Pastels, Disney Concept Art & Society Clothing

Click to enlarge. 

We're starting a new guide for LOCALE magazine on Disneyland. I know. Pretty awesome thing to get paid to do! I'm working on it with my lovely sis and our awesome friend Lindsey Bro. We all decided we wanted a classic Disney, concept art feel to the aesthetic. So I busted out my Monster's Inc. Concept Art book and my pastels and started copying a scene from the book to figure out No. 1: how to use pastels, and No. 2: how to accomplish the amazing lighting and style they always have in their work. Seriously... why haven't I used pastels since elementary school? They. Are. AMAZING. So messy. So bright. So fun. Can't wait to work on OUR piece for the guide.

Also entered a fun competition on instagram for my friend Zech's brand Society Clothing. All you have to do is throw up the Society logo (the all seeing eye - like above) and tag @societyclothing and #societyeye to enter. The contest goes all the way through Friday May 11th and the winner gets some great shwag - so enter! Or vote for me @amyhoodlum. I'm totally leading the pack, and in the words of Mitt Romney, "the numbers are just on my side." haha

- Amy
Listening to: Sufjan Stevens' "Illinois" album.
So. Good.

Mucha Tattoos, Painting Progress & Art Shows

After gabbing with my dear friend and muse, Sara Wilkins, last night on the phone I was finally prepared to tackle the tattoos portion of my portrait of her. They are based on the Alfonse Mucha painting "Moët & Chandon - Dry Impérial."

Original Tattoo Sketch. Click to enlarge.

I sketched it out days ago, re-drew it to clean it up, reverse traced a backwards copy on my light table, and then transferred it onto the painting by placing the graphite side of the illustration on my canvas and rubbing the back with a pencil. Cheap, easy transfer method since I don't have a projector. 


Then I mixed a tattoo color out of my mixed skin tone I saved, black, and green. I was going for a semi faded tattoo color. Then it was just trying to keep my shaky hands steady to outline the tattoo. Why is it that there is NEVER a small enough brush? I need a liner brush that is medium length with like two bristle hairs. Then maybe I could get the fine detail I need! Somebody needs to get on this. 


In other BIG news, I will be headlining an art show in Downtown Santa Ana Arts District this upcoming September! I'll keep you posted on more details as I get them. I'm going to be showing mostly these portraits. I want to try to get two more wrapped up for it. I want to paint a bearded man really badly. And a surf rat. I've got a few friends in the queue to do, so we shall see what happens! I'm thinking I won't be getting much work done till after the playoffs. Gotta cheer my Lakers on to victory. Playoffs, baby!


Progress shots of the tattoo painting below. 


-Amy
Listening to: Of Monsters And Men

Canadian Tuxedos, Being A True American & More Wally Progress

Breaking News! I finally got a jean jacket! I felt like I was failing as an American without one. Not anymore. (Cue  "Only in America" -ahhhhh I take that back. Cue "Bye Bye Miss American Pie". That's better.) The next few years of my life will be dedicated to slowly but surely breaking this bad boy in. Wear, tear, love, patches, buttons, maybe even studs. Who knows. 

In other news I am coloring in Wally The Wordsmith right now and it's so much fun. I'm using a retro-ish color palette. In other words every color is burnt. I'm also using a fun stamp pattern for the blacks. I made it in photoshop. We're going to offer it as a free download over at Hoodzpah soon. Get excited. Here's how that's going.

- Amy
Listening to: Donovan's "Season of the Witch"

Dressember Week 1, Skeletons on Motorbikes, & The Lumineers

Dressember is in full swing! And up until today the weather has been kind to my bare legs. Today, however, it's pouring rain and freezing, but I won't give into tights until absolutely necessary. Nothing like a little skin in the winter. Below is a recap of the first week of Dressember. I'm trying to mix things up even though I'm pretty much working with the exact same dresses I wore last year (see those here), so it's been fun and challenging to make old things look new and exciting. Click on the photos to enlarge. If you want to see more Dressember, just log into Instagram and search the hashtag #dressember. It's trending, baby.  


I've also been doing a lot of illustrating and painting for Hoodzpah clients recently. Above is a piece I whipped up the other night just for fun. It's a skeleton riding a vintage Norton. I realllllly wanted to keep it because I loved how it turned out, but my talented friend and fellow designer Allan Gungormez made me an offer I couldn't refuse for it. I'm going to try to get screenprints made of it however. First we have to make sure there's a high enough demand for them since screenprinting is kind of pricey. I used india ink and an ink brush for this illustration and I love the effect it had. I want to start using this more often. I'm going to try to get some work in on my portrait of Sara this weekend too! I want to have that finished before the new year. Blah, blah, blah, blah-blah-blah blah. I'm even boring myself now, so with that I'll say adieu! 


