Holy Frijoles!

What is this madness?
What is it?!
...
Oh, whew. It's only an update. Nothing to be afraid of folks (unless you're a critic >:/ ); I come in peace!

In all seriousness, though, I'm sorry about my unexplained hiatus.
There's no explanation for it.

So! On to the pictures:

This is one of my all-time favorites, which was displayed at the 2010 Arts Coffee House for Bluefield. Pen&Ink, watercolor pencil, and pastel.

This is now in the possession of my aunt. I mostly like the shadowing in the background.

Pencil drawing of a Swedish diplomat (?).

This one is interesting, but I wish I had put more definition into the background. Human anatomy is still kind of difficult for me.

This is also in my aunt's possession. I finally realized what it is that throws me off in this picture... The horse has no forelock!

The semester is nearly over. I do hope to update more regularly now, but life happens sometimes. Once I get school squared away, I should be all set for preparing updates and enjoying some free time. I'm looking forward to it!

I fell :(

Again. This time I was heading out for a walk with Willie. I jumped over a huge patch of ice and landed on the grass that was exposed after a day of 4C weather. I took a step onto what I thought was another patch of grass, but apparently was not.
FACE PLANT.
I have a fat lip, my upper arms are bruised, my thigh has a massive, and I mean MASSIVE, bruise on it, and I sense that my back will be sore tomorrow. At first I thought I had broken my nose, but luckily no damage was done there. I hit the ground hard enough that I saw stars and lost my balance upon standing, so I probably gave myself a mild concussion. That was the first time I have ever smashed my face into the ground. I've fallen off of horses head-first before, but the brim of my helmet always prevented my face from making contact with the ground.
At least Willie didn't try to run away. He easily could have, but he had the manners to wait for me. Good boy!

Tsugi. She is a character that keeps changing every time I draw her. I really like how the colors in the background contrast with the figure in black and white.

Color sketch of the minis. I later did a similar painting, which hung in the Lt. Governor's mansion for the Royal Visit.

Illustration idea for a story I wrote. I had completely forgotten about this until now...

Gel pen sketch. Yet another example of my rapid style changes.

More illustration ideas. I should probably get to work on this.

So, yeah. Until next time!

Getting These Posted

Before I head to class! Sorry guys, I don't have too much to say tonight. Hopefully I'll have something good for next time!

More book pages. Never fear! I used Gossip Girl pages, to prevent anyone from reading that trash :D

Sleeping kitty. I think I did this in marker and then tried pastel.

Trying a cartoony style. Stylistically, I like this one a lot. COLORS

Farting around with oil pastel backgrounds and gel pens. Why not?

Axl's helmet. This one scanned in really well. I'm particularly proud of figuring out how to do the crystal effect with markers!

Enjoy!

Nice Day

It snowed about 5 inches last night, but it warmed up considerably to about 4 C today. I took this opportunity to play with Willie all afternoon. We went for a walk (2 hours!), ran around in the snow, and generally had a great time. I hung around with my pseudo family and helped them set up for the PEIMHA Christmas party, which is taking place tomorrow. I then came home and burned an hour playing MMX8, which is my favorite game of all time.
Overall, today was a very relaxing, enjoyable day.

Pictures:

Done in sgraffito. I'm still trying to use up these 8-year-old oil pastels!

Practice, practice, practice.

A windy day. I need to work on my backgrounds.

More practice.

And some more.

Somewhat meagre offerings today, but they will have to do. Have a nice weekend!

It's a Lovely Day!

The sun is reflecting off of the latest snowfall, giving the light coming in through my window an angelic quality. It is cold out, quite cold, but the snow always seems to make everything a little warmer than it truly is.
I will likely be outside all day, by choice. I just figured I'd share what I'm seeing right now, because days like this make me pity those who have never experienced snow.

... Watch for my change of opinion when the snow is still falling at the end of March. >.<

Here's some more early 2009 pictures:

Axl. I was getting really fed up with orderly things, because my life was in chaos...

Trying different styles. This one didn't last for very long.

My cat Seneca. She was possibly one of the most beautiful cats we've ever owned. We had to put her down weeks before moving to Canada. She was so very, very sick.

I'm heading out! Maybe I'll get a picture of Willie running around in the snow :)

No classes tomorrow...

