Painting portrait art

May 18, 2016

I have been painting a lot of portraits over the last several months and will gradually start sharing them with the world. I normally feel excited to share my art with people, but portraits seem a little more private and personal—for somewhat self-evident reasons, I suppose, since they are a direct interpretation of my experience with another human being.

I did a residency in Paris in the winter of 2015-2016 at the Cité Internationale des Arts, and I was making a lot of portraits while I was there. That series of portraits was of Syrian refugees who were displaced to Paris over the last several years, some of them arriving during my residency, some who had come to Paris at the beginning of the revolution in 2011, & everything in between. Those images are not public yet because I'm still working on a more wholistic product that combines image + written (non-fictional) stories they told me as we got to know each other during my months at the Cité Internationale des Arts. But... if you ask nicely, I'll share a preview!

So, back to this portrait.... your fun fact of the day is that I am twin (we are fraternal). I made this for her as a gift for her. Although at times, it felt like I was making a self portrait. Weird.

Painting portrait art is so fun once you are past the frustration. The tiniest details make all the difference. In the most frustrating portrait I've painted, I did 5 unique underdrawings to get his likeness, 3 versions of a so-called "final" painting on nice paper, and I am still going to re-do the final painting a third time because I'm not satisfied. When you have so many almost-but-not-quite-perfect drawings in front of you, it's a real puzzle to figure out which parts of each should be brought into your final image. I don't want my portraits to be photographic because I don't believe in that concept... people photograph so differently from photo to photo anyway. So why should portraits be perfect? What is perfect?

For the portrait above, I only did 2 underdrawings before I was satisfied with the likeness (or, technically, one drawing since I just erased the first one and drew on top of it...) and only one final painting. Maybe the fact that she's my twin made it easier... Or maybe I'm just getting better at this!

And yes, I am accepting portrait commissions. Email me.

Chronicler Studio LLC Brand Update

May 6, 2016

Very excited to share Chronicler Studio's new logo, launching just today! A curvy combo of C and S in the icon, and a playful-but-not-too-playful wordmark to match. This logo says I dot my i's + cross my t's; friendly, but down-to-business; clean, modern + a hint of classic; & smooth and organized.

What do you say?

Art at Denver International Airport

May 5, 2016

If you're passing through Denver International Airport (DIA) between now and June 2016, don't go through the crazy security lines... take the Bridge Security on level 6. Not only is it more relaxing, but you'll get the joy of checking out a breathtaking exhibition by local artists Wopo Holup, Heather Patterson and Mindy Bray while you and your luggage traipse across to TSA. It's a series of abstract interpretations of the Colorado landscape.

If you're still killing time, head down to the newly-constructed Westin Hotel at DIA. On the bottom level where the train comes in is a giant mural, also by Mindy Bray, entitled Strange Continents. Mindy photographed splashes on the Platte River (which runs through Denver) then traced the shapes as vectors and recombined them into this 150-foot long, 14-foot tall composition. She then projected the composition onto many sheets of butcher paper, traced the shapes by hand using colored chalk, and used squeegees to rub the shapes on the chalked-up paper onto the walls at the hotel. With that stage finished, it was then an enormous paint-by-number endeavor. Because of the scale of Strange Continents, Mindy hired me and two other local artists, Lynn Suyeko Mandziuk and Brian Napier, to help with the production stage in the fall of 2015. It was a fantastic team, and a very...shall we call it entertaining?... setting with construction noises happening all around us and curious people walking through. We also had to wear safety goggles the whole time, which is nice for safety, but quite the obstacle for painting detail work.

Denver Art Museum Installation Gig

May 4, 2016

Over the last few weeks I had the pleasure of working alongside Denver artist Hadley Hooper (her website is www.hadleyhooper.com) at the Denver Art Museum to install an actual masterpiece Hadley designed during the first few months of 2016. The installation, titled Tableau, transforms an entire room into a magical land, crossing the lines between a theater set and a pop-up book... and the best part is, you're meant to interact with it! There are benches and swings and holes to peer through and photos to be taken. We brought the entire piece to life using wallpaper paste to meticulously glue over 500 individual sheets of 30 X 20 inch copy paper to the walls and wooden creatures.

Tableau will sit on the second floor of the Hamilton Building (the crazy pointy building) at the DAM for the next year. It's sophisticated, but it's also fun. Go play with it.

Check out the Instagram/Twitter hashtag #TableauDAM to see more. Opens to the public on May 8, 2016.

Freelance Graphic Designer & Illustrator in Denver

May 4, 2016

Chronicler Studio LLC is open for business! Operated by Sophia Brown out of Denver, Colorado, we offer a variety of graphic design and illustration services for small businesses, non-profits and independent professionals. Whether you need a logo, a brand, event design, a website design, or custom illustration to differentiate your story from competitors, we offer an organized and personalized process to make you stand out.

