Salutations from a purple-suited alien

"satellite"

This week's IF theme is "satellite", so perhaps it's no surprise that the purple-suited aliens have made another appearance. The story for this one: "The scientists assumed the strange satellite pictures were some kind of elaborate prank."

Photographs by Allison Gryski. © All rights reserved.

Desperate measures

"security"

I've started accompanying some of these paintings with little one sentence stories. This one allowed me to be exceptionally silly. So silly that I needed an extra sentence.

The nefarious baker had to resort to desperate measures to prevent the heroes from stealing his cake and eating it too. The Nefarious Baker was an Evil Ovenlord who ruled with a heart of Ice (Cream)!

For some reason, my pen wanted to run rather more than usual on this painting. I suspect it's just not that waterproof, so I may have to find a new pen for using with paints. Too bad since I really like the feel of drawing with this one. One gets very picky about art supplies. I noticed this when I was trying to replace my small sketchbook (it's full) and didn't like any of the options. I love that's it's square, since it feels less cramped than a rectangle, but it's still small. Also, while I like the look of bound sketchbooks, I prefer coils so that I can open it fully flat with no fuss.

Photographs by Allison Gryski. © All rights reserved.

On one planet, it rained paisley.

"paisley"

I wasn't too enamoured of this week's IF topic of "paisley" at first. I prefer the very abstract themes. But after doing a little mind map brain-storming, it turned out that you just can't predict inspiration. I'm really rather loving my little alien, who seems to be turning up all over the universe. I have a sneaking suspicion that my subconscious produced this little purple-suited alien because I have some fellow-feeling for a being in strange new surroundings.

I think there must be several of them on that pink flying saucer and they're on rather a long holiday, adventuring round the universe. They stopped by Earth for some ice cream, and blew some bubbles as they left. Here, one of them is rather surprised by the form precipitation takes on an otherwise ordinary blue-green planet.


Photographs by Allison Gryski. © All rights reserved.

A ripple in the ocean

"ripple"

This week's IF topic was "ripple". I did a cheerful interpretation first, but then I learned about the Ripple sketches project, which is raising money for helping the creatures affected by the Deep Water Horizon Gulf Oil Spill.

The idea is that artists create a small artwork on the subject and the works are available through the Ripple project for a mere $10 donation to The Institute for Marine Mammal Studies or The International Bird Rescue Research Center.

My art tends to come from a happy place, so I did not find a sad and depressing issue like the oil spill inherently inspirational. I wanted to contribute to the project, though, so I've done a watercolour and coloured pencil illustration of a brown pelican. The brown pelican is one of the creatures affected by the spill. If you want to help and get a piece of art in the mail, go see all the available works here.


Photographs by Allison Gryski. © All rights reserved.

A good source of drawing prompts

"crowded"

I've been using the Illustration Friday topic archive for drawing prompts. It's working well for me to have these little "assignments" since it gives me some direction, while still being open to interpretation and inspiration.

Update: I created a set to collect together all my Illustrated Words.


Photographs by Allison Gryski. © All rights reserved.

drawing assignment: slither

"slither"
I decided to try following the illustration friday flickr group for some random drawing assignments. This week's theme was "slither". Snails and snakes are the only two things that really come to my mind for the word "slither", and snails are much cuter. That's about all that went into my decision to draw a snail.

Update: If you're looking for a list of topics to use as assignments, here's the archive, which I am working through.


Photographs by Allison Gryski. © All rights reserved.

Shadows and light

shadows and light
Originally uploaded by allisongryski

In thinking about the word "shadow", I was really fascinated with things we don't usually think about as "shadowy"... like glass and water. I did some sketches of the light and shadow patterns coming through a drinking glass and then took some photos. I shifted some of the hue of the photos, but didn't otherwise alter them and because I removed the context of the glass, they came out looking like strange xrays. To be honest, I didn't spend as much time working these ideas out to a final end as I should have, and I think of these pieces as more of the exploratory part the process rather than a finished product.


shadows and light
Originally uploaded by allisongryski

In the past couple months, I did have several picnics with friends and some visits with family, not to mention reading several books, so I can't say as I really feel that I wasted the time. However, I've been struggling of late with finding enough creative energy in balance with my job. I'm sure it's something that everyone who's trying to be an artist "in their spare time" struggles with. And so I came to the realisation that NOW was the time to pursue my dream of being an artist and writer. I don't want to put it off until I am older, just because I have a Good Job™. So I've quit my job, to follow this dream. This is one of those decisions that takes a lot of time and thought (and a very supportive husband, family, and friends), but once it's made it feels so Right, that it almost seems like it should have been easy. It wasn't. It still isn't. I have doubts and fears, and having been reading a fabulously topical book(*), I see that they are utterly typical and so I'm trying hard to work on them and around them and through them. And the doubts are complemented by this beautiful feeling that I've been describing as a "happy bubble of excitement". Wish me luck on this journey ... it starts in just a week now!

