A Visit to the Venice Canals

Yesterday, I visited the Venice Canals for the first time! It was beautiful, idyllic place, with the coolest houses lining the river!! I swear each house was so unique and different in it's own way- some were very contemporary looking while others looked like they came from the Victorian Age. I took the opportunity to do a couple quick water color sketches of place. I haven't done water color in a long time, so it was kind of a struggle.  Had a lot of fun, and hope to come to this this place again!

Tried to catch the sunset!

Artist Spotlight: Richard Schmid

I am currently painting my grandparents for their 60th diamond anniversary gift, which I will not show because I'm super frustrated right now.  It currently just looks too neat, and I can't seem to capture my grandma's likeliness.  Then with the help from good friend Leighton Hickman who suggested I look up Richard Schmid, I completely fell in love!! This is exactly how I want the portrait to turn out, with really broad, bold brushstrokes that bring out the face so beautifully against a muted background.  

Im just attaching a few of his portraits I really like :)

Finally got an Instagram!

I guess it's kind of overdue, but I'm not really technology savvy when it comes to this stuff as I don't really even use FB that much o.o  But follow me and I'll follow you! My name is tiffiemangoes :)

View from the Balcony

The color looks a little different here for some reason, a little more icky than on photoshop, but oh well.   Here is a quickie sketch I did in remembrance of my Thanksgiving cruise! I wanted to capture the beautiful view I saw from my cousin's balcony of her room. It was so cool to see those distant city lights, and there were these really cool wispy clouds.

I was really going for simplicity, and trying to use minimal colors.. don't know if it really worked out? I think it looks better small :p thumbnail!

Cruise Sketches!!

Hellos!!

it's been a while since I posted since I've been pretty swamped lately, but it was Thanksgiving break..which means vacation!! I got to go on an awesome four day cruise with my family in celebration of my grandparent's 60th diamond anniversary, and we visited San Diego and Ensenada, Mexico! Aside from some super cool and chill sightseeing, I would say the other two activities I triumphed best was eating a crapppp ton, and sitting on couches listening to performers all around the ship.  I got to sketch some singers, which was super fun, among them a trio of merry mariachi players who performed daily, and a super talented British guitarist/singer! I had a great time just hanging out with the fam, resting, and gaining back all the weight I might have lost during the school year.

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The Mariachi Trio!

The Awesome British Guitarist!

A really nice waiter who was kind of flirting with a guy (or it was the other way around actually) but I didn't get to draw the guy because his wife came back and he had to go. HAHA

So kind of funny story- one of my uncles on the cruise has this literal PERPETUAL pout/ frown on his face that never came off during the cruise.  I'm sure he doesn't intend for it, he's actually a really reserved gentle guy, but that's just how he is.  I decided to draw him one night during dinner, and it was frustrating me so much that I couldn't get his interesting pout right at all.  I just made like 3 different versions of guys. One of them looks like Obama.

And then I think on the top left, I finally got the essence of it! But now he kind of looks like the main character from House. HAHA.  So still kind of a fail. That's my other uncle on the bottom right with kind of crazy hair. 

One of the mariachi players and a oldish woman dancing salsa who was really into it!

The British guitarist at night, wearing a suit and looking good, who, by the way, is Toby- Joe Reilly- worth looking up. Woman on the bottom right really into him.

CTN!!

I know I'm a little late in posting this, but that's because I haven't had a computer for the last week, so accessing one has been a little more annoying :/

Anyhoo, Last week, or last last week, I had the opportunity to attend CTN for the first time! It was overwhelming, full of energy, and just simple fantastically amazing.  Being able to see artists that I have been admiring for along time and finally be able to see them face to face was intimidating but kind of mind blowing.  I met a lot of super cool artists, among them Pascal Campion and Lindsay Olivares, two artists who I have been dying to meet!1 It was also great just to see and support all my friends from DreamWorks and hang out with them as well!

CTN housed a really inspiring environment that gave me the kick starter mentality and motivation I need for next semester to work on my shizz.  Definitely want to go again next year, but hopefully not spend as much money as I did buying artwork and books... which I'm not going to say how much :p 




My roommate and I got a caricature with Lindsey Olivares!!

