Archive for 2008

predictions for tina version 24.0

Tina version 23.0 was a pretty interesting, especially along side of the releases for House 1.0 and Dad-Marriage 3.0, which included a trip to Mexico.

This past year got me blogging regularly and introduced me to many other fantastic bloggers whom I have grown to love. I started freelancing more and continued to hone my skills through creating more illustrations, portraits, and regular drawings for my blog. I finished my cosmetic dental work and got the best haircut I have ever had, making me a lot more confident. I still love living in Austin, and being able to see my family anytime I want, instead of twice a year. I have a great time living with David and Mojito. And I am starting to develop my career and future into everything I have always wanted it to be.

Tina 24.0 will be released January 23rd. Some of the new features will include:

• A new and continuously improving fitness body
• Improvements made to the additional component of House 1.1
• An additional vacation
• The growth of the upcoming Portrait Studio Company 1.0, which will increase freelance work, improve art skills, and money
• And large steps towards advancing the dream career

I will count my blessings, with health and opportunity at my side, life is and will be pretty nice. Tina 24.0 and 2008 will bring many more good things for me and I hope it will for you too.

thank yous are in order

Thank you Mr. Batman Guy. My five mile workout at the gym would not have been the same without you. At first I thought you were just wearing a batman logo t-shirt, but as I wiped the sweat out of my eyes and took a closer look I noticed that you had actually cut an oval hole into your black t-shirt to reveal to me and the world the giant red batman logo tattoo on your obviously waxed chest. Awesome. This was only accentuated by your buzzed blond hair and the ridiculously perfect crown of hair spikes which you must have spend months perfecting your technique on. Double awesome.

Thank you female coworker for making small talk as we were washing our hands, and not making me feel awkward knowing you just heard me pee. I was worried that my pee was too loud or lasted too long, which resulted in a very uncomfortable bathroom break.

Thank you readers for sticking around even though my posting has been slowed a bit. Work has been busy, then at home I’ve been doing some freelance work, going to the gym, going out of town on the weekends to see family.

Edit: A friend of mine had a picture of “batman” from a couple of years ago, I can’t believe it, she knows everyone in this city! I hope you guys are ready for this. I masked out his face of course, because I’m not THAT mean.

notes of love and hate

I made one hundred fortune cookies and filled each of them with personalized notes from my heart.

hi, my name is

Can one haircut really make that much difference? Since I have cut off my long locks three people, THAT I KNOW, have introduced themselves to me at work. I know that I don’t get to mingle with all of the 200 employees since I am usually busy in my department and don’t have the luxury of walking around all the time chatting up random people. But, we have a face directory, and I have been here for a year and a half, doing work, work that involves other people.

The first incident was in the elevator, and I was able to explain to that person that I had been working here for a while and that I had gotten a haircut. Person number two’s incident happened at a company lunch. #2 introduced them self to a newer employee and then without missing a beat, introduced them self to me, AND was nice enough to go around the tables and introduced everyone else sitting there to me. One of the other people #2 introduced to me came to the rescue and started talking about how nice my new haircut looked, a hint that obviously they knew who I was and that I had been there long enough for this person to notice a hairstyle change. #3 happened while I was talking to one of my coworkers in my department. #3 interrupted our conversation and then introduced them self. Nice.

birthday week ramble

I’ll admit it, I’m a little scared of driving in the rain, and a little scared of driving at night, and a lot scared of driving in the rain at night. But I braved it last Friday night and went out to the movies with David and his coworkers. It would be the start of a very long and wonderful weekend. Saturday morning I woke up early, went in for a trim, and the stylist put some cute 50′s style waves in my hair. Off to brunch with David, we sat outside under heaters (hey, 60 degrees is cold for Texas), ate slowly, talked. We then went to this small art gallery to see a piece by one of my favorite illustrator-turned-fine-artist, James Jean. The piece wasn’t that impressive to me, but it felt wonderful being around real artwork. I had missed it. In high school and college we were surrounded by all kinds of work every single day, we’d go to galleries often and soak it all in. Get inspired. I can’t believe we’d let it slip by and not noticed what we had been missing.

We walked around the giant Whole Foods downtown before going home, where I passed up ALL of the free tasty samples being shoved in my face. I felt so energized that I worked on my website redesign for a few hours without needing to rest. I’m really excited about the shiny new tinapoe.com, keep your eyes peeled, I’ll let you know when it goes up. We went out to dinner with my dad + family, then. We ate tasty bbq, had drinks, and birthday cake, and presents. Mmm nice and sleepy after drinks, and food, and cake, but we still went out to a bar that night with David’s coworkers. Came home smelling like smoke, ew, and ended Saturday.

Sunday we got up early and super cleaned house because my mom and grandparents were coming over for lunch. We went to this restaurant that had a super long wait, damn, and the bitchiest waitress that ever walked the earth, double damn. Bitcho tried to ruin our lunch but my mom set her straight, yay for moms. After my mom and grandparents took off, David and I walked around the bookstore. My favorite part of the store is the young adult/independent readers section, where I like to walk around and examine the book covers and day dream about a time when I will see some of my illustrations on these same shelves. David bought me a moleskin sketchbook and another young adult box set series, since I love collecting the ones with great covers and great stories. It was nice not being home much for the whole weekend, we didn’t want it to end.

