Cynthea's Sketches

gouache test

2011-11-08T02:33:00.002-05:00

i don't think i like gouache. It's too easy to make mistakes and fixing them just makes it worse.

Scary

2011-11-01T00:39:00.001-04:00

what do you think? I feel like i struggle a lot choosing colors.

happy halloween

2011-10-31T03:26:00.001-04:00

still deciding my colors...eventually this will get painted.

2011-10-27T02:17:00.001-04:00

photoshopped dress

2011-10-25T01:03:00.003-04:00

I'm tired of looking at tall skinny models in dresses. It doesn't give me any idea how it would look on me. So I tried using photoshop to make it more accurate. :P

doodle

2011-10-24T22:30:00.002-04:00

After seeing the Mary Blair Google Doodle, I decided to do a painting inspired by Mary Blair.
Here's my very rough sketch!

Mad Men inspired 60s cocktail party

2011-10-02T14:31:00.004-04:00

Some pictures from Sarah's 60s cocktail party. I loved seeing everyone get dressed up, especially Nelson in his awesome hat. I went shopping at thrift stores looking for "grandma" jewelery and found massive clip on earrings and that chunky necklace.

Rest of the pictures here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/cyntheasatsuki/sets/72157627677923903

more Governors Island Jazz portraits

2011-08-26T00:52:00.003-04:00

Did this one from a photo I found online. I don't think I kept the link. :(
I'm not too happy with how her skin came out. I overworked the paper and it and the colors got messy.

Governor's Island watercolor portrait

2011-08-21T21:26:00.003-04:00

Today Nelson and I went to Governor's Island for the 20s jazz picnic again. I loved this lady's head scarf and very pronounced chin. I wish people would've stopped standing in the way while i painted.

My sapphire engagement ring!

2011-08-19T00:54:00.002-04:00

It looks like a darker blue in these photos. It's really a bit lighter and amazingly sparkly. I love it and I love Nelson!

Governor's Island Jazz Picnic

2011-07-02T13:40:00.006-04:00

I finally found my camera cord! Here are some of my photos and doodles. Bonnie came to visit from Boston and we got all dolled up for it! I'm bummed I didn't take more photos and draw better pictures. I plan to go again in August, though.

elaborate doodle

2011-05-14T02:10:00.002-04:00

I started drawing this one day at Amy's house. Hanging out with Amy always makes me want to draw more. ^_^

It got a little busy looking towards the end, so I'm thinking about redoing it. I've been playing around in Photoshop to move around pieces. This is just the original scan.

Eaton Canyon

2011-04-25T19:34:00.005-04:00

I think this is the first time I didn't feel completely overwhelmed by all the detail in rocks and trees. I tried simplifying everything. It helped to draw details in clumps, as well as leaving some stuff out altogether.
It was a beautiful hike and totally worth the knee pain. =P

Sketchcrawl

2011-04-17T02:00:00.004-04:00

I wanted to join the L.A. Sketchcrawl group at the zoo, but we were daunted by the amount of time and complicated instructions Google Maps told us. Instead, we got a delicious brunch and then went to the Huntington Gardens on our own.
It's close by and seemed simpler to get to. It was simple, but involved a long walk in the hot sun. A very long walk.
I used a very small 3.5x5 inch watercolor sketchbook all day. My scanner seems to be having trouble scanning it...everything seems blurry on the edge. Anyway, here they are. My excuse for drawing Nelson like some sort of weird, grinning imp is that I hadn't eaten breakfast yet!

Satsuki! and the view from our porch

2011-04-15T20:47:00.003-04:00

Another painting from our porch

2011-04-11T03:26:00.001-04:00

castles!