- Amy
Listening to: "Hey Ho" by The Lumineers. I've had them on loop for about a week now.






P.S. How about that snow last night in Orange County? The month I leave Lake Forest it SNOWS there. Figures. 

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5

Day 6

Day 7

The Lovely Sara Wilkins, New Paintings, & Reasons To Be Thankful

Click to enlarge.

I started sketching out my next few paintings that have been in the queue. The thumbnail sketch above is of the lovely Sara Wilkins. Sara, a former Orange Countian (born and bred too), is now a Portland transplant, but distance has not diminished our friendship. Sara is as good as they come - and somewhat of an anomoly. In the best sense of course. She can be a quiet observer or the life of the party; She can be the thoughtful listener or the fountain of hilarity; She's listening to Etta James one minute and the Kings of Leon the next; She's responsible but watch out when she lets loose; She's the voice of reason but she's also the first to take the plunge; She's the girl you'd take home to mom but she's also got a delightfully irreverent wild side; She'll chase you around a public parking lot when you're feeling "blah" but she can also play it cool as your escort to the local show; She's got clear opinions but she's incredibly open minded. It's all of these interesting and unique qualities that made me realize she was the perfect candidate for my Beatniks, Bastards, Saints series. Oh yeah, and the fact that she's a FOX. 


Below is the drawing on the wood - which is my least favorite part of a painting. Sketching it out. Especially doing it twice (once on paper and once on wood). This painting is even bigger than the one I did of Jordan (subject-wise, the board is the same size) and I'm finding it's hard to draw large scale. You're looking at a photo that is 5-6 times smaller as a reference. It's tough. But I want this one to be big because I'm going to give her an amazingly intricate halo. Plus I want to see how big I can go with the subjects before it just get's ridiculous. Next step, mix up a skintone for her (I'm using acrylics and I only like having to mix up the color once so I mix a big batch and save it in an air-tight container) and get painting! Now that I'm self-employed I can work on my paintings during the day in natural sunlight (as opposed to my prior night-owl habits when I had a 9-5 for "the man"). Not only that, I'm wrapping up a ton of projects so I can just paint my little heart out for the next day or so till the deadlines start looming again. Couldn't be happier that Hoodzpah is sustaining us and letting us flourish artistically. And really that success is owing mostly to our - for lack of a better, more original word - amazing friends. Pretty much everyone we work with is a friend or was referred by one of our lovely friends. On that thankful/reflective note, goodnight all. 


- Amy 
Listening to: Nada Surf's "Inside of Love"

Click to enlarge.

Mad Scientists, linocuts, and Delta Spirit

©Amy Hood

I've been working on some fun rough sketches for a current job with FUTEK. FUTEK is basically a company that makes parts/sensors that measure things, be it force, weight, whatever. They have all sorts of components that they design to measure and record. FUTEK hired Hoodzpah (shout out to my friend Natasha Niezgoda for the reference!) to design some Halloween themed posters for their office and website that wittily represented their products in a ghoulish, festive way. They wanted retro, film noir inspired designs that had a comic book feel to them. One of our concepts was based around a mad scientist. Here's one of the scientist characters I drew up. How 'bout them sideburns? He's got that Dr. Jekyll quality to him (with a touch of Gregory Peck). Best part is the steam-punk goggles though. They scream mad scientist.

I am finally getting caught up with work! After a month of craziness. Now I can focus on my fun side projects like the linocut I'm working on. It's for a new site my friends and I started called The Populo.us. It's not live yet, but when it is, I'll spam it like crazy on this blog, so don't you worry. I'm going to do some kind of emblem/crest of a faux riders club. Motorcycles, cars, skateboards, surfboards... maybe with some skeletons or like a sasquatch. Yeahhh.... a sasquatch. Maybe I'll even turn them into patches. I'm getting ahead of myself.

- Amy
Listening to: "Devil Knows You're Dead" by Delta Spirit  - I love this song.

Shakas, Tattoo Illustrations, & My Adventures As An Amateur Surfer

[ Shaka X-mas Illustration. ©Amy Hood ]

I've been doing a lot of sketching lately for various projects. It's been fun dusting off the old pen and pad! Here's one I really want to rework and smooth the wrinkles on. It's a rough sketch for a Holiday Guide Jen and I are designing for LOCALE magazine. We were trying to think of clever ideas to depict just how unique Christmas in SoCal is since it's sunny and people are surfing instead of scraping ice off their frozen windshields. After watching the Billabong Pro Tahiti all this week, I thought it might be fun to draw a hand throwing up a shaka with tattoos spelling out our title. 

