Circular Not Linear

in the style of...Chris Sanders

2012-02-01T00:34:00.000-08:00

Some friends at work decided we should make it a weekly goal to do a self portrait of ourselves in the style of an artist of our choice. This week, the artist I chose was Chris Sanders (Lilo and Stitch). Well...I tried. This was only one sketch, so I SHOULD do more. Maybe I'll add feet and hands this time, haha. More sketching to come....

-M

last day at disney

2011-12-26T16:13:00.000-08:00

Last Wednesday marked my last day working as a caricature artist at Disneyland. Over the span of 4 years, I worked as a cashier, a parasol artist and then finally as a caricature artist. It has been quite an adventure ! I'll miss working with the people who have grown near and dear to my heart and talking to and drawing people from all over the world. I'll even miss directing people to the nearest restrooms in my floral, plum colored smock! I've worked there for the majority of my college career and now that I have graduated from college, I guess it's time for me to move on to slightly greener pastures. I just recently scored a job at an animation studio in North Hollywood, and start January 3rd! I'm looking forward to 2012 and to start on new projects. So for your eyes only, I present to you my last caricature at Disneyland.

Love,

Happy Christmas!

2011-12-22T03:45:00.001-08:00

Blake and I dressed in Christmas gear. I gave this to him a few days ago as an early Christmas gift (and as a way to give his room a little Christmas spirit!) Hope you all have a wonderful holiday!

Love,

star wars request

2011-12-12T01:35:00.000-08:00

I had too much fun doing this caricature! Courtney and Josh. 30 minutes.

extreme caricature...

2011-11-18T22:50:00.001-08:00

well, i guess this isn't TOO extreme. but i tried. thanks david, for modeling.

Courtney as Jane from Tarzan

2011-11-08T01:25:00.001-08:00

about 25 - 30 minutes.

Quick Sketch continued..

2011-11-01T14:51:00.000-07:00

I painted over the sketch using Corel Painter. As you can tell, this isn't fully developed. I'm not sure if I'm going to take this to finish....

quick sketch

2011-10-05T20:11:00.000-07:00

HOWDY

2011-09-23T01:00:00.000-07:00

I did this caricature of my boyfriend and me during my down time at work today. I like the way it turned out! Funny thing is...we actually dressed up as a cowboy and indian for a friend's birthday party a couple of weeks ago.

Thanks for visiting!

-M

more caricatures

2011-09-15T19:01:00.000-07:00

They were such a cute couple! You can't really tell from the picture, but Fiona was wearing these really awesome purple contacts. HyPnOtiC.

Michelle wanted to be turned into "Belle" from Beauty and the Beast for her 19th birthday. She was such a sweetheart and had her caricature done once before on her 3rd birthday.

Thanks for lookin'!

-M

oh hai

2011-09-01T02:22:00.000-07:00

I love doing caricatures of couples. It's just fun to see how people interact with one another. These are quite old (about a month or so). I definitely need to work on exaggerating gesture and form. I'm workin' on it!

My friend Cynthia and her boyfriend Chris.

Nick and Abby, an adorable couple! They were smiling the entire time.

And just for kicks, a caricature I did of my boyfriend and I. I should be posting some pages from my sketchbook and other things besides caricatures. Gotta work, work, work. More things to come!

All Good Things,

-M

neglect.

2011-08-09T21:27:00.000-07:00

Dear Blog,

I have not been a good blogger again. My internship, job and personal life have been keeping me busy! My internship will be ending in about 2 weeks, so after that I will be moving forward to new opportunities! I'm sad to leave, but I'm excited for what lies ahead. Anywho, before I get to personal on here...here's some caricatures from last month! I have newer favorites from the passed week, but for some reason my phone is not letting me send them as attachments to my email. wamp wamp waaammmmppp. **Note: I always ask permission from my subjects before posting their caricatures on my blog.** ENJOY!

-M

Kendall was an absolute doll, and such a polite little lady. About 20 minutes.
Ross, one of my co-workers. He's absolutely hilarious and a math wizard. About 25 minutes.

watercolorin'

2011-06-17T11:36:00.000-07:00

Here's the latest project I'm working on. I'm going to be in another art show in July with some art friends and the theme for the show is Pirates VS Ninjas. When I think of pirates and ninjas I think of cheesey action movies, so I decided to do a drawing (or ATTEMPT to do a drawing) of an action scene. I'm painting with watercolor on a 18x24 sheet of arches watercolor paper. This progress shot is at about 3 hours of work. I probably have about 4 more hours to go. I want the colors to be more vibrant, but the paper is so absorbent that it sucks up a lot of the pigment. I guess I need to use more pigment and less water?