*Make Your Creative Dreams Real: A Plan for Procrastinators, Perfectionists, Busy People, and People Who Would Really Rather Sleep All Day by SARK

Burst, a new word, and cupcakes

Burst
Originally uploaded by allisongryski

I finished my work entitled "Burst" this weekend. It's bubbles bursting into sunbursts. It's mostly pencil crayon and water colour paint. There's all sorts of sparkly glitter, but most of it didn't actually show up in the picture. I had a lot of fun with this piece, though it was nerve-wracking to cut into the large bubbles that I drew/painted since I'm terrible for being afraid of "ruining" something I'm working on. It's good for me to push myself outside my comfort zone though and I'm pretty happy with the result. (see the wordplay copycat pool for everyone's pics).


Burst
Originally uploaded by allisongryski
Even though I think perhaps my friends were less into this than me, I am going to announce a new word, since it's a good way to motivate ME to try something new. So, a new word. When this idea first occurred to me, I made up a little list of words that I thought would make interesting themes, and the next one on that list is ... shadow. I think 2 months was enough time to both let the ideas percolate and fit in a little procrastination without getting stalled, so I'm going to aim to be done for the end of May. Play along if it pleases you.


Burst
Originally uploaded by allisongryski
Artsy-fartsy or not, my gal pals are definitely into cupcakes. My real deadline for finishing my Burst piece was actually Sunday, not the end of the month, since we had a cupcake baking party. Cupcakes were made and mostly eaten up right away (with a few to take home for lucky sweeties). We had a surprise visitor from Portland. My kitchen was turned into a disaster area and then cleaned up. Songs were sung in the kitchen, icing was eaten out of the bowl, sugar highs were had. It was excellent fun. I highly recommend filling your kitchen with cheerful friends baking yummy things.


pretty cupcake papers
Originally uploaded by allisongryski

Painting ... a wall

flowers for the house
Originally uploaded by allisongryski

I've been busy lately making my home feel a bit loved. I bought some more flowers, this time from the grocery store. I'm finding myself drawn to pink and white lately. I always make up my own mixed bouquets from the 2-for and 3-for buckets since I find the grocery-store-prepared bunches are always a bit random in terms of colour and flower type.


new wall colour
Originally uploaded by allisongryski

This past weekend, I also painted a wall with the beautifully named colour "Ocean Air" (Benjamin Moore 2123-50). This wall had previously been a bright spring green (you may have noticed it as a backdrop during green week). I liked the cheerful colour, but it was so bold that I noticed it all the time and consequently I was ready for a change. A bit of paint, a few coats painted while listening to some fun music, and it's a whole new space. Definitely worth the time involved.


burst idea sketching
Originally uploaded by allisongryski

And for those of you wondering what I've been doing for the Burst wordplay challenge, um, well, I've mostly just gotten ideas. I've done a mind-map kind of brainstorming, but I still haven't done my finished piece. I think it's a classic case of "student syndrome" ... waiting until the last possible minute before it's "due".

Bursting with flavour ... I mean ideas

strawberries
Originally uploaded by allisongryski

Remember the wordplay challenge that I issued? Well, I haven't started anything yet, but tomorrow's the day for me. So far, I've done a bunch of brainstorming of words and phrases that come to mind with the word "burst":

• bursting with flavour, ideas
  
• burst my bubble- balloons, soap
  
• burst of laughter, burst into tears - begin suddenly
  
• burst into song
  
• burst open, burst forth- open, hatch, eggs
  
• bursting with news - full, excited
  
• starburst, sunburst
  
• burst of speed
  
• bursting her stays, bursting at the seams -exploding
  
• burst pipe - leak, opening, break

Also, apparently granting the wish of some commenters, next week is Green Week. I'll have to see what I can do....

Breath in, be inspired

crafty
Originally uploaded by allisongryski
February is a short little month and many of us feel down-trodden by the weather, so the remedy for me is to celebrate! With lots of February birthdays, I get a good start. This year I'm adding in a creative afternoon with some of my crafty girlfriends on the very last day, which conveniently happens to be a Saturday. (I used the pretty invitation above, available at pingg.com).

in.spi.ra.tion
[in-spuh-rey-shuhn]
.noun

1. an inspiring or animating action or influence
   
2. something inspired, as an idea.
   
3. a result of inspired activity.
   
4. a thing or person that inspires.
   
5. Theology.
   1. a divine influence directly and immediately exerted upon the mind or soul.
      
   2. the divine quality of the writings or words of a person so influenced.
      
6. the drawing of air into the lungs; inhalation.
   
7. the act of inspiring; quality or state of being inspired.
   

Inspired by this wordplay project that I followed on some artsy blogs last year, I've created a similar challenge. It's neat to see how different creative minds interpret the same single word and how varied the final creations are.

If you'd like to play along, I've set up this wordplay copycat flickr group for everyone to share what they create. There are no rules about what media you use or what the final format of your creation is (you can even upload videos in case your creativity runs to dance, music, or other performance art). But whatever you make, it must be created during the specified time period (in this case February-March) and be inspired by the word assigned.

So without further ado, the word is "Burst".