Archives For Spark

Daylight

03/03/2014 — Leave a comment

Last week, the latest round of Spark ended (and once again I participated).* As in the past, that also means that I have a new crop of unpublished iterations to share with you here.

The written inspiration piece I was assigned this go-round was more complex than some I’ve gotten in the past and dealt with loss. But it ended hopefully, and so the earliest iterations had a brighter daytime palette and look that isn’t always typical of my layered illustration style. What do you think? Where do these take you?

Untitled | AmandaMuses

Untitled | AmandaMuses

*If you’re not sure what I’m talking about when I mention Spark, you can see past entries in which I mentioned Spark here or learn more about it here.

Here’s another iteration related to the discarded draft I posted earlier in December.

Untitled | AmandaMuses

Both were iterations for the latest round of Spark, the collaborative art and writing project to which I have alluded before. After a few weeks away from this version, I’m not sure that I like it that much anymore. What do you guys think?

Unearthed

11/11/2013 — Leave a comment

During the recent cleaning ( and purging ) of my main hard drive, I’ve unearthed discarded folders of old work drafts and unpublished photos that have kept me busy for the last few days. This weekend was spent concentrating on photos, so today I’m focusing on illustrations to give my eyes and brain a break. And after going to a few art openings this weekend, the wheels in my head have been turning to spin new ideas into more work.

Here’s one piece I keep coming back to today:

Untitled | AmandaMuses

It didn’t start the day off looking like this, beginning as a discarded draft from 2011 for a piece of an ongoing a group art project, Spark and evolving this morning into what you see above. It’s a little hard, even for me the creator, to believe the above is built with some of the same basic layers and rudiments as the original “final piece” from 2011. And to be honest, I think I like this piece better than the Spark 14 final from 2011. Granted, the piece for the Spark project was intended to visualize the text of a specific poem, but it feels somewhat static in its composition and a little flat. The piece above seems to have greater depth of both color and composition. What do you guys think? Where does this piece “take you”?

Digging

04/11/2013 — Leave a comment

This weekend, I spent quite a bit of time tidying hard drives and folders of old work. It feels great to have a more orderly library of files and was fun to find old pieces I’d forgotten about. Here’s a discarded draft of an illustration that I found and liked:

Discarded Iteration | AmandaMuses

Curious what this piece turned into as a final product? Check it out here.

What’d you guys do this weekend?

Another forgotten sketch from the files…

Spark13 discarded iteration

What do you think? Curious about the final version? Check it out here.

Another draft from the cutting room floor… While I like the composition to some extent, the color palette just isn’t working for me. Not surprised this ended up in the discarded file.

Spark13 discarded iteration

What do you think?

Discarded

13/10/2012 — Leave a comment

Here’s another from the “discarded iteration file”… Giving this a second look, the direction this piece is taking doesn’t seem half bad…

Spark13 discarded iteration

A few more from the discarded work file…

Spark13 discarded iteration

Spark13 discarded iteration

See the finished piece here

Tidbits

04/10/2012 — Leave a comment

Continuing along the theme of discarded process work, here are few process iterations from my response piece for Spark, series 10

Spark10 discarded iteration

How about you? What do you do with discarded sketches or concept work from creative projects? Do you archive them, or incorporate them into some sort of presentation? Or are they simply casualties of creative process?

Spark10 discarded iteration

Picking up from my recent post about sharing overlooked sketches and process work, below is another installment from the cutting room floor.

These are iterations from work on my response piece for Spark, series 11

Discarded from Spark 11

Have you heard of Spark? It’s a quarterly collaborative art event that’s been ongoing for several years now. Organized by Amy Souza, participants are given ten days to produce a new piece of creative work (written, musical or artistic in some way) based upon an assigned existing work.

Discarded from Spark 11

So readers, have you ever participated in Spark or something like it? Do you think you’ll sign up and give it a try next time?