Following last week’s posting, here’s the shaded version of the cardinal painting I’m working on. I’m excited about this one, although I’m gonna have to fix those disney-esque eyes before I finish the painting…
Cardinal WIP
Coming soon to a benefit auction near you! (maybe)
Looks like my portfolio’s gone to the birds…
In a serious moment, I’m donating this and a couple other paintings to a benefit auction for a friend of mine who’s been recently diagnosed with cancer. There’s currently no online donation page for the event, but once there is I’ll be posting a link. Keep your eyes peeled!
Twofer Tuesday
Hooray! The last two illustrations in my Advent Series! I finished the 4th one and started the 5th last night, so I decided to wait on the upload til I’d finished the last one. These two have been both the most difficult and fun in the whole series, but honestly I’ve had a lot of fun with all of them. Black and white has been a bit of a refresher course on composition and emphasis for me, and here I didn’t even know I needed it.
Week 4’s illustration is titled ‘Joyful Hearts’ and centers around Luke 1:39-45, the meeting between a pregnant Mary and Elizabeth. I had a request for happy females jumping or reuniting, but that seemed too…Hallmark-y. After 4 sketches, I FINALLY settled on the current composition, but I’m still not completely happy with it. I just…I don’t know. It gives me the mehs. Oh well, can’t win ’em all I suppose. Also, HANDS. MUST GET BETTER AT HANDS.
Swirls, and floating hair, and folds of fabric, oh my!
Now then, onto better and less frustrating things. The 5th cover, for Christmas Eve, is titled ‘Praising Hearts’, based on Luke 2:1-20. This one’s all about those scruffy shepherds ‘watching their flocks by night’. After spending exactly 10 seconds considering how the dickens I was going to show a star, stable, manger, shepherds, meadows, AND the flocks of sheep they were supposed to be watching, this beauty of a composition popped into my head pretty much fully formed. Every artist’s dream, instant (good) inspiration. This was also the most fun I had painting any of the series. So much swoopy fabric! And just look at that staff hand right there, tis beautiful.
Hey kid, wanna see what I’ve got under my robe? ;D
This just might be my last post for a couple weeks, as I’m typing this baby up in my parent’s basement to the sound of my (free, yes free!) laundry finishing up. I’ll be travelling around on Christmas vacation for the next 2 weeks, so while I do have a commission due on Christmas, I probably won’t have a chance to post it til a week or two later. Patience, and in the meantime, merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, or have a good whatever excuse you’re using to overindulge and see loved ones this year. Ciao!
BAM! Advent cover #3
Considering the day/week I’ve had, I’m pretty proud of myself for finishing and posting this on time. Between extra hours at work, trying to find a subletter for my apartment, and holiday preparations, finding time every night for illustration is kicking my butt. After months of no mistakes at work, tonight was one of those see-how-many-things-can-go-wrong shifts. Ugh. I JUST WANNA MAKE COOKIES AND HOT CHOCOLATE AND SNUGGLE WITH MY KITTIES, OK?
Anyway…
After last week’s goofy perspective, I thought it was high time for some simple decorative line work. Oh MAN, did I have fun with this one or what. I’ve always had a thing for leaves, and I went crazy. For the third week of advent, the theme is Transforming Hearts; I thought that transformation best represented by a brick wall vs. an army of organic (and appropriately festive) poinsettias.
Good thing Google knows how to spell ‘poinsettia’…
I had a request on this one to draw a heart, but that seemed too contrived, so instead I went with the bricks/poinsettias suggesting sort of a framed heart. Less cheesy, just as easy to understand. Bueno!
Advent cover #2
Following up last week’s post, here’s the second cover in the Advent series I’m working on. This week’s cover, ‘Preparing Hearts’, is based on Luke 3:1-6, and is my attempt at showing the preparations (both internal and external) people make for the Christmas season. Drawing this sucker got interesting this morning after I shredded a fingertip on my ac unit’s air filter as I was cleaning it. It’s like I have 20 mini paper cuts, right next to each other. OW. But I’ll stop complaining; the drawing’s finished after all, and only a bit past my planned deadline.
This week’s elaborate border art brought to you by pine garlands, lots of them!
