Sketchbook Sunday

It's been a pretty good drawing week, probably because i'm so busy and have actual work i should be doing. I'm off to Dunedin to visit my parents next week, which i am so happy about. Feeling very over-worked and wrung out lately.

Everybody still likes owls, right?

 

 

This is the preliminary sketchbook scribble plan for the painting I've started drawing up below. I've started painting it now but sadly i think i liked it better as a black and white drawing..

 

Sketchbook Sunday (even though it isn't Sunday)

It isn't Sunday but i haven't posted any drawings for ages so here are some things I've been drawing in my new sketchbook. It is bigger than my usual ones and has nicer paper plus I made a dustcover for it because that's how i roll.

 

 

 This is a tattoo design I'm working on for a really nice woman. 

Time away

I just got back from a nice visit to Auckland. I've come back a bit more clear headed so I've actually been managing to draw again. My lovely friend Evie let me stay with her and her nice boyfriend and their nice pets (two pups! and Eddie the cat). I kind of went up for a market but it was a bit of a flop so i was really just there to drink milkshakes and eat dumplings and do fun silly crafts with a group of nice ladies.

 Cute but terrible coffee. I didn't have a single good cup of coffee in Auckland, always over extracted and yuck. Lucky the company was so good. 

 I wore one of my own temporary tattoos to the market to show how good they come out. Had a few people ask if it was real so i guess that's a pretty good sign.

  When i arrived Bronwyn handed me a Halloween bag of presents. Which had this amazing little deer lamp inside. Plus one of her fantastic neon bows. I don't know what i did to deserve this but I'm not complaining. 

x

Fox And Poppies

Fox and Poppies.
Gouache on paper

A big, different painting. This is all thick, dry brushed gouache rather than the usual washes of watercolour i do. It takes much longer to paint but i think i like the end result better. I am thinking of printing this as a big silk scarf rather than my usual giclee print. What do you think?

 Things have been a little difficult lately. It is hard to put into words, and probably i am terrible at talking about anything serious. I just sent out a pile of portfolios and i'm really hoping this leads somewhere. Moving away, a new home, a new job. I haven't drawn for a few days because i am too stressed out.

Happy samhain!

It's actually not Samhain here, since i'm in the southern hemisphere. But whatevs. Happy Halloween at least.

'Kittens & Oak' is now for sale in my etsy store, and all orders made today will get a free set of postcards. 

Foxes

So for a while i've been working on this fox pattern for something extra special. It won't be long until i can divulge exactly what is happening, so i thought i'd go ahead and show off some of the work i've been doing.

Kittens & Oak

Kittens & Oak

Watercolour and pencil on paper.

Very much in the halloween spirit this year. This lady will be released as a special limited edition giclee print on halloween day. All orders made on halloween will also get a free postcard set, just because.



She Can't Hear You

My brain is stuck in Halloween mode. All i've been drawing lately is witches and ghosts and black cats and general spookiness. My sketchbook has been neglected this week due to having several big projects to finish and work being a bit nuts. If you didn't know, i work at an art gallery and our new season opened on Friday. This meant a big party for some people and a lot of work for others. For once there's an exhibition I'm enthusiastic about. Lovely spooky atmospheric photography from Ben Cauchi. It's pretty dreamy and i pretty much always love any art that takes a lot of time and effort to produce. My pal Campbell Kneale also has a great immersive installation work up (or i should really say my friend's partner. I don't actually know Campbell all that well but it made me sound cooler to say he was my friend)

Wocolate, one of my favourite online shops, just launched their super cool new blog, and did the nicest interview with me. You can read it here. They came up with the best questions. I got to talk about science fiction and tell dumb childhood stories so it was actually enjoyable to answer.

Another nice thing is my new website is finally up. It is still devonsmith.co.nz but now it is clean and simple and easy for me to update so i won't just ignore it for months.

Sketchbook Sunday

A little drawing in my sketchbook that I've started painting - It's october so this is getting a little halloweeny.

This little bird is a design for a tattoo i'm getting this month. A friend from Dunedin is travelling up to do a guest spot at a local tattoo studio so i'm getting her to add this little guy onto my already bird-covered arm. Getting tattooed by friends is always more fun, we just spend the whole time chatting and it never gets too harrowing. It's going very near my elbow and I'm sure i'll turn into a total wuss closer to the day but right now i'm feeling very brave.

Sketchbook Sunday

This isn't so much 'sketchbook' Sunday as it is 'here are some drawings' Sunday.

Top to bottom:

• Little sad lady. With a pillow.
• Drawing at a cafe with a very heavily carved table. The boy who brought me my coffee said "Cool illustration, man" I like compliments but i don't get called 'man'very often and it is a little strange.
• A little painting I'm working on. Rope knots are fun.
• Some sort of still life with grapes. I'm not sure where this is going.