2011-04-08T03:54:00.002-04:00

Farmers Market

2011-04-05T16:22:00.004-04:00

Nelson and I walked to the Villa Park farmers market on his way to work today. I stayed to sketch and watercolor.

sketching

2011-04-01T06:25:00.003-04:00

I miss going to life drawing, but I found this sketching website and have been spending hours doodling.
http://www.pixelovely.com/tools/gesture.html

Huntington Gardens

2011-03-20T21:03:00.003-04:00

Several weeks ago, I went with Amy, her mom, and Juni to Huntington Gardens. In the children's garden was an awesome little house made of leaves and vines. It was so pretty and adorable. Here's Amy and I being dreamy(and silly) in the little garden house. It makes me think of Peter Pan, when the Lost Boys make a little house for Wendy.

view from our porch

2011-03-19T02:53:00.002-04:00

I attempted to watercolor this afternoon. I spent most of it trying to paint a yellow white flower on a tree by our porch. It looked so horrible that I gave up, and painted the view behind the house instead. I'm not in love with this painting....but it got dark quickly and I wasn't able to really finish it.

Red Panda

2011-03-17T21:14:00.002-04:00

I painted this when I first got to CA. Just been waiting for a chance to scan it!

yay scanner!

2011-03-16T19:55:00.002-04:00

Just got our new scanner. Now I can post stuff again. :D
doodles from my sketchbook:

Grumpy Santa

2011-01-11T12:43:00.002-05:00

I love when we get this model in painting and drawing classes. He always does great poses and facial expressions.

Happy Belated Chanukkah

2010-12-17T21:10:00.002-05:00

I know it seems a little too late, but really I'm just super early! This is for NEXT Chanukkah.. sort of. I drew it today for the calendar Nelson and I put together as a gift to our families.

See the whole thing and/or buy one of your own at Zazzle!
http://www.zazzle.com/2011_calendar_of_illustrations-158415957304057199

Woohooo! an all nighter and it's done!

2010-12-16T07:49:00.002-05:00

i am sooooooo tired.

Lady with bird hat - illustration in progress

2010-12-15T05:51:00.002-05:00

I drew my own version of the lady with the bird cage hat, and now I'm working on drawing an overly elaborate background for her. I'm watercoloring the illustration and hopefully I won't screw it up.

hat with bird cage

2010-12-13T19:20:00.001-05:00

more oil paintings from class

2010-12-12T16:36:00.001-05:00

These were both one evening paintings. I wish I could have spent more time on them.

Old and funny drawings

2010-12-01T15:37:00.004-05:00

I just spent a week at home in Michigan for Thanksgiving. It was too cold and too gray, just like I remembered it. :P

In spite of the grayness, I had a lot of fun. I saw my middle school teachers and hung out with my best friend in middle school, Gwen. In middle school we made these awesome Romeo and Juliet dolls for our Shakespeare unit. We made Romeo, Juliet, Friar Lawrence and the Nurse. They were supposed to be marionettes, but we never quite got that far.

I should've taken some photos of them while I was home.
Anyway, I DID bring back some drawings from middle school and even elementary school. My mom took out these huge portfolios with Ken and my writings and drawings from childhood.
Here's a few items:

This one is from 1988. I think the fairies are awesome, especially the weird angel one with turkey hand like wings.

The next two must be from some time in middle school, probably after I got my beloved 72 pencil set of Prismacolor Pencils. Some jerk swiped them from my locker in middle school. I was devastated. Eventually, I saved up enough to buy the even BIGGER pencil set. I secretly snuck out and rode my bike across Ann Arbor Saline Road to get to Office Depot. In spite of the speeding cars and lack of safe places to cross, I made it there and back with my precious pencils.
This Cinderella drawing was my masterpiece. I thought it was the best thing I'd ever done. I even used a gold pen and white-out to decorate the stars and gems.
I assume the other drawing is Snow White, also complete with white-out stars.

ASIFA drawing

2010-11-12T00:31:00.001-05:00

Here are my last two drawings of the night. They're the only ones I'm mostly happy with. One is a 5 min and the other is 10.

unfinished landscape painting

2010-11-11T02:48:00.002-05:00

Painted this from a photo. We worked on it for 3 weeks in class, but I think it could use a few more hours of work. Rocks are....hard...to paint

new mermaid illustration for King Con

2010-11-06T23:14:00.002-04:00

Nelson and I are selling artwork and comics this weekend at King Con. Today went pretty well. Hopefully tomorrow will be good too.

