A couple of quick sketches I did in my moleskine this weekend while visiting Mendocino. I used three watercolors: Vandyke Brown, Anthraquinone Blue, and Titanium White gouache.

My approach for these sketches was based on the previous post; I drew out the line work in light pencil, found the shadow areas (terminator lines), and painted only shadows.

My only regret in this exercise is that the moleskine sketchbook version I bought was not made for watercolor. The paper rippled a lot with the amount of water on the page, causing me to be annoyed and distracted from the details. Oh well...next time! All in all, Mendocino is an incredible place to spend time, especially when you are there with someone you love.


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The Value Sphere, an exercise worth trying

I was reminded of how important rendering the sphere is when I took Sadie J. Valeri's two week painting workshop last January. Sadie had all of us render a sphere using graphite pencils on the first day of the workshop, and also as homework. Some of us rendered several by the end of the week. After the workshop ended I began some research on lighting conditions and thought I would share the details.


In lighting, there is a simple division between light and dark that is important to understand.
The term for this lighting effect is THE TERMINATOR. Regardless of whether you are interested in observational art or imaginary work, this simple lighting principle can be applied to great effect.
ValueSphere-lightdark

ValueSphere-Terminator

Once the terminator is indicated, there are several more effects to observe and understand, which I have indicated in the chart below. Many effects within the shadow can be observed, but does not necessarily mean they need to be rendered. Simplifying shadows into two values has a pleasant effect when rendering form because the eye does not dwell in the dark areas. Logic tells us that if the eye does not dwell there, then calling attention by over rendering shadows will break the believability of the form. That is not to say that the shadow areas are not important; they what hold a picture together (more on this concept in later posts):

ValueSphere-terms

I did this exercise with pencil two times, and then digitally in Photoshop. I found both very difficult and challenging in unique ways. I think my digital samples above, for instance, still need some work - and I will continue to try perfecting. I highly recommend doing both analog and digital; the traditional method helps build motor skills and sharpens the eye and digital is a good way to refine your wacom or cintiq skills. (I recommend using the soft airbrush at 30-50% opacity to build up tones)

1. BEFORE YOU BEGIN - traditional method: sharpen two graphite pencils, a 2H and H. Sharpen your pencils with an xacto blade taking off the woody part of the pencil and then use sandpaper to make a very very fine point. Use a pad of strathmore 400 lb paper with the cream surface, widely available in art supply stores (also great for drawing in general and also inexpensive). If doing this digitally, use the soft airbrush and follow these steps exactly using the smallest diameter of brush.

outline only-sphere

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Finished sphere can have a foil behind it and an edge indicating a horizon line for a sense of place. Do this exercise more than once or twice! I have seen a noticeable improvement in my drawing/painting skills since having incorporated this exercise into my routine. There are other concepts about light and shadow that I have learned about that I would like to share and will do that in coming posts. In the mean time, have fun trying this! Not as easy as it looks ;) 

Good luck!

Update: "ONE" Art Auction Benefit for Japan

The auction was an enormous success! In Sho Murase's words, who helped organize the event:
"One,ひとつ was a HUGE success. All of 50 pieces of art work were sold and hundreds of people came to the show. This was where artists came to unite to help Japan. Our final number was $30,605, well over our goal. Considering we only had a few weeks to prepare, it is an amazing success!! Many thanks to all the volunteers and special thanks to Vaughn Ross and Sho Murase to lead this event and Seiji Horibuchi of New People to give us space at high end Superfrog Gallery. Many more events are coming. Stay tuned! "

Thank you to the person (I don't know who it was) that purchased my piece, "Peace Pagoda", and all who bid on the drawing! It was made with the greatest love and the proceeds will help so many in need.

Fairy Castle Freelance Project

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Lundman-FC-Final_bw
Lundman-FC-Final_color

and here is a version with no characters, background only. I could mess with this forever, tightening up areas, simplifying shadows, etc. I wish I could draw and paint backgrounds again for a living. I love it so...

Lundman_CastleOnly-nomaypole
I recently worked on a freelance project for Michael Borge, who has created a show called, "The Royal Ladybugs". I was part of a small team consisting of a few artists, all female, who contributed really wonderful art for the show. Here is my contribution, the establishing shot of the Morning Castle.
You can see from the progression that I made quite a few changes along the way. The castle is part of an animated sequence as a reel to sell the show, so I needed to make the layout large enough and long enough so the camera can push in while some overlay pieces pull to the sides, an effect we used all the time when I worked at Calabash. I'm still a HUGE fan of multiplane. Anyway, when I am finished with the overlays I'll post those too. I think it will be really neat! This entire project was seriously FUN!

