I don't have internet at my house.. I might die.

Hey I DON'T HAVE INTERNET. Isn't that the lamest thing you have ever heard? 

(Well, technically I do at this precise moment cuz of free coffee shop wifi, but not at my home.)

I am inbetween places and my roommate had to take it for her new house. It's fine. I will get over it. It's only for about a week longer. Anyways, I am surprised that I was able to post on time! Congratulations are in order or whatever. 

I went to visit my friend across state this weekend and it was a blast! We went and visited some ruins, which I included a picture of. Also, Robin Williams died. I am sure most of you are tired of talking about it, but it really bummed me out. I drew a quick little doodle of him to help make me feel better. I hope you all are doing swell, and thanks again for all your support! You guys rock!

cheers,

Ashley Fairbourne

I can't stop listening to Elton John

Hey guys!

Do you even understand how much I've been listening to Elton John this past week? It's out of control. 

Anyways, I have to find a new place to live (again) ... I really hate moving. It is the worst and top most stressful thing to me. But it's okay because it will be over sooner than I think. I just got to find a place first. (tee hee?)

 

This is an hour speed painting I did for one of my followers on Instagram. She won the giveaway I did a while ago and the print got lost in the mail! So when I resent the mail, I decided to include a little gift! Isn't she the cutest?

 

Here is the pottery as promised! This was a father's day present for my dad. He loves the Green Bay Packers, specifically Vince Lombardi. Turned out better than I thought it would... it was my first time painting a portrait on a cup! Sheesh.

 

These are some "His" and "Her" mugs I made for my friends that just got married. I painted them in her wedding colors and even painted her flower on the bottom. 

Thank you all for your love and support! It keeps me plugging along!

cheers,

Ashley Fairbourne

one more month!

Here I am! Hello!

It was Spring Break last week, so I decided to take a break from life and school and just chill out and watch a ton of movies. 

Still waiting to hear if I made it into the Illustration program! I should know by the end of the week (let's hope so!) But in other news...I've only got about a month left of this semester until SUMMER! What?! So excited about, dudes.

We've been doing facial expressions and caricatures in my advanced figure drawing class, so if you follow me on instagram, I am sure you have seen most of these! Lets see if you can guess who these peeps are! Ill give you a treat (just kidding it will just be a smiley emoticon).

 

So that's been fun! I also found a bee outside my house the other day.. poor dude was frozen solid.

Here are my portraits for the week! We had to do textured surfaces... I really enjoy textured paintings... I had the most fun with the first painting of the girl with blue-green hair. The bottom left reminds me of Frankenstein haha.

Finally, I just wanted to show you guys the gorgeous necklace my friend made! She has an Instagram (@orbit_pluto) so you should follow her if you want some awesome crystal jewelry! She ships! And if you live in the Provo area, she is going to be selling them at Unhinged within the next few months hopefully!

cheers,

Ashley Fairbourne

the most tired human.

What in the world happened to me? Oh, well first off, I moved. Second, school is the craziest thing. 

BUT SPRING BREAK IS NEXT WEEK! WOO!

So hello! Glad to be back in the groove of things... quick update: my new house is cool. still settling in, though. Attempting to catch up in school and producing a lot of work. But most importantly -- I am turning in my portfolio tomorrow to see if I get into the illustration program! Send good vibes my way/cross your fingers/wish me luck/whatever it is you do!

I am so excitedly nervous.

 

One of the pieces from my acrylics class this week. We had to do implied textures, which basically means it looks like it has texture, but if you touch it, it really doesn't. I did this one with hydrogen peroxide.

 

I did this one with salt and some oats (haha)... it was really fun to experiment with different items to see what they would do to the paint.

 

Just a quick fashion sketch for my sketchbook...I have been really into stripes lately. I'm pretty sure I've said that on multiple occasions... but whatever.

And lastly, I had to do a children's book illustration-type painting for my figure drawing class... I had a lot of fun with this. I think I might tweak the grass so that it is a different color, but for now, I am extremely pleased with how it turned out! :D

cheers,

Ashley Fairbourne 

coconut should be put on everything. probably.

I am just now realizing how much I love coconut. It's becoming an obsession. 

Also! Hello fellow earth-dweller! 

This week has been "blah," but that's definitely better than stressful! For a little while, I think I will update my blog on Wednesdays during my lunch hour. :) I'm sure that will change soon though!

I also want to go off on a little tangent (for those of you who read these little rants...)

Things have just been really tough lately regarding my artwork and confidence therein. I also see all of the students around me lacking in artistic confidence and it sucks! Luckily, I have wonderfully supportive people around me to help me through those times... and I just wanted to say thank you! You rock and deserve so many cookies. On a similar note, support those around you, guys! I think that too often we assume everyone is strong enough to make it through, but it's nice to have a little push now and then. 

Okay, now enjoy the pictures, cuties.

 

Week 5 of these paintings... the bottom two were done with blue, magenta, yellow and white... the purpose of the assignment was to get super bright color and super dull color, in order to teach us how to better control paint and color. I was really happy with how they turned out, even thought it was a bit of a struggle at times!

Here is another fashion illustration snippit... currently working on a big fashion illustration project, so you can expect to see that on the next blog post! I am so excited to work on it!

I sat in on a basic figure drawing class this week to help fill my sketchbook. This is one of the sketches from it... I really love using brown colored pencils recently.

cheers,

ashley fairbourne

note to self: life is pretty crazy

This week has been insane! 

I am not even sure how i survived... but look! I did it. And I am still breathing. 

So if you were curious, I am probably going to be moving in with one of my friends, so things might be a little discombobulated for a couple weeks or so. I will try my best to keep my posts consistent! 

