How Are You Feeling Today?

A friend asked me about creating a mood poster like what was popular in the 90's for a friend of hers and I was thrilled to do so. Thus, the robot poster was created. Then, Sailor Moon shortly followed. She's so expressive that I just had to. The whole point of these posters is that yes, they're a throwback, but they're also to get us talking about our feelings and emotions and putting a label to how we are feeling. I'm selling both of these posters on my etsy if you're interested. I offer 8x10 and 11x14. Click HERE to go straight to the shop!

Walter Mercado.

Walter Mercado. I didn't even know who Walter Mercado was until this year thanks to RuPaul's Drag Race (and Alexis Matteo), but then I watched the documentary on Netflix and found myself captivated by this magical, astrological man. For this mini piece, I was inspired by the star tarot card because that's who Walter is; a STAR! Mucho mucho amor, Walter.

Lydia Deetz.

"I myself am strange and unusual." - Lydia Deetz.

I FINALLY DID A PAINTING OF WINONA RYDER and not only did I do it, I did it well. Wild to think that it has taken me 30 years to finish a piece and feel good about it. I've been working relentlessly on her and I feel so accomplished. Not to mention, her in this movie is just the absolute best possible casting. So, cheers to this. I'll be doing way more in the near future.

Lydia Deetz.

Winona Ryder is a tough person to draw/paint. Have you ever tried?! Man, what a challenge. I did this painting of her as Lydia Deetz with some darkness on one side of her face. It was a challenge, but hey, we're hitting the challenges head on, people!

Eliza Schuyler Hamilton.

My dear Eliza. Eliza is one of the most expressive and resilient characters in the entire Hamilton show. Her song at the end really gets to me. It hadn't before, but now I just can't handle it. THE GASP! Say what you will, but I do believe it's her breaking the 4th wall and realizing her story is being told. Powerful. I love it so much. This is when she is mourning during It's Quiet Uptown. Her strength and courage throughout the show dealing with loss, heartbreak, betrayal; it's incredible. So, the show started with Alexander Hamilton and so did my series, but both, appropriately, end with Eliza.

Aaron Burr.

Pardon me, are you Aaron Burr, sir? I wanted to do a very formal painting of Leslie Odom Jr. as Aaron Burr for the Hamilton series. I tried to focus on combining the painterly technique and black and white. I feel it works better in color, but I do love the rich red for the background, as he does have blood on his hands.

Angelica Schuyler.

I was way too excited to mess around with the colors when I painted Angelica where I tried to capture the passion and emotion she brings to the stage when she performs. She has such strength, but vulnerability and my whole goal was to capture movement and emotion rather than a still moving likeness. Messing around with this paint style more and falling in love with it with every stroke. I love, love, LOVE the purple on the side of her face. I wish the photos did the colors as much justice as looking at it in person does, but it's still bold & vibrant.

Thomas Jefferson.

What'd I miss?! Daveed Diggs is one of my favorite actors in Hamilton and arguably one of the best rappers of all time. I was way too excited to paint him. I wanted to go with the purple background because it reminds me of his Jefferson outfit.

King George III.

I was way too excited to finally get around to painting King George III IN COLOR. I started it one way and it ended up another. I got extremely painterly with this one and it made me so happy. It was a new direction/style and one that I want to dive into more. Took me about 3 hours and it's quite small: 2x3 inches.

Alexander Hamilton.

It's wild to think that I haven't done any portraits from Hamilton before this. My first one is of none other than Alexander Hamilton. Lin-Manuel Miranda, man. What a friggin all star. This is actually a super small portrait, but it looked really good in the marble frame. I painted this right before it started streaming and have watched it probably 6 times. So, that's where I'm at. First of many portraits from this amazing musical is what I say.

The Wood Sisters.

I want The Wood Sisters to come get me. When I went on a road trip out west last year, Matt and I stopped at The Little A'Lee'Inn Cafe and there was a photo on the wall of these two sisters and I knew I had to paint it. It makes me laugh and also uneasy. I think the best things do that. It has a glitter background, but it's kind of hard to tell. Anyway, beam me up!

Hobbit Holes.