Maverix Art Auction Benefit for Japan Relief

O N E - ひとつ SuperFrog Gallery

1746 Post St , New People building , top floor
San Francisco, CA
Saturday April 2nd

Join us for the upcoming silent auction party , for the rare chance to
bring home original art from celebrated artists in the animation & film industry
(Pixar, Lucas, Dreamworks, Nickelodeon to name a few ),
including:

Dice Tsusumi, Robert Valley,
Ronnie Del Carmen, Enrico Casarosa,
Scott Morse, Bill Presing,
Lou Romano,Cam De Leon, Tooru Terada,
Daniel Simon, John Waishank,
Patrick Awa,Joey Chou, Ed Bell,
Todd Ueminami, Marcos Mateu,
Mari Inukai ,Yoriko Ito, Jackie Huang,
Soosa Kim, Jamie Baker, Alina Chou, Oren Haskins,
Sei Nakashima, Julia Lundman, Le Tang,
Ted Mathot ,Tom Rubalcava, Derek Thompson,
Sho Murase, Sergio Paez, Vaughn Ross...

100% of all proceeds to Artists Help Japan Fund with Mercy Corps.

I will be donating this piece, "Peace Pagoda, Japantown, San Francisco". It is a piece I did for the 30th World Wide Sketch Crawl last January. Maverix site here:

Lundman-PeacePagoda-1

Sadie J. Valeri's Two Week Classical Realism Workshop

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my still life painting (unfinished), Sadie J. Valeri's workshop results

At the end of January I took a fantastic ten day long workshop with Classical Realist painter Sadie J. Valerie. I regularly attend Sadie's atelier on Tuesday evenings for open studio life drawing sessions. It was by happy accident that I learned last year of Sadie's Tuesday night long pose sessions right down the street from where I work, a new classical realist atelier - absolute true fate! I began attending the Tuesday night long pose sessions, continuing my attempts at life drawing.

It was on one of these Tuesday nights, Sadie mentioned she would be holding a ten day painting workshop, in the manner of Classical Realism, which she practices to great success. Now, I have been studying observational painting for many years now, first at the American Academy of Art in Chicago, and then at the Palette and Chisel in Chicago during the late 80's and 90's, a time when Richard Schmid was president there, a great painter to whom I am undeniably influenced. His teaching has shaped everything I know about color and light, and even the way I apply paint on a canvas, watercolor board or digitally for work. The reason I bring up my influence of Richard Schmid is because there is no doubt that his teaching shaped the way I have been painting for many years. Art schools at the time I went had pretty much thrown out the book on hundreds of years of research into how to actually paint and draw reality. For me, Schmid was and has been a life line in this regard (as well as a few amazing teachers at the American Academy of Art). For a while I sold paintings at the P&C, was in group shows, and was represented by a gallery, Jody Kirberger of the Talisman Gallery. Although I am ever grateful for my introduction to the lessons of realist painting and earned my living as an illustrator because of it, for many years I felt a strange lack of progress and improvement with my work that accumulated in my consciousness, eventually causing me to stop painting for about ten years only to focus on my professional life as an Illustrator.

It was with this background I began life drawing on Tuesday evenings. I began to feel curious about Classical Realism after having the privilege of seeing Sadie's paintings in her studio once a week. Her paintings have mesmerized me; they look more real than real, and yet also painted. I wanted to learn exactly how she is able to achieve such crispness in her work and get a general overview of what she thinks about when painting, so I signed up for her workshop.

The content of the workshop course was a true surprise to me. The first week began not with painting a still life, which I had anticipated, rather, with the fundamentals of drawing, beginning with the shading a sphere, from which all organic form is derived, then on to constructing a simple man made object, and finally, a crumbled paper bag. I must admit, at first constructing the paper bag was daunting and quite time consuming. After all, my painting goals do not necessarily include painting crumpled wax paper still lifes, as much as I appreciate Sadie’s. However, after working on the bag for an afternoon, I found the lesson enlightening on many levels, and, dare I say it...I fell in love with the complexity of form in this exquisite paper bag, thanks to Sadie’s insight into construction, a method different from the sight-size method I learned in art school.

As the class continued through the two weeks, surprises like this were often the case; my Alla Prima conventions were definitely challenged as I learned about the differing Classical Realist method regarding edges, value, chroma and hue. The second week was spent entirely on painting, two days for the black and white under painting and three days spent on color, a slow building crescendo toward the last day, when that "ah ha!" moment struck all of us workshop attendees.

