Mother Russia

Hey! Sorry I've been hanging out on tumblr and facebook, if you'd like to see more posts from me check 'em out. I've also been selling my work at various conventions, the next one will be the Pittsburgh Comic Con.

But here's my piece for the zombie-filled, re-imagined WWII graphic novel Mother Russia, published by FUBAR Press. The illustration is cropped and in black and white in the book, full color version is best. Prints will be available.

Can't go wrong with history, zombies and red heads.

The Offering

Hey look! I finished it. Yaay. *waggles arms Muppet style*

When I originally started designing this I was thinking of a demon/vampire like monster. But when looking for ideas for the background I ran across a public domain photograph of a stone Bull's head/man beast, and I started liking the idea of tying this in with Greek Mythology. Vampires have gotten pretty lame lately anyway. So maybe she's a relation of the Minotaur. Or offering an unknown...something to him. Leaving the sacrifice unknown seemed like a good idea, and the pose and circle design is reminicent of a religious icon on purpose.

I've never taken a piece to a finish that involved blood before and getting it to look right took some time. I wanted it to have a streaky, streaming drippy-ness look and still have the gloppy viscous nature of blood, but I wanted to just leave it as a graphic element, like her dress, letting the outline do the work. Pretty happy with it now, but I was under the impression for awhile that I'd never be able to get it right...like when drawing horses. Blasted horses.

If anyone's interested in this as a print let me know, thinking of selling prints on Etsy again.

Erm. Yeah. Vectors!

Like all my "journals" throughout my life, my updating has been random, with bouts of renewed interest. Lately whenever I've felt like maybe posting something (like more art, imagine that) or ranting about This, That and the Other I've been dissuaded by the fact that I doubted anyone actually read this, besides one person who I would rather didn't know any more about my daily life. Also, I'm lazy.

But apparently I'm interesting enough to have VerveEarth e-mail me. Of course they want me to advertise for them, which I have (look at the widget. Look at it!). But if this gets my blog any more attention so much the better, because maybe some day someone will see some actual art and want to hire me. So on the off chance of that happening, I'm willing to add a widget for the chance of more (positive, not creepy thank you very much) attention.

It's summer, whoo. All jr.s have to have a "mentorship" over the course of the summer, and I pestered Jack Unruh to be my mentor (http://www.jackunruh.com/home.html) and he agreed. The poor man. So I'm working on that currently, we have to complete at least one project under our mentor's tutorledge. If I don't frick up it should turn out pretty awesomely. As soon as I scan in and send in the sketch to Jack I'll....I was about to lie. I may or may not put in extra effort and post it here. Ooooh, suspense. Will she or won't she?

Alright, some arting. Besides the mentorship and some emo-ness, I've been making happy vectors.







The pandas are from my Maya class, we had to design a room, and make some art using an Adobe product to put on the wall. Bleh. I like my octopus. If you want to see these bigger, and some other stuff, go here: http://roguehobbit.deviantart.com/ Maybe I'll get around to posting some of the watercolors I did at the end of the year. Mm. I should. I want to do a giant acrylic painting of the octopus vector, I think it would just be cool to have that on a wall and have it attack some poor smuck's eyeballs upon entering the apartment. Perhaps after the mentorship is over.

Currently I'm watching a group of young 19-20 year old males play Pixel Junk Monster. It's rather amusing. Watching them gathered around the tv on the floor playing a cute game while cursing at towers and insulting each other, I mean. Though the game is fun too (dancing on towers I can do). My amusement may be due to the fact that it's 6:30 in the morning, but hey.

Oh, I caved and am whoring some vectors on cafepress merchandise. Care to buy a button or t-shirt and help me buy more supplies? :D? http://www.cafepress.com/roguehobbit

Alright, I'm finished blabbing for now. Laters (but how much later no one knows...do doo doooo).

Snow Day

What horrible Edward Gorey Death will you die from?


You will be smothered under a rug. You're a little anti-social, and may want to start gaining new social skills by making prank phone calls.
Take this quiz!

Rugs are fun.