Our website www.chroniclerstudio.com is up-to-date with the latest portfolio work. Stay tuned to this blog to hear more in depth about the process behind some of these projects + to get news about exciting personal projects (A.K.A. non-client work, but projects I, Sophia, am passionate about).

For consultations, please email Sophia at sophia.brown AT chroniclerstudio.com

Chronicler Studio LLC

Illustration & Design by Sophia Brown

Stay tuned to this blog to hear more in depth about the process behind some of the projects on the website, www.chroniclerstudio.com. I also post exciting news about personal projects (A.K.A., the work I like to do when no one is paying me to do it)!

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Illustration for The DBQ Project, based on the Navajo tale “Coyote Places the Stars.” After Black God was finished creating the star patterns, he started to sit down and admire what he had done. But before he could, Coyote, who was always hanging around looking for trouble, approached the group of gods. “See here, what are you doing? You didn’t ask my advice!” Coyote was a trickster, and the other gods didn’t like his pranks, because he often meddled with their carefully organized plans. Black God answered, “You can see for yourself what I have done. Look at all the beautiful patterns I have created. These patterns will provide humans with the rules to live by on earth.” Black God, who always sat with his legs crossed, protected his fawnskin pouch by placing it under his foot. This time, before he could be stopped, Coyote quickly reached for the pouch and snatched it away. “Here, let me help you,” he said with a grin. Then, opening the pouch, Coyote blew the remaining crystals across the sky. He scattered thousands of points of light in a disordered jumble. There they remain today. Only the patterns that Black God placed so carefully now have names. The ones Coyote blew at random into the sky are nameless, except for a single star. After he had emptied the pouch and scattered its contents, Coyote looked inside. “There is one crystal left. It shall be my star!” Then, mimicking Black God’s placement of North Fire, he took that crystal and set it in the south. Today it is called the Coyote Star. It is also called the Monthless Star, because it appears only for a few days in the year, far to the south. Black God scolded Coyote for disturbing his arrangement of the stars and leaving so much chaos and disorder in the sky. Coyote just laughed.

Before/after illustrations for The DBQ Project based on the Karuk legend “Coyote Lays Down the Law.” People once said, “Let the river flow DOWNstream on one side, and UPstream on the other side, let it be that way.” So all right, when they traveled DOWNstream by boat, they drifted down, downstream. But they’d travel back up on the other side of the river, they’d drift upstream too, as it flowed UPstream, that water. And then Coyote said, “Not at all! Let it not be that way, let it all flow DOWNstream. “Let the young husbands have to push their way up there, when they travel UPstream.” And then again people said, “Women carry their packbaskets UPhill, up there they put wood in them, they make basketloads. “Then the women leave for home. “And they just leave them there, those basketloads.” And they said, “They’ll just WALK home, those basketloads.” And then Coyote said, “Don’t do that! Not at all! Let the young wives just CARRY the loads.” So that’s how it is, now they don’t walk any more, those basketloads. (From “They dance in the sky: Native American Star Myths” by Jean Guard Monroe and Ray Williamson)

Illustration for The DBQ Project based on the myth “Coyote Takes Water from the Frog People,” published last month. ... Coyote was out hunting and he found a dead deer. One of the deer's rib bones looked just like a big dentalia shell, and Coyote picked it up and took it with him. He went up to see the frog people. The frog people had all the water. When anyone wanted any water to drink or cook with or to wash, they had to go and get it from the the frog people. Coyote came up. "Hey, frog people, I have a big dentalia shell. I want a big drink of water. I want to drink for a long time. "Give us that shell," said the frog people, "and you can drink all you want." Coyote gave them the shell and began drinking. The water was behind a large dam where Coyote drank. "I'm going to keep my head down for a long time," said Coyote, "because I'm really thirsty. Don't worry about me." "Okay, we won't worry," said the frog people. Coyote began drinking. He drank for a long time. Finally one of the frog people said, "Hey, Coyote, you sure are drinking a lot of water there. What are you doing that for?" Coyote brought his head up out of the water. "I'm thirsty." "Oh." After a while one of the frog people said, "Coyote, you sure a drinking a lot. Maybe you better give us another shell." "Just let me finish this drink," said Coyote, putting his head back under water. The frog people wondered how a person could drink so much water. They didn't like this. They thought Coyote might be doing something. Coyote was digging out under the dam al the time he had his head under the water. When he was finished, he stood up and said, "That was a good drink. That was just what I needed." Then the dam collapsed, and the water went out into the valley and made creeks and rivers and waterfalls. The frog people were very angry. "You have taken all the water, Coyote!" "it's not right that one people have all the water. Now it is where everyone can have it." Coyote did that. Now anyone can go down to the river and get a drink of water or some water to cook with, or just swim around.