September Wrap Up

(Doesn't have a title yet)
Pastel and paper
2014

Things have been a little bananas the past few weeks. I got the flu for the first time in a long time and have been a gigantic baby about it. I've been pretty healthy for the past year and a half so I was disappointed in my immune system for succumbing to illness. I called in sick to work on Wednesday (my first call-in since I started working there) and probably should've called out yesterday and the day before but since I'm only part time I don't get any sick days so I'd have to use up my vacation time which I'm not willing to do. That vacation time is MINE. And I already know what I want to do with it...(insert pause for dramatic effect)

My very dear friend Michelle has invited me to come along with her to Thailand this winter while she visits her mother. I am beyond excited about this! It doesn't even feel real. I've only had my passport for less than a year and I'm already going to knock another continent off my list! The flight will be hella long (24 hours) but it'll be worth it. I've always wanted to visit Bangkok; it's incredibly beautiful and from what I've read, there's lots and lots of things to do. Michelle's mother has an apartment there so we'll have a place to stay and a very good friend of mine, Shong, lives there and is going to show us around a bit. I'm SO looking forward to finally meeting him in real life. Shong was the very first fan of my comic strip "Marksville" and we've been internet friends for nearly 8 years. I've been wanting to meet him for so long and can't believe it's finally going to happen! Right now we're just waiting for Michelle's vacation time to get approved and then I'm going to talk to my boss about it. I should have more than enough PTO hours by that time (we plan on going the first week of February) so hopefully he won't have a problem with me requesting a week off.

Wedding Heirloom Embroidery (a gift)

Another exciting thing that's happened recently is my darling friend, Stacee, got married on Saturday and I was in her bridal party. It was my first time being a bridesmaid and I felt so honored that she asked me to be a part of her special day. The day of the wedding, though, we had a huge storm and it rained so hard I could barely drive. Michelle came along as my date and I thought I knew where I was going but as usual I had no clue and got us SO LOST! I realized things had gone awry when there were cows right outside the window. I had no memory of the venue being out in farm country when I'd gone there for the rehearsal. Michelle GPSed where we were and I had gone like 20 miles in the WRONG DIRECTION. Aiya! Luckily, we got there safe and sound (we saw so many wrecks and cars that had driven right off the road) but I felt pretty crummy being so late. But Stacee looked so BEAUTIFUL--OHMYGOODNESS! She looked like a princess. I wish I had pictures to post but I only took Instax photos. I'm usually the one taking 10 billion photos and get so busy with that that I don't really experience the moment as much as I should and I didn't want that to happen this time; I wanted to look at everything and remember everything with my own eyes instead of through a lens. So I'll just have to wait until Stacee's photos are on Facebook then snitch some. It was so nice being right there during the ceremony and getting to hear all of the vows and see all of the emotions and everything. I'd never been so close at a wedding before and you miss a lot of that stuff when you're sitting 20 feet away. It was so hard not to cry through the whole thing. I was so touched too when they brought me a vegetarian meal made just for me. Stacee is pure ANGEL!

In other news, I've been taking a bit of a break from my embroidery work the past 2 months and have been focusing on my illustration work. So far I've completed two full color pastel drawings in a series of kitten portraits (as seen above). I'm nearly done with the third and will be starting a fourth soon. I've been wanting to get more comfortable working in color so this has been a great opportunity for me to practice. So far I'm very happy with the progress I've made and feel like I'm learning more with each drawing. Once I have some decent photos of the rest of the drawings I'd like to start selling them as prints in my Etsy shop (www.iggystarpup.com) and then get them framed so I can perhaps show them around Phoenix. As much as I enjoy embroidery it's been a nice change to draw again. I love going to the art supply store to pick up new pastel colors. Soon I'm going to have every shade of Nu Pastel they have! After I'm finished with my kitten series I'd like to draw some other animals as well; right now I'm thinking a pug, bunny, and a deer. I could draw animals in pretty dresses forever to be honest.

I said in my last post that I was going to post some new hoops, so here's my newest pieces (they're all Adventure Time hoops). BUMPS!

Homies Help Homies
SOLD

Marceline the Vampire Queen
$33.00



Princess Bonnibel Bubblegum
$33.00

Earl of Lemongrab
$40.00

LSP "Every Party Is My Party"
SOLD

If I ever feel better

Today I am trying to motivate myself to draw. I haven't done a serious drawing in over a year and considering I went to school for drawing...that's pretty bad. However, since it's been that long since I've drawn anything I'm kind of scared to draw again. What if I can't draw anymore? What if I never really could draw in the first place? What if this is all a dream?

