Hello, I am alive

Greetings people who still check my blog (even though I have not published anything in more than 9 months)! Well you awesome, awesome kids, I am delighted to tell you that I will begin posting this month and will continue to keep up with it! Give you a chance to see what I've been working on and plans for the future. It's also a good exercise for me to keep myself on track of my goals and progress.

For now, a large update on sites I can be found on!

MY STORE: https://www.etsy.com/shop/ThickandChewy
soon to be updated with all my illustrations and paintings for sale

(This will be moved to my etsy later, but it's still currently availible for now, here!) DOLL STORE: http://athompson-art.com/creature-dolls/

MY FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/athompsonart
A place to see literally everything I post pretty much anywhere on the internet. THE place to see all the shenanigans I've been up to and when/where to buy cool things.

Thanks for your time!

Cafe Sketch

Hello there! I know It's been a while, don't worry, I'm cooking up posts to update you guys.

In the meantime, check out my Cafe Sketch blog. We made it to keep record of my progress in that class and for my teacher. It's an animation sketching class, so lots and lots of gestures. :)

Landscapes: An end of semester special!

(I'm going to stop counting the posts, if you need to look for a specific post, use the search option at the top.)

WOW it has been a while, I apologize for that. Onwards and upwards!

I have learned a lot from Landscape painting this semester.  The sheer know-how I learned just from painting a lot of one session paintings is astounding.  I was forced to find things I liked about a landscape, focus on them, and figure out how to make them clear within the time limit I had and the one layer I had to work with.

We were only allowed to use palette knives and black and white paint. It was a really interesting challenge!

Day

Night

Really starting to get a hang of this palette knife "technique".

That's it for the Plein Air paitnings.  Then we focused on in class studio paintings.  

The theme for mine is isolation.  I chose to use little urban houses and place them in the middle of the seemingly endless woods.

Underpainting. Cute lil house. A lot of these were found in Altoona PA for Illuxcon last month. 

Color version. It's still a WIP as of now.

I decided this one didn't need to be colored, it described isolation and loneliness with just reds and browns.

My teacher brought this artist to my attention: Albert Thayer. 

WE CAME ACROSS THIS. Look familiar? If you could see the painting above in real life (crappy digtial photos...) you may be freaked out by the very similar color schemes and material.  I like this guy... check out his work!

OK.

JESUS.

All in all, great no-stress class. Totally recommend it! Gong to try a few landscapes over winter break if I can :D

Going to post a good deal over the next couple weeks- heads up! Thanks for reading, check out my website and tell me what you think :]

#103 Alien and Prometheus

Sorry its been a while, blogger!  I'll catch you up one chunk of work at a time.

This project involved redesigning a cover for an article, a two page spread, and two spot illustrations.    I decidecided to to "Prometheus: Between a rock and a hard place.  How Ridley Scott's Prometheus deals with impossible expectations and mythological baggage."  It was an article looking at the movie's flaws and also looking at it from several different points of view.

I tried using an experiment to color the two page spread and the two spots.  

It involves ink linework

and a painting process. 

It's certainly been interesting... may continue to use this in the future!

#102 Paintin!

Landscape Painting has really changed my perspective on painting and forced me to use paint in a different way... for good!

 

 

THIS IS A BREAKTHROUGH IN PAINTING STYLE FOR ME. 

This is Ms. Thin Layers talking. 

before...

AFTER

This is a magazine cover re-design for FilmComment on the article "Between a rock and a hard place".  It's about the movie Prometheus and how it's trying to be an Alien "prequel" for the already standing fans AND a completely new film standing on it's own. 

I'll also be doing a 2-page spread for the inside of the article which I will post soon!

 

 

#101 Children's Book Class

Developing characters, drawing out adorable scenes, reaching to a child's imagination... the perfect class for me! I've had a lot of fun with it and can't wait for what's to come.

Character design

Heheheheh

Some artists I kept in mind of this project...
My discovery of the great Carter Goodrich (shown below) was a huge influence on what I wanted to mold my work to look like.

Gary Kelley has been an inspiration of mine for a while now.

The influence may not be obvious at first, but it was more about injecting shapes and character to every element in the piece, although it does not have shading or hue, I hope that comes through!


I went to the library and researched a number of children's books, trying to nail a style and theme that kids would like.