Woke up this morning and checked if my school was open, since it was supposed to be pretty bad out today. It was closed. I blinked at it, and then called the school to be sure. WGAL wasn't lying. So I told Trisha school was closed, and then I went back to bed. Weird dreams, and at one point I woke up trying to breathe. Ug, I hate being sick and stuffy. I read my Edward Gorey book. Quite depressing, but loved the illustrations. I want to doodle some of his creatures he put in this one ("The Hapless Child").

Inspired by this guy's work :http://michaelpaulus.com/gallery/v/character-Skeletons/ I've started drawing monster skeletons. I love bones. Soon as I have more of a collection I'll try and put some up here. Been thinking of getting a smaller sketch book, since I like to work small with ink. Have work tomorrow, but I'll get to sleep in. I like sleep. I had sleep today but it still feels like I need more. Always. It's like I'm in a constant state of sleep depervation. After work I think I may get my ears pierced, if I'm not too out of it. I've never had my cartilage pierced, and I've heard varying accounts of if it's painful or not. Let's help I'm not queasy.

AWOL Teachers and A Small Encouragement

Quote of the day so far: "16 grand a year and I can't get a thumb tack?" A classmate ranting about this school's lack of supplies.

There is some nice things about snow. Sneakers make a satisfying "cruunch" noise when walking on the snow, and sneakers usually only squeak. But it's cold. Boots, some gloves that actually have fingers and another layer were my consensus to the weather today, but I should have included ear muffs. Anywho.

Our teacher didn't show up today. Can't chalk up too much sympathy for the man, who is sick, because I'm sick. But him not being here is kinda a good thing. My class all wanted to run away when we discovered he wasn't showing up, but our "clients" are here to check our sketches. Our assignment is to do a cover for PENNAG's magazine. Yay. Agriculture. Barns are so fun to draw. :/ Even knowing that a lot of people wanted to leave. You can tell our dedication to this project is high. But we trooped up to the other illustration class, and we had our sketches reviewed by the representatives. I would like to leave now. But I think Ellen, the other classes teacher is going to tell us what we should have for next week, and then my class can skedaddle. Hopefully.

I was walking down the hall and noticed a piece from my Alternative Illustration class on the wall. Then I noticed another wall that had maybe 5 more pieces from the class. Since Freshmen year I haven't had anything put on the wall, as an example of the work from the class. It's really rather depressing, and always seems to happen fro random reasons. Like a portrait project in Anatomy. He only had so much room to display, and sine mine and one other classmate did portraits of people other then ourselves, our two weren't displayed. Or I do a great job on a project that isn't picked to showcase at all. Over and over again things like that happen and after 2 years of it it begins to feel like a conspiracy. Or I just suck. That's the one I lean to. But this time mine was up there, and say haff of the classes weren't. So mine was one picked to showcase. Yay Spielberg. Drawing and painting you has payed off. It's a bit depressing that this made me as happy as it did, considering most people have their work all over the school, for every project. Bleh. Sam's made it up too, but I just realized it was on the edge and I didn't get it in this shot. <.<

We're supposed to stay with the other class. Yeah. Right. My classmates are so going to do that, when all we had to do was sign in for Fowler to establish that we came. The reps liked one of my pieces:



And they didn't say to change anything. The sketch is done, I'm not working on it anymore, besides maybe adding a plate. Moving onto final sized sketch, and color comps. Screw tweaking. They liked it.

I want to get my ears pierced, upper cartilage. Hm. Maybe today, maybe this weekend. Maybe next year.

Brandywine Trip, Spielberg, and Missing Friends

By God it's cold. There was one short day of wonderful weather, and it's been freezing since. Random snow, and even though I do enjoy looking out the window and imagining ash is raining down on Pompeii, I am wishing for some warmer weather. Heating costs a lot, and my apartment building is skimpy in that area. So is Jason now that he found out how much the heating bill was.

Been some time since I updated. 18 credits is a lot to juggle and try to have a social life at the same time. Jason and I are back together, since early January. I have doubts and hopes at the same time, and I tend to experience extreme highs and lows in this relationship. We shall see. So far I've been able to handle the school work with only some slight losses (skimping on my Ethics homework, sorry Achtermann, the art classes tend to take more precedence then Kant or Plato). I'm the only one I know that still has 18 credits, and it's kinda daunting that everyone else is dropping a class. I'm not the best at time management, and work's hours have been cut, but once they pick up I may have more of a problem.