One of the greatest experiences of my life was visiting the Hobbiton movie set in New Zealand. It allowed me the opportunity to get up close and personal with the hobbit holes seen in the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit films. I've been working on my digital painting skills by painting them.

My most recent hobbit hole is this one with the blue door. I drew it based on a photo I took while there. Here's included a photo of me there! Andddd I spent a lot of time drawing/painting it!

This one with the blue door took me 12 hours. No exaggeration. I did it on procreate. In this particular image with the three different paintings, I wanted to show my progression. Each piece is separate. The first piece took me 45 minutes and it was more of a study. The second piece took me 6.5 hours and it was the same reference as the first. The third is my most recent and it's the one that took me 12 hours with a different reference.

I printed one of them to hang up. I'm so happy with it. I hope that you, too, can share in my appreciation for progress and hobbit holes because both are magical.

Jillian's Smorgasboard.

A friend of mine that I've known for a very long time reached out to me to ask me to create something special for her sister for her birthday. Come to find out, they have a relationship similar to my sister and me. This particular piece was 11x14 inches and took me over 40 hours to do, but here it is.

I think of these smorgasBOARDS as a visual representation of what makes someone who they are. It's like a puzzle I have to put together. It's so great. I've included some detailed shots so you can see some of the areas I really loved.

Willow.

I recently painted this portrait of Willow the cat. It was from a fish eye photo. Willow passed away at the end of May and crossed over the Rainbow Bridge. I wanted to push and challenge myself with this one by focusing on textures. I really loved the way it came out and so did Willow's owner.

Happy Birthday, Matt!

Yesterday was Matt's birthday and we go all out with our birthday cards to each other. For his this year, I made a mixed media cut paper pop up card featuring a little 2 inch version of his dog, Riley, that I used gouache paint for.

Josephine Baker.

Been having a hard time creating lately, but this portrait of Josephine Baker came to me so effortlessly last night. I did it in just under an hour in procreate. Did you know Josephine Baker was AMAZING?! She was part of the resistance and would share secrets she gathered from the nazi regime via invisible ink on sheet music! She also fought against racism and she was all about equality!

Toby the Toad.

This isn't the first time I've been inspired by Toby the Toad (and it won't be my last). I've been having a hard time getting going creatively. I'm lacking motivation and the inspiration just isn't striking me. It has been negatively impacting me because I tend to be pretty hard on myself as it is. After attempting to draw something three times, I gave up and started scrolling on social media. I happened upon a photo of Toby making smoothies and decided to just let myself have fun and not focus too much on the actual process of creating it. This is the end result! No lines (a new thing for me) and lots of bright colors. You can find Toby the Toad over on instagram!

Hawaii.

A friend of mine asked me to create something very unique and special for her husband for their 2 year wedding anniversary. I was all too happy to jump to the challenge. It's funny because I expected this to take me a couple of hours tops, but it ended up taking NINE! I tend to get lost in the details of everything I do. I find this to be both a blessing and a curse, but I also learned a lot along the way. I did this in procreate and printed it at 6x8 inches. Sarah was very specific about what she was looking for from the drinks to the flowers to the landscape; she really wanted it to capture HAWAII. She was so happy to receive it and her husband even made it the background for his phone.

Gladys Bentley.

This is Gladys Bentley and I only just learned about her this past week. 

Jasica Gill from Women Sound Off described Gladys as "a Black gender-nonconforming lesbian who dominated the Harlem Renaissance."

She was revolutionary in her masculinity as James F. Wilson writes, "differing from the traditional male impersonator, or drag king, in the popular theater, Gladys Bentley did not try to 'pass' as a man, nor did she playfully try to deceive her audience into believing she was biologically male. Instead, she exerted a 'black female masculinity' that troubled the distinctions between black and white and masculine and feminine." 

I listened to some of her songs on YouTube, they're gritty and her vocals are so unique. She was known for sporting a tuxedo and a top hat and I was instantly inspired by her. Look at how cool she is! Although the photos I found of her were in black and white, I wanted to showcase Gladys in vibrant color because when she took the stage, there's no way she didn't light up the room.

Pet Portraits.

