A little while ago I did an image for one of my best friends in Campinas, Helena.
She's getting married in november:



Her wedding blog, with photos, links and a small version of the above, is here: Leandro e Helena: felizes como nunca

I have a new picture up on http://www.ceuseterra.com, my Dad's website.

It's the ladybug in the corner, check it out!

I've been published! Not counting high school yearbooks and newspapers, my first published illustrations just came out.

They are a bunch of simple illustrations published an eight-page magazine insert for the non-profit organization A ROCHA of Brazil. The insert is written in portuguese, basically it has a small introduction to the organization and then a few bible studies focusing on the necessity and importance of caring for the environment as christians and as humans. I had to keep it simple and small because of time and space, but really I am quite pleased with having been able to participate in such a project. It looks better in print, but here is a link 2 the digital version: educacao-ambiental.pdf

The magazine is Ultimato, and 30,000 copies of the insert were printed for distribution... wow.

Was feeling kinda down on myself about my art today. I've been thinking I'm actually a terrible artist, in terms of visual vocabulary and finishing stuff.

Did some crazy sketches and started organizing some things to start rebuilding my Jennycarriker.com site. I was messing with a page full of prep work and got an unexpected result with a phantom of a fox sketch I started to mess with just because. It made me happy. Like a surprise.

When I was in Florianópolis in January, Sarah asked me to fill her sketchbook up with a few drawings and sketches, which I did, and here are some of those...













Turtleshrooms...




Sorry for the image quality, the lack of a scanner at the Floripa house meant taking photos, which didn't turn out as well...

And now I stop writing because my laptop is beeping at me...
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Something I did for my Dad:






It´s for a blog he started:

Céus e Terra ("Heavens and Earth")
- a christian blog about faith and ecology. There are a few contributing authors who write articles on the subject, some good links, for anyone who´s interested in ecology issues from a christian point of view. - (portuguese)

[edit: look at it in Firefox, Explorer messes it up]

...

I had a few slightly different color versions, here´s the final pick and my own favorite, side by side:

... I've spent a lot of time this past, oh, month or so, (3 weeks?)

GETTING OVER MYSELF as an artist.

This is not for everyone, as many artists I dare say have the opposite problem.

I've been doing everything (well, that I get the chance to? idea to?) that a "professional" artist does not do or
does not use for "professional" reasons.

I've sold a piece I loved for way below it's worth.

I've let children "correct" my finished, color play sketches, (and to my surprise watch her scrawbble all over the resulting drawing:
"It's ugly now, and I hate cats anyway". Children think very differently about "art".

I've created a finished piece from scratch with no idea where I was going with it, just to create a finished piece (okay, so real artists do this all the time, but I always plan my finished pieces. This was totally unplanned and created as I went. (I only do that for sketches) The keyword for me here is FINISHED, and actually it was the first piece I'd been able to "finish" in over a year.

I've done professional quality (in my eyes) work for free.

I've given professional quality work created for free, and "only" for family, the same importance in my career as is it were a big unknown client paying me lots of money (the fact that this is something I have to say is just to show you how messed up my ideas about being a professional artist were for a while).

I've given away original line drawings to be used as coloring pages by children.

And I've agreed to do some work for a publication by a non-governmental organization that has no means of paying me.


Through all this I've grown and learned so much about being a human being that it is hard to explain what was wrong with me to begin with. Maybe I was too proud, too perfectionistic, too afraid of being undervalued or taken advantage of. Or too hung up on the fact that art had to generate money or oppertunity of making money for it to be valid or worthwhile.


I wanted to post the coloring pages project I did with the kids, and their results. Kids, by the way, are very different then adult clients in many ways. First, I offered to make them a "finished, really pretty/all colorful/etecetera" picture for them to keep, maybe hang in their room or something, (a generous offer, I thought at first), but they had no interest in that. They wanted something they could color, or play with, or interact with directly in some way. And when I asked them what they wanted me to draw, at first they just had absolutely no idea. Then they wanted me to do caricatures which I'm no good at at all and it took me a good ten minutes explain to them why, if I drew them, it would look nothing like them and why I couldn't make a drawing that looked like them easily if I could draw things and people and animals that DON'T exist and make them look like they should look. (this idea is pretty awesome: drawing things that don't exist should be harder, right? ;P)
Then they started coming up with all sorts of ideas, and changed their minds constantly about the details after they had said it was their final request, got all excited for about five seconds and then ran off to play in the pool. Hahahaha ^^;

My line work:






This is Andressa and Dani.





Andressa and Dani colored the original drawing as soon as they recieved it, Andressa is still younger and it's hard for her to wait on things. Andressa colored the little bunny, Dani colored the big one, and I don´t know the rest but they colored the whole thing together.





