Robot Sketches

I was chatting with my roommate this afternoon and she mentioned that she's like to make a little robot for her next 3d modeling project.  I ended up fooling around with the idea bit.

I had way too much fun with the little robots.

Robot Sketches #1

A lot of them ended up with little stories as I worked.  The little guy at the top left is named "Puppy."  He serves no useful purpose.  Instead, he walks around the engineer's shop biting and chomping anything that gets too close.  The head engineer keeps threatening to turn Puppy into scrap, but everyone knows he'll never actually do it.

The robot on the right is a crusher robot.  He can flip his arms around to the front which allows him to pick up scrap, which he then places in his steal jaws to crush it down to a smaller size for storage.  His tracks allow him to navigate large piles of rubble.

 Robot Sketches #2

The top robot on page two is a magnet worker.  His large magnetic feet allow him to walk up walls and on ceilings to preform tasks and retrieve parts otherwise inaccessible to humans. The joint at the top of the leg is also the hinge for his mouth, allowing him to open his "mouth" 180 degrees.  This opening doesn't actually function as a mouth (he's unable to speak but excellent at following direction).  Instead, it's a place for him to carry objects.  By keeping parts and tools inside his head, he's able to keep both hands free for more efficient task performance.  As you can see in the sketch to his right, he's also able to flip his head upside down for when he's walking on a ceiling.

Like I said...  too much fun with robots!  I may play around with these a bit more later.  It felt really good to do some drawing.  Photography has just been eating all of my free time lately, but I do love good old pencil and sketchbook work.

Couple of Drawings

A real update!  Who'd have thought?!?

Here are a couple of new drawings I did for an MSPCA art show and fundraiser.  I haven't done much with charcoal in a while, and I'd forgotten just how much I love it.  I generally start by working in powdered charcoal, adding and erasing until I get roughly what I'm looking for, and then I start adding in the darks with compressed charcoal.  The last thing I did was add those highlights with white charcoal since the white just doesn't erase as nicely as regular charcoal does.  With white charcoal, you pretty much have to get it right on the first try.  This might be partly because I already have regular charcoal everywhere - all over myself, the floor, the walls, the red dog - by the time I get around to breaking out the white charcoal.

Labrador Retriever Portrait 

I'm thinking about doing a series of these charcoal dog portraits (like the above portrait of the Lab).  I really enjoy doing them and they actually go pretty quickly.  This guy only took about 2 hours.  The original Labrador Retriever Portrait is available so if you're interested in purchasing it, send me an email.

Beagle Sketch

Beagle Sketch is just a little 8x10 charcoal drawing that I did as a donation to the MSPCA Hair of the Dog fundraiser.  Nothing special, just some more messing around with powdered and compressed charcoal.  original is sold, but prints are available if you're interested.

New Website

Between starting the pet photography business and getting laid off from my 9-5 last January, life has been a little hectic, to say the least. So things have definitely been slow on the fine art front.

However, I did manage to get a fine art website up and running.
Check it out:

Blue Amrich Fine Art - Flora and Fauna Painting and Drawing

Let me know if you have any feedback about the website!  Also, I there are a number of originals for sale.  If you see a price in the lower right corner, then that original is available.  Even if you don't see a prices, prints are available for pretty much everything you see on the website.

This blog is the next thing that desperately due for a makeover!

Pet Photography

I just realized I never "officially" announced my new website on this blog! In case you're wondering why everything has been so quite on the fine art front, it's because everything has been so busy on the photography front. But we're finally live!

Blue Amrich Studio - Pet Photography

Check it out, pass it along! Also, I'd really appreciate any feedback people have. It's still kind of a work in progress. There's definitely a few things I still want to add to the gallery section and I'm open to any suggestions.

I still have quite a few odds and ends to tie up before I'll feel like the photography stuff is running smoothly. But I might take tomorrow off to work on painting. The koi painting has undergone some dramatic changes - it doesn't even look like the same piece!

xkcd Highlight

Ok, so this isn't my own work but it's a very timely strip from xkcd. Something I need to remember while I'm trying to get some of my own projects off the ground.

My "To Do" list is longer than my "Done" list, something it's time to reverse.

Quick New Orleans Update

Just a quick single image from New Orleans. The other photos I've been working on aren't quite ready to make a public appearance yet.

New Orleans - Part 1

A few weeks ago, I traveled to New Orleans to visit my sister. She's there working in the public school system and recently got accepted into the teachNOLA program. Congrats Jill!!! Her students are an amazing group of kids.

Expect to see a lot of New Orleans in the coming weeks. I'm in the process of editing roughly 300 photos (not all will make the final cut!) so it will be a bit-by-bit process. Photos will be posted in roughly chronological order.

And now on to the Big Easy.

Jazz City

On the first night there, Jill took us to the Napoleon House. A perfect into to New Orleans. The 200 year old landmark was meant for Napoleon although he never actually make it there.



You don't get too much more "southern" than these two characters. The city is filled with street corner musicians.

St Louis Cathedral

As always, all images are © Melissa "Blue" Amrich and may not be reproduced in whole or in part without written permission.