Children's Book

This was a really fun project to work on this semester! The assignment had a lot of things required for the piece but basically it had to be flat flat flat flat flat! be in an abnormal environment, and have some reverse perspective. This is the first time I've worked flat and not spent time trying to render and put value in. It was a lot of fun doing this flat style and I actually love how it turned out...

Harvest

This is a book cover for a ya novel that is currently being worked on. It's a story about Sirens in the real world...here's the blurb/synopsis:

How do you control desire? How do you survive obsession? You don’t.

Two young lovers must fight against life and death in this Paranormal Fantasy novel of unconventional and impossible love. Jace never thought what he once knew as myth would turn into reality. Let alone, he’d be the one to uncover the truth about the disappearances of males from Santa Cruz…

That is until he fell for Iris—a hauntingly beautiful girl that looked more stunning in the moonlight, with the glow of the ocean on her skin, than anywhere else on the planet. Sirens, after all, tend to captivate the male species the closer they are to their feeding grounds.  Troubled by her own life, Iris doesn't mean to complicate it by letting Jace pull at her heart strings; but before she knows it, it’s too late—she’s in love with her prey.

It isn't until the only boy who Iris has ever fallen for hears her song (a pure, hypnotic melody of notes that lures men into the ocean, sealing his death with her words) that her world turns completely upside down. Suddenly, Iris must choose who she stands with: her family or the humans?

Either way, many will die. 

-"The Harvest" written by Kimberly Benson--Coming Soon!

The Robber Bridegroom

The semester is over! Well...almost...I only have one more final to complete. This semester I took "Advanced Illustration" which was awesome because we got to choose all of our own assignments. This helped because I was able to start building my portfolio with the type of work I want. This is one of the final pieces for that class:

The Robber Bridegroom

This is a fantastic Grimm Fairy tale, but let me warn you it is not for the squeamish or faint of heart. 

A young woman is betrothed to a man she barely knows. For some reason she feels nervous of the man, not fully trusting him. Through their engagement he continually tries to get her to come to his house but she always refuses. One day he tells her she has to come because he is throwing a party for her for the wedding. She says she doesn't know where he lives.

"In the middle of the dark forest" says the man.

"I will get lost" she says.

"There will be a trail of ashes you can follow to find my house"

That night, alone, the girl goes into the forest and follows the trail of ashes to his house. But there is no party there: in  fact the place is empty. She steps inside to look around. A bird is trapped in a cage hanging from the ceiling and he tells her to get out, she's in a murderers house! The girl ignores the birds numerous warnings and continues searching. She looks in the cellar and finds an old woman there who informs her that her betrothed is a murderer and he's planning on killing her! The old woman hides the girl behind some barrels and the betrothed and his friends come home drunk, with a young girl screaming in their grasp. 

They throw the girl on the table, kill her, and then eat her. One man chops off her little finger (b.c he can't get the ring off that is stuck there). The finger flies behind the barrels and into the girls lap. The men fall into a drunken sleep and the old woman and the girl escape. The next night at their wedding, it is customary for everyone to tell a story. The groom encourages the girl to tell a story. So she retells the story about the groom (all the while he's getting more and more nervous). Finally she pulls the finger out and proves the truth of the story. The guests attack the groom and give him justice.

This story is a dark one, but I really like it. Here is the piece I did as the girl first enters the dark forest

Little Miss Muffet

I love little nursery rhymes....

Little Miss Muffet,

sat on her tuffet

eating her curds and whey;

When along came a spider

and sat right beside her,

and scared Miss Muffet away!

This girl is pretty brave...if that were me I would be on the other side of the country by now, swearing that "Eight Legged Freaks" was starting!

I painted this sketch in Photoshop as one of the few I'll submit to Craft Lake City (if I apply this year).

Anyway, Enjoy!

Influence

For my figure painting class we were given an assignment to paint a conceptual piece focusing on one word. I chose the word "Influence", and specifically the influence of the media onto little girls to be the worlds definition of "pretty"--to be "sexy" "skinny" and "perfect". It's sad to see young girls feeling like they are not perfect as they are...that they need the newest clothes, a cell phone, and make up in order to be worth something. That is simply not true.

After I started working on this piece I saw an article in a magazine titled "8 ways to boost a girls self image". The author of this describes how I feel about the worlds influence on children better then I can put into words, and I think it is something that could help parents with their children. Here is the link to that article if you are interested : http://www.ldsliving.com/story/75061-8-ways-to-boost-a-girls-self-image