A collection of dogs

I finally complied an illustration which features a bunch of my dog studies. I did two versions, one with names of some my dog friends and one with out. I sketched my dog buddies at Sugar Pond, at the Rumsford Dog park and the "Flaca Vaca" farm (plus a few other dog friends from my neighborhood). I treasure my walks around the pond in the mornings. I've made some great friends on those walks, both human and canine. Thank you Sugar pond friends (you know who you are), for the years of great conversations and comfort to just be myself. Also a shout out to Paco, Heidi and Tyler...my favorite crew in Stamford NY. (Click on the image to see it close up)
Here's the link to buy a print/bag/mug: http://society6.com/mariacarluccio/I-love-Dogs-23a_Print#1=45

Familiar faces

I thought I'd post a few faces. I did these for history of illustration class. We had to pick 4 famous people to illustrate (I choose famous artists) and you had to mimic the style of 4 famous illustrator. Maybe you can guess these two? These were my favorites.
I'm adding a version I did in color...playing digitally...

Happy

If you need a little pick me up just watch this video. It's hard not to feel good watching it.
You can watch the whole 24 hours of happy or just the short video too, It's really worth checkin out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6Sxv-sUYtM
24hoursofhappy.com/‎

Egrets

I was walking my dog by the pond recently. I had my sketch pad with me, I’ve been drawing dogs as you can see in an older post. I began to draw my dog who was looking at a few ducks. My sketches weren’t working, I was getting a bit frustrated so I began to walk away. Then for some reason I turned around to see where my dog was and when I did I saw a huge egret about 10 feet from me. I had not seen it there at all but it must have been there the whole time. I was all geared up to draw so I began to sketch the egret. I was mesmerized and it felt magical to be able to capture it through my drawing that day. After the egret  took off I thought how I feel some kind of connections to egrets. Years earlier I had seen one and it sparked me to start my blog “Beautiful truths” (http://mybeautifultruths.blogspot.com/). 

Two days after I sketched the egret at the pond I got a request form Cricket magazine to illustrate a poem called “the Secret Egret”. It was about an egret spotted by a busy highway.
Here’s some of my egret and duck sketches. The final piece at the bottom is what I ended up doing for Cricket…kind of an experiment for me.

Thank you egret, one of my many muses.

Martin Luther King project

It was really nice to see the MLK/JFK show last night at FIT. I thought I'd post what I did for that project. I ended up doing two versions. Here's my artist statement:

A desire for equality was something Martin Luther King lived and died by. His work was facilitated through the support of countless people from different races, genders, and ages. Through these marches, single identities joined together to become a powerful force and individuals discovered a new way to see their nation. As I look at photos of the freedom marches and I am astounded by the spirit and strength endured by supporters of the cause. I choose to illustrate the people who marched and the bond that I believed they felt during such a tumultuous time in our nations history. 

dog sketchbook

It's been a while since I've posted on here. I wanted to share some stuff from my sketchbook. I've been collecting all sorts for doggie sketches. I have to say, dogs are some of my best friends.
Some pages have the dogs name on it. Meet Hesh(at the top). He's is one the funniest dogs I ever met. He's a bull dog puppy. When ever the other dogs are playing he begins to play then after a few second he just sits his ass down as if the say "cool, but I'm conserving my energy". What a perfect name too.

Patti Smith's little dose of inspiration

If you need a little pick me up try this. I just love to hear her speak...she really touches upon some real, honest, simple things about being an artist. (Thank you again, Kate B)
http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2013/08/16/patti-smith-advice-to-the-young/