All in all, Sadie's class was absolutely worth it, considering all that I have taken away. Although I am not necessarily a realist in the classic tradition, I feel that I now have a grander and more full understanding of how nature works, as well as a deeper understanding of a different Realist philosophy, a descendant of the pre-salon methods, as opposed to Alla Prima and direct painting, which descends from Impressionist ideals. I came away from the workshop with a semi finished still life, abundant notes to fuel my research for future pursuits in picture making and many, many thoughts and questions about the choices I will make in my own pursuit as a fine art painter.

In addition to all of that wonderful stuff, I’ve found that immersing myself in classical realist tradition has had an unexpected effect on me; my eye is sharper, my appreciation of artists' work more discerning (including not only realist paintings but also a finer discernment in interpretive and cartoon based illustration, which I also love), ideas about a direction for my own work have become more clear, and my love of Nature has become more profound. How fortunate to have this experience. No doubt, I am a better artist and art lover for having taken the class and the fire in my soul rekindled.
As a way of continuing my own research and studies, I thought I would document my notes from the class, expanding on each topic with ideas from other artists and schools of thought. Even if you think you do not want to paint in this very mannered, methodical approach, or do not wish to make highly realistic renderings of reality, or prefer to stylize imaginative illustrations, please stay tuned. I assure you, there will be something in these posts for you, as there undoubtedly has been for me.
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Peace Pagoda, 30th World Wide Sketch Crawl

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This weekend, about 100 local San Francisco artists met at a cafe near Japantown for the 30th session of the World Wide Sketch Crawl, led by and organized by Enrico Casarosa of Pixar. Although the idea is to sketch around the chosen neighborhood, I thought I would spend my day studying the beautiful monument at the Japantown mall plaza, the Peace Pagoda.

It was a challenge, to be sure. I have always admired the structure; now that I've attempted to construct it, my appreciation of the architecture has deepened. All of those ellipses stacking up toward the heavens...each entity existing in it's own harmonious and continuous form. I wonder if the artist meant to suggest that all of them together, stacking up in diminishing degrees, points toward a greater peace.

This plaza was filled with the hectic noise and bustle of the city. I edited out bus stops, street lamps, ugly steel fences and even edited out the large crowd. I felt this structure, the Peace Pagoda, deserved to be honored as it's own statement as a focal point. Although, I couldn't help myself - I took a few irresistible artistic liberties with the top, simplifying and exaggerating the shapes. They reminded me so much of the kind of thing the great Mary Blair would have designed. Fitting, I thought, as it really is a small world, after all.

A few backgrounds

I thought I would post a few images from work to show what I've been up to professionally. I work for the online gaming company Zynga, maker of Mafia Wars, Cityville, and Farmville. For a short time I worked on the game Petville. Here are a few images from that game that I am most proud of, especially since I worked so hard on them. All are published last summer in the game Petville. Painted in Photoshop.

I was pretty happy the clouds in this - I worked really hard to make them transparent and luminous. I wanted them to look a bit reminiscent of the San Francisco fog.

Below are some images that I designed and painted for a Fairy Meadows release in the game Petville. The green flowery oval is a magic door. Below that are two more background images. They are populated with items in the shop that users can purchase to decorate their Petville homes.


all images property of Zynga.

Go to http://www.zynga.com/ and have some fun!

CTN Expo Wrap Up

The CTN Expo was a lot of fun again this year, although the attendance was about three times the size of what it was last year yet the floor space was the same, making it very crowded. Jamie and I didn't get to see any of the panel discussions this year because we were manning down his both, selling prints and books, and answering portfolio questions to the many students who were seeking advice.


It is difficult to give advice actually, given that the animation industry has changed so very much from when Jamie and I both began our careers. Well, to be fair, I'm not sure my 'career' in animation ever 'started' - I worked at Calabash Animation for many years in Chicago on many commercials and short films, and then went into games after I moved to California, while Jamie began his career in 1981 at the age of 17 working at Hanna Barbara...big difference! Even so, I think we both have some perspective on how to survive as an artist; it was nice to share some of that perspective with the students and new grads. Jamie's advice is so good that HE should have a panel discussion. He's certainly talked me down off a ledge more than once (actually more like twice a week). I imagine students would benefit from some iron clad Jamie tips for how to protect your fragile artist soul.

Speaking of fragile artist soul, here are a few life drawings from the past few weeks. I have been very busy at work lately. I have been contributing design work to game pitches, mostly background game board paintings and a few other things.

I was going to crop these in Photoshop, but I kind of like how noir the the photos turned out. haha




Some of the things on my desk right now are: a Christmas card, a reworked sketch for my Seasons piece, "Winter", a sketch for an elaborate blog header illustration, and some fairy and faun sketches.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING to all my readers. I am truly GRATEFUL that you visit my blog. It encourages me endlessly and feels so good to know people are actually paying attention. THANK YOU.

