04.29.13 SPRING!!!

Hi there!
So this week Spring finally arrived in Minnesota and I am embarrassed to admit how happy it has made me!  So I spent most of the weekend enjoying myself in the park like a kid and not getting much work done--I know--Shocking!!! But I did finish up a few things I started the week before so I will start this post off with some fun, full color illustrations and then move on to sketches...

   First,  I want to show you the finished, colored Girafficorn--I went with purple because I like purple and it just felt right.  (:

And here is an image of ME(Beckarooo!) riding the back of the girafficorn, along a rainbow, across the sky--can life get any better than this?  I think not!

(:

 Well, now that that silliness is out of my system (for now!), here is an image of Joseph.  This started as just practice for his coat but then it ended up being more about the stars and the universe around him...I really love the dream-like quality of this image:

I've had this dream, before... (:

Now I'm thinking about doing something with the animal constellations....And speaking of animals.....
  This weekend I decided to go to the zoo and sketch--and what a great idea that was!  It was the biggest ego boost I've had in a long time--so many compliments from so many strangers!  And the kids were all way more interested in what I was doing than the animals--they stared at me like I was performing magic or something.  It was really sweet!  Kids give the best compliments because they are always the most sincere and creative about it.  The last thing someone said to me was:  "You have a beautiful gift!" How sweet is that?  So I decided to leave because you should always leave on a high-note ... also I was tired and wanted a nap. Here are the sketches I came up with:

This guy was so cool!  His horns are so incredible and fun to draw--he's called a Kudu, btw, and he's a type of antelope. 

Of course, I headed straight for the giraffes--they are so elegant and oddly graceful for how huge and lumbering they are.  They also--well, at least the one I was drawing, anyway--have very soulful eyes.  I swear she was trying to see what I was drawing, so I made sure to show her before I left. (:

Here are the Lions doing what Lions are most passionate about--sleeping in piles like giant kitties. (:   

I had so much fun this weekend in the sunshine it almost made the long, horrible winter worth it .... almost....But I definitely am back to the love phase of my love-hate relationship with Minnesota so here is the last image I'm posting this week...Two lovely Bald Eagles loving life!

It's great to see the Bald Eagles coming back from the brink of extinction--and they are kicking some ass!  I've seen five different ones just this month!  And only a couple of years ago you wouldn't see any around here.  It's really amazing to see them soaring above you--they kind of look like little stealth bombers because of their white heads. They make being an eagle look really good.  I'm jealous!!!

Well, now that I've finally posted for this week I'm going back outside!  Next week I'll have more to share but till then, be well!  Next week:  pictures of ducks....I love ducks!!!
Thanks for the visit!
Love, Beckaroooo!

04.22.13 Just playing around.... (:

Hi, there!
WELCOME to my studio!
Well, currently I am between projects and waiting to hear what I may or may not be working on in the next few months.  This is the time when I would normally lose my mind waiting to hear "yes" or "no" but I've  learned just to keep myself occupied with ... whatever--this time I tried to do something different and  I realized I haven't attempted a portrait or a self-portrait, for that matter, since college.  Some artists love doing self-portraits and others, like myself, are made very uncomfortable by them. So I decided to work on a cartoon image of myself and break out of my comfort zone for a bit.  Here is the first attempt....my eyes aren't really that big, FYI.

My hair is really like this if I don't clip it down.

 I have mixed feelings about that one--it's only the first attempt!! What I liked most was how the pencil lines look!  I always am compelled to take a drawing all the way to an inked line but, at the same time, I feel that my pencil drawings are always much stronger. SO....I decided to try something...check this out:

Here is a drawing of me manipulating space, time and matter to create a star.  This star will then create a system of planets around it.  Among those planets, one--maybe two--will grow life and that life will entertain me endlessly with their crazy-interesting stories .... (-:

Once I had the drawing I wanted, I decided to try a different method of coloring the lines so that I would not have to alter the pencil lines at all and this is what happened:

I think I might love this...I think I may be done with inked lines...Sorry, inked lines, we had such a wonderful thing for so long. but it's time to move on!!

