Welcome to Brenda Lyons' art journal! This journal entry will remain on the top so that newcomers know what's what here. Below are the most recent entries to this art journal.

What exactly is the purpose of this journal? This is where I will post works that are in progress (such as sketches) as well as the final pieces. The way this is different from my online galleries (such as at DeviantART) is that I usually don't post sketches on DeviantART and when I do, I usually don't put a lot of detail in the description. Here, I will post my works at different levels of progress and give detailed notes on them, such as what inspired it, things I'm having difficulties with, etc. Also, this is a place where critiques are welcome. If you have a suggestion, please tell me! Sometimes the artist becomes completely blind to his or her own work, and a second pair of eyes is needed to point out problems.

My online art galleries can be found at:

Windfalcon's DeviantART Gallery (this is my most frequently updated gallery)
Windfalcon's Epilogue Gallery
Falcon Moon Studio (my personal art website)

I will also post updates here, concerning art shows and conventions I will be attending and/or showing in.

Conventions/Art Shows 2009

CONduit Art Show, Salt Lake City, UT: Showing - May 22 - 24, 2009

Dragon*Con Art Show, Atlanta, GA: Showing and Attending - September 4 - 7, 2009

MileHiCon Art Show, Denver, CO: Showing - October 23 - 25, 2009.

For my Collage for Illustration class, we've been assigned to create 10 ATCs/ACEOs by collage. I decided to try my first with the Eric Carle method of collage, which is to paint your own tissue paper (using watered-down acrylic) and then cutting it out into shapes and using that to glue onto a board. Unfortunately, the scanner can't pick up the fun pearlescent shine on parts of it, but certain parts, such as the big circle and the bluish-silver of the bird are shiny.



This is probably bigger on your screen than it is in real life, since it's ATC/ACEO size (2.5 X 3.5 inches). Working that small was also extremely frustrating, since the paper bits I cut out were proportionally tiny! I used wallpaper paste to affix the paper, as it dries completely clear and is very easy to work with, and quite forgiving in terms of drying time.

In other news, I've started a thesis art journal on Blogger, where I'm posting progress photos of my thesis paintings and descriptions of the history and technique: Featherseeds.

For anyone in the Atlanta area, the thesis exhibition, featuring the work of Goñi Montes, Yossaya Aisiri, Heather Elder, and myself will be at the StudioPlex Art Space in Gallery #143 on April 8th from 6:00-8:00 PM. It will also run other hours during the week. For more information, see here: Four Voices

For my calendar sale on deviantART, I offered a pen sketch with the calendars. One person requested a harpy eagle, which I had a lot of fun with. These pen sketches are a bit of chance - sometimes they turn out really detailed (as this eagle), and other times it's a quick sketch.



The sketch is in black Holbein ink, but I added a sepia tone to it in Photoshop because it fit the piece better.

This is 5X7 inches on bristol, in Holbein black ink (as previously mentioned).

Here are two high-contrast inkstudies I did in my Drawing for Sequential art class. Especially as an illustration student, this class is extremely helpful since it's essentially figure drawing through construction. We have a model every day and learn to draw the model through gesture and shape construction. It's been extremely helpful for my understanding of anatomy.





These are done on 18X24 layout bond (a slightly transparent drawing paper - excellent for when you want to use dry and wet media) with a Pentel Color Brush (an actual brush with wet ink, but with a cap like a pen).

The point was to do a pencil drawing first, and then block in the shadows, making sure they describe shape and form clearly. Here you can still see some of the pencil lines.

And here's the watercolored painting:



So very, very colorful. I was pondering just naming this "RAINBOW GRYPHON!" and leaving it at that! 4X6 inches, Holbein ink and watercolor on cold-press watercolor paper.

Here's the inked line art of a quick minipainting I'm working on to send to Gaylaxicon. I plan on watercoloring this fellow with rainbow colors - I hope it will be enjoyed there.



