Blog Moving

Hi All:
My blog is moving to www.biancandm.com you should go see me there.
Thanks!
Bianca

Hello Everyone

Hi everyone:
I hope that this post finds you well.  I know I've been very quiet the last few months.  Its been a chaotic time for me.  I was traveling a bit for work, but more than that, I had an aunt become sick with cancer and die in a very short amount of time.  

Dealing with the pain of her illness, watching her grow sick and feeble was very difficult for my entire family.  We laid her to rest the beginning of this week and I feel a bit like I'm coming out of a fog.  I have been working, but I think most of my energy has been spent keeping myself together over the last month or so, hence the not putting anything up on my blog.

I did a piece to about my aunt that was buried with her.  She was an artist, she struggled at times with life and was shy.  She understood me more than the rest of my aunts or uncles, since we were the most alike in many ways.  She once said to me that there was nothing wrong with the fact that I liked to sit in the corner and do my own thing.  She helped me to understand that I could just be me, without having to apologize.  Coming from such a large extended family, it was difficult for me as a child, being shy and uncomfortable with being teased.   There were many times she would take me aside during a gathering to show me what projects she was working on and we would talk about art and music.  I didn't see it at the time, but I think she understood that I needed that space to breathe in the midst of all the chaos of my boisterous family.  I will miss her quiet understanding. 

Here is the piece I created for her--the woman is her, she loved to bake and was known for her pies in the family, so that's what I drew her with.

 

The text is from an ee cummings poem and it reads:

Love is a place

and through this place of love

(with brightness of peace)

all places

 

I will miss you Nancy, I will carry you with me, I hope to love you again in your next incarnation.


I will be back soon with more art.

Days 28-30

Hi everyone: as many of you who follow me on facebook already know, I've been down with viral meningitis this week, so after my technology woes of my scanner only scanning half a page, I got sick.  This has not been my summer, I've been sick twice now.  I am on the mend now, today is actually the first morning since monday that I've woken up and not felt awful. 

I have my last three pages to share with you today.  Here is my first:

I used a couple of Coffee Break's new stencils, including the diamonds and the drip stencil.  I also added in one of the splatter stencils for a little extra depth.  I taught a couple of illustration based classes this past weekend and one of the things we worked on was eyes.  My favorite thing about copic markers is their translucence.  While teaching, someone asked about layering two distinct drawings so I did this eye as a kind of sample to show them how the base texture, in this case the eye, shows through when you render on top of it.  I added some washi tape and a doodled border to finish it out.

Next up, I have one of my favorites out of the 30 I've done in the last month:

I used on of Coffee Break's new grave atc forms as a mask, laying it down and airbrushing around it with my copic ABS in teal.  I then outlined it, using a black multiliner.  I went in a did a little shading with the warm grays.  I airbrushed the spiders as well, using another new Coffee Break stencil.  I hand rendered the flowers and added some color using a combination of copic markers and multiliners and then added the text.

For my final page I went pretty simply, mostly because I was getting sick and even thirty minutes can feel like too much when you're exhausted.

I started with the heart with wings, which is a stamp from Coffee Break.  I rendered it using my copics and then added some depth with my multilinters.  I then put the ribcage stencil on top of it and traced it to get an outline, rather than an airbrush.  I went in with a very pale blue-gray and blue-violet to render the ribs and then added a little white for highlights.  I added some washi tape for a border and then added the text for the border.  I wanted to give it the feeling of being a never ending cycle, so I wrapped the text around in a way that feels continuous. 

So that's it for me today--I actually have an announcement that's going to go up in a couple of with some exciting news about the next phase of this project.  In the meantime, I have to get them assembled because they're going in a gallery show at the end of the month! 

Don't forget to checkout out Jordan and Christine to see what they've done for today and if you've missed any of my past posts just click the link to the right.

Day 25-27

Hi everyone--sorry for the delay, when I got back I had some technical difficulties with my scanner.  I finally seem to have it working again, so without further ado here is my day 25:

 

I worked with another one of Retro Cafe's paper-cuts.  I just adore the little owls.  They're so sweet looking.  I illustrated the tree and then layered it unto a collaged background.

Here is day 26:

I played around with some of Coffee Break's new products on this page--I used the star wand stencil, the diamond stencil, the drip stencil, the wings stencil and the skull head.  I drew the little girl and then added the skull as a mask.  I added the text which means: after me, the flood.  It is attributed to Louis the XV.  No one is really sure what he meant, but most historians think it was a reference to the fact that once you're gone, what comes next doesn't matter.  Hence me adding the skull mask as kind of a death mask.

I think I must've had french revolution on my mind after day 25 because when I sat down to do day 27, I decided to draw a Marie Antoinette style character.  I really wanted to use one of Coffee Break's new masks--isn't it just sweet?  I added the ribcage stencil, and the splatter stencil.  I doodled some flowers along the bottom.
That's it for me tonight.  I'm going to try and get the next couple of days scanned in and posted tomorrow.   Don't forget to check out Jordan and Christine to see what they've done for today and if you've missed any of my past posts just click the link to the right.

Be Back Soon!

Hi everyone, happy fourth!

Somehow, it totally skipped my mind when I posted yesterday that I was going to be traveling for the next few days.  First for the holiday and then I'm teaching a couple of classes in Louisville at Preston Arts and won't be home until Sunday.  Unfortunately while I have internet, I don't have access to a computer with Photoshop for processing and watermarking....and I'm kind of a stickler for protecting my work.  Especially in light of what just happened.
So I will be back Sunday with several days worth of pages.
See you then!  And enjoy your holiday.

Day 24

Hi everybody, welcome to day 24.  I'm on the downward swing of my 30 days now...its going better.  I no longer struggle as much with the layout, although I am still struggling a little with the sizing.  I tend to draw bigger than I think.  I guess my eyes are bigger than my paper!

Today's page is all about me being angry.  Like I've been posting about, I had an incident a few days ago.  Another artist stole a class from me.  As far as I can tell, they read an article I wrote detailing the project and are now teaching it.  Its been a real struggle for me to get past.  I know that this kind of thing happens more than it should in the art world, but it still really stinks.  Its one thing to take a class or read an article so that you can try out new techniques, its another to turn around and pass it off as your own. Especially since I spend a lot of time developing my projects and coming up with new techniques.  So I struggled with feeling like I just want to quit for most of this past week.  And I cried a lot.  But now, I'm angry.  Hence the yellow/orange color and the hammer.

I feel inclined to point out that the hammer in the drawing is metaphorical, not literal.  I'd hate for anyone to get the wrong idea...I'm angry but I'm not nuts.  Well, I'm nuts, but not scary nuts, more like a God-love-her-she's-kooky-nuts.   And as for my revenge?  I'm just going to out art her, that's all.

That's it for me today.  Hope everyone has a safe and happy 4th tomorrow and check out Jordan and Christine to see what they've done for today and if you've missed any of my past posts just click the link to the right.

Day 23

Hi everyone and welcome to day 23.

For today's page I went back to using Retro Cafe's paper cuts alongside my illustrations.  They work really nicely because they're the right size for my pages and they really cut down on the time crunch since I don't have to cut them out.

I worked on one large single sheet of vintage paper for this page--mostly because I wanted to draw the next right onto it and I wanted to have a smooth drawing surface.  I illustrated the girl and then added the eggs.  I doodled a little around the sides and then added the text "She wondered where she was hatched"  I rendered the illustrations using my Copic markers and then added some washi tape for finishing out the edges.

That's it for me today, hope everyone is having a good week and is staying cool.  Don't forget to checkout Jordan and Christine to see what they've done for today and if you've missed any of my past posts just click the link to the right.