 And now, the final outcome of my wee experiment:

I call this:  "Beckaroo's Dream"

  Well, I'm very happy with the final product and I think I'm going to work more in this looser, more sketchy style.  It has a more energetic feeling to it, I think.

  The next image I'm working on has a really funny story to it!  One of my friends told me that the night before that I had burst into their dream on the back of a giraffe with a unicorn horn.  This sounds like exactly something I would do so that's not the weird part--the weird part is that I had drawn said girafficorn in my sketch-book not one month earlier! (she hadn't seen the drawing, okay?!) I love when that kind of thing happens so I decided to draw the dream--here's the sketch:

Weeeeeeee!!!!!

 Okay, so obviously my world is pretty awesome these days--and lucky you, that I share it with you.  (:

Here's the Girafficorn of our dreams!

  I have one last little drawing/story to share that I love!  On my birthday I was walking by the Mississippi River and saying (sarcastically, of course, this is the Midwest)  "Thanks so much, Minnesota, for this AMAZING birthday weather!  I can always count on you!!"  you see, we've been in this endless winter from hell for, like, EVER and NO!!  it's not normal!!!  But, anyway, precisely when those words were uttered, the clouds parted!  the sky became that super deep Minnesota blue and I looked up and saw two bald eagles flying around! They weren't hunting, they were just enjoying being eagles--which is exactly what I would do if I were an eagle.   They are so magnificent to see and I was suddenly filled with a deep sense that this is going to be a great year for me.  And I think that's true so I decided to draw those eagles, just how I saw them:

I heart MN!

Sometimes I wonder why I've lived in Minnesota for so long and then something like that happens and I remember that even though the winter can be awful, the beautiful times are incomparable.  I think it just may be worth it...And plus, the lilacs will be here soon!  Yay!!!  Spring!!!  :-D

Thanks for the visit but I have to get outside ASAP!  To the river!

See you next week with more art, more colors and more Girafficorns!

--Beckarooo!!

04.01.13 April Fool's!!

Well, that blogpost title was an easy one and so clever--don't you think?  :-P
Thanks for coming back!
  I have been very hard at work, as you've probably guessed--what ELSE would I be doing??  Actually I have had a bit of a bizarre week ... they say stories happen to those who tell them, so I guess that would explain that. :-)   This week I've been working on idea development so I have mostly sketches to show you--but I do have one piece in color and next week, I will have an amazing an beautiful full-color image for you to see--for sure!  I really like full color images b/c the illusion is more complete that way.

  Well, let's get started--What, Beckarooo, are you working on this week?  Well, I love a good Aesop Fable.  They are very easy-to-tell stories so sometimes I will tell them to my friends randomly for the moral--and in a fake british accent, of course--how else would you tell them?? I am drawn to the more obscure ones, which is most of them, actually--hundreds of those things, did you know?  Aesop pretty much covered every possible moral conundrum one could face in life.  Some of them are more philosophical as opposed to problem-solving and this is a more thoughtful one, it's called "The Nightingale:"

Not much sketching needed for this--just a kitty and a birdy.

pp 1 and 2  (that's Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony, the 6th--I don't skrimp on the details) 

pp 3 and 4  That sassy Nightingale! SNAP!

I have to say, Aesop's work is pretty easy to convert to comic form--he's so simple and very visual--we are a match made in heaven....and speaking of matches made in Heaven--here's the full color version of "Molly and Napolean."  I'm not sure if I mentioned this last week but Napolean is my cat and Molly is my step-dog.  And they love each other for real in real life and that is why they are such an adorable inspiration:

I am so happy with how silky-soft Napolean looks because he is the silkiest and softest kitty!

Okay, I'm so close to being done with all these story ideas and then I will be back to "Phantom of the Opera," which I know is what you all really want--and I like to give you what you want. It helps that I want it, too.  :-)  So, now, back to work!

Thanks for the visit to the old studio!
Now GET OUT!  (JK!!JK!!  don't be so sensitive!!)
Be well!!
Love, Beckaroooo!