Nominated into the Semi-Finals for Orange County

Raw Artists has an annual award call RAWards.  The whole thing begins with 2 weeks of voting.  People get to vote every day for their favorite artists in the following categories: Visual arts, photography, music, fashion, make-up artists, accessories, hairstylist, performance art, and film.  Voting took place October 1st through October 15th.  Yesterday, they announced who made it to the semi-finals for each region...Mizzle Adventures was on the list for Orange County!

Now we are part of the Semi-finals showcase on November 17th.  It will be at the Avec Nightclub in Huntington Beach from 5-9pm.  All of those who attend get to vote for their favorite artists in each category.  The audience votes count for 50%.  The other 50% comes from the 3 judges who are asked to come down and look at our work.  By the end of the night, they will announce who are winners and will be moving on to the National level.

This is so exciting and nerve wrecking at the same time.  To top it off, I had signed up to do a Mud Run that day with one of my best friends.  :) We are currently making arrangements to change our wave time.  So, November 17th will be a typical over the top kind of day for me.  I think doing the Mud run in the morning will help alleviate any nervousness or stress I will feel that morning.  I've never really put myself out there like this.  It is all new and exciting. 

I want to make something specifically for this show.  I have a few things in mind, but I know the one thing I've wanted to make.  I don't think I should reveal it right now.  It will just be something for everyone to look forward to!

If you would like to attend the show, tickets are $15.  Make sure you list Mizzle Adventures as the artist you are planning to attend for.  Here is the link: http://www.rawartists.org/orangecounty/rawards2012 

I would appreciate the support!  And see your reaction to my project for the next month!

Zombie Mizzles- Part 2

Instead of my original sketch, I went with this idea instead.  It was just too disturbing to illustrate my Mizzles as dead cannibals.  But I did keep the dark and ghoulish look to them.  My Advanced Art students are enjoying the opportunity to watch my progress and my process.  They ask lots of questions about my techniques and my process.  Originally, I was only going to use watercolor.  But I decided since I am requiring my students to use watercolor and pen for their finals that I would do the same.

I used Grumbacher Miskit liquid frisket to mask my characters.  Then I painted a variety of washes of blues, greys, greens, and violets to create my background.  Honestly, I've never used a liquid frisket before.  I love the freedom to experiment with my background without ruining the main areas of my painting, but I did run into the problem of it ripping my paper as I removed it.  The paper was completely dry when I removed it.  Does anyone have any suggestions on a liquid frisket they love?  Or perhaps there is a technique I could use in removing it?

 

As for the zombie mizzle dolls, I am still trying to decide how to go about making them.  I have a visual in my mind as to how I think they should look, but am not sure how to go about it.  I need to go get some muted colored socks, or maybe bleach bright colorful ones I have to dull them out.  And then I need to just jump in and begin making it.  Until then, I did finish these guys today!  :)  They just need some eyes, names, and a small background story.

This is what they look like before stuffing!

Their cute back sides!

I'm including a photo of just their shells.  I had posted this image on my Facebook page and was a bit surprised how shocked people were by what they look like before being stuffed. It never occurred to me to show the process of one of the actual Mizzles.

It has been raining off and on today, so I'm feeling inspired to make more Mizzles or to get some more paintings started.

Monday, October 15th is the last day to vote for Mizzle Adventures at www.rawartists.org!  I hope you get a chance to vote!  And a big THANK YOU to those who did!

Zombie Mizzles???

The drama teacher has decided on Night of the Living Dead for the first performance of the school year.  I am so excited about this!  They did this play a few years ago and I loved it!!!  For every school play, the Visual Art department puts together some student artwork for the reception/ticket room of the drama theater.  This year we were asked if it was possible to do zombie/ 50's monster movie posters.  We loved this idea and ran with it.  My Intermediate/Advanced/AP art students are creating zombie self-portraits.  The teacher who took over my Intermediate/Advanced drawing class is having his students create zombie portraits of their favorite teachers...with our permission, of course!  I was going to do a zombie self portrait as a demonstration for my students, but one of my students is in both advanced classes.  I felt it was kind of cheating since he is creating my zombie portrait.  Then I remembered the drama teacher asked me to make 3 zombie mizzles to be used as props in the play.  I then decided I need to make a Zombie Mizzle painting.

This is just one sketch that I began playing with.  I think I need to add more Mizzles.  One of my students mentioned having the cotton stuffing falling out. I love that idea.  I'm finding this idea funny, but very morbid considering my characters are so sweet and fun. This makes them extremely dark.
I'll have to come up with a few more sketches tonight before committing to one.  I'm just not sure I'll be able to use it as a portfolio piece.  

When it rains...