On Tuesday my History of Illustration class went to the Brandywine River Museum. Saw some great stuff, and some things that didn't really interest me, though they were like the best of American illustration. Saw a Nancy Ekholm Burkert piece, of the evil stepmother having created the poison apple. It was watercolor and colored inks and I loved it, I want to try out the technique. Example of her work, but not as detailed as the piece I saw:



Trisha made an improvised bento boxes for herself, me, and Christine (Christine drove us, thus we were able to go). They were nom nom indeed, though my onigiri tended to fall apart while I was eating it. We went to McDonalds and Christine and I bought Shamrock shakes to go with the bento. :D


I bought an Edward Gorey book in the gift shop, and I'm savoring it. :x I may have found a new artist to add to my favorites, who I learned about today, Paul Klee. My favorite piece of his is called "The Twittering Machine" thus far. The simpleness but creepiness explains my interest there. :P

Art wise I haven't been very good at scanning or photographing much. But I did have to scan in a project for Alternative Illustration to put it on the school's server, and now I can show it here:



Yay Steven Spielberg. He's part of two projects of mine, so I've been drawing him a lot, and have various watercolor paintings of him. I should get around to putting them on here. This is a collage, using ripped up magazines, acrylic paint, and pen, and printouts of info on movies he did. There's about 10 hidden images in his shirt and coat and glasses, but it's very hard to see here, but ah well.

I'm going through bouts of lonely-ness, considering my best friend since high school is currently in Budapest, and is a horrible e-mail correspondent. I've also just managed to lose a friend, over reasons I'm not entirely clear on. There seems to be a habit of people coming into my life, establishing themselves as people who are planning on sticking around, of being there for me, and then they leave, either physically or just never talking to me again. I'm sick of this occuring but can't ever seem to stop it from happening even though I take precautions. :/ I've written to my friend, apologizing for what I can, and asking questions. I knew it was possible he wouldn't respond and said I'd leave him alone if if he didn't. He hasn't so far, and I fear that he'll never talk to me again. Not sure that there's anything else I can do except accept that the friendship is over. Meh. Still have hope.

I'm currently at Jason's and he and Chris are giggling over a Ghosthunters episode. Been missing most of the show, since I needed to update this. Guess I'll tune in now, since somehow I managed to get the homework done for tomorrow all ready. Yay cable I can not afford.

Oh yeah. Should say I didn't fail my portfolio review. Got chewed up pretty well, and some of my favorite pieces apparently suck according to some teachers, but hey. Can't please everyone. :/ Right?

Robby the Robot is Fun to Paint

Been awhile since I posted...figured I should, what with the possibility of being booted out of art school and all. Okay, that's not entirely true, but all the Jr.s had to submit a portfolio to be judged. The fine artists had to have a crit, with things said directly to them about their work. Illustration majors don't get that. We just drop them off and listen to the rumors and stress out until we come back from break (the 9th of January). That's a long time to stress about being riped to shreds under the guise of a helpful critique. I'm not saying most of us don't need a kick in the pants to really hanker down and care about our art, but I'm just not looking forward to 6 of my best and favorite pieces being deemed as trash.

One of the things we're hearing is that we are all terrible editors. None of us picked our best pieces and some of us put in too many (6-8, but some of the 2 there apparently sucked and dragged down the whole portfolio). Um. I only submitted 6. What does that mean for me? Probably nothing good, that's what. And those were my best. If I have to resubmit a portfolio I don't know what I can show...those are my best, I didn't not include anything. So I'm screwed. Oh, except for one watercolor painting, which wasn't finished in time to put in the portfolio:


It was the final for my illustration class, the genre being 1940s Sci-Fi. (weird flash on this photo, btw) I grew up with these movies (so I didn't need extensive research and re-watching of these films in the limited time we were given to do this painting combined with all the other classes that a certain teacher seems to think doesn't exist, take that Fowler!) Sorry. The man irritates me extensively.

