Greetings and Salutations!

Hi there, reader! If you have stumbled across my blog recently, you may not know a whole lot about me. So, here is a small introduction to help with that!

I recently guest illustrated a good friend of mine's blog, Jodee Rose. You may know her from her humorous "I'd Like Cheese On My Entire Family" humor blarg (or "The Cheeseblarg" as fellow blarg followers will often call it). If you are just a random passer by, and you haven't read that blarg, I highly suggest you check her out, you won't regret it (and you also might learn exactly why I refer to it as a "blarg" instead of a "blog").

Moving on... I am a professional artist with two part-time jobs as a retail slave and a call center monkey. As anyone who has tried to make it in the art world can attest, it's hard to pay "teh billz" when the economy is so bad, and art patrons are few and far between.

As such, I have started dabbling in areas of art that I did not have time (nor the balls to even attempt) to try out during my art student years. I have recently developed a love for watercolor, polymer clay, and all that is steampunk. I have a very macabre sense of humor, and you will find references to that theme in a lot of my artwork. Recently, I dove into the world of "OOAK Art Dolls," as they are commonly referred to in crafting circles (That's "Original, One-of-a-Kind Dolls" to us regular folk).

I would like to share my most recent nightmare, and have decided to lock him in the closet at night so that I can get some sleep (thanks for the idea, Mom). He is a bit on the terrifying side.

Please don't mind his incomplete feel. I am not finished with his fur, nor adding his accessories, but I wanted to give you all a small taste of what I am about, and what I find interesting and/or entertaining.

Anywho, without further ado, I give you a progress shot of Sir Harpy Ferruginous, the Buzzard Witchdoctor.

He will only slightly eat your soul. Even my cat won't touch him, he's THAT disturbing to look at. He's a little over a foot in length, and will be eventually adorned in feathers, beads, and bird bones. He will also have his own staff with a bird skull atop it. He's going to be pretty rad, not gonna' lie. You can fully pose his arms, legs, and neck, and he is balanced with a large amount of sand in his bottom so he sits proudly upon any flat surface.

So, feel free to follow me, I promise I won't send any of my evil little minions after you in your sleep. :)

OooOO, New Post!

Sooooooooooo, my computer recently died. His reincarnation is eleventy-billion times better, thanks to my personal tech (Thank you, bb). Because of this, I have been trying out NEW things (gasp) and one of them is uber womanly - knitting! I had hoped to post today about that, however last night, I went all "Hulk hands" on my knitting needles(read: I snapped my needles in half) and ruined the respectable beginning to a cute blanket I was starting to become proud of. If anyone says wooden knitting needles are good for people whose hands go dumb for no reason whatsoever, they are a dirty, dirty liar! So, I have metal needles, and have spent a half hour unraveling my poor blanket and rolling it back into a ball of yarn that my cat has been eyeballing with lust.

So, point of post, right.... I just got my photoshops back, and was able to edit this rather large watercolor Satyr girl for your viewing pleasure... and it's a (semi)progress post! Bonus!

Here is the initial pencil drawing (mostly cleaned up already). You might notice another project in the top left corner (nope, not the Pepsi throwback, which I have a recently developed addiction for). I am talkin' bout that sweet steampunk-esque looking contraption! (It's a preliminary start to a steampunk bubble machine gun I have been working on intermittently for the past month or so, just waiting on some sweet clock parts and stuff to finish it up). I like it, because it's going to end up being steampunk AND feminine...how else would you describe a gun that makes laser noises, lights, and produces neo-victorian bubbles of doom?! :P : ahem : Moving on...

So here she is all inked up, and some early shading starting to happen. I am still enjoying the hell out of watercolor pencils. They are super easy to use, and not NEARLY as messy as regular watercolor in tubes (which my bf is probably very happy about, because large bowls of water are not safe from my "Hulk Hands").

And here is the Satyr girl all colored up and lookin' smexy. PLEASE, click on it to view her in full. There are a lot of details that just get lost and I wish I could show you all (in person) the shiny, metallic colors that are scattered and accented through out her nails, horns, jewelry, and fur. She looks baa-aa-aad! (Did you think I would get thru this whole post without a goat joke? Come on!)

