IF: Pioneer

Louis Pasteur, pioneer
pen & ink on Bristol board
***copyright 2009 - Laura Marsh***

Jeepster

Jeepster
pen & ink on Bristol board
***copyright 2009 - Laura Marsh***

"You slide so good with bones so fair * You've got the universe reclining in your hair * 'Cos you're my babe, yes you're my love * Oh girl I'm just a jeepster for your love..." - T Rex

Lucky!

Family tree
India ink on watercolor board
***copyright 2009 - Laura Marsh***

Some lucky people got Laura Marsh original artwork for Christmas this year!

A friend commissioned me to design a family tree for a loved one. I'm delighted by how it turned out. I regret that I didn't have this painting professionally scanned prior to giving it to its new owner. The digital image I made doesn't do it justice.

This next one was a gift to my pal, PG. She really liked it. Both creations were painted on cold pressed watercolor board (my favorite).

Up Dog
gouache on watercolor board
***copyright 2009 - Laura Marsh***

I'm going back to playing with my Strathmore artist trading cards now. I know those cards are primarily about packaging. After all, I have a paper cutter. I could have easily taken my paper of choice and cut down trading card-sized pages on my own, but buying a pack from Jerry's proved much more fun. Stay tuned...

Fun with leftover paint

Sun Horse
mixed media
***copyright - 2009 - Laura Marsh***

Parting is such sweet sorrow...

Tree
acrylic on canvas
copyright - 2009 Laura Marsh

At long last, this gorgeous painting is in the hands of its proud owner, which is a good thing, because sometimes it's hard for me to part with my art. I am happy it is in its new home, and I'm equally glad the digital copy I made of it turned out so true-to-life so I can share it with you.

Sunday evening scratch

Turkey

(colored pencil on paper)

Happy Halloween

Gouache on watercolor paper

* copyright Laura Marsh 2009 *

A good cause

Dream
Copyright 2009 - Laura Marsh

Special thanks to Moochie whose napping prowess is second only to Kiwi's. Dream is a Laura Marsh original--acrylic on canvas--and I am donating it to this year's SPCA Fur Ball. The Fur Ball is a wonderful way to support the Wake County SPCA and all the animals they save. Please consider supporting your local SPCA.

Cartoon Dudes Don't Have Eyelashes

IF: Hollow

Foul creatures! They drained Jonathan Harker hollow.

A vampire montage for the faithful

"I am here to do your bidding, Master. I am Your slave..."
- Bram Stoker - Dracula

IF: Adapt

One learns to adapt quickly when one is on the lam.

I have to confess, I was inspired by pen+marker=magic (a much more talented magic marker artist). Marker is so not my strong suit, so in a way I, too, had to adapt.

IF: Contagious

A little fun with pen & ink.

IF: Parade

a strange parade
graphite wash on paper

Being coy

ink & gouache

It seems as though one of the little fishies from the drawing from last week survived to swim another day. I'm glad the boy didn't make a Rainbow Roll out her.

Fishing from a bridge

pastel & ink

After drawing Japanese-themed art all day, I had to have some sushi for dinner. It was delicious. The child fishing from the bridge may not be so lucky. Maybe that's why he looks perturbed.

IF: Fleeting

pastel, ink, & gouache

IF: Poise

Here is a sneak peek at the first of many illustrations for a new children's book that I am currently working on. This little bug is poised to run away as fast as he can after being discovered in the rug.

The Suspicious Barnyard Animal series

Like so much of what I draw, I drew the Suspicious Barnyard Animal (SBA) series primarily for my amusement. I hope it will amuse you, too, and perhaps provide you with an opportunity to ask yourself some deep, philosophical questions about life and art.

Here are some sample questions, if you are having a hard time getting started:

• What causes a barnyard animal to be suspicious?
• How can I tell whether a barnyard animal is in a state of suspicion?
  
• Is this series really a metaphor for something else?
  
• Where did those mushrooms come from?
• Why is food falling out of the sky?
• When is Laura going to draw more SBAs?

#1 - Suspicious Pig

#2 - Suspicious Sheep

#3 - Suspicious Horse

#4 - Suspicious Cow

Eleanor of Aquitaine, Queen of the English

So perhaps you know from her title that this picture represents Eleanor of Aquitaine after her marriage to Henry, Duke of the Normans. Henry went on to become Henry II, King of England, and Eleanor became queen.

