Turning into Hermione Granger, but with Art! (plus actual finished art!)

PART 1: Book Love


It's official. I'm a sucker for art books. Why? because they have TONS of pictures, probably. And not just any pictures, but AWESOME pictures.


Although I had books of sorts (mostly left over from my BCC Drawing for Animation Class), but I'm considering this one as my first official art book in my to-be-epically-huge-collection-of-art-books. I got it for Christmas from my awesome parents!


(did I mention that Robert Barrett - the guy who wrote/illustrated this book - is head of the visual arts program at BYU? No? Did I mention that his nephew is in my bishopric? No? Did I mention that a children's book by his niece was what made me want to try watercolors? No? Well. its all true.)

I bought this book for my figure drawing class - we keep a sketchbook where we're supposed to copy these super duper buff guys so that we learn muscle structure and body masses etc...

One day, when I was supposed to be doing something important, I decided to spend several hours scouting out art books (because that's what all the awesome artist/teacher people I love and respect forever tell me). I ordered 4...for $40. The Art of Wall-E book coming up cost $20 (because that's just how cheap you can get those), but the other three books fit in the other $20...which felt AWESOME! and THRIFTY! and ARTISTIC! (I like all those words...)


Anyway - my first Wyeth book. Although its not too long, the book itself has rather large dimensions, which means that the pictures are big and gorgous.

Wall-E came next, and I love it. I've started reading it (which is challenging with all the awesome character sketches and concept art), and I found out something that pretty much BLEW MY MIND but in hindsight should have been obvious.

(on EVE Character design) "At a meeting somebody said that EVE shoudl be like the dove in the Noah's Ark story...We re-jiggered the story so her job is to bring that plant back to the ship and signal that it's safe to go back to Earth." -Jim Reardon, head of story/writer

How insanely beautiful is that?!

And then, when life couldn't get any more awesome...this beauty came. With 65 color and 41 black-and-white illustrations. It's on both N.C. and his grandson, (whose art can be a little freaky) but since the theme was Patriots (I dont know why 'Pirates' is in the title -should be 'portraits', but oh well) and its all war posters, war art, and portraits of presidents/ court sketches, etc, it means that James Wyeth's more eccentric art wasn't involved- which is fine with me.

I wish I could show you the art inside - it's pretty magical. Especially the Lincoln stuff - wrenched my heart out and put it in a blender.

I'm waiting on this next one - by Edward Gorey (if you're not familiar, you may have heard of his alphabet book(?) that starts with "A is for Amy who fell down the stairs") - he does mostly black and white ink work that's both creepy and enchanting - not Tim Burton-esque, by any means but they can impart the same feel - alghough i think Edward Gorey is more elegant at times.


This is the last book he did before he died - I hope to collect the original Amphigorey, as well as Amphigorey Too, and Amphigorey Also.

In the mean time, as books have come available at epic prices, I've also ordered....


Couldn't resist...I love this movie. Art of How to Train Your Dragon is next on my hit list - I've heard it's phenomenal! But I must resist until the price is right...

This man is beautiful. I will write a post on him and his work at some point, because you just can't ignore him.

PART 2: I did it!


I have class Mon-Thurs...so when it gets to Thursday afternoons...I sort of just decide to be lazy the whole weekend. But - NOT THIS WEEKEND! No, I was going to start it off with a bang. Part of this resolution was because of all the books I had to read and get inspired by.


So there's something I've been meaning to for a year. I've had all the supplies, I've researched how to do it, but I just didn't have the courage to squirt oil paint onto a palet then smear it acros a canvas.


Why? Because its TERRIFYING. I'm a fan of teachers telling me how to do things. Not overly adventurous.


But, with a little help from my friend (ok, a lot of encouragement via skype) I did it.


And, for better or worse -  this is the result...

I used this reference picture (because I figured if I started with a cute enough subject that it would give it a jump start assuming everything went horribly.

Not as bad as I thought. I actually had fun. I don't really know what happened with the colors...that's crazy. Although I have a TON to learn about handling this medium, I'm looking forward to more experimentation.


Until I run out of white and have to buy more.


And canvases...


And it's a royal pain to clean up.


ANYWAY! Thanks all for the support - thanks to the government for that lovely tax refund so that I have room in my budget to start my art book collection, and thanks especially to AJH for being there when paint hit the canvas!


[EDIT]


Art of How to Train Your Dragon...bought.


It was toooo good to pass up!


just LOOK AT IT! The cover is enough to convince me that whatever is inside is EPIC!

...maybe i'm not just a book addict...maybe i'm a MAIL addict.