This past Saturday I worked as an event consultant artist for TOMS Shoes Inc at Nordstroms at the Burlington Mall. I was there for three hours customizing costumer’s shoes. Myself and four other artists used markers and paint to draw patterns, flowers, animals, and all other manner of images on… Read More »Pics from TOMS Shoes Event
I have signed a lease on my very own studio space! Located at #527 Western Avenue Studios, 122 WesternAvenue, Lowell, MA 01851, I have 230 square feet of work and retail space all to myself! I start the move in process this week, and hope to have the place open… Read More »Introducing Shaunart Studios!
I will be at Nordstroms at the Burlington Mall (Ma) tomorrow from 1-4 for a TOMS shoes “Style Your Sole” event. Purchase a pair of TOMS shoes from Nordstroms, and have them decorated by a local artist! Honestly, they didn’t give me any more details than that, so you’re going… Read More »Reminder: TOMS Shoe Event at the Burlington Mall
After spending Spring break 2012 in Sicily as part of a travel & art class at University of Hartford, I came back to the United States ready to make artwork about what struck me most during my time abroad. I am extremely proud of these three paintings. They can be… Read More »Series of Sicily
I made some new standard banner and half banners to match my current website theme and logo. If you have a website of your own, and would like to trade advertising, please, take a banner and send me an email with a banner of your own. Serious (creative & relevant)… Read More »New Banners
Yesterday I attended a pointe class at ‘The Studio, A Dance Center for Adults’ in Brookline, MA. A friend of mine takes classes there, and she was able to arrange for me to come into a class with my camera to get some reference for a possible future body of… Read More »A Fly on the Wall: The Ballet Edition
Have you ever wanted to learn how to draw your own manga? Are you a young artist age 9 & up? Well you are in luck, because I have been hired to teach a how-to-draw manga three day workshop at Artworks in2shades, located at 11 Salem St, Medford, MA 02155.… Read More »How to Draw “Manga, Manga, & More Manga” Workshop at Artworks in2shades. Aug 7,8,9
Last painting done for my senior thesis! This one is of two modern dancers whom I photographed at the University of Hartford Hartt School. They were a joy to photograph, and provided my camera with all sorts of elegant and gravity defying shots. I chose to paint this particular pose… Read More »Modern Dancers
I had such a wonderful time today at Granite State Comic Con! Everyone I met was really friendly, and the con was refreshingly small. You can read my entire review of the convention here: http://shaunartcosplay.wordpress.com/2012/06/10/review-of-granite-state-comic-con/ on my cosplay blog. If you are just visiting my site for the first time, as… Read More »Granite State Comic Con 2
Hey Everyone! Earlier in the week i announced that I will be exhibiting at the Granite State Comicon Artists Alley this Sunday, June 10th, 700 Elm Street, Radisson Center – Manchester, NH The convention is a one-day event, and runs from 10am – 6pm. The artist’s alley opens at 10… Read More »Granite State Comic Con
Great news, mobile users! I have finally found (someone has finally made) a free html5 embedded flicker sideshow widget. That means that all of my work can now be viewed on the website from your iPad! No more telling my visitors to go to flickr to view my stuff on… Read More »New Gallery Slideshows in HTML5
Yesterday I participated in the Mother to Mother annual community yard sale at the Memorial school in Burlington, Ma. Participation is open to the community and the purpose of the event is to draw more traffic to local treasure sellers by combining a bunch of smaller yard sales into a… Read More »Great Yard Sale Finds
Hey readers, I finally had a little bit of time to populate my Etsy shop again this evening! I am trying to clean out some old inventory, as well as get around to selling items that I have never listed before. There are many more items on the way, but… Read More »Etsy Shop is Back
Another painting from senior year that fits with my thesis on art for the theatre, this is a retro-styled poster for the musical Chicago. Here I am show-casing the main character, Roxie Hart. I wanted to add several elements from the musical, such as the stage, and Chicago night life… Read More »Chicago Poster
Part of my senior thesis project was to do a series of three. I chose to do a series of three portraits, of three women, in three different modes of costume, interacting with three different classifications of animals. The first portrait is of a woman in a tradition costume. A… Read More »Portraiture
This painting is more concept art, but this time for the musical “Into the Woods.” This musical, if you haven’t seen it before, takes all of Grimm’s Fairy Tales and combines them into one great big story. Cinderella is a major character in the play, and as you know, her… Read More »Cinderella
I addition to keeping a sketch book while in Sicily, I also did a lot of sketching in watercolor. Sometimes a camera just doesn’t capture the full experience. When a camera takes a picture, the lighting is always a little different from what the eye is seeing. A camera focuses… Read More »Field Watercolors from Sicily
So, as my frequent readers know, I went to Sicily over my last spring break as part of a course at the University of Hartford. But because my semester was so crazy, I never got a chance to post my sketch book from the trip. Here, finally, are my best… Read More »Sketch book from Sicily
For the next few weeks I will be blogging about the individual pieces that made up my senior exhibition. In no particular order, I would like to start with this re-imagining of Audrey II, the monster from the musical ‘Little Shop of Horrors.’ For my senior project I choose to… Read More »Little Shop
Two weekends ago my classmates and I celebrated the culmination of our art education with our senior exhibition. Our show was titled Vignettes, which represented the different worlds each of our work peered into, but also how unified the work because under one consistent method of presentation. In order to… Read More »Senior Show was a Great Success!
