Happy Halloween Everyone!

Give me your candy! This is a stick-up!

(Sad that I don't have time to finish my new Halloween drawings when I think the ideas are pretty cool but there is always next year! At least I got time to give, "Boo" some new editing.)

Happy Halloween everyone!

My Brother: Marigold- Flower Drawing

My brother's birthday was on Sunday. One year he shaved his head....

Flower- Marigold

This was done as part of my One-A-Day Sketch Series, "The Flower Drawings". I did a Marigold because its the birth flower of the month of October and supposedly means, "a golden gift".

Rebirth at the Graveyard

Rebirth At the Graveyard (2010), Digital Art. ©2012 Shazanna Khan

Here's a piece I did for a friend a few years back for his birthday. I did not do it for Halloween but as it is in the air, I thought I should post.

It was done as part of my People Inspired One-A-Day Sketches. I was already doing flower drawings, but this particular friend requested something different for his birthday, citing that black and skulls were more of his interest than my happy colourful flower drawings. It was an interesting challenge to try to channel some darkness into his sketch but still maintaining my style of drawing. I was pleased with the result and my lack of the use of the colour black.

My first idea seemed a bit gruesome which involved childbirth itself and a baby crawling out of a womb, so I kept on brainstorming. At the time, I believe I was reading some horror stories of vampires and zombies. The key thing that stuck out to me was the theme of rebirth and how the characters had a new albeit different lease on life. The concept suited me as it was done with his birthday in mind and of course graveyards do contain skulls which kept with his request.

This sketch was great fun, as it challenged me to think outside of the box and allowed me to experiment with different concepts. It was a thrill to stretch my imagination and come up with some spooky, sinister concepts that could possibly one day make it to future drawings/illustrations.

This illustration was done digitally using Corel Painter and my HP Touch Smart. Looking back at it now, I see a lot of improvements I would like to make! I suppose that is a normal reaction to old artwork which hopefully means that your skills have improved vastly since that point in time. (I hope!)

Blood Donation: Silly Reasons People Give

I'm helping out with a Blood Drive in school. I don't want to sell out what the following illustration is going to be used in until the project is done but I thought I should update my Blog on some current art projects I've been working on with some amazing people. Part of the project involves illustrating some of the silly reasons/excuses people give as to why they don't donate.

Of course for the purposes of this blog post, I added the extra phrases to make it more poster-like so it would have a dual purpose. There is a dire need for regular voluntary blood donation. So go out and donate! You may not have real super powers but your blood can save a life ;)

Silly excuses people give as to why they don't give blood.

First coat of watercolours. A lot of layers went
down after to get the above result!

More about the process:

I did a pencil outline in my sketch pad after thinking of some silly reasons. I was inspired by HBO's True Blood series about vampires and how some drank blood from blood bags stolen from a hospital.

For the text, I wanted the look of dripping blood that's close to being congealed :D I used watercolours and white gouache paint. I should have done the entire thing in gouache or acrylics. I think I had to work a little harder on the finish by using watercolours to get a nice solid opaque colour and because I was trying to illustrate blood and wanted a bit of gloss, the watercolour proved to be a little difficult.

I am not 100% happy with the lips. I wanted to do more black ink detailing on the lips but was not sure if to proceed, because I also wanted a bright dramatic red lip. Also maybe I should have done the mouth bigger? I'm not sure. Thoughts?

Working on this I realised that its been a while since I have attempted to do lips (if I ever attempted at all).  I think I need to brush up on my figure drawing, and facial features. I definitely think some practise is in order!

Anyway, I'm still thinking up some other reasons people don't give blood and how to illustrate them. What do you think I should do next?

Tropical Flowers (Clay Plates)

From L to R: Bird of Paradise (2010), Anthurium (2010), Heliconia (2010), Hibiscus & Humming Bird (2010); Acrylic on Clay Plate, 7.5" 

From L to R: Orchid (Dancing Lady 2010), Amaryllis (2010); Acrylic on Clay Plate, 5"

Clay Plate Paintings I did for my mom one year. She is such a genius at interior design and landscaping. She put them up in a wooden bookshelf she designed to mimic a plantation house. 

Bookshelf/ Clay Plate Stand

My Mom also loves tropical flowers and grows them so she can make fresh floral arrangements for home.  It is one of the things I miss from home when I am at school during the semester. I used her garden and various floral arrangements for reference material.

One of the Floral Arrangements that she did for Eid this year. Isn't she amazing?

Chess Themed Challenge! New Submission

In response to my last post, where I issued a Chess-Themed Challenge, I received a submission this week from artist Santiago of  Massachusetts, USA. 

Santiago puts out a weekly comic strip on his blog called Really Jesus. I think that his quirky drawings and sense of humor makes his comic strips so unique and entertaining that they are appealing to anyone regardless of their beliefs. His blog: http://reallyjesus.blogspot.com/ 

Check out his fantastic artwork in response to my Chess-Themed Challenge below!

