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