Sarah Dungan

2011-12-21T21:32:00.000-08:00

Happy Holidays!

2011-12-19T22:43:00.001-08:00

Been busy oh so busy. Sketches done on the plane travelling for the holidays. One of those little bitty no one is beside me but my seat is the size of a folding chair planes...my overhead light didn't work so I had to resort to the laptop wedging myself in with the wacom tablet. I had to keep moving so the stewardess could fit past me in the aisle...

2011-10-23T18:05:00.001-07:00

Another sunday evening at the Berkeley Botanical Garden. Manzanita has the best bark ever.

2011-10-17T21:12:00.000-07:00

Tiny 5 minute warm up for the day.

2011-10-10T16:20:00.000-07:00

Sneak preview of some of the new art for the Steamcon Seattle show this weekend. I'm pretty pleased with it so far. Steamcon will be at the Hyatt Regency Bellevue this coming weekend, if you're in Seattle and like Jules Verne you should stop by!

2011-10-04T01:49:00.000-07:00

Thumbnails for some posters for Steamcon (in two weeks, so much do!) I've slowly gotten to the point where the color thumbnails are my favorite part of the whole process. I could just sit and do these for days. I used to be so in love with line work, but I've drifted off in the opposite direction lately.

2011-10-03T00:58:00.001-07:00

Little sketchbook pages done at APE this weekend. I brought my super limited 4 grey tone set of copic markers. And there was a handy white prismacolor pencil lurking at the bottom of the pencil box.

2011-09-29T00:58:00.000-07:00

Some sketches for the new piece I'm trying my darnest to finish for APE this weekend. You've seen the long ago and far away color thumbnails for this particular piece way back in THIS POST from 2009. Some ideas get better with age ;-)

2011-09-25T13:39:00.000-07:00

Linoleum cut tiny cards. With shiny new packaging (I'm easily amused by these things). Gonna try and do/post more traditional work from now on. The more I work at the computer the more I want to just go back to making things by hand no matter how clean and easy the computer makes it.

2011-09-21T21:01:00.000-07:00

Busy busy. Not much besides things for work and things for shows, so here's something I did a bit ago that I have permission to show now! T-shirt design for http://museumofrobots.com/ - it should be available in stores near you soon! (as long as they have good taste ;-)

2011-09-11T02:47:00.000-07:00

Another warm up sketch, this time a 1930's style swim suit pin up.

2011-09-07T02:06:00.000-07:00

Revisiting the Wolf and the Woodsman characters as a warm up today.

2011-08-27T03:03:00.000-07:00

Character sketches from a short story by Ursula Vernon. I'm not really satisfied with the grandmother, Some reworking in the future I think. You can read it on her blog and figure out how you feel I did - Part 1 & Part 2.

2011-08-21T19:55:00.000-07:00

Silly warm up sketch. Return of..uhm...that girl with the boots...

2011-08-17T22:56:00.000-07:00

More 'secret project' sketches.

2011-08-16T22:31:00.000-07:00

Been doing an exercise lately where I take people I've drawn stylized in illustrations and try to translate them to a more realistic style. Trying to recognize some things I fall back on too often, and bad habits I have when drawing.

2011-07-22T02:50:00.000-07:00

And now, something totally different. Just a quick painting from a photo for the sake of practice. I was feeling like I needed to take a bit to really focus on the face and the relationship between all the forms. You can probably find this photo on the internet if you want to see how you think I managed ;-)

2011-07-21T00:39:00.000-07:00

More 'secret' project stuff...with some lady over there on the right who is totally unrelated.

2011-07-16T01:20:00.000-07:00

Sketch for a 'secret' project (so secret that I post the very first sketches on the internet), and some design work for a 3 color linoleum print that will be a follow up to this. Because for some reason, doing something easy that I've done before doesn't appeal as much as doing something I know will be really hard and frustrating...

Remember folks, don't bring a cupcake to a swordfight.

2011-07-13T21:32:00.000-07:00

2011-06-29T00:06:00.000-07:00

A few of the little 5X7 paintings I did for the gallery show hanging right now at Blow Salon in Berkeley. These happen to be my favorites, maybe sometime later I'll post the other 4.