... because switching into Arts ROCKS! No classes on Wednesdays or Fridays, so I have time to visit Willie and write/draw without sacrificing study time!
I'll probably continue to accumulate the science courses needed for admission to the AVC, but time will tell what my ultimate decision turns out to be.

As of today, I have several pictures on my "to do list" that I will draw ASAP. No worries, my friends!

Here's one of the requests, by the way:
"Hey Artiste!

I've heard you've gotten really good at drawing farm animals. I was hoping you could draw me a pig. Not a regular pig, but a fat disgusting SOB lying on its side in a puddle of mud with its mouth half-open. The perspective I have in my head is looking down on it from its belly and slightly back while its lying on its left side. If you could incorporate hyper-realism that would be awesome. I want to feel physically ill while looking at this thing. Tell me what you think.

Love,

Strange Older Brother"

I have NO idea what he means perspective-wise, but I sent this to him:

Further proof that computers and Artiste do not mix.

Is that a person inside the pig?

...Yeah...

Back to our regular programming!
This sketchbook is probably my least favorite of all time. It was started 20 April 2009, and was completed sometime in the end of June 2009. This was possibly the most stressful period of my life. I don't even like thinking about it.
Anyway, there appears to be a drastic change in style for, in my opinion, the worse. There are very few pages that somewhat redeemed my opinion of this book, but they are few and far between. For the sake of my personal pride, I only scanned in pages that I found acceptable for the "standard" I wish to maintain on this blog. Not that any of it is inappropriate; I just feel that the pictures are not refined enough to post and are, to put it bluntly, stupid.

I'm sure you've had enough of my snooty self analysis.
Moving on!

... How unlady-like.

As you can see, my skills in drawing anatomy went drastically downhill. :/

My cat Tevye sunning herself on the table.

Even my horse drawing skills suffered. I'm still trying to recover.

Another cat. This one is okay, I guess.

There are only about ten more, so this sketchbook will be a short one.

Also, I haven't forgotten about the Aeolus picture. I'm doing an exercise in patience pffft! so I don't make any stupid shading mistakes. At least, that's what I'm telling myself.

Hey, Now!

Look here! A post done at a decent hour of the day!
Since my mom came home, we've actually gotten things done on time, which means, wonderfully enough, that I actually have time to do what I want during daylight hours! TEARS. TEARS OF JOY.

I think I'm going to take the wee-man for a walk in the snow. Yes. That is a very good idea :3


Also, I encourage you to check out this lovely person's site: http://alysenicholson.blogspot.com/
It's always nice to check out other people's art when you need some inspiration!

Okay, pictures:

This was done in oil pastel. I don't use oils pastels very often, but I find them to be fairly versatile when trying different coloring styles!

If you ignore the doodles underneath the paint, this is an interesting composition. Maybe I'll do a version 2 someday...

A sketch of the minis I used to take to nursing homes.  I was originally going to color this, but once my sketchbook is closed, I don't touch anything in it.

I like this character. I don't think I ever named her, but the design is clean and simple. Job description? "Master Badass."

This is the last picture of the sketchbook. I really really love this one. There is very little that I could pick on, and the style is so... stylish? Crap, I ran out of words! Ha-

Speaking of job descriptions, I've had a number of unofficial jobs, but my two favorites were being a pet therapist, which involved taking miniature horses to nursing homes and rehab centers, and being a freight elevator operator for Western Ave. Studios in Lowell. They were fun and interesting jobs, and even though the elevator got stuck between floors* every freakin' time so often, I had a good time and learned a lot about who I was as a person.

This was the end of my 2008 sketchbook (15 year old self, btw). The next sketchbook I've been considering skipping altogether, but I want to share how my "art cycle" goes. There is very little in it that I think merits scanning, but I think struggling artists need to see what they have pulled themselves out of in order to keep moving forward. (RNN, I'm looking at you!)
So here we go.
Big hint: it's really bad.
>. >


*Seriously, people. Do not open the doors without the operator's permission. That's why there are signs everywhere. GAH.

I'M BAAAAACK!

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*Ahem* 

Anyway, I come bearing gifts!