I’m a bit happier with this one than last week’s, except for those darn blessing hands. Where’s a good hand model when you need them? Yeesh. Also I would like to note for any ambitious artists out there that drawing 3/4 angled views of fully-laden tables is NOT fun, NOT easy, and WILL make you hate yourself as you redraw the gravy boat for the 5th time. So no, I don’t want to hear that my plates are slightly skewed; maybe I just did that on purpose. Maybe I just got tired of measuring everything. You’ll never know.
Final thought: How cool does that ink texture look on the hair/clothing?! Yes please!
December…the Christmas Season…and Advent!
Hello lovelies, as promised here’s the first of a series of illustrations I’m currently working on for a church. They’ve asked me if I could paint some custom bulletin art for each week of Advent. (For the uninitiated, Advent begins the first Sunday of December and runs until Christmas; each Sunday has a theme leading up to Christ’s birth). It’s not a terribly lucrative gig, but then again that’s not why I took it on. They’re small quick pieces (about 5 hrs. each) that don’t need to be fully rendered. Besides, now I have a good reason to doodle art nouveau-esque borders for the next month, and THAT is something to celebrate.
The theme for the first week is Heavy Hearts, focusing at things that can burden or drag a person down and the hope the Christmas season brings. I hope that comes across through the border. x.x
Week 1 Theme: Heavy Hearts. Ooh, a candle!
I’m not terribly thrilled with how the lock portion of this sucker turned out, but otherwise I’m pretty happy how everything fits together. It’s unfortunate that uploading the image to the blog seems to have killed my guy’s hairdo too (it’s not that weird chunky gray irl). Oh well, can’t win em all. I would have loved to color it, but as the request was for b/w, my hands are tied.
And lastly, I hope I haven’t encroached on anyone’s religious beliefs with this one; I tried to keep it in mind as I went. Imagine if I’d drawn the guy naked as I originally wanted! >.< Bad Angela, bad. The nude form is SO much more fun to draw than clothed, at least for me. Except feet. Feet should always have shoes on them so no one is ever obligated to draw toes. Anybody else here have correct toe-drawing issues? I can’t be alone…
So this happened…
A friend of mine requested a crazy poster of “Obama, rainbows, stars, and unicorns!” in time for Tuesday’s election. This only took me a couple nights after work to sketch up and quick-color, but I don’t think she was looking for a masterpiece of painting anyway. -Disclaimer- This in no way reflects my personal political beliefs, voting choices, etc. I just think it’s a pretty awesome poster and a good excuse to draw unicorns.
This election, Obama’s looking to collect the mythical beast vote.
New posting aside, WOW has it been far too long since I’ve updated this blog! Looks like I got stuck in the typical post-graduation, just-started-a-new-job rut, and I really don’t have much of an excuse. Waitressing really takes away a lot of time/energy, and no one wants to stay up and paint all night after working an 8 hour shift….but from here on out, I’m gonna find the time. (On the upside, I get to try tons of delicious Middle Eastern and Mediterranean cuisine at work. Gyros and hummus anyone?). I’ve got a couple commission deadlines coming up in the next 2 months, so you guys can expect pretty regular posting from here until Christmas. Seriously though, I am SO grateful for the commissions that have honestly just dropped in my lap. People are awesome, keep the requests coming!
And lastly, I’ll go ahead and give a plug/shout-out to the yummy restaurant I work at, Mediterraneo, in Dekalb, IL. Their fb page: <https://www.facebook.com/pages/Mediterraneo/176103832489874?fref=ts>
Definitely check it out if you’re in the area.
Til next time guys
-Angela
30 Day Challenge – Day 3
Hello again, folks. It’s Daily Challenge 3, and I had it done on time for once! My favorite food is……
Ice cream! I could wax poetic or other foolishness, but I’ll simply state that chocolate chip cookie dough is the best, the chunkier the better. I drew this up super fast in pen, maybe 5 minutes, then spent an hour coloring in Photoshop. I’m getting faster already, yaaaaay! Also from here on out, on any day that requires a non-human, I’m going to try to avoid just plainly drawing the item in question. Brain cells activate and all that jazz.
Tomorrow’s assignment? Favorite place, hmm….
Angela Witte Illustration 