Holbein black ink on cold-press watercolor paper, 4X6 inches.

Here's the completed scratchboard piece:



I really, really think I like scratchboard. This started off as simply a practice piece (since I had never used it before), but I like the way it came out. I'll have to do some more.

I'll be sending it to MileHiCon, too. I'm just trying to figure out the best way to seal it. I've read fixative works well. Any suggestions would be appreciated!

I've used clayboard before, but not scratchboard. It's interesting how different it can be when you're doing the opposite - instead of adding black to white and scratching away, you're scratching white from black.

I decided to practice with a piece I got from a sample pack. It's 5X7 inches, and still in progress (but almost done) :



Scratchboard gryphon! I may send this to MileHiCon if I like how it turns out.

After getting an email about a pastel competition, I decided to submit a drawing I did last quarter for Drawing for Illustrators class. It was a pastel figure drawing that we spent 4 classes on, and I rather liked how it turned out. Not to mention, with the DragonCon art show just around the corner and the deadline for this competition being September 1st, I didn't have time to create something new for the contest.



The scary part is, the model looked a bit like my mother. I couldn't get that image out of my head as I drew her. Even now, the portrait looks a bit like a younger version of my mother.

On a more urgent note, I have 8 days (!) to complete 5 paintings, mat and frame the rest of them, put my barcodes and bid sheets on my gallery pieces, bag the rest of my prints, and put eye hooks and wire on my frames, for DragonCon.

Oh, and did I mention that I have 2 final projects due for my classes next week? *tries not to panic*

I would like anyone who uses watercolor, and even those of you who don't paint but want to learn more about it, to read about lightfastness.

( Lightfastness, and why it's important )

I've done my first, published editorial illustrations. They appeared in the June 11-17 issue of the Atlanta Creative Loafing paper. They were for an article that looked at the restriction of beer sales on Sunday in Georgia. The editors wanted a Revolutionary, "give us beer or give us death" theme.

The illustrations can also be seen on the Creative Loafing website. Here is a direct link to the article where the illustrations appear:

http://atlanta.creativeloafing.com/gyrobase/SpecialSections?category=beer_issue&issueDate=20080611

I did the Ben Franklin, Paul Revere, and eagle illustrations. For Ben Franklin, I used clayboard with ink, giving the image a green tint in Photoshop. Paul Revere and the eagle are pen and ink, with digital color.

This year I'm entering the CROSS Fine Lines Illustration Scholarship competition again (Information in a PDF file here). Despite knowing that more abstract pen and ink work has a better chance of winning (as realized from the previous year's winners, here and here), I figured that I would draw something I enjoyed rather than try to conform to the style that's favored, since...isn't that kind of becoming a sell-out? Drawing something you don't enjoy drawing just to get a better chance at winning? So, I decided to try a new method of pen work with a slightly new subject.



I'm having a lot of fun doing this piece, and I'm using a G pen nib (a Japanese nib favored by artists) with Holbein ink. Previously, I used Micron pens or Copic multiliners for all my inking, with Higgins drawing ink and a brush if I needed any big black areas. With this G pen, I can get a vast thickness of lines, with no blotting or line-breaks. These nibs hold a huge amount of ink.

I know what you're saying. "New subject? It's a bird!!!" But wait! It's a heron-like bird. It's no specific species, just an elegant waterbird. And a marsh! I've never tried drawing a marsh!

In case you're curious, here is my entry for last year: Finishing Touches. I got an honorable mention and a $100 gift certificate!

Wouldn't you know it, one of the assignments we received in my Illustration Materials and Techniques class was to portray a birdwatcher gathering data.



We were required to use a pen and ink with watercolor technique, while utilizing white space and keeping the color simple. While I would probably fix a few things if I did it over, I like how this technique turned out. I'm definitely going to use it for a few personal pieces.