Monday came and I started to feel sick, maybe allergies I thought, but no I had chills and pain and fever by the time I got home. I caught a cold virus, great, sick on my actual birthday too, which is never fun. The doctor couldn’t give me anything since it was a virus of course, just gotta wait it out. I’m starting to feel a bit better now, good enough to write a huge post about nothing for you guys, and to get back to reading and commenting on your blogs. Have a great weekend!

the devil incarnate

I tried my first Girl Scout Cookie today, a Caramel Delight. They were sitting in the break room by my office, staring at me, as I was trying to decide between a cup of coffee or green tea. I decided on a hazelnut coffee and as the Flavia* machine was spurting out my coffee I decided to try one of the cookies to see if they were really as good as people always said. The first bite delivered the tastes to my tongue. I felt the sugar enter my blood stream as my pupils dilated Requiem-for-a-Dream style. I had to tackle myself, internally, to keep from grabbing the rest of the box, running into my office, hiding under my desk, and shoving the rest of the cookies into my mouth while rubbing the sticky sugar residue all over my face in the process. Caveman-like grunts would ensue. I grabbed my cup of coffee with shaking hands and whimpered back to my office. I probably need to check myself into rehab now, but at least I have found out that I can never order Girl Scout Cookies from anyone, ever.

* Flavia is a giant robot coffee maker that lets you pick from about 4 billion different flavors of coffee or tea or hot chocolate and then makes single servings of your choice. When I first started my job I spent about 3 months fearing this machine and not stepping anywhere near it. I didn’t want to look stupid trying to figure out how to make a cup of coffee. Finally one day I saw someone using it and watched them intently without seeming too creepy. Then when no one was around, I experimented pushing all of the different choices and now I can have whatever I feel like that day.

So to recap, having five different flavors of coffee and tea each day = good; Girl Scout Cookies = bad.

my superbowl sunday

I am so lucky that my boyfriend hates watching sports as much as I do, instead we watched artsy films like Six Degrees of Separation.

handbag dielma

I love my clutch, I wear it with pretty much every outfit. I get compliments on it all the time, people always ask me if it’s an antique, and I love that. But, it’s a clutch, which means it’s small. It barely fits my phone, wallet, keys, a pen, and small tube of lip gloss.

(Please don’t laugh at my very crappy cell phone made in 1975, I don’t want to spend money on a new one.)

I want to start carrying around my sketchbook and small box of colored pencils, because I really need to be drawing from life everyday. My blog drawings are wonderful and fun, but it’s not the same kind of practice as drawing from life. So, I was thinking of getting a large handbag, I have a couple of bigger ones, but I don’t love them as much as I love my clutch, and the thought of buying another big handbag breaks my heart a little as if I were betraying my lover. Instead, I’m going to look for a sexy laptop bag, which can also hold everything. It would be perfect for work! The only problem now is that all of the larger laptop bags I see, that I like, are a lot more expensive than I thought they would be. Apparently I’ve been living in a dream world where everything only costs $30.

“Oh, you’re a pretty one, I could totally see myself with you… HOLY CRAP! $495??? WHYYY GOD WHYY?”

Having expensive taste and hating to spend money is a very bad combination.

do I know you?

I was at a restaurant this weekend, with David, when our young, (gay?) waiter guy kept looking at me and smiling, A LOT. This was more than the average waiter/restaurant patron exchange and it weirded me out. After I paid the bill he smiled and said, “Thank you, Ms. Vaziri!” Yeah, I know my name was on my credit card, but do waiters ever do this? It had never happed to me before. And he pronounced it correctly, not that my last name is at all difficult, just say it as you read it. Still most people manage to put the letters out of order or add in mystery letters in the pronunciation.

My first thought was that omg, he must read my blog. I don’t know that for sure, but it increased feelings of creepedoutedness.

No matter how many page views and visitors I have to my blog according to Google Analytics, I still don’t think of them as real people. Every time someone new, like at work, or MY DAD, tells me they read my blog, I just laugh nervously. “Oh! ha ha ha, cool!”.

In less than two weeks it will be my blog’s first year birthday. Will I feel less overexposed with more time?

art contest, scuba bee

The first of many art contests begin today, here at tinapoe.com.

Your Objective:

• Print or Save the image
• You have one week to color it in any way that you would like (You can use any method or media; color pencils, photoshop, MSPaint, photo collage, etc), add your own flare
• Post your completed artwork in the comments
• The most creative image (extra points added for cuteness and humor), as judged by David Poe, will win a Tina Poe original!
• Everyone should give this a shot! The submissions will be judged on their ideas not technical skill.

The prize for this contest is an 11″x17″ acrylic and color pencil painting on bristol board.

The winner will be contacted by email and the artwork will be shipped to them after their address is provided.

happy birthday blog friend

You are now one year old! We’ve had a great year together, you, me, and Mr. Bee. You have kept me drawing regularly, and I’ve loved every minute of it. I met some really great people through you, and I made really nice friends. Let’s make this next year just as wonderful!

working portrait, water girl

David and I have been working on a new portrait together. I love collaborating with David because he has strengths that I could never posses, and with our powers combined, we are Captain Planet! Or just really freakin’ awesome at arting. I have been sketching in my new moleskin book recently and I’ll be posting more artwork to bypass my bloggers-block.

By the way, those of you who wanted to participate in my scuba bee contest, you are breaking my heart. I’ll keep the contest going for a while longer to give you guys time, how about a month. I would really love to give my old paintings away, they do no good gathering dust in my garage.

Now for some art: My initial sketch for the portrait.

David’s perfect interpretation of my sketch into a flawless line drawing.

