Z is for Zombie

I wish I could remember what the prompt was for this image.  I have always liked how this came out- again it is old and feels unfinished; but I love the idea here. 

Alicia Hawks

Y is for Yearning

I love Lewis Carol's Alice in Wonderland, a major theme in that book is of yearning; so many of the characters wish for things they cannot get while at the same time they do very little to get the things the yearn for.  Alice is the only one who really moves through the story- and the things she yearns for at first are conflicted; she wants to explore and discover- but she also very much wants to go home through much of it.  This was a drawing I did while figuring out the character design.  I also had an art subscription box at the time and used it for the monthly challenge- you use only the supplies in the box and create some sort of art with it. 

Alicia Hawks

X is for eXtreme

I'm cheating for X... I feel like I always do... maybe if I do this next year I'll plan better lol. 

This was done several years ago, when I was VERY into fashion illustration... which is why she is so... toothpick like.  I've wanted to try extreme climbing like this (I feel like it was called boldering... but that doesn't seem to be a real word...)  In any case... I need to get to the point where I can do regular rock climbing before I try this. :D

Alicia Hawks

W is for wonderland

Black and white book illustration for Alice and Wonderland.  This one was done in 2015there are so many things I'd do differently if I were to do it today; but it is fun to look at these old drawings/paintings.

Alicia Hawks

V is for Valient Knight

This painting was done about... 4 years ago I want to say?? It was when I was very very new to acrylic painting, like most of my older work done for school it doesn't feel done- but I like the idea of it.  This was my son when he was about 5, he has always had a great imagination.  So here is my little Valient Knight.

Alicia Hawks

U is for umbrella

This is another assignment from school; it isn't finished- I hope to have time to revisit this concept some day.

Alicia Hawks

T is for TERROR

This is one of the few images that I painted in school that I'm actually proud of.  It also has a bit of a story, because it is part of a world I've been writing about since I was 12.  This is the Banshee of Sha'Dren, it is an extinct elven kingdom.  The Banshee was once the queen of a thriving kingdom, the day of her marriage to a prince of a neighboring kingdom she and her people were betrayed.  Dragon riders flew in from the south, and decimated her people.  She died, but her anguish and agony lived on- as her kingdom crumbled and was reclaimed by the wild her essence moved among the ruins, hunting for those that betrayed.

This is an abbreviated part of the story, but that is the explanation for the picture. 

Alicia Hawks

S is for self portrait

yea I got behind again...
I'm not going to stress about it though lol

Here is a self portrait I did about a year and a half ago.  I don't like doing self portraits; for a variety of reasons.  I just don't like looking at myself for that long... I don't feel like I'm unattractive... but still don't like doing them.  Anyway; this is my 'S'

Alicia Hawks

R is for Robot

This was another school assignment, I forget the specific parameters, but I created this little robot guy for it. 

Alicia Hawks

Q is for Queen

I did this book cover for an art assignment in a children's book class.  There are so very many things wrong with it; but I still like the concept- so I'm sharing it. 

I would love to illustrate the whole book with a diverse cast- because it'd be fun. I found this stunning image of a woman from Africa when I was working on this and the queen of hearts was heavily based off of her.  I couldn't help thinking 'why couldn't she be a beautiful regal looking African woman?"  So I went that direction instead of drawing the traditional crazy woman.  I think I'd want to rewrite most of the story if I were to illustrate it though lol

Alicia Hawks

P is for Playing Card

this was a fun assignment from school; create a unique playing card in an alphonse Mucha style.

This is what I came up with. 

kinda want to do a whole deck with characters like this :D

(guess I could've saved this for Q... oh well)

Alicia Hawks

O is for... oooooo...?

Yes I'm currently missing F, G, J, K, L, M and N...

Ok; so this challenge has gone about the way I thought it would.  Today I'm sharing a really old painting of a ghost girl in front of a castle.

I'll try to catch up on the letters I missed;  

clearly this wasn't a 30 minute speed painting...I posted the stuff below on facebook; it is totally applicable here. 

"Life update:

I'm not posting as much as I'd like to right now, I'm exceptionally busy right now. My husband and I actually did something for our anniversary this last weekend; which was awesome!! in 11 years we've only been able to get away twice for it (we also didn't get a honeymoon because of life) so that's contributed to not getting any posts up.

We're buying our first house; and that is more time consuming than I expect it to be. It really hasn't been bad- but still.

