The Bee's Knees

Thousands of dollars of art education later and I'm qualified to draw mermaids for preschoolers :)

Awww, but you have much to learn, Young Grasshopper!

Mooooom Are we there yet?

All I could think about today at work were monsters and Sea cucumbers. One would think that staving off boredom at a comic shop would be easy because of the mass quantities of stories and pictures available but the exact opposite is the case! haha I hardly want to pick anything up because all the inked drawings, large breasted super heroes and moody slice of life stories just end up blending into a big colorful mess that I've grown kinda weary of. Every once in awhile theres something that draws my attention, and in those rare occurrences I smuggle it off with me to read on the train or in the park far far away from work :)

Ahem, on the topic of art I have some sketchbook stuff lined up to show ya'll and am thinking of doing a little fashion mini project this summer so theres an outlet for my unhealthy need to shop. Uuum, and theres this painting... but it's kinda laying dejected next to me so we'll have to see about that.

Frankly Drawing comes more naturally than painting for me. Theres just something really mesmerizing and descriptive about markmaking, but there's this awful stigma against it. That it's a pre-art made to flesh out the "higher" art of painting. I don't know, it can serve that purpose but theres just something really natural and special about a fluid imperfect drawing. No matter how hard someone tries they'll never be able to recreate that moment perfectly. Maybe that's why illustration classes were so hard for me, because they asked for us to recreate the good in our pre-drawings and I had already given them all I had.

By the way, HAPPY SUMMER EVERYONE :D feelin the heat!

A different kind of Venus.

This was a plate that was a good exercise but did not yield the results that were planned. Wanted to only aquatint without any drawn lines (only values/tones) which was done through putting the plate in the acid and covering the parts that were to be untouched with ground.

Unfortunately I didn't make it dark enough so it took me and my amazing teacher a little time to coax out some successful prints. It really goes to show that there's a mastery in just the process of pulling the print that is totally independent of what goes on with the plate.

As far as the image goes, I was thinking a lot about texture and calcium deposits, or how sea shells grow. How juxtaposition of two natural things can yield something monstrous and hyper-beautiful...Blah blah blabbity blah blah haha

Going down with the ship.

I like to work in twos, and show in threes.

Am in an odd mood right now, most likely because am visiting home in Washington. Have been struggling a little, no "struggling" isn't the proper world for what I'm doing. What is happening is that I am watching things and getting mighty queasy. Am sad that I no longer write interesting articles for you guys, and that the art I do show you has de-evolved into silly doodles and watercolors.

Frankly I don't even know if I am an artist anymore, lately it's as if I have nothing to say and what I do want to say is better suited for miniscule scribblings that arn't ever going to be shown to anybody. And then they might as well not even exist because thats how much of a tole they're taking on the world. Around every corner theres something to put my work to shame and the place I thought I could make for myself in the art world seems to shrink and shrink and shrink.

What role can my silly ideas and clumsy hands have in a world thats already been taken over by flashy computer graphics and billion dollar budgets? None, there is no place for Rebekka Dunlap. I'm just going to end up another interesting yet forgettable blip in the ocean of trendy faux-creative vomit.

Bekka sad. BEKKA SMASH!

Pop Ups (part 2)

What contained has no lid but still holds golden treasure?

VIKING (Its the braids, swear to god!)

Story Time! So while doing this illustration late last night (late due to my own inability to self motivate) I kept trying to figure out why it looked funny. "why does this look funny?" I asked myself, holding it at arms length, putting it on the floor and tacking it to the wall and taking a few steps back. "SOMETHING IS WRONG!" 

Then of course the moment the teacher looks at it he goes on the second rant of the class about how we need to master perspective. Somehow in my stupor I had aligned the tiles incorrectly, and somehow skewed the wall so that it creates this crazy triangular room... where the walls will never connect haha, whoops.  Also got burned for the hands, which I didn't really care about because that was more of a stylistic choice than practical, but will have to keep in mind that others may think it's a mistake.

Buut, the ultra upside is that while talking about a classmates work, the Professor was like "YA'LL ARE AFRAID" (not exact words mind you) but then he gestured toward me and said something about not being afraid. Guys I've never been called any kind of brave in my entire life. On the contrary, I always wanna puke when the class gets to critiquing my work. Thus am surfing on a little self-esteem wave at the moment. However am all too aware of how said wave can disappear. Now feel a bit of pressure not disappoint anybody. OH MY am total weenie.

My life revolves around school at the moment, so sorry if you get tired of hearing about the same class. Will try to give you something a bit more fulfilling for the next post :)

"I WANNA BE 40 FEET TALL, I WANna have HYDROLIC ARMS!"

Class: Principles of Illustration

Assignment: Include three different textures with emphasis on composition.

Comments: U.U ZZZzzzzzz (not a total failure)