ART: Here's some good stuff.

Boy it's been a while hasn't it? Oh yes a very long while. 

The past two months were pretty rough I would say. I had some ups and some downs but I'm making the most out of it. And definitely making some good art pieces as a result. I moved back to Iowa for my senior year at UIU! Guys I have less than 7 months until I'm done with college! And I'm fully focused on making some hella amazing art and sharing it with you all.

I have ideas that are beyond explaining at this point and thinking about them makes me super excited. I'm just ready to crank out new things in preparation for my show next year. I've been sketching daily, my mind has been on overdrive. And I jut can't wait to get everything down on paper. 

For now I'll just keep posting my little sketches and ideas and hope for maybe some feedback? Leave me comments on what you think, I hope everyone's ready to go on this journey with me for the next 7 months.

Here's an end of summer present.

I started painting again at the end of summer

 self portrait? hm....

The few sketches i did at the end of summer.

February 24th- March 7th =] 

and just a taste.

XO

Lesley

Tunes: Philipp Gorbachev

So thanks to Chanel's Fall/ Winter 2013/14 ready to wear runway show I've been pretty much all into Philipp Gorbachev's music. It's pretty much all that's playing on my iTunes for the past couple of weeks. I'm digging it so you should go check him out.

Also i know I've been promising an update on my summer sketch a day posts, and i promise it's not an empty promise. I do need to Catch up, I've pretty much been slacking off since the 4th. Maybe i hit you all up with an update on that later tonight.

I do hope everyone's having a smashing summer!
Xo
Lesley

Movie: Troop Beverly Hills

I loved this move Growing up. So if you can check it out, i'm glad i got to after so many years of not seeing it.

(Thanks to Nylon Magazine for mentioning it in their blog this week!)

I absolutely love how fabulous this movie is and how even when Phyllis Nefler is put down and is expected to fail she shows that she can rough it out and pull though, while being the best dressed troop leader of all time!

I loved the unconventional patches she gave to her troop, (I'd take an amazing shopper patch over a great fire builder patch any day!) honestly if there was really a troop like this I would have joined when i was a kid.  Seriously, though, this movie is stellar an in  my opinion it's totally worth the watch. 

So yeah... check it out.

There's gonna be an update with my sketch-a-day sometime later this week.

XO

Lesley

I knew I'd be bad at this.

I called it. I was very sure i could keep up with posting a sketch everyday. 

Boy was i WRONG!

No worries though.

 I've got a week and a half worth of sketches here for you.

I'll just stop writing now and here we go

6-11-2013

Because... bullets are pretty cool you know 

6-12-2013

6-13-2013

so i love ducks... i really want a pet duck that i can name patito.

6-14-2013

6-15-2013

for some reason this reminds me of space... 

6-16-2013

 For my mother. Because she can ride a million miles

before i even think about completing one.

and because she recently completed the Ride Across Belize

330 miles/4 days/ from Corozal to Punta Gorda, Belize

raising funds for Hospice and The Red Cross

so for her and the 79 other riders who completed the RAB.

Ride on...

6-17-2013

6-18-2013

6-19-2013

6-20-2013

6-21-2013

Here we have it more than we week's worth of sketches. 

enjoy and i'll get back at ya'll after the weekend.

XO

Lesley

Tea time.

Day 5. Because you know who doesn't like a good cup of tea and a slice of cake. 

Because my mum reminded me to post.

Not that I forgot, she just decided to remind me about posting day 3 & 4 before I actually got around to doing it. But here it is some weekend sketches.

Day 3

Day 4

Here we have it... after pretty much sleeping all Saturday morning then going to a Flee market for a few hours in the afternoon then getting back home and passing out until like 10:30 I pulled the first sketch out. Then we have today, after i helped cooking and tried doing math... all i could think about was not doing those things anymore... and i really want a balloon. And that's how i got this =] SO HERE YOU GO MUM! I'M NOT LEAVING YOU HANGING! love you ;)

hope everyone enjoyed these sketches. Peace.

XO 

Lesley

Day 2

Here we go day two of my summer long sketch adventure! The past couple if days out here in Waukegan has been gloomy and a little rainy but today it's finally sunny! But this sketch is definitely meant for rainy weather. 

