What Jo March would wear to her wedding.

Those around me recently know that I've had a mild Little Women obsession. I finished the book again and I just think it's the best, barring Persuasion. I've also been trying to create something every day (again...a resolution I have mixed results keeping). So, I decided a paper project would be to design Jo's wedding dress.

She would have gotten married anywhere from 1868-71 by some calculations. The silhouette might be a little slender, but she wouldn't have gone all out. I had a time deciding how fussy and feminine she'd be. The dress is definitely not white. She's too practical for that, and would want to wear it again. I want it to be a nice light blue (like the color of this blog maybe...), yellow, or light brown like this dress. I imagine Amy would have put away something for Jo and that's where the lace collar and cuffs come from, that can be removed for less formal occasions.

After I was satisfied with Jo I drew Professor Bhaer and had a heck of a time with his face, until I just looked up a picture of Gabriel Bryne from the film. He's wearing Colleen Atwood's design for him. And he has a beard. Professor Bhaer has a beard.

And Jo looks a little like me. I worked SO hard not to make her as tall as me (ok, I didn't try that hard)...I'm trying to draw real people...but all my faces, unless I really try, end up looking like me at least a little. And if I try really hard they look A LOT like me :)

Anyway, here you go.

OND '13: Rendering

Why does it look so blurry? is it my rendering? Probably. It took all I could not to outline everything in black ink bc that's my M.O. (really, look at any of my renderings on my website). The face is weird, I know. And my dad's scanner isn't big enough. There, excuses out of the way.

PS it still looks way too blue. It's TEAL! the paint is TEAL

Christmas Cards!

You know what's cool? 4x6 watercolor paper. If you put a stamp on it it's a postcard!

I made Christmas postcards for a few friends this year. Sorry if you didn't get one, but I couldn't very well make 100 personalized Christmas cards, and I don't do store bought (she said with a question in her voice?). Thems the breaks I guess? If you did get one then congrats! You're one of my most very favorite people! I will say I remembered some friends after the fact I wish I'd sent them to, so if it makes you feel better tell yourself you're one of those. Also, I didn't even send them to my siblings, so that should also make you feel better if I left you out. Bottom line is I don't love you any less if I didn't send you one, I just love these people more, and/or they're the people I talk to everyday/week, so step up your game if you want in for next year.

 Whew, that was a lot of qualifying.

Here they are. I composed this entry last Friday bc I couldn't wait, but didn't want to ruin the surprise. By now I've gotten word from the most far flung of my friends so I think it's safe to post now. Some are from clip art books. Others I designed, of which I'm particularly proud of the NYC cards and the Nativity card (which I actually designed last year). Also, I think the cactus is just SO cute!

Published!

I've been waiting to blog ab this until my friend posted the links himself.

I recently completed a portrait of my friend Matt for the cover of his book. Matt's wonderfully talented and I was super happy to do a portrait for/of him. Check it out. It's on my website, but here are some process photos as well. I hadn't done a portrait in YEARS but it was like riding a bike, only like I had extra BMX powers or something. It was interesting to draw a face I'm very familiar with in real life, as I'd only done celebrities to this point. So here it is in process, and the finished product, all property of me of course. And a link to Matt's book, Edible Origami.

I had a picture to look off of, of course, but it's not mine so I haven't posted it. I used an art grid on the piece of paper underneath which is SO helpful and I'm sure why it went so well. By putting it underneath you don't need to worry about erasing it. For a thicker paper I'd prefer to have a light box, otherwise I'd have to draw it directly on. For canvases you have to. You can see the grid a little on the first couple, and I put hashes where the intersections are to keep it in line, which of course are erased later. I got brand new art pencils and erasers for this and was giddy when I got them! I haven't bought new pencils in probably 6 or 7 years!

still start with the eyes like
Mrs. Claus taught me

paper towel to keep my hand
and the paper clean

put in the hair line,
 then decided we liked it better unfinished

I'm a big fan of the shadow that the
hairline left.This is it more or less
finished. I cleaned up the white, pumped
up some shadow, and signed it of course.

I love taking process photos bc it shows how I've tweaked and futzed. Rarely am I 100% happy with any of my projects, but this is as close as I've come. I'd say 95%, and that's just because if I was 100% happy I'd have nothing to aspire to for next time!

