Em's Musings

Scrub Jay

2010-06-02T12:34:00.001-07:00

I love doing realistic paintings of things. I always go into the most relaxed mode as I do it. I had a lot of fun with this painting of a Scrub Jay.

Homeless Animals

2010-05-03T19:09:00.001-07:00

The effects of deforestation on animals:

Original

Revised... I still don't know which one I like better...

Nursery Rhyme Characters

2010-05-03T18:42:00.000-07:00

Wee Willie Winkie

The Cow who Jumped over the Moon

The Old Lady who Lived in a Shoe

Old King Cole

Mother Goose

Little Miss Muffet

Little Girl who Had a little Curl

Jenny Wren

Jill

Jack

Georgie Porgie

Cat who plays the fiddle

Classwork...

2010-05-03T18:38:00.000-07:00

Jack and Jill

2010-02-17T18:30:00.000-08:00

Old King Cole

2010-02-16T10:32:00.001-08:00

I've been having so much fun lately painting in my toned paper sketchbook. There is something so nice about not setting up my usual pristine white paper, where I am often too afraid to even put a mark down, and just go from sketch to final within the comfort of a sketchbook page. So I am exploring some new things and I am excited to see where this new adventure leads.

I've also been having a lot of fun taking the images into photoshop and playing around with different textures to accentuate the characters.

Mouse

2010-02-15T17:20:00.001-08:00

Greed

2010-02-12T05:26:00.000-08:00

This was a project for school on one of the seven deadly sins. I chose greed. But there is also a bit of gluttony in there.

Wee Willy Winkie

2010-02-11T08:03:00.000-08:00

This is a nursery rhyme character for a book that I am making for my class... I am super excited about this project.

Christmas Gifts

2010-02-07T15:46:00.000-08:00

These were Christmas gifts that I made for my family. They are watercolour and ink on wooden plaques. They were a lot of fun to do. Nice to do something final other than schoolwork.

Some finished pieces for my thesis...

2009-12-18T06:28:00.000-08:00

New self-portrait in oil...

2009-12-17T21:19:00.000-08:00

This is my self-portrait for the Rethink project. It is done in oil. It was a lot of fun to do!! :D

From my portrait journal...

2009-12-13T20:32:00.000-08:00

Assortment of stuff!

2009-12-13T20:12:00.000-08:00

Portraits

2009-10-18T18:11:00.000-07:00

These are some of the spreads I have for my self-portraits...

More narrative...

2009-10-18T16:41:00.000-07:00

This is a project for my narrative class recounting a personal experience that had a big effect on me.. I chose my car accident from 7 years ago....

Narrative

2009-09-28T13:54:00.001-07:00

So this is a really depressing little story, I forewarn you, but it is a truth about our world none-the-less...

Weekly portraits..

2009-09-28T13:14:00.000-07:00

As part of a project for my class this year I am going to be doing at least one self-portrait a week. I am really looking forward to this. I am looking to explore in media, techniques, maybe some writing, and maybe so more surrealist approaches. So far I have two of a more traditional approach...

They are all going to be done in my little moleskin watercolour book, and at the end I hope to have a great compilation of portraits and writing, and maybe I will be able to produce a little booklet out of it. We'll see! : )

Final year begins!

2009-09-25T07:14:00.000-07:00

These are some colour roughs for my interpretive project on Good/Bad. It is meant to be nature versus man-made. I plan to do the final in watercolour. I am hoping to get feedback from my teacher on which one I should do and how I can change it... I am happy with these marker renditions though. I love Copic markers!! They are such a joy to draw with. The brush tip really feels like a paint brush. Art supplies make me giddy! :D

Doodles...

2009-07-08T15:40:00.000-07:00

Here are some random doodles from my journal.. I need to keep more of a sketchbook. I am very rusty at drawing from my imagination...

Summer is flying by!

2009-07-08T15:16:00.000-07:00

Summer is flying by! I am having such a blast. I am so grateful for the co-op I have, just getting to paint all the time. I have also had the greatest couple of weekends with first spending one at the cottage with Giorgio, just hanging out and reading and being peaceful and then the following weekend we spent three days at the Mariposa Festival in Orillia and stayed at a B&B there! What an amazing weekend that was with tons of talented musicians. It was a really great experience. It was my first real festival.

