Four Years

SO exactly one week and a day ago I graduated! I am DONE with High School! (Yay!)

                                                   (My first and last day of school!)
I started this blog when I was a freshman, and it's honestly a miracle that this thing is still up. I have almost deleted it multiple times. I mean, I wrote and drew some embarrassing stuff back then! However, I saw this tweet today and it made me think of why I've kept this blog so long:

"Don't be ashamed to keep your bad stuff. After all, you did it. It is your history and worth studying."—Robert Henri #arttips
— Giuseppe Castellano (@pinocastellano) February 20, 2014

My art has changed a LOT since my freshman year. For one thing, I gave up my Anime/Manga Artist dream (thank goodness!!) and secondly I started mainly using watercolors. However, as terrible as I think my art was back then, I loved it and thought it was AWESOME when I drew it. It's my history, it's led me to where I am today in my art, and I wouldn't change it.
I feel lucky that I had fun in High School. Freshman, Sophomore, and Junior year are times I think of fondly. I had great friends and some pretty amazing adults in my life. Senior year was a tough one, since I moved, but it turned out to be a great opportunity for growth both in my art and in my faith. I also had the opportunity during my High School career to do some personal commissions and illustrate my first book! It's been a great four years and I cannot wait to learn a bunch more amazing art stuff during college.

                                                        A picture I drew Freshman year.

 A picture I drew Senior year.

Here's to the next four years!

Meeting Oliver Jeffers

Today I got the chance to meet Oliver Jeffers at the Dallas Museum of Art. He spoke about Illustration, told stories, and drew pictures. Afterwords he did a book signing where I got to meet him! He was so kind and funny, and autographed my copy of 'The Day the Crayons Quit'.

I was going to ask for a picture with him...but I chickened out. Good thing my mom was snapping pictures from the sidelines.

I hope I can be as cool as him when I grow up.
Don't know who Oliver Jeffers is? Watch this video. Seriously, it's the best.
http://youtu.be/5KZu0X82l7k

Humans of NY

Lately my favorite Instagram account to follow has been @humansofny . It's just snapshots of the people of New York and it is so inspiring. It's a great source of daily inspiration and reference photos. The best part is, each photo tells a part of person's story. For an aspiring Illustrator, it's pretty awesome! After all, being an illustrator is equal parts artist and storyteller. So I've been having fun referencing some of these people's faces and stories for everyday portrait practice. 

These two are my favorites so far:

Fur hoods looks so much like hair...it's annoying. 

I can't wait to draw more of these! If you aren't already, go follow @humansofny on Instagram! 

Adele

Sometimes I draw celebrities to practice portrait drawing. Adele is absolutely gorgeous and too fun to draw.

                                         -Jaycie

The Story of New Day

Hello, everyone! I thought I'd share with you about my latest illustration project: The Story of New Day.
 As some of you may know, this past June I went on a missions trip to Amsterdam. It was an incredible experience getting to see the beginning of CityHouse Coffee & Books. One of the missionaries in Amsterdam asked me to illustrate a children's book he wrote called "The Story of New Day". My dream is to one day illustrate children's books and it's a wonderfully written story so of course I was on board! It was about a 4 month project (3 to finish all the illustrations) and now it is finished and available for purchase!

Back Cover:

 

To get your own copy, send an email to thestoryofnewday@gmail.com and include your name, quantity of books, and address. You will know your order has been processed when you receive a reply email with a PayPal payment link. Cost is $20 for those in Springfield or St. Louis Missouri. All other orders are $25 with shipping. Proceeds go to benefit the great work that's being done in Amsterdam through CityHouse! Thanks so much for your support and I hope you enjoy the book!
                              You can like CityHouse Coffee & Books on Facebook here!

Heart Eyes: Pearlescent Watercolors

I've been wanting to try these for a while and I finally bought some! These are Pearlescent Watercolors a.k.a. GLITTER PAINT. Okay, so it's more of a shimmer than a glitter but they are still fabulous. 

These are so fun to play with! They have the perfect amount of shimmer. When you stand back, it's hard to tell, but when you get close it's so pretty and delicate. I love stuff like that. When you have to get close to discover those hidden little gems. 

This is a portrait of someone's dog I'm working on that kind of shows what I'm talking about. This paint is so great for those fun little details and I'll definitely be using it more in the future for my portrait work!

 Of course they could also be used for things like crafts! I got this pan (21 colors) at Hobby Lobby for $7.99. They have smaller pans, too. I would definitely recommend these if you've got a sparkle-loving heart! 

  -Jaycie

Chess

Let's all take a moment to appreciate how amazing Josh Groban and Idina Menzel are as Anatoly and Florence in Chess. Chess is one of my all-time favorite musicals and the Chess in Concert DVD is at the top of my Christmas List this year. Since I haven't watched the whole thing yet, I cant say I like that performance better than the 1984 concept album (which I have on vinyl!). Mostly because I definitely prefer Murray Head as Freddie in the concept album over Adam Pascal in the concert version. I can't wait to watch it though!

   Really though. They are so cool.
                                                    -Jaycie
*Image found on Pinterest