Self-portrait

Meh, don’t really feel like writing right now, so here. Have some art.

Just a badly done self-portrait, inspired by the Portrait a Day thread over at the ConceptArt forums. Dear lord I hate pencils. Its been ages since I’ve actually used one.

I donated blood! 8D

I donated blood for the first time on Sunday. I have something of a fear when it comes to having my blood drawn. I’m not afraid of needles or anything- I’ve had to play nurse my entire life, taking care of my mother. I just have this… thing… about having my blood taken. I kinda freak out a bit. But hey, I did it! At first they wouldn’t let me, because apparently there’s restrictions for people who have left the US or Canada within the last three years (I went to Colombia 2 years ago) but they changed their mind at the last second and were like ‘come back here, WE NEED YOUR BLOOD, DAMMIT.’

Turns out it was okay, though. Apparently I freaked out for nothing. My boy was there, and he waited for me through the whole thing, and even let me use him as a human shield when my mom bust into the blood-mobile waving her camera left and right, trying to ‘mark and record’ the event.

Final projects for Life Drawing class were turned in yesterday. I was amused when about half the class snuck out the door and left during break. Our final portfolios are due next week. This ought to be fun. </sarcasm>

I’m also considering doing a series of Photoshop tutorials for beginners. I remember first trying to learn the program, and having no freaking idea where stuff was, or what it did. Many of the tutorials I find online are for more advanced Photoshop users, who already know where tools are located. Just an idea I’ve been playing around with, we’ll see where it goes…

Laser-pointers, stamps and such…

I’ve only ever heard of people playing cats and dogs with laser-pointers, but I tried it with my birds and they went absolutely bonkers! I picked up a cheap-o little laser-pointer from the dollar store the other day (because, well, things like that fascinate me to no end) and I’ve been playing with Ben and Jerry (my parakeets) all afternoon! They’ll chase it all over the cage, and sit there and gnaw on the perch if I hold it still long enough. Its really fun to point it on their feet, wings, or back, because then they try and pick it off of each other. These guys are absolutely fascinated by it, its hilarious.

Stamp-making seems to have wormed its way into my heart. I just can’t stop. I have a handful of them sitting on the corner of my desk now to keep me company. Usually, I’m working on the computer since the majority of my projects are in digital media. Its nice to take a break every hour and carve away at a new stamp or two.

My geekery seems to have caught up to me.  X3  I made this sweet little Domo stamp to practice carving details. It turns out that I’m something of a perfectionist when it comes to stamp-making, because I nearly threw a fit when I accidently over-carved the top and bottom lines.

The stamp is only about 1×1.5 inches long (3.5×2.5 centimeters, for those outside the US), and for only being my second ever stamp, the details were a bear to do. I’ll probably use it for greeting cards and such. I’m also rather proud of myself for finding a solution to my lack of ink-pad!

Viola`! My own homemade, functional, awesome, cheap ink-pad that didn’t cost me a cent! All it consists of is a cotton pad (the kind that you use to remove your eye makeup) and a tiny, porcelain ink dish that I usually use for japanese style ink drawings. It works just as well as a store-bought ink pad, and I didn’t have to fork over a load of cash to Michael’s to pay for various colors. All I have to do is just soak another cotton pad with whatever color I want. I can even put them in plastic baggies and reuse them later!

Feature: The art of Jinny Liang

Since there’s so many artists that I love and I’m always coming across new points of inspiration, I’ve decided to start doing ‘Feature’ posts. I’ll try to do a new every week, at the least every other week.

For this post, I’d like to feature the art of Jinny Liang. I stumbled upon her work while looking for inspiration for figure drawings, since I’m trying to put my art together for portfolio-review. I just fell in love with her work! Jinny is a 4th year Sheridan Animation student, and her work is exquisite.

The first thing that drew me to her art was the simplicity and elegance of the lines in her life drawings. Every stroke of pencil holds movement, and even her contour drawings seem to be made of gesture. 

Jinny is also a talented concept designer, and her style is very unique and eye-catching. She has quite the eye for fashion, as well…

And, icing on the cake if you are a Bleach-head like me, she does beautiful manga/anime illustrations!

EDIT: I just found her DeviantArt page! YAY!

My first stab at stamping

I’ve had the incredible urge to try my hand at stamping, especially after seeing all the goodies on Etsy and reading 2 Cheese Please’s blog. I finally sat my butt down and tried it tonight.

I tried something simple first- a flower. I carved it using this nifty gauging-tool thing I picked up years ago for a printmaking class, and some ‘Speedy-Cut Carving Block’. [I couldn’t find any white erasers like in 2 Cheese Please’s tutorial] It didn’t help that I was on the phone with my boy, who made it his goal to try and make me laugh and mess up.

Next, I tested it with different types of ink on a scrap paper. I used whatever I had on hand- red calligraphic ink, red india ink, and black india ink. However, I couldn’t for the life of me make the stamp come out right- I don’t know if it was the ink I used, or maybe the rubber I carved it in… [In the background, you can see my Mad Cat stencil that I sprayed on my wall!]

Stamp-stamp-stamped away, going back in and carving away for the details between the petals. Exacto knife= love, for this bit…

Finally got my little flower stamp to a satisfactory level, and thought ‘hey, lets test it out on a card!’ Bad idea. XD Or at least, good idea, but I should have waited for later when I had more patience. I did a really sloppy job, using the wrong tape, wrong ink, and completely forgot to soak the paper first. Result- uneven, torn edged, wrinkly, sloppiness. Oh the joy.