My coloring work, this is the part of a painting that makes my heart swell and sets everything right in the world.

hands bees and cats

Three coincidences:

• David and I love talking about religious history. We were discussing the story of Lilith, and her lack of mention from the Bible. Several hours later in the day we turn on the History channel and see a show on stories omitted from the Bible, with the first story being about Lilith.
• On the same show, there was also a story about Aseneth. She was seeking purification when an angel sent a swarm of bees to surround her and to build a honeycomb around her mouth. The story was beautiful and similar to the sketch I had finished a week ago, before learning about Aseneth.
• I was admiring the album cover artwork for The Bedlam in Goliath by Mars Volta and asked David if he knew who the artist was, he didn’t. The next day a friend of mine sent me a story about a very dark painting and how stupid people thought it was haunted. David and I looked up the artist and found out it was the same man who painted the Mars Volta album cover.

I’m going to do a painting for Aseneth.

social opposites

Why is it that strangers always talk to David when we’re out? He tries to look very unapproachable and angry but it never comes off that way. He claims that he hates them and never wants to speak to new people, but I think he’s lying, because I don’t understand it. I, on the other hand, am a more social creature, but I have the opposite problem. I look unapproachable when I would rather have people come talk to me. I think I’m the unpopular kid at school.

hair poison

I woke up to a clear morning, but as I was getting ready to step out the door I noticed that it was raining, hard. I stood there for a second contemplating the risks of running the few feet to my car and getting a little wet, or having to dig around for an umbrella for however long that would take and getting frustrated in the process. It hadn’t rained much (or at all) since I moved into my house back in August, so I never had a reason to unpacked my umbrellas. They are still sitting all cozy and warm somewhere in the garage. I ran with my car key ready and only managed to get a little wet.

“A little wet” is enough for my hair to turn into a complete monster. No matter how nicely I blow dried it and fixed it up, 10 seconds in the rain undid all of my hard work. The heat and humidity in Texas is why I don’t even bother fixing my hair during half of the year and just let it go curly. To make matters worse, I had no bobby pins with me once I got to work and saw the damage.

Reminder: The Scuba Bee art contest is still going on! We now have a few very cool submissions, but I know there are a bunch more of you creative minds out there who want to win sexy original Tina Poe paintings. The prize for this contest is an 11″x17″ acrylic and color pencil painting on bristol board.

The new deadline is April 6th.

things that make me want to throw up

Okay maybe not really throw up, but still…

• dog smell – I like some dogs, they are cute, but 99.9% of them smell like dog, because they are dogs. And dog smell makes me gag, so I don’t think I can ever own a dog.
• fake cherries aka maraschino cherries – ugh why must they mess with a good thing, REAL cherries are good, fake cherries are so gross and sweet they make my throat burn with an inferno of hatred (fake cherries recently discovered in Hershey Kisses, blegh)
• fake strawberry – not as bad as fake cherry, but please don’t hand me any kind of candy or sweets with fake strawberry flavor. You may hand me real strawberries instead.
• real banana – I think this stems from repeated childhood trauma of my mom trying to force me to eat bananas for years because “they’re GOOD for you!”, YEARS of torture, which started my lifelong hatred of bananas. They also make my tongue itch, I have a lot of food “allergies” that hurt my mouth, but I’ve never gone to have an allergy test done because I don’t want to stop eating all the fruits and veggies that I love. Also, fake banana flavor = pretty good, and even better than that is anything apple flavored or scented.
• trash/dirty dishes – If the trash hasn’t been taken out or dishes not cleaned right away, I’ll smell it, and go crazy and think of giant germs and mold
• screaming children – No explanation necessary
• raw chicken – I don’t know why this grosses me out so much, I don’t have a problem with any other raw meat. I usually make David cook chicken, or I’ll cook it for a really long time “just in case”… also increases thoughts of giant germs and salmonella
• mold, rust, or broken glass – I fear not seeing them, getting them on my skin, and instantly dying. So if I do see them, I want to die instantly
• skin diseases – I can watch surgeries, see blood, guts and everything else EXCEPT skin diseases. Worst of all was that “tree man” in the news a couple of months ago. I won’t link to it, because I don’t want to see it again, and I don’t want to subject anyone else to the horror (giant germs)
• worms – I don’t like bugs, but worms make me want to vomit, the smaller they are the more vomit I could potentially produce

Okay, I’m done grossing myself out.

ugh music

I had been against this whole Apple Mac trend since the beginning, thinking of them as overly expensive, and inferior products. I refused to buy myself any kind of iPod. It helped that after my first year of college, I stopped really listening to music, it wasn’t important to me. David would occasionally give me new music to listen to on my computer, and I liked some of them, but I could go months without listening to anything and not think twice about it.

Recently, David got the iPod Touch, after I finished scoffing and rolling my eyes, I noticed that it was actually really awesome. We listen to it during all car rides, and often end up singing loudly, blissfully, and out of tune to each other. Busy with his new toy, he gave me his first generation Shuffle for when I went to the gym. It was nice to have at the gym, and it made me listen to some new music. At home, I started doing crazy little dances that usually scared Mojito, I’m going to blame it on the new music.

Last week, I got a third generation Nano as a gift and it has made me a little more excited about music again. I’ve downloaded a few new albums and I even listen to it at work. Maybe I can once again join the ranks of normal people who enjoy listening to music.

Reminder: The Scuba Bee art contest is still going on! The deadline is April 6th.

spring and new beginnings

 

Today marks the first day of spring and the beginning of the Iranian year. If you celebrate Nowrūz, I hope you have a wonderful start to the new year. If you don’t celebrate you can still enjoy the beginning of spring, beautiful flowers, and warmer weather.

I’m going to go eat amazing Iranian food tonight, with some wonderful family and friends. Yum!

happy bunny day

I always tell David that I only speak truths that I read in peer reviewed scientific journals.