This week I have taken a break from oil painting and I have been working with watercolour again. I love working with watercolour. The water makes it so fluid and fun to paint with. It is also really fun to work with transparencies. I think I have learned a lot from oil about colour, and it is great applying that new knowledge to watercolours. I have a few paintings to post, and I will probably have one or two more by the ending of the week!

Two new finished pieces!

2009-06-24T15:42:00.000-07:00

Here are two of the latest paintings I have finished. I am really happy with them! I worked really hard.

This following one is self-portrait done from a full length mirror:

Self-Portrait

2009-06-05T16:12:00.000-07:00

I have started working on a self portrait from a really long mirror. It is a fun challenge. I have actually never painting a full body self-portrait. This first day of work on it I mainly got the sketch down on the canvas and blocked in some of the main colour, to get rid of all the white of the canvas. I can't wait to work on this next week! Here are some pictures from day 1:

Painting of Ed

2009-06-05T16:04:00.000-07:00

This is the the painting of Ed completed. I am really happy with it. It was so fun to paint and I feel like I really captured his face.

More paintings...

2009-05-28T15:02:00.000-07:00

Here are some more of the paintings I have been working on at my co-op. I really am learning a lot and loving oil paints.

This was week three and final touch ups of the lemon still life:

This is week two of a portrait:

Here is a detail of the face:

This is week two of my new glass bottle still-life: (painting glass is so hard!!)

In other news I am on a 10 day cleanse and so far I have completed six days! I am feeling great and really healthy. It is so good to rid my body of old toxins and start fresh. I don't wake up tired in the mornings. There is a focus that I don't normally have. Giorgio has joined me on the cleanse and we are hoping to make it for the whole 10 days.

Co-op Time!!

2009-05-13T14:29:00.000-07:00

This summer is my Co-op semester for school. I am doing a placement with an old teacher of mine, Katherine MacDonald, who is such an incredible painter. There are three other students along with me and we pretty much get to paint, 8 hours-a-day, 4 days-a-week. It is such an amazing opportunity to learn. I am so excited to be painting more than just the typical 3 hours a week.

I am also learning how to oil paint. We have been there for a week and a half so far and I am already learning a lot, especially about oil painting.

Here are some things I have been working on.

These are from the two days a week that we are at the Dundas Valley School of Art with Katherine:

Week 1:

Week 2:

Seed Packets

2009-05-05T14:32:00.000-07:00

Our assignment was to create a branding for some images for a specific company and their cause, and mine was for Evergreen and their campaign for greener schoolyards. I decided to make seedpackets. Each seed packet had a different child sprouting the plant the seeds were for. The combined image is the little banner to go under the display case for the packets.

Couple of new paintings...

2009-03-24T13:04:00.000-07:00

This was a great assignment. Total freedom. We could do whatever we wanted as long as it was self-directed. These faces are from a really old sketch of mine that I finally decided to remake. This is done in ink, watercolour (for the background) and gouache (for the faces). It was my first attempt at using gouache. I think I used it more like watercolour rather than the opaque way it can be used. It was really fun experimenting though.

This painting is a remake of a couple of old paintings, one called American Gothic and the other called In the Mowing. It was for an assignment about the nigerian scam emails that get sent out. This particular one involved a popular farmer in Zimbabwe who got killed so his family had to move to the Netherlands.
I had a really tough time with this assignment. Conceptually I really couldn't come up with anything interesting.
I had fun painting though.

Bird Love

2009-03-11T21:22:00.000-07:00

This was a video I made last semester in Electronic Media class. I am still just learning to use After Effects. It is such an enormous program and opens up sooooo many possibilities! I want to do so much with it! When I get more free time I want to work on more videos. Giorgio and I have an idea for one together. He is going to do crazy voices for it! It is going to be such a fun project!

This semester I am working on a music video for one of my brother's songs. I am hoping to be able to finish it for class, but even if I don't get it done I will finish it for Kit. Here is a link to his music for anyone interested!! http://www.kitsoden.com/
The song is called "Tip of the Iceberg" and here is a poster I just made for class for it:

procrastination...

