Boxing Day Still Life

 No better way to spend a day than painting with friends.

 Here's some details. I had troubles with the apple, which I lifted and repainted 3 times. I think it looks ok now though.

Well, we were getting hungry, so I short-handed the flowers. I'm ok with abstract elements in a representational painting though. I enjoy spattering the paint around and letting it do it's thing.

Okie, that's all for now. Hope you all are enjoying your holidays!
Tiff

The Messenger

My illustration for this week's Illustration Friday is the postal worker! Dear postal worker, thank you for delivering cards and gifts from family and friends to my mailbox. :)
Dear family and friends, Thanks for sending them :) Happy Holidays and hugs to you!
Dear readers, thanks thanks thanks for checking out my blog, even though I have sucked-out-loud at keeping it updated. I know one measly painting wont make up for it. If it helps, my New Year's Resolution is to update once a week. YES, Once a week!! It's not much, but I think I just MIGHT be able to do it!
Anyway, here are some details: 

I'm thinking of switching out of cold pressed watercolor paper and using hot press, which has less tooth. Wish me luck :) I hear hot press is a total bitch to work with. Any tips? Gimme! :)

Festively yours,
Tiffanny

Figure Drawing!

 My blog sorely needs updating!! Been working too much, but I can't help it! My job is so fun. I'm making a marketing video for Trivia Adventure, and so all I did over my Thanksgiving break was draw storyboards. I know it's for a little marketing video. It's not for something huge and epic like Cars 3, but somehow I feel like I'm still doing the coolest job ever. I'm storyboarding!!! Plus, Trivia Adventure is kind of my baby :) I like making little monsters and creatures for it. I can't wait for you all to see the latest level, because I really tried to surpass the older levels in art department. I will let you know when it's released!

Anyway, my new year's resolution is coming early. I can't keep neglecting going to figure drawing. I will go at least 3 times a month, damn it. You know how you do scales with music as practice? You do figure if you're wanting to be an animator/character designer, and so that is what I have to do.

 these are one minute poses. I did about 40 of these and these are the only 3 that I really liked. Gotta work on those one minutes!!!!!

Until next time!
Tiff

Trivia Adventure Concept Art!

 I painted this for our office space :) Our Trivia Adventure "mascot" and her cat, Action Kitty.

details:

Anyway, back to animations!

Figure Drawing!

I have been attending figure drawing sessions but I haven't been posting my drawings, but I'll try to be good about it and keep this blog updated better. Anyway, here are my favorites from the last couple of sessions. Each pose was 15 minutes done in crayons.

I love going figure drawing! I used to go to 2 sessions on Sunday, a session on Monday, and another one on Thursday. Ah, those were the days. Now I'm lucky if I attend once a month! I have to rearrange my life a bit to squeeze more sessions in.

ps. sorry for the poor scan quality :\

Illustration Friday - Fuel

I took a much needed day off today. I had THE perfect day. I slept in until 12:30. Then my husband and I took the dogs to Red Bud Isle dog park, where I sketched and sketched as dogs played around me. Then we went to a fruit stand and I ate mangoes till my belly was distended. Then I took a 2-hour nap. Then I did a 30 minute workout video, then had a big dinner of pasta, caramelized onion, pesto, and kale shreds. Then I painted this for Illustration Friday. Food is a body's fuel!! Anyway, I feel awesome.

I know my painting is a big kerplosion of color. Is it cheesy in the way Rainbow Brite is cheesy?? (I loved Rainbow Brite as a kid. I think she's cool.)  Maybe it is... I hadn't touched my watercolor paints in so long I wanted to use every color!

Have a nice day.
Tiff

Trivia Adventure Finally Launched!

Hello readers! Finally, after months and months of long hours and hard work, Trivia Adventure has been released! Please join the adventure on Facebook!

So, I got to do a ton of art and animation for the game. Particularly, the levels, characters, monsters, town buildings, and other misc art. I will probably start posting some of my favorite pieces of art here when I get the time.

I am very proud of Steel Penny Games, the company I work for. Steel Penny Games is a very very tiny company with only 6-8 of us working regularly on the game, and I'm in awe of how much we did in the last year. Under the pressure of having my art featured prominently in the game, I think I've improved as an artist under their roof, and hope to improve even more!

Announcing............ Trivia Adventure!!

Y'all know how I've been absent from my blog? Well THIS is why. I've been working on the coolest, newest, most freakin' awesomest Facebook game by Steel Penny Games... TRIVIA ADVENTURE!!!!!!!!!

It's coming out SOO SOON and I will make a new post to announce that as soon as I can! Until then.... save this as your desktop background. Your coworkers will be like... Hey! That's cool! I want one too! And you can be all "I know, right?!!" Then send them to my blog or the Steel Penny Games website, where they can get their very own desktop background of hot girl with cat... and oh that guy in the background.