2011-06-22T21:35:00.000-07:00

Designs for some paintings that were going to be in the gallery show that opens this weekend, then ended up not being. They sort of expanded into maybe something else. We'll see.

2011-06-20T23:56:00.001-07:00

Self explanatory.

2011-06-12T15:10:00.000-07:00

More chickens. And a cowboy.

2011-06-11T01:52:00.000-07:00

I'll be honest, I've been kind of wanting to draw chickens since I passed a couple on the street on the way to the farmers market this week (no lie, nice big lovely looking chickens bustling down the sidewalk in Berkeley). So many other things I should be working on, and I'm sitting drawing chickens.

2011-05-31T12:45:00.000-07:00

After a memorial day spend cleaning and rearranging my desk and installing drivers and updates and more updates and wondering why the new scanner/printer machine refused to initialize....I have a working scanner again! Flowers from the Berkeley Botanical garden at Tilden Park.

2011-05-19T12:57:00.000-07:00

Random assortment of sketches for various projects. My scanner has decided its no longer on speaking terms with my computer so while that works out, its all digital all the time.

Happy Mothers' Day

2011-05-08T12:38:00.000-07:00

A picture of a memory, for my mom. When I was a kid I used to beg her to draw me. I was completely fascinated by the whole process, and by the final, and by the magical-fantastic-ness of it. I would (or did, in this instance at least) add props to make what I considered an interesting set up for my mom to look at, so I put a stuffed bunny in my lap and posed and wanted my portrait drawn. In a teal nightgown, in the dining room.

Happy Mothers' Day!

2011-05-01T18:54:00.000-07:00

More nice weather, more time in the park, more quick house painting. I couldn't get over the little awnings.

2011-04-30T21:14:00.000-07:00

Afternoon in the park, across from a teal house with lavender trim. Actually I think my teal paint doesn't quite do it justice - it was a pretty vivid house. I was meant to be working on something else, but this happened instead.

2011-04-26T21:22:00.000-07:00

Just coloring a sketch from last week, really quickly. It hardly deserves its own post bit I'm giving it one anyway. Same girl, same dress, new hat.

2011-04-13T01:34:00.000-07:00

Not happy with it, finished it anyway. Kind of artist-block-ish these past few days. To many big ideas not enough brain power to work out the details.

2011-04-11T01:15:00.000-07:00

Just another little page of sketches. Mostly for the joy of sketching anything at all that isn't for work. Yay small burst of free tim!

2011-04-06T15:15:00.000-07:00

In case you wondered how they came out. Saving the auto-repair idea for another day, and a more rural robot set (you know, after the city bots you have the country bots).

2011-03-27T23:45:00.000-07:00

Another rare moment of posting proper 'work' work here, because I was terribly excited to get to do this one. Poster for the RoboGames, which will be in San Mateo April 15-17. Super neat competitions where robots compete in all sorts of tasks including bar tending. Check them out!

2011-03-14T19:34:00.000-07:00

The robots never end. Thumbnails for more letterpress cards. Only 3 of them get to go on to press.

2011-02-24T01:14:00.000-08:00

You'll probably see this again after the blocks arrive and its printed and I feel all accomplished. In the mean time, I need to figure out why I can only seem to do decent inking in the middle of the night. I'm getting to old to stay up all night playing with pens.

2011-02-16T12:46:00.000-08:00

Preview of some designs for a letterpress 'secret project'. Yes I know if I put it here its not secret but honestly its the only personal work I've got going on this week, and I'm to pleased with it not to put it up somewhere.

2011-02-07T21:53:00.000-08:00

Back to only having time for quick sketches and messing around with color in photoshop.

2011-02-02T16:17:00.000-08:00

Working on the layout for a painting for a friend, illustrating a short story she wrote. I finished this shetch and was struck with a sudden conviction that I had accidentally copied the cover of Craig Thompson's 'Blankets'. I had to go check to make sure. Apparently I'm not actually subconsciously duplicating the cover illustration, phew.

2011-01-11T17:28:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year. I'm back from holiday travels, thinking about how much I missed my Really Big Monitor while I was gone, trying to work on my laptop. So, in honor of the new year - another topless girl warm up sketch.

