Lovebird Paintings - 'For the Birds'

I have done a few paintings over this past year and I wanted to share two. The theme with these two was obviously lovebirds. I created my first painting over the summer last year and I decided to enter it in the educators art show at the Crossroads Art Center.

For the Birds #1, Acrylic on Canvas

It turned out that the painting was sold and the buyers liked it so much they commissioned another piece! They wanted it to be a sister painting to match the first, so I kept the color scheme similar and the same lovebird subjects, but I experimented a lot more with the pose and details in the lovebirds.

 

 

For the Birds # 2, Acrylic on Canvas

I really wanted to play with the pose to create some echoing hearts as hidden characteristics. The first heart I made in the negative space under the beaks. Other hearts can be found too; the beaks form a suggestion of a heart and the bodies of the birds create a heart, as well. It was a fun challenge, having to balance making the hearts readable and keeping the bodies of the lovebirds more realistic.

I took some process photos of the lovebirds to show the steps I took while painting and show a closer look at some details.

Detail #1: Pencil lines and Background

Detail #2: Foot and Branch

Detail #3: Foot and Branch

Detail #4: Eyes and Beaks

Detail #5: Face and Feathers

Detail #6: Feathers in Progress

Detail #7: Close-up of Wings and Tails

Detail #8: Finished Birds Close-Up

Christmas Card Illustrations

Finally time for an update! Sorry for the lack of posts, I have been busy with several new part-time jobs this fall - Teaching Elementary school art classes, paint and sip classes, Art on Wheels, substitute teaching etc. so this fall has been really busy!

Last Christmas, I did a post on Creative Christmas Wrappings I did for my nieces and nephew. This year we did things a little differently for our family members and gave out Christmas cards with gifts inside. To make things more interesting, I decided to make little illustrations on the envelopes for everyone.

Each drawing took about 15-20 minutes. For more complicated ones, I sketched them loosely with pencil and then inked over them. Some were done with pen only. All inking was done in blue pen, I am still partial to how shading looks with pen. I love the contrast!

It was interesting to see how they evolved from envelope to envelope. My 1st few drawings were simpler and my later ones tended to be more detailed. I didn't really notice until I finished them all and looked at them all together. I did make it a point to choose a different subject for each one so they were all unique. Working the drawing around the names on the envelopes was a fun challenge, as well.

Everyone seemed to really enjoy them! I only sealed a small part of the envelope, so they were easy to open, in case they wanted to keep the drawings.

Sliding Penguins

Soaring Reindeer

Peaking Bear

LOL Santa

Snowflake Catcher

Mouse Treat

Rockin' Snowman - Ice Ice Baby

 Happy Holidays and Happy New Year to everyone!

Custom Surf Board Sign for Barefoot Brady's Tiki Bar

Barefoot Brady's Sign (Click to enlarge)

Here is a piece that I finished over the summer. It is a custom sign intended my brother's tiki bar at our family's river place. The entire bar is dedicated in loving memory to Amanda Brady (Family and friends loving refer to her as Brady). Our family has named it Barefoot Brady's in her honor. The decor inside is either inspired by or dedicated to her memory and love of the beach. The sign itself was intended to incorporate subjects that she loved, as well as, symbols that friends and family associate with her and remember her by.

The board itself was crafted out of plywood, using a knee-board as a guide to get the size right. It was cut and primed by my brother for me. I began with a white board and projected my sketched design on to the board. This way I could trace the main elements on to the board for painting.

For imagery, I painted a bright blue beach scene accented with palm trees and flowers. We planned to keep the colors bright and happy. The white stripes across the center of the board were inspired by surf board designs. The emblem in the center was  intended to house the lettering of the sign. Inside the circle, I used a sand texture for the background and painted the lettering of the sign over it. The white outer circle has one of Brady's favorite sayings, "Live, Laugh, Love." I also repeated a footprint motif to tie in the 'Barefoot' part of the title and help balance out some of the colors used in the beach scene. 

One of the things I really enjoyed about this piece was that I included several hidden symbols representative of Brady in the scene. I chose symbols that family and friends would know the story behind and pick up on. The first was the number 47. This number was Brady's jersey number in softball. Family and friends have often seen this number in various situations and we all associate it with Brady. I worked this symbol into one of the decorative curls under the lettering on the center of the sign. See the detailed shot below.

Detail - Hidden Symbol: #47

 

The next symbol is a lady bug. Brady's family members have often seen a lady bug after a loved one's passing and we all have come to see it as a sign that their spirit is with us and letting us know they are there. There have been several instances where family and friends have seen this symbol over the years, as well. I hid this little lady bug under a pink flower pedal on the right side of the sign. I am very pleased with how it turned out and how it tucked nicely under the pedal.

Detail - Hidden Symbol: Lady Bug

 The last symbol I put in was a four-leaf clover. Brady was well known to find four leaf clovers all the time, even though they are so rare. I slipped in this little clover under the palm tree on the right side of the painting.

Detail - Hidden Symbol: 4 Leaf Clover

This project has been very personal to me, our family, and friends. There is a lot of love painted into this sign! The completed sign has been a big hit and now hangs proudly over the entry of the tiki bar. The family has also decided to make T-Shirts featuring the design and they are selling them to benefit the foundation that was created in memory of Brady, The Amanda Brady Foundation for Youth. Visit http://amandabradyfoundation.org/ to learn more about the Foundation.