I know it doesn’t look like much right now, but there is my senior show, all packed up in the corner of my dorm room, ready to be installed in the gallery next Thursday! The end of the semester is almost here and my senior exhibition is the culmination of… Read More »Senior Show in One Week!
These old men outside of the Market in Catania, Sicily who decided to sing for our tour group.
Hey! You know what’s cool and exciting? I am helping to design the costumes for CONNetic Dance’s upcoming production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream! CONNetic Dance is a ballet company based in Hartford, CT and their show this June is a steampunk rendition of the Shakespearean classic. The set designer… Read More »Costume Consultant for Connetic Dance!
I have new Business Cards! Check it out. I will be handing them out at my Senior Thesis Show on May 5th.
Vignettes The Hartford Art School Illustration BFA Thesis Exhibition What: The senior illustration class at the Hartford Art School is pleased to announce Vignettes: The Hartford Art School Illustration BFA Thesis Exhibition. Featuring artwork by Mike Russo, Shauna Leva, Marissa Madonna, Lauren Moran, Jacob Aronow, Kristen Nawoschik, David Fiondella,… Read More »Vignettes Press Release
My department’s Senior show ‘Vignettes’ is only 32 days away! Ah!! I still have so much work to do! But despite all of the stress, I am really excited for the show and for graduation. I know that everyone’s work is going to look fantastic, and I think that all… Read More »Show card and Flyer for Senior Exhibition!
I just got back from an Amazing ten day working vacation in Sicily. I went on this trip as part of a Travel & Art class here at the University of Hartford Art school. Students could apply for the course for a chance to learn about field sketching while traveling… Read More »Spring Break in Sicily!
The other day in a fit of inspiration, I set about the task of redesigning my website. This semester I’ve been learning a lot about branding myself as an artist, and one of my goals for the semester is to create a cohesive package of promotional materials which include website,… Read More »New Website Launch
Hi World, You can blame the total lack of updates over the past month on my final semester of college. Though this is a very exciting time, it is also an incredibly busy one. At least you can look can look forward to a lot of new work in May.… Read More »Quick check in.
Hey everyone, it’s been way too long since my last blog post! I am back in school for my final semester!! The past month has been really crazy; I had to get my senior project all figured out as well as all sorts of preparations for graduation, but now my… Read More »Preparing for Sicily: Field Sketches at Trinity College
My first sewing project of winter break was this adventure pouch iPad sleeve. I bought myself an iPad for my birthday, and though it was no problem finding a protective flip-cover thing, I was having a really hard time finding a sleeve for my iPad that I liked, could afford,… Read More »Adventure Pouch ipad sleeve & device organizer
As my frequent readers know, this past semester I took three independent studies which focused on the adornment and modification of the human body. One independent study was a psychology class, one was a makeup and wigcraft class, and the other was an art studio course. In this studio course… Read More »Body Modification Animation
This post is to highlight a little project that I threw together at the last minute for my musician brother. He put out a new single titled “The New Year” this week, and the graphic that we collaboratively constructed is below. Nothing too special or complicated; this happened in about… Read More »The New Year
I had a great time today visiting the high school, seeing old friends & teachers, and presenting my work & experiences to the art students still there. If any of you students have any further questions about illustration, crafting, costuming, art school, or anything else, please feel free to email… Read More »Thanks BHS for Having Me at Artist Alumni Day.
