take this Sunday to visit what some of my fellow Illustrators are up to. As usual I'm completely blown away. I've been surrounded all week by art collectors, snobby SoHo gallery-goers and ultra-hip hipster pop-up art show attendees. As much fun as it was to meet some genuinely nice people, I'm so happy I decided to be an illustrator and not a fine artist. It suits me so much better, and while I'm still chugging along to improve my work and learn, I don't think I would've gotten anywhere in the gallery world. Anyway, more big props to all illustrators and people struggling(or not, kudos!) for their work.

-Colleen

PS. Spring is coming, can you feel it?!?!

Qaddafi

Well it was either Charlie Sheen or Muammar Qaddafi. I chose Qaddafi. I should've had the camel spitting out "hallucinatory pills." I think Charlie Sheen is still a good candidate for caricature though, maybe tomorrow.

There WIll Be Food

Exploring neo-colonialism and cash crops/ world bank subsidies as a cause of poverty.
My process:

The final:

There Will Be Food

9x12

Watercolor, Gouache, Graphite, Digital Collage