I'd like to do a drawing of Bag End so I've been looking at a lot of cover art of the Hobbit. Ideally, I'd like to draw it in a van Gogh-esque style but that might be a little tricky with pastels. All of my acrylic paint dried up years ago (I used to be a painting major) and I don't have the funds to buy new paint so that's out. I do have some watercolors but I've never been very skilled with wet media. Maybe if this pastel drawing comes out okay I'll try it with watercolors. Maybe.

In other news, I went to a party on Friday with all my mates. It was a mustache themed party. There was a game where you had to identify the celebrity just by their mustache and I won. I guess I'm a mustache expert. I'll have to add that to my list of talents. As usual, I was the only one not drinking since I'm the quintessential "wet blanket" at parties. By about 11:30pm everyone was pretty smashed and before I knew it they were all singing at the top of their lungs and dancing to Ke$ha. Being a hipster, I'm not that into "popular" music so I had never heard any of her music. Me and my friend Heather aren't really into dancing so we were both sitting on the couch looking uncomfortable. It wasn't very long before everyone grabbed her and made her dance and I worried that my turn was next. For once my worries were justified because soon enough I was being dragged off the couch and thrown into the center of the dance party. At this point I had no other choice--I had to dance. For the first time in my 29 years on this planet I danced in public and I wasn't that bad at it. It's not like I don't ever dance, in fact, I dance quite often but only in the privacy of my own home. At least I wasn't forced to sing. That I cannot do. It's not that I can't sing, it's just that I won't. So don't ask.

Anywho, tomorrow I'm going to see one of my favorite bands. I haven't been to an actual concert in ages. I've been to plenty of shows but not concerts. I'm usually too cheap but I figured since my birthday was coming up that I'd treat myself to a real concert. It should be fun. 

Now back to the drawing board for me--LITERALLY!

The Return of the Blogger

So I'm pretty much the worst blogger of all time. It's been almost a year since my last post. So what have I been doing all of this time? Well, a lot actually. Thanks for asking! I graduated summa cum laude from ASU in May of 2011. I was told that my GPA was in the top percentage of my graduating class so I'm very proud of that. Graduating from college was my greatest accomplishment thus far and I'm very happy that I went back after such a long absence. Although it was hard to return to school knowing that I would be older than the majority of my classmates I think that I went at the perfect point in my life. I was more mature, had some life experiences under my belt and felt really motivated to prove myself as an artist. I even surprised myself with my art; I've always been really insecure about my abilities as an artist and was lacking confidence. However, after every semester my style emerged just a little bit more and my skills developed further with each new drawing. Since graduation I've been working on my portfolio and even discovered some new crafts. Here's some examples of my post graduation work:

"The Queen"

22 x 30 inches

charcoal on paper

"Selena and Bruce"

22 x 30 inches

charcoal on paper

"Mee and Myne"

22 x 30 inches

charcoal on paper

"Dear Harry"

22 x 30 inches

charcoal on paper

I'm about 60% finished with a new piece which will be my first illustration of the new year so I'm excited to post that when it's complete. Back in November a coworker of mine saw that I dabbled in polymer clay and asked me if I could make a cupcake brooch for her daughter. I've never been good with any type of ceramics and didn't feel comfortable enough with the materials to make her a piece so I opted to make a felt cupcake brooch instead. I make plushies so I have a lot of experience working with felt but I'd never made a brooch before so I had to do some internet research first. It turns out that felt brooches are really simple to make so I whipped her up a little cuppie cake brooch. She loved it and told everyone at work about it and before I knew it, I had a small business going! I've sold dozens of brooches and found a talent that I didn't know I had. It's also really rewarding being able to complete a piece from start to finish in 2 1/2 hours (my illustrations take much longer--around 30-35 hours). Sure, I'm not getting rich off of my art (yet...) but it makes me so happy knowing that people like my art enough to buy it. Here's a few examples of my pins:

Psyduck Brooch

Meowth Brooch

Butterfree Brooch

Koffing Brooch

Lately I've been making Pokemon pins exclusively. They're so much fun to make and there's so many Pokemon now to choose from. I've recently discovered embroidery hoop art as well so tomorrow I'm going to take a crack at it. I'm really excited to try something new. Also, I just got in all of my shipping supplies so tomorrow I also plan to FINALLY open up my Etsy shop. I will have prints and pins for sale and hopefully some hoops soon too. So so excited to start using my degree and pursue my dream of someday being a full-time artist. I hope people like my art and that my items will sell. Cross your fingers! I have more developments that I'd like to catch everyone up on but that'll have to wait til another day. I'm getting ice-hands from typing too much >__< 


P.S. you can find my Etsy shop at: www.iggystarpup.etsy.com

Oopsies!

