ashley.mancuso.illustration.

Self Portrait

2011-11-06T22:32:00.002-05:00

Charcoal. 2011

My Neighbor's House

2011-08-21T17:29:00.001-04:00

Drawing of my neighbor's house, inked and ready to be painted.

Rome, Italy

2011-07-16T15:18:00.008-04:00

Florence, Italy

2011-07-10T10:19:00.007-04:00

Florence was my favorite city out of the three. Mostly because it was so beautiful, and I love the terra cotta roof tops. This is the view we had from our hotel room. We first experienced how crazy the traffic system was. They just have people driving where ever they want, and the mopeds just weave between cars and pedestrians. We were surprised that we didn't see any accidents while we were in Italy. But glad of course.

Another reason I loved Florence is because Dante is from Florence...and they had a lot of sculptures and paintings of the poet. This was my favorite one, and I think I took a couple of epic shots. This is outside of the Church of Santa Croce.

Dante with birds...

The billboards in Italy were pretty interesting as well. They just print out a bunch of posters and put them on long walls. Usually they double them up. It looks really neat regardless of how effective they are.

My brother and I climbed (by foot!) the tower next to the Dome of the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore. This is the view about halfway up the tower.

And this is the view of the city from the top. Look at all those terra cotta rooftops! <3

Inside the Bargello Museum, my favorite museum in Florence. Though I did get to see the Statue of David in all its glory, the collection in this museum hit closer to home for me, mostly that it showcased a lot of medieval art. There were also many beautiful items made of gold and brass, and I'm a nut for things made out of metal. My favorite items were the pocket watches, sadly we couldn't take photographs so just take my word for it, they were BEAUTIFUL and had intricate scenes welded into them. The other items that I loved were the hand painted wood/terra cotta saints and Madonna and Child statues. There was also a room that had been turned into a prison, that was originally a church I do believe, that they uncovered a painting of the Inferno and Paradise.

Ponte Vecchio, the bridge of houses. The only bridge that Hitler didn't destroy. There are no longer houses of course, now it is just a LOT of high quality jewelry stores.

View of the Dome from the Garden of Roses, as we climbed to the top of the hill to see the view.

One of the beautiful sculptures, though the subject matter was pretty horrible. The Rape of Polyxena.

Venice, Italy

2011-07-10T10:01:00.004-04:00

I thought I would do a couple blog posts about my trip to Italy in June. It was fantastic! I have never been in such an ancient and beautiful place. Venice was outstanding. It was fascinating to see how a culture can live with primarily water transportation. The above picture is of a Gondola, which we unfortunately didn't ride in, but we were able to hear them singing from out hotel window.

An 'alley way' in the city. We mostly walked.

View from the tower of St. Marco.

Sculpture on the Church of St. Marco.

We were there to see the Harvest Moon. It crossed directly over the tower we had been in earlier that day.

The Cat and the Tortoise

2011-07-06T18:35:00.001-04:00

A drawing I did for my turtle blog, One Year of Turtlation, and I liked it a lot.

Happy Mother's Day!

2011-05-08T08:28:00.003-04:00

Card for my mom. =) Deckled and painted paper, newspaper, buttons and ribbon.

Birthday Card

2011-04-23T16:18:00.005-04:00

Newest birthday card featuring recipients little boy Max and dog Rocky.

2011-04-10T09:47:00.000-04:00

Self Portrait

2011-03-29T21:43:00.001-04:00

Mojo

2011-02-25T15:17:00.003-05:00

Our friends' dog Mojo, an Australian Shepherd.

Gouache and Ink.

My Turtle Blog

2011-02-08T20:41:00.004-05:00

Please check out my new blog, One Year of Turtlation, where I attempt to make a turtle every day for one year.

Kitty Soup

2011-01-08T16:37:00.000-05:00

First two page spreads for Willow

2011-01-05T17:56:00.001-05:00

Mindy's Mittens

2010-12-27T22:10:00.002-05:00

Mindy loved the wintertime, but even more than that, she loved wearing her mittens. She was good at building igloos, making snowmen and sledding, but she was also good as losing one of her mittens. She had about six pairs of mittens, but now she only had one of each. She just lost one from the last pair she had, and now she was mitten-less.

Overnight there had been a snowstorm, and school was cancelled that day. Excited Mindy finished her breakfast in a hurry and ran upstairs to get ready to play in the snow. She was all set except for her mittens. She went downstairs into the kitchen where her mother was cleaning the dishes and she turned around just in time to see Mindy opening the door, all dressed up except for her bare hands.

