Gestures

Fencing gestures done while watching the bouts.

School's become an issue of love and hate for me. Between the highs of extreme confidence in my skills and ideas and the lows of viewing my art as childish and poorly executed, I'm pondering whether or not I'm cut out for art. It bothers me that I might not because its all I really know next to maybe... writing. But I've been getting encouragement in regards to my illustration skill, so that's helpful. I don't think I'm cut out for Bachelors of Fine Arts, so I might start looking at a Bachelors in Graphic Design. Otherwise I need to figure out what I'm going to minor in... but I'm not so sure about the History minor I wanted anymore.

But for a little while I got to forget about that stuff and spent a day with friends. Hanging out, going to a fencing tournament at my old highschool, making dinner and hanging out some more. My parents were out of town for the day to see a special dentist and do some shopping in the bigger city, so we got to enjoy the house to ourselves. It was pretty nice.

Looking forward to doing something productive this Easter weekend.

Back to School

School is great. Challenging, but great. I missed it sooooo much!

Admittedly, it was a rocky start. It was like going to a new school all over again. Illustration in particular scared me because I hadn't had the teacher yet before my 'hiatus,' and my classmates and him all knew each other and I didn't really understand what was going on work-wise. To shorten the story, it made me cry after the first couple days. Part of me wanted to drop the class. I was alone and didn't think I could handle it. But the rest of me didn't feel like giving up. I hate giving up. So I didn't, and now Illustration is my favorite class, even though I still barely know anyone in there and its 3-hours long and COLD.

Two of several journal pages.

Our current project isn't what I expected from an Illustration class, but it's been an interesting one. I'm not sure how to explain it (or what its called), but it involves paper and layering. Our theme was something childish involving toys. I chose the tongue twister She Sells Sea Shells as my main theme, using a matryoshka doll and pull-toy crossed with jack-ina-box. It became an interesting coincidence while doing some research to learn that the tongue twister was inspired by Mary Anning. One of the dinosaurs she discovered was once described as "a snake threaded though a turtle shell"(even though it had no shell), so I found it somewhat fitting for my little doll girl to keep her turtle toy thing.

The illustration will have the matyroshka and turtle toy on a beach set. The jack-ina-box will feature something of a narrative piece for its top. The story shown has nothing to do with my research, I just wanted to provide something of a backstory to help with designing the setting. I've kind of been winging it with my project and going off suggestions from my teacher, who seems pleased with what I've done so far. Although, I'm beginning to think I've thrown in too much color, or maybe the colors are just too noisy for me. If I can find the time at home, I will probably try to make alternate versions of the doll and her turtle (sorry for the blurry photo).

The doll herself may end up featured in more little projects later on. I found myself doodling a little sketch of her while waiting at the library for my dad's class to end and I'm growing fond of her design. Our next Illustration project will involve pen and ink. Hopefully I'll be able to fit her into it.

CP experiment1

Finally got around to playing with Corel Painter. I love the watercolor brushes. I only used two colors for my little test (a dark blue and a coral pink), everything in between was from blending or erasing with four brushes: broad water brush, gentle wet eraser, new simple water, and salt. I'm definitely going to keep experimenting with this. :3

Struggles

Spending hours into the nights to finish a birthday present and I'm realizing some things.

I'm struggling with:
- fabric folds
- lighting
- hands

I used to think these things weren't a big deal. Good thing the last of my tuition will be paid off in two months. I can't wait to go back to school!

Sketching

To help me get on a "normal" schedule, my dad decided the other day that I must do two things everyday without fail: exercise and practice my art (I don't show my parents my digital work, so they're never sure if I'm actually practicing, hence why these are done in pencil). This is supposed to make me tired by the end of the day so I'll sleep normally. Quite frankly I don't mind. My sleep aids have been giving me palpitations.

So yesterday I did some life drawing, by drawing two of our pets. It was very difficult. Lacy, the dog would only stay still for a few minutes before shifting and the bird was dancing the whole time while fluffing and flattening her feathers in a little display of excitement.


In regards to poor Molly over there (our/my macaw), the reason for her rather... strange bulge is because she has no feathers on her chest. She started this over a year ago and when the feathers grow back they irritate her so she plucks them again. So far the only solution I have that doesn't involve a neck cone is to make sure she's happy and give her a bath regularly (which is actually more fun than some might think).

Preparing for V-day

An unfinished sketch, one of a few I plan to do for Valentine's.

I've rediscovered how useful my manikins are, even though they aren't as flexible as I need them to be. I've also again confirmed to myself that my anatomy needs loooots of work.

bigger IS better

I think I'm in love with working with large images now.
My lamp so far, not full size of course.