Enjoy

Xo

Lesley

Look fun summer sun! :) 

A sketch a day. (?)

So to occupy my time for the rest of the summer (because I don't want to lose my  sanity mostly.) I'm going to be doing a sketch a day and posting it here. So here we go day 1. 

What do you think? Do you think I can keep this up all summer long? I'm planning to. 

Xo 

Lesley 

Summer is here. Finally!

So it seems the last term for this was pretty crazy. But in all it's madness I've been very busy with new projects. When it comes down to it, though, it's been bloody great!

This term went by pretty fast and i'm officially done with my junior year! =] only a semester and a half to go now. Honestly i cannot wait to be done with school and be out doing what i do best.

Now that it's summer i have all the time in the world to post about my old art projects and possible projects I want to start. Or maybe just what ever crosses my mind.

So are you ready for the first summer post? I am. 

Advanced painting was hella fun. Mostly because for the first time there was not much guidelines for what I needed to do. Basically all i needed to do was have 8 paintings at the end of the term. Easy right, i thought so. I get to create anything thing i want, and i get to explore styles that i think are killer. So that's exactly what i think i did... I'll let you all decide on whether or not what i did is good or not. 

The Shoe. Oil on Masonite. 36"x 24".

This was project 2. I secretly love this way more than anything else i did this term, and it's mostly because i love shoes. Then again which girl doesn't?

This piece was very much influenced by Andy Warhol's early commercial work. This man made amazing magazine adverts and as soon as i saw a few of them i fell in love. 

 Andy Warhol, Giant Size

Andy Warhol, Giant Size

The few pages of shoes that I found in this book blew my mind! I instantly started to sketch after, getting the heel to look right, trying my best to make it easily noted as a shoe. (I am not sure if i did a good job at that, someone once asked me if it was a spaceship. I don't even know.) 

Inspiration. Sketch. Color.

Final Color Pallet?

So i tried working with this color pallet. Those green and golden browns just worked for me, and i would make it work for this painting.

 Look it's me working!

So this is my final product, and boy was I proud of this! It's no lie that even when painting I can't keep away from hard lines and bold colors. That's just my style and it works for me. There's something about it that reminds me of a poster and I'd totally just want to see it all over the place with some awesome shoe label on it. (If you can't tell which one shame on you. Just kidding! but no really, it's obvious) 

So that's all i have to show for today. Leave your comments let me know what you think of the piece. 

XO

Lesley

Finals and good news.

I know it's been a while since I've been on here. Spring term one is over and done with so no more life drawing. It was an amazing class, I learned a lot we had a great model for the semester and I sketched a few good pieces.

We did a compilation of drawings for our final critique and well my critique was very much like the first one. Where it was basically you can tell I'm very graphic and I am very good with line work and I'm very good with giving a simplified image of the body. But except this time I was more aware that is how I'm more comfortable working and that since I found a style I liked it showed more in my pieces.

My final project was based on an idea I had last fall during a forensics class. I call it your body on drugs and it was based on my obsession with how eyes are dilated after drug use. So I figured why not continue this with not just eyes but using the figure to show more of the distant gestures of people on drugs.

Now instead of doing only sketches I decided to do something I'm a little more comfortable with, so I made a woodcut print for my project. Just a simple black figure with a few line work on the inside illustrating just a dazed person on drugs. Simple enough right? Using a piece of plywood (so chippy that it made me reconsider my original plan of a line drawing of the figure) I worked a total 15 hours to finish my final piece. And I'm very proud of it.

So now I'm on spring break and on Monday I got some good news. Two of my prints were accepted into Art Haus's emerging artists art show in Decorah Iowa! That news honestly made the start of my spring break amazing. I'm so excited for the opening of the show since it is the first show I've been in since 2011, since I've left home. It's super amazing to be 1 of 30 to be selected out of 87 applicants and to have not only 1 but 2 pieces in the show!

Next term I'll be in advanced painting so look forward to me posting about my paintings here soon.

So that's all for now just a little bit to keep you all updated. Here are a few pieces mentioned here including the pieces for the art show!

Xo
Lesley