Here's a caricature I did last week of a cool kid named Ian. Him and his twin brother, Ethan, both had their caricatures drawn separately. It was really cool to see how I interpreted Ian and how my co-worker, Kim, interpreted Ethan. I wish I took a picture of Kim's painting because it turned out awesome! This caricature took about 20-25 minutes. **Note** I always ask my guests' permission to use and take photographs of my work before posting.

It's June already!?

2011-06-06T01:54:00.001-07:00

I've been bad about posting lately....I plan on doing some 30 minute speed paintings and scanning in sketches. But for now, here is a caricature from work! 40 minutes.

what an eventful month!

2011-05-27T23:38:00.000-07:00

The month of may has been nothing but fantastic; both in my professional/college and personal affairs. Last Saturday I walked for my college commencement and just yesterday I heard back from a company that I had wanted to intern for, and learned that I got the part! Those are just little snippets of how wonderful this month has been to me. ANYWHO. I apologize for the delay on posts...but here is my finished cyborg self portrait to make up for it (kinda)! I am pretty happy with the way it turned out.

I'm planning on this summer to be filled with lots of hard work, fun, and of course lots of growing. CHEERS!!

All Good Things,

chicken run, finally finished!

2011-05-16T15:15:00.000-07:00

I think I'm finally happy with this illustration. I have been working on this off and on for forever (most of the work came in the passed 2 weeks) but I'm happy with the end result.

more caricatures

2011-05-14T23:46:00.001-07:00

here are just a couple of my favorite caricatures from my shift tonight. the side view of alyssa took about 12 minutes and the caricature of jordan and chelsea took a little under 40 minutes. they were so fun to draw!

fave caricature of last night

2011-05-09T11:57:00.000-07:00

this was the last caricature i did before my shift ended last night. 2 charming little ladies. 40 minutes.

cyborg revamped!

2011-04-28T16:21:00.000-07:00

I decided to redo the cyborg painting because I wasn't liking where it was going. I think a huge part of it had to do with the fact that I started painting way too early. I hadn't really established form or value, and I got lost during the painting process. I still have quite a bit of work to do, but now I feel that I can move forward! I really like the value study. I can't wait to bring out the darkest darks and lightest lights in the final. So far, I'd say this is about 5 hours of work or so.

cyborggg

2011-04-27T10:51:00.000-07:00

I'm turning myself into a cyborg. I changed the angle a bit, but I think I may scrap this and revert to the pose in the original picture or even do a different concept. I'm struggling! But I still have about 3 weeks to work on this. Hopefully this turns out the way I want it to.

hi ho, hi ho!

2011-04-21T01:35:00.000-07:00

This is a scan of an old background drawing I did about a year and a half ago. I don't know why I never went ahead with painting it, because I actually kind of like it. Kind of. It kind of reminds me of Snow White. I'll do some digital color studies soon!

kind of.

Work In Progress

2011-04-18T09:22:00.000-07:00

This is an illustration I am currently working on for my Advanced Digital Illustration class. I'm starting to eliminate initial sketch lines on another layer and block in color. I think the house in the background may be off perspective, so i'll need to fix that before I go into detail.

Flashback Friday

2011-04-15T20:49:00.000-07:00

Hmm...that sounds pretty catchy, eh? Maybe I'll make that a weekly post. Anywho, sorry I haven't posted in a while. I should be posting some new sketches or newer work...but decided to take a walk down memory lane and post an idea for a background drawing I did about a year ago. Looking back at it now, it's quite flat. I think if I were to change it I'd make the plants in the foreground larger, the log more cylinder-ish (new word?) and add more texture to the ground elements. That's enough critiquing for now! I'm going to go enjoy some me ice cream...and continue working on an illustration about a girl dropping her ice cream cone.

-m

finished ballerina

2011-04-07T01:55:00.000-07:00

In an earlier post, I had uploaded some sketches of this character. I actually like the sketches more than this character illustration...this could be cleaned up a bit more and I need to fix the anatomy but I'll throw in the towel for now.

sassy

2011-04-06T09:50:00.000-07:00

Quick sketch from my sketchbook. Look at dem curves!

quick sketch

2011-03-31T23:12:00.000-07:00

Caricaturing...