It’s true, I swear.

breathing, not breathing

You know what sucks? Asthma

I recently found out that I have asthma after my two colds around December and January. Oh yeah, that never ending cough that I had every winter of my life, the occasional wheezing, the mysterious “feels like my brain and face aren’t getting oxygen even though there is no wheezing” that’s apparently asthma. And the non-wheezing attacks are supposedly the worst kind, great.

I feel helpless even though I have an inhaler now… I had a non-wheezing attack on the drive home from work, it felt awful. Took nearly two hours until I stopped feeling shaky and weak.

It’s interesting and scary to feel like air is coming in half way but no oxygen is reaching my body.

beautiful characters

Watching Grandma knit

I have many secret inspirational influences that I keep hidden away and only share with my most trusted confidants. But my amazingly talented friend Adam Osgood turned me onto this one, so I can’t claim it and keep it hidden like the others: The Sartorialist is filled with captivating photographs of real people wearing beautiful clothing in day to day life. The images have a magic of their own, a little different form the usual magic that I dream about and incorporate into my work, this is real life. The images are truly breathtaking.

I want to take many of these characters and place them into my paintings, but until then, you must see the gorgeous work Adam has already done with this inspiration.

drawing in bed

And watching Lost on the laptop.

hands

Quick studies

Reminder: The Scuba Bee art contest is ending April 6th! Those of you who still have not submitted an entry, you better get a move on. The prize for this contest is an 11″x17″ acrylic and color pencil painting on bristol board.

scuba bee contest winner

The Scuba Bee art contest is now over and the winner is Froggy! The entries were judged by David and Froggy’s entry was the most playful and fun, congrats Froggy!

The prize for this contest is an 11″x17″ acrylic and color pencil painting on bristol board.

Stay tuned for the next art contest going up soon, with a brand new prize!

monsters

Quick concepts for 13 illustrations I’m doing for work. The quick flat color was not approved, thankfully, for lack of time to really flesh it out this way. Would have been nice though to experiment more with flat color on these characters as I was recently inspired by http://mojizu.com. These will be detailed B/W finished drawings.

finished boy

finished monster01

finished more mosters

three more monsters

monsters finished

These are the last of the monster illustrations, phew, 14 total. Now my brain is free to move onto some other artwork and projects!

not dead

Portrait Art at Red Tie Studios

One of the main reasons that I had been absent from this blog can now be revealed, David and I have launched our illustrated portrait studio company website! Red Tie Studios also has its own blog where we are posting company news, in progress portraits, sketches, and studies.

I am very excited to have this done, to be filling up the portfolio with the new portraits that we are finishing up, and all of the new portraits that we will be creating in the future!

Portrait Art at RedTieStudios.com

Portrait Art Blog at RedTieStudios.com/blog

moleskin meeting

This is what happens when there are over 50 people in a meeting.

I am always slightly surprised when I go for a length of time drawing from reference images to drawing from life and the huge difference it makes in the quality of my artwork. Everything looks so much more natural and it’s much less of an effort to get things right.

I wish I had live models to draw and paint from every day.

keep it up

Gotta keep up the motivation to continue going to the gym.

savior

cooking with magic

My grandmother’s Iranian spaghetti and meat sauce recipe is incredibly intoxicating for the boys in my life. Especially after I add my own magic ingredients that always ensure an empty pot by the end of the night.

finished portrait water girl

David and I finished the portrait we were painting. I am so happy with it! I’ve been working very hard recently to improve my skills and I think this portrait is leaps and bounds ahead of all of my previous work. It is paying off. I am so excited about where my work is headed. Now, I just need to do four dozen more illustrations.

Be sure to pop over to Red Tie Studios to view it in the portfolio there and also to read more about it in the portrait blog.

hanging out with middle schoolers

In the spring semester, each 7th grade student at Dahlstrom Middle School writes and illustrates an original book to give to students in Uganda through the Books of Hope program. To help with the illustration process, the middle school asked me to come in for an all day school visit. I was able to walk the students through the process of illustration starting from simple thumbnail sketches to finished pieces of work.

It was a lot of fun to see their interests grow in illustration and sketching!

I told them of the importance of drawing daily to improve their skills and afterwards found out that several of the students had started carrying around sketchbooks since my visit. It was so much fun and such a satisfying experience.

people in seconds

People watching in purple.

mortal kombat

We’ve been working on our house a lot more recently, as well as outside in the front and back yard. More painting, fixing faucets, placing vent covers, installing solar walkway lights, buying a very large new post modern floor lamp, etc. I’ll get some new photos up sometime!

hugging

I saw this on ICHC today and it reminded me to talk about the new piece David and I are working on.

David sent me the drawing he did on his break at work one day, with some of the lighting and shadows pieced in. I love that he can draw something like this, so accurate in the details of our living room, without looking at any photos just doodling at work for fun.

It will be a nice challenge to tackle the extreme lighting situation with the imaginative perspective as I keep painting this.

old vacation in crete

I dug up these old photos of my parents and I vacationing in Crete, Greece, it must have been around 1990. Oh, it was so gorgeous, pure perfection in every way. None of us remembered exactly which town we were in, but I have looked for clues in the photos, researched off and on, and now believe that we stayed in Georgioupolis.

There weren’t many tourists or large hotels at the time. It was absolutely quiet and peaceful. I remember seeing only a handful of cars the entire time we were there. Everyone walked, rode bikes or mopeds.

We stayed at a small family run hotel with an attached restaurant. There was also a private beach within a few minutes walk that the hotel owned. I remember loving the hotel owner’s giant handlebar mustache, and watching him go diving for fresh fish, octopus, and sea urchin for the private beach bar. His sons would clean the octopus on the large rocks jutting out of the water. He would talk to us and the other hotel patrons, make us all try raw sea urchin that he had just brought up from the water, and cut open as we were all standing there on the beach.