This post is a continuation of yesterday’s article on the two paintings from a book illustration class that I completed this semester. For background on the class and the story, please go read my previous post! Today I have the second painting, which happens to be the last full-page spread… Read More »…Dear Liza, Dear Liza
First post of 2012, and its for a new illustration, just uploaded from the end of the semester. This painting, and another which are now featured in the illustration galleries, are the fruit of the book illustration class that I have recently completed. In the course, we learned about everything… Read More »There’s a Hole in the Bucket….
Web design is one of those hobbies that gives me just as many headaches as it does feelings of accomplishment. Sure, I am proud of all the things that I have taught myself about building a website over the years, but there are still so many things that I have… Read More »Web design updates & Blog Posts on the Homepage
Okay! Now that the Holidays are over, and my internet connection restored, I can get back to updating my site and this blog. Here we have my last painting for the advertising illustration class that I finished this past semester. Our assignment was to design an album cover. Now, album… Read More »Fire-breathing Dragon in Space
Here at school I don’t have access to stock piles of gift wrap, ribbon, and tags like I do at home. Instead, I had to get creative for a pre-holiday gift or two. I did some research online to see how others mad unique, but totally on-the-spot gift wrap before… Read More »Resourceful Gift Wrap
Right now I am sitting in my studio taking a short break from painting. The semester is coming to an end but because of all of the interruptions to my work and the work of my classmates, we all have a lot of of work to get done by the… Read More »Exactly two weeks until the semester ends!
Musician and little brother Eric Leva has just released a new Holiday EP, available for free as a download when you sign up for his mailing list. The album artwork for this EP, available only in digital form, was created by yours truly. This painting was executed from start to… Read More »Album Art for Eric Leva’s Holiday EP
Whoa! November just flew by, didn’t it!? I haven’t posted in forever, and for that I apologize; it has been such a busy month. Finally, I have a new painting ready to show. This illustration was done as a special project in our illustration department at school. Every year, the… Read More »Summer Term Cover Contest Illustration
I haven’t gotten to carve a jack-o-lantern in years! Being in College for Halloween every year makes it tough to find the time, the space, the supplies, and a place that allows candles to even show off the pumpkin. But because of the power outages in CT, I got to… Read More »My Jack-o-lantern
Ah, the first snowfall of the season! Who would have thought that it would be such a major storm? As I sit under the threat of loosing my power at any moment, I would like to get in a blog post while I still can. I have for you today,… Read More »A Reindeer Painting to Welcome This Winter Weather
Today I was a figure model for a freshman foundation drawing class here at the Hartford Art School. I was asked by one of my professors, who also teaches this drawing class, if I would be willing to model one of my more frilly costumes for her students to delineate… Read More »I was a figure model today
Yesterday I dressed up for a “Zombie Prom” on campus. It is essentially a Zombie themed dance. There are lots of Zombie-themed events these days, and with Halloween only a week away we all have yet another reason to look like a Zombie! In this post, I am going to… Read More »Quick & Easy Zombie Costume
Today I went on a field trip to the Norman Rockwell Museum out in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. I really love how beautiful everything out there is. The landscape is filled with mountains, farms, and beautiful colored leaves. Fall is my favorite season, and I thought that I would post a few… Read More »A little bit of Fall in Stockbridge, MA
This week in makeup class I learned how to make safe-to-eat wounds using Gelatin and a few other house-hold items! Below I’ve provided a tutorial so that you can make these disgusting edible make-up props as well! Just in time for Halloween, too. What you’ll need: One box of clear,… Read More »Edible Gelatin Wounds! Just in time for Halloween.
I am happy to announce that I am a newly accepted member of the EtsyBloggers team! They are a group of nice people who both sell things on Etsy, and love to blog about their craft. In celebration of my acceptant to this group, I will be writing a little… Read More »I am an EtsyBlogger
This weekend I will be attending New York Comic Con for the first time. I will be representing Nerd Caliber as cosplay correspondant, and will be conducting video interviews all weekend. I also plan to take tons of pictures and, as always, write a detailed review of my experiences for… Read More »New York Comic Con. This Weekend.