Vasquez Rocks and Wine Tasting!

Yesterday I went painting at Vasquez Rocks with several members from my Landscape Painting club along with DreamWorks Production Designer Mike Hernandez! Mike gave an AMAZING demo, and after painting for a couple hours, we got to go wine tasting in the nearby Agua Dulce winery, which was incredibly fun!! :)  I will definitely go again- I wish I could spend all my Sundays like this!

Mike's awesome demo!! We learned so much about composition, and how to mix colors for foreground, middle ground, and background while keeping them all harmonious within the piece.

 

My painting- still new with gouache, so I'm like eh with how it came out.  I would change some graphic shapes in the piece and be bolder with my brushstrokes the next time around.

That right oddly shaped rock was bothering me so much, I had to change it in Photoshop to see how it would look otherwise.  I think it looks a little better?

Procrastinating...With Still Lifes

While waiting for my computer to update on a bunch of stupid stuff, I decided to take the time to paint instead of sitting around. So I did two quick studies of still life, one 30 and the other 20 min.  Gotta squeeze in those little times to whip out quick ones!! I love using one big flat brush for little studies because it forces me to block in colors and focus on the big picture.  

Ernest And Celestine- so Inspirational!

I was watching an interview with the director for Ernest and Celestine, and it was so amazing to see their throughout process for the development of the story along with the unique art style.  I LOVEEEEE the water color backgrounds that they hand painted- they are so simple, yet so full of emotion at the same time.  I think animated features like that are so rare nowadays, when it actually looks like it was crafted with love by hand, and everything looks imperfect.  Something he said in the interview really struck me, and I will have to paraphrase below!

He said that they decided to hand paint their backgrounds because they wanted accidents, and often times when you paint things on a computer, you get caught up in fixing it.

Isn't that simply amazing?? Accidents is what makes the film even more beautiful and organic.  And it is such great inspiration for my thesis as well because I am hand painting all my backgrounds in water color too for the same reasons!

Check out the link below for the interview!  http://thecreatorsproject.vice.com/blog/video-the-indelible-artistry-behind-the-making-of-ernest-and-celestine

Spring Break in Guatemala

Hi there! I know it's been a while since I posted, but that's because I spent spring break in Guatemala for a service project with other students from USC! I can't even begin to explain how amazing the trip was, and I am so grateful I received this opportunity to travel with such an amazing team to work at a local school called San Rafael School in Retalhuleu to teach kids English and rebuild parts of the school.  In just one week, I was able to meet and bond with so many cool people on my team and learn something from each of them through late night talks and reflections. I have always LOVED working with kids, and being with these kids at the school was nothing short of inspiring and incredibly fulfilling. We went there to inspire them, but I'm pretty sure they inspired us in more ways than they could imagine. The openness and friendless of all the kids was so encouraging, and it really made me realize that in such a short amount of time, you can truly make an impact on people not just through words, but through your actions, love and passion.

I tried to do some sketches everyday, and although it got busy during the week working at the school because we were teaching and doing manual labor at the same time, it got a little hard but I managed to fit some stuff in!

GUAT LOVE FOREVER!!! These kids will always be in my heart and I hope one day, I can go visit them again.

The boat ride heading over to Lake Atitlan was absolutely ethereal.  THe lake is BEAUTIFUL!!

Julio and I!!

Our first hotel in Antiga.  I thought was really pretty.

Wang, one of the members from my group had a lot of fun posing.

captain of the boat to Island of Santiago!!

Spring is in the Airrrrr

My friend just recommended these AWESOME brushes and I couldn't resist but try them out.  Decided to do a little simple doodle! Ended up playing around with some variations.

Mama Mia!

My friend who is also working on her thesis asked me to do some color keys for one of her sets, so I designed some looks for her character and the kitchen.  Had fun doing it!

We decided green pants were to clowney so we toned it down!

First Try at Gouache!

I went to El Matador Beach today for my landscape Painting Club where I had my good friend James Finch do a demo for the students!! His painting turned out freaking amazinggg. I then tried my hand at gouache, which was a little frustrating, but fun at the same time!! Plan to do more of these to get more practice.  I forgot that the paints dry darker, so it didn't turn out how it looked before, but all good! Still learning :)

Jame's beautiful finished painting!! I LOVE all the colors in the rocks.

 40 min study on a roughly 5x9 moleskin. Colors kind of suck but hopefully I'll nail it more next time!

20 minute sketch of another view...

I like how the instagrammed one looks better HAHA.