If you spend any time on Facebook I invite you to check out Tiny Tim’s Tiny Life He’s a wonderful little kitten who is very small for his age and comes from Northwest Animal Companions of Oregon. His lovely mother had a fundraiser to help kittens like Tim by selling artwork donated direct from his fans, with 100% of the proceeds going to the rescue. I contributed this print I did of Tim, which raised around $250 for the rescue! Thank you to all who took time to donate, and to those who purchased artwork!
Last summer I participated in a contest hosted by Modcloth to design a shirt for their Halloween merchandise! My design was selected and printed on a limited run of shirts! I also got to model some of their collection for Modcloth! Overall it was an amazing experience!
Recently I entered a contest for ModCloth to create some designs for Halloween apparel. I actually won! I came up with a few sketches with different themes, this particular one wasn’t the winner but my favorite. I will post my other sketches soon.
I’m almost at my two year anniversary of being single. My last boyfriend broke up with me because I found out he was cheating on me and didn’t like me not being OK with it. Truthfully I wasn’t that angry about it at the time. But last year I had a very close emotional relationship with someone afterwards that put me on a pedestal and then cut me down very swiftly. And a few years before that I had a very intense love for someone who rejected me that I won’t even begin to discuss. I felt like I just needed to get my rage out in a visual form.
This was the last thing my little $80 Wacom tablet did in its long life. It didn’t die, it still works. I just upgraded to an XP Pen with a screen. I am so much happier now!
Right before the world got scary and depressing I received a commission to create some promotional material for Hornady ammunition. Their HQ is near where I grew up and every year they have some competitive shooting matches that just happen to be zombie themed. And like most commissions there were some big specifics: I had to include the CEO and his son, his dog, a specific year make and model of tractor, cornfield, trophy on a tractor, and quote bubbles. Sound like a lot more stress than it was, this was actually pretty fun.
Unfortunately this event was cancelled, what a shame.
Every time, almost without fail, when I see an art contest involving something I care about I enter without hesitation. A few months ago Universal Monsters asked artists to come up a new classic monster. Obviously I didn’t win but I had a lot of fun creating my entry.
I picked up a few of my creepy books and did some research for inspiration and I came across the interesting tale of Rosalina Lombardo. She was a little girl born in 1918 and died at the age of 2. Her father was so distraught at her death that he had her immaculately embalmed. Over 100 years after her death and her body is still relatively intact and looks like she’s sleeping. Some locals believe that her eyes open and close during the day, making her an (un)living legend. It made me think “what about a ghost story where she’s sentient?” So I spun a short tale about a little girl who walks amongst the dead, longing for the love and affection of a family in the dusty catacombs. For this story I changed her name to Rosalina Lombardo.
Obviously my entry didn’t win but I had a lot of fun being creative.
I recently took a bit of a hiatus from illustration to focus more on my graphic design career. But I still managed to draw every now and again. Mostly the reason I haven’t uploaded anything and stayed off social media was because I just wasn’t happy with my work. I’ve spent a lot of time studying composition, color theory, and gathering inspiration because I’ve been obsessed with creating perfection. But starting this past year I just decided to draw whatever interests me and have fun again, and draw just to draw. I’ve done quite a few independent studies on subjects I like and experimentation and I think I’m ready to upload again. I think now I’m happy that I can proudly say “I don’t know about art but I know what I like!”
I could spend hours talking about Tiger King. But the one thing that really stood out to me was that Joe Exotic and Carole Baskin were such opposites, and yet two halves of the same coin. They really are two hateable people but at the same time so relatable. But I’ve always loved the artwork on playing cards and I think its so interesting how there are so many details hidden inside of the garments of the Kings and Queens and I’ve always wanted to take a shot at drawing my own suite. Also I love hiding tiny little details in all of my illustrations and I tried to cram in as many symbols and patterns relating to Joe & Carole’s narrative in Tiger King.
I’ve got a new Threadless design for my fellow Nebraskans, farmers, and hot rod enthusiasts out there. You can purchase this design on t-shirts, hoodies, baseball tees, bags and more at: https://laurafear.threadless.com/designs/corn-fueled-farmer
Miss Laura Fear 