2009-03-11T21:06:00.001-07:00

Trying to finish an essay and I keep horribly distracting myself. I can't believe how long it can take to write a simple essay. It should take me a few hours and instead it takes me a whole day since I write a few sentences and before I know it I am daydreaming of something or looking up something on the computer.

Time management. Still issue number one for me.

I can't decide what I want for coop. A new posting went up for an animation place that is looking for character designing and layout and background design. This would be a huge challenge but an inspiring one. I feel I could learn a lot from something like that. I don't know if I can meet the requirements though.
I am also torn about whether to go with a teaching placement. I have done a lot of teaching in my past. Starting from teacher's assistant, then running classes myself, to starting my own art camp one summer. I feel confident that I could get a job doing this again and I know it is approved as a related coop experience. I am just wondering if I would actually be pushing myself and learning while doing this. It could be a really good experience and maybe get my foot in the door for teaching in Toronto when I am done school, especially when I will be needing a decent job to support my art.

Decisions, decisions....

Here I am procrastinating some more by writing this post...

Ah well, it helps to take a bit of a break from attempting an essay...

I spent a good portion of the evening listening to some classical piano music, mainly Debussy and Satie. Their music is so inspiring and calming. I close my eyes and get carried away into other worlds while listening. Their music brings shivers to my spine it is so good.

Old old sketchbook art.

2009-02-18T12:41:00.000-08:00

I used Photoshop to make a collage of sorts of old sketchbook art from around 2001-2004

Self-Portrait

2009-02-18T11:24:00.000-08:00

This was a quick digital painting I did on Facebook recently, using the Graffiti application. It is always a fun challenge, since there is no tablet sensitivity and you are restricted to sizes and minimal colour.

stolen from Facebook notes...

2009-02-18T10:25:00.000-08:00

25 Random things about me....

1) Sometimes I feel like I was born in the wrong era since most of my musical tastes derive from the 60s and 70s...

2) I play four instruments but have never perfected one.

3) I love singing even though I don't really like my voice.

4) I can't see a hill without wanting to run down it.

5) I feel the most like myself when I am outside and walking, I just take a deep breath and feel like a totally different person.

6) I think I am happiest when I am outside too, especially surrounded by trees and moss and sounds of the forest.

7) It took me the longest time to ever want to bring anyone up to my cabin because it felt like my own personal haven or sanctuary and I never knew if someone would appreciate it as much as I do.

8) Sometimes when I am walking home I give myself a distance that I need to sprint to, and challenge myself to get past that point.

9) Other times when I am walking home I sing to myself, usually all my favourite folk songs.

10) I wish I weren't afraid to sing loudly.

11) I fall in love with every place I go and wish I could live everywhere.

12) I am equally torn between love of the city and love of the country, and don't know where I want to live.

13) Sometimes when I am reading a book I get so lost in it that someone could have been calling my name for a while and I just don't hear them. This has happened on many an occasion growing up.

14) If I weren't studying art I would be studying herbal medicine. I just lacked the confidence in my memory to go into that field. Instead I content myself with buying lots of books on herbs and slowly teaching myself.

15) My favourite type of book is fantasy and I wonder if it is because I am just a big kid who still loves fairy tales and magic.

16) I get overwhelming surges of love for life all the time. Sometimes it hits me so hard I want to cry.

17) I need to live near water. My heart needs it.

18) Despite needing to live near water I have an irrational fear of the bottom of lakes, or any water that is too dark and I can't see what is coming.

19) I wonder if I am cut out to do art for the rest of my life since I don't draw or paint as much as other people. There are so many other things I love doing too.

20) If I could draw faces for the rest of my life I would be happy though.

21) I dream of being a traveling portrait artist that sets up in a beautiful spot in every new town.

22) I am one of the messiest people I know, it comes from collecting too many things and being a pack-rat. My room is a cozy disaster though.

23) I love old houses and old buildings. Anything with old hardwood. They have so much more character than new homes.

24) I could wander the city or country all day taking pictures. There are always so many wondrous little things that catch my eye that I want to capture.

25) If there are stars overhead, I need to get a blanket and lie out watching them, in hopes of catching a shooting star.

A Recipe for Procrastination

2009-02-18T10:09:00.000-08:00

A Recipe for Procrastination. Collage and Acrylic paint on Illustration board. 2009.

