The Start of Wandering

Click either photo to read more about this drawing.

Click either photo to read more about this drawing.

It’s time I got back outside more to art. The last year and a half was a lot of indoors and digital work, time to flip the switch.

Instinct Blues

Been feeling a lot of chaotic energy lately. Was needing an outlet in some energetic lines so I looked to the last scene of Keaton’s Battling Butler to satisfy my urge.

Been a very long time since I’ve approached line work like this. I feel like I’ll need more of it to get this cabin fever knocked out.

artist Lauren Elyse S. battling butler series 5.JPG

Hedonistic Delights

Detail: Flower in a current work in progress commission.

Detail: Flower in a current work in progress commission.

Detail: Flower in a current work in progress commission.

Detail: Flower in a current work in progress commission.

There’s something distinctly sensual about working with paint. I think it has a lot to do with its lush fluidity. To be a painter, it is my opinion, you're usually some shade of hedonistic.

There's near nothing - for me - more pleasurable than a flower rendered in oils in luxurious strokes. I like to paint my flowers in one pass rather than layered with drying time in between - linseed oil added for that extra gloss and movement. For me it creates a more energetic feel when swipes of paint slide through one another, catch and meld to bring out a subtle color blend, and in the wake leaves the high relief and impression of my brush's intentional path. It's definitely trickier to prevent colors from muddling in this approach, but the reward is that of a painted flower vibrating a bit more on the canvas. Though more punishing in practice, I love a little chaotic, purposeful energy distilled into pigment, worked through to figured petal and leaf.

Detail: “Other People’s Lives” oil on canvas.

Detail: “Other People’s Lives” oil on canvas.

Detail: “Other People’s Lives” oil on canvas.

Detail: “Other People’s Lives” oil on canvas.

c u r r e n t l y

Leave it to me to injure my arm at the start of a pandemic. My roll has been significantly (and frustratingly) slowed because of it, but I’m still trying to find time to create where I’m able. Yesterday was a sketch of my hands from an old photo, when times where good and nothing hurt. So, things and stuff as ever. & thank you to everyone who has contacted me about commissions. It’s amazing to have your support through this time when all creatives like myself’s careers are pretty much royally effed. It’s like 2008 on repeat but with much higher stakes. Be safe and sane, magical people. & please stay home.

HI!

Digital, 2020. Lauren Elyse S.

Digital, 2020. Lauren Elyse S.

Well, what an odyssey, eh? (This sentence applies to absolutely everything right now.)

Got locked out of my work email and websites for the past month. Sorted and now currently looking forward to Someday.

Did about ten different versions of this one because I can’t tell my mood as of late (read: it’s been shifting every hour). Please keep yourselves healthy, sane, and considerate of what’s needed for us to all get through this.

LA > Chi Town > Philly & Back Again

Recently found myself on a train rolling back and forth across the country, so of course I had to document it the best way I know how.

I can’t even begin to describe how difficult it is to sketch while being steadily jostled on a train for hours on end.

Click any image to enlarge.