Maybe you have noticed that all these pictures look like they have been through Instagram. That is because they have. I post lots of working photos there because it is instantaneous and I am kind of lazy about scanning. My name is devonannasmith if you would like to follow me.

x

Scully

 

You probably already know I love science fiction so maybe it is not much of a surprise that I love the X-files. Aliens have always been my biggest fear in the world (leaving the light on every night level of fear) so i used to hate the show so much. My brother liked it to the extent that he had all the trading cards and VHS tapes. I never watched it and it still gave me nightmares. I'll admit that i still get scared of the more alien-based episodes and maybe i can only watch them during the day...

I might paint Mulder later, but he is so handsome it might be too much of a challenge. 

Moth tattoos & daisy embroidery

Sometimes it is nice to just do a drawing and not worry about making a painting or having a title or doing anything except being self indulgent and drawing what you want. Which is always girls with nice butts and tiny flowers and gothy tattoos. There are a lot of faults with this drawing but i don't care because i enjoyed drawing it.

Sketchbook Sunday

 

 

Just a little post this week. My sketchbook has been neglected, as has painting. Too much work and not enough time. When will a way to cut out sleep be invented? But only for me and a few special others because otherwise we'll just be expected to work even more. 

Fox & Poppies

This week my sketchbook is looking a little neglected so i thought I'd show off a big painting I'm currently working on. I'm trying out some different painting etchniques and it's been challenging but fun. More painterly and with thick gouache rather than watercolour washes.

This is how I work, very messily. The paper is just under A3 which isn't that big, but it's huge for me. Most of my paintings are A5.

These poppies gave me hand cramps.

Still heaps to go but I'm pretty happy with it so far.

Sketchbook Sunday

So.. as of this week I'll be posting a peek into my current sketchbook every Sunday. Some weeks I draw lots, some weeks not much at all, so I guess it will vary from week to week.

  

The very last picture is a portrait of Scully from X-files that I've been working on for a while. It is mostly finished now.  

Cumulonimbus

It is storming like mad today, I had big plans but now I don't want to leave the house. I finished this little lady off curled on the couch with my cat for company, instead.

Stay Home Club

I'm really excited to announce my collaboration with Stay Home Club has been released today! If you haven't seen Stay Home Club yet, it is a great company run by Olivia Mew which works with different artists to produce limited edition homewares (currently pillowcases). This is the little set I designed, you can buy them here as a set of two, or individually.

All photos from the lovely Olivia Mew.

Fraternal Twins

More twins, would you beleive?  I've been experimenting with some new paper the last few weeks, this grey stuff I planned to just sketch on but as it turns out it's terrible to draw on, but dreamy to paint on. Watercolours aren't opaque enough for it so this is all gouache and coloured pencil. This was my third attempt at this, as the first two times i rubbed out the underdrawing too much and the paper completely disintegrated. It's also pretty hard to scan, so the colours don't look quite right here...

This week i've stopped eating wheat and dairy. Wheat for just a little bit... i like bread too much to stop for real. I get stomach aches a lot, and i've always put it down to anxiety but i figured it was worth experimenting with diet and seeing if that works. I sort-of gave up dairy ages ago, but lately that damn cheese has been creeping back in (..to my mouth ) so I'm putting a flat stop to it. Dairy does not agree with me. Anyway i'll see how my guts feel in a week or two or three.

Here's a nice photo my friend Sarah took of me when we went to the Botanic gardens last week. There is a nice blog post about it over on Battle Sisters

Double or nothing

Everything is about twins lately. I used to think I'd secretly been born a twin and that was why i felt lonely a lot of the time.

Also maybe everything is about Logan's Run.

I finished these ladies a little while ago, you can buy a nice giclee print of them in my store. It is my biggest print yet! I am trying to paint bigger so i can include all the nice details i want, like zippers and studs and more freckles than ever.

I have a new job now (which is pretty much the same as my old job) and it takes up a little bit more of my time than I'd like. Need to re-learn to juggle important things like drawing and painting. I also have a new studio mate, which has thrown me off a little. Not that they are bad, i have just become spoiled with my own space and have to adjust to sharing again.

I am thinking about making a regular thing of' 'Sketchbook sunday' and posting progress photos and drawings on that day, would that interest people? I am never really sure what to blog about or how personal to get but I would like to do more writing and it seems like here is a sensible place to do it.

- D

Style Blog

Recently I started a sort of style/general coolness blog with my best friend Sarah. She is much better at blogging than me so it actually gets updated pretty regularly.  It is called Battle Sisters and you should go read it because it has neat things like embroidery projects and thrift shopping and records and cool skulls.

I Talk in Tongues

This opens on Monday.  I will be there, and so will all the other artists. Also there will be food and a small amount of specially brewed beer. So if you live in Wellington please some along!