The inspiration for this collection came from a conversation I had with the Founder and Executive Director of the Underprivileged And Underserved Foundation (UAUF), George Goodwine. While discussing race and whether or not every opportunity was fair based upon someone’s familial structure or “starting line,” I was asked the following questions. How does someone overcome these hurdles? How can the playing field be leveled to make things fairer, when others may only have 50 hurdles to overcome in the same competition?
My response was simple. “The person in front of 150 hurdles has two choices. They can either get discouraged before they begin, or start jumping. In the midst of the race they might get tired, unsure, or discouraged, but if they press on to the finish line they may become more physically fit than the person who jumps over 50.”
I used to dance ballet and at the time, there were a lot of hurdles I had to overcome solely based upon inconveniences that came with being raised in low-income, single parent home. Above are pencil sketches and sharpie drawings that I have drawn from actual photos. I plan on making these images my own by adding more abstraction and vibrant color to them.
Over the course of the project, stay tuned to see how these pictures will transform into a work of ART!!! Check out my artwork at theservingartist.com
It turns out that Goldie, the porcine pal of Walter Ego the Artist, is actually a very funny porker, literally a stand-up comedipig! He regularly regales Walter and his recently discovered twin brother, Count R. Ego with swine humor!
A drawing of a tribal hippo ready for action. The Digital design was created using Adobe Illustrator. The link below shows the processes of the sketch being turned into Digital Artwork: https://youtu.be/l7vuCQHF5Iw
Digital Artwork that was created from my sketch using Adobe Illustrator. A speed painting was created as well, which can be seen here: https://youtu.be/_wIuD_uJ2Mo
WHIP IT GOOD. This ode to Devo was drawn with fountain pen ink run through brush markers. The watercolor effect was me running a wet brush through parts to make the fountain pen ink lift and pool. If you want more Leah Fun™, be sure to check out instagram Super_Starling!
Sometimes I like to draw things in the reverse (filling in the light areas, leaving the dark areas bare) and then flip them to see how I did. Today's warmups turned out pretty well. My favorite is the kid on the top, whose head & hair echo the strawberry shape. I wish I'd distinguished the girl's legs from the dog's body on the left more, but overall, not bad.
