Brace Yourselves... Doodles Are Coming

I'm not sure what space time y'all might occupy, but in my time continuum it is November and it is COLD! Ugh, sometimes Georgia really gets on my nerves. In the summer I'm sweating like a sinner in church, and in the winter I'm shaking like a leaf on a tree! -And THEN there are those weird times when the weather just goes haywire! Hmph...

Seriously, though!

Geez! Enough about the weather already! What am I, some sort of weather person?!

Recently I have been steeling myself for an endeavor of epic proportions (to me, at least). I'm going to paint my room! I want to go crazy and make an awesome mural in my little space, but I haven't come up with any solid ideas. There are a few "concepts" I've batted around, some doodles hastily scribbled on napkins, etc, but nothing solid. Maybe I'll dream about it tonight? My poor room's gone through the overhaul of its life. Papers, old shoes, and ratty clothes were tossed to make way for a cleaner and more livable habitat as well as prep for the painting. Why am I so messy?

Almost this bad… definitely more books than beer cans, though.

I'm still not quite done, and I've been at it for about 2 weeks! On and off, sure, but still. How much mess can you fit in one room? As I was cleaning, I found some doodles from when I was young and foolish. Wow, it hurts a little to see them! I'm not quite sure why they haven't been engulfed in flames, but here they are for all to see. To be fair, this first bunch was when I was in high school.

There were a couple of doodle phases I went through, the biggest being the "drawing faces in profile" phase. I read somewhere that if you doodle profiles a lot that it means you are an introverted/ introspective type person. Yes, some people argue that there is a psychology to what we doodle and why. This is a lot like graphology (the study of handwriting). Depending on the doodle's placement on the paper, how hard or softly you pressed your pencil/ pen, the overall style, etc, you can discover characteristics about an individual's personality.

What's up with the face tattoo?

Of course there was an attempt at "anime/ manga style" phase. The allure of huge eyes and amazing hair was too strong to withstand! I was QUITE the Clamper in my day, voraciously reading through my friend's volumes of Cardcaptors, Rayearth, and Wish (among many others).

Here's some more random ones. The deer head is one that an aunt owns, actually. Next is one of a few faux tribal tattoos that I attempted. It was another one of those phases, I guess. Thanks goodness it didn't last long. The last of these is a lone wolf. I wasn't very confident in my drawing abilities in high school and ended up tracing over some Okami art, honestly. A few aspects were changed, but not enough to call it an original. Although… seeing it now, it might be a good idea to redraw it. This way, I could really see how far I've come!

Stagshead Revisited

My attempt at a tribal hummingbird? I can't tell anymore!

It's decided. I shall redraw you!

This second group is definitely more recent. These were drawn within the last 3 or 4 months, I would say, and they're more to my liking. My quest for style has been a success, and I'm loving everything I draw as of late. Face doodles are still my favorite, apparently.

Her name is Sarah.

"On a tropical island..."

Random heads and a new addition to my Goddess series.

This final bunch is interesting. Here it's just about experimentation. I like to be tidy with my inked lines, but I recently acquired a black brush pen in an attempt to loosen up. It's definitely fun how the shapes drawn flow nicely, but it's not as easy as I thought it would be. It's just going to take some practice... The pink haired chick was my first attempt. Ha ha, I just went all over willy nilly, so it's not great, but it's something! The next one is getting there. My final doodle was done with a leaky pen. I didn't known the pen was broken and had globbed ink where the right boot is most scribbly. I freaked, but instead of trashing it, I ran with it. I might just have to use leaky pens more often because it looks so cool, in my opinion!

Her hair reminds me of Ramona Flowers.

The colors of the leaves around here

I've always wanted a mohawk!!!!!

There are quite a few things I'd like to draw more of (not just doodle) such as fan art or stand alone ideas I've only thought about but not written or sketched out. Songs have been inspiring my mind space like crazy! It might be a good idea to make an everyday or every week art project based around songs, movies, or fandoms. I'll have to give this more thought...