I recently did a couple of mini pet portraits. Dita Von Teese's cat, Aleister, died the other day and I was really upset about it. He was my favorite celebrity animal. It was really cool because Dita Von Teese actually saw it and said that she loved it. It was touching. This other pet is Lily. She is my friend's fiancé's mom's dog that is really old so I did this for her.

Fool of a Took!

Lord of the Rings is one of my favorite THINGS in life. I haven't done half as much Lord of the Rings art as I should have, but I'm correcting that slowly. I recently finished up this painting of Pippin from the movies for a friend of mine as a thank you for her help when I needed it most. I used Casein paint and it took me about 9 hours to do.

The Shire.

I've been practicing a lot on procreate and I came across this photo from the Hobbiton Tours that I wanted to try to paint. I've never really done any landscapes and thought this would be a great time to test out doing just that and digital painting. I used the gouache paint brush and did this first study of it, just blocking the shapes in, which took me 40 minutes. I thought I was happy with it, but something in me wasn't.

The next night, I wanted to try to push it as far as I could and get in there to fine tune the details. I spent 6.5 hours on this painting and I am very happy with it. I learned a lot, though. I went into this thinking landscapes would be easy. I could not have been more wrong: it was so difficult! I also have a tendency to try to get in EVERY SINGLE DETAIL so I had to strike a balance between doing that and getting the general idea of the THING down. My favorite part of the second one is the fence to the left of the stone walkway.

The sunlight is what really makes this piece, though (well, actually both pieces). It's warm and soft; you can almost feel it. I've had the privilege of seeing this Hobbit Hole in real life and I cried when I saw it. Hobbiton in New Zealand is one of the most magical places I have ever been. One day, I'd love to move to New Zealand and work there. One day.

The thing is, art is the one thing you can't rush. You really have to take your time and spend time on anything to see it through. This is also a great example of what money gets you for the amount of time spent. You want the 40 minute sketch or the 6.5 hour piece? You can't expect to pay what you would for the 40 minute piece and get that 6.5 hour piece. If you want the good stuff, you have to be willing to spend the time and the money.

Lord of the Rings will forever hold a special place in my heart. Here's to making many, many more pieces inspired by the world that is Middle Earth. I love each piece I finish, but I haven't felt this proud of something in a long time. It's not like I went into this expecting to love it as much as I do, but I think that because of my pull to it, it took up some extra room in the best way.

From 1910.

There was a photo floating around the internet of two men, circa 1910, holding hands and I wanted to recreate that image while practicing my skills on procreate. This took me an hour and I used the gouache brush. I still wanted it to look like a photo. I don't really know what I'm doing, but I'm trying to learn.

Killer Klowns From Outer Space.

One of my favorite 80's B horror movies is Killer Klowns from Outer Space. I love clowns and this movie is "bad," but it's GREAT. I watched this a lot growing up. I wanted to pay homage to the bright colors and characters with this procreate piece. If anyone wants to purchase a print, let me know!

Betty's Home.

Here's something new to add to the list of things I can (kind of) do. My sister has a friend that she's grown up with and I have had the pleasure of getting to know her family. Well, her grandma wanted me to draw/paint her house she grew up in. It's a house full of memories and life. She gave me a lot of art direction on this and this is the final product. So, if anyone's looking for a house illustration, let me know!

Elton John's Shoe.

I've been messing around with procreate/digital painting more. It's hard, man. It is quite a challenge. I had a picture of Elton John's shoes, but just decided to try to paint/draw one of them. When this is small, it does look like a shoe. I don't know. I used the gouache brush and outlined it using a micron brush. I like the colors, though.

Juanita y Jose.

I have a dear friend named Micaela Ruiz that I have known for 14-15 years. She's one of the most genuine souls I know. She is full of so much light and life and makes people better just by being around them. I know a lot of her family and consider myself very fortunate in that sense. It was her dad's birthday recently and she asked me to paint this piece of her mom and her dad to give to her dad for his birthday. It was the most special piece I have ever created. My dad spoke to me through her dad as he told Mickey, "tell Chelsea I love her." I cried a lot when I read it/she told me that. I painted this over the course of days. We came up with the idea of memories floating in the background and so it's almost like a dream state.