Tis the Season for updates...

So, November just came and went by in a flash. I've been really busy getting things ready for Florence next year (leaving January 6) I should be able to get into a more regular routine of updating once I move out to Florence and get settled, plus I'll actually have time to work on projects and I'll have a lot of school projects to post up here. I'm really excited, I can't wait to get out there and get my class schedule! For anyone who's interested, this is a list of what we're taking for the one year course I'm signed up for: http://www.florencedesignacademy.com/programgraphicone.html And I had a visit from Artists Block, one of the most annoying people on the planet. I wasn't completely idle, however, and did manage to work a little on a few things...



This is coming along, slowly. I faded the linework a little bit, gives it a softer feel. The face is giving me some problems (no surprise) I think I might change the greyscale to a sepia tone and see how that works, I'm curious as to how that's going to look...



This is struggling along... I think I'm just going to take a deep breath and redo the teacup. It's not really working for me, waaay to flat.



There is so much I want to love about this, but I've been working on this for months now and I'm wondering if I should restart. Sometimes you can only play with a concept so long before you have to realize that it's not working and make a fresh start with it...



Thinking of redoing my banner for the blog... This is what I've come up with so far... I think I'll keep working on it and see what happens.



I found this in a folder on my desktop... the last time it was opened was 2008. I want to remember what exactly this was for. It's kind of neat. And also funny that I don't remember a whole lot about it, but I kept the file.

I did a design for graduation announcements for a friend of mine, and it came out really nice, she was really happy with it. I obviously changed the name, date, time, and everything to put the example up here...





These are just a few other ideas I quickly put together for grad announcements, playing with colors and designs and such... very much traditional and simple.



Some Halloween doodles :) Doodling/scribbling is very handy when you need to let out some steam.



This needs something... I'm not quite sure what... this is me playing with the airbrush tool again in Corel. I think maybe it needs some... yellow? Hmm... have to keep playing with it.



This is coming along nicely, the face still needs a lot of work... and I think the wings do, too.

So, my computer decided to die and spent about a week getting fixed. Bummer. But now that it's back up and running again, I can start making up for lost time!!



This one was just a quick sketch I did in my sketchbook that I brought into the computer, I'm definitely going to keep working on it and developing it.


Yeah, I came back to this and changed a lot, the face was really bugging me. I also added a little bit of texture and darkened the color a bit, and I'm liking where it's going. I'm just not ready to call this one 'done' yet. I think the background needs something else, or I dunno maybe I'll get rid of it. I just felt like I needed to place something in the background...


Got to work a little more on this one, the teacup and the plate really need some work, but it's coming along.

October already?

So I've mentioned before that color is not really a strongpoint for me... I think these need some serious work...







Also working on another Ragdoll drawing. I need to get more of these Ragdolls out, I love working on them!

That's really it for now. Hopefully I'll be a lot more productive here in October than I was in September!

Black and white works in progress

This is something I'm hoping to eventually turn into a t-shirt design. I def think it needs some color... not quite sure, I've got a few color comps that need some work so we'll see how this one progresses. This was originally sketched out in my sketchbook, and then I added the ink blob in the background on the computer.



I'm not quite sure what to do with this yet, but it could look nice on something like a t-shirt as well :) I'll keep working on it.



I plead guilty to buying wedding and bride magazines and looking at the dresses and the models. Great for inspiration and great for using as models for drawing.

Sorry, it's been a while.



I've been messing with different tools in Corel, and my new favorite is the airbrush tool :) I need to do more with this tool...


Finally finished the color for this one. I rather like how it came out.



This one I'm not so sure if I like how it came out... I think it def needs something in the background and I dunno... that face is bugging me. But it is coming along. :)

That's it for now, I'm going to try to upload more soon!

Slowly working...

So I haven't actually finished anything here recently, I've started and continued several different things, however nothing's been completed...



Something I was doing as a demonstration of how a tablet worked for my grandma :)



I took this into Corel, traced it, and started coloring it... I don't think I like the bedspread yet, I might actually try and do some sort of patter on it and see what happens...



...yeah I have no idea what inspired this or really where it came from... I'm pretty sure this is one of those drawings I was working on at 4 am trying to produce SOMETHING, and that something was a faceless chick with a mechanical leg :D I would like to get it finished, I don't know exactly what I'm going to do with it afterwards...

I was going through my sketchbook today and found some really interesting sketches I'd forgotten about.



There are so many things wrong with the mouth and chin here, but I still absolutely love the way it turned out. It's so fun and happy!



It's hard to draw emotions sometimes, especially in the face. Sometimes you have to rely on the rest of the body instead to convey the emotion, which is what I was trying to do here... I also want to take this into Corel and color it and see what it'll look like...



I can't believe I'd forgotten about this one! I was working on a series of drawings pairing up the 4 seasons (Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter) with the 4 elements (Air, Fire, Earth, Water). This one is supposed to be Fire and Summer, I never quit finished it, I'm going to work on it a little and see what happens. I think it also is in desperate need of color...



This is something I did late last year. It's an Angel sitting on the roof of a clinic that performs abortions, holding an infant. The caption says "The unloved are never forgotten."

June has been a busy month, thankfully I have been able to get some creative work done :)



This is within the same series as my earlier Ragdoll drawing. I like how it came out, more of a romantic/Valentines type...



Along the same line as the pink and blue Butterfly.