2011-03-28T13:19:00.000-07:00

I've been working at Disneyland as a caricature artist for about 8 months now (been working in the park for about 3 years), and I realized I haven't taken many pictures of my work. I wish I could show how much I've progressed over the past couple of months. Each day at work is fun and interesting since I get to meet and paint people from all over. I'm really lucky to be working here, and it's such great practice!

This picture was a special request. It was their 2nd year anniversary, and they wanted to be standing outside of the castle in their wedding attire. I accidentally deleted the finished product, and I'm bummed out! It came out really vibrant with green grass, a pink castle and bright fuschia, violet and red flowers. It took about 2 hours to finish. (they didn't stay the whole time, they just left pictures for references.)
This adorable couple was visiting from mexico. I absolutely loved their hats! Took about 40 minutes.

She was visiting from Utah. She told me to give her a "California Tan" haha! approximately 15 minutes.

Meet Lacey

2011-03-24T18:01:00.000-07:00

Having some fun with a new character, Lacey. She's silly, adventurous and her favorite food is ice cream.

In Class Doodle

2011-03-24T17:52:00.000-07:00

This is a quick doodle I did today in class. This boy is fierce! I'll probably angle his arm and axe a little bit to make it look more dynamic.

Poseidon's Lair?

2011-03-16T12:32:00.001-07:00

Here is my finished painting for project 2 for my advanced digital illustration class. It was supposed to be Poseidon's Lair, but looking at it now, I feel like it looks way too feminine. I don't really get a sense of Poseidon, the god of the sea and earth shaker. haha. I'm glad I realized this once I finished with the painting. Oh well. This is due tomorrow and I don't think I'll have time to create a new painting......... This is me bi-failing.

All Good Things,

quick sketch

2011-03-15T19:14:00.000-07:00

A quick sketch of a viking! My friend Jennifer asked me if I'd be interested in making a painting for an upcoming show next month, and the theme is Vikings and Marauders. Fun!

Tiny Dancer

2011-03-09T14:39:00.000-08:00

Developing a character. She is a ballerina in the distant future, a time where humans have mutated and adapted to environmental conditions due to hundreds of years of pollution, nuclear war, drug abuse, and exposure to toxic chemicals. Since it's in the future, I'll probably re-design the costume to make it more futuristic looking. This was hand drawn, scanned, and toned in digital water on Corel. Enjoy!

-M

chicken, re-visted!

2011-03-03T14:40:00.000-08:00

I finally started painting this sketch that I did a while back for illustration friday. I think I'm going to be taking this one to finish and hopefully it'll be going in my portfolio. I'm still struggling with the feathers of the chicken, and have lots of refining to do. I like how it looks as if the boy and his chicken are on fire though! Go, chicken! GOOO!!!

- M

Illustration Friday topic of the week is: swarm

2011-03-01T15:46:00.001-08:00

I guess I'm cheating for this week's illustration friday project, since I'm re-using a painting that I finished about 2.5 months ago. But I think it fit really well with the topic of the week "swarm".

This painting is based on a dream that I had a couple of years ago. I was running through an open field, and a swarm of bees started following me, and slowly started to take over my body. I kept running faster and the bees transformed into beautiful flowers. I painted this in acrylic on illustration board. I hope you enjoy it!

-M

Finished. Finished? Finished...

2011-02-23T15:19:00.000-08:00

This will be due tomorrow morning at 9am. It's finished for now. I'm just kind of tired of looking at it so I need to start something brand new. I've been sketching a lot lately. I'll post some sketches soon.

-M

Poseidon's Lair Concept

2011-02-16T11:35:00.000-08:00

I needed to start a new painting because I got tired of looking at the castle, so I decided to start drawing thumbnails for project number 2. The concept that I'm playing around with is "Poseidon's Lair". I went a little further with one of the thumbnails and drew it on painter and painted with digital watercolor to explore value. Anywho....I'm not sure how I feel yet about Poseidon's Lair, but I'll continue to work up more thumbnails/value studies and hopefully I come up with something better.

-M

Ice, Ice baybehh....

