Live Wedding Painting Tasmania!
It’s been a while, folks! I went off and had a baby in August and am just dipping my toes gradually back into work, comics, and events. What a whirlwind!
I jumped back in a couple of weeks ago for a live wedding event where I sketched and painted during a ceremony at the Port Cygnet Cannery in Tasmania. It’s such a unique venue and it was an honor to be asked to do this.
Setup and ready to go!
I prepped some papers and took some reference images of special mementos for the couple in advance to be sure to include these extra special images that are incredibly meaningful on their day. Then it was time to start!
The ceremony has finished, sketches are planned, and now it’s time to make everything look fabulous!
I used my favorite pen ever, the Pentel Brush Pen, which is permanent ink. In addition to this, I used my Yarka watercolor paints and lush Fabriano hot press paper. All archival materials ensure these little moments will last forever. Here is a snippet reel of everything in action on my Instagram:
If you or anyone you know is interested in hiring me as their wedding artist, I would love to come up with a special plan just for you! Get in touch via email - alyssa (@) alyssabermudezart.com
New Repeat Patterns
I rediscovered these paintings recently when I was looking for some of my former botanical art paintings. I originally painted these lilies and sprigs for a custom wedding stationery set commission a few years ago. All of the pieces were scanned in and isolated, so that means it’s PERFECT for compiling a new repeat pattern.
After I found that design, I realized I would have TONS more like it. I often hand paint individual pieces and scan them in to collage digitally. The next pattern below is made from one of the wedding stationery leaves and then lots of berries I painted for a “Berry Christmas” holiday card.
Which do you prefer?
If you are loving it, they are available in a few products in my shop and also as fabric in my Spoonflower shop.
Ladies in Pink - Art Nu Exhibit
When it’s Winter in Tasmania, it’s time for Dark Mofo! Dark Mofo is a festival associated with MONA, the Museum of Old and New Art. It’s not your ordinary festival. Timed alongside Winter Solstice, the week or two of events range from curious, engaging and sometimes shocking. There was a guy buried under the road for three days one year. Things get weird. I love it.
The Nolan Gallery and School of Art usually runs an exhibition during this time to coincide with the festival and tons of tourists visiting. No tourists this year though! Melbourne went into lockdown right before it started, so the usual crowd was missing. But the show went on, and I was thrilled to participate in the Nolan Gallery’s exhibit this year.
This year, Nolan Art used the traditional nude figure in art as inspiration for the group show - named Art Nu. Betty writes, “The nude is often a misused genre, still redolent of painted girlie pictures for the upper class. This exhibition ignores this tradition and hands the depiction of the naked body back to the women and the very nice men.”
At first, I wasn’t sure if there was anything I could add to it in time. After all, I am writing and editing ANOTHER graphic novel. My brain basically has zero vacancies during this time. I have so many nude figure drawings spanning many many years and I try to attend life drawing whenever I have the capacity. So Betty suggested using them as inspiration for a pattern. Once she said the magic word, pattern, it sparked an idea.
Patterns are a happy place for me with art. I like to make them for fun, mostly just for myself and for personal use. If I could approach this show with that mindset, I would be able to make something quickly that would feel fulfilling and also not take up too much writing time.
So I worked with what I had - tons and tons of life drawings.
Some more recent ones in ink.
Here are a few on minty green backgrounds. I went through a phase of prepping paper with mint green paint before attending the session. I love the way black ink looks on this and little white highlights.
The next challenge was to clean them all up and arrange them in a pattern. I ended up separating these into two pieces because I realized I had so many pregnancy drawings that I loved and they looked really special together. In reality these drawings are all of the same two pregnant women, but all together in the pattern it looks even more powerful.
The nude figure in art has historically been depicted and dictated by men. In this piece, I aimed to celebrate the female form depicted from life in ink, viewed from a woman's perspective. I've created an interconnected pattern out of my drawings of live pregnant models. They were captured in a moment in time, in the essence of one of the most powerful parts of being a woman.
Here are some screenshots in the process.
Removing background colors, adjusting stuff… etc
Then it was time to figure out some color options! I removed the color from all of the drawings, and now it was time to add some back in!
Digital painting for one of the backgrounds.
After playing around with the colors and placements, I locked it in. To finalize it, I added more textures, contrast and extra black ink marks to unify it.
Ladies in Pink
Ladies in Pink - Pregnancy
Each one is a limited edition print run on stunning museum grade cotton rag which can be bought exclusively at Nolan Art in person or online.
Photo by Giles Hugo from the opening night.
Art Nu
Be sure to check it out if you’re in Hobart!
Shop Relaunch!
It’s been a while since I’ve focused on my shop, and while my recent update isn’t massive, I am still excited to share it with all of you. I’ve designed at least a dozen new surface patterns this year which is the sort of artwork I like to create just for fun. Many of these patterns can be found on websites like Redbubble, Society6 and Spoonflower, but I wanted to make sure there were items that I could vouch for specifically. Ones that would excite me!
The following extremely cute products are ones that I don’t ship directly from my house. This saves me and the world from unnecessary production and expense. So each item is made to order and is shipped from the closest dispatch location to the recipient. Easy and better for the world!
Big Apple Diaries debuts in just a few months, so I wanted to share a limited number of prints from one of my favourite pages of the book: Common Sights on the NYC Subway. This is an 8x10 print with some of the silliest things I’ve seen on the trains over the years (at least the PG ones). You can order a copy of Big Apple Diaries by clicking here or requesting it at any of your local retailers.
I used to hand sew and embroider these adorable little Tasmanian Tigers based on my original watercolour illustration. Hopefully I will get a chunk of time to make those again, but for now I am sharing some of the cute sleeping Thylacine design on tote bags, t-shirts and prints.
I’m also excited to share some new cute Lucia The Luchadora merchandise! T-shirts, a long sleeve rash vest which can be used as an awesome superhero girl power costume, and more!
I would love to know what you think and if there are any products or patterns that you’d like to see in the shop!