Since imoendraco wanted to see them, I'm posting some figure drawing and still lifes here. This week we've been working with fabric. These are around 18X24 with charcoal.

The birdflowers are now complete!

After starting the first birdflower in March of 2007, I originally planned on having all of them done by November and making a calendar available. Well, after a few setbacks (mainly the demands of graduate school), I finally finished all 12 birdflowers:

( Each birdflower behind the cut )

And here is the front and back of the calendar:

Since it has been decided that I am completely crazy, I decided to do my final project in Electronic Illustration with Corel Painter...a program I've never used before. This project will consist of three, 5X8 Tarot cards. Two need to be from the Major Arcana, and one has to be from the Minor Arcana. I chose The Moon, Strength, and Eight of Swords.

So far I'm working on The Moon -



One complaint I have about Corel Painter is that sometimes the 'oils' don't actually act like oils. For example, once you start using any brush smaller than '3,' it's as if Painter doesn't know how to make the paint move. Very irritating when you're working on a small 'canvas.'

Originally I was going to do the hair (which is still in progress) in watercolor, but after the watercolors continually started getting buggy (instead of a line of paint I would get a white square) I gave up and decided to do the hair with 'oils.'

Needless to say, I'm not going to be putting my traditional paints in storage any time soon.

EDIT: More works in progress, including a detail of the face:
WIP 2
Face detail

The third assignment for my electronic illustration class is called 'paint to pixels.' The purpose of the assignment is to take one of our pieces of traditionally done artwork and enhance or improve it with digital media. I decided to try and improve my piece, "Ahergiad's Hounds" which I originally created as a 'friends only' image for my personal livejournal. The original piece is here:



And now with a digital makeover:



Honestly, I rather like how it came out with the digital. The advantage to digital is you don't have to worry about the scanner eating your piece. As you can see in the original, the glossiness of some portions of the marker in the hair turned 'milky' with the scanner. I was able to fix that with Photoshop. And then, of course the background was just a bit of fun. Opaque brushes are quite wonderful.

While I was at NUI Galway last year I did an 8-page comic titled "Bronze Feather." In those 8 pages I delved a bit into Iolani's history, focusing on a 'reunion' with what was, quite literally, a demon from her past. Now I'm doing illustrations for the SCAD-Atlanta student newspaper, The Connector, and decided to do a bit more on the Bronze Feather story since they needed some comic submissions.

This is another bit of the story, in which Iolani has her first confrontation with the original captain of the Maichach Riders - The Faceless One:

( Behind a cut since the image is long )

We're restricted to a space of 2.8 X 9.66 inches, which proves an interesting style for drawing comics. I'm not used to drawing things in newspaper comic-strip style, so it will probably result in some interesting comics.

Here are two illustrations I did for two poems written by a fellow student. I'm not going to post the poems in their entirety (since I haven't gotten permission by the author yet), but I will post snippets from the visual imagery that inspired the paintings.


"...Heart bled out with one last cry
in an eternal embrace of thunder." ---Cindy Taylor


"Bit by bit she ate
Right under the hallway stair
Fingernails, skin, bone." ---Cindy Taylor

These paintings are 4X4 and about 4X7 inches. I'm finding I really like working this small, and each of these paintings took less than 2 hours each. It kind of forces you not to obsess over every little detail, and I think on a whole the painting benefits from it.

Well, it's been a while since I posted any art here. That's going to have to change. Now that I'm at SCAD-Atlanta, there will be much more art from me.

Finally (in September) I'm working on the June bird for the Birdflowers series. June's flower is the very lovely, very overly-depicted rose, and its stone is the pearl.



I've never painted roses before. They're actually quite fun, since they 'fold out' from themselves. And of course, there's so much opportunity for shadow.

Still, I'm at a loss as to how to depict this bird's eyes. They're...pearl. I suppose I could give them a wash of different colors while still keeping it white, but how to do the pupil? Maybe a slightly darker color? Any suggestions?