2010-11-03T16:03:00.000-04:00

Cheesy painting of a castle

2010-10-29T01:48:00.002-04:00

just painting a castle for fun. I should've used watercolor paper. It probably would've come out better looking.

lady with umbrella

2010-10-27T15:00:00.003-04:00

Zoo!

2010-10-14T12:41:00.003-04:00

Now that I'm unemployed I have time to do fun stuff like drawing at the zoo!
And also drawing people eating at a diner. :P

more painting class!

2010-10-09T21:11:00.002-04:00

Oil paintings

2010-09-06T23:06:00.003-04:00

I finally scanned in some of my paintings from class. Each pose lasted for 2 classes, so I guess I spent somewhere around 5 hrs on each. It kinda bothers me that the 2nd painting has a lavender backdrop. That was the color of the sheet behind him, but it just doesn't seem to suit him.

Governors Island Jazz Picnic

2010-08-31T00:31:00.004-04:00

Yay! I finally went to Governors Island for the Jazz Picnic. I love seeing everyone dressed up in period clothes. I did a little bit of sketching, but I think I will use them and my photos for better illustrations.

another oil painting from class

2010-08-25T00:44:00.000-04:00

puffed sleeves

2010-08-23T23:52:00.003-04:00

When I see photos of puffed sleeve dresses, I have to wonder what on earth was wrong with Anne of Green Gables. Why was she so desperate to get such a stupid looking outfit? I'm sure Marilla's dresses were ugly too, but they probably weren't absurd. I think I made the sleeves smaller looking in my drawing than in the photo.
On the plus side, if you had fat flabby arms I guess it hid it pretty well. You can't even see the waist with such humongous arms in the way.

Isa Bey Mosque, Selçuk, Turkey

2010-08-22T00:25:00.006-04:00

We painted landscapes from photos in painting class recently, and I chose a photo from my trip to Turkey. I took this photo from the ruins of St John's Basilica. It was a beautiful view and Nelson and I spent a bit of time just sketching the mosque and the ruins around us.

The Isa bey Mosque was built in 1375 and incorporates stones and columns taken from Ephesus and the ancient temple of Artemis.

I love landscapes but I always feel perplexed when I trying to draw or paint them. I know my perspective is a bit off and the column looks weird, but I'm happy that I finally got the colors fairly accurate. We did an under painting using burnt sienna in the foreground, gradually mixed with a pale violet in the distance. It definitely helped me to divide up the painting and create a sense of space and atmospheric perspective.

photos of the mosque

Ken and Me, 1989

2010-08-08T17:52:00.004-04:00

My aunt Yukari sent my mom and me copies of this photo, which we must've given to my grandparents 20 years ago or so.
It's 1989, the day after Girls' Day/Hina-matsuri. Those are my hina-ningyō behind us. They're a set of dolls for the holiday representing the Emperor and Empress with their attendants and furniture. And omochi, giant fake omochi.
My brother must be a little under 3 years old. It amazes me that he kept the kimono on long enough to take a nice picture. He was an obnoxious little brat back then. ;)

Here's my mom as a baby with HER hina-ningyo.

Rokurokubi color test

2010-08-07T00:28:00.003-04:00

I was thinking about adding some color to my Mommy Monster drawings.

Self portrait

2010-05-26T01:10:00.004-04:00

I painted this a couple months ago for a homework assignment. My favorite part is Unchii-kun.

sketchcrawl at the Harlem Meer

2010-05-16T13:08:00.001-04:00

Yesterday was Sketchcrawl! and I actually went!
It was a long arduous journey from the depths of Brooklyn all the way to the distant north side of Central Park. I didn't do a whole lot of sketching, but I'm mostly happy with my watercolor paintings.

Getting our table ready!!!

2010-02-26T20:25:00.002-05:00

Tomorrow is the convention... Nelson decided to lay out some of our stuff on the coffee table.
Nelson's new Shape Drawing book is awesome!