Ok...so I've done a really shitty job of updating this blog :S But in my defense I've been extremely busy, like, crazy busy.

It's amazing how this semester just zoomed by. At times I felt like it would kill me but now that it's coming to a close I don't feel ready for it to end. Next semester will hopefully be a walk in the park since I'm only taking 8 credit hours and I'll only have homework in one class but again, that's what I said about this semester. 

I'd like to find a better job in January as well since I'll have my weekends free. It's a bit of a bummer because the job I have now is really easy and I generally like the folks I work with but the pay just isn't cutting the mustard. I really need to scrimp and save this upcoming year so I can get the fudge out of Arizona. Mentally, I'm already in Washington. I'm SO over the desert. To be honest though, the prospect of moving again on my own is pretty scary and causing me a bit of anxiety...Ok, a lot of anxiety. When I moved to Oregon I at least had quite a bit of savings built up so I had time when I got there to formulate a more solid plan. However, this time I won't have as much money and I'm still not sure what direction I want to take with my career. I still intend on continuing with my comic strip but who knows if they'll ever become commercially successful so I need to figure out someway to put food on the table. Ideally, I'd like to get a job in illustration but I have no clue how you even get into that field. Plus there are so many talented people out there to compete with...Ugggghhhh...>.< That's why I've been trying to just live one day at a time and not worry about the future so much. I'd like to think that everything will just work itself out if I continue to work hard.

Let's switch back to the present though for the time being. This semester I've been working on a series of drawings that have turned out to be my best work to date. Unfortunately, I don't have any photos to post of them since two are still in progress and the other two are on display in the School of Art Building, but I plan on showing them in my senior exhibition so I should have photographs of them in the not too distant future. This semester, like last semester we had to do a series of drawings that were all tied together by a common theme. Last year I did a series featuring birds and since I enjoy doing illustrations that involve animals so much I chose cats this semester. It's been quite a battle with my professor though since she's more of an abstract artist. Since I first proposed the idea for the series she's been giving me hell and teasing me daily in front of my peers. It's funny that she gives me such a hard time when I know I'm one of her favorite students. I wish she could just have faith in me and trust my instincts. I'm not a slacker and I put a lot of thought and energy into my work; so she should know that I'm not going to produce any shitty, half-assed drawings. I don't see why drawings featuring animals are looked at as being "cliche". Personally I adore animal art, specifically cat art. Cat art has existed in every culture in every era for thousands of years. They're very respectable creatures in my humble opinion so I don't understand how cats as a subject is any different from trees or flowers or portraits or anything. 

Despite all of her bitching though, she gave me A+s on my first two drawings and during our last critique gave me quite the compliment. She said, "These drawings are a perfect example of what you can accomplish with just a piece of charcoal and an eraser." I felt very proud after hearing that since I've struggled with my confidence as an artist for so long. I feel like I'm finally starting to get comfortable with my style and that my artwork really is something special. 

I just hope that I'll continue to be motivated after I graduate. It's so easy to get distracted and caught up with your "day job" and life's everyday stresses. But I digress...


Time to get back to work and finish up these drawings :3


Later interneters! 


~Courtney~

Back to School Part II

Today was like a bonus first day of school since it was my first day in my other two classes. It was a pretty good day except that having all afternoon classes isn't turning out to be as awesome as I imagined. Sure, it's cool to not have to be up at 8am everyday but it sucks getting home super late and then not having time to arse around before bed. And I did wind up getting that job which seems like it's going to be a morning job so I have to get used to being up at 8am on the weekends anyway. Aiya! It'll be nice to have extra money but at the same time I got so used to having my weekends free to work on comics. Now I'm going to have to try to get my comics done during the week. I guess this will be a long overdue lesson in time management.