There are so many stories to tell from this trip, I remember them vividly and dream about them constantly. Knossos, the two old Greek men who played chess over bottles of honey, the old lady who crocheted outside and always smiled at us, the fishermen, the tall glasses of pure lemon juice they got me at the restaurants, an old lady who had a small garden across from the hotel with lovely giant squash flowers, amazing thick yogurt with vegetables, and more.

I have wanted to go back there ever since we left. I want to go back and never leave, to live in a small villa with ocean views among olive groves, grape vines, and citrus trees, to be close to nature and breath in the history of the area. It’s calling to me.

new vacation in san francisco

Four years ago I lived in San Francisco, and at the end of this month I will be going back for a visit! I look forward to enjoying the city, visiting places that I loved, and exploring new ones that I never did. David will be coming with me so it should be tons of fun.

Things I am expecting, and demanding from this trip:

• Many relaxing soaks in the Japanese style baths in our hotel
• Completely refueling my creative reserves by looking at art, LOTS OF ART
• Putting those creative juices to work by drawing a lot
• Eating amazing sushi and other great food that is not as abundant in Texas
• Maybe some shopping(!) at stores like H&M, which we don’t have in Austin
• Spending quality time with bff Rosie
• And giggling at the many sexy shops in the city

painting vases

I took the aqua spray paint that I used on the planters in the back yard and painted the vases on one of my bookshelves to brighten them up. I was tired of all the brown on brown.

Before

After, including the large post modern floor lamp that I purchased, and my Audrey Kawasaki “Claudia & the Coelacanth”.

Ah, and we have a new bonsai on the dining room buffet. He looks a lot better than our older bonsai… who might be dying. Damn these little trees, they are not easy to take care of.

disappointed in drawings

I am disappointed in myself because I am not drawing as much as I should be. I see my quick sketching skills going dormant and it is seriously embarrassing to look through my moleskin sketchbook. My line quality has diminished into rough chicken scratches that scream “LACK OF CONFIDENCE”.

I was so fortunate that my entire education was focused on building and growing my skills in art. I shouldn’t let it waste away. The only remedy is drawing constantly and always creating new artwork, so I finished a new quick illustration recently. I have to get back on track!

old cotton pants

Maybe it’s time to throw out those ultra comfortable cotton pants that have become ultra comfortable (and thin) because they have been worn and washed for too many years.

japan town hotel

Got some early morning painting in as the sun started to shine through the Shoji screens.

handsome and me in the city

creative sketching

San Francisco got my creativity flowing and drawing a lot. Be sure to visit my illustration portfolio and view the all new Sketches gallery.

back to square one

I have lost the thumb drive I always kept with me. It used to live in my purse and never leave my side. I put artwork on it that I was working on, and transported the files to and from any computer I used. My heart feels a bit broken because the hugging painting was on that thumb drive, and I had gotten much farther on it (I hadn’t backed up my files, stupid). I need to suck it up and start working on it again from the beginning, but it is too easy to keep moping.

I should be excited about doing more art work because I’m planning to take Stephen Silver‘s nine week, one-on-one, Character Design course this fall. I’ve only heard wonderful things about the course, and I plan on my skills improving greatly.

my library my life

found

Haha! I found my lost thumb drive. My large purse had eaten it. I was cleaning out unnecessary items from my purse and found a sewn hole up into the lining so I stuck my finger in it and felt the metal of the USB tip. I was so excited! I already started working on the hugging painting again after too long of a wait.

glowing magic in photoshop

A big trend recently is to have glowing elements in many bright colors in illustration and design. A magical rainbow if you will. It’s pretty easy to do and there are some Photoshop tricks to create your glowing magic quickly.

1. In Photoshop (I’ll be using version CS3 for this tutorial), create a new document in a manageable size, for example 350 wide by 450 high at 72dpi.
2. Pick a dark background color, and a slightly lighter foreground color. Select your Gradient Tool (G) in your tool bar, and select the Radial Gradient option at the top. Make sure your foreground and background colors are selected for the gradient. Now make a soft gradient circle by clicking and dragging your cursor on your image. I also like to keep my layers organized by always labeling them as I go.

3. Add an object from another illustration you did, or a free icon from a source like Artura Design Studio. Remember to always be aware of copyrights.

4. Next, we will add a glowing ball to start the lighting effect. Add a white circle with the ellipse shape tool. Hold down shift to make a perfect circle. Go to the Filter drop down at the top and hover to select Blur and click to select Guassian Blur… Click OK on the pop up warning to rasterize the shape and select a radius of about 10 pixels. Click OK and name your layer. Create a folder in your layer pallet and name it “magic” and set the folder layer property to Color Dodge and place your glowing ball layer into the “magic” folder.

5. Stay with me through this next step. We will need some magic sparkles by using a basic round brush and adjusting some of the brush pallet options. Add a new layer in the “magic” folder called sparkles. Add a layer style to the sparkles layer by clicking the FX icon on your layers pallet and selecting Outer Glow.

   Let’s select the Brush Tool (B) with white as your foreground color, and open the Brushes Pallet. Follow the images to set up your brush options and brush on some sparkles.



6. It’s already looking good, but we’ll add more details. Create a new layer under the “magic” folder and call it dust. Set this layer Blending Mode to Color Dodge. Set your foreground color to white and your background color to black. Select the Lasso Tool (L) and set the Feather to 20 pixels. Select a fat pear shape on your image. Open the Filter tab and hover onto Render and click on Clouds. Chose the Clouds option again and again until you are happy with the selection.