Battling the Why-Isn't-Your-Room_Clean Monster!

2010-02-22T22:56:00.002-05:00

The only thing that can distract the Monster from its rampage is...........an A++ Report Card!

I drew this for the convention Nelson is dragging me to this weekend. ^_-

Saturday, February 27th - The New York Comic Book Marketplace.

Miniature Portrait

2010-02-05T00:32:00.002-05:00

I'm taking a painting class again! Our homework was to do a 2"x2" portrait in oil paint. It's really really hard to paint that small...especially when you don't have any good small brushes.

Vikings and other fun stuff

2010-01-18T23:51:00.002-05:00

Christi came over this weekend and we ended up sketching late into the night. We dressed up in blankets and Nelson's old Viking Halloween helmets, with props like a toy sword, genie lamp, toy guns, etc.
I think Nelson's sister thought we were weird. Nelson and Christi did some pretty awesome and funny poses.

Pumpkin Princess rides to the ball in a Cinderella-head carriage

2010-01-10T18:54:00.003-05:00

duchess doodle

2009-11-01T01:51:00.002-04:00

Nelson and I watched The Duchess tonight. I LOVED the costumes. So I drew a lady with big hair and those silly dresses with the crazy wide hips.

Too Art for TV - all 5 drawings

2009-10-18T21:44:00.002-04:00

The Too Art for TV exhibit is over and I picked up the remains of my artwork today. A part of me is happy that 3 of them sold, and the other part of me is heartbroken to lose my drawings.

I figured I'd post the whole set of 5 drawings on my blog now that the exhibit is over.

Kabuki Mommy

Nobody Buys Grade B Eggs

The Why-Isn't-Your-Room-Clean Monster

The Grim Sleeper

Happy Noodle Monster

Turkey continued.....

2009-10-15T00:22:00.000-04:00

I've been so busy for the past month I haven't finished sorting through my good and bad photos or scanning artwork.

I took this photo for Tricia. It's a Chupa Chups machinein the Madrid airport. Tricia used to keep a giant tin of these lollipops in our apartment.

We ended up traveling for nearly 24 hours... 7 hours to Madrid, 4 hour layover, 4 hour flight to Istanbul...2 hour layover...1 hour flight to Izmir, 1 hour bus ride to Selcuk. it was awful. I should've made that side trip at the end of our stay in Turkey.

AND THEN when we got to our destination I called up the Hotel/hostel place to come get us and a guy on a motorbike showed up. Nelson and I stared for a moment....Was he expecting us two chubby people with luggage to climb on the back of that thing? What kind of place were we staying at?
After some awkward silence he told us to follow him to the hotel. In fact it was just a short walk away and everything was fine and the hotel/hostel was very nice.

Here are pictures from our day at Ephesus. It's one of the most spectacular ruins I've ever seen.

Nelson on an ancient Roman toilet. I can't believe people sat on those holes cheek to cheek.

Ancient sewer pipes.

Look! Ionic columns! and tiny looking people. I love funny photo accidents.

Statues of Artemis with multitudes of breasts and honeybees to symbolize fertility.

Ancient LEGOs?

Sirince

2009-10-02T08:41:00.002-04:00

Images of Turkey!

2009-09-30T22:15:00.006-04:00

We're back from our trip in Turkey and Spain. It was an incredible trip and Turkey was beautiful and brimming with history. Spain was nice too.

These are probably the best two pictures I drew. I didn't paint as much as I would have liked. We rushed about seeing all sorts of incredible things.

The first one is the Hagia Sophia. I've always wanted to go there. My Dad asked me why...and how I even knew about it when I was younger. I think I first heard of the Hagia Sophia from playing Sim City 3000. I think there was a cheat code so you could build famous monuments in your city.

Anyway, it was awe inspiring. They are doing restoration work inside and you can see both the Islamic decoration and the original Byzantine mosaics of Christ etc. It also has green marble columns taken from the famous Temple of Artemis in Ephesus. It used to be one of the Seven Wonders of the World, but now the temple has one lonely column left, standing in a field, with a huge stork nest perched on top.

