Contest: Shepard Fairey

DeviantArt.com is hosting a contest by Shepard Fairey, to reinvent his poster "Love Unites." There are a lot of prizes, but the one I'm excited about is an original Shepard Fairey artist proof, signed. Too cool. So, here is my version, and the original. Please tell me what you think.

(Lela Witherspoon. "Love Defies"

Ink and pastel on paper. 09.)

(Shepard Fairey "Love Unites.")

Exploring Pen and Ink

I've been having a lot of fun with pen and ink, because it it such a good form for working at school, I can walk away from it when necessary. It's also really controllable, which is important for me. Not to mention the high contrast, which I'm a freak about.

The black and gray piece was done to explore adding more faces in to the circles. I think I can do better. It's transition is a little awkward.

The colored one I'm really excited about. I don't know how I feel about the form, but the color is really making me excited. I did it with pan pastels over the ink, and I'm happy. The red is better in person.

(Ink and Pastel on paper. "Living." Fall 2009.)

(Ink on Paper. "Expanding." Fall 2009.)

Dia De Los Muertos

This seemed cooler as I was doing it. I had a really strong urge to draw, this is what came to mind, and I absolutely loved it while I was drawing it. I still like it, but I think the crazy part of the swirls should have started sooner, further down. I dont know.

:)

(Ballpoint on paper, Fall 2009)

I (heart) Neil Gaiman.

So a singer I really like, Amanda Palmer, really encourages fan art. I'm not big in to fan art, so I haven't done too much of it over the years. But, recently she started dating Neil Gaiman. This is like two amazing separate things I love, falling in love. It's pretty cool, and inspired me to finally do an Amanda Palmer art piece, her done as Delirium from Neil's Sandman comics.

Well, she posted it on her twitter. I'm pretty happy, and it's nice to see all the flowery positive comments. Not that I intend to do any more fan art, but still, good times.

Link to the post on her twitter: http://twitgoo.com/411qv

Faces

I've been adding more to my circles lately. They're either morphing in to roses, or becoming abstract and crazy, or being distorted and blended away. The idea of faces has been brewing a little bit over the past few months, because faces used to be my passion. In early college, I considered myself a portrait artist. The image below is the image that has been floating around, and I finally took the time to draw it yesterday.

Sitting here looking at it, I find myself wanting to add more. I want more realism and detail in the faces. I want to know these people, and not have them be so random. I want to loose them more, maybe placing them in to the middle of my more flowing and crazy shapes, so that it's not such a stark contrast.

I just know that I always wanted faces with my swirls, and I've never done it. So... more to come.

(Ink on Paper, Fall 2009)

Looking

I'm trying to get better. I want more art in my life, I want to work harder at it, I want to discover and grow.

So I need to think, work endlessly, think some more, and articulate what my thoughts are. Thats what I want the blog to be. I want to share what I'm looking at, playing with, and brewing on. I will also post my finished work, where I'm showing, and anything else I feel like saying.

So, thank you for looking, and here goes nothin. ;)

(Silly monster eyes, fiddling around @ school.)