7. We need rainbow colors! Create a new folder and call it “rainbow”. Set this layer blending property to Pass Through. Create a new layer in this folder and set the blending property to Hue with a 50% opacity. Select the Gradient Tool (G) and the Radial Gradient option, drop down the color selector for the Gradient Tool and chose the rainbow option. Click and drag the gradient in the image. I erased out the area that Mr. Bee was on the rainbow gradient layer to preserve his original colors.

8. For a final dreamy touch, I added text in two different fonts with symbols in different colors and outer glows to tie everything in.

pixar in the bay area

One of my favorite parts of our trip to San Francisco was getting an otherwise impossible to obtain private tour of Pixar Animation Studios, it helps to have wonderful creative friends in high places.

teaching art

I will be offering many more art and design tutorials on this blog, if you have any specific questions and requests feel free to ask and maybe I will custom make a tutorial for you!

brushing teeth

portrait drawing tutorial

I want to share a comprehensive guide to drawing the human face with you, my dear readers. Before you even think about picking a subject to draw, you need to know the basic proportions of the human head and facial features. I’ll show you a method of drawing the human face from the front, the profile, and the three quarters view. These rules will become second nature to you, with practice, and drawing a portrait will be 47 times easier afterward.

Grab some pieces of paper (the larger the better, because it’s always easier to draw bigger rather than smaller), a light colored pencil (I like light blue), and one graphite pencil, get a board, easel, or other angled drawing surface. It’s never a good idea to sit at a table with your paper flat on the table in front of you. Your eyes will see a distorted perspective while drawing and when you pick up your paper to take a good look at it everything will be elongated.

1. Get started by drawing an upside down egg shape, very lightly with your blue pencil, centered to fill nearly your entire paper.
   
2. You need to break your egg shape apart to know where to place your facial features. Draw a light dashed line down the middle of your egg, and draw a solid line half way down across your egg. Think of the area from your line across down the egg, and break this area up in half again going across. One more line is needed 1/3 of the way down from your last line to the bottom of your egg.
   
3. Ignoring the dashed line down the middle, break your egg up into 5 equal parts vertically. It’s good to think of the width of the human face as 5 eye shapes going across.
   
4. In between the top two lines going across, you will draw basic ear shapes outside of your egg.
   
5. Now you are done laying the ground work for your facial features, so put away your blue pencil and grab your graphite pencil. You can be a little bit stronger now with your line work. The top line going across is going to go right through your eyes in the middle. Here is where the vertical lines breaking up your egg into 5 parts will be helpful. Using the horizontal line and the vertical sections 2 and 4, draw your eyes in.
   
6. The nose falls in between the eyes in vertical section 3 and stops at the line that holds the bottom of the ears. Use the dashed line to center your nose. Draw the nose using lighter lines for the bridge shape and only use darker lines at the bottom of the nose.
   
7. Next is the mouth. The last horizontal line you drew closest to the bottom of your egg shape is going to go between the lips of the mouth. Draw your mouth delicately and stop the edges of the mouth in the middle of the eye pupils.
   
8. Draw in the ears and add details like eyebrows and color in the pupils.
   
9. To draw the bottom of the jaw and chin you don’t have to follow the bottom of the egg shape exactly because everyone’s face shape is different. Also draw in some hair going above the top of the egg shape because hair sits above the skull. Be careful about where you draw the hairline, too high and it will look like it’s receding, and too low will look like hair is growing down the forehead.
   
10. You have now completed drawing a proportional human face viewed from the front.
    

Stay tuned for my other portrait drawing tutorials for the facial proportions from the profile and 3/4 views. After you have the proportions down, I will go into the details of drawing each of the features. Remember to keep practicing!

Filed under: art & design tutorials

profile drawing tutorial

12 Comments »

October 8th, 2008 Posted 6:38 am

If you have practiced my first portrait tutorial for drawing a perfectly proportioned human face viewed from the front, you are now ready for a bigger challenge; drawing a portrait from the side view, the profile. It will be helpful to have a photograph to look at for this exercise.

Grab some pieces of paper (the larger the better, because it’s always easier to draw bigger rather than smaller), a light colored pencil (I like light blue), a light red colored pencil, and one graphite pencil, get a board, easel, or other angled drawing surface. It’s never a good idea to sit at a table with your paper flat on the table in front of you. Your eyes will see a distorted perspective while drawing and when you pick up your paper to take a good look at it everything will be elongated.

1. Draw lightly a red rectangle closer to the top left of your paper. Draw a dashed line down the middle of your rectangle vertically.
   
2. Draw a light blue circle inside the top of your rectangle.
   
3. Draw a fat sunflower seed shape pointing closer towards the bottom left of your rectangle.
   
4. From the bottom of your circle up, break this area in half, and draw a line horizontally across.
   
5. From the line you just drew, down, break this area in half also, and draw another line across.
   
6. The ear falls to the right side of the dashed line, still inside the sun flower seed shape, in between the two horizontal lines you drew earlier. These mark the top and bottom of the ear. I’m drawing this with more detail, but you don’t have to as you practice drawing the profile.
   
7. The area to the left side of the vertical dashed line you will break up into five equal parts vertically, and draw another dashed line down, for the first fifth section on the left.
   
8. The eyebrow falls on the upper most horizontal line, with the eye slightly below it starting at the one fifth vertical line.
   
9. Break up the section below the ear into three equal horizontal sections.
   
10. The upper lip hits the left edge of your rectangle and the first 1/3 horizontal line. Remember to end the mouth at the dashed line that the eye hits. A person’s bottom lip usually starts a little to the right of the top lip. And the chin falls in the last 1/3 section you drew.
    