2010-12-27T20:26:00.000-08:00

Christmas present for some dear people, printed on cotton-linen fabric and made into tea towels. The color is digital but I was having the worst time trying to draw on my laptop, with my little travel tablet, and I ended up just drawing and inking them all on paper and borrowing a scanner.

Happy Holidays!

2010-12-05T13:41:00.000-08:00

This years holiday card - lino cut two color blocks. Printed this time with a itty bitty press. Not a spoon. Sorry spoon.

2010-11-24T20:59:00.000-08:00

Topless girl says Happy Thanksgiving! Enjoy your pie!

2010-11-22T01:09:00.000-08:00

SteamCon art show revealed. Sometimes I think I might someday stop being ludicrously amused by drawing robots, but so far no end is in site. I will never stop being amused by drawing cowboys. And just this moment I had an interesting (in hind site obvious) realization about why the bottom two shown here are better then the top two, and how I dropped the ball by focusing too much on mirroring a genre cliche. But, live and learn.

2010-11-15T14:02:00.000-08:00

Sneak preview of the centerpiece of my bit of the Steamcon II art exhibition. I may not get any sleep between now and then, but I really like the way this poster came out so at least I'll have something to show for it. Its off being printed REALLY BIG. Numbered edition 11X17 prints will be available, but only 10, and only leftovers will make it to Etsy so your only chance might be at the con!

2010-11-07T16:01:00.000-08:00

Late on the uptake, since these were sold last night. Purcasso is a yearly art auction held to benefit the East Bay SPCA - which suffered a devastating fire this past summer and need the funds more then ever this year. Mostly, this post is so my mum can see them, since they are my cats, doing silly things.

2010-10-30T14:25:00.000-07:00

Tried to post this last week from an airport and the airport free wifi wouldn't let me upload images. Darn Denver airport. At least the wifi was free - Chicago-Midway wanted me to pay for it. This one has been a long time in the works, posted a sketch for it back in January.

2010-09-28T14:49:00.001-07:00

For a while now when I sketch landscapes or stuff in museums, I've been trying to use a brush pen. Mike D once told me that he thought sketching in pen forced you to make more informed decisions about where you were putting your lines. I think he's totally right - it makes me really look at the size and space relations of something first, rather then just searching for them with lots of sketchy lines. When I have pencil (or an undo command) I have a tendency to just flail around with lines until they become what I want - putting a line where I want it the first time is much harder.

2010-09-19T20:09:00.000-07:00

Linoleum block print cards done (mostly very late at night/early in the morning) for a street fair that happened today. The first is a single block, the second is two blocks printed separately. With no overlapping pieces to line up, the 2 colors went pretty quickly compared to last Decembers 3 color madness.

2010-09-11T12:56:00.000-07:00

I took a bit of time late last night to try to get a handle on the new Photoshop CS5 paintbrushes. I got CS5 last week, by necessity rather then choice, as my version stopped working with my new laptops OS. On the bright side, I'm getting pretty fond of the new paint brushes, they felt a lot more like I was doing this in Painter, then PS ever has before.

2010-06-23T13:21:00.000-07:00

Sketches for a personal project that, thankfully, doesn't need finishing until November. There are a bunch of other layout sketches, but so far this one is winning the good design award.

2010-05-25T20:54:00.000-07:00

More sketches, to prove my existence. Some rejected ideas for clients, and some things drawn in the margins of other more paid for things. Can you guess which is which?

2010-05-04T23:14:00.000-07:00

A page of sketches just to prove I still exist. Been busy, and stressed, and busy. Now I have my life back sort of a little, and ideally I'll finish some more personal work soon. I hope to have at least one new print for Maker Faire this year.

In the mean time, here's a marketing image for a project I worked on over the holidays. Its a cute iphone app for building stories and photo albums and sharing them. I even designed that darned font from scratch! We were featured recently on the itunes app store's front page, which is pretty awesome.

2010-03-28T17:10:00.000-07:00

Part of a trade with a fiber artist for some hand spun yarn, yay! I actually like the idea enough that I might use it as a basis for a new series of robot prints - letterpress or lino-block. (I admit the thought of carving all those tiny details out of linoleum makes me a little more likely to want to do letterpress!)