By the way, working while watching LIVE surf competitions is great. I've always been intrigued by surfing. I grew up in "Surf City" Huntington Beach (well there's a debate on that isn't there?) as well as San Clemente, so a lot of my dear friends take part in the pasttime frequently -  and to much enjoyment. I even got thrown into the industry a tiny bit through a friend who brought me on for design work on a couple projects for some action-sports-centric companies. But I was always very confused on it all still: The names of the moves, the lingo, where to go, how to do it, how it's judged professionally. It was all shrouded in a thick cloud of mystery.

I learned all the rules and nooks and crannies of basketball by listening to commentators call the game and now I plan to do the same for surfing. After listening to some of the LIVE webcasts for this years World Tour I'm finally starting to get my footing. Not literally of course. I got my surfboard out of the garage the other day and took it down to Riviera Beach in San Clemente with my friend (and great surfer) Katie Hanten; I can hardly say I had my footing out there that day, but it was the first of many trips. Watching the Billabong Pro Tahiti may help though. After watching the likes of Josh Kerr, Jeremy Flores, Kelly Slater and Owen Wright tear it up  at "Chopes" (what they call Teahupoo apparently - see I'm picking up the lingo too!), not to mention the mini-clips in dedication to the late great Andy Irons and his fearlessness AND the crazy tow-in session (woah), maybe inspiration will strike out in the water for me next time and it'll all just click. Even if it doesn't, I'm gonna keep on trying because it just looks like a blast and even though I'm terrible, I'm already having so much fun just being out there. The only downside: I feel like I may be growing pectorals. From all the paddling. I really don't want pectorals.

- Amy
Listening to: "Part of Your World" from The Little Mermaid Soundtrack. Disney music is really good to work to actually! 

New Doodles, The Studly Jackson Browne, & More Jason Schwartzman References

[ My Jackson Browne doodle. (Click to enlarge.) ©Amy Hood ]

Here's my monthly doodle for our entertainment writers at The OC Gazette magazine. They covered NAMM 2011 this issue and Jackson Browne was one of the artists they got to see perform live, so I thought I'd sketch Jackson the month. I didn't have a pen, so this one is in pencil, but I think it's my best yet! What a handsome devil Browne is. Seeing him always reminds me of the movie Funny People and how Seth Rogen is always telling Jason Schwartzman's character who gets all the ladies, "we can't all look like Jackson Browne."

The weather has been so nice out. I think I'll hit the beach tomorrow then get some work in on my drawing for Neil's cd cover. I need to post some progress shots of that. Me and Jen are doing it together, which is kind of fun!

- Amy

Listening to: Crowded House's "In My Command"

[ Cheeseball smile. ]

Honest Abe's Moley Mug, Sketching All Nighters, & A Steady Diet of Coca Cola

Here's an oldie but goodie. Found this in my giant sketchbook from my college Beginning Drawing class while I was organizing my art corner this week. This was the first assignment we did in class so that the teacher could see where all us chillun' were at skill-wise. As with all college art classes at almost all colleges, this classroom was filled with the most hodgepodge, random group of still life objects to draw from. I have always found humans more interesting than your usual still life subjects (call me crazy, but plastic fruit just doesn't excite me), so I sat in front of a plaster bust of Ole' Honest Abe and got to sketchin'. This was the result - wonderfully long, moley and gaunt. (Perfect opportunity for a TWSS out there in the audience.)

Now it's back to work for me. I'm drawing my friend Neil. It's for use on his album cover for his band Four Years Later. I hope it turns out as cool as we plan. It's taking me a lot longer than I expected, as usual. I always under-time these things. So it looks like it'll be a healthy steady diet of Coca Cola, popcorn, Kit Kats and Red Vines to get me through the night. Ahhhhh... just like my old college days.

- Amy

Listening to: The Avett Brothers' "I And Love And You"

Painting Again, Jordan Sabolick, And The Oxymoron That Is Holiday Breaks

[Work In Progress: Portrait of Jordan Sabolick.]