Chess King by Santiago

Isn't it awesome?! Many thanks again to Santiago for taking part in my challenge! From his drawing, I think that it is safe to assume that he found my challenge very entertaining :D

As I said previously, I thought it would be great to see how different minds interpret the same theme, i.e. one of Chess. So feel free share to your friends and simply sketch, draw, paint, write, etc your thoughts or ideas of what comes to mind when you think of life as a Chess Match. Remember to send what you come up with to me and most importantly have fun with it :D

Chess Parallels: Sketchbook

A conversation with a good friend led to this. I believe she posed the question, "Which move to make?" Of course she was referring to the dilemmas faced in life at the time but the question reminded me of playing Chess with my brother. A match against him required brain power and concentration, and I always had to consider all my options carefully. I replied to her with a resounding, "Checkmate!" to which her reply was that she didn't even know that she was originally in check. I was so consumed by it, because it was an echo of similar emotions I was experiencing at the time myself. I immediately picked up my Mokeskine and started sketching.

Solo chess piece on a chess board but only the possible moves of the piece visible

Forgive my little annotations. I write rather dis-jointedly when I'm sketching sometimes.  It's like talking to myself but recording the convo so I don't forget (lol) I sound so crazy!

I saw the work of Gabriella D'Abreau at her exhibition a few weeks ago. Her piece called "Street Hecklers" (I believe) was the first I saw of shadowy menacing figures in the background in watercolours that was done so amazingly! It really stood out to me not only for her technique but for the story of the piece itself and what it represented. I always thought it would be too difficult to do in watercolours so I was thinking that with a digital rendition, I might have gotten a better result much easier. However after seeing her work, that idea has been thrown out! I want to experiment with W/C on this. 

Then there is the Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland approach. When I get some time, I hope to revisit these.

My friend actually did sketches as well of her interpretation of the conversation and the chess-theme itself. She came up with something totally distinct from what I was thinking of. Like this concept but with human characters (chess piece personified). Kinda like Harry Potter's Wizard Chess.

It is so amazing to me how the mind works and how one idea/phrase if posed to a group, can be interpreted so differently by each individual. I really can't wait to see her sketches :)

My question to you, what concepts can you come up with based on the chess theme that parallels to life?

Let's make it an experiment/ challenge for those so inclined to draw/sketch as well. A....

Chess-Themed Challenge!

I'm curious to see how different people interpret the same theme. Link me to your sketches of your interpretations of it :) I would love to see how your mind works :D

Mt Hope Sketches #1

Recall my post about the photographs of Mt Hope? Well here is a sample of what I did with those photographs. I'll write more about this current project later on but I thought I should update my blog on what I've been doing recently.

This is the first of the Mt Hope sketches that progressed into painting form. It should have been completed last week but as I have an exam on the upcoming Friday, I put a pause on all my artsy endeavours to study.

I hope to do a few more paintings based on the other sketches of Mt Hope that I did. Thoughts and views? Should I post the other sketches?

Ref Image: Mt Hope has definitely gotten its walls
power-washed since then. 

Trying out my Inktense Pencils on the pencil sketch

Usually I finish painting the entire thing first, then Ink over but I was a bit excited to finish it. Also I needed some new ref pics of the lower portion of the building. I had a feeling my prelim sketches weren't as accurate as they should be.

Happy Birthday Hailz!

Today is one of  my oldest friend's birthday!

She's not really old but I've known her since my First Year days at primary school. After which we attended high school together, so I can safely say that that's a friendship that's older than the fourteen years we attended together at school.

To honour her special day, I'm posting a drawing I did for her. Before I do that, let me tell you the story of how it began.

Winx Club Memories

In high school, about Form 3 after watching a cartoon series, I was inspired to do a sketch series of all the girls in my life portraying them as either urban sassy individuals or strong warrior like women.

(Did I ever mention I attended an all-girl school which probably influenced my feminist ways?)

I am ashamed to say that the inspiration for that idea came from watching that cartoon series, called the Winx Club.

I am mostly ashamed because of the mere idea that I was watching the Winx Club in Form 3. But they dressed so nicely and it was so colourful! Also they had wings and magic too with cute boys! I could not resist :D (lol!) 

I began to draw in my sketchbook. Now back then I really disliked drawing people I knew. I still do for a variety of reasons. However with Hailz, I made an exception. The character I had in mind was supposed to be cool, sexy, sassy and fashionable. Which was exactly how I saw Hailz back then-the strong independent woman who was confident and comfortable with who she was, and I still do. I also loved when she left her gorgeous hair out in its natural state with millions of tiny curls and rocked the huge hoop earrings. So I tried to capture that.

I completed her drawing and soon abandoned that entire project because I couldn't figure out how I wanted to portray the rest of friends. I eventually forgot about it altogether until a few years later when I began doing my One-A-Day Sketches and Hailz requested (/demanded? :P) hers.

