Talking Heads: Stop Making Sense

So tonight I watched the amaaaaaazing concert-film "Stop Making Sense" and decided I'd take out my sketchbook and a pencil. This is what happened (will replace crappy webcam photos with scanned ones as soon as I can get to a scanner)

 

 

David Byrne got easier to draw after a while - I usually accidentally make him look like my boyfriend - and Tina Weymouth is just captivating. I wish I could have gotten their instruments in properly but the camera angles and the band members move so much. It was great practice though!

Some new things I'm working on.

Abstract things! Made from cardboard pieces I found. They were so interestingly shaped I HAD to have them.

Front side is done, backside is unpainted. Will scan at some point in life.

Smaller than the previous one - front side is done, backside is unpainted. I don't know what to do with the backs of either.

New shape, pink... dunno what I'm going to do with it yet. :D Backside still unpainted/unplanned.

Green shape. Same as pink shape.

So in total... 4, or rather 8 if you count the backsides, new paintings to work on! I'm having a lot of fun with this. I want to tie them together and hang them from ceiling hooks, or something. What do you think?

The portraits I painted.

I scanned them!

 Gina, acrylic on paper, approx 9"x12" © Jessica Silva.

 Rachel, acrylic on paper, approx 9"x12" © Jessica Silva.

Yep!

Um... I'm still here :D

I'm still here, just "burnt out", as some friends have kindly insisted. My brain, which still thinks I'm in college, says "go go go make art draw paint!!!" and my body says "oh but I'm so tired..." Then when I actually do get around to wanting to make something, it just doesn't happen because I've run out of ideas or creativity or something. I know it will come back, but for now I feel kind of hopeless.

However, I did paint two of my friends' Facebook pictures with their permission, just to make sure I still even know how to paint. (please excuse the shitty PhotoBooth pics; printer/scanner won't let me scan because I'm out of one of the CMY inks - will replace later)

This is my former co-worker Gina. I really liked the lighting/shadows she had going on in her photo and also the red beads she was wearing. Considering this was a "speed-paint", I guess it's pretty good! I only made this with two brushes because I wanted it to be a quick paint, so there are no fine details.

This is my friend Rachel. I liked this picture because of the soft, natural  outdoor lighting, her hair decoration, and her big eyes. I had a more difficult time with this painting because of the angle of the face. I also had trouble with the noses for both Rachel and Gina. But with this one I added a lot more "weird" colors such as greens and purples to her very white-pink skin, and I think it turned out okay. Like Gina's picture, I wanted this to be a speed-paint, so I only used a few medium-sized brushes, thus the lack of details/small lines. 

Are these paintings "my style"? I am not sure. I still enjoy outlining things and prefer working on colored backgrounds. I guess this could be my painterly/fine art stuff, versus my cartoon/'illustrator' style. I think if I keep painting I will be able to properly merge these things someday. All I need is a burst of energy and motivation, and some ideas. I hope it comes soon, because I want to update my sites! :)

Mural :D

I got a mural job at Sarni Dry Cleaners on Newbury Street in Boston. I have made quite a few murals in high school with my best friend Vicki, and one during the summer before college, so doing one alone for the first time in 4 years was a challenge. This was on an 8-foot ladder in a 10-foot room, above a fireplace with a mantelpiece. It was a lot of fun to paint, and I hope I can get more commissions from this, because I have a feeling that with practice, murals might be "my thing", especially with a partner (looking at you, Vicki!)...

I apologize for the weird angle - I'm short! :) I chose the color palette as my favorite triad of yellow-orange/red- and blue-violet/green. The boats were fun too... Never painted sailboats before. Also tested my fear of heights. Eek!

This roughly 5.5'x6' mural can be viewed in person, at 245 Newbury Street in Boston - Sarni Dry Cleaners!

Hmm! Art.

So I was thinking even MORE last night after that post and while I was trying to fall asleep. Thinking about art does not mix well with trying to sleep! :) My brain just never stops, sometimes.