I told myself I wasn't going to think about the portfolio review over break, but what with the nightmares and all it's kinda hard. Anyway. On to other things. I'm getting 40 hours at work this week, yay. Today I have a day off and I have plans after 6:00 today, but for now I think I want to work on some of my unfinished watercolor pieces (some featured in one of my previous blogs). Like the Frodo one. Hm. More coffee and I think I'll get on that...

Oh yeah! Saw the Golden Compass. Not sure what to think. It was pretty and all the actors seemed to fit. I thought the girl who played Lyra did wonderfully. But the script for the movie seems to be making all the characters black or white...but really a lot of them are a mix of good and evil. Like Lord Asriel. They ended the movie before you could see a major character twist. He's not a good guy, he just happens to be on the "good" side in the pursuit of knowledge...But it's his obsession, he'll do anything to achieve his goal...and they ended it before we get to see the fate of Roger. Which makes me wonder if they're just not going to make the characters have any real depth, besides Ms Coulter and Lyra. Like the Master of Jordan College. They didn't have him being the one to try and poison Asriel, because he's one the "good guys". Well that just makes it kinda boring doesn't it? The world is full of gray, and especially in a movie based on such a controversial book series about sin and free will, you'd think the characters wouldn't be so plain. I just hope the next one follows the book just as much, but includes the depth and meaning.

Press save to cancel this relationship

Mm. Been a bit since I posted, since I was doing it pretty regularly. Homework is crashing down on all of us in waves, all the teachers seem to want to swamp us before we escape for Thanksgiving Break. Not much of a break anyway. I'll be working, and then maybe 2 days with my parents and grandparents and then more work and then school. Yeah. Sigh.

On Wednesday November 7th Jason and I broke up. It was mutual, and had been in the works for awhile. We were together a year. "Press save to cancel this relationship" is what Facebook says when you change your relationship status. I find the phrase hysterically ironic. We're still friends and still have fun together, but it's definitely not the same. I feel pretty empty. I think I'm more distressed then I admit, according to the drawing I made during Anime club, while everyone else was playing video games:



My sister came up this weekend, so I was distracted from my issues by taking her out to eat, and giving her her birthday presents which she enjoyed very much. On Sunday we went to Jason's and she played her new game and I worked on my comic class layout. It was okay, not too awkward. But she went home yesterday. Katie and I are heading to the mall after class, and I think I'll get my hair cut. Then she's sleeping over, so I'll have more distraction. This week is full, I have so much work to do. Hopefully I'll be able to concentrate on it. One more emo sketch before I go:

Tuna Subs are Yummy

My Dæmon had changed a bit, it went to a wolf and then a bobcat-like creature, and now it's back to an ermine. I don't know who or how many people keep taking the quiz and changing the animal. But it's interesting.

I should post some Halloween party pics, but I'm too lazy right now, and I'm on my lunch break eating in the classroom, like a loser. So only one for now:




We're still working on the gender project in my anatomy class. Guy-Me still looks like a monkey. Sigh. I hate it.



At least the one of girl-me looks better now. Have much coloring to do still.

I've been going through something lately. It's still ongoing and is causing some inner turmoil, and might have tainted Halloween for me (though that's not really when it all started). Fun times, but I'm not going into details. I skipped class yesterday because I didn't get enough sleep the night before because of it, and I felt horrible when I woke up at 6 AM and couldn't go back to sleep no matter how many times I switched positions on my bed. So I finished my homework (color comps) and emailed them in. Later that day Katie came over and I had my coffee. Then Sam came and we talked about my cat, and we discovered he has fleas. Oh joy. So Katie and Sam skipped out early from class and we went to Pets mart and I spent around $40 on my cat. I'm going to try to take him to the vet on Monday before my classes. Sigh. I am going to be very poor.

Today is November's First Friday, and also the start of Diplocon (at F&M College). I'm working. But Jason and I may stop in at the con after I get out of work, or at least before I start work on Saturday. There's an artist coming to the school today to talk about her gallery showing, and I really hope she doesn't run over, since I need to get out early and go get my work uniform and then catch the bus. Busy busy busy.

