Sometimes you just get struck by the urge to be completely silly. And silly happened. Boredom and access to a paint chat brought forth a spew of silly art from both myself and a fellow artist/friend of mine. And then we decided to draw some Harry Potter.

Paint Chat HP Insanity — By Joie and Lauren

Considering that we only had access to mice and NOT tablets, as well as a very primitive paint chat (AND I had to use my right hand instead of my left), the fact that we were able to produce anything even semi-recognizeable is a miracle.

And of course, some of the ridiculousness was done on purpose. I mean, c’mon. If you’re gonna be silly, you might as well go all the way.

Our activities insipired us to want to find a decent Oekaki board to join… anyone know of any? Or, alternatively, maybe I could add an Oekaki to my website? Thoughts? Pros? Cons? Interest level?

I know it’s been awhile since I’ve updated, but I’ve been super busy with my day job as of late. I am back from California though, and I really enjoyed Comic Con! It was a shame that I had to leave Saturday night in order to catch my flight home, but there’s always next year.

These crests are personal crests that I designed during my trip. I had just finished reading George R. R. Martin’s A Game of Thrones, and was inspired by the idea of every family having their own sigil/themed animal and thought I’d try it out for myself. The first crest is my own, and the others belong to two of my best friends from California.

They’re just done in pencil, but they were fun and fast to hammer out. I do intend to do larger, painted versions of them as well. I’ve got a few more that I’m doing for other friends as well, and have had lots of fun ideas! I wonder if anyone would be interested in commissioning me to do one for them? Hopefully I’ll have a painted version up soon so you all can see what they’d look like.

Vinny news later this week!

Here’s just a few small things I’ve been working on as of late. I’m also working on Vinny #2, but I thought it’d be fun to share some other side projects I’ve had going on, small as they may be. Breaks up the monotony, ya know?

This a snapshot of the next two Snippets that I’ve been working on. I swear they won’t all be dogs. Really. I promise! They are watercolors with a tad of inks, of course. The bottom one is a Golden Retriever, and the top will be a basset hound.

This is a silly cartoon corgi that I felt like doing the other day. It’s not officially finished, as I’ve still got some painting to do on her ears and tongue. I thought it was cute… but of course it was cute. It’s inspired by something in my life that’s equally as cute:

<3 my pup.

More soon!

Tonight I bring you some of my activities of late. Last Saturday a colleague of mine and I had a long studio day complete with a sketch brainstorm. During these sessions, we randomly choose subjects and then do timed sketches of them. This activity been very successful in the past– Redneck Pigs was actually born from one of these sessions. If I can find the original sketch, I’ll post it here at a later date. Needless to say I was very eager to get started because I was hoping for some great inspiration for personal art.

Mermaid Song Sketch – Graphite on bond

Our first subject was “mermaid” and I was surprised with how much I liked the sketch. I feel like the lines are very graceful and lyrical which lends itself perfectly to the subject matter. I do believe I have a basis for a new painting! Expect to see this drawing again in the near future.

Nerd with Corgi – Graphite on bond

Another subject later on in the evening was a “nerdy kid.” I took the liberty of making an extremely bookish nerd girl complete with sidekick corgi. I enjoyed this a lot too, and it may hopefully turn into something as well.

And of course, this past Tuesday I finally got back to the Gaijin Studios figure drawing class for the first time in about a month. I had newsprint this time instead of drawing paper, and was wildly unhappy with the outcome of my drawings. The newsprint I purchased was really waxy and just wasn’t taking the graphite well. Unfortunately I ended up hating almost all of my drawings with a passion. I’ve only got one worth showing this go-round.

Figure Drawing – Graphite on newsprint

Come back tomorrow for more on what I’ve been up to outside of Vinny. I’ll have lots to show!