My Ozzie the Cat painting was juried into an art exhibit at the artEAST Art Center in Issaquah, WA called Creature Comforts featuring art of pets. She’s even represented on the announcement for the show linked HERE and shown below. I’ll be at the reception on Saturday May 26, 2012 in the 95 Front Street North gallery from 6pm -8pm. The show will continue until July 17 with several pet related activities. Cheers to pets of all kinds!
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I just added a new painting to my fine art site in the watercolor gallery. It’s a portrait of Ozzie, my cat for 15 years, whose grace and presence enhanced whatever space she chose to occupy. Ozzie The Cat is my first attempt at painting a furry creature in pure watercolor, and I found it extremely challenging to represent the texture yet softness of the fur and the complexity of the background patterns. With a subject for painting that is close to my heart the magic of bringing it to life in a new (and permanent) way is very gratifying. It goes beyond the representation of beauty in art to warming the spirit of love.
As a watercolor instructor at Bellevue College I get to start a new half sheet painting every quarter in order to explain the process of developing a painting from a drawing or photo. I need to pick compositions that require some masking and texture to demonstrate, then, after that, its up to me to finish my paintings as my class time and attention is focused on coaching each student’s process. Teaching has spurred me back into painting realistically from photo references, which I did early in my own training as a watercolor painter before stylizing my art for a career in the illustration market. I’m trying varied subject matter that will help me coach my students through working on their own chosen images, which have included beloved pets. I’m starting to discover what subjects I enjoy spending lots of time with through painting.
Some of my student’s work from recent classes is posted on this blog.
Once again the Watercolor for Illustration students in my class at Bellevue College came up with some very accomplished paintings, many for their first try at watercolor. They worked on half sheets of Arches 140# cold press paper (15″ x 22″) enlarging compositions from a photo or photo collage and practiced a variety of watercolor techniques to create finished paintings. Many were not quite finished by the end of the course. I’ll post those later if they are sent to me. Here are the paintings that were finished, or close enough, to see the skill and challenges they brought to their chosen image using this difficult medium. I’m so inspired by them!
Reflected Mountain watercolor by Antony Marquez
Fallen Leaf watercolor by Ashba Zulfiqar
Above the Methow watercolor by Melissa Firuz
Cottages watercolor by Chelsea Lasater-unfinished
South of the Border watercolor by Kalen Lily Wong-unfinished
With the higher demand for vector illustration these days I’ve been recreating some of my favorite traditionally drawn images as vector art. This gives me a chance to update the line work to my current stroke styling, opening it up. Below is the original art for a packaging design for Caravali Coffee’s Irish Creme flavor. I credit that assignment with the birth of my current style. With creative freedom, I had 13 flavors to illustrate, creating a new direction and a new portfolio to present to a wider market. The strong line and vivid color has found many uses in print and web as seen on this web site. My styling lends itself well to vector, don’t you think? But, I still welcome any opportunity to paint! Let’s paint the town GREEN!
Illustration for laser surgery article
My line art image of a hand and face was used by Joan Barrow at Connecticut Magazine to enhance a Health story about the advances in laser surgery. Not only are lasers useful for vital surgical procedures but also for making our slightest flaws disappear without damage to surrounding tissue. A magic tool for health and beauty! Here’s how the art looks on the page in the current February 2012 issue! Sorry, I don’t have a link to the whole story which is hard to read here….
"Talking to Addison" by Jenny Colgen-Warner Books
Have a LOVE-ly day to all my online friends and family. This image was a book jacket illustration I did for a comic novel about a young London woman with a crush on her flat mate. He was online ALL the time making it almost impossible to get his attention.
Cross Knee Sumi - Brush & Ink on Rives BFK tan paper
This month I’ll have some unframed sumi paintings available at the Madison Art Collective including 4 half sheet figure paintings on Rives BFK tan paper. I’ll also have some animal sumi paintings including horses, birds, fish and a crab.