This picture is the Blue Mosque. It's exquisite and magnificent, especially when you see it from the Bosphorus. I painted this while sitting in the top floor breakfast room of our hotel. It's called the Blue Mosque because of the Iznik quartz tiles that decorate the interior.

Too Art for TV

2009-09-06T01:48:00.002-04:00

Here's one of my drawings for the Too Art for TV show.
Opening night is September 18th!!!

http://www.bunnycutlet.com/2A4TV/2009.html

sketchcrawl

2009-07-16T22:32:00.002-04:00

here"s the only painting i did saturday that i"m happy with.

subway

2009-06-15T00:03:00.003-04:00

I haven't posted in a while, so here are some doodles from the subway.

a couple of unfinished paintings

2009-05-22T01:07:00.001-04:00

cynthea at work

2009-05-12T22:38:00.001-04:00

this is how i feel at work sometimes....usually if i went to bed really, really late.

painting in prospect park

2009-05-08T08:51:00.000-04:00

sleeping nelson again

2009-05-05T20:26:00.000-04:00

last class

2009-05-04T23:59:00.003-04:00

Unfortunately, my watercolor class is over. This was our longest pose the whole class. Mostly I like it, but the head is too small.

Now I have to figure out what class to take next!

a "Do-Your-Kumon" ghost

2009-04-30T22:38:00.001-04:00

paintings

2009-04-09T00:20:00.001-04:00

colorful doodles

2009-03-31T23:30:00.002-04:00

I'm still working on this one and I'm not sure what to do to finish it. I was thinking about painting it larger. All these doodles are pretty tiny on random scraps of watercolor paper.

more watercolors

2009-03-31T01:16:00.002-04:00

more watercolors from class..
also, one of our models a couple weeks ago brought in some books with artwork from an artist named Wendy Artin. Our model used to pose for her and thought our class would be interested in seeing her work.
Her artwork is amazing! I love her watercolors of the human figure.
http://www.wendyartin.com/pages/nudes/nudes.htm

more watercolors!

2009-03-09T22:46:00.004-04:00

We don't get homework in my watercolor class, but the teacher encourages us to paint on our own. I went to the zoo on Sunday and tried to paint birds. They were really hyperactive and flew at people more than usual. The victoria crowned pigeons looked like they were nesting because they kept carrying around long strands of grass and straw.

During the day at work I can get bored waiting for renders and such, so I decided to paint my hands. Yes, my hands are pudgy and deformed looking.

self portrait and tricia reading a book

2009-03-02T20:12:00.002-05:00

i think i look like a zombie. =(

napping nelson and naked dude

2009-02-15T23:42:00.004-05:00

I painted Nelson tonight while he napped on the couch. He didn't quite stay still so I never figured out how his hand was curled up under his face.

The other pic is from last week's class. It was a 40 minute pose, but I still couldn't manage to finish it.

watercolors!

2009-02-01T21:52:00.003-05:00

I started my watercolor class at SVA last week. I'm not used to painting humans so they're a bit sloppy and weird.
Today I decided to practice by painting Tricia. We did it at two different times of the day, which screwed up shadows and I ended up giving Tricia a swarthy complexion. I also had difficulty painting details and defining her face. At one point she looked cross-eyed so I blotted it out.

Thank you Tricia for being so patient.

still in progress

2009-01-28T00:01:00.001-05:00

2009-01-21T01:39:00.001-05:00

lacy gloves

2009-01-20T00:46:00.002-05:00

drawing lacy gloves helped to hide the fact that i suck at drawing hands. =P

Sketchcrawl

2009-01-11T18:18:00.004-05:00

Yesterday was Sketchcrawl! We braved the snow and cold to go drawing at the Natural History Museum. It was beautiful outside, but too slippery. I hurt my knee and my foot.

There were lots of hyper, annoying but cute kids at the museum. They were drawing pictures too. I liked painting bugs in the Hall of Biodiversity, even though the fake rainforest in that room always reminds me of Generation Jets.

