Frog Prince - Sketches and Progress

I realized recently that I don't really show my work when I post my art, and I decided to change that! This was all done for my "Frog Prince" final that I posted about a month ago. Enjoy!

First, I start out by looking at a lot of pictures of what I am going to be drawing... in this case, frogs! I started trying to add personality to some of them, lips, eyelashes, etc. I do this to get a better grasp on what a frog's anatomy is like, simple shapes to draw it as, stuff like that.

 

This frog looks like Jabba the Hutt..

 

My original idea was to do a queen/princess frog from the Victorian era... but later on, I decided it would be more fun to do a baby frog prince. Sometimes it is hard for me to abandon my original ideas because I feel like I wasted time. But in reality, I would have never gotten that idea if I hadn't been trying different things out. And in the end, the product was much more unique and I enjoyed drawing it a lot more.

 

After I have the basic gist of what I want to draw, I start doodling thumbnails to work out my composition. Once I think I've got it figured out, THEN I can finally start on the final!

 

And... voila! It's kind of crazy how much work goes into something before you even begin on it. That is one thing I learned in school that has helped me tremendously. 

 cheers,

Ashley Fairbourne

mostly turquoise stuff

Yeah, yeah, yeah... It's been over a week since I updated this blog, but I decided that updating on Wednesdays will be the best for me this summer, so lets plan on that! :D It was my birthday this week, so cut me some slack, yo! 

Still waiting on getting all my finals back, but I should start posting sketchbook/finals stuff next Wednesday! So get stoked for that, dudes. 

Here are some drawings I have been working on... Apparently, blue was my color of choice for the week.

 

  

I got this new gold metallic marker that I have been messing around with... I really like adding details with it. With this doodle, I got a little carried away... heh heh.

 

This drawing was done by my good friend Alex for my birthday. Its a drawing of me destroying a reptilian creature. You guys have seen his stuff on my blog before, so why don't you just go check out his stuff? He rocks... visit it right HERE!

 

I decided to draw a self portrait the other night... besides the silly cartoon I did of myself, I haven't done a self portrait since high school. This definitely means a lot to me and its one of the few times where everything turned out exactly how I planned it. I am so proud of this.

 

Ta-dah! I made this bowl and just covered it with doodles... fun, eh? (See? I told you everything I've been making is drawn in turquoise blue!)

Well, I hope your week has been awesome! Talk with you soon!

cheers,

ashley fairbourne 

no school! no rules!

Hooray! I am done with this crazy semester! I am so excited for next school year too, because I will be working as the new illustrator for the school newspaper! I cant' wait. 

I am waiting on all of my finals to get graded and handed back before I can show you guys all that junk... I mostly just want to do a huge blog post filled with cool pages from the 2 sketchbooks I had to keep this semester. But until then, here are a couple things to keep you occupied, cuties!

 

This was my final for my drawing for illustration class. Our prompt was "frog prince" and we could interpret that however we wanted to. I decided to draw a baby frog prince (I know, he should be a tadpole, but look at how cute his weird legs are!) I was really proud of the way this one turned out. Ink will always and forever be my favorite medium!

 

Here is some weird sketchbook stuff from my personal sketchbook. I drew a cat in a fire... kind of dark. Sorry (but not that sorry)...

 

...and here is a creepy girl with what appears to be a dog nose. I was just having fun with exaggeration in the figure and got a little carried away. 

Well, I am excited to be posting regularly, and I will keep you guys updated on my Etsy shop stuff! Thank you for all your support through such a crazy semester! 

much love

xoxox

cheers,

ashley 

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 

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 

my eyes feel like burning.

Hello! Late post.. sorry about it! Good news is that I have a lot of fun stuff to show you all! :D

 

  

So this first piece is a little excerpt from a clothing fold rendering I had to do for my advanced figure drawing class. I am so excited about that class! We are starting to do some fashion illustration, so I should have some fun stuff to show you guys in a week or two! 

 

Random, but I thought this picture of the veins in my arm looked pretty rad. I got this cool app on my phone called VSCOcam... if you haven't heard of it, I would definitely check it out! It allows you to take some pretty sick pictures.

I am really happy with the way this turned out! It was done for my drawing for illustration sketchbook... a deer with some freaky twig legs.

Since Valentine's Day is coming up, I thought I would doodle something up for it. I did this with colored pencils, markers and pens. I had a lot of fun with it and think it could make a cool final piece for a notebook design or something of the same nature! Maybe when I start my Etsy shop up this summer I will include this as a print! Who knows!

