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Some of his stories take place in a wonderfully magical Chicago. Chock full of historical tidbits, local Chicago landmarks, and all the arcane goodies they left out of the history books, they are a madcap ride through our fair Windy City. I am so very pleased that now you will be able to hear these marvelous stories through a series of podcasts. Please enjoy:
The Burnham Society

You can also find The Burnham Society at their Facebook page.

To go along with these lovely stories, I created a series of illustrations. They were great fun to create and I loved honing my digital painting skills. The design is based on the The Republic a statue that stood on the grounds of the 1893 Columbian Exposition held here in Chicago. I’ve also incorporated designs from The Rookery Building the oldest high rise in Chicago, built by Daniel Burnham in 1888. And a little dragon that you’ll just have to listen to the stories to find out more about ^_^

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Make No Small Plans,
Sonnett

View at Picasa 28-Dec-2011 09:52, Canon Canon EOS REBEL T3i, 5.6, 30.0mm, 0.017 sec, ISO 100

This year was like listening to those songs.

For the first in a very long time I didn’t greet the New Year with an eagerness to get the year over with. Instead, I felt a deep sense of accomplishment and peace.

Going back to school after years of working was a difficult and scary decision. There was a lot of unknown and I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to make it happen. However, this year I didn’t let the uncertainties stop me. I finally decide to go for the big dream, leaping into the unknown, hoping those wings would deploy.

Beyond all doubts and worries, they did, and I soared through this year with a delight and joy and peace I thought I had lost. Finding that this is the path I had been searching for all along has been an incredible realization.

I love art. I’ve always loved art. I love making art. And I love fantasy. I love telling stories and reading stories and I love the little mysteries and magics and beauties of the world. I love color and light and texture and costume and faces and history and nature. I want to spend my life learning and trying new things, making mistakes, and putting these things on the canvas until I can no longer do so. What a gift to finally understand this, after searching for so long.

Long ago I wrote a little story in my head about wanting to be a traveler, home in the Vardo, making art to pass the time, companionship in the friends I would find along the way, the unknown horizon ahead, ready to be revealed, just around the corner. This year I painted a little of that story.

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Thank you to all the companions who traveled with me this year. I’m so very grateful for you. May this year bring you that much closer to your big dreams.

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Luck, Love and Laughter to you all,
Sonnett

Playlist:
Kate Bush “Rockets Tail”
Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex “Inner Universe”
Imogen Heap “Daylight Robbery” and “First Train Home”
Hikaru Utada “Passion”
Kerli “The Creationist”
October Project “Something More Than This”
Sarah McLachlan “Elsewhere”

Columbia College is keeping me happily busy with my coursework. My classes have been wonderful, and the great end result is I have more pieces to show:

View at Picasa 14-Aug-2011 11:37, Canon Canon EOS REBEL T3i, 4.5, 33.0mm, 0.02 sec, ISO 100

I hadn’t used charcoal before my Drawing I class. It was messy but a lot of fun and reminded me a bit of using pastels, which is what I started drawing with when I was young. I’m really proud of how the above piece turned out.

We also got to play with ink wash paintings. After painting studies of my feet and hands, I chose to paint my grandmother’s rose teapot. It was really interesting to try out watercolor techniques in a monochromatic medium and I really enjoyed it.

View at Picasa 14-Aug-2011 11:30, Canon Canon EOS REBEL T3i, 5.6, 55.0mm, 0.01 sec, ISO 200

View at Picasa 14-Aug-2011 11:29, Canon Canon EOS REBEL T3i, 5.6, 55.0mm, 0.01 sec, ISO 200

View at Picasa 14-Aug-2011 11:28, Canon Canon EOS REBEL T3i, 5.6, 55.0mm, 0.013 sec, ISO 160

This semester I’m taking a design class where we are discussing figure/ground relationships, optical illusions, layout, composition, and usage of fonts.

