I have added a new painting to the Illustration gallery, and it is my final oil painting from Spring semester 2011. Our task was to paint something related to the field of illustration that we think we may want to pursue. I’ve been thinking a lot about paper goods and… Read More »Owl painting
This year was my first time attending the Silver Kingdom Renaissance Festival, held at Ye Old Commons in Charlton, MA. The faire has been in business for six years now, and has a small following of about 500 attendants on average each year. Unfortunately, due to weather and perhaps bad… Read More »Review of the Silver Kingdom Renaissance Festival 2011
I love to sew, sew so much! Whenever I get spare time, I want to sew. This week, I had a little free time, and so in the past two days I’ve made two new things to wear to the Silver Kingdom Renaissance Festival. One is a 16th century blouse,… Read More »Summer Crafting Part IV: Sewing
Another part of my jewelry making endeavor has been to make necklaces out of recycled bottle caps. These youthful, one-of-a-kind necklaces are all for sale on my Etsy shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop/Shaunart I start with a bottle cap, currently all from alcoholic beverages. I clean them, and then fill them with pretty,… Read More »Summer Crafting Part III: Bottle Cap Necklaces
In preparation for the Silver Kingdom Renaissance Festival this June, I have been spending considerable time making jewelry by hand. I went to the library to look for ideas on things to make, when I stumbled upon a book on Celtic knot-work. I have always thought that knot-work is absolutely… Read More »Summer Crafting Part II: Celtic Knotwork
This summer I am going to be doing a lot of crafting, especially because I will be selling at a Renaissance Faire. To start the summer off, I have been making jewelry, and some of that jewelry has involved natural gemstones which are thought to have medicinal properties. The idea… Read More »Summer Crafting Part 1: Gemstone necklaces
For anyone who follows my costume work, the long awaited pictures from the Howl’s Moving Castle photoshoot are in. You can view the full shoot on my cosplay blog, here. I’ve also updated the Sophie Hatter costume page with more pictures.
To the 2011 graduating class of Burlington High School (MA), I am offering to hand-paint graduation caps for only $15 After a personal consultation with you, I will paint your name, and one accessory item that represents you on your graduation cap in water-proof, scratch-resistant acrylic paint. Are you a… Read More »BHS Graduation Special
Gah. I just had my wisdom teeth out, so I haven’t been able to do anything fun or productive for days. I’m starting to feel a little bit better, so here’s an update on my artistic life. I am all signed up to sell at a merchant booth at the Silver… Read More »Set to Sell at the Silver Kingdom Renaissance Festival, June 2011
Our newly formed cosplay group, Meta Cosplay, had a wonderful time being interviewed by Nerd Caliber . Watch the video below or follow the link to their site. To see more on my Sophie costume, visit the page!
Here is the first assignment from my oil painting class. Our task was to define an alter-ego for ourselves, and to paint our likeness on this fantasy identity. I decided that my alter-ego would be an exotic snake charmer, hiding from the dessert sun in her lavish arabian, or maybe… Read More »Alter-ego: The Snake Charmer
Graphite illustration from the Hunch Back of Notre Dame. Quasimodo has saved Esmerelda from being hanged, and brought her to the cathedral under the law of sanctuary. The Truands then charge the cathedral in an attempt to save Esmerelda. However Quasimodo thinks that they want to hurt Esmerelda, so he… Read More »Hunchback of Notre Dame
Went to Elizabeth park the other day and took some great pictures of flowers.
Last painting of the year from my Acrylics illustration class! I decided to take a more stylized route for this assignment, which was to include a turtle. It was an extremely open assignment, really. It could have to do with anything we wanted as long as there was a turtle… Read More »Turtle Rock
I have finally updated the page for my Sophie costume! It now has a costume description and pictures!! Though there are more pictures to come soon. I’m waiting to get photos back from our super cool photoshoot. 
