Shetani

Some Fellow Artists

In between working at the TAD studio, I sneak a peek at the other artists to see what they're working on. From where I'm sitting, I see guys like Jeff Love and Ben Sack working nonstop on some awesome pieces. If I ever need inspiration, all I have to do is look up and see these artists working hard.

Ua

Theluji

This is another piece from my side project of faces inspired by the photography of Hans Silvester. This one started off with no real direction other than technique. The face had more features, but I decided to obscure them with this scale pattern, which I’ll probably be using more. While working, it eventually gave me a feeling of winter-time, and with it already being close to freezing down here in Virginia, I thought it’d be fitting.

Buluu. Acrylic, Graphite, Digital, 8 x 10”, 2011

This piece is part of a self-driven side project of portraits. Visually, this series was inspired by Hans Silvester’s photography of the people of the Omo Valley in Africa. They decorate themselves with bright stark paint, flowers, leaves and fruits. I’ll be experimenting with my drawing, digital and painting sensibilities and trying to bridge them together. I already discovered a couple new ways to work with this piece which is the reason why artistic experimentation is a must for any creative that wants to stay motivated, fresh and unique. As I work on this series and build my visual library, I hope to get some of it into my final illustration work and the rest of the 12 portfolio pieces.

On a side note, Supersketch at Quirk Gallery last Wednesday was awesome and I can’t wait to do it again. Thanks to Emerald Grippa and everyone at Quirk Gallery for giving us good drinks and an open place to draw. To top it off, I sold a sketch that night as well.

I also just found out that I will be working on a comic project that will be out sometime next year. Once I know what I can and can’t share, I’ll reveal more details.

Oil Painting and Master Copies

Wow, I haven't posted anything here in a while!  I've been busy, but that's not an excuse!!

I changed my blog's name from "hodgeepodgee.blogspot.com" to "juliahodgesillustration.blogspot.com".  I also got a tumblr, but I have yet to figure it out.  It's at "juliahodgesillustration.tumblr.com".

I've decided that I'm going to post more of what I do, not just stuff I'm proud of.  I've had a ton of failures, but those failures are very important to me and I learn a lot more from them than my successes.  It's also an effort to be more transparent.

In the Fine Art and Illustration branches of TAD, the students have done a lot of master copies.  I copied these from copies that I got printed to size (makes everything so much easier, copying from a small screen to a large painting just doesn't translate for me), and then looking at the computer copy to get what I couldn't get from the print, mostly the colors.  

Supersketch at Quirk

Thanks to everyone who came out to the Supersketch event at Quirk Gallery last night! Fun times were had by all. I even sold a sketch! Check out these awesome photos of last night by the great Lauren Lyon.

From l-r: Chris Visions, Me, Eric Pfeiffer, Will Godwin, Jeff Love, Cathryn Hutton