Alone with the Light Table (& Registration)

Usually on a Tuesday I spend about 3 hours at my college. Today I spent about 8. Registration was today, 1-5. I got there at 11:40-something and was the third person to pick non-sucky classes. Yay. Yes, it is necessary to get there frickin' early. Then I had my 3 hour studio class, where we did an under painting in acrylic. Bleh. I like how the skull is so far though:



And then I got the light table closet key from the Dean and spent the next 3 1/2 hours working on my "rotating name" animation. 16 drawings never took me so long. -_- Perspective and 3D letters are not fun. For me anyway. If they float your boat, great for you (you freak). But it's done, which means I have all day tomorrow to shoot them and then fiddle in Flash to make it run smoothly.



I finished my comic layout over the weekend, and that's due tomorrow. Hmm, only thing I have to look at some more for tomorrow is info on the picture book "Tuesday" which is what I chose to do my picture-book speech on, for Children's Lit. And for Thursday my New Yorker cover is finished and Jason ran me to Kinko's last night, so now I have the digital print with the font to turn in, as well as the original piece. Lookit:



Whew. I'm tired. This semester has been crazy with work, and because I'm insane (or just wanting as much as I can get in college, considering I'm paying for it and loans will eat my soul once I graduate) I signed up for several studio electives, meaning next semester I'll be on the 18 credit instead of the normal 15. So even more work to do, and probably less social time, since I can't skimp on my actually part time job. God. I'm going to be busy.

Pizza and Guy-Me

I'm currently at Jason's place, but as he just managed to fix his computer (new processor) and is doing all his online homework right now, I am bored. So figured I'd update. I'm making a freezer-to-oven pizza, and I hope it's almost ready because I'm starving. Damn Papa John's server being down and me being too lazy to actually interact with someone on the phone.

In school news all students have to enter a "What is Beauty?" contest/thing. No guidelines besides the size, really. It was just an open thing, but then they made it mandatory for the Fine Art majors, and then for the rest of the school too. :/ Besides the bitterness of an extra homework assignment-

Pizza!

Okay. I'm back, with a full stomach and a burn blister. Bah. Anyway, besides that and the fact that we have less time to do the thing, I think it could be kinda fun, it will give me a chance to do something less illustration-y. I have some ideas which I kinda sketched out in thumbnails. Need to do some better sketches though.

In Anatomy we have to draw a self portrait and ourselves as the opposite gender...I normally handle self portraits very well but ever since the end of freshmen year when my face thinned out I've had a hard time with it. I think I see the problem now that I'm posting this crappy pic of what I have so far up:



They eyes and noses are off placement wise. Bah! I mean, it looks like me, but too cute. Ick. And Guy-Me is harder to do then you'd think, even with the help of a beard. I don't have a brother to base the assignment off of, and my dad's features aren't helping much. Guy-Me looks like a monkey. -_- Sigh.

Because I'm bored and Jason is currently playing video games I sneak-attacked him with my cell camera. Mwahaa!



Nice expression, eh? I like how it caught the movement.

I finished the New Yorker project, but I'll wait till I scan it in and put the font on it before showing it here. I have to find time to get to Kinko's and print out a digital copy too before Thursday. Time is going to be scarce this week, and I still don't have all the things I need for the Halloween party at PCA&D. I'm going to be a flapper, and I have the hat, necklace and shirt for it, and I just bought a cigarette holder and some fake cigarettes. Still need to adjust the hat and find shoes. So much to do...

Oh, For A Light Table...

I've figured out why it took so long for the weather to get colder. Persephone and Hades are having a marital spat, and she didn't want to leave her mother. :/

Well the critique of George Rocking Out went well. First time in a long while where I thought I got a positive critique. No glowing adorations (except from Matt, who is a Fine Artist and lives upstairs, and likes guitars: "Is that a guitar? Cool. Is that freaking George Washington!?!"), but I got the sense it was liked, and did get some good feedback from my classmates on how to perfect it, like by adding details to the guitar, and white to the spot lights. So yay. Will do that.