New bridal designs

I was talking to a friend recently ab my dream of having a bridal boutique in London and realized I haven't been designing in awhile! So here you go, I've been working hard. As always I'm not in love with them all, but there are a couple I could see myself in!

The first of course is my opening night dress as a wedding gown. I have very little to say about most of my bridal decisions as that's a long way off and I'm not a psycho, but I've thought for awhile that silk faille would be my fabric. The first dress makes me seriously consider silk crepe....

And yes, all of them have my body and some of them have my face.

Which do you like the best?

art day

The weather wasn't good for hiking today and I'd gone adventuring for the past two Saturdays so it was nice to stay inside. Friend Kara and roommate Valerie and I spent the afternoon doing artsy things and watching The Sound of Music. My artsiness was repainting some frames I have.

I put a piece of velum in the label that says "hello." I'll probably change it to "chirp" at some point.

This one was originally glossy white. I've always loved this frame and I love the bird I keep in it that I embroidered, but it needed a little more pizazz. I didn't have an initial plan, but this what I got. I'm super pleased with it.

This frame was originally a run of the mill wood. I liked doing the gold so much on the bird frame I did a gradient kind of deal with this one. It looks better in person. It's all brush strokey on purpose. It's not my favorite, but it's a lot better and seeing them both on my desk makes me happy.

this looks great stretched as my desktop wallpaper

The turquoise, gold, and white made me really excited so I did this little number as the movie finished. Lots of scotch tape was involved for all of these projects. It was a great day!

Nacho Libre painting

I've been home painting movie posters for my sister's kids. Nacho Libre was up and I think I did a pretty swell job. I've also done Cars which was pretty flippin' fantastic! I won't have time to do a collage this trip, but I'm taking all my stuff to Cedar with me for the season so I'm hoping to get a lot done this summer and fall.

ACTF

Not to toot my own horn, but toot toot! I'm currently at the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival (KCACTF, or ACTF) for my senior show, Peter Pan. I worked 40+ hours last week and then some to get my power point presentation together and my board and bible. I practiced a lot and was kind of freaking out, but then I put on my four inch suede Steve Maddens and walked slowly around the display room for about 10 minutes (mostly to intimidate everyone else) and I was good to go!

I wore my new(ly made) brown plaid pencil skirt, a ruffle shirt and my green cardigan w/ leaves from Peter's costume pinned to it. I looked amazing, I must say, and was told that I was just lovely, everything about me was lovely from a random girl. My presentation went SUPER well and the judges had nothing bad to say! They complimented me on my poise and my appearance and how well I presented myself, not just the material. They raved about my designs and one even said my renderings were so charming and beautiful he'd buy one and frame it!!! I was just too stunned to actually offer to sell him one! Weight off my shoulders after it was all done! Now I get to see Elephant Man and Xanadu and whatever else shows are here. I'll find out if I made Nationals on Saturday. Until then I have a hotel room in Ogden and get to go down to Salt Lake tomorrow for dinner w/ a friend.

magazine collages

When I was in high school I used to spend entire weekends in my room making artistic messes, working on the portraits that have been highlighted previously, amongst other projects. One of my favorite pieces that I've always wanted to revisit was a collage I did of a Winterhalter painting made entirely of magazine clippings, seen below. From afar it really looks like an oil painting!

original

my collage, I'd say about 20"x24"

I used a projector to get the outline onto the paper. I'm not against using a projector for a project like this. The whole thing had me shut up in my room collecting colors and cutting and gluing for probably around 20 hrs, which isn't bad at all I think.

Like I said, I've always wanted to pick up this technique again. As I'm between jobs in Cedar City at the moment I might just have time to do so! I've been told if I do collages of the Mormon Temples I might just have a paying market. Of course I'd do a collage of anything for moneys. What d'yall think? Would you/do you know anyone that would buy a collage like this? If you're underwhelmed by the Winterhalter remember that it's been nigh on five years and I'm pretty certain I could pwn that one by now.

Wedding Designs Winter 2012

And now, the moment you've all been waiting for! My annual "I sketched a lot over Christmas" wedding dress designs, modest but unique and beautiful of course!