This is our tribute to Brady and a fun way to keep her memory and spirit alive with us. We love you Brady!!

Botanical Printmaking Update on Art Ed Blog

Hey there!

I just updated my Art Ed. Blog with a lesson on Botanical Printmaking. This lesson is aimed at middle school students and it covers the process of making a design and print from start to finish. It was a really fun and challenging lesson.

Visit  http://www.kellynixonarted.blogspot.com to check it out!

More updates on the way!

Pen Sketches

Here are a few of the sketches I have done in my spare time while teaching. Every now and then I get a free period or I have time to kill waiting for a class to come in, so I spend the time drawing. It is very relaxing. It is also fun to share sketches with students sometimes, they are a good conversation starter! Once I was setting up and practicing with a document projector while students where working. It caught the attention of a few kids and they started asking for requests and I drew a few of their portraits. They really loved it and liked getting to see the drawing process on the screen. I wound up giving them the portrait drawings, too.

Anyway back to the sketches, using pen is challenging and fun. Working with a pen forces you to make decisions and work with unintended marks and lines, instead of erasing them. You have to commit to working through any problems or just let it go. I really enjoyed using pen for shading because of the contrast it provides.

Enjoy!

Bison

Draped Man

Puppy

Sink Knob

Ceramic Vase

Blue Bird

Yin-Yang Creature

Art Portfolio Website Updated

I have gone through and updated my art portfolio site at http://www.kellynixonart.com . I added a slightly bigger and smoother slideshow to display the images. New artwork has been added to each section. Information in Resume and Contacts has been updated. Last but not least, I added links to my new Art Ed blog.

Light an Color Study: Added to Website

It took about a week (on and off) to get the slideshows and coding updated. The only major problem I came across happened right after I had uploaded the new version of the website to the server, to make it live. I had tried all my files locally on my computer and everything looked perfect. I added the files to my server on GoDaddy.com and then when I viewed my page, the main image for the slideshow wouldn't appear. I spent a day and a half trying to go through the html and javascript coding to see what was wrong. Finally, I checked to see if there were any suggestions online. One of the entries I found, talked about everything being case sensitive. I double checked my file names and sure enough, the website server had converted all the titles to lowercase and that was why the slideshow wouldn't work. Once I made the image titles lowercase to match the html file, the slideshow began functioning properly again.That is the funny thing about coding, one little mistake somewhere can throw everything off.

Now everything is ready to roll! Enjoy!

Bison Sketch: Added to Website

Anime and Manga Drawing Classes at Chesterfield Libraries

Since January 2013, I have been teaching some Anime and Manga drawing workshops with Chesterfield County Public Libraries. The classes were offered occasionally throughout the year on Saturdays as part of the Libraries' Teen Studio Program. The library and I provided all materials to students for the program.

These classes have also led to other opportunities like teaching at the Chesterfield Library Comic Con Events and being a guest artist/teacher at Meadowbrook High School's Anime Club.

 So far, I have taught 4 installments of the Classes covering different aspects of the topic.

The first class was Introduction to Manga and Anime. This class mainly covered how to draw faces, and figures in the Anime style. I also covered drawing facial expressions, mouths, hands, feet, clothes, and hair. Students used the information and techniques I taught them to draw their own Anime/Manga character. I taught students how to transfer drawings using carbon paper and how to finalize characters through inking. I provided various inking materials and techniques for them to experiment with including India ink, brushes, brush pens, multi-liner/micron pens, etc. I also taught a short version of this lesson at the 2013 Chesterfield Comic Con Event, which covered how to draw the face in the Anime style.

 

Ad for Intro to Manga and Anime Classes in the library's magazine

The second set of classes explored Character Design. I taught students how to use a matrix/chart to get unlimited ideas for characters, personalities, costumes, and environments. The matrix technique was from a book called The Manga Matrix by Hiroyoshi Tsukamoto. (This book is an absolutely awesome reference to have! I brought a copy to class so everyone could take a look at it.) In addition to the matrix, I reviewed how to draw the face and figure, taught how to draw unique characters from a basic shapes, body proportions for realistic vs unrealistic style characters, character variation, using a silhouette to check the strength of a character design, and inking.

Postcard Ad for Character Design Classes

 The third installment of the classes dealt with How to Make a Manga. First, I quickly reviewed how to draw a face, the figure, and character design. The main topics covered on making a manga included layout, panels, speech/word bubbles, font, sound and line effects, black and white vs. color in manga, planning and process of making a manga, publishing/sharing a manga, and inking. I had two exercises built into the lesson for students to try their hand at story telling, paneling, and speech bubbles.

Ad for How to Make a Manga Classes

My most recent class discusses How to Draw Chibi Anime and Manga Characters. In this lesson, I discuss what a chibi is, the characteristics of chibi's, body proportions, chibi characters vs regular anime characters, and how to draw a chibi. For drawing chibi's, I covered the face, eyes, bodies, mouths, facial expressions, hands, feet, clothes and hair. I taught this lesson at Meadowbrook High School recently and I will also be teaching it at this year's Chesterfield Comic Con Event on March 22nd from about 10:30-11:30.

Ad for 2014 Chesterfield Comic Con Event

These classes are so much fun! The students really seem to love them. We often talk about the anime they lik and even play some clips and songs from their favorite shows at the end of class. I love getting to see their drawings, they are really talented artists!