The Art of Miranda Sharp

It was a great experience learning how to hang my own show. The purple background I picked popped and people could see it from far away. Purple has definitely been a theme in my work this year.

Many of my family and friends were able to make it up and I was really grateful. There’s me with my mom and dad who got me through college!

 
My good friend Eric from back home was a walking advertisement for me that night! I think he’d be a great addition to the Sucrose Boys.

 
One of my best friends whom I’ve known since the 3rd grade, Anastasiya, or Stacy for short was there to support me. She’s been a huge inspiration in my life and has helped me become the creative person that I am today. Nobody has a mind like Stacy’s and we’ve always supported each other in our art and life. I know she’s going to do well in whatever she decides to pursue.

 
Chelsea who is another one of my closest and best friends was there to see my show. We’ve bonded since the 7th grade over nerdy things and making movies. I used to do all of my high school art projects at her house! Her house was like my second home and if ever I needed to chill she was there. Oh and also in this photo is her brother Kyle! He’s cool too haha.

There are so many others who came out to see my work but I don’t wan’t to make this post too long! I just want to say thank you everybody for caring about what I do.

Here are some business cards from other great artists that I picked up at the show, the graduating class this year was so talented.

It was surreal on the big graduation day seeing all of my teachers and classmates dressed up like a bunch of scholars from the Renaissance. The bells of Fountain Street Church where the ceremony took place were gonging for us as we paraded through the windy streets. Fountain Street Church was originally built by Baptists but is now Unitarian. The building is gorgeous and decked out in Byzantine style mosaics. Here are a few pictures of it:

The graduating class.

 
My image as I walked across the stage to receive my diploma.

Happy chaos after the ceremony!

Special thanks to my boyfriend Josh who built so many wonderful things to help me out and got me through the stressful times. We make quite the couple.

So what’s next for me? Well currently I am in a show in Barre Vermont called “Sweet”. Perfect for my work. The Studio Place Arts people were kind enough to send me a print out of their local newspaper which used my image to promote the event!

They also sent me the promotional postcard for the show:

Soon I will be entering the Muskegon Museum of Art Annual Show and the Festival Regional Arts Competition in Grand Rapids! Wish me luck! In the meantime I will continue designing posters for my local Dr. Sketchy’s, work on expanding my Glucose Girl’s brand, and commissions. Look out for some of my products soon!

I started off with thumbnails as usual, it helps to get rid of cliche ideas. Some of these got really silly, they only take a few seconds haha.

Once I had the general composition figured out I shot reference. This time I used Kate Harradine who is a fantastic fantasy/horror painter. She also has perfect Cheesecake crust colored hair! I found a dress in our school’s costume closet that fit my design to a t.

Some progress of the drawing:

The finished image:

Then I applied the recipe and story.

For my last recipe I will be illustrating key lime pie, I’m thinking a great sword warrior.

I’ve recently designed some awesome stickers of a few of the planets my Glucose Girls come from. I will have photos of them up soon and they will be for sale on Etsy!

The lattice work on a Linzer Torte reminded me of fencing and sword fighting so I looked up some fencing photos for costume inspiration.

I took some reference of one of my fellow artist friends who I thought would fit the character perfectly! Her name is Holly Wright and she is an amazing environmental illustrator. Here is her website: 

http://hnwright-illustration.com/

After I did my final sketch I started the final drawing!

I then took my final drawing and put it into context with the recipe and story!

In other news I was finally able to get a fabulous haircut due to the gift certificate I got from making a flyer for Dr. Sketchy’s! I got a blunt cut an some V fringe:

My new vamp cut reminds me of this cute song:
Vampire Girl

Speaking of Dr. Sketchy’s the next one is soon! I created a poster for it in record time. The model is a professional juggler, gunslinger, and magician. Sounds pretty awesome! I was inspired by pulp fiction western covers.

I have just completed the first illustration “Lemon Angel Pie”. Each recipe will be accompanied with a story about the character.

Here is how the pieces look side by side without the ring binding:

And here is her story page, click to read:

Now I will share with you the process it took to create my design for Lemon Angel Pie!