I've been MIA from the networking, digital world for a little over a month.  It has been a crazy time with family stuff, work, and Art.  In August, I participated in the Raw Artists show RADIATE.  Here is my video interview from the show: RADIATE video  It was a lot of fun and not what I had expected.  Then the school year began and for some odd reason the beginning was overwhelming and intense.  I'm not sure why.  Maybe it is because I'm in a new room?  Or perhaps it is because as a department we decided to make sketchbooks?  I don't know. Regardless, I was asked to do another show with Raw Artists!  It was very different from the August show.  I sold prints, dolls, and one original painting at this event.  It felt amazing to have people crowd around my work and to see their eyes light up when they realized I was giving out stickers.  Here is the video interview from the show: ENSEMBLE video  Now, Raw Artists has opened their nomination voting for the RAWards.  If you love Mizzle Adventures, please vote for me.  You need to register your email address and create a log-in in order to vote.  Go to www.rawartists.org.  Then you can either search for Mizzle Adventures, or go to my profile at www.rawartists.org/roldan and click on VOTE! You can vote once a day for each category until October 15th!  I hope you find the time to vote.  Through all of this I became the webmaster for the La Habra Art Association.  I'm still figuring it all out, but I'm excited to try to help prevent the gallery from going under.  I'm still working on my manuscript, but I'm feeling more confident about it.  Being busy is usually a very good thing, but I'm looking forward to a little down time to catch my breath.

A few days of lazy

I'm in my last few days of summer freedom.  I've been trying to embrace laziness.  I haven't been very successful and just recently come to realize that I didn't delve into any books this summer.  This summer has seemed lazy to me, but it is probably because I didn't go exploring as much as I would have liked to.  I've been creating a lot of work this summer.  Between finishing my online art class with Mira Reisberg, getting ready for the SCBWI summer conference, then the RawArtist artist showcase, I have been in a constant state of creation.  Even now, when I desperately want to embrace the feeling of doing absolutely nothing, I can only continue creating.  So, I've decided to do a recap of this summer's work.

Hero's Art Journey with Mira Reisberg
This online course really helped me break out of a creative fog I was experiencing.  I was still being creative, but just didn't have any particular direction and needed something to push my boundaries in a different capacity.

 In the next piece I had originally had a little girl in the painting, but after attending an illustrator's portfolio workshop; it had been recommended that I change her to one of my Mizzle characters to keep the piece consistent with all of my other work.  The original is on the left and the altered piece is on the right.

For my portfolio, I also, finished a piece I had started working on earlier.

For the RawArtists artists' showcase, I made about 30 Mizzles.  You can find many of them on my Esty shop, Mizzle Adventures.  Here are a few of my favorites:

And as for the remainder of what should have been two weeks of a lazy summer, I continued to explore creating mixed media pieces.  Here is what I've created:

This first illustration I wanted to play with the idea of Tree Pose in yoga, and hiding amongst trees.  Here the Mizzles are playing hide and seek.  Stargazer is attempting to camoflage herself as a tree.

To continue with the tree theme, I thought it would be fun if the Mizzles went camping.

This last one is a work in progress.  I am introducing my newest Mizzle, Fawn.  She and Belinda are going to picnic amongst the peacocks.

Now, I'm starting a Picture Book Writing Course and have to push myself to work on my story. It's time to begin editing!

The mighty sketchbook

Every artist understands the importance of having a sketchbook.  It is important to carry around for moments of immediate inspirations, and to draw the world around you.  To become a better artist, one must be able to draw their immediate surroundings. I love to fill pages in my sketchbook with doodles.  It's like doing yoga for your brain.  You concentrate on the line and let go of every other thought.  Soon you are drawing in a zen-like trance lost in the lines. 

But, as a high school art teacher, I know that my understanding of the importance of sketchbooks is not necessarily understood by my students.  Students who have an interest in drawing and painting love the sketchbook.  Students who have an open mind about drawing and painting, but feel they can't do either get excited at having one, but use it for tagging, or passing notes, or hardly use it.  Students who have no interest in drawing and painting have no interest in using a sketchbook.  They just want to have one because everyone else has one. 

My biggest problem is finding a sketchbook that is the right size for my students.  In the past, I've ordered sketchbooks with 100 pages and end up using only 30 pages.  I've also ordered sketchbooks with 30 pages and end up needing more pages.  It is very difficult to predict how much the sketchbook will be used during the school year.  Then, there is the financial side of the sketchbook. They eat up a huge chunk of my budget, so I've made the decision to not buy them for this year.  A very risky move.