11. The bottom of the nose is in line with the bottom of the ear and protrudes slightly beyond your initial rectangle.
    
12. The rest of the scull follows most the big circle you drew ending close to the same horizontal where your circle ended, to start the neck.
    
13. I erased out my red and blue lines and added hair and a few lines to indicate a shirt.
    

Stay tuned for my other portrait drawing tutorials for the facial proportions from the 3/4 view. After you have the proportions down, I will go into the details of drawing each of the features. Remember to keep practicing!

Filed under: art & design tutorials

3/4 view portrait tutorial

No Comments »

October 20th, 2008 Posted 9:29 am

If you have been practicing my first portrait tutorial for drawing a perfectly proportioned human face viewed from the front, and the second tutorial for drawing the portrait in profile, you are now ready for an even bigger challenge; drawing a portrait from the 3/4 view. It will be helpful to have a photograph to look at for this exercise.

Grab some pieces of paper (the larger the better, because it’s always easier to draw bigger rather than smaller), a light colored pencil (I like light blue), and one graphite pencil, get a board, easel, or other angled drawing surface. It’s never a good idea to sit at a table with your paper flat on the table in front of you. Your eyes will see a distorted perspective while drawing and when you pick up your paper to take a good look at it everything will be elongated.

1. Draw a light blue circle a little higher from the center of your paper.
   
2. At an angle, draw a U to make an overall acorn shape.
   
3. Similar rules apply to the 3/4 view as the profile view, like breaking up your rectangle in half horizontally.
   
4. But, it will be easier to think of this one as a 3D box instead of a rectangle, to plan our features out on.
   
5. We have to remember that the face is turned and draw a curved line in the center of our “rectangle”.
   
6. And now, instead of breaking the rectangle in half vertically, we have to draw a curved line to show the middle of the face.
   
7. Under the horizontal curved line, we need another curved line. This will hold the eyes.
   
8. An ear length down from our first horizontal curve, we draw another curved line to hold the bottom of the nose.
   
9. From that last line, we draw a smaller curved horizontal line a bit further down.
   
10. Now that the layout for our face is done, we draw in a U shape for the neck and the shoulders. Look at your photo to see where these fall exactly.
    
11. Starting with the nose, draw it so that the middle of the nose and septum fall on our vertical curved line, and the bottom of the nose hits the line that holds the bottom of the ear.
    
12. The eyes fall on the curved line above the nose line, and the corner of the eyes hit the nostrils, as you now know from the other tutorial.
    
13. The lips fall directly above and bellow the last horizontal curve line, and the corners of the mouth end in the middle of the pupils, like they did in the other tutorials.
    
14. The eyebrows fall on the line that holds the top of the ear, above the eyes.
    
15. Paying attention to your photo, draw the face, ear, and head shape outline.
    
16. We are done with our guidelines, and can now draw in the hair.
    
17. I added some quick shading to define the shape of the face, neck, and shoulders.
    

The 3/4 view portrait is one of the most interesting, but it does take a lot more practice and observation of you model. Stay tuned for the details of drawing each of the features, and remember to keep practicing!

Filed under: art & design tutorials

my baby Moj

8 Comments »

October 21st, 2008 Posted 6:00 am

Mojito has been feeling under the weather recently, recovering from a wound on his neck. Poor baby, my heart breaks knowing that he is feeling pain. Hopefully he heals up very quickly, but in the meantime you can send him some extra love. I’ll transfer your love into extra kisses.

I’ve been working on the hugging painting, and it’s nearly complete. I also have another teaser for you featuring Mr. Mojie. He told me that he felt much better after seeing my portrait of him completed.



(if you look on my Facebook, Rosie painted a little get well card for Mojie, you should go see it)

Filed under: tina illustrates

finished hugging

16 Comments »

October 27th, 2008 Posted 6:00 am

Phew, this weekend I put in more hours on this painting then I had since I started too many months ago, and it’s done. Weee!



Filed under: our house, tina illustrates

Doctor Tina

10 Comments »

October 28th, 2008 Posted 6:00 am



Filed under: tina illustrates

mermaid magic

10 Comments »

November 3rd, 2008 Posted 4:50 pm



I met this mermaid once under the sea, she said that to get my creative juices flowing I should add random color splashes to paper and then look to find images forming from the shapes.

Filed under: tina illustrates

misfortune

5 Comments »

November 6th, 2008 Posted 6:29 pm



Filed under: tina illustrates

the tall fawn

9 Comments »

November 11th, 2008 Posted 7:31 pm

I have been working on a quick illustration as part of a larger series that I’m planning. I’ve gotten a lot down for just a few hours of work that I have put into this painting so far, but I’d like to move even faster. I hope to finish this in the next few days!



Filed under: tina illustrates

little fawn update

11 Comments »

November 17th, 2008 Posted 7:48 pm

I had a busy weekend filled with Renaissance festivities and birthday parties, which didn’t leave much time to paint. I have just a small update for you guys, and more to come soon!



Filed under: tina illustrates

underwater exploration

2 Comments »

November 19th, 2008 Posted 11:39 pm

Look around, refresh your browser a few times. I moved some things around on the blog layout and added to the underwater theme in the header. Hope you like it, because I’m really loving it! My favorite part has got to be the underwater observation hub, it’s so cute and makes me want to hug it, looks like it has little arms and legs, pinchable ones.. okay time for me to go sleep. Goodnight!

Filed under: tina illustrates

thankful for pie

5 Comments »

November 30th, 2008 Posted 12:55 am



I hope everyone enjoyed thanksgiving as much as I pied. Pie are pie. Pie pie pie pie pie.