For this project I was trying to show the procrastinator's race against time and all the things it is easy to distract yourself with. The arms actually move.

Old Art, since first year till now.

2009-02-18T09:00:00.000-08:00

Giorgio, Done in Markers. 2008. This one was relatively recent. I bought a bunch of new Copic markers and they are sooooo much fun to play with. It was a great birthday present to myself! : )

Anatomy Study, conte and coloured pencil. (2007)

Ed, Watercolour on watercolour paper (2008)

Vanessa, Acrylic on illustration board. (2008)

Playing Cards, Acrylic on illustration board. 2008.

Boot Study. Pencil on Bond paper. 2007

Mailbag Study. Pencil on Bond paper. 2007

Still Life in Black and White. White coloured-pencil on Black Mayfair paper. 2007.

Still Life of Boot and Hat. Acrylic on illustration board. 2008.

Colin's Cabin

2009-02-18T08:39:00.000-08:00

This was a commissioned piece for my cousin's wedding.

It was done completely in watercolour paints.

Forgotten blog...

2009-02-18T08:08:00.001-08:00

I have really neglected this blog. I am hoping to change that. I need to take some pictures and scan more art since I don't have a lot of new stuff to go up here.

I have created a portfolio site:

www.emilysoden.carbonmade.com

I've decided to use that site for the best of my work and I will use this site for what it is actually meant to be, a blog, and not just have school stuff.

"The Perfectionist"

2008-10-16T16:31:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I have posted. I am enjoying year 3 in illustration. Finding it very homework heavy this semester.

This is the latest assignment for interpretive class. We had to illustrate the word "Perfectionist". I did mine all in paper cut-outs. Here is the outcome:

Self Portrait

2008-04-21T13:32:00.000-07:00

Self-portrait done in Acrylic on Masonite board.
Drawn from the mirror.

illustrations

2008-03-24T17:42:00.001-07:00

Visual metaphor for the song No Quarter by Led Zeppelin

"... They carry news that must get through
To build a dream for me and you
They choose the path that no one goes
They hold no quarter...."

Identity theft...

portraits!

2008-02-20T05:40:00.000-08:00

Jacob, Marker and Ink on paper, 2008
Giorgio, Graphite on paper, 2008
Kayle, watercolour on paper, 2008

Dionysus

2008-02-07T18:54:00.000-08:00

School assignment to create a wine label using both Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop.

Watchful Forest

2008-02-07T18:47:00.000-08:00

I had so much fun with this piece. Acrylic on canvas paper.

nude watercolour

2008-02-06T15:31:00.001-08:00

two week pose (6hrs)
watercolour painting
from life

starting a four week painting

2007-11-21T14:52:00.000-08:00

today in painting we began a four week pose. i am pretty excited to have a long time for work on it. i really like the sketch i did before i put any paint down so i took a picture. i will take another picture when it's complete. so this is the before! lets hope i don't wreck it : )

november

2007-11-21T14:13:00.000-08:00

This month is totally flying by way too fast! I just turned 25 yesterday. Kind of crazy since I still feel no older than 19. We have had some interesting projects at school. I keep forgetting to take photos or scans when I do them. I managed to get some photos of a couple new pieces.

The first piece is an information illustration. We received a sheet of statistics and had to choose one to illustrate. I chose "Average number of credit cards per US household: 12.7". I did did my final piece in watercolour and ink. It was interesting to see how some of my classmates interpreted the same statistic and how differently they all came out. Mine was a much darker look at the debt and poverty caused by using money you don't even have. I am definitely happy with the way the piece came out.

This second piece was based on a fortune cookie. We each received fortune cookies and had to create a visual metaphor based on that fortune. My fortune was " You are sensitive to all that is going on around you."

so nice to relax

2007-10-21T16:56:00.000-07:00

official being a bum day. so so nice. i played guitar for two hours today. then played keyboards. got a bunch of little things done that i never seem to do because of school work. such a good feeling. homework starts tomorrow.
i was reading a book of jack kerouac's letters. it makes me want to read the dharma bums all over again. i love his writing so much...

painting exercise

2007-10-20T13:41:00.000-07:00

this was just a still life exercise in painting class at the beginning of the semester. more acrylics.

being able to edit

2007-10-20T13:33:00.001-07:00

i just realized that i can go back and edit old posts! i am updating some with scans instead of photos. my scratchboards look way better as scans.