As a department, we have discussed for a few years about making sketchbooks.  The conversation became more and more serious until last year when we finally made the decision to make it a class assignment.  So, as a way to welcome our newest teacher to our group, and figure out what technique is going to work best for us, we had a artist play date. We sat in my parents' backyard in the shade and began practicing our construction of sketchbooks.

I used cardboard pieces for the cover.  I wanted to play with melting crayons as a possible decoration of the cover.  I, also, thought it would be great to use fabric, or old shirts for the cover.  For the paper, I used xerox paper to make the signatures (stacks of 8 sheets of paper folded in half). In one, I used string to attach the signatures to the cardboard.  For the other, I used pipe cleaners to bind everything.  

They were a lot of fun to make.  I'm hoping that by making the sketchbooks my students will develop a new appreciation for them.  Perhaps, inspiring those who fear drawing and painting to jump in and draw.

 I enjoyed making the sketchbooks so much that I decided to make another one last night.  This could possibly become a new obsession of mine.  My favorite part is using fabric, cardboard, crayons, yarn, and random things I can find in my apartment. 

I'm looking forward to the school year starting so I can make these with my students.  I can only hope my students will love making them and want to use them as much as I do!

Art Show: Radiate

This summer has been filled with some really great moments and a few really bad moments, but it is all part of life, right?  I have spent most of my summer vacation making art and getting ready for the SCBWI summer conference.  Then life threw in something unexpected and that was being part of a group art show. 

I have been fortunate to have grown up with an extremely supportive family; people who have supported and nurtured my artistic career; people who believe in my and my abilities.  But sometimes it is difficult to truly accept their opinions about my art and talents because they love me unconditionally.  I have always known what I am capable of, but it wasn't until the past few years that I believed I could do more...even create art professionally.  Within my pursuit of illustrating children's books, mostly my own, I have challenged myself and can see growth in my work.  I think if I was presented with the opportunity to show my work 4 years ago, I would have turned them down.  I wouldn't have believed I could truly be successful.

This summer has been about getting more exposure as an artist and networking.  When RAWartist approached me about being a part of their show, I, honestly, had some reservations about participating.  In the past, I have never pictured my artwork in a gallery setting.  But I believe that life presents us with opportunities that we are meant for us to experience, whether they are good or bad.  I decided to just go with it because in the end there is nothing to loose.  So, the past 2 weeks, I have been preparing for the show. I had to figure out lighting, how to display my art, and what to display.  Part of my art was my Mizzle dolls.  I went into intense Mizzle production only to break my sewing machine.  (I don't really have much experience with sewing machines and didn't know I needed to oil my machine after long bought of sewing.)  I managed to make 27 Mizzles in 4 days...not including the days my machine was out of commission.

I became extremely nervous the day before the show, beginning to fear that my work would look too crafty.  I began doubting what I really knew about presenting my artwork.  I think the real source of my fear came from not knowing where the show would lead me to.  I've allowed myself to accept and trust the journey that my art has taken me on.  I just wasn't quite sure how this art show was going to alter that journey.  Luckily, I am fortunate to have friends who are capable of talking me out of my mini freak outs. When I arrived to set up the show, there was no time for any freak outs. I immediately went into problem-solving mode and within an hour, I managed to organize and create a beautiful Mizzle Shrine!

The show was at the Avec Night Club in Huntington Beach.  I, along with everyone already familiar with me and the Mizzles, knew the place was going to be magical because when you first arrive you can't help but notice a huge tree in the middle of the bar.

And magical it was!  Friends and family came to show their support and share in the fun!  My friend, Victoria Burnett, a professional storyteller, was my biggest promoter of the night.  She was so proud of me that she talked me up to every person who would listen to her.  People were drawn to the Mizzles.  Everyone commented on their faces and the personalities they exuded.  Many were delightfully surprised to find that each doll was named.  They also loved my illustrations.

This illustration seemed to be everyone's favorite!

But the magical moment of the night was when I was talking to a woman about the Mizzles and my journey from doll making to my goal of writing and illustrating my story about them.  She asked what my story was about, then told me she worked for a very large children's book publishing company and that I should submit my manuscript to her when I finished it.  This just shows how important it is to network and to take advantage of opportunities that are presented to you.  I had feared that being a part of this art show would take me away from my children's book journey, but it only encouraged me more.  I have never felt so confident about my abilities and my path. 

It seems like the planets are aligning just right.  Next week, I begin Mira Reisberg's Picture Book Academy, where I plan to work out the problems of my Mizzle story.  Then I'll have something to finally submit.  I can't wait to see what opportunities will arise next.  This art journey is becoming very exciting. 

Here is a link with photos of the show! http://encore.orangecounty.com/2012/08/19/slideshow-art-music-fashion-and-more-at-raw-orange-county/