I found this dress on Pinterest and thought it'd make a great simple but interesting dress.

I've always loved this Oscar de la Renta dress as a reception dress, so this is my take on it as a wedding gown.

I'm loving the idea of flesh under structures for the illusion of skin w/o showing it so you can still be modest. The top of this look inspired this dress.

Very simple with just a little touch of special.

Modest version of this dress.

 Kind of random but could be very beautiful with tons of lace and chiffon for the skirt.

Very 1910s, you'd need a really swell lace for this with beading and all.

This one got a speck of crud scanned onto the face, but it's my favorite. Raised waist, same sleeve idea as the first. I just think it's so so great.







I had one more design but it didn't get scanned. Anticipation for later!

A Timeline of Shelby's Celebrity Crushes

My family is an obsessive one, just ask my brother's elephant collection (and he and I aren't the only ones and you know it!). Being a fan and devourer of period drama my obsessions tended to lean towards the leading men in the films of the hour. This makes sense right? Every girl crushes on celebrities from movies.  What's different about me? Maybe nothing, but I don't know many girls whose first legitimate celebrity crush was on a 50 year old...when she was 12.

First we have Gabriel Byrne, from Man in the Iron Mask. My very vivid memory recalls drawing pictures of Musketeers in church and daydreaming about D'Artagnan's luscious silver streaked locks and his Musketeer uniform. Byrne was 50, and I was twelve. A friend of mine was obsessed with the Scarlett Pimpernel at the time so we wrote fan fiction, passing a manuscript back and forth writing the adventures of some sort of Pimpernel Musketeer amalgam. It just so happened that almost immediately after having discovered him he starred in an ABC Friday night comedy called Matigan Men in which he used his real Irish accent. That just sent me over! I remember watching the premiere after I'd put the kids to bed during a babysitting job. I'm pretty sure I put the kids to bed a little earlier than necessary to make certain I could get their TV working. And so it all began!

Second of course, as my close friends can't forget was Josh Groban. I bought his debut CD with money from my 13th birthday and was lost. Groban was almost 20 at the time. He took up most of my mental free space from 7th, 8th and the beginning of 9th grade. I had Josh Groban parties, his website's fan forum was my first source of social media. My parents should feel lucky his fans are so wholesome. Josh Groban's Closer tour was the first and only arena concert I've ever been to. My dear parents drove me to Ames, IA and back the same night so I could see him. It was a big deal. With Gabriel Byrne I remember drawing Musketeers, but with Josh Groban I began my celebrity portraiture. By far the Groban period was my most prolific. I have many Joshes in pencil, a rather large piece in pastels and some in water color, the one on the left done when I was 14 and still one of my favorite works. 

I can't say exactly what made my love for Josh dwindle, but the void he left was the perfect size for Masterpiece Theatre and Daniel Deronda, the film I credit with not only making me realize I could design costumes for a living, but that also introduced me to Hugh Dancy. Isn't he adorable? Oxford educated, Burberry spokes model and English. Daniel Deronda aired at the end of my Freshman year and Dancy lasted me through the first semester of Sophomore year. I'm fairly certain I did this portrait at a later date and in rather a hurry, but it's still pretty good I think. I'd just turned 15 and Dancy's 13 years older than me.

Dancy was dethroned by the Phantom of the Opera himself, Glasgow born Gerard Butler. With my new found calling as a costume designer Marek from Timeline and the guy in the second Tomb Raider was my new best friend in a black cape. I was most in love with the Phantom, but kept an eye on Butler and followed him to Dear Frankie but that's about as far as I got. Mainstream Butler just doesn't strike my fancy despite how dreamy he is and the fact he talks to the side of his mouth. I was barely 16 at the time and Butler's 19 years older than me.

While trying to figure out this timeline it comes to my attention that I had an overlap with Phantom and Master and Commander. And so entered Russell Crowe. Oh Mr. Crowe. I got the M&C soundtrack for my birthday and that's all I listened to on my portable CD player. I saved the TIME magazine that had Captain Aubrey on the cover (portrait left). I got the Patrick O'Brian books for Christmas and even special ordered the autobiography of Lord Nelson Russell Crowe read as research. When the DVD came out I bought it the first day. When I realized I had bought a copy with no extras I bought the special edition version the next day and watched the film every night for a week. Obsessive personality? yes. I was outraged when the last Lord of the Rings movie stole all of its thunder at the Oscars that year.

