DPAL happenings; project for March

Getting a bit bogged down by some small things recently, it seems. Luckily, my brain knows better, even though my emotions/energy level are being pulled downward. :P

Last week, I went in to model for a class at the DuPage Art League, and I will be going back for a second session tonight. During the five-minute breaks, I would go out of the room to walk around the main gallery—to check out other people’s entries for the February exhibition as well as to look through the teachers’ portfolio binder that was set out by the entrance.  As I was making my way around the darkened gallery, the space being lit up mostly by the light flowing out through the classroom door, some sort of heavy feeling sunk into me. I was struck by how literally the other submissions seemed to address the theme, by how straightforward their interpretations seemed to be. I also noticed that close to (maybe even over) half of the entries had gotten some sort of ribbon (DPAL gives out a few small prizes and some merit ribbons for every exhibition). Not having a ribbon seemed to be the exception, the minority, and my two wood panels were in that minority (at least they hung them together, unlike last month XD). That itself didn’t really matter, but it contributed to that feeling of isolation that was already creeping up on me. I felt like this was a world I wouldn’t ever belong to, and while I was thankful for that, it was still a lonely, miscast kind of feeling.

That said, doing something monthly for the DPAL is a good exercise. This month, I am finally getting to paint an original idea that I actually want to work on, as opposed to doing something that is either quick or a recreation of a previous work more for the sake of practice. The theme for March is “Green,” and once I thought about it for a bit, I realized that green is a color I almost never use. So I thought I would try to use it to symbolize/express a combination of envy, decay, and growth.

Currently, I’m just a little farther than this:

Next month, I’ll be sure to start working right away instead of waiting until the middle of the month. :P

Assignment 1...

Something that I said I would probably share once it was done is this:

When I visited Coey & Shy last month, I did some thinking about where I want to go with my art, most likely because I was confronted with two people whose work I admire so much. *__* I felt more strongly than before the pressure of needing to push myself artistically, to keep developing and moving forward. Shy and Jing had recently decided to do weekly assignments, in which they would take turns thinking of an art exercise for both of them to do within the span of the week. It seemed like a really good idea, especially because the other person could push you to draw things you might not otherwise tackle and help you develop skills that would otherwise remain undeveloped.  I thought that maybe Jackie and I could try something like that out, until I thought about it more realistically and realized that student teaching leaves her with no time for anything like that. :(( And then Coey offered to be my art buddy. XD ;__;;; ♥

So far, we’ve only had one assignment set—to redraw a still from a movie you like in your own style. At first, I thought of drawing something from one of the Alien movies, but I decided to postpone something like that until a bit later, when I could spend more time on it. After digging out a bunch of potential movies, I went with Strange Circus and worked from the following screencap:

Some progress shots:

In the end, I was kind of annoyed with the final product. I felt that I hadn’t “stylized” it enough and wished I had taken a bigger risk with stylizing the face in the background instead of trying to stick to the reference. D:> Somehow, the final product looked childish to me and I still get that impression when I look at it. XD I liked Yuuji’s almost completely silhouetted figure and the opaque effects of the bright blue ink, but felt like I had screwed up overall, oops. Learning experience. :P

Crochet scarf!

Finished this for Jackie not too long ago~~

Cinder + new ink/watercolor

Silly cat. *__* ♥
On the top is something that will eventually turn into my painting for the March exhibition; on the bottom is a shorter-term assignment/project I will share later as long as it doesn't turn out like crap. XD

As a post-Ohayocon art present to myself, I bought these:

So.... convention-going supporters, this is where your money goes. ♥ That and bills. ;__;; I've been contemplating either getting a set of inks like this or a set of watercolors, but decided to go with the inks after all. Partially because Blick was having a nice sale on them. :D

Also....... I found these at Target:

Gypsy is pretty jealous.

Sketchbook stufffff

 Worked on this silly thing a bit more while I was at Coey & Shy's:

Also started something a bit more spontaneous... we'll see where if goes (if anywhere). XD

February projects for DPAL //boringboring

Falling a bit behind on updating this blog, oops.

My pieces for the January exhibition at the DuPage Art League (oil version of “Coucher du Soleil” and “Viscera Astralis”) didn’t sell, so now they are back at home, sitting on the stairs above me—a bit lonely, but not offended at all, which is good. :P

The oil version of “Coucher du Soleil” was my first (and only, at least for a while) effort to submit something “sellable” to the DPAL. For the February theme of “Games People Play,” I chose to stray from the more unsettling interpretations and went with something a bit more “mindless”—I wanted to experiment with oils on wood, but not have to spend too much time on it. Soooooooooo--- for the first painting, I redid “Heart Type A.” I rediscovered the original lineart not too long ago and realized that something about the coloring really butchered/concealed the actual linework, which I still kind of liked (hate the colored version, ew ew ew). For the second painting, I needed something fairly effortless so that I could price it under $125 (silly requirements, courtesy of the DPAL), so I decided to go with an idea I randomly got one day while standing around at work. Staring down at my hands in boredom, I saw something that I could work with (and also something naughty enough in implication to spice things up at the DPAL a bit—drastically needed, if you ask me, but also a losing battle).

Won’t  babble on about this here, but I actually really enjoyed working on wood—loved the way the grain of the wood peeked through the layers of paint. Working in this kind of style was infinitely less painful than what I did last month. *__*

 
I worked on these two a bit more after these photos were taken, but planned on finishing them up completely after getting back from Ohayocon. Due to a massive snowstorm in Chicago, however, my bus trip back was delayed by two days, and I pretty much had to submit them in “unfinished” condition (pretty sure HTA would’ve still looked unfinished even if I touched it up like I wanted to, since I chose to completely skip any kind of background). Fairly certain no one will buy them, so I can work on them a little more after getting them back if I really want to. :)