Shanny Lee » Drawing

Much Anticipated!! (well, for me at least)

For those of you that have been reading my blog since it’s conception, you know I’ve been mentioning for the past 2 years, I guess, that my goal was to get an Etsy shop up and running.

WELL, I FINALLY DID IT!

Right now, I only have a few prints listed, but it’s enough! Please go check it out and spread the word! I’m really hoping this takes off. Suggestions are welcome, too! I want positive/negative feedback so I know what to do to make things better. Any illustration suggestions are welcome as well. I’m always looking for new, fresh ideas.

Shop ShannyLee Now!

Posted by Shannon on February 15th, 2009 Filed in Drawing, Etsy, *Shop ShannyLee*

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The Sketchbook Project

So I finally finished my little itty bitty sketchbook for The Sketchbook Project with the Art House Coop. Let me just say firstly that this is in no way my finest artistic creation. I actually wrote more than I drew in this little book. It just seemed right. I’ve been going through so much lately that I had no idea how to convey all these crazy emotions through sketches that are 3in x 5in. So I wrote and doodled around the writing. I don’t expect to win any awards or score any major fans from this little project, but it was an outlet for me… a very refreshing outlet… to voice some of the feelings I’ve been fighting over the past few months. Maybe the next time I’ll have more time and more focus, but for now… here are my little doodles.

Posted by Shannon on February 12th, 2009 Filed in Drawing

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Delicate and Deadly

I love all things under the sea… I love them and I’m terrified of them. Jellyfish, though, I’ve never been afraid of. I’ve been stung numerous times by jellyfish and everytime I’m amazed at the grace they portray as they take a stab at their victim. Most of the time you never even know they are there until the pain sets in and by that time, they are long gone, floating along to their next target.

This is officially the 4th print I have completed to be offered in my Etsy shop. Unfortunately, my current scanner sucks, so you can’t even get the full feeling of the intricacy of this illustration. I’ll be getting a better quality scan tomorrow and hopefully replacing my piece of crap sometime this week. This is how I see Jellyfish.. beautiful, elegant, disastrous, and mysterious.

Posted by Shannon on January 28th, 2009 Filed in Drawing

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Elusive and Beautiful

I FINALLY finished this piece after who knows how long. I’ve decided to submit it for the Faculty/Staff Art Show at work. I know it’s a little… weirder than what most people here will be expecting to see, but oh well! This is the kind of stuff I LOVE drawing. All the intricate detail and making a little creature that I’ve never seen before.. It’s just fun. I think I need to stick with it. I’ll still do requests, of course. This has really helped keep my mind off everything that’s going on right now. And now that it’s done, I can move onto another! The original is 14×17, so I had to take it to Kinko’s to be scanned and the ding-dong that works there scanned it as a PDF instead of a TIFF.. what the heck? Oh well. I suppose I need to be more specific from now on.. scan it at 600dpi and as a TIFF file.

Anyway… here it is. Enjoy!

Posted by Shannon on January 26th, 2009 Filed in Drawing

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Cardio-Tree-Thing

This little bugger here has been occupying quite a lot of hours for me lately. I’m not even sure if it’s anywhere near being finished, but it’s more done than it was 9 hours of drawing earlier!

Of course, it’s water color and pen stipling like ALL of my drawings are. Feedback please!

Posted by Shannon on November 13th, 2008 Filed in Drawing

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Where the spirit does not work with the hand there is no art…

- Leonardo Da Vinci

At long last the hummingbird is finished and in the hands of it’s rightful owners. My new sister-in-law requested a hummingbird illustration in blue and green.

Pat and Jen were in Ohiopyle this weekend with some friends, so Mom, Dad and Tom and I drove down to spend Sunday with them. The newlyweds surprised us a few weeks ago with the news that they are expecting!! I’m going to be an aunt! I’m so thrilled for them. All of their friends were going rafting, but because of Jen’s… uh.. condition, they decided to stay back and hang out with us. We hiked along the river for a while and then drove up to Kentuck Knob.

Kentuck Knob is another of Frank Lloyd Wright’s masterpieces tucked into the hills of Pennsylvania. The home was built for the Hagen ice cream family. Needless to say, the house is beautiful. It’s much more of a liveable space than Falling Water is. I took a ton of pictures that I will post later. Here is one of all of us on an overlook beside the falls at Ohiopyle. It had to be the most beautiful day ever. The only thing missing is Lindi and Ryen. Boo.

Posted by Shannon on August 21st, 2008 Filed in Drawing, Life & Family

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Skill without imagination is craftsmanship and gives us many useful objects such as wickerwork picnic baskets. Imagination without skill gives us modern art…

So says Tom Stoppard. I think it’s only partially true. I think that at times people have skill and choose to lay it at rest in order to have a more emotional reflection of themselves in their art. Skill, to me, is like a stencil, a guideline at times. There are alot of times when I’m glad I decided not to go to art school because my style wasn’t molded by those teaching me. However, there are skills I wish I had learned from someone and that I am now looking for ways of learning it on my own.

