I was home during the summertime last year, and the last October/November my parents moved onto 5 gorgeous acres down the street from our little house I mostly grew up in (on less then a quarter acre.) Let me tell you, it was quite the change--but such a wonderful change! The place is HUGE and full of beautiful things. There is still projects and work to be done, but the base is spectacular! One of our favorite family "outings" since living in this new country farm-land paradise was going to the vegetable garden. "Let's go to the garden!" Someone, if not all of us, would say once a day! And we put on our boots, clogs, and crocs (no, I am not ashamed when I'm in the garden if I wear crocs--but that's just the garden.) My parents new dog, Ruby (I call her Ruby-doo or Ruby-scoobie-doo,) who joined the family the same exact time we moved homes, LOVED the garden. If we couldn't find her, we looked to the garden first. Between her and the cat, the garden was free of critters! It's wonderful! Oh, I do miss summer! You may have seen these photos of my elsewhere, but if not, please enjoy! 

Concept Designing--What a mess! Recently, and over the next two months, I am focusing my attention heavily to the rad story of "Jack & The Beanstalk." I have some crazy ideas, but I'm excited to get the process really started! In concept designing, artists don't necessarily draw every single detail--just the concept. Makes sense, right? However, artists can opt to design characters, design sets, design environments, design story moments, or really, just design anything in small or big parts. I chose to design four story moments from Jack and the Beanstalk. Because I cannot escape my love for traditional art, yet I feel a great need to follow trends and my contemporaries, I have chosen to design "Jack's World" before he climbs the beanstalk to the crazed giant's world. 

My Process To Date:

1. Thumbnails--Although I only show 11 thumbnails here, rest assured, I counted these as my "final thumbnails" of the scenes I loved and paired them all together. The scraps of scribbles and messy non-sense (that happened to make complete sense in my mind) flooded my sketchbook . . . never to be seen again! Sorry! They aren't very exciting anyway. 

2. Mood boards! This is a new thing I've been doing before I start my paintings, I create a mood board to guide the rest of my creative process. It is so helpful to have an absolutely "finished piece" of art (the mood board in this case) and reference it whenever I need a reminder of direction. 

For these mood boards, I wanted to explore color and design quality. I'm playing a lot with geometric shapes (keeping up with trends and contemporaries,) so I can paint very traditionally but still add an intense modern feel--just so my paintings stay fresh. 

3. Compositions-- This stage has become essential for me! I used to just photograph then paint, but now I compose from my head (an expansion of my favorite thumbnails,) photograph from my compositions, and compose again. My final comps. will be transferred to a painting surface and act as preliminary sketches under my paintings.  

4. Finally, the photo reference. Photo reference is CRITICAL for me. It's like my first jump at "painting" and I know whether I make it or break it. They give me hope and inspiration. I believe that the world is the greatest creation (because it's God's creation) and that if we as artist try to make something up or make something new--it still won't be as amazing and beautiful as just simply God's world. Check these out from my photo reference:

   

The art of J. C. Leyendecker