Okay so... I figured that I don't have the nicest of scanners (it's NOT a flatbed, only scans about 8"x10"), but I'm definitely going to save up a few hundred for a 11"x17" flatbed. In any case, maybe I will stop neglecting my Intuos3 and my digital programs and give digital art a try. It will be difficult digitally drawing and painting on this tiny laptop screen without killing the battery - and my eyesight! - but I'm willing to give it a try. I would especially like to use Corel Painter... haven't messed around with that enough. Oh, and maybe making some small watercolor shapes and textures and painting on top of those. I have a lot of ideas. Like I said, sometimes my brain just never stops! It's supposed to be very grey and rainy all week and into the weekend, so anything art-related I get done will be great for me. I wonder what everyone else does to find inspiration and ideas for art-making. I feel like it's a big secret that I was left out of, along with a lot of other classmate/school related things...

So spring has sprung, and it's the middle of May. Wow! How did that happen so fast? It's like someone put time on the top of a rollercoaster hill and it's all going so fast from there. It's very weird. Is it going to get even faster as I get older...?

Thoughts.

So I'm all done with college... so nervous but it feels OK for now.

Portfolio Reviews went fine - I talked to some very interesting and helpful people who seemed to like my artwork a lot! Or at least I hope so. Portfolio Show was fine too. Not really what I expected... barely anyone looked at my portfolio and almost nobody had any questions for me (which is fine because it was so loud in there I had to yell at the top of my lungs for anyone to hear me); instead it was sort of a blur of people collecting postcards/business cards. Maybe 10-12 people, tops, flipped through my portfolio. But it's okay. I remember doing the same thing myself last year. It seemed most people like my 'Summer Yoga' postcard, followed by 'Spring'. I ran out of business cards halfway through, and had a lot of leftovers for 'Fall Yoga' - I almost wish I made postcards of 'Winter' instead. The best part for me, of course, was when my boyfriend visited :) ...and the cannoli. Yum!

Proudly, I've been applying to a lot of places lately through many databases and websites, as well as sending out postcards to magazines. I've also just signed up tonight for IllustrationFriday and ArtistADay in hopes of sparking some creativity. This grey and gloomy weather has gotten me down really bad. Oh, and I'm also open to commissions.

I think next I need to start drawing people again, especially men and kids. The former is fine because I have a boyfriend and a dad and a grampy and brothers... the latter scares me a bit because people are so overprotective about their kids in this day and age. I think, maybe, if I go sit in a park with sunglasses and a tiny sketchbook, I -should- be able to get some sketching done... when it stops raining. :) I definitely want to draw Alex though. And my cats... heheh.

Portfolio finished; Promotional packages for guests finished; Future goals and dreams

Well, I'm done with Portfolio and will be graduating in a few weeks (although not walking in Commencement). I have 16 images total, 11 of which I created especially for the Portfolio class. They have all been scanned, printed on nice-quality matte inkjet paper, trimmed to size, and put in a portfolio case. My teacher, Scott, seems happy with everything I've done - which makes me very happy!

Today I spent a long time printing labels and resumés to finish my promotional packages for next week's class's guests. 28 or so art directors and other artbusiness related people will be at our school for our Senior Illustration Reviews... instead of hanging up our work early in the morning and then going away for a few hours, then coming back to take everything down and read 3 written reviews by illustration faculty, we will be showing our portfolios to these people. Very exciting and scary! I am not sure what to think. Anyway, I had a tough time with the Avery clear printing labels (wasted 4 out of 10 sheets, used 3 more which printed fine, but some on the ruined sheets are salvageable) but they truly were worth it. Very professional-looking. The resumé paper is really nice and also worth the money/look professional. I had a fun time putting everything together in 6"x9" catalog envelopes - very repetitive and soothing. I wouldn't mind being paid to put stuff into envelopes and slapping labels on them! I'm weird. :)

So what's next? A list of my goals, hopes and dreams for the rest of the year, in no particular order or importance:

-Get 11"x17" flatbed scanner (for artwork)
-Send promo pieces to art directors/apply for art-related jobs, somehow
-Go job hunting in Wilmington, Winchester, Acton, Concord, Maynard... maybe find a nice part-time job that won't make me hate people all over again ;)
-Move away somewhere with Alex - and take my cats with me!
-Visit a Scandinavian country
-Dimsum or Korean BBQ, or some other really cool and unusual food experience
-Visit Winchester Center via commrail as much as possible because it's pretty there, and easy to get to
-Paint portraits of my friends with their cats (we are all cat people)
-On-site, outdoor painting
-Human figure practicing, maybe on friends or at least with friends
-Continue learning Svenska on RosettaStone
-Make business cards for Vicki's and my possible indoor mural career, to give to my dad's customers at his work
-Clean out closet, donate unwanted clothes, go shopping and replace with interesting yet useful clothes (I seem to suffer from the problem of having so many clothes and nothing to wear)
-Study outer space and mythological creatures for art inspiration
-Yoga and pilates and kettlebell - get back into shape!

New Arts

The last 3 Portfolio illustrations - all images © Jessica Silva (that's me!)

 

"Baby" 12"x16" Acrylic

 "Migraines" 11"x14" Acrylic

 

"The Teapot Lady in a Field of Poppies" 12"x16" Acrylic

These can all be viewed at http://www.coroflot.com/jessicasilva and http://jessicasilva.carbonmade.com/

Please visit!

Fixed Sketches of next 2 projects.

 

Redraw of "Migraines". Color scheme will be all sorts of cools (blues and violets) with one bright hot (red/orange) area, much like "Heartbreak Eye".

 

Cleaned up version of "Teapot Lady". Color scheme will be red-orange/yellow-green/blue-violet.

Any suggestions before I start painting?

Heartbreak Eye + "Concept 1" Work In Progress

 

Heartbreak Eye; 11"x14" Acrylic © 2011 Jessica Silva

Don't forget that you can see all of my illustrations on http://jessicasilva.carbonmade.com/ and http://www.coroflot.com/jessicasilva !

Work In Progress on previously-posted sketch of "Concept 1" (still don't have a real title for it) :

 

 What do you think? About 85% finished...

Next Sketches

Sketch for "Migraines" - another lady I saw while commuting, I think this one is from last summer when I started commuting to Acton. I have some fixing-up to do to this sketch in terms of getting the point across, but this is the general idea. I'm going to do something with her arms/hands interacting with her head.

 

"Teapot Lady" was a robust woman who was very bravely wearing bright red high heels with her black tights and a black skirt with a poppy pattern. She reminded me of a teapot. 

 

 "Concept 1" ... any suggestions for names? I guess it could be about fertility problems, or the biological clock tick-tick-ticking away... or about how some women get super hormonal near "that time of the month" and say silly things that they do NOT mean, like "I want a baby!", to their bewildered boyfriends...

New Stuff

Some new stuff is here to be uploaded!

 

"Finding the Light"

This one is about a lady I once saw at North Station (in Boston). She was honestly a walking gradient. She had light grey hair with black ends, and was wearing a sweater that was grey that faded into black. Her shirt was grey, her skirt was dark grey, and she had black tights and boots. I thought she was really cool, like maybe the kind of middle-aged/older lady I hope to become someday... at least fashion-wise!

 

"Best Friends"

Another lady I saw while commuting on the train. (this may become a recurring theme!) When I saw this lady, all I could think of was champagne and chocolate. Her hair was kind of a champagne blonde, she was wearing a tan/champagne winter coat that was almost the same color as her hair, with brown trim... a brown scarf and champagne/tan gloves - though in this painting, for composition/interest reasons I left her hands bare with nailpolish - khaki pants, tan boots, and I think she was wearing champagne-colored eyeshadow too. She also kind of reminded me of a big Persian kitty. So here she is with that kitty and they're uh... having a fun day at the museum. :)

My next two paintings are also going to be about women I've seen while travelling via commuter rail. Really.