So this Materials and Techniques class was going well, we've just been using watercolors and every class I finished the assignment ahead of time. But now we're moving onto oil glazes. I hate glazes. We have to do an acrylic under painting and then use oil on top, of a celebrity and a pet. Not an animal that looks like them, but of one that has some characteristics of the person. Like powerful, or sly...like that. So my one idea is of Meg Ryan and a Platinum Pearl Cockatiel. Ryan makes me think of something small and perky. And sometimes loud and obnoxious, as Sam described it when I told her about my animal and celebrity pick. Here's the sketch:



I wish I had a light table. :( I could actully do my homework at home instead of freaking out about when I'll have the time to go to school while it's still open and get the key to the closet where they are kept. I didn't finish my work today, even with a full 3 hours spent on it. You wouldn't think animating my name would take so freaking long. It's hard to do. Perspective is my enemy, and 3D letters are not my thing. So most of the drawings I did today had to be thrown away, because something was always wrong with them. Sigh.

I should probably be doing something productive with my time right now, as I have no homework due tomorrow, I finished it in class last week. Hmm. Maybe I'll clean my room...

George Looks Out of Place

Spent most of the night on my painting due at 2 today. Still not happy with it. Here it is currently:



The background and figure don't seem to go together very well. Bah. I should work on it more...

There's something moving in my room. >.> <.< It's not the cat, because he's in my lap...Just investigated, can't find anything, though the noise seems to be moving around. I evacuated some of my stuffed animals to the common room. Yes, I have stuffed animals. Well, a stuffed paopu fruit and a Ninja, and then the others are animals. I bought myself a blue dragon one for my 21st birthday. I'm not weird at all. Anywho.

Back to the art aspect of the blog, though the bug noises are distracting (it sounds angry), here's a blurry pic of my New Yorker cover idea:



We're supposed to do a cover for "New York during Halloween" and we kept a look out for ideas while we went on our bus trip to New York. We saw a random girl dressed in a suit and wearing a skull mask, handing out fliers. Well. That's my roommates cover idea. I didn't get a picture of that, but I did of this:



Which I incorporated in some of my thumbnail sketches for ideas, a witch fashion display. But I eventually went with my first idea, before even going to NY, and that was the Statue of Liberty dressed up as a ghost. I like the cartoony-ness. This is just the color comp, the finished one will have the yellow and orange applied better, but I like the texture of the scratchy lines.

Update on my hair-coloring attempt: I dyed more of it last night, but it just seems to be making my hair darker, more then coloring it. I have yet to get in some direct light however.
I really should get back to working on the painting...

In-process, In-Studio & Purple Hair

Thought I'd put up another incomplete piece, this is due tomorrow so it won't be unfinished for long. We had to paint either George Washington, the Tooth Fairy, or Santa in a weird position/place. So we have here George rocking out. The color scheme is still giving me issues. Bleh. It's watercolor, and when everything is painted it will have ink outlining.



And here's the limited palette, colored-pencil piece I talked about in my last post, I'm very proud of it. The best I've done of Robin ever. He even said so. Heh, poor Robin he's used to seeing crappy drawings of him from me. But now I have a colored-pencil piece to put in any portfolio. Yay!



Went to the Guitar Store yesterday, did a sketch of one of their Halloween displays. Might put that up later, if I do another sketch dump. I should take better pictures of my last two sketches that I put here too, sigh.

I'm trying to dye my hair purple. So far the top layer has a purple sheen to it, but that's it. I'll be working on my painting tonight, but maybe tomorrow after I give Tandy a bath and before class I'll try to get to the rest of my hair. Once all the under layers are finished I think it will show up more. I hope. I have light brown hair so I don't see why it's not showing up better...but I do have a lot of hair...Guess I'll have to make sure I get all of it. This idea started while I was at work, and I asked if I could spray my hair purple for the day (we're selling those cheap hair color sprays) and my boss said I could, since the sale signs were purple. So he sprayed my hair and then the assistant manger's hair too (it showed up better on his, he had less hair and it was lighter). It made my hair feel like spider webs. -_- But I liked the color. So I bought the nice dye stuff. Here's my hair with the crappy stuff on it:



So far the nice stuff looks better, and not like my hair is crappy cheese-cloth. Must get ready for class now, and find out what grade I'm getting on this blog. Dun DUn DUN.