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Over the summer, I also had a chance to complete some more of my own fantasy projects. I’m so proud of the bark of the tree on the center piece. I’ve been trying out a couple different tree techniques and feel like the combination I used here turned out well. I also really like the main fairy’s face and her horns ^_^

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View at Picasa 14-Aug-2011 11:23, Canon Canon EOS REBEL T3i, 5.6, 55.0mm, 0.013 sec, ISO 250

View at Picasa 14-Aug-2011 11:19, Canon Canon EOS REBEL T3i, 5.6, 55.0mm, 0.01 sec, ISO 200

If you’d like to peruse these in the Gallery, the albums are Design, Faery, Goddesses, Still Life, and Sketchbook.

There is so much to be said about being able to devote time to the practice of art. School has provided the opportunity and inspiration for me to make it a priority and I’m so grateful for that.

May you find the ways to follow your dreams.

All the best,
Sonnett

Just a quick update with some additional Personas to decorate your Firefox:

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These can all be found at my Persona page here.

Many many exciting projects in the works that I’ll hopefully get to post more of soon. I’m also back in school and enjoying it immensely. I tell you, art homework just doesn’t feel like real homework ^_^

Other than that, autumn is here, the leaves are starting to turn, and my seasonal cooking craving has begun. Current favorite cooking projects have included a wild rice soup and a bbq pork and spicy tofu noodle stirfry. I’m having a mad craving for lamb stew or shepherd’s pie with sweet potatoes, that may be next.

Hope you are all enjoying a lovely autumn and keeping cozy.

All the best,
Sonnett

There is a really great series of Digital Painting technique books out there from 3DTotal/Focal Press. I bought the first one for my birthday:
Digital Painting Techniques

I feel like it breaks down the process really nicely and I love seeing how other artists work. It’s really inspiring and I’ve been applying some of the techniques. The first one is a quick piece done mostly to try out some custom brush techniques:

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The second one I’m really proud of, she evolved in little bits over the last two months, so I’ve been able to apply some the new techniques I’ve learned to good effect: I don’t know what her story is, something with time magic in a steampunk world with electric dresses. Electric Chrysanthemum:

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Since I last mentioned it I’ve consolidated a bit in the gallery, getting rid of the digital folder and putting those works in the other categories.

Enjoy!
Sonnett

Just a quick update with a piece I’ve been working on while riding to work on the El. Being a rain fairy she brings storm clouds wherever she goes.

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Trying out a bunch of new Photoshop painting techniques, it helps so much to be able to draw on my laptop screen. Using a stylus is a million times easier than trying to paint with my mouse and I learned how to make custom brushes. I could make custom brushes all day.

Hope the summer is treating everyone well.

All the best,
Sonnett

Alright! Got some updates going on!

Actually quite a few little back end things I’ve been meaning to do for awhile. Now I’ve finished spring semester I have a little more time to work on my own projects and apply the cool stuff I learned in my art classes.

Perk now has some images on his page. TheDolls page has been updated so that Yunu has her own section and Tangle and Fern finally have some more finished photos (Tangle’s is my favorite):

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View at Picasa OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA OLYMPUS OPTICAL CO.,LTD C2020Z, 2.0, 6.6mm, 0.013 sec, ISO 100

I’ve added Character Designs, Digital, Illustration, Sketchbook, and Still Life sections to the Gallery including some still life work from my classes in school:

View at Picasa 24-Mar-2011 08:13, Canon Canon EOS REBEL T3i, 5.6, 55.0mm, 0.01 sec, ISO 320

View at Picasa 24-Mar-2011 08:13, Canon Canon EOS REBEL T3i, 5.6, 55.0mm, 0.013 sec, ISO 200

And I’ve completed a new fairy:

View at Picasa 24-Mar-2011 08:10, Canon Canon EOS REBEL T3i, 5.6, 55.0mm, 0.013 sec, ISO 320

Finally, if you are using Firefox you can now decorate your browser with a little of my artwork:

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Here’s the link to the persona:
Sonnett’s Persona’s

I’m planning on adding more soon ^_^

Once I photograph more works there should also be more content up soon and some new card designs in the shop.

All the best,
Sonnett

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The above is one of my favorite new angel paintings. I love the way her wings turned out, her hair, the kimono, and the stained glass window. She’s currently framed and hanging up in the sun room where I paint.

2011 has soared in with an abundance of change.