Why is it that vacations always end up tiring you out more than a normal work week does? My "holiday break" would have been more aptly titled a "holiday exhaust-a-thon" I crammed so much into it. Between Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Dressember photoshoots, ugly Christmas sweater parties, forced family holiday fun time, the Lakers breaking my heart, my 21 and 23 year-old cousins from Texas visiting (and macking on 40 year-old ex 49ers cheerleaders), and New Year's Eve I haven't had time to stop. Which is just crazy seeing as I made time to eat 4 hearty meals a day under the excuse, "It's the holidays!" 

Today was the first day where I had a few hours strung together to actually relax and get started on my "Things To Work On Over Break" list. I can now check off item number 2: Start my next painting. (Thus the photo above tracking my progress so far.) I have so many photos of friends that I've accumulated that I want to paint, but I wanted to do another more simple one before I got started on the more complex ones I've got locked up in my secret files (more complex meaning: multiple subjects and intricate props and backgrounds). So I chose to start work on a portrait of my friend Jordan Sabolick. You might know Jordan as the guitarist for OC band The Union Line, the boyfriend of my lovely co-worker Blythe Hill, or from his former days as barista-extraordinaire at the Starbucks in Aliso Viejo. Those of you who do know Jordy know he's one of the nicest, funniest guys around. But that's not why I chose him for this project. No, my motives were much shallower than that my friends. I chose him because he exudes that "I'm in a band" look that one only gets when they're European or - well - in a band. I think he'll make a great addition to my "The Beatniks, The Bastards, And The Saints" series.

I'm really excited with how it's turning out so far. Blythe helped me take the photo of him that I'm painting from and we took it in really high contrast lighting to get some really amazing shadows. God willing and the creek don't rise, it's going to be a painting worthy of the Master of Shadows, Caravaggio himself.

Happy New Year to you all! Don't miss a FREE SHOW by Jordan's band The Union Line tomorrow night at 9pm with fellow local bands My Pet Saddle and Pacific Hurt. It's at the Detroit Bar in Costa Mesa, so it's 21+. Sorry kiddies.

- Amy

Listening to: The Union Line's "Time Is A Seed"

Pink Floyd, Flying Pig Illustrations, And TourBusLive.com

Yet another box doodle to add to Jill and Gary of TourBusLive.com's collection. My twin sis, Jen, and I always draw doodles on their magazine boxes because they are our favorite entertainment writers at The OC Gazette. Nevermind that they're our only entertainment writers, even if there were 100 more they'd still be my favorite. 

[ Pink Floyd back in the day. ]

They just recently covered Roger Water's resurrection of The Wall tour. When I say covered, I mean they went to ALL FOUR NIGHTS. I would have killed to go to one, but they went to all four AND sat front row. Lucky dogs. So, this month's box is graced with the shadowy silhouette of "Algie" the Pink Floyd pig. 

[ Pink Floyd's Animals Cover. ]

The original pig concept was drawn up by Waters himself in preparation/planning for the Animals album cover which would feature a giant helium filled pig balloon. During the photo-shoot the giant helium pig got loose causing cancelled flights at Heathrow Airport as it floated and bumbled in between flight patterns at 40,000 feet in the air. The pig then moved on to tour the English Channel before landing on a farm in Kent that night. I wish I could have seen that sight. The pig became a staple prop in Pink Floyd's live shows after that.  And that's your rock n' roll history for the day. I hope I remembered the story right so that I don't have angry Pink Floyd fanatics leaving hate comments on this post. Be kind Floydian fanatics.


- Amy
Listening to: Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here"

Circus Elephant Illustrations, Hilary Knight, and Where's Waldo

Here's a fun little illustration I did for the Kid's Coloring page in The OC Gazette magazine. It's kind of Eloise-y in style. I loved that book growing up. Hilary Knight's illustrations were so detailed with little jokes and hilarities hidden throughout for the critical eye. I like illustrations like that where even the background is carefully planned out. Kind of like a Where's Waldo. Another one of my favorite books growing up. My illustration isn't as clever or intricate, but I was only working with 30 minutes, so be merciful.

Inspiration of the day: Hilary Knight.

- Amy
Listening to: Johnny Cash's "I Got Stripes"

Pin-up Girls, Sore Neglect, and Ryan Adams

I have been sorely neglecting my blog. If this press week (or as we call it "hell week") ever ends at the magazine, I might be able to get back to my regular sleeping, eating and socializing schedules. Until then, enjoy this quick sketch I did the other day for my friend Philip of a vintage pin up style girl. She's a fox. I think I gave her midget legs accidentally. I must be projecting some buried resentment over my short stems. Off to work.