CTN EXPO!

Jamie will have a BOOTH at the CTN Expo this year! # T-05. The convention begins this FRIDAY and runs through SUNDAY evening in Burbank, CA. I will be there helping out at his booth and answering questions. Since this is an animation based convention, we are excited. Last year's event was fantastic! This year should be just as amazing - lots and lots of panels with leading animation industry legends. It should be pretty inspiring!

Reliquary Class at Ulla Milbrath's Studio!

This past weekend I took a class taught by the talented artist extraordinaire Ulla Milbrath, whom I met taking classes at Castle in the Air. Ulla teaches regularly at the Castle in the Air and also at her incredibly inspiring home studio, filled to the brim with handcrafted projects and antiques of all kinds.

I was inspired a few years ago by the reliquaries I saw on her blog after googling 'reliquaries'. I found these amazing pieces Ulla made, and discovered, even better, that she sells them at the Castle in the Air and other places, AND...she teaches classes in how to MAKE THEM.

She finally offered a class that fit with my too busy schedule, this past weekend. I couldn't wait! What a treat it was! Ulla taught me how to make each one completely from scratch using illustration board, mica, pieces of my own art, hand dyed ribbon, and - a new skill - soldering the pieces together. If you aren't familiar with a soldering iron it's like this: a very hot iron, who's tip is as hot as volcano, which you use to melt pieces of metal wire, which you then manipulate into pools of molten hotness and try not to spill on either your hands, clothing or art piece. How thrillingly DANGEROUS!

Details below each piece:

"Luna, Reliquary portrait"


Luna is a painting I did a few months ago and sold as a print at the APE festival. For this application, I printed her out on heavy stock and cut carefully with an xacto knife around the edges. The original has fairy wings and extends to a partial view of her torso, but since this is a small piece, I sacrificed those areas for the reliquary (Perhaps sometime it would be cool to try making another one with real cicadia wings!). The cut out illustration is sitting on top of a blue fabric I lightly dusted in clear glitter and on top of that a few pieces of luscious moss. Tucked in between the moss and Luna are a few vintage flowers and a few pieces of dried baby's breath. The outside is soldered metal, which attaches the mica covering.

Learning to solder the outside was a bit challenging and intimidating, but also dangerously FUN. I can see how it becomes addicting. Melted metal is so SAUCY! haha

"Daisy, Reliquary Portrait"

This is the very first piece I made, also using a painting I cut out and altered in order to fit the reliquary. It's still not quite working the way I want it to. But learning is all about making mistakes and trying new things. I hope to try alternate versions of this one too!


"Mossy, Reliquary Portrait"

The tiny painting of a woman inside this piece is something I painted a few years ago. Again, I cut her out very carefully, made the box, glued together...AND, for this one, cut some glass for the very first time to make the covering. Honestly, I am in awe of the vast knowledge Ulla has in all manner of techniques! This one is a bit bigger than the others, so I thought I'd show the context by photographing it in a few places. I left the edges un-soldered (is that a word?) because I like the way the copper tape works, but also because I plan to go back and tidy up the fabric edges and trim in the back.

Displayed next to my very small collection of Ephraim Faience hand made pottery and a pretty photo of my sister. :)

I am really excited about making more reliquaries. At the moment I don't own a soldering iron or other materials. The way I'm feeling is that the strongest one is the "Luna" portrait. I would like to try her with some cicadia wings. I also hope to make several more fairy portraits and reliquaries - maybe I'll even be able to finish some by WONDER CON! :)

Thank you so so much to my friend and inspiring artist Ulla Milbrath for spending an entire weekend teaching me the techniques involved. She worked really hard - I imagine it must be difficult to be teaching others while in your own studio, resisting the urge to make your own creations! I am deeply appreciative.

Clover and Luna concepts, close...but not close...

"Luna", 8.5x11, pastel and gouache on paper


"Clover", 8.5x11, pastel and gouache on paper


These are two experimental concepts for characters in a book I am working on. They are fairies, although they don't have wings in these portraits.

I have been obsessed with face painting and floral adornment for some time now, and would like to apply the idea to my story; for me portraits are a good way to figure out mood until I land on something that feels right for my story. I'll also do the usual character proportional line up sheet, etc, but for now I'm feeling out mood and experimenting with technique.

And, these, sadly, are not quite what I'd like. :( They are a bit too cute, a bit too young. Back to the drawing board.

