New Photos

Here are some recent photos upon request! I swear there will be artwork coming soon!
Here I am at the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. It was soooo beautiful!

Here is where my friends Tim, Helena and I went camping in Dinosaur NM. It is a beautiful place called Echo Park.

And here we are having fun with the giant dinosaur:

Recent things…

Heres a little sketch of a Camptosaurus, one of the dinosaurs thats going to be featured in my mural.

Some other random things….I recently spotted a coyote:

Heres me giving a paleo-reconstruction demo. It was so fun!

And here I am climbing on the world famous dinosaur wall:

And this was just beautiful:

Dinosaur!

My first week here in Dinosaur National Monument has been amazing! I have spent my time hiking through beautiful desert landscapes, sketching outside in the field, running and biking, making new friends, photographing wildlife and wildflowers, discovering dinosaur fossils and ancient native american petroglyphs and of course beginning the work on my mural. I just recently met with the exhibit designer and paleontologist to discuss the initial plans. My painting will be 1.5′ x 9′ and will be blown up to be 8′ x 48′! It turns out its going to be big! So I have already begun researching species, coming up with the initial layout and beginning my own reconstructions of some dinosaurs. I will keep everyone posted as I have more definite drawings. And now a photo tour of my time here:

What I’m doing now…

Here are some preliminary sketches I am working on for my final dinosaur project of the semester. In these, I am working out the muscular reconstruction of 2 sauropods: the Diplodocus and the Camarasaurus. I have to work with these before I start my final painting to decide what the dinosaurs will look like. This has been about a 2 week process, along with making clay models, etc.

A big microscope

I visited my brother’s research lab here in Raleigh the other day. He has made some amazing machines that produce carbon nanotubes. He also let me tag along and see some of his samples under a scanning electron microscope. This is pretty much the awesomest piece of equipment on earth. We are talking 200,000x’s magnification.

I got a job.

Hooray! I recently got a job freelancing for an educational software company called Comcourse. I am illustrating concepts for solar panel technology- making me a real life science illustrator. This is all thanks to my newly acquired skills in Adobe Illustrator, and most importantly, by going to bars and meeting new people who then give you jobs. (I am a lucky girl) This is unrelated to my work I am doing for them but here is an aloe plant that I drew on the computer and colored for my class that I am pretty pleased with…

Recent Photos

Most of the time here you can’t tell where the sky ends and the ocean begins…

Breathtaking land/seascapes….

My camera is a natural illustrator’s dream (it rocks)…

Marge’s Visit

My best friend Margaret recently visited me here. It was the most fun I have had in a long time. I don’t think we stopped going (or laughing) the whole time. We explored the city and natural parks around and then made a trip up to San Francisco and Sonoma. We saw a bobcat in a eucalyptus grove, biked sea cliffs, made fools of ourselves in the “Mystery Spot” made new friends everywhere, and went to one of the oldest/biggest forests in the world among many other things. Here are my favorite pictures (greatly condensed)…

My new home

I think the best thing about my new place is the giant deck and giant blackberry bush right outside thats always full of little creatures.

The inside is nice too. =). Needless to say, I love my little home.

New Camera

I recently learned that I was accepted into the Science Illustration Program at UC Santa Cruz. ScienceIllustration.org. Woo Hoo! After 3 long months of waiting, and a full year of preparation I feel like I can finally breathe again. Not only is this program going to put me on the path to do exactly what I want with my life, but it is also located in one of the most awesome cities I have ever been. My family plans on driving me across the country at the end of August, and I feel like my life will start anew. I’m going to take full advantage of this wonderful opportunity.

I got a Rebel xsi for my graduation present. I have been playing around with the macro lens in hopes that I can get some super detailed shots for references for illustrations.  Its fun to just play around with too. Before I leave in 1.5 months I plan on gathering as many references and begin training my mind to get back into the super-realistic drawing mode, which is easy to fall out of.