Ivan Aguirre! An amazing artist from whom my roommate bought a print from him for my birthday :)



I finally got to meet Pascal Campion, who's art I basically worship.

My newly decorated wall in my room with all the prints I got hehe :)

More film studies!

So I absolutely LOVE the show Breaking bad.  Words cannot describe how much adrenaline rushes through me when I watch each episode.  On top of that the cinematography is soooo beautiful.  Each shot always foreshadows something and are all brilliantly constructed. I finally got around to doing some film studies from season 5 episode...6 I think? Super fun!! Lots of awesome dark contrasty shots. I really tried to focus on being graphic and simplifying the darks and lights to two values, its challenging but really fun!

Also went to Descanso Gardens two weeks ago, and did some studies as well, so I'll post them here as well.  They are eh.

Caricatures!

Soo, it probably doesn't show on my blog, but I lOVE drawing people, particularly their faces.  I really admire people who can do great caricatures and really capture the essence of a person through their most interesting facial features.  And be able to exaggerate without shame without making them look like a completely different person.  This summer, I decided to draw a few of my friends for fun.  Super fun to draw, so I decided to post here!

He hated me for making his nose so big...

He has a really intense russian face I tried to capture! 

This guy is the cockiest in the world, so I tried to make him the nerdiest looking person ever :p  He's actually incredibly nice if you meet him :)

So this guy... an international student from Portugal thought it was ok to call girls sweetie when he first came here.. which I thought was hilarious, so I wanted to make fun of that :p

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My friend from my summer internship! He wanted me to draw him in a super boy suit, so I did just that :)

Sketch of.. yesterday :p

Inspired by Descanso Gardens, not so much the couple, more the lighting :)

Sketch of the Day

First snowball fight!! Inspired by my Christmas trip to Zion last Christmas, where I was in falling snow for the first time!! Sooo cool.

New online Etsy Store!

Hello!

So in an effort to fundraise for a really important service trip I'll be going to next spring, I've opened up an Etsy store to sell some of my digital sketches! I'm going to Guatemala during spring break for a week to work with a local school, renovate the facility, and teach students English, arts, and crafts.  It's quite pricey, but it's totally worth it, which is why I'm trying to start ASAP to raise enough money.

If you would like, please support me in exchange for one of my sketches! I know they are nothing amazing, but each sketch is inspired by something really memorable in my life, so it's drawn from the heart!

For more info, please visit www.etsy.com/shop/TiffanieMangArt! Thanks :)

By The Road

Inspired by my road trip to Sequoia.  Stopped to watch the sunrise over some farmland on the freeway :p

Indiana Jones and King Kong Film Studies

More film studies! After meeting with friend/ storyboard artist Ian, he was so helpful in breaking down my not so clear film stills into even more simple shapes to really distinguish foreground, middle ground and background.  I still struggle with value, but I feel like breaking it into simpler elements will the key to seeing the planes better!

this is a revised page where I tried to simplify the shadows and lighting even more.   I think it did help the read a bit and made it less mushy/ messy!

some random Indiana Jones stuff! 

Jurassic Park Film Studies

I'm going to start doing film studies every week, just 10-15 panels ish.  I haven't done them in a while, and when no one makes me I get lazy.  Watched some clips from Jurassic Park, the parts with the intense T- Rex and velociraptor scenes and sketched panels about 3 min each! I learned that it is so important to always keep the rule of thirds rule in your head and analyze the position of objects according to that.  On the next ones I do, I'm really going to try to break up characters and background into even more simpler graphic shapes so I can understand shape language better and how it frames the main characters of the still.

Bottom Right: Friend and amazing storyboard artist/ caricaturist Ian Abando helped break down my panel into even more simpler shapes. It's amazing how with fewer lines, his reads better than mine. 

Right side: Ian again demonstrated how I could further make the composition simpler in terms of shapes and lighting! So cool.

Andd people sketches from last night.  Don't like them much at all, but I liked the brush I was using :p It really lets me get that painterly fast brush look I love.