Tuesday Work Flow

I am about to sit down and start my workflow for today. One of the perks of working from home is that I can work when I want to. I had my friend Lah over and we discussed some future plans of opening up our own salon/studio, which I am excited about. Having my own studio is something I have wanted since I was young. In the meantime, I will be still doing my freelance designing.

I wanted to show you the finished drawing of the Ohm I drew for my sister, Nique:

One of Nique’s brothers is apprenticing in a tattoo shop in Colorado and he got to do her tattoo. I think it is his first one on someone else. Here is the first session:

I think that’s pretty awesome that he got the chance to do it and his tattoo mentor helped him through it.

Now, I am about to sit down and finalize a tshirt design for a client. I drew a rough sketch on paper, but I am going to try and work on it in photoshop or paint shop pro.

I have always wanted to design tshirts and clothing since I was young. I love tshirts. In fact, my everyday basic look would be a tshirt, a good well worn pair of jeans and some chucks, sometimes I put a flannel over it. I just feel comfortable. Here are some of my favorite looks. (these are old, I cant wait until my hair is long again)

 

I love graphic tees, especially Marilyn Monroe, which if you didn’t know, I am obsessed with her. I found these two tshirts in a local tshirt shop and I want to get them sooooo bad. Check out these pretty babies!

You can also say that I am obsessed with the tattoo culture, so anything related to tattoos I love!

Here are some other tattoo related photos that I love right now:

Alright my lovies, time for me to quit messing around online….getting distracted. So, see ya in the next post!

I Paint a Mean Face

Howdy yall! This past weekend, I was pretty busy painting faces and I gotta say that I love my job! I love that I get to play with paint and bring a smile to someone’s face no matter what the age. The weather turned out gorgeous once the rain passed. I was able to record a quick lil (somewhat a tutorial) video before heading out. I remembered to take a few snapshots too of a few faces, because I always forget to or I don’t have time.

Summer Face Paint VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

 

If you’re a local in the area of Hampton Roads, and were wondering if I do birthday parties or other events, the answer is YES! I do! You can comment or email me to inquire about rates and scheduling at cecilia@sweetsurrenderart.com

Jermie and I were working our gigs and while I was facepainting, He was dressed up as Sponge Bob and Elmo. hahahaha I couldn’t help but laugh at him.

The best thing about the beach is all the cool shows that we put on. I didn’t work Saturday, so we checked out the fire show they had and Matthias got to be one of their helpers.

Look at Bella Boo! She has really gotten into skateboarding, so has Matti, but I wasn’t able to get a pic of him. But I think it will be a while before he skateboards because he fell off a trampoline today and broke his arm!

He is being a trooper! He is going to get a green cast! I am going to paint it of course if he wants me to.

Don’t forget to check out my latest video below and subscribe so you don’t miss any adventures in “The Life of An Artist”

As always, I leave you with some motivation! Thanks for reading and see you again soon!

xoxoxo, Cecilia

Day of Remembrance-Life of an Artist

It’s Memorial Day today! As you may or may not know, I come from a long line of US Navy family members to include my grandfathers,my father, my mother, a couple uncles and I served 4 years in the US ARMY from 2001-2005. I joined when I was 17 and was stationed in Fort Drum,NY. I did a tour in Afghanistan and Iraq and being in the military was some of the BEST and worst times of my life, but I wouldn’t have traded it for anything in the world. So, this post is dedicated to everyone I served with, those who are serving now, and those who have served in the past. Without our military, we would not be the free America that we are today.

Here are a few pics of my family that I was able to conjure up.

 

I wish I had more pics of everyone in uniform, but nobody really has any online  

Here are a few military tattoo drawings I have done in tribute to those who have served. All of these have

 

 

 

 

 

So, thank you again to my fellow vets! Have a safe and fun Memorial Day!

xoxoxox, Cecilia

Friday Awake and Wired

Good morning yall! I just finished editing a video that I filmed earlier this week that I kept putting off, and actually I didn’t even have to edit it so yay! This week, like almost every week has flown by! I wanted to share some photos and a video of my past week and some of the things I have been working on. Arabella and I and had some good mother and daughter time last weekend at the Chesapeake Jubilee, she was my lil helper. While I facepainted, she put temporary tattoos on the kiddos that came by our table with Executive Tattoo. It was a good time although it had rained on and off on saturday and things were a lil muddy, but we didn’t let that put a damper on our weekend!

 

 

 

Here are some designs I was working on which I am thinking of putting on a display board for whenever I have any gigs.

Of course, I have to share some of my artwork that I have been working on:

 

Here is A progress shot: the rose on the left is a the first rose I ever drew about 4 years ago while living in Colorado, and then the rose on the right is a rose I did a few months ago. I love seeing how I am improving over the years. It is true to get better you have to PRACTICE!

I have been working on this dragon design for what seems forever, I originally rendered it with a red and yellow dragon, but the client wanted to see more red in the dragon, so I redrew it and stayed up all night coloring it!

Then, I started on this Ohm design for my sister, Nique!

Before I forget to post, check out my latest video on youtube!

And if you missed the video I posted last week, you can see it here too!

Have a marvelous day!