After a year of looking inward, hermitting, hibernating and a warm and wonderful holiday season filled with family and loved ones, January brought new beginnings for me.

It was the start of my first semester back in college, after a 14 year absence and many years of working in an office setting.

I’ve heard a lot of similar stories, about how the change in the economy has brought about a lot of reflection for everyone. It seems that there has been a common theme of figuring out what is really important and really fine tuning which direction we we want our lives to go in.

For me, it was about listening deeply to the things I had always loved and then figuring out which of those things I wanted to master. For me it came down to art.

My painter grandmother introduced me to the work of early 20th century illustrators and advertising artists like Mucha, Maxfield Parrish, Rackham, Howard Pyle.

I grew up collecting the works of the modern masters of fantasy and science fiction illustration Brian Froud, Michael Whelan, Larry Elmore, Thomas Canty, Frank Frazetta, Brom, Alan Lee, Charles Vess, Yoshitaka Amano.

The fortuitous discovery of the excellent fantasy artist Stephanie Pui-Mun Law led me to discover watercolor as my medium of choice, and Wendy Froud’s DVDs started me on the path of my own fairy doll sculptures.

Add in a heavy dose of Pre-Raphaelite and Neo-Classical artists and you’ve got my list of muses and inspirations.

My dream since childhood has been to master art enough to be able to express stories, characters, and ideas as well as my favorite artists. So now I’m attending Columbia College Chicago for a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Illustration, and I couldn’t be more excited.

Because of this my blogging may be sporadic as I get used to homework and new schedules. On the other hand, I’ll be creating more work and will be posting it whenever I have a moment.

Speaking of which, I’ve added a new Angels section to the Gallery with complete versions of the paintings I’ve included in this post. And I’ve updated the viewer settings so that you can now see larger images of all paintings and photos.

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These were my first angel watercolors and were great wing practice.

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My other favorite angel painting, I’m so grateful I was able to capture the sense of warmth and peace and healing I wanted to.

Follow your dreams. Live what you love.

Namaste,
Sonnett

Every year David and I buy a holiday tree from one of our favorite local hippie restaurants or a local guy who sells pumpkins and then trees out of one of the parking lots off of Sheridan Road.

This is probably my favorite holiday tradition. Beyond loving the whole Germanic, Scandinavian, Victorian, celebrating nature tradition of the tree, the actual process of us purchasing it and bringing it home to our apartment fills me with joy. This is mostly because we don’t own a car.

You read that right. We don’t own a car. So we end up carrying the tree several blocks over snowy sidewalks, along busy city streets, and up several flights of stars. Inevitably, hilarity ensues, and we end up making lots of people smile. There are also usually carols sung with lots of blah blahs when we forget the words. And people always help us out when we are struggling through the gate and hold the door for us. It’s a great way to be reminded that the general basic nature of people is to help each other out. And I think that’s a fantastic thing.

I have painted a couple holiday themed paintings and have holiday card versions of them available in the Shop to spread the holiday cheer (and maybe thank those folks who helped you carry your tree). I know they are a bit late for the season, still learning how this whole art for print thing works, but they are available for those last minute greetings.

There are two styles available, a Christmas Fairy and a Winter Solstice scene

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I loved the challenge of creating these paintings and am particularly proud of the Winter Solstice card. She’s wearing a Russian style lacquered brooch and Latvian style folk mittens (for those fellow knitters out there ^_^) and holding a dove for peace. The inspiration image for the scenery is from a photo of a winter scene in Eastern Europe where many snowy folk tales are set.

Full versions of the images are up in the Gallery

May your holiday season be filled with warmth and love.

Cheers,
Sonnett

Halloween has always been one of my favorite holidays. I trick or treated for as long as I was allowed, running around the neighborhood with fellow high school choir members singing for candy.

There is nothing like the mystery that seems to surround being allowed to stay up late experiencing the night time neighborhood transformed into something other, by the flickering glow of the jack-o-lanterns.

To celebrate this season I was inspired to create a little something special

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This new painting is available in several greeting card formats in the shop. Just in time to spread a little last minute Halloween Mischief.

Happy Halloween,
Sonnett