First I started with 50 thumbnails to determine the composition of the illustration. They are very basic and quick sketches. They start off pretty static but get weirder and weirder as my mind works through cliches:

I decide I like the one of her arching and flying on my second page of thumbnails so I get my lovely friend Stephanie to pose for reference! She is also an amazing illustrator, you can check out her work here: http://campbellillustration.blogspot.com/

I sketch the outfit I want onto the pose and then take it into photoshop and invert it so it will show up on the black paper:

Then I start drawing in colored pencil! (Sorry some of these were taken with a camera)

And voila the final image:

Next up I will be illustrating the recipe for “Linzer Torte”.  A traditional Austrian dish that is naturally gluten free!

Once I get it back from hanging on the board I will be posting a pretty cool self portrait I did that I like to call my “Moon Princess Mugshot”.

Also I just sold my Brulee Brawler painting! Go me!

Here’s an awesome song/music video “City Grrrl” by CSS  that totally relates to me right now. I wanna be a City Grrrl when I graduate!

I’ve been doing lots of sketching for my “Head, Hands, and Feet” class. I’ll update my sketchbook page with some of them.

February’s Dr. Sketchy’s is coming up, here’s the poster I designed for the “Black Heart Valentine” themed event:

Be sure to put on your goth gear or your best Robert Smith impression to win the themed costume contest. They’ll be giving away http://awearyoga.com/ apparel!

Speaking of Robert Smith I’m currently entered into an online competition for the chance to have my artwork printed onto a special edition vinyl of The Cure’s “Friday I’m in Love” to be auctioned off in a gallery in London. The benefits go to the Teenage Cancer Trust. There are two days left to vote so please do if you haven’t already! http://www.talenthouse.com/creativeinvites/preview/a3e8263396d43933eb6532525ca715d6/373

[Show as slideshow]

The first image is of the amazing art book by Olivia De Berardinis I got from my boyfriend! She is my favorite pin-up artist. I’ve been pouring over it hoping to absorb some of the lushness she puts into her work. I love the way she loosely renders parts of her paintings. This book is definitely going to help me with my Dr. Sketchy’s posters. The third picture is my favorite painting from the book although its hard to choose. I just love sci-fi gals!

You can check out Olivia’s website here: http://www.eolivia.com/site/index.asp

I also acquired a really pretty pink yoga mat. I went to five Russayog classes over break and it was amazingly intense. I would recommend checking out their website because its a really unique type of yoga that was invented by a man who currently lives in Ann Arbor and teaches the classes: russayog.com
It involves a lot of ropes.

The fifth picture is of a sweet winged piggy bank and the sixth is of course some awesome fake candy decorations. My house will one day be filled with them.

Some other great gifts that are not pictured are two really swanky coats, one by Betsy Johnson and another huge white faux fur one, a hobo grocery cage that I will be using this winter to push my supplies back and fourth from school, lots of chocolate and beer, beauty stuff, a painting of Dr. Steve Brule, and a gift card for value world which I used to buy a neon lip mirror for my vanity. It was a great Christmas.

By the way all of these photo’s were taken on top of the beautiful kitchen island my boyfriend built over break. Here’s a better photo of it:

So talented, this is his portfolio website: joshmcvetyfurniture.com

Soon I will have my little oil painting of Cordial Bomb posted along with a sci-fi painting I finished last semester but haven’t posted yet. Also I’m working on something pretty neat Dr. Sketchy’s next “Black Heart Valentine” themed poster and a flier to promote the event.

Also I just finished the design for the next Dr. Sketchy’s posters! Make sure to be there this coming January. Its going to be a hoot!

Over my break I’m working on a little painting of my glucose girl character “Cordial Bomb”. She’s based off of my friend Rachel who loves cherry cordials. I have a link to her art under my “sweet links” section.

The second story “Delivering for Glimpses” is about a voyeuristic Chinese delivery girl. The story takes a “romantic” twist when she has to deliver to a mall after hours during Christmas time.

These stories are short fiction, I’d really like to hear what you guys think about my writing as I hope to incorporate more of it with my art in the future. I couldn’t find sources for the photos I am using but all rights remain with original photographers.

The second piece was designed as a poster to advertise my site. I want to make more posters in this style to advertise different characters, kind of like a lot of movie posters do. This poster features Cocoa Asalt, a character based off me because I love salty chocolate. The poster was made with watercolor, ink, glitter glue, gouache, and digital.