I took a photo of the drawing I did back in high school then but was not pleased with how it looked on my computer. I ended up retouching it on my laptop with my drawing software- Corel Painter. The following was the final result :)

Urban Sass, Digital Art © 2012 Shazanna Khan

This girl has been one of my longest and dearest of friends. I wish her all the best and I cannot wait to celebrate her birthday with her.

The following is a quote I stumbled upon the internet that I think sums up our friendship just right.

"Even though we've changed and we're all finding our own place in the world, we all know that when the tears fall or the smile spreads across our face, we'll come to each other because no matter where this crazy world takes us, nothing will ever change so much to the point where we're not all still friends."

Happy Birthday Hailz! One year I'll give you the real drawing :)

W.I. Cricket World Cup Win!

After 33 years, the West Indies cricket team has won a World Cup at the T20 Cricket Finals against Sri Lanka! :D Wasn't our last world cup win in 1979? Anyway 2012 is really an amazing year !! :D

I edited a drawing I did in 2010 for this purpose. The following is the original drawing I did, which was for my good friend Amit. It was part of my One-A-Day Sketch Series. Possibly he also one of the few people who didn't get one of my flower drawings as their sketch. 

I wanted to continue with the flower stuff but it didn't seem fitting for Amit. He's such a guy with all of his interests in sports. Not only interested in them, but he is pretty decent at them. Especially at cricket. The flower idea seemed a bit too feminine and additionally it was a bit difficult drawing leaf hands holding a cricket bat.

As I told him, pretend the hot cheerleaders in 20-20 cricket were holding up the letters for his name at the stadium cheering him on.

Blue gloves because I believe it was his favourite colour and a West Indian helmet and test cricket attire because when he was finished with medicine and wanted a career change, it was for the WI he was going to be playing for.

I realise that of late I have been focusing more on some architectural pieces. Should I be trying my hand again at portraits of people?

Photos of Mt Hope/ EWMSC

I've been working on some new projects for some time now. However my life has been a bit busy juggling those art projects with exams fast approaching, that I never make time to finish writing the blog post!

Until then here are some photos I took of the student section at Mt Hope/ Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex (EWMSC) over my last vacation.

Mt Hope's architecture is so distinct from the other two teaching hospitals (Port of Spain General Hospital and San Fernando General Hospital). Its design is more contemporary and geometric while with the other two hospitals you can see the influence of our colonial past. Port of Spain General was after all once the colonial hospital in Trinidad.

Consider this a hint as to my current projects ;) Thank you to the people who are helping me make them a reality.

Trini-Inspired Christmas Cards!

Each year, when Christmas rolls around we visit Hallmark and buy cards depicting a "white snow-filled Christmas" decorated with mistletoe and holly and other symbols that simply have no meaning to most of us living on a Caribbean island. For a country that only only has two seasons, dry and rainy, what do we really know about winter and white Christmases? We are no longer under colonial rule, yet we buy cards that reflect a culture and environment that is so drastically different from our own. At the same time, we really do not have much alternatives or options. There is always the hand-crafted greeting card made of recycled/indigenous products. But what about high quality greeting cards that actually depict what Christmas really means in a tropical climate with a rich heritage?

This year, a colleague of mine from high school, Sayada Ramdial recognised the need for more local products (especially in the greeting card industry) and decided to do something about it.

As you can see in the ad below, she came up with four unique designs.

For full designs see the Facebook page- Designed For a Smile

What I love about them is that they truly capture the essence of a Trini-Christmas. Her designs so far: a little boy in a classically Trini-rural environment playing with a sleigh (cardboard box) being pulled by a "reindeer" (goat), the grand Christmas feast- ham, sorrel and fruit cake, Parang/ Spanish Christmas carols and a lovely wreath made up of flora only found in the Caribbean.

Her designs are all so creative and inspire such nostalgic feelings. I think her talent as an illustrator truly shines in her creations. She not only shows that she can think outside of the box with her designs but they are also of such high quality and extremely beautiful!

As you can see from the ad, you're only getting a sneak peak of all the designs ;) If you would like to see the full designs as mentioned before, check out her greeting card page- Designed for a Smile. You can contact her there for more information about where you can purchase your own Trini-Christmas Card.

Also you can check out more of her talented work on her website, Tumblr and Facebook page. (I feel like a stalker now lol)

Please support her work! It's such a great venture and an amazing step in the right direction to help us as a Caribbean island, establish our own identity :)

Designed for a Smile Greeting Cards

Be proud! Go local! :D

Update: Sayada got her cards back from the printers and they look beautiful!

You can purchase them so far at 2 local events:

1. The Ultimate Epicurean and Boutique Market on Saturday 27th October, 2012 at Crowne Plaza, POS

2. Bits and Pieces 2012 on Saturday 3rd November, 2012 at Movie Towne, POS

Pricing:
Single cards- $18 TT
Sets of 4- $65 TT
Sets of 10- $150 TT