Filed under: tina illustrates

how to draw eyes

18 Comments »

December 3rd, 2008 Posted 11:59 am

If you have been practicing my portrait tutorials for drawing perfectly proportioned human heads, you are now ready to delve into the details with drawing features. I’ll start with the eyes, which can be very expressive! The eyes are one of the most important features to get right in a portrait, often times you can identify someone by only looking at their eyes. Just try a celebrity identification game, where they only show you eyes.

It will be helpful to have a photograph to look at for this exercise, because everyone’s eyes are so different. I’ll show you how to draw a basic eye, these skills can be applied to any type of eye. We have to start by thinking of the eyeball, everyone has them! It is a large three dimensional object sitting inside the skull that the eyelids lay upon. If you keep the form of it in mind, it will help stop you from drawing flat, unrealistic eyes.



The inner most line for the eyelids is drawn surrounding the eyeball. Notice how the size of the eyeball dictates where the eyelids end. The tear duct falls to the side of the eyeball but inside of the eyelids.



Eyelids have a thickness to them that we cannot ignore, and usually when looking at someone you can see the thickness to their bottom eyelid. The upper eyelid also has a thickness, which when we cannot see, we know is there because of the shadow it casts onto the eyeball.



The eyelid also usually folds and creates creases and wrinkles, we need to add these as well because they give even more character to the eyes. Be careful no to draw these in too harshly, examine your subject closely and draw lines in the skin delicately. Remember that we are made up of shadows and light instead of harsh lines.



Eyelashes are very delicate hairs, so we also refrain from drawing harsh stiff lines for them. Use some soft lines, some shadows, and examine your subject to see where you can see the most eyelashes. Usually when you are looking at someone straight on, you will mostly be able to see the eyelashes at the outer edges of the eyelids. Also make sure to not draw eyelashes into the inner thickness of the bottom eyelid.



The colored part of the eye is called the iris, and the black part is the pupil. Look at your subject closely and notice where the lights and shadows fall on the iris and pupil, the texture of the iris is usually not very harsh. Correctly placed highlights and shadows will give you depth and form, keeping it from looking flat.



We can’t forget the tear duct, this is also not a flat object and will have shadows and highlights because it is behind the eyelids.



The “white” of the eyes is never perfectly white, because it is actually a round object. Remembering the initial eyeball, add shadows to the edges of where the eyelids envelope the eyeball. Look at your subject’s eyes and capture the light that is hitting the eyes, as well.



Observation is the most important part of drawing. Spend more time looking at your subject then looking down at your paper and pencil. Capture the details and you will capture the likeness of the person you are drawing. Keep practicing and enjoy!

Filed under: art & design tutorials

christina ricci eyes

10 Comments »

December 5th, 2008 Posted 7:00 am

Did a quicky illustration of Christina Ricci today. I love her big googly eyes.



Filed under: tina illustrates

how to draw noses

8 Comments »

December 8th, 2008 Posted 7:00 am

If you have been practicing my portrait tutorials for drawing perfectly proportioned human heads, you are now ready to delve into the details with drawing features. We started with the eyes, and now we will move down to the nose.

It will be helpful to have a photograph to look at for this exercise, because everyone’s nose is so different and light can hit it in a billion different ways, making it difficult to give you a standard approach. Noses are handled very differently from drawing eyes, and we will mostly focus on how light is hitting them. Since there aren’t many hard lines on a nose, I’m going to show you how to develop a nose using values. Let’s start by drawing the entire basic shape of the nose. I’m going to do two different noses.



Pay attention to the nose you are observing, and draw out the different planes of the shape, you must think of this as a three dimensional object in space, not as flat lines on a piece of paper. The tip of the nose is usually a modified ball shape.



Notice how light is hitting the nose, simplify the values, and shade in the planes you drew.



Get a few more details in, by realizing the true shape of the nose from the basic planes earlier, and add a few more values.



Highlights are important! Observe the brightest area of the nose, and rough those in.



The last step is to keep adding variation in values, until you have developed the shape.



Noses require a lot of practice and patience. A lot of people assume that they know the shape of noses, and do not observe real noses enough. This can lead to flat, or piggish, unrealistic nose drawings. Avoid this by spending more time looking at your subject versus looking down at your paper drawing. For example, notice how delicately nostrils are formed, they are not holes punched into the nose, the nostrils usually curve inward toward the septum. All of these little details that you pick up during observation will in turn make your artwork come to life.

Filed under: art & design tutorials

finished fawn

22 Comments »

December 15th, 2008 Posted 10:49 pm



Yay, this little guy is done. I added a lot more details to his fur, and I really like how it turned out.

Filed under: tina illustrates

Aqua mailbox and other home improvements

2 Comments »

December 20th, 2008 Posted 1:30 pm

Last weekend, David and I worked a little bit more on the house. It was really nice, and I wanted to post some photos, but David beat me to it and posted them on his blog. I’ll Show you guys too, with some before and afters.



Cuttings of rosemary and salvia greggii I’m trying to root. And, I didn’t really “steal” them, pfft, don’t listen to David.



Cutie pie, Mojito.



I spray painted our mailbox and outdoor lights the same aqua that I used on my vases indoors. Soon, we’re getting hardiplank installed and that ugly wood ripped out too, I can’t wait. Oh, in this shot you can also see the solar walkway lights I installed and my new red car. I also have several plants planted in the walkway to the front door, but I’ll take photos of that maybe in the spring when they get bigger and bloom.



Another shot of the mailbox. In spring, I will be planting Four O’clocks and other lovely plants around the mailbox and front yard too. Exciting!



Here was the mailbox and lights before we purchased the house.

That same weekend, we also got a lot of painting done in the guest room, and some more work in the master bedroom too, I’ll post photos when that is finished.

Filed under: our house, photos