Xene-tastic!

So I did this stuff for some people, hopefully to impress them...

Shameless, I Tell You...

Yet another round of SSP (shameless self-promotion), in a dire effort to get more exposure. Counter hits excite me...

www.laurenreeser.com

Zoodles!

Yes, it's hard to believe, but I did draw from life today, at the Oakland Zoo, with good friend Ian. It was great! The weather was beautiful, the kids tolerable, and the animals visible. I decided to take a sampling, instead of drawing just one animal for the whole time, and it was quite refreshing...no more counting drawings, waiting for new poses, getting frustrated when you don't get the shapes right...it was a genuinely enjoyable drawing day. So I drew tigers, giraffes, zebras, even a lion or two (I've been to the O Zoo at least 10 times without ever seeing the lions, not that I wasn't looking). I'm posting up the best stuff here, and also some photos I took. Don't be fooled by the photos...they didn't look like this before entering my computer. The nice thing about having a 7 megapixel camera is that you can take pictures of things that are far away, and blow them up in Photoshop to create a pleasing composition, whilst retaining the detail and sharpness of the subject. Toss in there a little levels adjustment, re-saturate it, and a little blur in the background, and you've got a nice picture...that is, you've got a photo closely resembling the magic of what you originally saw with your own eyes. Very pleasing :-).

Cheers! --L

Amazonia Galliania

Not all beautiful women are blonde-haired and white-skinned.

GOS v. LBD

Edit:
"DOTs, I don't see enough DOTs, more DOTs now..."
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It still seems to be missing something in the background...like a cloud? Hrm...

A Memory...

Diversion....

The Girls of Summer

Quintuplets, apparently. I like playing with repetition, and that easy way to make things recede in space with value. This composition needs something summery in the upper left...any suggestions? Or maybe something unexpected, like they're all looking at someone wearing a black dress? That could be interesting....

OMG, Vizdev!

This painting is half speed-painting, half concept art from my head. The setting is based on a photo I took, and I added in the figure, as an exercise in adding elements into an existing lighting scheme, and having them look natural. I need to start applying what I've been learning in my speedpaintings (light and color, primarily) to my own concept work. This was my first [successful-ish] attempt. --L

Marie Antoinette

I finally saw "Marie Antoinette," and was totally blown away! Yes, yes, the costuming was amazing, inspiring, dumbfounding, incredible, sublime, but the movie itself was also very good. I was so inspired, I ran off and sewed historical costumes, and did this little speedpainting from a movie still.

I can see why the film didn't hold up under the fickle and coarse scrutiny of the American box office, but as an art film, it was truly fabulous. It felt very Coppola, in those long, quiet, intense shots, perfectly composed, and left to linger onscreen for slightly longer than we expect. I was pleasantly surprised, since I was fully expecting a beautiful costume movie with no plot. It was, however, inspiring in so many ways. For anyone who understands film, see it...but I recommend you brush up a little on your French history (it's understandable without it, but the importance of the events are made that much more intense if you know the context).

Go forth to Netflix and queue, my friends!

Here's the final lego piece I turned in to NetDevil, and also a painting I did for a friend's wedding gift. I put the latter on my website, but not up here because I was worried she might somehow see it before ripping through the pretty silver wrapping. It looked very nice framed :-). As for NetDevil, I'm hoping to hear from them this week... --Lauren