Degree Project & Fixed Images

You may not have noticed, but the images in the posts below this are now a little bit higher-quality (and clickable!), because I care. :P Also, if you can't remember how to get to my Blog here, instead of wondering "wow that's a long name", just type jessicasilva.org ! Easy.

As for updates, I have in addition to my Coroflot site ( http://www.coroflot.com/jessicasilva ) a CarbonMade site: http://jessicasilva.carbonmade.com/

I'm not sure if I've ever shown anyone that's not already close to me, all my Degree Project stuff, but here it is:

 Njörd & Skadi (in the 2011 Senior Thesis Show)

 Odin & Frigg (didn't get in)

 Thor (also not in show)

 Freyja (in the 2011 Senior Thesis Show)

 Sól & Máni at Ragnarok Pt. 2 (would have been in the show, but they ran out of room)

And two "extras":

 Watercolor version of "Thor"

 My first version of Sól & Máni - in watercolor, called "Pt 1"

I had a blast making all of these paintings and along the way learned a whole LOT about Norse mythology and Vikings. I collected a lot of books, most of which I now own, and consider Norse mythology to be a favorite topic of mine.

Continuation of the day's thoughts~

I have to say, I feel really happy and accomplished about these Four Seasons Yoga pieces. That's saying a lot, to me, because usually I feel very self-conscious and negative about my art... which is typical of most art students. Now that they're done, I feel like a tiny part of me is complete - in a good way, of course!

 Quite a few people tell me they prefer my sketches/watercolors over my acrylics - this statement bothers me but I'm trying not to let it get to me too much. I would rather make something I consider "finished" and am happy with, and in a medium I am happy working with, than to struggle with something I basically only use for "small, quick sketches" and never turns out the way I want, nor creates the colors or effects I want. I'm taking a watercolor class this semester and I really dread it sometimes because I just feel like it's not for me. Yes, I am learning new things from it, and yes I suppose that I'm OK at it... but it's just not for me. I don't feel myself in my paintbrushes or the paint when I use watercolor...

Music is important for me to listen to when I'm making art. I listen to mostly 80s music, and mostly "weird" 80s music at that. Not usually the stuff you'd hear on the radio. And even more at that, I especially like The Sugarcubes - especially their Icelandic album "Illur Arfur!" - they're so much fun. Björk's "Gling-Gló" album is a jazz album that's something I frequently put on when I'm feeling both happy and productive. Other than that, it's almost always "random/DJ" mode.

Yoga Four Seasons continued/finished.

 

Finally! My Four Seasons of Yoga series is finished. This is Winter.

Major Update!

Hi everyone! I'm not dead.

I've been very busy with my remaining time at school (final semester- woohoo & eek at the same time!!!)


I just uploaded a bunch of images to my Coroflot Portfolio site: http://www.coroflot.com/jessicasilva but I will put some images up here, too, to show you what I've been up to.

"Summer Yoga"

"Spring Yoga"

And finally, "Autumn Yoga"

All images are 16"x20" acrylic on canvas and are © Jessica Silva (that's me!)
 They will be my promotional mailer postcards for potential clients as well as visitors to the upcoming Senior Illustration Portfolio Night in May at MassART.

Progress

Today I've been sick. I went to bed around 10:30pm and woke up at 10am - that's how I know I was sick. I never sleep like that. So yeah, woke up with an awful headcold and have been kind of "out of it" all day... but that doesn't mean I didn't do anything with my time! :) I signed up for all sorts of sites - including this one - just to kick my butt into gear for applying to internships and/or jobs. I'm proud of myself for that one. Hopefully I'll check sites for 20-30 mins a few times a week, apply... will set up a resume soon, and photograph/scan/display art here and my other sites. Yay~!

Hello world~

I've got this here now - replacing my (very) old and dead LiveJournal and will post sketches, ideas, thoughts on life... maybe even finishes.