Anyway…. here’s an illustration I’m working on currently for myself. Yep, that’s right. FOR ME. I’ll have prints made, but the original is staying put in my living room. I really love drawing things just for no reason at all. It’s very inspiring because I know I can make it whatever I want without worrying what someone else will think of it. I feel those are the pieces that are the greatest… the ones without inhibition, the ones where desire crashes with imagination and creates something so uniquely defined by a person’s own perception. This piece is the beginning of that for me. Make of it what you wish…

Posted by Shannon on July 30th, 2008 Filed in Drawing, Thoughts

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You could augment an earwig to the point where it understood nuclear physics, but it would still be a very stupid thing to do…

The Doctor (Doctor Who)

Something I haven’t mentioned very much here is my pure obsession with science fiction. It’s quite unhealthy, I think. My DVR is full of Doctor Whos, Stargates, Sarah Janes… Some might even call me a nerd. I’m alright with that, though. If science fiction shows don’t exercise my imagination, what the heck will?

Anyway, I’m sitting here this evening, drinking red wine, catching up on all my DVR’d shows and working on my hummingbird wip that is long overdue. I was afraid to move on with this illustration because I didn’t want to mess it up. I do that, alot. I start something, love the preliminary sketch so much, then I never touch it again because I don’t want to mess it up. It’s terribly sad and I’m trying to overcome that horrible habit. The result has been many destroyed drawings that I once adored. However, for every great success, there must be sacrifice, right?

I’m very pleased with my hummingbird, though. It’s turning out better than I planned. Maybe my best work is done when I have a delicious bottle of pinot noir to help? Or maybe it’s the sci-fi. Who knows. Whatever it is, I hope I can figure it out and channel it more often.

This illustration is still unfinished…

Posted by Shannon on June 16th, 2008 Filed in Drawing

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Man is sometimes extraordinarily, passionately, in love with suffering . . .

The quote above is from Notes From The Underground by Dostoevsky. The sketch is an illustration I’m working on. I’m not really sure what my intent is with it, but lately I’m somewhat obsessed with the relation of humans and nature. It’s undeniable that one affects the other and vice versa.

On that note, I have somewhat of a dismal story to share. This past Sunday Tom and I were in the basement moving some stuff around to make room for our newly acquired treadmill. I picked up a few blankets off the floor to toss aside that our boxer, Bruiser, had been using as a bed when I noticed a hole in one of the old comforters. I leaned down to look at it and saw that there were bugs inside of it. Gross. I jumped back and yelled for Tom to get the blanket out of the house before these little buggers ate their way through anything else. Tom leaned over to inspect our little invaders. He stood up a few seconds later with a calm look on his face and said, “You’ll be more upset when I tell you what it really is in there.” I felt my eyes bulging and my gag reflex kicking in. I couldn’t even imagine what it would be that was worse than bugs.

“What??” I gasped not really wanting to know the answer.

“Baby mice.” Tom grimaced.

“Oh no! I killed their mother and they starved!” I cried out. I realized in an instant that I had been the bane of these sweet little creatures. They never even had a chance.

We’ve had consistent issues with mice living in our house. Since we are in the country and there is always an ample supply of dog food, the mice find it easy to habitate there. We often find their little supplies of the stolen dog food in random places around the house. For example, inside our snowboarding boots or our christmas decorations. Once evidence of the mice made its way to our living space upstairs, our hand was forced. The traps were set and the problem solved.

I never even considered the possibilty of a little mouse family in our house. I was reminded of my favorite cartoon as a child… The Littles. Thinking of that made me even more upset. It’s been 3 days now and I’m still feeling the guilt. Unfortunately, there’s no way to avoid this kind of thing.

The agreement is now that if something of this sort is discovered again, Tom is to lie to me. He’s to tell me it’s something disgusting that I would be happy to know is dead… such as spiders, stink bugs, or carpenter bees. (Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for the preservation of Bumble Bees, but Carpenter Bees are something completely different and I don’t want them living inside my walls.)

That’s my horrifying tale.

Posted by Shannon on June 3rd, 2008 Filed in Nature, Drawing

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Not Much to Say or Show

My ~~team~~ *time lately has consisted mostly of cleaning, organizing, rearranging… it’s refreshing, but exhausting. We’ve been doing a lot of redecorating lately, which has led to alot of excess accessories lying around the house. This, of course, is grounds for a yard sale. I love “sailing” as my mother and I call it. However, I abhor being the sailee. I hate the haggling. You could have a book priced at 50 cents and people will still try to talk you down. Sometimes it’s much more satisfying just to tell them no and then donate it to Goodwill. Yes, I’m a stubborn brat sometimes. I’m anxious to get the yard sale over with. We still haven’t set a date yet because I’m still sifting through all the junk in the basement that’s been stored up over the past year. Cleansing this hectic life of some of the junk is going to be wonderful!

In the meantime, I’ve found some time here and there to draw a little. That in itself is a relief. I find myself getting incredibly cranky when I can’t release my creative urges on a regular basis. Tom is a fabulous encouragement. He has to force me sometimes to stop working around the house and pick up my pens. I couldn’t ask for a better husband than him. Here’s a little sketch I did recently. It’s simple and delicate.

On a very bright note, I finally got all my thank you notes written from my wedding. Only 3 months late. I’m so terrible. At least I got them done, though!

Posted by Shannon on June 1st, 2008 Filed in Drawing, Life & Family

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Much Anticipated!! (well, for me at least)

The Sketchbook Project

Delicate and Deadly

Elusive and Beautiful

Cardio-Tree-Thing

Where the spirit does not work with the hand there is no art…

Skill without imagination is craftsmanship and gives us many useful objects such as wickerwork picnic baskets. Imagination without skill gives us modern art…

You could augment an earwig to the point where it understood nuclear physics, but it would still be a very stupid thing to do…

Man is sometimes extraordinarily, passionately, in love with suffering . . .

Not Much to Say or Show

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