When I have those pictures I will be sure to post them… Read More »Sophie Hatter Page Update
This is what we call a stock image. It’s a vague, metaphorical piece that could be applied to a number of projects. Painted with oil, this cheerful piggy bank is perfect for an add for savings accounts, or an article on financial growth. It could also be a an image… Read More »Stock Pig
Last figure from this latest batch of colored pencil figures that I’ve been posting. This one was done with a henna colored pencil on pearl paper with white for the highlights.
Here is another figure drawing done in burnt sienna colored pencil, with white and cream for the highlights. I also worked in some henna colored pencil where the light comes out of shadow to give the figure some life. It looked pretty lifeless with just burnt sienna.
Henna and white colored pencil on pearl paper. The henna colored pencil is a lot more pink than you might expect.
Drew from a model in class for a few days using colored pencil. We started out sketching the figure in graphite first, then we went over the drawing lightly with a dark colored pencil. The graphite was then erased and we proceeded to render the figure with both a dark… Read More »Colored pencil figure drawing
I really like how this Illustration came out. I knew that I wanted to paint sushi, but if I was going to spend fifty hours on a painting, it needed to be something really interesting and befitting of my unique sense of humor. So I just went for it. I… Read More »Fish People
Black and white pencil illustration of a scene from Jack and the Beanstalk. When Jack traded away his family’s last possession, a cow, for magic beans from a stranger, his mother, in anger, threw them out the window. The next day, Jack found that the beans had sprouted into a… Read More »Jack and the Beanstalk
This is a pencil drawing illustrating a scene from the story of Noah’s Arc. When the great biblical flood was over, it is written that God sent down a rainbow as a signal that he would never flood the earth again. This is the scene where Noah, his family, and… Read More »Noah’s Arc
My RA had a henna program. And I ended up drawing on everyone. 
Good time. Here’s what I drew on myself.
Here is the finished painting of my first project done in acrylic inks. I know I already posted the second one, but I had to wait for my professor to hand this one back before I could scan it. The assignment was to paint a part of my head as… Read More »Grape Hair
Hey now. This is the second published CD packaging that I have designed and illustrated. But this–technically an EP–is special, because it is the work of my little brother, Eric Leva. I get to say little because he is younger than me. Anyway, I’ll talk briefly about the music in… Read More »The Scheme Of Things -EP Available Now.
So hopefully you’ve already seen my centaur skeleton. If not you can take a look at it here. But this is the second half of that assignment of drawing mythical creatures. For this half, we had to put our creature in his or her natural environment. I decided to depict… Read More »Centaur part II
I completed this painting a few weeks ago, but didn’t post it on the web because it was a SURPRISE for my friend. You may have seen the black and white practice version posted here not long ago, but now, here is the totally separate color painting. This is the… Read More »Portrait of a Friend
This latest illustration was done using both transparent and opaque acrylic inks. Our assignment was to do an illustration of a “fade-away” figure, where an aspect of the figure blends into the background to create flat areas that contrast with rendered, round areas. At the beginning of the semester, I… Read More »Corseted Wallflower
The assignment was to choose a mythical animal, and draw what its skeleton would look like, pretending we were scientific illustrators for National Geographic or something. Being a Sagittarius myself, I choose the Centaur. It has a horse’s body, but where the horse’s neck begins, starts the pelvis of a… Read More »Centaur Part 1
I have another practice painting to post! This is the same self portrait of myself that I did monochromatically, but this time, I am using colored glazes to build up the painting. I started on a white gessoed board, and put in the darks with a thin layer of fairly… Read More »Oil Paint Practice Piece: Glazes.