In other news my Portfolio, which I entered into the San Diego County Fair a few months back, took home 4 ribbons! 1st Place, Best of Class, Best in Show, and received a Donor Award from the California Graphic Arts Education Association. I gotta say it was quite the event and an amazing accomplishment. The Award Ceremony was this past Saturday and I got to tour the Student Showcase exhibit, which was fascinating. So many talented artists and designers! All that's on the Fair website is a list of names, mine is on the third page nearly halfway down...
http://www.sdfair.com/fair/pdf/10entry_results_student_other_class.pdf

Here are a few shots of my Portfolio. I kind of wish there was a way for it to be open on a table for people to see, but I guess unfortunately that's not exactly possible or safe. And again, the link for my portfolio website: http://gc.palomar.edu/33175/33175cnorris1394/

Old vs. New

I found an old Illustrator drawing I had done I think last summer or the summer before for a project, and I decided to fix it up on my computer, cause I really like this drawing. I mean it's not particularly outstanding, but still I'm pretty fond of it. Since I don't have Illustrator on my computer yet, I retraced it in Corel. I also brightened up the color a bit and added some shading. And I'm trying to remember if the pink squiggly's were intentional or just me doodling :)



This is the older one. Pretty cute, I'd say :)



And here's the newer, revamped one :) Enjoy

Wow, busy month. Just finished with all my projects and finals for this semester, so now I have time for updating! I changed the banner to a more colorful, summery picture. I took a bunch of my sketches, scanned them into the computer, and inverted them in Photoshop, made some quick stars and color changes and voila! I rather like it, it's fun and different.

I'm going to do a bit of an art dump here, these are drawings I did for a bunch of stickers for one of my classes, I got a lot of input from friends. All of these were done in Corel Painter. I'm rather getting the hang of Corel and I really like using it. Works well with my cartoony style for these kinds of drawings.

I'm also going to put a link up to my Portfolio web-slideshow, it's just a simple slideshow with a link to email me: http://gc.palomar.edu/33175/33175cnorris1394/ -(I can't get the actual link to work here, you might have to copy/paste into your browser, sorry)- This Portfolio was actually a final project for my Portfolio Development and Presentation class this semester, and I'm really happy with it. I've also submitted a hard case Portfolio to the Del Mar- I mean- San Diego Fair this year. (sorry, it will always be the Del Mar Fair to me...) I hope it does well :) Now, on to art



Who doesn't want to be a Pretty Pink Princess?



Deadly ninja assassin... it's kind of a recurring theme with me and my friends, I know.


In a conversation with one of my friends, she was commenting on how there seems to be such a feud between Pirates and Ninjas, and she couldn't understand why. You can have the cunning and stealth of a Ninja, sneak up on your opponent, and "Hi-yargh!" take him out :) She asked me to draw this for her immediately afterwards :)



My friend wanted a monkey ninja, I misread it as Monkey Island ninja... this was the result :P (I do not own Guybrush Threepwood or anything from the Monkey Island games)



Anyone who's ever played Ocarina of Time truly wants to do this to Navi (I do not own Link or anything from The Legend of Zelda, Ocarina of Time)



Mr. Ant and Mr. Spoon frequent my sketchbooks, especially Mr. Ant.



We've all fallen asleep at our desks and taken trips to Dreamland, don't lie.

Well, I think that should do for now! I'm looking to get a few of my final projects up here soon, so keep an eye out. :)

Anyone who's ever seen any of my school notebooks or gotten a letter from me knows that I doodle on every piece of paper I come in contact with. It keeps my hand and mind busy, and usually I wind up with some neat ideas for projects or drawings from these doodles. (having an abundance of sketchbooks doesn't deter me from doodling everywhere else, by the way. You'd think it would :) ) It's nice I think to be able to look at some of the early sketches and doodles, you can tell a lot about someone's work that way. So here are a few doodles that I have, that may or may not turn into something else.




These I did at work once while on break on the backs of little notecards I found in the office. I really like the center one and did it up a little bigger in one of my sketchbooks:



Obviously it's still in the sketch and plan stage (if you look hard enough you can see some faint notes I put in there :) ) This would look nice on maybe a t-shirt as a nice graphic tee or maybe even on a tote bag. I'll continue to play with it.



This is something I did in my notebook during a history lecture. It took me a while to finish as I was copying down notes at the same time (no really, I was!!) but I liked it so much I traced it and brought it into my computer. I think I'll take it into either Illustrator or maybe even Corel and clean it up a little. Something else that would look nice maybe on a tee or tote or something like that... maybe even another notecard...



And this one is a more finished piece from a doodle I did in Corel, I was playing around with the Artist Oils brushes and I like the texture and the way it lays paint down on the canvas... I'll play some more with this one too and we'll see what happens.

Hope you enjoy and hey if you have any suggestions or comments I'd love to hear them!!

Something old and something new...

I've decided on giving up on finding a scanner for now, I'll just use a digital camera instead. With the right camera, no one can tell it wasn't scanned. (well almost :) )

This first one is my very first painting, done 3, maybe 4 years ago. Acrylics and I never really got along, but for this one little project I think we did marvelously well. At least I'm proud of how it turned out, I'm not much of a painter so my opinion may be a bit skewed.

This next one I just finished only about a week ago, inspired by a good friend of mine via text message. (thanks :) ) Just goes to show you never know when, where, or how inspiration will strike, so pay attention. (doesn't hurt to ask your friends sometimes, too) Done in pencil on a cotton sheet. The shading could have been a lot better, I know, and the faces are... yeah... but for what it is I really like it.