Unfortunately for Eleanor, who was by all accounts a most powerful and politically shrewd woman, Henry viewed her freedom as a threat to his throne, and he imprisoned her for 15-or-so years. Seems she'd committed a wee bit of treason for supporting a revolt against him--a revolt led by her son, Richard.

After Henry's death, Richard became King Richard I, or Richard the Lionheart (you may remember him as the benevolent, imprisoned king from the Robin Hood stories). And like a good son, he freed his mummy from the clink.

Although she was no longer officially the queen, Eleanor ruled England while Richard was away on Crusade. She died in 1204. The picture I drew of her is pen & ink & colored pencil on paper.

Legendary Slacker

Last week's IF, which I missed, was "legendary". The final product, which you see here, is from a sketch that I drew in plenty of time to post, but because I am a legend in my own right (in the realm of procrastination) I never got around to it.

There were many obstacles, real and imagined. I hated the way the drawing looked after I scanned it: The colors came out wrong; I couldn't make it look nice in GIMP; I didn't have a martini of my own. But today, after someone said, "WTF is up with your blog?!" I decided, WTF, indeed, and got motivated. (Thank you, MP.)

Unfortunately, I still hated the way the drawing looked. I decided to go on an artistic quest in the land of GIMP and make the old girl look good (or at least better, poor thing.) Many layers later, I discovered a filter feature called "old photo", which eliminated the problem with the colors. Then, I added a border and a coffee stain (another cool, if chaotic, filter feature).

The result is an illo that looks like a photograph of a bathing beauty (probably a once-famous model) with a drink, upon which a careless boyfriend (most likely Hugh Hefner) set a drink of his own.

Now it's legendary.

IF: Instinct

Border Collies have a strong herding instinct. Here is a painting of one who is thinking about herding something in his backyard, probably a flock of birds or some of the cats he lives with.










(gouache and watercolor pencil on paper)

What did you do this weekend?

I painted pictures of Moochie. Here is one of them (the other has been moved to IF: Instinct).

gouache and graphite on canvas board

The canvas board painting was an experiment, actually. I'd never painted on canvas board before, so I wasn't entirely sure how it would turn out. I think canvas board is mostly for thick paints, like oils and acrylics, but it took gouache and graphite like a champ. Canvas board is not ideal for thin paints, though, because the pattern of the canvas fabric shows through. In this case, however, I think it helps emphasize the cartoon-like quality of Moochie in the painting. It's nice when stuff works out.

The other painting was painted on my favorite type of paper: cold pressed watercolor board. It's a joy to paint on. Even the subject of the painting appears happy to have been painted on cold pressed watercolor board. Observe how pleased he looks: His calm countenance; the secretive smile. He's like the Mona Lisa, for Pete's sake!

It's time for a drink now.

IF: Celebrate

more fun with graphite wash

I'm in love

I bought a new graphite pencil last week. It's one of those ones you can use with water. I love it. This sleepy cat is graphite wash on a watercolor test strip.

IF: Flawed

This is my somewhat flawed retelling of King Arthur's conception, inspired by the movie Excaliber. Naturally, the comic contains sex. So if you are uptight about that sort of thing, you should probably leave now. Enjoy the show.

All images on this web site © 2009 - Laura Marsh

IF: Climbing

Today I watched Jean Cocteau's 1946 version of Beauty and the Beast. It is one of my favorite movies. Here is an image inspired by the film. It is of Belle, under the spell of the Beast's enchanted glove, climbing through the wall into her father's house.

Nice doggy

Idol sketching

Pachyderms on a pilgrimage

Madame Mina's Wagon of Supernatural Delights

Anyone watch the Inauguration today? I doodled this during some/most/all of the televised festivities. It started as just her toes & now look at it.

Goofing off

I've had the same thought for several weeks now.
The voice inside my head (the creative one) has been asking:
How cool would it be to have a blog devoted to extemporaneous art?

And the answer is: pretty dag-gone cool.

Here's a true story:

I used to know an artist whose work I still admire from afar. One day she showed me a sketch of a beautiful woman who unfortunately had a messy, squiggling line scratched through her form. I told the artist how much I liked her drawing, and that it was too bad the body was obscured by the errant marks (I assumed that someone had carelessly scribbled on the creation). But the artist told me that if it hadn't been for the scribble, the drawing wouldn't exist. The beautiful woman was born out of the scrawl.

It took me a while to fully appreciate the sentiment. It's part of the reason I've decided to listen to the creative voice and start this project already. We'll see how it goes.