Oops!

Hiiiii! I kinda' disappeared for a while. I blame netflix and a new found love for smoothie flavored jelly belly's! I've been bouncing around doing an inordinate amount of projects. I finally forced myself to finish one (which was started WEEKS ago, and has been sitting on a shelf waiting to be painted). I couldn't wait for more sunlight to take a better picture, so a slightly yellowed version of this little guy is what you get.

Meet E. Bunny!

He is about 4 inches tall, made entirely of polymer clay, and painted with a variety of acrylics and iridescent pigments (which, unfortunately, do not show up very well in the pictures). I think he's pretty darn cute, and he takes after me, because he is clumsy.

Those tiny, hand painted eggs were not very cooperative. They are TEENY TINY, lemme' tell you. About half the size of my pinky fingernail (and I don't have normal, girly nails sadly, as my day job breaks them on a regular basis).

I just adore the little copper button on his snappy vest. I debated giving him pants and all that, but figured it would get in the way of his bunny duties, and might make his clumsiness even worse.

Oh my... At least he is cute! :) And all those eggs do, thankfully, pile neatly back up into the basket, and the basket does sit securely in his arms (well, don't go whippin' him around in your own basket, and it'll be secure enough).

And for the ultimate in adorableness... bunny tail!

Everyone go AWWWWWWW! :)

If this is my mother, STOP READING NOW!

No, seriously. I mean it. :P Thanks for understanding. ;)

For all the rest of you ( I think maybe two people look at this, other than my mom...) you can go ahead and read more!


Here is a birthday present for my mother. She is turning :cough: years old. It's a baby Pernese dragon (if you don't know what a Pernese dragon is, that's ok... it just means you aren't a total fan of fantasy and science fiction, it's ok, I won't judge) in the style of Anne McCaffrey's novels. I know it's not entirely accurate to the books but, then again, the books aren't necessarily all that plausible as well. I had initially started working on an adult Pern dragon, but... the oven had other plans for that guy. He is now going to be a test piece for my future airbrush gun. Ah well, c'est la vie. Anyways, on with the baby shots... (as always, you may click the images to see them larger... just as warning, they are gigantic)

The egg shell is made with three different colors of glitter infused into the polymer clay, and designs and cracks were etched into it to give it a more weathered "just burst" feel (as I envision dragon eggs to be somewhat leathery, and am told by my boyfriend that they could be made of jelly for all anyone knew or wanted them to be, but PFFFFT! They are OBVIOUSLY going to be leathery, duh).

 He has crystal facets for eyes, and is painted a prismatic gold-pink hue... so I guess that makes it a SHE... because Gold dragons are girls in Pern, right? I can't remember and I can't be bothered to google right now.

It really does stand straight on normally flat surfaces. This wonky perspective is because it's sitting on one of my scarves in an attempt to hide the carnage of my cat's "cat tree" that he has destroyed.

Oh HAI there!

I was in flip flops yesterday.... :\

Ok... That's enough snow, y'all. I get it, you're hardcore.

Here's a sneek peek at a lil' guy I've been working on...

He didn't make it thru his first baking. His feet and tail snapped off in a freak oven accident, but I am working on getting him fixed, and hopefully painted within the next week or so. Yay dragon! 

(He's about a foot tall for those of you who are interested).

Gnomey-gnomey gnooooome!

So I have been making sculpey figurines for people the past week or so. I've made red-headed monkeys, adorable baby unicorns, and my personal favorite, a gnome! This gnome is super chill, and loves to pose, so here's a 360 of "David" the gnome, for your viewing pleasure (as always, click the image to make larger).

