Salt Lake Temple

This was a commissioned piece of the Salt Lake Temple. It's oil on canvas. When I was first asked to do this piece I didn't think it would take as much time as it did. The Salt Lake Temple is so intricate and beautiful and detailed. There are so many pieces to it that I had never realized before working on this painting.

Sunflower Garden

Acrylic on Illustration board.

For one of my finals this semester we were supposed to do 3 of something. There were no rules we could choose what to do, but the subject matter should relate. I have been wanting to do something with the circus for a long time now and as soon as this assignment was given to us at the beginning of the semester I knew what I wanted to do. I wanted to do A Circus Sideshow! At first my ideas were really out there and honestly, a little morbid. I was going to do the Bearded Lady hanging by her beard but then I went and met the REAL BEARDED LADY at a lecture she was giving at UVU! She was so boisterous and happy, not sad or self conscious at all like I would have thought a woman with a beard would be. After seeing her I wasn't happy with my ideas. So I changed them. After lots of thumbnails and thinking and composing here is what I came up with...what do you think?

The Illustrated Man

The Fortune Teller

The Two Headed Twins

Turtles

This is a series I did for my Painting 2 class. We are supposed to mimic different styles of art through out the paintings. Each one is the same subject matter--the same photo reference. I have never painted like this before but I have to try everything at least once. The first one is Impressionistic

This one is the same turtle but a little more abstracted

And finally this one is so abstract you cannot even tell what the subject matter is...can you tell?

Copyright Infringement (c)

This was an assignment for one of my classes at UVU. It's ballpoint pen on illustration board. We could choose our subject matter between a car, a closet, or a refrigerator and anything/everything inside of them. With this kind of power to choose of course I chose the sweetest, most sugary, most delicious food in our refrigerator. This is the first time I've done ballpoint pen, but I really wanted it to turn out super well! I think I succeeded...for the most part :)

Here is the finished piece. The edges are cropped in some and there are still tweaks that I know need tweaking, but all in all it's pretty much done. I entered this piece into the UVU Student Show at the Woodbury Museum of Art, but I have yet to have heard whether the piece made it into the show or not. Fingers crossed!

Diamonds anyone?

If you've ever looked at a diamond or tried drawing one you can imagine I got a little over my head on this assignment. Diamonds! Diamonds! Diamonds are a girls best friend! It was so hard studying each facet on each individual diamond trying to understand how they reflect on each other. It's going to take a lot more studying to learn how to really make a diamond look like a diamond. I used white charcoal on black paper putting in only the highlights.

The Key

This is an in progress oil painting I am working on. It is a trompe l'oeil painting, meaning a 'fool the eye'. A trompe l'oeil painting is supposed look tangible, deceiving the eye. That was my goal here. The key is only a piece of the actual painting which also includes a melting candle, gold candle stick, and a reflective antique metal plate. I submitted this piece as a part of a portfolio for a scholarship. Now that that deadlines past I still need to render the key a bit more and then finish the entire piece. Surprisingly I have really liked working on this project, with the exception that I can only do it during class times and at school on the weekends, but hey that's what I've got to give in order to have this composition achieved.

Digital Painting

So I realize this is SO late for Christmas, but I got a Wacom Intuos 3 Tablet for Christmas so I had to try it out immediately. This is the first time I've ever attempted any sort of digital painting, but I think it actually is turning out kind of awesome!

Snowball

Finally it is the end of the semester! This was one of my final for my Illustration class--one of the last finals I had this semester. I have never had such a release of stress like I had at the end of this semester. It was hard but still I learned SO much. The assignment for this final was to create a comic style narrative. I chose one of my favorite poems by Shel Silverstein to illustrate:

"Snowball"

I made myself a snowball

as perfect as can be

I thought I'd keep it as a pet

and let it sleep with me

I made it some pajamas 

and a pillow for its head

then last night it ran away

but first it wet the bed

I painted this piece with acrylic on 140 weight hot press watercolor paper. It was a complete new experience for me, one because I'd never used hot press watercolor paper, never used acrylic on watercolor, and never used ink with paint. One of my instructors, Will Terry, is an amazing illustrator and he told us how he uses acrylic on hot press watercolor paper and when it warps he's able to roll the paper without disturbing the paint. I really wanted to experiment with this idea, and though I knew my illustration class was not the best place to experiment it was one of the last assignments I had so I did. Let me know what you guys think!

Illustration of Work

I was given the assignment to show how something is made or done. The first thought I had was a sandwich falling together--since working in a sandwich shack was my first summer job. There is no visible person in this piece and maybe that's to show how monotonous sandwich making (or any job for that matter) can get. It eventually can be done without a second thought. This piece was done in acrylic on illustration board.

Voodoo

This was the best Halloween costume ever. I sewed a mask to be a voodoo doll and I won the  'Scariest Costume Contest"/ Then after the holiday was over I decided I wanted to paint it. This, like the last few, is water color. What do you think? Creepy?

Pianist

I'm turning into one of "those" people. It's only mid November and I am so excited for the Christmas season. I cannot wait for it. Every drawing I do incorporates something Christmassy in it. This painting was based off the idea of work--that I've done. When I was younger (pretty much up until 2 years ago) I've had to play the piano or sing at our family Christmas parties. I love playing the piano and this painting is how I wish I felt performing for my family

Trouble

So I wanted to paint something but I had no idea what. I asked my boyfriend for 2 words: he gave me sock and then a lot of other words that weren't really fun to work with. The first thought I had was mobster. So here you are, a mobster interrogating the distraught sock layed out in front of him. This was done in water color and is one of the first I've done

Ice Cream Land!!! 2011

So really? Isn't this everyone's dream rather than  just a kids? True, this girl is super lucky and I know, we all wish we could be her