2011-02-10T14:20:00.001-08:00

Here is a new painting I started on today. I'd say this is about 2.5 hours of painting, probably at it's 30% mark. Before that I had done at least 10 thumbnails before I came up with a composition I was satisfied with. The purpose of this assignment is to illustrate "The Castle of the Great Winter Lord". We also had the option of illustrating a treehouse, an abandoned battle ship, an underwater sea lab, etc., but I decided to go with the winter castle. Although I'm still a slow painter (speed will only come with more practice!!) I'm having a lot of fun with it so far. Especially since I'm starting to get a little more comfortable with corel painter. I'll update later on in the week with more progress shots.

-M

Tom Hardy Study

2011-02-01T11:31:00.000-08:00

This was a watercolor study I did a few months ago. At the time I was looking at the works of J.C. Leyendecker and Robert McGinnis, and I think the influence shows in this watercolor sketch. I just love everything about the original Tom Hardy photo. His dapper attire, the lighting, his expression, and of course the dashing Tom Hardy himself. I could have gone a lot darker to add more contrast, but I was kind of enjoying the simplicity of the value range.

Thanks for visiting!

-M

First Day of Advanced Digital Illustration

2011-01-28T00:37:00.001-08:00

Here's a screenshot of my homework assignment that I started today. Our assignment for the next two weeks is to paint 10 apples in Corel Painter 11. 8 apples must be in single media, and 2 apples in mixed media. This is my first time using Corel Painter, and I think I did a decent job painting the apples. The apple to the left was painted in acrylic, and the one to the right is painted with airbrushes. The program is pretty complex and there's a lot of different apps and brushes...it's kind of overwhelming. I think this is a great exercise for starters. 2 apples down.....8 to go. Maybe I can shoot for 15 apples?! ......We'll see.

Recent Work....

2011-01-20T21:18:00.000-08:00

Here are two of my favorite paintings that I've done over the past 3 months. These illustrations are based on dreams I've had. I have 4 more that I have yet to post, but I figure I shouldn't saturate my blog with recent works all at once. The one to the left is called The Mushroom Princess (painted in acrylic on illustration board) and the one on the left is Creature Of The Deep (acrylic on arches.) I plan to turn these dreams into short stories (I mean, they are already short stories, no?) and compile them into a dream book! I'll post more from my dream series later on.

-M

Illustration Friday

2011-01-20T17:45:00.000-08:00

Here's a sketch I did today for Illustration Friday. I started a little late, but I plan on finishing this up in photoshop. I think it's a good start! This week's topic is "chicken".

-M

Updating....

2011-01-07T00:34:00.000-08:00

Wow. I haven't updated in 5 months. I am the worst blogger ever. Of course I've kept busy during the past 5 months, but I haven't been updating like a good blogger should. This image to the left is one of my graphic design assignments. I struggled a lot in that class mainly because digital media isn't really my strong point...and I don't know a whole lot about graphic design.

Anywho. The main point of this assignment was to create a poster to spread awareness on your chosen subject and non-profit organization. My subject was child abduction and I chose to work with Voice For The Children Inc.

My process was very simple. I did about 20 sketches before I came up with the final comp. I did a basic sketch, scanned in the sketch and did all the painting in photoshop.I had a lot of fun with this project and I can honestly say I'm happy with the way it turned out.

Sketchbook. Joseph Gordon McSwoon Levitt.

2010-08-25T13:01:00.001-07:00

approaching the canvas differently..

2010-05-20T00:37:00.001-07:00

I started a new piece about 2 weeks ago and I actually went into painting it tonight. I'm having a lot of fun with this one, it's fun experiementing! I'm about 2.5 hours into the painting and I'm using acrylic on 24x36 wood panel. Hope you enjoy the progress shots.

digital illustration

2010-05-19T18:55:00.001-07:00

First time painting with photoshop. I think the perspective is kind of awkward and I wish i showed more of the cliff. But I enjoyed playing with color on this one.

Finals Week

2010-05-17T23:01:00.001-07:00

Well. It's that time again. Time to get 0-4 hours of sleep every night for a week until all your projects are finished. I had a great semester though, I learned a lot from all my classes. Here's a new painting I did about 4 days ago. It took me approximately 6 hours to paint. I used acrylic on cold press illustration board. I've got more paintings I should be posting but...we'll get to that some other time. Now to continue working until Thursday.......

I've decided the first thing I'll do once summer hits is have a glass of wine and sleep for 2 days straight. Well, probably not the latter, but that would be nice.