First, an unpainted shot (with a bonus unpainted shot of a baby unicorn):

And here's the 360:

Adorable, y/y?, Well... the person who this was made for liked it. ;) And if you grew up in the 80's, here's a blast from the past, and where this little gnome's color scheme was derived from:

And because I know you are just OMGDIEING!!! to see what a red-headed monkey looks like... :P Yea, it was a strange request, but one doesn't turn down commissions in this economy. ;)

For those of you who like these adorable little caricatures, I am open for commissions, and they start as cheaply as $20 (dependant on size, complexity, and colour choices). Please do not hesitate to leave me a message if you are interested! And please, leave me some love in the comment boxes, or I am going to throttle someone. :)

Ressurecting and Repurposing

 I unearthed some old prints from back in my younger college years in printmaking.. I will admit, I pretty much hated that class. The professor was nice enough, but I wasn't up to par as far as being uber clean nor meticulous and consistent enough. Needless to say, I did not develop a love for printmaking.at.all. And I am left with a large collection of painfully crafted, yet poorly mastered prints on some very expensive paper (Which is equally painful to a young college student, let me tell you...this paper is like GOLD). I've also  been experimenting lately with watercolour and have reached a bit of a block. My bright idea is to perhaps breath some fresh life into these old prints while, at the same time, give me a chance to play with my new love, watercolour. So here we have a few shots of a print I repurposed today...I will apologize ahead of time for the poor quality of the images, as it has been cloudy all day, and the only light was a poor, yellowed desk lamp which cast a harsh glare over the wings (which were painted with luminescent, shimmery watercolour paints).

PS. I am mailing out handmade Valentine's cards with a bag of special goodies to all my Valentines' tomorrow morning. Maybe you are one of the special few who gets one? I don't knoooooow!!! ;)

So, This artwork is a special request for my mother. She is concerned for my sanity, as most mother's would agree, when a daughter exhibits an affinity for drawing more bizarre subject matter (read "zombies"). She requested I draw something sweet and bright. Well, I did my best,  here you go Mom. I hope you like your fairy, even if she isn't wearing proper undergarments!

Also, here's another ACEO for sale at my etsy:

Etsy sale, 3 days only!

Art is everywhere and subject to scrutinization...

Just some cell phone pictures I took that I enjoy... :)

Snowy days make for Zombie escapades!

So, here in the great snowy midwest winters, there is a lot of time to sit around and document process as well as finished projects. I have been in a very zombie mood lately, so you get to see a progression of a recent work I did... Lucky you!

I would liiiiiiiiike to blame a recent obsession with reading post-apocalyptic novels with zombies and watching too much science fiction film...but I shouldn't begin this blog with a lie. I have an affinity for zombies. Not in the "OMG I wanna' marry a zombie monster!" way, but more of a  "I think it's important that everyone have a "zombie plan" before it's too late!" way. It's important.

With that being said, I think it's fun to juxtapose the macabre with more socially acceptable forms of media. Thus, the zombie pin-up is born! Using an old 30's pin-up-esque image as reference, I sketched out a smexy woman with a few hygienic issues such as a decaying face and shredded arm and thumb.

 

Here, you can see the progression of adding watercolor and detail to the first image, "fleshing" her out (so to speak). This is probably the 4th time I've ever used watercolor. It's a learning experience. I have learned it is VERY important to have a good set of brushes and high quality paper to get the watercolor to function as it should.

Here, I've added some more detail, inserted and filled in some interesting mod shapes to the background to make her pop off the page (with prismatic watercolor, it's really awesome, it has a gold and bronze gilded feel in certain rings). Almost done with her, just gotta' finish up the background! (yes, that is a kitty ear headband, don't judge me!)

This is the (mostly) finished result. I had to result to taking a photo of it (which kind of throws off the perspective a bit, as the camera is a bit below shooting up her nose). My scanner is awful and old, and this is the best I can do until Santa or the Powers That Be see fit to send me a new one. But anyways, there you have it... my first artistic blog post, and also my first semi-walkthrough of process. Hope you enjoyed!

Welcome to the Art of Rhea Blackthorne

This blog is intended to display my recent work. There will be mostly posts regarding my artistic endeavors, with a variety of inspirations and thoughts regarding art in general. I implore those of you who read this to follow me, comment, and join into the discussion or offer critique as you see fit. Thanks for stopping by my little corner of blogger, and I look forward to hearing from you!