Back to today though...so I had Drawing IV then my anthropology class "Women in other Cultures". I've had the same professor for drawing for the past two semesters so I'm pretty used to her and luckily she thinks I'm charming. She can be a little bit tough but it forces me to work harder. My drawing has really improved since she's been my teacher even though I complain constantly about how nit-picky she is. A couple of my buds are in that class as well so it's good to see familiar faces. I was worried about my anthropology class since I haven't taken a non-art related class in quite some time but it seems like it's going to be pretty cool. There's like, 150 people in that class and only about 6 of them are dudes. You'd think that more dudes would want to learn about babes in other cultures but whatevs.

Anywho, I start my new job on Friday and I'm kind of nervous. I always get nervous trying new things. But since the training period is only 2 1/2 days I figure it must be a pretty easy job. It better be considering they're only paying me peanuts. It fits well with my schedule though and the store is only about 2 minutes away from my house. I've had the hardest time trying to find a job too so beggars can't really be choosers. The manager said they'd hire me as "seasonal" and if things "work out" that they'd keep me permanently. I'm not too worried about being fired mostly due to my general awesomeness and knowhow. I just hope the people who I'm going to be working with are nice. I hate working with creeps. Well, I'll report back post first day of work. :)

School of Hard Knocks

On August 19th I will be starting my fourth and second to last semester at ASU. Going back to college after a three year absence has been a bit of a challenge but I think it's been really good for me as well. Ever since I dropped out of college in 2006 (I preferred to call it "taking a break" at the time) it's been bothering me...haunting me even. My whole educational career I was a straight A student, well, there were a few Bs in there, who dreamed of going to presitgious schools in far away cities but when I got to high school I developed almost crippling anxiety and all of my hopes of going to an ivy league school went out the window. By my senior year of high school even the thought of driving to Tempe everyday to ASU so frightening to me that I ended up at community college instead. I like to believe that everything happens for a reason though and if I hadn't gone to community college I never would have met my first love. Even though this love didn't turn out the way I had hoped it would (at the time) I'm still glad that I met that person because he helped me overcome a lot of my phobias and insecurities. My life did get a little topsy-turvy when this relationship came to an end but I think that now I'm (finally) back on track. In the past few years I've realized that I don't need anyone to take care of me and that I'm fully capable of taking care of myself. I'm still hopeful that love will find me again in the future but for now I'm trying to learn how to be happy on my own. Of course I do have many incredible people in my life that love and support me so I'm never really alone.

When I made the decision to go back to school I also made a goal for myself that I would maintain a 4.0 GPA throughout the rest of my education and so far I've achieved that goal. Before I went back to school I was having some confidence issues both in my general intelligence and as an artist but since I've returned to school I've regained a lot of that lost confidence. And it's funny that even though I'm naturally a shy person, a wall-flower even, I've managed to become a favorite of all of my professors. I can't really explain why but they've all taken a shine to me. I'm most certainly not the most talented artist in my drawing classes but in the past few semesters I think I've definitely developed my own personal style (other than my comics ) and I'm very proud of that. During critiques my classmates can instantly identify which pieces are mine and that makes me happy. I might be a little O.C.D. when it comes to my drawings (each one takes about 9-15 hours) but I've always been a very meticulous person and I think the little details are very important in my art. So even if a professor doesn't like my piece they can never say that it was because it was half-assed or that I didn't put enough time into it.

When I first moved back to Phoenix from Portland (I moved out of my parents house in spring of 2008 to Portland, OR and lived there for 6 months--and yes, I am a bit of a late bloomer as far as moving out goes) I thought that 2 1/2 years of schooling seemed like forever but in actuality it's FLOWN by. I'm even kind of sad that I didn't get to take all of the classes I wanted to take. I would've liked to have taken a painting class, graphic design, printmaking, photography and many many more art history classes but now I've almost run out of time. And since I'm a senior, my last two semesters have already been planned out so I know exactly what classes I'll be taking this last year of college.

So before I wrap this up I'd like to post a few of my favorite drawings I've done thus far:

                                                                          Birds #1

charcoal on paper

Birds #2

charcoal on paper

Octo-gumball

charcoal on paper

Buddhist Culture Series

chacoal on paper

Coral Reef Series

charcoal on paper

*I'm pretty lazy about photographing my work but I'll gradually post more drawings, both old and new, later on.