More Unfinished-ness, & Blabbing

I need to show two more unfinished pieces before this blog is graded, so I'm posting while on my lunch break now, because I'll probably be at Jason's and work for most of the weekend. Here's a sketch I want to clean up and finish some time, but it'll most likely stay this way for awhile.



Here's some sketches from last night, at anime club. I'd like to do better portraits of people, but right now they are just quick sketches. Only Eve knew I was drawing her, but she was also posing for my roommate. Jason might have, but he kept on talking. Amy and Matt were totally unawares, mwhaha.



I'm eating salami with ranch dressing instead of miracle whip. Anybody ever tired that? It;s pretty good, along side some orange soda and "Doritos Collisions" (hot wings & blue cheese). I'm in my anatomy class currently, and I'm actully happy with what I'm drawing. I didn't feel like drawing a live model today, but of course I went to class and pulled out my scrap of illustration board I've had laying around. The back side is blue I noticed. So I'm using that side, instead of the white front, with colored pencils and it's turning out pretty well. Robin, the model, even high-fived me. I'll make sure to post that as soon as I can...if I don't screw it up in the last 3 hours of class.

Fall is definitly in the air now, I could smell it on my way back to the apartment. <3>

Ink

Oh wow. It is cold. It's been a long time since I had to wear pj pants around instead of shorts. My roommates and I were just going over how un-October the weather had been, and that it didn't feel like Halloween weather at all, and yesterday and today the weather was just like "Oh yeah, it's October" and decided to get cold. Burr. Tandy is acting as my portable heater currently, as I type this up. But now, finally, my ink pieces.

This was something I did for myself around last October, which started it's life in my sketchbook I had with me over the summer. Really got into Lovecraft stories then. I like drawing tentacles. Pen with nib, and bottle of ink. Old school.



Second up we have an ink wash of a model from some magazine dressed as a pilot. Took forever. -_- It was my second attempt at the technique, and I still wasn't very sure of myself.



And here's my crosshatching attempt. I like this mostly, but wish I had done something different with the bird.



Must get ready for class, and then work...so cold though...I shall hug my coffee mug...

Digital Stuff

Okay, I lied. Ink work will be up after I put some of my digital stuff up. This is a vector from my Digital illustration class last year. Has some sloppy areas, but I like it a lot.



Here's another Digital ill class project, vector self portrait. It was actually chosen to be one of the 9 pieces of student work to go on the advertisement poster that PCA&D sends out to high schools. I'll take a picture of the poster some time and put that on here.



Here's some of my first photo manipulations that I actually kinda liked, both featuring Jason (one was a gift for him, the other was because I liked the weird expression he had in my original picture).



Don't know what I think about this one, but I had fun.



And here's just some faces and scribbles when I was playing with my tablet. The doodles are from my notebook last year while I was bored in class.



I have more Photoshop colored sketches, but it's mostly fan art. I might do a post just for that, but after this blog is graded. ;P

Charcoal

Time to post some more work up, I can squeeze doing that in before my 10:00 class...There's only two charcoal drawings that I ever considered finished and worth looking at, that I made anyway. Charcoal was the medium they forced us to use Freshmen year, and whenever I have to use it again I feel like I've gone back in time. Not necessarily a good thing. I like charcoal alright, but I just never got the hang of it, though I kept at it in some of my anatomy class last year.

Here is a live model drawing, I really like how it turned out.




Here's an example of what we did when we had to focus on the spine and skull. I like bones.




Probably update with my ink work later today. Must scarf down more coffees and head out into the rain...

Watercolor Work

We need to have 8 pieces of our illustration work on this blog, before this coming Monday. I should start doing that, shouldn't I? This post will contain finished watercolor pieces. I hated that medium throughout most of my life, but starting last year I began to appreciate it more and more. I've also gotten marginally better at using it. :P I think. Hmm.

This was an in studio piece from last semester, that I liked even though it's very...pink. The model is River, from the awesome (but sadly canceled) Sci-Fi series "Firefly". She has red hair here. Dunno why, but the painting decided it would be all girly.

This is another in class piece, from last week. I think the teacher wants more work on it, but as far as I'm concerned it's done. Ding. Pull the turkey out of the oven. I like how it turned out, and I picked the reference photo because of her expression.