Running Horse - Sumi on rice paper
There’s a reception Saturday Feb 4 from 2-5:00 pm at 2703 E Madison Street in Seattle for the featured oil painter, Jeanne Edwards, and the jewelry designer, Heather Kraft. Come by if you can or anytime you are near the Madison Valley neighborhood. Two of my close artist friends also have stunning work on display…. Pat Clayton with her oil landscapes, and Ellen Rutledge with her unique etchings with chine colle & collage
Are you looking for ways to spread cheer for the holidays? Check out my new portfolio of published seasonal cards on this web site…
www.sandyhaight.com/portfolios/greeting-cards
When you click on a thumbnail to enlarge the image, you’ll see the caption written inside that card. Some sentiments are heartfelt, some whimsical with others written by poet Gary Wood.
The designs here are published as 5” x 7” cards with deluxe envelopes by Emery Burton Fine Cards.
Sandy Claus
My Watercolor for Illustration class just wrapped up at Bellevue College with amazing results. I can’t resist posting this ambitious student artwork. Most are first time watercolor painters! As an 8 week class students often don’t quite finish their half sheet paintings. So, next quarter we’ll be adding 2 more weeks. The process involves methodically developing the work from a concept or photo of the student’s choice through paper stretching, drawing transfer, masking then building and glazing the painting to completion. Check these out!
Martha Geoghegan’s Mexican cat:
Nadia Erdolan’s doorway painting:
Two paintings by Lee Ready:
Monica Sanchez’s children’s book art:
Jingwen Yu’s Mardi Gras mystery:
I was asked by Elizabeth Myhr, product development and program manager for Amanda DuBois, to develop the icon portion of a logo for their new product. The program consist of a series of cloud-based, expert videos that help women negotiate divorce through an empowering life transition as they move into the next stages of their lives. I worked with my friend and designer Mitch Albala, who chose the lettering and colors. Of the many ideas we explored, this was my favorite choice, because it lent a sense of hope and renewal to what is otherwise a difficult and sad situation. I tried symbols of open arms, birds in flight, spirals and stylized letters from the word Divorganize. The circle-spiral symbolizes a wedding band, broken, but also open ended.
Here’s a sample of a DVD case design showing the logo in use and a great picture of Amanda.
It’s the day after a horrible accident where my son was hit by a car breaking his perfect front teeth. Following an evening in the ER and an afternoon at the dentist, I found myself showing this painting to my watercolor students. I’d brought it to discuss the usefulness of color comps to explore background color options before starting to paint, as I’d saved the studies. Then the tooth connection clicked! Remember when it was exciting to lose your teeth? It’s no fun when you are 27. May the tooth fairy bring you a generous treat, Adrien. That’s her in the window of the house across the street, witnessing the loss of your tooth. The painting was part of a proposal for a children’s book by Cooper Edens.
Dara McKinley describes our serendipitous collaboration on her web site. Dara always makes me feel like a goddess and is a joy to work with. We saw this image grow from a t-shirt idea, coming soon, to her realization that this image embodied her identity and now appears on her newly designed web site, VOLVER-Returning to Our Feminine Essense.
Sandy Haight is a fine artist who designed the sumi logo for this site. I first saw her art in a local gallery and immediately contacted her about creating a t-shirt. My logo above was the first image she sent me. I opened the file and to my pleasant surprise discovered that she drew my ass:) I had no need to look any further. “She” was the one. Sandy is a dream to work/create with and has a beautiful gift for the sensuality of nature and art.
This sumi-e figure was created for a show at ArtEast Gallery in Issaquah, WA where artists were invited to draw the figure on 1/2 sheets of tan Rives BFK paper to create a unified figure show titled Drawing on Observation. I went to a life drawing session with my biggest sumi brushes and a stack of the sturdy paper and had some fun results, seen here.
Mud Puddle Fitness
Sandy, The wonderful logo helps people feel assured that I am a legitimate business! The Arthritis Foundation is letting me sponsor myself for some truly wonderful training – which is pretty rare for them. Yesterday, I handed my card to a Physical Therapist and she immediately saw me as a colleague!
Thank you, thank you!
I was contacted by Heather LaFleur, a designer in Germany, working for a client in Montreal, Quebec, Canada for a true international collaboration. She wanted to explore several ideas for an illustrated identity which would be used as her logo on the web, stationary, business cards and in-office product. The client, Dr. Sandra McGill, a plastic surgeon, felt an affinity for Nike, the Winged Victory statue at the Louvre in Paris, France. She also wanted to consider a single torso, and an overlapping group of three torsos. A version of the placed logo can be seen on Dr. McGill’s web site at http://www.sandramcgill.ca where the image is toned down and emerges to be a subtle background.