Halloween!

2008-11-03T00:04:00.004-05:00

My camera battery died so I didn't take as many photos as I would've liked. I might take another better pic of my costume later.

bored and doodling

2008-10-21T16:04:00.002-04:00

New Reel

2008-08-02T15:55:00.000-04:00

I just put together a new reel!
http://www.mazur.net/cynthea/animation.htm

waiting waiting waiting

2008-07-21T22:41:00.002-04:00

I had a lot of time to kill today at work. I'd finished everything and we were just waiting for the edit session to happen so we could do revisions. I pulled out my post-its and a micron and doodled obsessively until there was work to do.

RAM PREVIEWING..............................................

2008-07-17T18:51:00.000-04:00

doodle doodle

2008-07-16T01:51:00.001-04:00

more photos from the bahamas

2008-07-11T01:07:00.002-04:00

After the storm - Gold Rock Beach, Lucayan National Park, Grand Bahama Island

Bahamian raccoon begging for food
Goodbye vacation - the last day at the beach.

coral doodles

2008-07-09T23:47:00.001-04:00

Beachy sketches

2008-07-09T01:21:00.002-04:00

Bahamas

2008-07-06T22:55:00.006-04:00

Nelson and I just got back from our vacation on Grand Bahama Island. It was very very relaxing. Mostly we hung out around the pool and beach, but we also went kayaking, snorkeling, jet skiing, etc. I already miss the blue seas and skies.

This is our Minas Tirith sandcastle....and the Two towers right behind it. We got really badly sunburned building sandcastles all afternoon. The first time we only had a plastic cup from our pina coladas so we went out and bought a toy bucket and shovel.

We went kayaking twice- once thru a mangrove forest, and once on the ocean. We zigzagged a lot and ran into trees, but we never tipped over.

This is Peterson Cay. It's about 3/4 of a mile offshore and it's really just a tiny slip of sand. We kayaked to it and then snorkeled around the whole island. I brought an underwater camera case to take pictures. It's really just a glorified ziploc bag, but it worked!

I might post more pics later.

opera doodle in progress

2008-01-13T23:06:00.001-05:00

Trying to figure out the color scheme...I"m not sure i want her dress to be orange...originally i was coloring it blue...but after other people's input i'm trying orange.

any ideas?

Happy New Year!

2008-01-01T21:27:00.000-05:00

My first post and painting of the new year!
Hopefully I'll be posting more often this year.

doodle in progress

2007-09-26T00:36:00.001-04:00

i drew this sketch the other day while listening to opera. I think it was the Queen of the Night aria from The Magic Flute.

playing with paint again

2007-09-24T00:08:00.000-04:00

another mini painting

yay! finally a new picture

2007-09-20T21:49:00.000-04:00

today I painted a mini painting on a scrap square of watercolor paper. I dabbled a little with gouache. no clue what i'm doing...
enjoy

Last Supper

2007-08-13T23:22:00.000-04:00

Tricia left last week. :-(

While I won't miss her stupid nickname for me I will miss hanging out making fun of Christi together. We went to Indian Cafe for dinner and splurged on lots of yummy food.

Sketchcrawl

2006-12-10T03:04:00.000-05:00

here's a few of my drawings.... note the doodle of the red panda licking his own anus with great agility. lol

little painting of trees

2006-12-03T11:34:00.000-05:00

i painted a tiny painting last night for fun...

playing with photoshop

2006-11-28T04:35:00.000-05:00

todays doodles

2006-11-16T13:47:00.000-05:00

doodle

2006-11-15T11:36:00.000-05:00

autumn

2006-11-11T22:52:00.000-05:00

i haven't posted anything in ages..... but today I went to Central Park and tried to paint. I'm not in love with the result but i think it's better than my last central park painting.

it looks better small or if you squint and make it blurry. =P

decorating the heavens

2006-10-06T21:55:00.000-04:00

i thought i'd share one of my doodles for my film with nelson.