Pictorial Background

2010-03-11T09:36:00.000-08:00

This is one of the projects I'm currently working on. It's a background animation from Sleepy Hollow. I'm working with acrylic on cold press illustration board. The size of the painting is about 11x8 inches. I still have to desaturate some of the areas and add more detail. The color is a little off, but at least I have the hue down. I'm shooting to finish this in about 5-6 more hours...hopefully. Gotta work faster!!

Cerebral Playground...

2010-03-10T20:23:00.001-08:00

Was a success! Well, to me it was. There were much more people there than what I had anticipated, and plus it was tons of fun. Here are some photos from the show.

The Artists of Cerebral Playground.

That's me on the left and on the right is one of my best friends, Aubrey.

That lady in the middle is Brenna. Our #1 supporter.

photos courtesy of Katherine Tran

2010-02-13T18:43:00.000-08:00

Some friends and I have this thing....

2010-02-12T13:05:00.000-08:00

A friend of mine brought this to my attention...

2010-01-28T03:07:00.000-08:00

I post nothing but progress shots. haha! I just love documenting my process and watching an artwork evolve. But I guess it isn't very helpful when I show only ONE progress shot to the public and keep the rest in my special vault (aka my laziness to upload.) I'm working on it. At least I'm updating my blog more often, eh?

I decided to start on a new piece today. I have a few ideas of what I want to title it. And yes.... yet another crappy phone pic of my work. Enjoy!

-M

Currently loving...

2010-01-18T23:02:00.000-08:00

Joe Sorren. I just love the colors he uses. It's like the colors he chooses to paint with are from a classical painting with a modern, whimsical and humorous twist.

2010-01-18T22:50:00.000-08:00

Another crappy photo of a progress shot. 16x20 on canvas with acrylic paint. Slowly working and sketching out more ideas.

Hello 2010!

2010-01-14T11:35:00.000-08:00

Sorry, blog. I kind of forgot you existed. To kind of make up for it, I have a (crappy) progress shot of a painting I'm working on for my show coming up in february. It's acrylic on a 16x20 canvas. School starts in 11 days. I'd like to get 2 or 3 paintings finished by then. Actually, I'd love to have 4 paintings finished by then. This means I need to start sleeping less, eating less, going out less, spending less and focus on my work. I CAN DO IT!

digital illustration

2009-12-04T15:34:00.001-08:00

i'd say it's about 60%-70% finished. still need to add in the forest and more detail.

Digital Illustration

2009-10-26T17:45:00.001-07:00

Still have tons of work to do. Illustrator (cs3).

2009-10-02T18:46:00.000-07:00

an old painting i did about 5 months ago. at its 30% mark. It looks as if she has 6 fingers, haha.

2009-09-27T19:03:00.000-07:00

Haven't been able to update for the past....MONTH?! Been super busy with school and I haven't really felt compelled to show you people what I've been doing. I will be updating soon with either OLD work or if it's any good.....MAYBE some new work/rough sketches. I'm still working on my art shyness!

I have a show coming up in February that I am/should be preparing for.

All good things!

-M

2009-09-05T11:29:00.001-07:00

Recently I have been looking at the work of Brandi Milne. I absolutely love her use of color and the way she exaggerates proportion and curvature to reinforce femininity in her figures (left).

It is clear her inspiration for the Season Series is a play off of Mucha's Seasons (right).

Most of her work is very playful and warm, filled with funny and cutesy creatures in dream-like environments. Her work is so beautiful and inspiring! I want to draw all day today.

visit http://www.brandimilne.com for more information on this artist.

HAVE A WONDERFUL DAY, EVERYONE!

-M

2009-09-02T14:10:00.001-07:00

My first attempt at working out the fabric on my dad's shirt turned out looking too sculptural and harsh. Lawrence Yun suggested I soften out the tones with tissue to make it look more like fabric.

It turned out much better, I think. So far this has project has taken me approximately 6 hours...I'm working at a slow pace but I'm getting there. I still have a lot of work ahead of me and I'd say it's about 30% finished. Still have to work in a lot of detail....patience, patience, patience.

-M

Oh you know, just starting yet ANOTHER blog/interactive site.

2009-08-31T20:34:00.000-07:00

Hello, my name is Marielle and I'm an art student and an aspiring illustrator. The purpose of this blog is to post mostly my own personal artwork, sketches, photos and inspirational artwork. I'm currently working on a graphite illustration of my dad and me. I will be updating with progress shots soon....

-M