“Mindy! Where are your mittens?” she said.

Mindy stopped and looked at her mother, “I lost one.”

“That is the sixth pair this season!” her mother exclaimed. “You’re not to go outside until you search for your lost mittens!”

Mindy frowned as she closed the door and headed upstairs to take off her snow clothes. “I’ll never find them all!” she said. “But I guess I’d better try or I won’t be able to play in the snow.”

So determined Mindy started her search. She looked around her room: under her bed, in her closet, in her dresser and under her pillows. She spotted her toybox in the corner of the room. She emptied it, and all the way at the bottom was one yellow mitten.

“I found one!” she exclaimed, and put it with it’s pair.

She continued out of her room and went to her brother’s room. He was downstairs playing video games, so she carefully crept in.

“I’ll never find anything in here,” she said observing the pigstye around her. She looked under his bed (yuck!), in his closet, in his dresser (most of the clothes were on the floor anyway) and saw a box in the corner of the room. She looked inside only to find it was a bunch of things she was missing! Her doll, her pony toy, her favorite bouncy ball and all the way at the bottom: a green mitten. She took the box in her room, returning her things to their proper places and put the green mitten with it’s pair. Two down, four to go.

Mindy went downstairs to search some more, stopping to look out the window at the snow still falling. I have to find them, she thought. So she headed to the living room, where her brother was playing his video game.

"Get out of the way!" her brother yelled as she walked in front of the T.V. screen. She gave him a look.

She decided to search the couch. She looked underneath, behind and on top, and started picking up the cushions. She found some pennies, a pen and a piece of candy, but her brother was blocking the last one.

"Can I look under your cushion?" she asked him, longingly.

"Will you leave me alone?" he asked.

"Yes, I promise!" she said.

So he got up, and she pulled up the cushion, and there was a red mitten. She grabbed it and ran upstairs to return it to its match. Three more.

She thought for a minute, of where to look next. The car! Mindy ran downstairs and into the garage, and opened the door of the mini-van. She looked on all the seats and in the trunk. Then she looked under the passenger seat. She found a stick of gum, a quarter, and a pink mitten. Excited Mindy jetted upstairs to complete the fourth pair.

She hopped down the stairs as her mother was calling her for lunch. The day was passing by! She ate her sandwich and thought about where the next mitten might be hiding. After she finished, she went to her room and looked in the corner at her book bag. She took out her homework (she had time to do it later!) and dumped the contents of the bag on the floor. She picked up a book that looked particularly lumpy and opened it to find one blue mitten. This must be enough for me to go outside, she thought. She put it with its pair, put on her snow clothes and ran downstairs.

The sun was crossing the sky and she still had one mitten to go.

"Mom," Mindy exclaimed, "I have found five mittens, can't I play in the snow now?"

"You've come so far Mindy," her mother said, "I bet you can find the next one if you tried. Til then, you are to stay inside."

Mindy sighed, and took a seat next to her brother on the couch. She scratched her head and thought to herself. Where would I put a mitten? She put her hands in her coat and felt something soft. She pulled the object out of her pocket: a purple mitten! Mindy grinned from cheek to cheek as she ran upstairs to grab the other purple mitten.

She came downstairs and ran up to her mother with her purple-mittened hands.

"I found them all!" she told her mother. "Can I play in the snow now?"

"Of course you can!" he mother said. "I'm so proud you found them all. Now try not to lose them, and you can play in the snow all day next time."

"I won't!" Mindy promised, and she ran outside to build an igloo, a snowman, and make a snow angel. When it was dark, Mindy came in and placed her pair of mittens on the heater to dry as her mother made her hot soup and cocoa.

Mindy never lost a mitten again.

Imagine

2010-11-23T22:15:00.004-05:00

A card I painted for my brother, as he is a Lennon fan =)

Done in ink and gouache, from photo reference, since I don't have the liberty of having him pose for me =/

RIP John Lennon

New Painting

2010-11-20T09:11:00.004-05:00

This is a painting I started in the early summer, just messing around with 'abstract colors' and texture. I don't usually paint in acrylic, let alone on canvas, but it was fun to mess around with no solidified color and the defined lines of the tree that I did with a Staedtler pen, which I didn't realize WASN'T waterproof like Micron pens. The fox I just added yesterday. I knew I wanted a fox, but I didn't want to mess up the canvas by just painting on it. So I drew it on a piece of paper, and then made a copy, cut it out and then used gloss medium to adhere it to the canvas. Then I painted it. I tried to take a photo that really gets the colors right....and I couldn't. It's so much prettier in person. The orange specs in the trees are actually a metallic gold, and the white flowers are a pearl finish.