2010-01-30T13:21:00.001-08:00

I know I know, its just a sketch and worse its a sketch I've posted in earlier stages ALREADY.

But there's a lot to work on these days, and I don't know when I'll finish this last of the Robot Propaganda posters. And they've been getting a lot of love lately, so I thought I'd prove that there IS a third in the works.

Pirates, Arrrr!

2010-01-16T13:51:00.000-08:00

Work stuff so very rarely sneaks onto this blog, but these were fun. These are my favorites from a bunch of characters I did for a Facebook Game - Pirates Revenge. They're all parodies of pirate stereotypes and names. Lots of fun!

Happy 2010

2010-01-12T15:11:00.000-08:00

Happy New year! Not much sketching what with work and the holidays, and still busy busy. But I like this one.
I found a new favorite PS brush for sketching. Makes me feel like I'm using a nice fat marker.

Happy Holidays

2009-12-12T18:22:00.001-08:00

Linoleum block print card for the holidays. 3 colors, 3 blocks, hours of fun ;-)

2009-12-05T19:18:00.000-08:00

Sorry neglected sketch blog. Its been all work or sculpture lately. Have a granny sketch to hold you over...design sketch for an illustration I'm 'working on'. Working on means started and set aside to do a whole lot of other stuff. Ah well.

2009-11-02T15:30:00.000-08:00

Some watercolor pieces I did a few weeks ago for a Steampunk event in Seattle. The originals for the top and bottom pieces are still available for sale if anyone's interested ;-) I'm really very pleased with the octopus jar table...and I think I want it in my living room.

2009-10-19T18:15:00.000-07:00

Finished last week for APE and then...I forgot to post it here. Oops! The fight for robot equality continues.

2009-09-20T12:53:00.000-07:00

Now I have stacks and stacks of letterpressed cards that need to be paired with envelopes and shoved into clear sealable bags. ;-)

Weekly Robot #11 - or is it?

2009-09-12T19:24:00.000-07:00

I spent all my free time last week getting these all set. They're being letterpressed next week for high end greeting cards that I will be shopping around to gallery shops and the like. They'll also be available in my Etsy shop of course. Forcing myself to use only 3 colors is hard!

2009-08-30T03:45:00.000-07:00

I'm not incredibly happy with either sketch, but the point was more to make myself do something with markers that was more then just a doodle of a persons head. I never used to sketch with markers - I blame Mike D who is the sharpie-Master. He's right I think, its a good exercise for making you consider and plan your lines.

Weekly Robot #10 - cheating

2009-08-17T13:11:00.000-07:00

Its a robot...it counts! Still learning to paint with Photoshop, even included a little row of 'progress' images to give myself an idea of how to work on my process. This was a short painting for a little 'flash collaboration' experiment, in which I did an image, and a writer did a vignette about it all in one weekend. It and other related things are up at the LJ community 2xCreative.

2009-08-14T23:03:00.000-07:00

My mom was sad that I hadn't updated my blog recently. Here you go mom! Its...that guy...from a few posts back - in a different style.

2009-07-31T18:55:00.000-07:00

Seems like I've become occupied with lots of larger scale projects in my spare time lately, less sketching and personal illustration. So I imagine the long spaces of silence may continue.

2009-07-09T02:24:00.000-07:00

To cheer up a friend who was down today.
Some people have expressed their disappointment that the page in my second book that has Him and Her is not followed by the inevitable next step...well here you go!

2009-07-07T01:33:00.000-07:00

Self portrait for photoshop practice and sort of 'art detox' heh.

The Not-so-Weekly Robot #11

2009-07-05T12:17:00.001-07:00

Background fail. And also, its been what, 2 months? Apparently its no longer even kind of weekly. And now that I think about it, #11 is really just #9 in color...

So here's a bonus set of color thumbnails for red coat girl stuff. Mostly because I like them, even if they are just little thumbnails.

2009-06-29T16:22:00.000-07:00

A bunch of sketches done on the same page of yellowy-brown color in Painter. It was just, the last canvas color I used apparently. Started just trying to remind myself of more realistic facial structure - I am still really bad at eyes.

