Joanna Barnum Illustration

As of 8/16/11, I'm moving my professional blog to WordPress. I've exported all of my old entries to the new blog, but I'll leave them here, too, and I'll still be able to receive comments on the old entries here as well.

http://joannabarnum.wordpress.com/

I don't have a paid account, so I can't create a syndicated LJ account for my new blog, but I believe you can still add the RSS address to your friends page: http://joannabarnum.wordpress.com/feed/

Snapshot of a painting in progress of a very wide eyed little girl.

Thought I'd share a photo while I'm waiting for my paint to dry. I try not to paint too methodically, but after painting so many portraits, I find that I almost always start a portrait by laying in some of the values in the flesh with light blue (or sometimes blue and green, or blue and violet) before adding any other color. Skin, no matter its shade, always has some blues/cool colors in it, in addition to the more obvious peaches, reds, and browns. Leaving that out is the biggest mistake I see made by otherwise skilled painters.

I used to add the bluish shadows on top of the overall skin tone, but I've found that putting them down first helps soften hard edges and also makes the color more subtle. Later, I may add more back in over top of the overall skin tone in select places.

Artscape was last month, but I'm finally catching up with my blogging and video editing.

I got to participate as both an illustrator and a dancer, which was really fun.

I created a bunch of brush & ink portraits of 80s celebrities, which were photocopied and collaged onto various surfaces in the "1982 environment" along with copies of old show flyers.





Baba Ghanoush created a set that included both traditional belly dance music and popular 80s hits to suit the theme of the 1982 environment. We performed twice on Friday, and spent the time in between at the festival, so it was an exhausting but super fun day.

Here's a clip from our performance:


We tried to spend a lot of our time in between sets resting, but I did have the chance to see some amazing work for sale from other artists.

I bought a ceramic cup decorated with octopus tentacles from http://www.cephalopodink.com for my husband. I didn't buy a food themed linoleum cut print from Kathy Beachler of http://www.illegibleink.com because I didn't want to carry it around with me, but I'll be ordering something from her as soon as I can make up my mind what I want.

A couple months ago, blogger Ziggy Nixon interviewed me about my work. My "issue" went live last week. Am I Internet Famous now? No? Well, that's OK.

More Than Just a Moment Shared: An Interview With Joanna Barnum.

My Darwin Kickstarter met its funding goal a few days ago. Thanks guys! You can still order a shirt through the Kickstarter page for the next 30 hours.

I'll be placing the actual shirt order within the next two weeks. If you miss out on the Kickstarter, or don't like dealing with it, and decide you want a shirt, you can let me know directly and I'll add an extra shirt to my order for you.

Florence Nightingale (12 May 1820 – 13 August 1910) was a celebrated English nurse, writer and statistician. An Anglican, Nightingale believed that God had called her to be a nurse. She came to prominence for her pioneering work in nursing during the Crimean War, where she tended to wounded soldiers. She was dubbed "The Lady with the Lamp" after her habit of making rounds at night.

Nightingale laid the foundation of professional nursing with the establishment, in 1860, of her nursing school at St Thomas' Hospital in London, the first secular nursing school in the world, now part of King's College London. The Nightingale Pledge taken by new nurses was named in her honour, and the annual International Nurses Day is celebrated around the world on her birthday.
(from Wikipedia)


This is a commissioned gift for the client's wife who is graduating from nursing school.


(click to enlarge)



Prints available of this piece, or any you see here that you like- joanna at joannabarnum dot com
4" x 6"- $5, or 4/$17
8.5" x 11"- $10, or 4/$35
11" x 17"- $30, or 4/$100
13" x 19"- $40, or 4/$140

A panoramic photo of my "clean" studio room:

(Click to scroll through it full size)

Baba Ghanoush Belly Dance at Artscape 1982 is this Friday, July 15th! We're on at 2pm and 8pm on the 1982 Stage on the Charles St. Bridge, past Penn Station.

Here's Amyfae and I performing at the All Seasons Hafla here in Parkville last month:



You can also look for my 80's portrait illustrations scattered throughout the street art installations on the Charles St. Bridge:




Also for the local folks, the Towson Arts Collective 4th anniversary exhibit is still up until August 12th on the lower level of the Towson Framing Gallery at 406 York Rd. (near the library) in Towson, MD. A "people's choice award" has been added to the exhibit- visitors can vote on their favorite piece until August 6th.


If you're out on the west coast, you can see my cephalopod series in "Treasures of the Sea" at Cactus Gallery in Los Angeles.

Thought I'd post a quick reminder here for anyone who's been musing about ordering a shirt, since I'm down to 23 days on my Darwin t-shirt Kickstarter.

So far, I've raised $310 of the $480 I need to do the print run. I'm really hoping I'll make it the rest of the way and we can do the shirts. These would make great holiday gifts, but this is the only time they will be available, so you'll have to plan ahead and order one now!