- Amy
Listening to: Ryan Adams' "In My Time of Need." Quite possibly one of the sweetest songs ever. Here's a fun live version.

Hamming It Up, Galoshes, And A Little Motorhead

Another throw back for you guys. These are some sketches that I did for my friend who was thinking of starting a production company called Badham about two or three years ago. Cool name, huh? The sketches are a little Dr. Suess-esque, which is fun.

It's raining cats and dogs outside. Blythe Hill, how did you convince me to participate in Dressember in such inclement weather!? Looks like I'm wearing galoshes with a dress tomorrow. Here are some pics from days 4 and 5 of Dressember.

[ Day 4 of Dressember ]

[ Day 5 of Dressember ]

[ I'm really diggin my new ankle cowboy boots. ]

- Amy
Listening to: Motorhead's "Ace of Spades"

Money, My Ugly Childhood, and Pink Floyd

 [ Love Of Money Is The Root Of All Evil, 8"x10", pencil, c. 2004 ]

To continue Throwback Week, here's another oldie but goodie from high school art class. This one I did at San Clemente High in Mr. Palmer or Mr. Delanty's art class. Honestly cannot remember which one. It's a drawing from a photo of me when I was about 9 or 10. I was counting my Christmas money from Granny. Look at that evil, greedy grin on my face. I look like the Grinch! And check out those pre-braces teeth! The bow on top of my head is what I think really makes the picture. I could see this being a Banksy stencil showing the greed and corruption of America even in it's supposedly innocent children. I am glad to say I went through my money-grubbing-gold-digging stage at an extremely young age and outgrew it VERY quickly. Now all I want [*cheeseball alert*] is a simple, happy life with the people I love. The title of this one is "Love of Money Is The Root of All Evil," but looking back I wish I had titled it "Keep Your Hands Off My Stack" or one of the other witty lines in Pink Floyd's classic song, "Money." You live and learn.

[ Detail. Click to enlarge. ]

[ Detail. Click to enlarge. ]

- Amy
Listening to: Pink Floyd's "Money."

Vintage Amy Art, Crazy Kentucky Skoolin', and Dressember

[ Poker With The Guys, 5"x7", pencil, c. 2002. Click to enlarge. This is drawn from an old photo I found of my Grandpa's from when he was growing up in Kansas during the Depression. ]

I know this blog is called "The Art and Musings of Amy Hood." I also know that there is probably a lot more musing than art-ing going on here. I plan to remedy this problem in the next week. While going through my art portfolio (a.k.a under my bed) trying to pick which pieces I wanted to show at tonight's art show, I hit the jackpot of old sketches and drawings. Most are from high school, all are funny. So get ready for some new old art! I dub this week "Throwback Week"


Here's one to start the week off strong. It's funny, in Kentucky they only required you to take a quarter of P.E. and a half a quarter of a quarter of art to graduate high school (on top of the usual math, social studies, science and english of course. Geez... we're not complete hicks). Yes, I said a quarter of a quarter. It was a part of a liberal arts catch all class that the freshies had to take that included dance, choir and something else. This is one of the first drawings I remember actually sitting down and taking the time to do for an assignement in said quarter of a quarter art class. It's also the first time I really realized for myself I was pretty good at art, and in a bigger way than the Homer Simpson doodles and cartoon caricatures that so impressed my classmates. This is when my childhood dreams of becoming an illustrator for Disney graduated to dreams of becoming a well rounded artist in the fashion of Michelangelo and DaVinci. (I was a pretty ambitious dreamer, obviously.) Now I still dream of being a well rounded artist, but more than anything I just want my art to speak to people (cliche alert). Really though, life is all about making connections. Art's just another way to do that.


Last but not least, It's Dressember! Dressember is like Hannakuh, except instead of a month of presents you get a month of dresses!  A plus for the fellas out there who know us ladies involved, a little less fortunate for us ladies seeing as the weather is feeling less like Orange County and more like upstate New York. You can read more about Dressember on Blythe Hill's blog. She's the inventive mind behind this fun idea. It's my second year doing it and we're two days in. Each day I'll post a photo of me freezing my arse off in a cute little dress. Here are Days 1 and 2. There's even a flickr group where you can see some of the ladies participating. Apparently Dressember has really taken the nation by storm.

[ Day 1 of Dressember. Dress: H&M, Braided Belt: Nordstrom, Tights: Betsy Johnson, and Shoes: Steve Madden.  ]

[ Day 2 of Dressember. Dress: Urban Outfitters, Shoes: Love D. ]

- Amy
Listening to: Jay Z's "Lost One"