And a thumbnail that was original for a Red Coat girl picture for a theme 'hidden garden'. But its clearly gone somewhere else instead.
Then I just went and fooled around with clear simple shapes of flat color, which is something I've always been not that good at. I rely very heavily on outlines most of the time, so you know, practice.

The robots will be back next time. And someday maybe I'll finish something beyond the level of 'sketch'...someday...

2009-06-09T19:29:00.000-07:00

Because I have nothing new finished, and am still a bit exhausted from the whirlwind that became of last month here's a bit of process. Color studies, thumbnails, sketches and bits. I usually do a fair number of such things before I do something complicated. These are prep for some more 'red coat girl' images. The top study is pretty close to the feel I want with the colors and light I think.

Look its NOT ROBOTS!

Weekly Robot.... #10?

2009-05-19T21:00:00.001-07:00

Join the Revolution.

Weekly Robot # 9... sort of

2009-05-07T15:14:00.001-07:00

Actually this is musing for a potential series for some letterpress cards. Sort of some kind of cross between robots, those victorian adverts for useless household items, and Norman Rockwell...

Robot redux

2009-04-17T00:51:00.001-07:00

Updated - I don't think I made it better, just...more rendered. But I think it might be time to let it go...

Previously...

I was trying to approach color from some other more interesting direction...but I just made mess. I'll fix it at some point. Suggestions are welcome. The point was to try and generate a more complete color palette. I tend to approach things from a "this will be green and this will be red and this will be..." stand point, and I tend to use simple palettes and flat shading - probably animation being so firmly entrenched in my brain. Anyway, its all mud now. Oops. At least its a robot in color.

Weekly Robot #9

2009-04-13T15:27:00.000-07:00

Gardening spider-robots. What ever happened to nice color pictures of robots, you want to know? They'll be back, as usualy I got distracted by a few million other projects. Apparently I am only capable of weekly consistency for about a month and a half.

Weekly Robot #8

2009-03-19T02:27:00.000-07:00

In an attempt to catch up, this is sort of a cheap two for one try. I like pot bellied stoves, we had one in the basement when I was a kid and I remember at least once having mac and cheese cooked on it (although I don't remember why anyone was cooking on the pot bellied stove, and I can't remember when it was removed either, ah well).

Weekly Robot #7

2009-03-17T01:19:00.000-07:00

Did you notice I was some 3 weeks behind? Well my mom did anyway ;-) I will try and make it up with some extra robots this week. Here's a navigator beetle, widely used by sea captains to set direction and lead the way :-)

Weekly Robot #6

2009-02-22T20:29:00.000-08:00

A robot that catches octopi. I couldn't quite decide how it should work, so I did two possibilities then copped out and colored something simple.

Weekly Robot #5

2009-02-14T21:13:00.000-08:00

Happy Valentines day (unrelated to robot). So...I set out to try and figure out photoshop painting. Now its more like painting with a smallish stick with a chewed up end...or something. Spent far far to long messing about with this.

And just for fun (and for my sister) here is Robot #3 in color.

Weekly Robot #4

2009-02-07T18:05:00.001-08:00

Trying something different. I still think painting in Photoshop is like trying to sculpt from really far away with a stick.

2009-02-04T22:53:00.000-08:00

Back of the cardboard cup holder on my tea. Sad part is, I had my sketchbook was right there - drawing on the cup holder seemed more exciting.

2009-02-02T22:50:00.000-08:00

I too a nice relaxing trip down to Los Angeles this weekend to chill with friends, so last weeks robot was unscanable until now. Here he is, with his little doodle planning sketches (as if the red one is more finished somehow? Just pretend with me).

And while we're on the topic of my weekend, here's something so far removed from the robots I almost made two separate posts just to keep them divided. Then I realized it was more work then it was worth, and a bit silly - so here's a little watercolor sketch from the Huntington Library Gardens (a place I love).

2009-01-28T21:45:00.000-08:00

Birthday card for my Dad! Apparently he's like a grey owl surrounded by squishy round birds? hehehe

Weekly Robot #2

2009-01-22T20:35:00.001-08:00

Crochet-bot, this weeks robot. Its sort of what I've wished I had time to do all this week and haven't had time for.
I've discovered I'm really awfully bad at designing robots. But that's fine I suppose, there's not point in making easily attainable goals for yourself anyway. Some 30 robots from now and I should be pretty decent at it, right?