I'm of course graduating this semester; so I've been running around getting all the last minute stuff for that done. (like assembling my portfolio)

and of course as always I'm working on my BFA stuff. It is looking like I'll have my show this July... but I don't have that 100% confirmed yet; so I'll let you guys know when I know.

anyway; this is my short update :D"

 

Basically life is insane.  It'll be better about the time that the challenge ends- graduation is May 2&3.  

I might just post old stuff the rest of the challenge.  

Alicia

M is for Mother

I did this drawing a number of years ago; before I had my third kid; before I even knew I WANTED another kid... I had this image of holding a little baby- it was so strong that I had to draw it.  The baby in the drawing didn't look like either of my other kids when they were babies, but a year or two later I met the baby in the picture.  I very rarely have inspiration like that; so this is one of my favorite drawings.

Alicia Hawks

L is for Little dancer

I really don't have much to say about this one; but it was fun to draw.

Alicia Hawks

J and K... Just Keep going (catch up post)

This is a subject I think about a lot.  If I had more time I'd go into more detail about it; but for now I'm just going to do a quick blurb. 

I think it is REALLY important to keep copies of your old work around; be it art or something else.  It gives you an easy measure stick for your life, in 2 ways- 1 it let's you know where you've been, and how far you've come but 2 it also let's you know that wherever you are; you can always improve.

When I started college I'd always been a 'talented' artist; I have hundreds of drawings from as young as 18 months to prove it.  That talent though didn't mean I didn't have to work to improve my ability.  

I started my university path about 8 years ago, right after my first kid had been born.  I don't have easy pregnancies and with him I had carpel tunnel so bad that I lost most of the mechanical use of my hands.  At the time I was frustrated but wasn't worried- I was drawing as a hobby I wasn't pursuing it as a career.  You never know how much you love a thing until it is taken away I guess; I realized I didn't want to do web design professionally or even graphic design (at the time you could get away with lesser drawing skill in that field).  I realized after taking a few foundational art classes for my graphic/web design major that I wanted to Illustration.  And I was HORRIBLE at it. 

Thankfully I had professors that could see my passion for it- and they encouraged and helped me as I relearned how to use the finer motor functions of my hands.  These first 3 drawings are from my first year in Illustration- so about 8 years ago. 

This next Drawing is from 3 years ago

this one is from this past fall

this last one I basically drew on a bit of a whim 2 days ago

I'm to the point where I have enough skill and ability that I can draw pretty much whatever however I want.  It has been a long road, but it has been worth it.  I still have things I want to improve, but I know with time and effort I will improve them.
Alicia Hawks

I is for Ink drawing

I'm cheating a little bit here; these are old drawings that I did last fall for Inktober, which is a very silly thing where you draw a different ink drawing every day in October.  It was started by artist Jake Parker; it's pretty sweet. 

Anyway- here are some of my favorites that I drew. 

Just about all of these relate to an upcoming graphic novel that I'm working on.  I cannot give an exact date to when it will be available; but the target is sometime this fall.

Thanks for stopping by!
I'm hoping to do a new drawing for tomorrow; but the way this week has gone; I'm not sure that'll happen.  We'll see.

~Alicia

H is for... hardly any time :P

ok so... it has been crazy these last couple of days. Not crazy interesting; just crazy crazy. 

I actually had 'F' all ready to go on Saturday- and then never sat down to post it.  So I'm going to play catch up; and adjust my blogging challenge. 

My original challenge was to do a quick 30 minute speed paint- to improve my digital painting.  Which is something I certainly need work on.  (as I've pointed out like every day this challenge)  But because of my life being what it is I'm going to just adjust it to 30 minute 'art'.  Usually that'll mean a drawing; because I love drawing and want to do more of it. 

Here is my catch up:

F for fish.
I actually intended to paint this... but then I just started playing with digital charcoal brushes...

G is for Girl. 
This was a drawing I did the other day and was way frustrated by it; so I just sort of gave up after getting the lines down.










and H?  well I'm cheating on this one. I'm going to share some images from my project that it currently consuming 80% of my time.  would be 100% but I have 3 kids and I'm attempting to be at least an OK mom while I finish this up.

so H is for... outHouse....  yea.. anyway...
here ya go:

If you are a uber nerd.. or even just a small one; you might think this is cool  I'm creating 3d artwork to be used in table top RPGs such as Dungeons and Dragons.  They will be little paper models to add atmosphere to the game.  Some of them come apart in layers and you can actually play in the terrain as well.
It is a crazy project.  I cannot wait until it is done.