I'd still keep Russell Crowe as an active celebrity crush. I've been collecting his films one by one and saw Robin Hood in the cinema in London, twice and bought the UK GQ bc he was on the cover. I watched RH about five times within the first month and a half I got it and Russell Crowe on a horse is on a short list of things I can't not bust out smiling at. I'll fight anyone who says he was fat in that movie. You can tell me he's a terrible person and try to convince me he's not a good guy, but if Gladiator is on TBS you'd better believe the next three hours of my life are booked. Russell Crowe is a winning 24 years older than me.

Back in the day the BBC had a specific drama website that linked to the sites for all their period dramas and updated fans on upcoming dramas, hence my knowing about the BBC's North and South 18 months before it aired in America. I spent the summer between my Sophomore and Junior years working in a costume shop in California. North and South aired on BBC America the week I went away to girls' camp. I had my sister record it on VHS and send it to me. I opened her package the day I got back from camp and watched it straight through right away. Needless to say it changed my life and Richard Armitage as Thornton was my new number one. How could he not be? It took some months for it to come out on DVD and when it did of course I rushed to Barnes and Noble and bought it with birthday money. Like Gerard Butler I think I was in love with the character more than the man because sadly Mr. Armitage didn't last long, but I am happy that he's landed other roles in British and American film (although I don't appreciate him in the BBC's Robin Hood as much as some assume I naturally would).

Now my obsession with Anderson Cooper had a strange and different flight path from the others seeing as Mr. Cooper can be seen nightly on TV rather than in a film. I have distinct memories of watching him on CNN while babysitting my niece when she was an infant, so about 7 1/2 years ago, BEFORE Hurricane Katrina. And I know I would watch him while I lived in California, I insisted on it, which was right before Katrina, so when Katrina hit and everyone took notice of this silver fox I felt like they'd been rather blind not to see him before. Of course I bought and read his book. He has the best portrait because my Senior year I finally had the time to take an art class and used him as my subject for my free choice painting. I'd say it's more than rather good. I still admire Mr. Cooper and will pause on AC360, but he really only lasted about a year and a half. Don't let the silver foxiness fool you! he's only 21 years older than me! And I know he'll never be mine for more than one reason.



 And bring on the Doctor!!! Again, my obsession with David Tennant started rather oddly. I started watching Doctor Who during the Rose and Tennant season because I fancied David Tennant, but I honestly can't say what got me really into him. He was the spineless vicar in He Knew He Was Right but now I don't really see that role as such a draw. At any rate I credit Tennant with getting me obsessed with Doctor Who, I'm sure the case for many a young girl. I still pine for him. I will pine for the tenth Doctor until I die and that's not an exaggeration. I will have been married for 50 years with grandchildren and when I make them watch Doctor Who I'll get a far away look in my eyes and they'll all know I'm pining for Tennant. It will never stop. Of course I also adored his Hamlet and was heartbroken I went to London the year between Hamlet and Much Ado. I didn't get far on his portrait as Tennant saw me into my college years and don't ya know I've had no time. He's 17 years older than me. I would also categorize David Tennant as an active crush.

And then there was Bollywood. After seeing Krrish at the end of my Sophomore year in college I became rather obsessed and watched some 50 films in three months. At roughly three hours each that's quite a time consuming phase. I made my coworkers listen to Bollywood music and that's all I blogged about (on my other blog). I of course started crushing on Hrithik Roshan after Krrish, but quickly moved to Shah Rukh Khan, his films making up the majority that I watched and Swades being one of my favorite films overall. I still love SRK, but my Bollywood consumption has dwindled immensely. SRK is 23 years older than me.







Other minor crushes:
JJ Feild
Tom Selleck
Toby Stephens (whom I've MET)
Colin Firth
Ioan Gruffudd
Prince William

a devoted group on my study abroad to London that met Toby Stephens after The Real Thing at the Old Vic, May '10

If you've read this ENTIRE post, 100 points to Gryffindor and Happy New Year!