Talent is a myth.

It's just about time for finals, which means I just want to draw/read anything that isn't school related. Been bangin' my head against a cintiq for weeks trying to learn zbrush *baw* and doing a lot of landscape painting. Loving the latter! Apparently though, oil paint never dries when it's so cold outside...so look forward to seeing the fruits of my labor in....a few monthes?  Unfortunately, with a lot of 10+ hour days at school, i don't find myself having much energy or inspiration for much else...all the same, I try to force myself to draw some people now and then because that's what you do when you actually want to stay good at something, i hear.

Well, i'm clocking in at decent at best. Derp. here are something things from the sketchbook: girls with buns, Japanese girls (one looks like Noodle from Gorillaz) and some preliminary sketches of Dionysus (who looks like Jesus with a hangover in my favorite one) for my lovely Kristen.

 

Oh hay, and this was from a while ago, but I was wearing this shirt today....it's covered in a lot of paint now, but still awesome, and still makes me look like my mom:

Summer Sketches

This week i've been cooped up at my house with some mystery illness and no TV, so i finally decided i would get around to posting things that have sat on my hard-drive all summer long!

Yay.

Between dating a Cowboy and reading about the history of Mustangs in the American west, i wound up with a horse fixation (like i haven't had one since i was 4). My mother, also an artist, has always been able to draw horses phenomenally well, which, i think is the reason that any horses in animation or art that are poorly drawn just annoy the shit out of me. But, it turns out they're really hard to draw, so i tried some life sketches and non-life sketches to practice:

Then i broke up with the cowboy and had to find other things to draw...i think it's strange that poorly drawn giraffes and parrots don't bother me half as much? We watched the film Black Orpheus in my Latin American Art History class...i sort of wanted to draw all the characters in the film, but i never got further than a poor likeness of Eurydice, although the sketch itself makes me pretty happy. I also got a job at an exotic imports store...leading the the urge to draw some random chick riding what must be a pygmy giraffe.

I really need no explanation for cats. The tabby on the left is my Fiona, who just had a hurricane named after her...we always used to call her the little grey storm cloud.

Look, it's awesome again

I hadn't realized this blog hadn't seen any sweet visual action since April 13th. Oops! Well, I've actually had a lot going on since then. I managed to get through finals, which is very exciting, but  sadly, my grandfather passed away as well, so i had to get back to Portland for the funeral. My mother said she put some of my artwork up on the bulletin board in his hospital room, which made him really happy, especially since it gave him a reason to talk to every doctor, nurse, anyone who came in his room. He was always a people person, so it was comforting for me to know I could at least be with him in that way, if i couldn't see him in person before he died.

I guess the good news is that now I have a bunch of stuff to put up. Here are some various layouts and background studies i did for my Siberian project:

The last four were rather fun, i did the black and white version first, and tried adding the color in photoshop using layers and blending modes. This technique definitely has it's pros and cons, but i really liked how the night color study came out.

And here is just some random sketchbook stuff, and life drawing. bowchickabowow.

That's all for now. I'll be posting a few animation samples up next, as soon as I figure out how to get them online. Also, there will probably be some more sketches and such up next week, after i go back to school and get to use some scanners. Check back soon!

Quite rusty.

After i filled up my last sketch book, i discovered that having not done much regular sketching outside of class has had me slowly but surely losing my confidence with drawing people. I bought myself a moleskin to try and get back into the swing of things...things are off to a rocky start, whoooo boy.

My life drawing has gotta a little stiff, i need to find some ways to loosen it up a bit.

EPIC FAIL and lesbian pirates.

lately I've been totally unproductive, either feeling too sick or too busy or just too tired to draw, except for a few attempts which are unfortunately the result of reading too many artists blogs, cold medicine and a whole lot of frustration.

I somehow think this happened because i read too much shoujo manga. Id like it to be, but I don't really think that is a valid excuse for all the anatomical fail happening in this image. But hey, cleavage.

More awkwardness and self-deprecation from anthropology class.

To summarize:

Hay hay Unicorns

I can finally post stuff from 2010! Which is why i'm posting a couple of left over things for 2009. I can't even say wht that sort of thing matters to me other than i am pretty neurotic and it gives me something to talk about.

It's hard to say how managed to make it into my twenties still obsessed with unicorns, but I did. along those lines, The Last Unicorn is one of my favorite books/movies, so when i the oppertunity for an illustration presented itself in my illustration class i went for it. The theme was "late arrival" which would probablt make oodles more sense if you're familiar with the story. Apparently though, not everyone in my class is as dorky as me, so i had to explain a number of times why the unicorn doesn't look like a horse.

The rest is sketchbook stuff. I'm working on nailing down the design for Sayo/Tula including her younger version, before and just after she starts living alone in the woods and carrying a gun around.

and a random scrawny girl with a scrawny cat.

Holy plethora of sketches batman!

Here we have the last of 2009's sketches, which I am late in posting because I had no scanner until i was back at school. I'm really looking forward to 2010. For those who know me, 2009 was a pretty crappy year for art and for personal life.

Subsequently, upon my return home for the holidays i spent a good amount of time like this, blissfully unproductive:

So, one last look back before we forget everything that happened (although, CTN-X was cool, i don't mind that):

Old people and their pets amuse me. I seem to have fixated on foxes for a while as well:

I may paint this one. I rather liked the tree, but it's pretty similar to a tree in another painting i did last spring.

Last but, not least, i took a whack at designing headress without any reference at all. One of my OC's for the elements project i'm working on will require a design for a ceremonial outfit, which i am striving not to make as an Amidala rip-off.

I rather like the idea of the antlers, as Mym's element is fire, but i still need to do a bit of finessing.

Whew. That's a pretty signifigant head count, there.