Nerve Wrecking

Hello my lovelies! How is everyone’s Monday? Mine was good, it was more like a Sunday for me because I worked my butt off this weekend painting faces! I worked with Tattoo Skills at the Shake, Rattle and Roll Car Show in Suffolk, VA painting faces! It was actually a HOT day and I sweated all my makeup off! Check out my lil facepainting sign I whipped up for my gigs!

 

Also,  I wanted to let you know that I finally did my first tattoo last Friday. All I can say is the experience was nerve-wrecking, but of course in a good way. I had such adrenaline and I don’t think I have ever been more focused on something in my life. One of my friends volunteered his arm for me. I filled in his cross he already had with more black, then added the year 2011 at his request, then added 3 roses to the bottom, which I will later fill in.

 

 

I think for my first time on someone else, I didn’t do half bad. It’s a learning process for us all. I cant wait to shade it in after this is healed. I used a stencil with carbon paper and stencil spray and of course made sure everything was as clean as possible. I know after doing it, I definitely feel it is my passion and this was just the first step to fueling my passion. I am excited for more to come.

I finished editing this video on Friday and forgot to post it since I was bombarded with doing my first tattoo, so here it is, I made a quick video just showing the artwork I have worked on-which if you read my blog, I already explained some of this and you will see me get shy in front of the camera too. hahaha Enjoy!

Progress and tattoo designer tips

 

See you in the next post!

The only person you should try to be better than, is the person you were yesterday.

Illustrations Mixed Media

Happy Saturday! It is a nice cool breezy sunny day, ( a lot of adjectives there…geeez) and  I have spent the day organizing al my upcoming projects I have to work on. I was up late working on my illustrations. I took a break and snapped a quick photo of my desk and all its mess. You can see my new watercolor set I bought from Michaels  (only $4.99) and I love it.

 

Yesterday, I colored in the sparrow compass rose tattoo using colored pencils, watercolor paints and my wax pencil. I really love the way this design came out. Check it out!

I then, took the tip from Sara Fabel, and I am sure many artists prolly do this trick, but I learned it from her video. I am not that good in photoshop yet, but I am pretty decent at Corel Paint Shop Pro ( I feel its more user friendly). I scanned this and then separated them and then arranged them in a more pleasing placement. ( you can see where I missed a few spots I didn’t erase, hey I’m not a pro yet)

I am proud of myself for the improvement I am seeing in my work. I know I am growing as an artist.

I need to get back to work on more designs, I just wanted to do a quick post and share it with my lovely readers out there!

Thanks for looking and see ya again soon!

I need a lil less caffeine right now

I don’t know if it’s the amount of coffee I have drank today, which was only 2 cups, or that I ate a few sugar cubes through out the day, or that I started taking green tea supplements again, but I have an insane amount of energy right now and it is going on 2AM!!!! I promise, I am not on anything besides caffeine, but for some reason since the moment I woke up today, I have been in my art room just pumping out work. I love days like this! I can only hope that I can keep up this productivity.

Last weekend, I wanted to share with you a few pics from a NATO festival the family and I went to, where Jermie dressed up as a live bush! Sounds weird, but it was pretty awesome. Check out this quick video I filmed and see if you cant get a chuckle out.

They had tents set up from each country and they all handed out pamphlets, maps, flags, yummy snacks and all sorts of free goodies to promote travel to their countries and to learn more about each country. It made me want to take a vacation right then and there! If only I had the Tardis, we could all go. hahaha

 

I cant believe it is already MAY! wowzers! This month, I have tons of facepaint gigs, tattoo drawings and even a few sewing and backdrop projects, and not to mention I’ll be participating in a flash mob. Im super excited!

I worked on two custom drawings, which I will post when they are finalized, but I am really proud of myself for pushing through and focusing on my art. I feel it is really starting to pay off.

I may have already posted this video, but I have been watching it over and over because I feel really inspired by Sara Fabel and I love the videos she posts. She just is a real down to earth girl.

 

I took some tips from her in this video in regards to my artwork. I like to draw my artwork big, only because I love the details in it. She also kinda opened my eyes to using photoshop to help edit your work and to make it much more crisp and sharp and making it easier to design sleeves of bigger pieces that have more designs in it. It makes it easier to scan in your work and then it is easy to arrange them in how the client will want them. So, I practiced with this piece:

This was hand-drawn, nothing traced, I drew them separately, uploaded them to photoshop and then separated them and arranged them to look like this:

 

I am still trying to figure out photoshop and learn how to make the lines better, but this is a start. I am starting to put together my portfolio in a professional way instead of a binder or loose paper. I checked out some of these online from my favorite art supply store, Jerry Artorama: (way cheaper than AC MOORE, or Micheals)

 

 

I rearranged my studio as well, so I think that also has me moving around more, I have more space to get things done. I practiced again on an orange just because I was feeling a lil restless and wanted to practice my color with a 5mag shader….I have a slight issue when I was squeezing the blue into an ink cap, the tip busted open and blue ink went EVERYWHERE! hahaha Luckily, I had a medical sheet laid out, so it was an easy clean up- otherwise my white desk would be a blueberry blue right now. hahaha

I really cant wait to get an apprenticeship, but for now as I build up my portfolio, Ill stick to this for right now

 

I still have a ways to go!

Well, I think my brain is starting to shut down a bit as my eyelids are getting droopy and this dubstep music that was once waking me up has now turned into a lullaby. Goodnight my creative friends! See ya tomorrow!