Here is a picture of me with the cutest puppy to ever walk the earth. Don't you just want to squish him?!?

Finally, I made a name tag for work... it was nearly impossible to keep it simple. haha

I hope all of you are having a fantastic week! Thank you all for stopping by and being so supportive! 

cheers,

ashley fairbourne 

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 

Holy 2014, Batman!

I told you all that I would update this blog every Tuesday... and I meant it! 

So, the semester started! And my immune system decided to go kaput and let me get sick a few days before. Luckily, I've been recovering pretty quickly. :)

All of my classes are pretty promising this semester, but I am going to be so busy! And its going to be a lot of work... but I think I will figure it all out. You can expect the next few months to be filled with school assignments (and maybe a few commissions!)

 

Look at this cute picture of my cat! I got a new photo editing program on my phone called VSCOcam... if you haven't heard of it, I would definitely recommend it! It lets you edit the photos kind of the same way you would in Lightroom or Photoshop. I really dig it.

 

Here is another preview of that work-in-progress I talked about a month or two ago. It's coming along.. slowly but surely. I really love where it is going. :)

This was a fun, quick illustration I did for the Christmas album me and my friend Ruth recorded over the break. I know its not Christmas anymore, but you should go download it for next year! Or now! Whatever floats your boat. (cuz guess what? ITS FREE) 

Here it is... RIGHT HERE

 

And finally... this was the most recent drawing I did before I got too sick to move. My friend let me try out some of his art markers and prismacolors together, and this was the result! 

And if you somehow missed it, I finally got an instagram for my art! follow me @ashleyfairbourneillustration... I update it a couple times a week usually. 

As always, thank you all for your love and support... you all mean the world to me!

cheers,

ashley may

still pluggin along

I cannot wait for finals/the holidays to be over! I feel like I am running out of steam...

I'll make it through though :) 

So I have been working on a lot of different projects, most of them are for my own benefit. I also am trying to piece together a portfolio for applying to the illustration program, commissions for the holidays, work, etc. It's been busy, but great! Unfortunately, this means I have been neglecting my classes a little bit (whoops!) I am planning on catching up over Thanksgiving break, so wish me luck, peeps!

This is just a little work-in-progress of an illustration I'm super excited about. I found some cyan, magenta, and yellow inks that I have been layering a lot lately... it's pretty fun. Let me know what you think about this technique! I will probably post the final product within a week or so.

 

This was a fun sketch I did... although, I keep looking at the cat's eyeball and cant help but think of a pokeball. tee-hee

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving! Eat so much food for me! 

cheers,

ashley fairbourne 

INKtober - Day 30: I'm getting carried away with the ink splatters.

Guys... it's almost over. I'm getting a little behind in my schoolwork, so today's drawing is pretty sketchy :P

Also, I splattered ink for fun this time.

 

This poor hedgehog doesn't know how to swim... and the floaties aren't much help. 

Tomorrow is the LAST DAY OF INKTOBER!! You guys are totally in for a treat... or is it a trick?!? 

(I really like halloween and I am going as Dora the Explorer. hee hee.)

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 22: a handsome raccoon

Happy Inktober 22nd! I found you a prom date...

 

You can thank me later. :)

cheers,

ashley fairbourne 

INKtober - Day 21: I felt mushy today

Hey all you cuties! Hope today was the best kind of day. So... today for Inktober, I drew the cutest couple in the world. I'm not sure what's wrong with my tummy.. I feel all mushy and warm inside.

 

cheers,

ashley may

INKtober - Day 16+17: apologies and one cute pup

I am sorry because I didn't draw a picture yesterday. You know those days where you just want to retire as a human being for a bit? Well, that was yesterday... and I didn't want to do anything responsible. Just sit in bed and eat ice cream and/or french fries. (you know the kind of day im talking about.) Any-who! Here is me apologizing as a cartoon for skipping day #16 of Inktober...

... and here is day #17 of Inktober! Guess what?? Its my best buddy's birthday today... so go send some love vibes her way!(is that weird to say?) She blogs in this general vicinity if you are interested!

 

  

The pup above was inspired by my hunger in my geology class. Sometimes it feels as though I will be stuck in class forever until i starve to death. It is so hard not to doodle in my non-art classes haha. I also attempted a little smidgen of perspective on that table...its somewhat successful!

cheers,

ashley brooke