Alicia Hawks

G is for Goldilocks

This is a catch up post; and this is some old art that I'm sharing.

This was a mock cover for a non existent children's book.  We were assigned a classic fairy tale; and then had to put our own spin on it.  So this is what I did.

F is for figure drawing (artistic nudes)

this post does contain artistic nudes...

This is a bit of a photo dump; but here are a few of my figure drawings over the years.  They were all drawing at different times- so the level of skill is a little all over the place; but I've liked these enough to keep them around.

E is for eye!

(For the benefit of first timers: For this years challenge I've given myself a personal improvement project of doing a 30 minute digital 'speed' paint each day.  My goal is 2 fold: to become a faster digital painter and to figure out a way to paint that doesn't look digital.  I can paint digitally; and pretty well; but it has the LOOK of a digital painting, so I'm trying to improve on that.).

here is a 30 minute 'painting' of an eye. 

I tried kind of a digital alla prima approach with this one. I think if I were to paint for longer than 30 minutes I could really make this look nice.  As it is; it looks ok.  The eye kept drifting to the 'CBS eye' look... but I tried to keep it from doing that. 

anyway.  This was fun; and I don't totally hate today's speed painting. 

I have decided that next year I'm going to paint something I'm good at for this challenge rather than do a self improvement challenge lol.  it is a little embarrassing to post these fast practice pieces.  BUT I think it is worth doing and It is forcing me to try new things; so there is that.
If I were to spend more time on it I'd fix the eye shape a bit, add some more dark tones; it is very bright right now; and refine some of the edges.  All things to keep in mind for tomorrow.

Anything you think would be a cool subject to paint tomorrow?  Leave your F suggestions in the comments.  OR if you have an idea for another letter- you can suggest those as well.

Alicia

D is for Duck, C is for Cherry

For the benefit of first timers: For this years challenge I've given myself a personal improvement project of doing a 30 minute digital 'speed' paint each day.  My goal is 2 fold: to become a faster digital painter and to figure out a way to paint that doesn't look digital.  I can paint digitally; and pretty well; but it has the LOOK of a digital painting, so I'm trying to improve on that.

Yesterday was a day where I spent the entire day working on a project for a gallery show I'll have this summer.  So today I split the difference and spent 15-20 minutes on each letter.
I painted a cherry and a duck.  And I  hate both of them.
I've been trying a more 'painterly' approach; and it is NOT working for me.  My best post in the last 4 days has easily been my first; but that is because I wasn't painting; just drawing.  I hate how the digital paintings I'm producing look like they were painted by a much less experience artist.  I have to keep reminding myself you have to start somewhere.

Anyway... here they are.

Any suggestions for E?

 so... yea...
Alicia

B is for Beacon

 I'm not thrilled with tonight's entry... I actually tried painting instead of doing a quick drawing.  I'm MUCH better at drawing then painting... and that shows... eeek.

Once again- I'm doing all of the art this month digitally; because that is what I need to improve.  I used the app Procreate on the iPad pro. 

I totally hate this one and probably won't promote it to much... guess you have to start somewhere? 

I'm trying to find a good way to paint digitally.  I can paint digitally and quite well; but it has the obvious thumbprint of being a digital drawing/painting.  Despite my attempts to attack this differently and use a variety of brushes; this one still looks very... digital. 

So this is what I came up with today... I think I need to do some more research...

Well tomorrow is the letter C! so if you have an idea throw it in the comments below; I'd be happy to draw a request.  Keep in mind these will be 30 minute speed paintings; so they will not be very polished (at least not at first)

Thanks for visiting!
Alicia

A is for...Aardvark

I had such plans for this challenge!! However life is what it is and I never was able to sit down and figure out a subject for my whole blog. 
And so; because of the fact that things are getting CRAZIER for me and not easier I'm going with a pretty simple challenge this year:
Increase my drawing/painting speed.  I figure if I'm going to do this challenge I might as well throw in some self improvement for good measure, right? :D
SO for each day- I'm just going to pick a random noun that starts with the letter of the day and do a 30 minute 'speed painting/drawing' of it. 
Today I did not spend 30 minutes, I only spent about 15 minutes on today's drawing.  I would spend more time BUT I've had another painting project that has taken priority; so this is what we get today.

If you have an idea for something for me to draw that starts with B leave it in the comments!! I look forward to visiting all of your blogs and seeing your themes in action!

Alicia Hawks