Follow here as I develop the project from concept to completion.
We realized when the image was flipped, we could create the client’s S.M. initials in the feathers of the wings.
1. vector 2. vector 3. sketch from sumi painting
1. From solo above 2. Three different bodies 3. Abstraction-profiles only
My concept of the Winged Victory statue art was approved and I won the contract to refine the image further for use as a logo. I explored several painting techniques from loose and rough to tight and refined and even vector. The client also wanted to consider adding a head or part of one to reflect the part of her work on faces. Here are some of those renderings.
Black ink brush line Ink line /Watercolor tone Bold Brush Sumi ink with tone
Visit these links for more background story:
http://heatherlafleur.blogspot.com/2011/01/nip-tuck.html
http://heatherlafleur.blogspot.com/2011/04/go-with-flownip-ii.html
Here’s a logo that I just completed for Ed Lab Group, funded by a grant to teach Google’s Sketch Up to middle school girls this summer. I’m usually asked to draw logos with an illustration, so this was a fun experience to create this text only logo completely in Adobe Illustrator using fonts, brushes and 3D effects. Part of the project was to provide a compatible header and footer to for Word files. I offered up my watercolor splatter border which gave the logo a lively BOOST and gave me the sense of a playful hand in there. Here’s the evolution of this design, picked from several options, as it made its way to the final at the top of this post. Thanks to Laura Enman for her clear art direction.
Here’s what I sent to my clients and business contacts to announce the transition to my new site:
It’s spring! It’s time for rebirth, new growth and expanding possibilities, and I’m launching my new and improved illustration website at the same address:
New Features: a blog for my art news, packaging portfolio, and lots of new work! I still have the stock page full of searchable archives for your last minute solutions, and links to many talented artists. If you want to explore further, link to my new fine art web site which I’m really excited about.
SPECIAL OFFER- ONE MONTH ONLY
20% OFF Stock image use.
Just mention this email. Many illustrations throughout the site may also be available for reuse.
My painting titled “Dark Face” sold at the Unclad show in Stanwood! Here’s the piece.
Seattle Symphony
I’m pleased to be represented in 3 juried art exhibits opening this month. Maybe one will cross your path.
1. Parkland Art Gallery in Kirkland, WA. The show is Local Color featuring local artists depicting local scenes—opening tonight from 6-8 through April 3 at 130 Park Lane, Kirkland WA 98033. An illustration I did for the Seattle Symphony is included….very local. Its special to me that something I did as an illustration is suitable for a gallery. My friend, Pat Clayton, has 3 beautiful oil paintings in this show as well. I’m teaching tonight and won’t be at the reception.
2. Unclad-The Fine Art of the Figure in Stanwood, WA. Opening this Saturday March 12th for 2 weeks, this is the 10th anniversary of the show, and my 4th year participating with my figure work. I have a sumi figure painting juried into the show and many, unframed sumi and watercolor figure paintings and cards in the gift shop. See the show online at http://www.uncladart.com. Its at Gallery by the Bay 8700 271st NW, Stanwood, WA 98292 in the charming old part of Stanwood. This Saturday there will be live music from 2-5, so a fun time to visit the show.
3. The biggest honor is being juried into the NW Watercolor Society’s 2011 Annual Open Exhibition where only a quarter of the entries from around the country were accepted. It opens March 24 through May 13, reception at 6 -8pm on the 24th at the Mercer View Gallery, Mercer Community Center 8236 SE 24th St Mercer Island, WA 98040. Its an all watercolor show. My class will be ended by then and I’ll be at the crowded reception. My painting “Abandoned Red Shoes” will be displayed.
Let me know what you think of my new Web site. It’s a WordPress site, so I can update it myself and post fresh, new illustrations & images more quickly. I used a theme designed by Bryan Leister of FolioPlanet. A friend, Leslie Newman, customized the theme to better fit me.
“Pup Walk”