Anyway, it was fun for me, so enjoy =)

Storyboard for Willow

2010-11-19T10:21:00.004-05:00

This is really rough.....

from a story written by my awesome friend Maria Missionario.

Kitty Party

2010-11-13T17:06:00.003-05:00

A card I made for my mom's birthday.

The Bird Charmer

2010-07-28T21:49:00.002-04:00

Newest piece, still exploring stylization.

Creepy Old Lady

2010-05-12T19:59:00.004-04:00

Portrait of a Sad lady

2010-05-12T10:41:00.003-04:00

Messing around with stylization. I have an infatuation with spirals and drawing sad ladies.

Creepy Old Lady

2010-04-30T11:09:00.003-04:00

A drawing I had done a while ago I am about to paint in a few days I hope. Just a creepy old lady. Any medium suggestions welcome. I'm going for that Stephen Gammell Scary Stories kinda feel.

Paper Window

2010-01-30T18:09:00.005-05:00

An illustration I did for my friends poem.

The image with the poem.

The image alone....

Use for a Moose

2009-12-19T14:58:00.002-05:00

The antlers of a standing moose,

As everybody knows,

Are just the perfect place to hang

Your wet and drippy clothes.

It’s quick and cheap, but I must say

I’ve lost a lot of clothes that way.

Falling Up Redo for final

2009-11-30T19:31:00.002-05:00

Blame final

2009-11-30T19:30:00.001-05:00

Redos for the first two

2009-11-19T00:32:00.002-05:00

Messy Room Take 2

2009-11-05T20:16:00.000-05:00

Falling Up

2009-11-05T16:42:00.003-05:00

Preliminary sketch.

Illustration thus far. The background is painted and I blurred it in photoshop.

Messy Room

2009-10-29T20:03:00.005-04:00

This was my sketch/color study.

And my first 'final' though I am going to reshoot when I rent a better camera.

Bear in There

2009-10-07T23:58:00.003-04:00

My hopefully final image. But I think it needs some more color or something. Suggestions welcome!

Old Sketches for Halloween

2009-09-24T21:44:00.001-04:00

Owl

2009-09-24T16:52:00.000-04:00

Gouache and Ink

There's a Bear in There

2009-09-23T11:48:00.004-04:00

I am currently doing an illustration of the poem, "There's a Bear in There" by Shel Silverstein. I am trying to push working in 3D because I adore it.

This is the sketch for it.

and my progress thus far.

Journal

2009-08-13T15:22:00.004-04:00

*front

*back

This is a design for a journal. Will post finished picture.

Experimental Piece

2009-05-21T12:52:00.003-04:00

This is a piece I did off a photo of my friend, and just wanted to experiment with mixing realistic figure in non realistic/design based b/g.

Criticism welcome!

The original sketch.

*based on a photo of Sara Marks by Chris Chambers.

Snow Wolf

2009-05-07T11:03:00.002-04:00

Gouache Run-off Technique

More Zodiacs

2009-04-25T01:19:00.004-04:00

Leo

Libra

Scorpio

Capricorn

Aquarius

All in gouache and ink.

Bagel time

2009-04-21T02:22:00.002-04:00

Gouache and watercolor, 2009

Zodiac for Kids

2009-04-21T01:42:00.005-04:00

Aries

Taurus

Virgo

(all ink and gouache, 2009)

Balloon Pickers Country

2009-04-21T01:42:00.001-04:00

Ink and Gouache, 2009

How to Fillet a Silver Salmon

2009-04-21T01:39:00.001-04:00

Ink and Gouache, 2009

Rabbit Fur Coat

2009-04-21T01:38:00.001-04:00

Ink and Gouache, 2008

Gutter Cat

2009-04-21T01:36:00.004-04:00

Watercolor and Pencil, 2009

Sea of Sorrow

2009-04-21T01:36:00.002-04:00

Gouache, 2008

The Monkey King

2009-04-21T01:35:00.001-04:00

Ink and Gouache, 2008

Froggy Days

2009-04-21T01:05:00.003-04:00

Watercolor, 2008