But, having said that, they were totally FUN to draw, and I may even do some more. In fact, next weekened I am taking a reliquary class at Ulla Milbrath's studio, and have thought about making LUNA, into a reliquary.

Purrcasso Charity Benefit


I made my first donation to the Purrcasso Art and Craft Gala benefit for the Berkeley Humane Society. This year is extra special due to the tragic fire that damaged much of the shelter and killed many cats and dogs. Please come by Saturday evening for the auction on ORIGINAL ART by bay area artists!!! ALL proceeds go directly to the shelter.

November 6-7, 2010
Saturday 6:30-8:30 p.m.
Sunday 12-4 p.m.

2865 Seventh Street, Berkeley

Learn more at BerkeleyHumane.org


Here is my contribution to the auction.


"The Good Ship Purrcasso", 8x10", gouache


Booth at APE!

One of the many things I struggled with in getting my booth together for my debut into the convention world was how to present myself at my table. What font to use, what color scheme, is this really 'me'?, how much glitter to use...too many butterflies? Do I like scroll banners and should I add glitter flowers to it? All of these pressing questions led to a lot of panic and stress in the last few days leading up to my first con. Thankfully, well, more than thankfully, Jamie was there to talk me down off the ledge and help me organize what I needed to get done.

Besides the booth prep, there is the art itself, printing... what sizes to print, how to scan, what paper to use...and then: ordering clear bags and backing boards, then bagging all of them, figuring out pricing, signage, attaching the signs, and more. PHEW! It was a lot of work getting set up, but absolutely worth it.




But the VERY BEST part? At the beginning of the show, a little girl was excited about my fairy print, so I gave her one. The next day she came back and gave me her creation. Her gift filled me with JOY and makes me feel really super excited to continue working on my Fairy Conservatory project. What a GIFT!!! :)))


The next convention I am signed up for is the San Francisco WonderCon, in April. From now until April I will be working on my "Seasons" series (new pieces coming before the end of the year) and probably fleshing out some details regarding the Fairy Conservatory by that time, too. I'm also donating a piece of original art to the Purrcasso Art and Craft Gala, which I'll post when I finish (next few weeks). Good times and lots of creating!!!

Alternative Press Expo - Table #102

Hello! I am making my ***DEBUT ** this October 16-17th at the Alternative Press Expo in San Francisco - BOOTH 102! I've been outlining and designing a few long term projects that I plan to work on incrementally over the course of a few years. At this years' APE festival, I will kick off by selling 4 prints (and some original art) that represent a piece from each project that I will be expanding upon:

"Fall" - the first in a series of art prints entitled "The Seasons". This series will continue with "Winter", "Spring", and "Summer".
"Daisy" - this is an art print from two self published children's books I am working on. The first book centers around a little girl who imagines herself to be a flower. In the second book, she imagines herself in an aquarium. The books will have no words, only illustrations.


"Luna" - this is a preliminary character exploration from a book I have outlined entitled, "The Fairy Conservatory".


"Sephalina" - this print is a pin up of my boyfriend Jamie Baker's character from his comic book, "Sephalina". Jamie self published a full color comic which will also be on sale at APE at his booth 108, a few doors down from mine. His book is hilarious, plus I love the way Jamie draws - I am honored to have a pin up in it! If you enjoy: Sci Fi, comics, humor, hot space girls, and art, you MUST pick this one up. MUST!

Please stop by BOOTH 102 to check out my prints, say hello and sign my guest book! I am so excited and *VERY* nervous! It is so, so ON!

"Terry", pastel pencil on paper.

On Tuesday evenings I attend the long pose life drawing open studio over at Sadie Valeri's studio. If you haven't seen her work, check out her blog. What an awesome artist to have discovered among my web of friends this year! To draw with a group of women on Tuesday nights, all practicing in the same classic tradition, is... well, I am grateful.

When I graduated from art school in 1993, I went into deep despair knowing that with working full time I would no longer be able to devote my days to improving my skills and perfecting the craft of drawing and painting. Over the years I adjusted and realized that what truly matters is the joy of drawing, learning, discovering in art - and that it never ends. There are still opportunities to learn and grow outside of work, nights, weekends, vacations... It's funny, too, because I swear that even in short bursts, one or two evenings a week, my skills have improved faster than I would have guessed. I'm not sure why that is.

At the same time I cannot deny that having a year or two off from working in order to dedicate my time to creating all the art I have in my head and take workshops would be great. It would. In fact, I'm not even sure how much longer I can hang on not being able to do so. But what eases the yearning a little is life drawing, sculpting, painting, and being able to do so with fellow artists. I am really grateful to be drawing over at Sadie's studio - it came along just when I needed it.