I hope you adore your new desktop background :) And I know you will love the game when it's released. SOON!!

Tiff

ps. AND YES, she IS holding up a brain wearing funny glasses and a fake nose.

My Sketchbook!

I love my sketchbook (Fabriano Classic Artist's Journal). But it is VERY ANNOYING TO SCAN. Anyway, this post is dedicated to my friend TED!, who if he didn't guilt me into doing it, I would probably still not have updated my blog, because I am SO BUSY! I'm preparing for two conferences right now. The SCBWI conference where I will be part of a Q&A panel and giving a short presentation, and the Game Developer's Conference, for which the game I'm working on has to be polished, and have slick marketing materials. I can't wait to show you guys the t-shirt I designed for the game!!! My first t-shirt! I believe I will be allowed to post up some art after the game launches, which should be before Oct 10, when the conference is.

So I have pet ducks now. Some wild ducks flew into our pond and my Toller tolled them. Now we are friends. Me or my husband visit and feed them everyday and feed them cracked corn. There has to be actual crack in the corn, because they wont eat anything else! I tried oats, peas, carrots - no. It has to be cracked corn or they turn their beaks up at it.

I'm kind of proud of the variety in my sketchbook. There's people, animals, and cars. There was a time where I would freeze if I had to draw a car.

Anyway, I'm getting fat. (At least I feel like it). All this overtime is preventing me from exercising as much as I should. So I'm going to go ride my stationary bike now. I hope you like my sketches!

tiff

The Amy Farrier Interview - "Work. Mess up. Work more."

Let me tell you about Amy. She's a friend and also an Austin illustrator. She's modest, smart, supportive, and talented. I adore her! Here is some insight into the person, her art, her process, and more!

1) What is your least favorite color and why?

I think every color can be beautiful in the right spot. I suppose my least favorite, as someone who works in watercolor, would be muddy colors (where you try so hard to create something interesting but end up with an opaque mess).

2) Have you ever fallen in love with a pencil? If yes, Tell me about the pencil. If no, tell me about what Mr. Right Pencil would be like.

I don't think I've ever had a special relationship with a pencil, though I do like to keep some sharpened 3Bs ready for action. Now pens, on the other hand, that's a whole different story. Staedtler pigment liners used to be my go-to pen for linework, but I haven't been able to find them anywhere the past couple of years. I switched over to nibs and ink. My favorite nib is one I found on etsy as a set of earrings made from antique British Royal Post Office pen parts. Turned out to produce the exact sort of line I was looking for; go figure!

3) Do you like hoarding art materials, or do you purchase things like paper and sketchbooks as you complete them? 

I definitely love to open a drawer and have plenty of watercolor paper of different weights/shades/sizes just ready to be painted on. And art supplies are so beautiful that it's hard not to become a collector (bottles of ink, paintbrushes, colored pencils...). I'm also lucky enough to live a few minutes drive from Jerry's Artarama, so I may be a little more stocked up than your average person; but not in a scary way.

4) If you could be a character in a children's book, who would you be, and why? 

Well, maybe Mary in The Secret Garden or Alice of Wonderland. I've always loved the idea of stumbling into another world or finding one behind a locked door.

5) If you left your sketchbook at the San Antonio Zoo by accident, and you only realized it half-way to Austin, would you drive back for it?

Unless is was for a specific project, I wouldn't go back for it. Mostly my sketchbooks are just caught moments or scribbles, and I like to think of a kid picking it up and thinking he or she had found something cool. Or even better, maybe the monkeys would discover their portraits and be excited.

6) When draw in your sketchbook, do you draw in order, from page 1 to the end? Or do you jump around? Do you date your entries?

I do draw in order. Though sometimes I skip the first page if I'm feeling creatively blocked by all the white space, then come back and do it later. Or never. And I rarely remember to write down the date, but I wish I did.

7) You are painting something. You need a number 8 brush. Unfortunately, you can only find a number 4 and a number 12. Do you go smaller or bigger? Why?

Bigger! It may be less perfect, but chances are that if I use a smaller brush, I'll focus too much on detail and lose spontaneity.

8) How many colors are in your palette? Which ones?

Seriously way too many to name, plus I've got two different watercolor palettes. But the colors I use most often are: cobalt blue, French ultramarine blue, yellow ochre, burnt and raw sienna, transparent yellow, alazarin crimson, scarlet lake, and viridian green. And sometimes Payne's gray.

9) Who is your favorite living illustrator?

Well, I have so many favorites, but my biggest influence is Lisbeth Zwerger. I happened to look at a lot of her work when I first started up with watercolor in 2006; she's a master watercolorist, deeply original, draws incredible animals and people, and is always developing her style. And she's illustrated pretty much every fairy tale out there! 