Here's Douglas and his drawing, and Aline and her drawing.





They actually waited until the next day (I was surprised) because they both wanted to have a copy so I suggested using a photocopier before coloring. Which they did: and made ONE photocopy. Aline colored the original XD.

And we think "originals" are supposed to be worth more.



(Douglas didn´t actually finish his.)


okay so...
[makes soapbox grow, in a plantlike way, a little higher]


Here´s my long-winded reflexion-conclusion-thingie.

ALL the results of these experiences were very positive.
First: I'm drawing again! And lots! I'm not afraid of messing up anymore (well, so much anyway), every drawing I do does not have to be perfect, and I'm even okay with the fact art does not = money making, or livelihood. That I don't have to be gaining my sustenance from it 100% right off the bat, right out of college, or I fail.
And drawing has been making me so happy!

Second: Third: Fouth fifth and so on: The piece I sold for dirt cheap, I know is going to a lady who fell in love with the piece, volunteered to buy it when it was not created with the idea of it being for sale (hep, I hadn't even finished it yet), who loves me and helped me out in the past and who I know is very happy with having that picture. It´s in a happy home ^^.
I've learned that drawings; that drawings are sometimes just drawings, and an artist's idea about his art being always untouchable by others is an artist pride thing, maybe sometimes for the good but maybe also overdone too much. (My brazilian grandmother paints, and I hear is always retouching and correcting paintings in her house, new and very old... her own paintings AND other artist's.)
Perfection is an enemy, if you hold on to the fact that it is obtainable. You do not have to be perfect with your work to be happy with it. The work has a mind and will of it's own, and if you don't accept that and want to over-control it, you lose it.
Sometimes someone else's ideas of what would make a better image are just RIGHT.
Even your own ideas of an image... Finishing a professional quality image can be a reward in itself. Seeing the satisfaction of giving someone a professional quality image they would otherwise not have is a reward in itself. Drawing for and working with people you love brings satisfaction too, and lots of happiness and love from both sides. (and tension, too, but the good kind, that you learn from)
Drawing to bring happiness is the ultimate satisfaction. (ok, maybe not really "The. Ultimate! Satisfaction." because there are much much better things in life and life is not about drawing, but you get the idea of the feeling scale). It is not the only reason to draw, but it must be an important something or another...
Art is also a way we think about things. And many of them are based today on artist pride, money making, and worries about self support.
But art can also (and should be) a service to humanity, a way of bringing peace and joy and change in the world.

I do want to be able to make a living as a professional artist, still. But not because I'm worrying about money. Every worker deserves to be rewarded, I just don´t want the reward to be my motivation to LOVE. *(super leap in logic)*

...
If that makes any sense.

I just figured I should post something. XP. November 2007. Needed to have some fun, without much thinking or hours on end at the table.

It´s so... what´s the word? DX . . . Myeh.

Hey, so, it's been a while since I posted new drawing, so here I created this animation this week.

Ok, so I figure I'd update my blog, finally...

The show went well, I prepared some photos to give an idea of what it was like.
I had a bunch of mostly 8.5x11 sheets of paper covering the insides of all the display cases in the one hall where the illustration room is located.
Took me three full days to set it up.

Here you can see the cases from either side of the hall (it was just one side, one photo is looking up the hall, the other is looking own):




There were lots and lots of little doodles to look at. You just had to be there.

(detail)


The most commented on were the doodles on the ritazza napkins, though as expected different people had different favorites.

ritazza napkins:


When I took down the show this is the stack of all the papers in it:


I made a peeps an an egg out of all the masking tape used in th show XD


All in all, it went very well, and I think people enjoyed it.

I'm thinking of just doing popcorn for the opening. I dunnoo...

[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v56/jipsy/JenniferCarrikerproj3.swf[/IMG]










(this was a test)

edit: It failed. The link doesn't work so I took it down.

Hey all, I just fixed the sizes on those pics I posted a while ago while I was in Hawaii.

It was so awesome to be with the whole family for a while, I really miss everyone!
So, here are some more pics I prepared, here we are yay :D










and some more


Hawaii and Family is awesomeness.

Charlotte, however, sucks.
This is my dorm:

Just thought I would make a post while I was here. yay!

Ever build a phenakistoscope? I did! I did it for Animation and Interactivity class, here is what it looks like:



and when you spin it and look through the slots, you see this (simulation XP):



hehehehe...

Okay also... I don't have any good ideas on how to color this (general ideas, etc, not the little details because this pic is huge, too big to post full size)so will people please look at it and please leave a comment if you have any suggestions? It's supposed to have a magical/fantasyish feel, you know...



btw, Michael, you are right about my keyboard. It's horrible for writing. I may need to get something better. Then again, I was thinking it may be just that my desk is too high, I dunno.

I am arrived!