A Shire horse, one of my favorite heavy-horses. I have no beef with this picture, so it gets the STAMP of approval :D

You know that STAMP I mentioned above? Yeah, this one does not deserve it. (This was practice using a brush-pen, btw)

This horse is cute, but has terrible conformation. Still up there in my favorites, though.

Axl! Drew this in class and taped the looseleaf into my sketchbook. Very unrefined, but hey.

Julius Caesar. The proportions are off*, but seeing as this was for a Latin project, I don't really care. So there p:

I should draw cats more. They are probably the most difficult animal for me to draw, and I spend all of my free time with them :/

I really like the background (done with a sponge, no less). Ignore the horse, and the picture is quite pleasant.

See those cool yellow circles? I did that by using the stopper from my yellow India ink bottle to place a whack of ink dots on the page. When they dried around the edges, I took a sponge and swept the color across the page. Pretty cool, huh?

 

Blue horse, because being realistic all the time was getting boring...

*I am going to share some pro-tips for drawing faces with y'all.

1st: A face is 3 foreheads long. If you want to trip someone up, mess with those proportions a bit.

2nd: Human ears generally go from the eyebrow line down to the lip line.

3rd: There is one "eye space" between your eyes.

4th: When drawing teeth in a smile, do not outline each individual tooth (unless you are going for the gap-toothed look).

Simply draw the bottom of the teeth and the top along the gums, and your eyes will do the rest.

Last stretch

I've been very busy these past few days, as I have been preparing to leave for the States while still trying to balance out some pre-Christmas visits with my friends and pseudo-family*. As of right now, I still have stuff all over my bed to be packed up or put away. I took my blind neighbor shopping for her Christmas presents** which was a nice day out. I collapsed my mini studio to store while I'm away ( sad!), and things are slowly but surely getting done. Tomorrow is going to be especially busy, as I have to clean the house, bring the chickens to my neighbor's barn, study, visit Willie, deliver some presents, go to a friend's Christmas party, pack, and some smaller chores as well.
Le sigh...
Obviously, I won't be updating regularly until I return from the motherland, but I will come back. I need to. I am addicted to this Island.

Pictures!

You can never challenge this cat to a race. Why? Cos he's a cheetah. HAH HAH HAH. :(

This chunky horse remains one of my favorites. He also won me an iPod, so brownie points for him, I guess.

Completely out of proportion, but I'm liking the shading style here.

Yellow face. I need to get back to drawing faces like this again.

Joey the camel. Having never drawn a camel until this point, I'd say he turned out quite nicely.

 Night y'all.



*I tend to get adopted by people. This is not a bad thing, but I've yet to figure out why this happens everywhere I go. I swear I have my own room in at least 5 different houses.
** She bought me about 10 pounds of candy for being a good farmhand. Awwww! :3

It's not last night anymore...

...Oops. Heh.
Anyway, I'm posting in the wee hours today because I was thinking about going to bed early for once when I was suddenly struck with a massive art attack. I simply could not ignore it, so I quickly got to work. Indeed, it has been the most productive art day ever, and by that I mean "two paintings, a large scale oil pastel picture, bunch of sketches, two comics pages, and some writing all done in a period of 3 hours" productive.
Oh, yeah, and I finished my current sketchbook. YEAH! I still have quite a ways to go before I'll be posting that one here, but it will surely make an appearance sooner or later.

Okay, pictures!

Experimenting with pastel. Even now, I have quite a ways to go before I can say that I'm comfortable using them.

Guys are actually really difficult for me to draw. I think it's because their jaws are squarier... Yeah.

FANART. :3  Axl's such a doof. There are numerous things I would change now, but I think this was a fair attempt at a "group photo" for the time.

Charcoal horse. I'm quite fond of this one. I don't use charcoal very often, but it is quite fun when I get around to it. :)

My morning face. watchulookinat?!

Depending on whether I'm still super sore/tired/cold tomorrow, I might go riding. There's supposed to be a high temp of -1 C tomorrow, which really isn't that bad, but the weather this week has been changing rapidly, so it may be too soon to tell what tomorrow holds. If I do end up being stuck inside all day, I will likely crack open my new-to-me encyclopedia from the 1920s to get a peek at what was common knowledge back then. I love stuff like that. If I could have one extra room in my house, I would have a library/study. Dreams, dreams...