TENAYA LENA

A place to share my drawings and paintings… sometimes.

[tenayalena]

Little lunch doodle turned into this little mouse :) #stoptosmelltheflowers #illustration #doodle #sketch #mouse #daisy #graphite #graphitedrawing

[tenayalena]

For now. This is okay. Just sitting and thinking. Letting myself be where I am. Growing slowly. 🌱 #sketch #illustration #graphitedrawing #contemplation #planttexture

[tenayalena]

Doodle doodle doooooo! Whither will I wander? #wanderer #illustration #tinydrawing #graphitedrawing #sketch #doodle

[tenayalena]

Got the sketch done today for this door I'm painting. It just really needed a giant soap root plant on it. And a couple earthstars. And some moons. And a few other things.... Painting begins tomorrow.... #capturingitsmagic #soaprootismyfriend #theyjustmakemehappy #wip #painting #botanicalart #soaproot #californianative #sketch (at Oakopolis Creativity Center)

[tenayalena]

Trying out watercolors on this Anemone sketch. How is it I haven't used watercolor since I was a kid?! Thought I'd keep it simple this time since my first two were too detailed and ended up a mess. (Plus that's all my messed up wrist will allow today) Not even going for a stem and leaves. This is it. Done!

[tenayalena]

Just like to say that your work is beautiful! Nice

Thank you so much! I haven't been able to work much lately due to a wrist injury, but hopefully I will be able to post more art soon! I really enjoy your graphite drawings. The plants have a lot of life in them. - Tenaya

[tenayalena]

Finally made some progress on my magnolia pod and leaf study. It's not quite what I was going for, but I've definitely learned some of the ins and outs of colored pencil.

[tenayalena]

Study of a magnolia pod and leaves in progress. Also the beginnings of my first attempt at colored pencil. Was just going to be a quick pencil study, but then I noticed some colored pencils nearby and thought, what the heck, why not! I had already gone a little too dark in the graphite sketch, without a good eraser on me, so it's a bit too dark in areas, but it's just a first go at it!

[tenayalena]

My first little rubber stamp! It's in separate pieces so I can print it blooming or not and I can use the flower pieces to add color to the leaves. I felt like making something small, fun and fast yesterday and I'd never tried this before. Yay for new things!

[tenayalena]

A few little bits of the completed mural. The exposure is so inconsistent on my darned phone! I'll go back to the school soon with a good camera (hopefully before all those adorable little feet have scuffed the whole thing :)

[tenayalena]

Some process shots of my Bay Area Natives mural. (taken with a mediocre phone)

[tenayalena]

Some progress photos of the mural I painted. Kia (who had the idea for the project) came in and got some pictures of me at work! 

[tenayalena]

Native Plants are Tasty Too: a mural project

Hey there! Yeah, I'm talkin' to you! I just launched a kickstarter project and you should check it out. I was asked to paint a mural at an elementary school, but we need funding to make it happen. It's going to be all about the native plants and animals that live in the Bay Area, how awesome is that?! There will be info written next to the plants, like the latin and common name, and if you can eat it or if you'd be better off making soap or a brush out of it. It's a great opportunity for me to paint something beautiful for these kids, and I need as much help as I can get.

Just click the link below, and you get to watch an embarrassing video of me talking about it.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/894166155/native-plants-are-tasty-too-a-mural-at-emerson-ele?ref=email

And of course, please spread the word! Thanks everyone.

[tenayalena]

A curious little Tanuki I needle felted. And no, you aren’t seeing things, those are not only large, but magical, testicles you see hanging out down there. Say wah?! Well, Tanuki are raccoon like animals that live in Japan. In Japanese mythology they are depicted as not only being very mischievous (as they are in real life), but they also are said to possess magical testicles that can change shape and also allow them to change their entire appearance! My Tanuki is based on statues people put in shop entrances in Japan. I made him so he can welcome folks to my sisters clothing shop as they enter.

[tenayalena]

Carrots grow in the ground and are delicious.

A friend told me a story a while back that keeps running through my mind about working at a garden program at a school. They had planted some veggies in the garden, and the carrots were ready to be harvested. They brought all the kids over to the garden and then pulled the carrots up out of the ground. The kids all freaked. They had no idea that carrots grew in the dirt! They thought carrots came out of the store, perfectly orange and with no sign of dirt, and that was that. There was no processing facility, no farmer, and especially no soil. It really doesn’t help that most kids are taught that dirt, and being dirty, is bad for you. Dirt bad + carrots in dirt = carrots bad. Hmmmm… maybe not the best way to think of our food and where it comes from. When I was little I loved playing in the mud and finding worms and rolly-polly bugs in the garden. It was the best. Dirt was far from an enemy. And I still love that dirt and those worms, and so do all the delicious veggies that are presented to us so immaculately in the store. Not understanding how our food grows isn’t the only down side to all of this, it’s also not understanding who does the growing. Knowing that your delicious tomatoes come from a farm, worked and run by people and didn’t just magically appear, could help give people more appreciation for everything they consume. This is one reason I’m excited about trying to get this mural project going. It’s kind of a starting point in showing kids how plants grow, where they really come from, and of course how darned pretty it all is.

[tenayalena]

Graphite leaf study. Needed to draw a leaf but it was winter in Brooklyn so the only thing I found was some ivy. Not the best picture, but it will have to do for now.

[tenayalena]

Graphite drawing of a crow. It was suppose to just be a quick study for something else, but I just kept rendering...