Well, that's it for me. Until next time! ~~~ <(*-*<)

Barenaked Paintings

WOW! A lot of time and stuff has happened since last I blogged. I should be ashamed of myself since one of my New Year's resolutions was supposed to be about making entries and putting my work out there more often, but I forget! I really do have tremendous memory problems. Maybe not as bad as a goldfish's, though...

Haha... uh, where am I?

A few weeks ago, I read an article about our brains and how our unhealthy habits affect the poor guy... Getting enough sleep and drinking plenty of water are so important to our health. Geez, I'm still working on the water thing! I gotta get my 8 glasses in! Aren't our bodies about 65% water? 

This cat's got the right idea!

All funny stuff aside, I have work for sharing! These are school assignments, but they're sexy paintings of naked ladies! Classy stuff, obviously. This past quarter, a group of my illustration buds and I were lucky enough to take a figure painting class from Ed Murietta! He's an amazing artist who's worked as an animator for Disney and also was Senior Creative Director at Cartoon Network, among other things. He'd taught a figure drawing class last year that was equal parts awesomeness and frustration, so I was a little worried about how this class would go. I certainly can't say it was easy, but I made it through and have built some character because of it.

At first we did charcoal drawings...

These are a few of the figures from the drawing class. We did SO MANY! He told us to buy a newsprint pad and had us doing pose after pose. He made us work! It's a bit painful remembering how difficult it was for me at first, but I'm so much better now. The first 2/3's of the class was just drawing with charcoal. It got real, though, when he had us start to render these ladies. First we worked with just a little white charcoal. Then he upped the ante and had us work in chalk pastels!

My favorite of my figures!

Everyone else's favorite. Meh for me...

I got messed up and bought oil pastels instead. The top one is from that first class. It's always annoyed me that she's slightly crooked, but it doesn't take away from how awesome she turned out, in my opinion. The bottom figure is nice because of the pose's movement. Everyone I showed it to was a fan, but I wasn't into it as much. Maybe it was the smoothness of the chalk that I wasn't drawn to? HA! That pun was definitely intended.

If I remember correctly, Ed had us using 3 fleshy colors (a light, medium, and dark) for toning our figures and then a turquoise color that he referred to as our half tone (fancy-shmancy). We used it for reflective light and also for the transitional areas where light and dark begin to blend. I didn't really get it back then. The painting class was where I got to understanding the half tone.

Not brave enough to finish at the time...

Our process was exactly the same as with the chalk pastels except we were using water soluble oils! Holbein's the brand, I think. The paints are really nifty because you don't need to mess around with stinky turpentine or other weird chemicals. First we painted our figure's outline (see above). Then we'd block in the shadows. We used only our brown colors at first (burnt umber and terra rosa) but near the middle he got us to experiment with a cobalt in our shadows, and it produced some interesting results! Next we'd mix the overall skin color with yellow ochre, white, and coral red.

My bestest painting!

Quickie

Then what I would do is start adding a lavender color (halftone) where I saw reflective light happening. It also goes where the shadow meets with the lit side of the body. When its worked in a bit, it makes a nice transition to the core shadow. After that, I mix up the highlight color and blend that in as well. It's not that easy, though. There's a lot of back and forth, working colors in so they look just right, but then you've gotta find a balance so the painting doesn't get muddy. I tend to overwork my paintings, so I have to think about my steps and not get too carried away. It's easier to add on more than it is to take it back.

My comp

Doesn't she look like She Hulk's cousin or something?

For our last class, we worked on two poses, making them super nice and even adding some different colors to the mix! First we did a quick study, deciding on our composition, colors, and whatnot. Then we executed. It was awesome to see how far each of us had come. He was just sitting in the back (was he painting, too? I forget...), letting us do our thang. Yeah, I'm okay with this green chick, but I know I could have done better. Hmm... I just noticed I forgot the little sash she was wearing in the comp... Haha, oh well! And that's it. I'm already 2 weeks into this new quarter, so I'd better actually do some homework!

Until next time! ~~~ <(*-*<)