Still- this was a very, shall we say, ‘educational’ experience. It ain’t as easy as it seems. [or maybe I’m just fail at stamps] I’m going to keep practicing at this, because it really is quite fun! And I’m quite fond of my little flower stamp…

The main reason that I’ve posted all these pictures and notes is to get feedback. Tell me what I’m doing wrong, or [hopefully] have done right! Advice is very welcome. Maybe, one day I will be able to look back on this post and snort and giggle at what a n00b I was at stamping…

Red Cape

          Red Cape

                     I want to be 
            a superman
         Your superman
       No time to fall
                       Im off the drugs
      permanent withdrawal
                     Superman, im gonna take off
          Im gonna wrest you from the boogie man
                and fly you over city lights like your personal angel
           I want to be your superman
                     no delusions
                gone with doubt
                                 I want to punch through walls
             to poke my head in, and say goodnight
                     I want super vision
                to make your toast extra special
                                I want bullet proof pecs
                     so you can show me off to your friends at the beach
                  I want to be your superman
   
            Will you be my Louis Lane?

 

I recently came across this amazing poem on dA, and just fell in love with it. Written by ~sandmanno3, it made the front page of popular deviations for 10/07/08. I thought I would share it with all of you.

Feral Identity

”The dry grass ripples slowly in the wind. Sifted dust rises from the earth, permeating the air with it’s scent. My nostrils flare, inhaling. Close. Oh, soooo close, and I am practically quivering in anticipation. I crouch, pressing myself close to the ground as I creep forward. The muscles along my back and shoulders roll, stretching with an exquisite pleasure as I stalk. Here. Right here. I get down now, haunches tense as I crouch among the grass, invisible. Nothing moves but my eyes, my fierce gold eyes, as I track my prey’s movement. The moment is here. Every muscle in my body tenses, my claws pitching into the soft loam like talons as I launch myself forward with terrifying speed. Every fiber of my being is suddenly in ecstasy as the adrenaline floods my system, that wonderful moment of being airborne. I slam into my victim, the momentum from my heavy body spinning us both half around. We never once separate, due to the fact that my claws have sunk deep into his flesh, even piercing his lung. We drop with a heavy thump down in the grass, and I’ve come off my slit-secondn high. We’ve twisted while fell, and I’ve taken the blow mostly to one shoulder. I heave myself to my feet and turn with a snarl, pinning my prey down against the loam and dead grass. It writhes weakly under me, making half hearted attempts of striking at my exposed underbelly. It’s pitiful attempts stop once I’ve ripped my head back from it’s neck, blood and gristle trailing from my muzzle. I lean in greedily and tear into my feast, eyes bright in anticipation.”

Um. I dreamt I was a lion last night. This was part of my dream. I’ve never actually eaten a human IRL before, but damn they’re tasty and so much fun to tear apart. :D

 

and ART!

 

an angel pic I've been working on. Lines by mei-ming at DeviantArt

A bat tried to eat me & a duck tried to keep me…

First some arts, since I seem to have gathered a plethora of work within the last two weeks.

Funny stuff keeps happening today. During Graphic Design class, a bat flew into the classroom. Mind you, this is around 1:30 in the afternoon. I have no idea what the little guy was doing awake at that hour or why he wanted in so bad. I sit near the door, so of course when he flew in he flew smack into me and got caught in the hood of my sweater, so that was fun. He eventually made it out of the room with a bit of prodding, and flew dazedly off into the bright California sunlight. Poor thing. Everyone in the class took pictures of him- you can see one that I took here. 

I went to go eat my lunch at the park, which is across the street from the college. Of course, by the time I actually got around to going to the park, it was around 7 pm. (I’ve been working like a madwoman- college is the only place I have access to a wacom tablet.) I sat by the pond to eat my PB&J, and watch the ducks and black swans. I had been putting the crust in a baggie (yes, I peel off the crust. XD) and this duck walks right up to me, and starts quacking in my face. Hoping to placate him, I offered him my crusts as a peace offering. He ate it out of my hand. When I got up to walk home, he followed me, even walking halfway across the street with me before he gave up and waddled back to the park. Just as well- I’d imagine a duck would make a crummy pet.

Wow, amazing much?

Adjsaghflda[‘lfjd;sah so hyper right now please deal with it I had three bowls of ice-cream with sprinkles. 

In other news, I recently found the blog of the amazing ImageCorrupt3d. I know her from her work on DeviantArt, and she’s incredibly well known for her amazing Organization 13 crack comics (which someone adapted to be viewed on YouTube! SaWEET!) I have to say that I really admire this girl, she has a great style thats very natural and flows well. Visibly inspired by Disney, her OC’s and sketchdumps offer loads of amusement. So naturally, when I found her again, I did a little dance of joy in my seat. So go! Shoo! Give her some love, and go be amused!

Solaris07: Shameless plugging for an amazing artist

I wanted a new desktop wallpaper for my laptop, and while browsing DeviantArt for ideas I came across this amazing artist. His work is so clean, user friendly, and just plain eye appealing. I made my own replication of his Portfolio 01 piece as a desktop wallpaper for my own personal use. Solaris07’s work is something I just fell in love with. Here’s some of his stuff…