2009-01-15T16:26:00.000-08:00

Sketches from cafe sketch night. I wasn't in a life drawing mood so I did other things. Like robots. Other folk have done daily/weekly animals and pin up girls...I might do a weekly robot. Hmmm.

And whenever I'm not in a particularly good mood, it always cheers me up to get out a brush and ink and draw trees.
And this just had to be shared. I had been drawing lots of mer-people. Sarah F suggested I draw a walrus mermaid...and so I did. Working in the tusks was a challenge.

2009-01-12T15:35:00.000-08:00

Five of the Red Coat illustrations are up in a little group gallery show at...well the salon where I get my hair done. They're hanging in a cheerful little group with some of Steph Laberis' fabulous pieces. I'm really very pleased with how they look at the 13"X17" size all framed and hung.

And yes, that is my name, misspelled. Its an exciting new misspelling - I'm sort of fond of it actually. It feels significantly more medieval and important - like a place one goes to market. Dunghan.

The opening will be Saturday Jan. 17th, at 7pm - although I'm afraid I won't be there, in favor of going to see Jonathan Coulton in concert that same day and time. You might go anyway though, there will be, among other things, free food and beverages!

If you're around the SF East Bay and looking to do something, say before lunch in the Gourmet Ghetto, stop by Blow Salon on Berkeley Way just off Shattuck and check it out. The show will be up until the end of March.

2008-12-13T22:03:00.000-08:00

foolishness.

2008-12-05T23:28:00.000-08:00

Colored doodle...inspired by Brittney Lee's mermaids.

2008-12-04T22:18:00.000-08:00

All done (well its been done, but its a pain to scan an 11X14 image on a small scanner then piece it back together). You can check it out in person, along with lots of other great piraty art, at the Peglegs & Pistols gallery show at the Phantom Gallery in Orange, CA, opening on Saturday Dec 6th.

2008-12-02T12:15:00.001-08:00

To make up for not posting at all in November, here's another sketch. This is a piece for a gallery show that needs to be done...yesterday heh. I like the sketch, which means inking it will be stressful - I always get frustrated trying to ink a sketch I like as a sketch.

2008-12-01T15:45:00.000-08:00

Went zoo sketching at the San Francisco zoo this weekend. I'm trying to make myself sketch with pen more, to improve at it and to learn better economy of line in my drawing in general. Where are all the posts? I've been soooo busy with work, I don't bother to scan sketchbook pages much lately. Alas.

2008-10-15T01:00:00.000-07:00

Oh dear, blog fail for September. I've been busy busy with work, but I wedge these sketches for a new little personal series in there late at night. The Robot Revolution - power to the workers! hehehe.

2008-09-10T00:27:00.001-07:00

Quick little piece for a commission from a charity auction.

2008-08-13T18:52:00.000-07:00

Trade-gift for the sculptor who, in fact, made those goggles. Its in the mail, I hope I'm not spoiling the surprise. ;-)
I can hear my old watercolor teacher chiding me about to little variation in value. But still, yay ink and watercolor.

2008-08-08T17:53:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to chill and mess with Painter really
EDIT: they looked lonely, now they have 3 friends.

2008-07-21T17:10:00.000-07:00

Oh my Stars and Garters, Volume 2 has arrived! (well it arrived a bit ago, and I just didn't say anything.) It'll be with me at Comic-con.

This year - more adventure, more cowboys and, somehow, less naked.

2008-07-13T16:23:00.000-07:00

Day at the Monterey Bay Aquarium yesterday with a bunch of friends. It was a really lovely day, and I filled lots of pages with fish sketches but here's a watercolor of the kelp tank because I haven't done watercolor in awhile. Mmmm real paint.

2008-07-04T12:26:00.000-07:00

YeeeHaw!
Still messing with these a bit, they go-sort of with the cover of my book. Can't have a con-book without cowboys.
Looking at them now that they're posted I see all the mad crazy problems with them I didn't notice last night. Ugh. I'll re-ink them later.