And more in studio work! Though this was from a live model in my anatomy class last year. Extreme shadows going on here, the lighting was really kooky.



This is from an Illustration assignment last year, of a Civil War artifact. It had to include text. I like how it turned out, to me it looks like it would be in a children's picture book.

Watercolor with ink. And salt. Mmm. This was from the last day of school, and I was very hyper but had no one to goof off with since they were still in class. So I ate a lot of raw mushrooms (not the hallucinogenic kind, I just like raw mushrooms) and then 4 hours later this was completed. I'm very proud of it, as you can tell by looking at the top and bottom of my blog.

I think that's it for my finished watercolor work. I have more stuff, but they aren't exactly "illustration work" finished stuff. I'll show another in class piece though, it was just to experiment with watercolor techniques and masking-fluid. This has ink in it too.



Well, my sister really likes it. :P That's it for now, gotta get ready for Materials &Techniques at 2:00. I'll probably put up some ink work next.

First Friday Recount

What, two in one day? Yes. Two in one day. I have time to kill in class right now, and since last Friday was what the crazy Lancaster-ians call "First Friday" and I actually took off from work to attend, I should talk about it. Right? Right.

We started the day off with eating, as Jason was miffed and needed food to relax, over his computer acting up. This is what happens when you build your own computer-when something bad happens there's no one to fix it besides yourself. So we went down to Issac's to check out the supposed gallery there. I didn't see much, as I was hungry and had actually never eaten there before and was somewhat lost as to the procedure. But we both relaxed and ate our yummy sandwiches and began planing the rest of the day. We hit up some of the stores on Queen Street, and I finally entered "Puff and Stuff". It's quite a silly place, but I might go again to check out the nifty skirts. Then we went to Zap and Co. because Jason had never been in there and vintage stuff is always fun to peruse. Before we crossed the street to look at the other shops we passed Geib's studio building and noticed a sign advertising an "art rubbish sale". So I was intrigued and we journeyed up to the 4th floor of the old, dark, creaky building, encouraged on the third flight of steps by the scrawled "you can make it!" on a step.

It was actually pretty nifty. The junk ranged from an old pogo stick to an antique brass key. There was an old 8 Ball sitting amongst the junk which I eagerly picked up. My friend Danielle and I have always had a joke that we need one, as we are the most indecisive people on Earth. The ball was dusty, and when I shook it the reply was hazy, barely visible. The irony of a broken 8 Ball....asking a question and almost achieving the answer...I had to have it. So now I do. Three dollars might be a lot for an old broken toy, but I'm happy about the purchase.



The man I bought the 8 Ball from thanked us for coming and wanted to know if either of us went to the art college. He apparently was a student there years ago. He's currently an interior designer now, but does quite a lot of fine art projects in his free time, as his studio clearly showed. He asked my major and wished me luck before we left.

We worked our way through the rest of the shops, but I didn't encounter anything as cool as the art rubbish sale man's studio. We then started to Prince Street where I have never seen as many people at one time as I did that night. First Friday is really pulling in some attention. It proabbly helped there there was a giant light-up bubble in front of my school:



This was taken on Thursday, and on Friday it was darker and there were light-up spikes all around the dome. I'm not entirely sure what went on in there, but I heard that there was a bar and you had to be 21 to enter. Well, that ruled Jason out. Besides the admission price was about $35 and I spend enough on food and art supples to need the extra cash.

After viewing the illustrations of baseball cards gallery at PCA&D we headed further down Prince to try and reach the Purple Mug where one of my roommates was working. We passed more galleries and I saw Connie hanging outside one of the buildings. She along with other PCA&D students (Matt, Ashleigh, Jordan and Colin) had a gallery showing there. It was cool to see people I knew and worked beside showing off their work.

After fighting our way across the street and sidewalk we made it to the coffee shop and visited with Sam, who was very harassed and not at all happy to be working First Friday. I showed her my new toy and bought a chocolate-covered strawberry smoothie. It's very good, but takes some time to get used to. We looked at the art displayed around before calling it a night.

I probably won't be able to attend November's First Friday, but hopefully I can take off for December's. :/