Any-who, we started our fashion illustrations in advanced figure drawing.. and I am having a lot more fun than I thought I would! Today we got to draw from a model with watercolors and ink... I got a little carried away. ^-^

 

Lets be honest...I just love any excuse to splatter paint.

And here are the weekly paintings! We painted with red, white, and blue this week (how patriotic).. I really enjoyed crosshatching a lot of these pieces... I think I am going to start trying to experiment more with my techniques for acrylics. That is what the class is for anyways... so... 

LOVE YOUR GUTS!

cheers,

ashley fairbourne 

spending money i dont have and other things

Hey cuties! How are those lives of yours going? I hope they are spectacular.

Not much is new... just went to the Utrecht store and bought some new supplies... the ones I am most excited about are the Utrecht design markers! They were having a great sale, so I got 12 of them! Here is the first thing I drew with them:

  

Ta-da! Here is week #2's paintings... the assignment was to only use 3 colors: black, white and yellow ochre, which created monochromatic paintings :D 

Here's to a great week! 

cheers,

ashley may

school feels like eternity already.

Hello everyone! 

This week has been pretty busy for me, but I am really excited for a lot of my classes. I don't think I shared in my last post, but I am taking media techniques II, which is basically an acrylics course, advanced figure drawing, and drawing for illustration. My acrylics class requires 4 paintings every week, so I will probably plan on updating my blog with them! Yay for consistency! :D

 

These portraits were pretty fun to start the class out with... #1 is grey background with only black, #2 is mid-tone background with only white, #3 is white and black crosshatching, and #4 is mixing greys in the light. 

 

And this epic doodle was from over Christmas break... my cousin and I got extremely bored and made up a huge story about him saving his girlfriend, Sheridan. It was a success.

cheers,

Ashley Fairbourne 

snowy weather isn't so bad..

Oh, well hello friends! Hope your week has been going well. :) 

So, I've got a few things to share with you guys tonight... my figure drawing class has been teaching me a lot about form and proportions, which is great, but it also takes a lot of practice... which is exhausting me! But yesterday we started drawing on some toned paper and this is what I had by the end of class.

 

Then this figure drawing was from a week or so ago... a little off, but I really like the look of the smeared pastels.

And guess what, dudes? It snowed today! I was feeling sort of indifferent about Christmas coming... but now my whole mood has shifted since the snow happened : ) I've always loved the snow... it's so magical!

... finally, here was my latest project for my photography class. The assignment was to do a series of photographs that all have a similar theme. I chose to do portraits of people with wet hair... I just wanted to capture the awkward side of my subjects, and I think it worked pretty great!

 

I love hearing from you guys! You rock and thanks for being so supportive! 

cheers,

ashley fairbourne 

frustrating projects

So, its technically Thursday now... but happy yesterday! I hope it rocked. Also, I hope today is wonderful for you as well :) 

Today (yesterday) was one of those why-can't-I-do-anything-right kind of days.. you feel me? So I wanted to post the 2 projects I had been working on that caused so much frustration in my guts.

 

This was the first culprit.. my figure drawing class at 8am. Yikes. I worked so hard on this drawing, and then once I got to class, I realized all the problems with the proportions and some of the shadows. I'm trying so hard! I'll get it right one day and you will be so proud of me that you will cry. Or maybe I'll cry cuz I'm so proud. Whichever works.

 

 I'm not too proud of these photographs... but this blog is about sharing my progress as an illustrator, so lets talk about them! I am in photography 1 (not my strongest suit) currently and our assignment was to take documentary photographs to convey a deeper meaning. I decided to photograph people with their phones and other electronic devices to illustrate the idea of the internet and social media isolating us from real-life interactions. The first photo is of my roommate... I really love the artificial light that is cast on her face.

Then... this one is of my cousin and her husband. I am really proud of this one. The lighting turned out perfectly. We haven't discussed these in class yet, but hopefully everything goes well. I just felt so overwhelmed with this project... I think I made the most of it and the product isn't half bad!

I am also working on a commission that I am super stoked about! I cannot wait to show you all! (I will be making prints... and hint! hint! it's fan art. You should be so excited right now).

sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite.

cheers,

ashley fairbourne 

INKtober - Day 26: Erica is a babe

My roommate wanted me to draw a portrait of her, so I attempted to do so. I am pretty happy with the result, although I wish I could have kept the blue ink more controlled. Unfortunately, it spreads everywhere. But the important part is that I enjoyed doing this piece. :)

 

cheers,

ashley fairbourne

INKtober - Day 24+25: its just the tooth fairy and my face, okay?

First off, hello! Hope every single on of your days is going so spectacularly you don't know what to do with yourselves! So I didn't post yesterday's Inktober... so here it is!

 

It's the tooth fairy. Or at least the tooth fairy that exists in my brain. I drew this in one of my classes and didn't really have any reference to draw from... so I used my geology teacher as a model of sorts. It's super hard to draw accurate figures without reference! But I'm secretly pretty proud of the way it turned out.

...and! Here is the doodle for today :D It's what my face looked like in a mirror when I was exhausted. I really love these markers. They make drawing so much more fun than it already is!

Here is Alex's interpretation of me. Offensive, right?? Just kidding, I look like a babe. But wait, he knows how to draw in real life. So check out his stuff here ----> CLICK ME!

cheers,

ashley fairbourne

INKtober - Day 9: Edward Scissorhands is one of my favorite movies of all time.

Edward Scissorhands is the best. I love Winona Ryders face so much in it... her voice just kind of rubs me the wrong way. Regardless, here is a picture of her I drew for day #9 of Inktober. Drawing this made me realize that her and Emma Watson kind of look similar... no?

 

cheers,

ashley may