I have taken some photos of my practice oil paintings for your entertainment. Before this class, I knew nothing at all about oil paint. And I am still very clueless, but at least not totally hopeless. We have been learning how to use the paint by doing a whole bunch… Read More »Learning Oils
My classes were really uneventful today. I learned how to use a proportion wheel this morning (easy & kind of boring because its fractions), my night class was cancelled, and in my afternoon class we learned how to draw horses. To help us draw them in proper perspective, we… Read More »What I did today
Hello everyone, I have decided to move my manga blog to one of my subdomains so that I can play around with editing options there. My manga blog is one that I almost never update, so I thought that it would be a safe way to try out something new.… Read More »Manga Blog Moved
Happy Valentine’s day. Thanks for reading. <3 First off, the poll results are in and the people want a mailing list. So I have created a mailing list. Now I want all those people to join the mailing list!!! I promise not to spam anyone. In fact, I will probably… Read More »Semester Update
The semester has just begun and we’ve already had so much snow that I’ve missed at least five classes, and today I will be missing more! Not that I don’t love snow days, I do. But they’ve been all lumped together which means that none of my classes have even… Read More »Excessive Snow-Days Have Halted Productivity.
Finally, my last project of 2010! Its a set of twelve Zodiac Pin-up girls. I have depicted each sign of the Zodiac (Prior to 2011) using a very specific format; each sign is personified with a pin-up girl who embodies some of the alleged characteristics of the sign. The girl… Read More »Zodiac Pin-up Girls
etzy listing Some of you have been waiting a long time for these to be put online! Well, here they are; a handmade deck of corset themed playing cards. Reproductions now available for sale! See the bottom of the post for details on purchasing a deck. A set of playing… Read More »Hand-Made Corset Playing Cards
Just completed a commission for a repeat client. It’s a drawing of a house, with a few light washes of watercolor over it. This painting was quick and inexpensive. If anyone needs a painting of a house, I would definitely take a commission like this again.
Here are the final figure drawings from this semester’s figure drawing class. I do like these two drawings because I was finally comfortable doing something a little different. I went back to conte for these last drawings because I have really enjoyed the range of values that I am able… Read More »Last Batch of Figure Drawings For A While
Two new digital paintings are up in the digital gallery. Both of these paintings were done in Photoshop using a Wacom tablet. Both paintings are composed of many layers which separate out the different elements in each painting, making it easy to make changes. The first painting is of my… Read More »Digital Paintings
I have a thing for dark humor. The painting below is my final watercolor piece of the fall semester, 2010. Our assignment was to do a painting where the main subject matter is an egg. That was the only requirement; other than containing an egg, the painting could be about… Read More »Eggs, Anyone?
Here is my first watercolor from this semester. I did not post it sooner because I was waiting to get it back from my professor so that I could scan it. Then winter break came along and I had all of this other work to post, and so this painting… Read More »Fruit Mice
The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health: The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads This blog is on fire!. Crunchy numbers A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 3,800… Read More »2010 in review
Here are some figure drawings done in monochromatic watercolor and ink wash! This first one is more of a portrait than a figure drawing like the ones you are used to seeing from me. But the model did not show up to class that day so we had to paint… Read More »Figure Drawing with Ink and Watercolor
Typically when you set out to draw something, you draw with a relatively short utensil, using your dominant hand. This is how everyone learns to draw, and it is what is most comfortable. But for these drawings we weren’t supposed to be comfortable. No, we were supposed to struggle and… Read More »Uncomfortably Drawing the Figure
I just finished my first real course in Digital Illustration. I learned how to create images in photoshop on my own over six years ago with the help of online tutorials, but this was my first time getting real face-to-face instructions on using the program. Fortunately most of the basics… Read More »New Digital Artwork!
Here is another batch of figure drawings from this semesters figure drawing class. The first few drawings in this lengthy post are done in pencil. I hadn’t used much pencil in this class before the midterm, and so I wanted to make sure that I got enough practice with pencil… Read More »Drawing the figure with pencil and charcoal
Ah! I’m finally home for winter break. Five eighths of the way done with college. This semester I took four studio classes and only one academic; that means that I have made a whole lot of work this year! Some of which still isn’t up on my site but I… Read More »What I learned this semester
I’m making the switch! I am finally switching web hosts. I have been with 1&1 web hosting for 6 years now, and they were great 6 years ago; they were even great 3 years ago back when customers could still insert their own HTML into the web builder. But ever… Read More »Big Changes On The Way