Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Christmas in September

© Ellen Blonder
One of the weird things about designing holiday greeting cards is that you're always doing them out of season. So here's my upcoming Christmas card preview, finished in a September heat wave. The poinsettia was posted in progress earlier this year, but for Christmas, a brown background didn't seem right. I've silhouetted the flower against layers of text and a repeat pattern that I drew. The red area, when folded, will be the card back.

Saturday, September 25, 2010

It All Adds Up


I've been distracted from posting lately, but I realized all these posts add up. To see all posted art, click on the Ganesha above.

Monday, September 13, 2010

Tulips-Reaching into the Archives

© Ellen Blonder
Reaching back into my old art, I've used Photoshop to change the color story and touch things up. I had never been quite happy with the original gouache color combination, but pre-Photoshop changes would have meant either completely repainting it or overpainting existing color. A further complication is that colors never dry the shade that they are wet. I still like the hand-painted texture of the original, though. Dead flat colors wouldn't look the same.

Below is the design when worked into a repeat pattern. The design, intended for fabric or gift wrap, was never used, by the way.

© Ellen Blonder

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Short vs Long Poses

© Ellen Blonder
In yesterday's drawing session, we worked with a model who paused intermittently for a few seconds of stillness(sketches on left) in otherwise constant motion. It made the four-minute poses (sketches on right) feel luxuriously long. Unfortunately, the extra time also makes it way too tempting to tighten up.

Saturday, September 4, 2010

What I Did on My Summer Vacation-Day 5

Best. Pizza. Ever. We found this at Serious Pie in Seattle; it's part of Tom Douglas' restaurant empire in that city. At 3:30 in the afternoon, the place was packed. This is the gold standard, with a light but chewy crust and delectable choices. My order was topped with chanterelle mushrooms and truffle cheese. Perfect!

We were tipped off to this place on Day 4 of our vacation by a chance seating at a Portland wedding next to Blaine and Cheri Walker, owners of the 42nd Street Cafe
, tucked away in the southwest corner of Washington state. We regretted we didn't have time to detour there, too.