Reading week~

2007-10-20T12:59:00.000-07:00

Today I slept in for the first time since school started. I mean really slept in. The kind of sleep where you aren't stressed out over projects. I think my body decided to catch up on seven weeks worth of lack of sleep in one go. I never sleep in past 10 or 11, and today it was until 1:30. Woke up with feelings of guilt over a day off half gone! An entire week of days off is ahead so I think it's ok.

Thinking of writing myself out a schedule so I actually plan my time well this week. I know with all the time off I might procrastinate my homework.

I finally got my printer/scanner up and running with this new computers. Windows Vista was giving me a hard time. So now I will be able to upload scans of art instead of photos of them since the photos really don't do them justice. This first scan still doesn't do it justice since the painting was way bigger than the scanner and I tried to piece it together in photoshop and it looks really patchy. hehehe. ah well. this was a three week painting for painting class. I am still getting used to acrylics. Its like this ongoing battle of trying to get the paint to work for me. It just doesn't flow the same way watercolour does.

We have a big still life painting to do at home and the option of doing it in oils! I cannot wait to start it this week!

some art from last year

2007-10-14T07:31:00.000-07:00

I just took some photos of some art I got back from last year. These were all from painting class. That turned out to be one of my favourite classes last year.

Scratchboards

2007-10-14T07:28:00.000-07:00

Recent class assignment. I love using scratchboard so much. You force your brain to think in reverse and lay down the light instead of the shadows. Every mark you make counts. Its exciting : )

2007-10-10T06:48:00.000-07:00

I finished these off last night for computer class. My first attempts at digital painting!

More homework

2007-10-03T07:21:00.001-07:00

For computer class we had to illustrate an opening scene if one our favourite books. I chose Gardens of the Moon. This is the beginning of chapter one. We had to do sketches and then clean them up on photoshop and then render the line with filters. That was just part one. The next part we will be adding colours. I will post those when they are done!

Finished up the war and peace project

2007-10-03T06:50:00.000-07:00

We had a three week project for interpretive class where the theme was war and peace. It also needed to be a decorative peace using pattern or other means. It was a really fun assignment and a whole lot of work.

I really liked the idea of trying to portray this peaceful scene, almost ignorant of the many layers of blood and war and murder buried beneath it. Life always finds a way to survive. There are a lot of contrasts in the piece. It came out a lot like I had hoped.

And so it begins...

2007-09-24T16:05:00.000-07:00

Second year of illustration is off to a start. Its amazing how this time 'round at school I am getting so much more from it. I love my classes. The projects are all really interesting.

This was the first project for Media studies. We had to take up to three to five existing animals and create a new one. This little guy turned out to be really cool.

It seems for years I kept trying to draw from my head over and over, after realizing that I had no skill at drawing from my imagination. I took it so far to an extreme that I rarely drew from life anymore; forgetting that the only way to really learn and grow is to practice from life first. Being back at school has reminded me about that.

I still lack the discipline I want. The procrastinor lives on to some extent. I have so many hopes for this year....

Em's Musings

Scrub Jay

Homeless Animals

Nursery Rhyme Characters

Classwork...

Jack and Jill

Old King Cole

Mouse

Greed

Wee Willy Winkie

Christmas Gifts

Some finished pieces for my thesis...

New self-portrait in oil...

From my portrait journal...

Assortment of stuff!

Portraits

More narrative...

Narrative

Weekly portraits..

Final year begins!

Doodles...

Summer is flying by!

Two new finished pieces!

Self-Portrait

Painting of Ed

More paintings...

Co-op Time!!

Seed Packets

Couple of new paintings...

More videos....

Bird Love

procrastination...

Old old sketchbook art.

Self-Portrait

stolen from Facebook notes...

A Recipe for Procrastination

Old Art, since first year till now.

Colin's Cabin

Forgotten blog...

"The Perfectionist"

Self Portrait

illustrations

portraits!

Dionysus

Watchful Forest

nude watercolour

starting a four week painting

november

so nice to relax

painting exercise

being able to edit

Reading week~

some art from last year

Scratchboards

More homework

Finished up the war and peace project

And so it begins...