10) If you could give one tip to aspiring illustrators in 5 words or less, what would it be?

Work. Mess up. Work more.

11) Brag about your illustrations. Tell me what you love about your own work.

Hmmm, this is a seriously hard request because anything I say sounds, well, braggy. How about if I tell you what I love about working. I love when the watercolor and linework come together to create the picture I have in my mind, and sometimes it does! And capturing funny, imaginary moments with animals (deer in smoking jackets, cranky cat pirates with a mission). Taking traditional watercolor subjects like birds and fruit, but making them look modern. Stuff like that.

Watercolor Time Lapse Painting of Illustration Friday's topic "Influence"

Hi readers :)
I have been so busy lately. I meant to post this up last week but I've been working a lot. It's cool tho, cos I like the job. I'm making art for a Facebook game! I can't wait to tell you more about it, but it's not ready yet. Soon though, I hope.

Anyway, click here for the time lapse video of last week's Illustration Friday painting.

I've been trying to nurture two different careers in art. One is in video games and one is in watercolor illustration. It's been kind of hard juggling both. Needless to say I am never bored. I always have something to do, something to work on. I guess that's not a bad problem to have when you like what you do. I am exhausted everyday, but I go to bed happy and ready to make more art the next day :)

Anyway, I apologize for not being as regular at posting as I was in the past. I have been sketching a lot, but nothing comes out post-worthy :) Unless you want to see really sloppy sketches. Do you?

Tiff

Illustration Friday - Influence

 The topic of this week's Illustration Friday is Influence. So who do you think influenced whom? :)

And here are some details:

I took a time lapse video of this painting so I will post that up soon too!

Anyway, I hope you liked the painting!
Tiff

Illustration Friday - Obsessed

Hi everyone, it's time for Illustration Friday again! The word of the week is OBSESSED!!! Can you tell what this little girl is obsessed with??

And here's some details:

Anyway, I hope you like it. I've been using Illustration Friday to build a portfolio of children's book illustration portfolio pieces. It is very slow going but I think I finally have enough pieces to send publishers promotional material. Now all I have to do is think up some sort of promotional material that they wont just toss in the trash. (Traditionally, illustrators send post cards) ANY-HOO, I hope you like my painting. (I'm talking about you, you unicorn-obsessed little red head girl. You know who you are.)

THANK YOU FOR VISITING MY BLOG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
tiff :D

Watercolor - Gesture

This serves both as my "Illustration Friday" and "Watercolor Wednesdays" piece. The Illustration Friday word is "gesture", hence.......

"Watercolor Wednesday's" topic is "Baby's First....." Well, if you've followed my blog you know that I'll find any excuse to put some sort of animal in the piece, so I decided that the dog can be baby's first guardian angel. I purposely positioned the baby's swirl hair over the puppy serve as puppy's halo. If you look super close, you'll see her dog tag has little wings drawn on it, designating her very important job. Here's a closeup:

Anyway, I really dont know if the puppy succeeds at keeping the stupid baby from getting attacked by the blender. I will leave that up to your imagination :) hehehe You tell me what you think happens!!!!!!

Tiff
PS, dog was modeled after my dog Gracie, a Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever, who is actually a pretty cruelly indifferent dog. I once took her to Barton Springs to play water fetch with her. I decided to test and see what she would do if I pretended to drown. As I "drowned" she picked up her ball and took it to my husband instead. She didn't even think twice!!

Watercolor Still Life of a Violin

This painting had tons of unhappy accidents along the way. Violins are a challenge!!

Illustration Friday - "Stay"

I thought would be cute to have a tiny little kid be the boss of a big giant Great Dane. In retrospect I think I could have made the dog's head even bigger.

Here's a closeup detail shot.

Okie Dokie, hope you like it!!!!!!!
Tiff

When I Was A Stupid Kid - DO NOT LAUGH

 When I Was A Stupid Kid, I would often find myself on the receiving end of a hearty chew-out by my mom.

The short pauses between each mini-sermon was the hard part. The uncomfortable silence felt like forever.

O M G she just farted. Dang that was loud. And funny. Crap. Too funny. But I can't laugh now!!!! I'll be signing my own death certificate.

 OH PLEASE, may I be excused?! NO!!!!!!! She's starting up again!!!!!!

 JUST HOLD IT IN!!!!!! Use will power! Control your facial muscles!!!!!!

 WHEN WILL THIS END?!?!

 Finally! Another second and I'd be dead!

And that was a chew-out that was well worth receiving, When I Was A Stupid Kid.

Tiff
ps. I know fart jokes are low-brow, but as comedian Lewis CK once said, "You don't have to be smart to laugh at a fart, but you'd have to be an idiot not to."