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. :)

New prints & experimenting with traditional media

The paper I ordered finally arrived a couple of days ago, so I spent a bit of time yesterday experimenting with different settings and trying to get the color just right. Hopefully this is the beginning of a very different way of getting ready for conventions. :P
Needless to say, having more control over the quality and consistency of my prints feels great.

Also, I have recently undertaken the task of recreating a couple of pieces I had previously colored digitally in traditional media. One of them is "Ms. Jelly Anne," which I was commissioned to color by someone who stopped by my table at NYCC/NYAF. At first, I thought a combination of pastels and colored pencil would suit the original lineart the best, but I ended up using colored pencil almost exclusively:

Colored pencil is not a medium I normally use, but working on this was a pretty interesting and refreshing experience precisely for that reason. It felt like the progress went very smoothly and I was able to complete the coloring fairly quickly.

Recreating "Coucher du Soleil," however, has been a bit of a different experience. There was not much I could do with the original lineart--it was drawn on the same type of sketchbook paper as "Ms. Jelly Anne," and not wanting to render it in colored pencil, I decided to experiment with........ oils! D:> A bit intimidating, since I haven't touched oils in about 4 years or so, but I dug out my little set of oil paints and brushes from high school times XD, bought a couple more tubes and a couple of small detail brushes (as well as the necessary mediums), and decided to give it a try. *__*
The idea to do this was inspired by the commissioner I mentioned above, who actually decided to hold off on having me color "Coucher du Soleil." I just figured that I might as well go through with it and, if anything, display it at the DuPage Art League during their January exhibition. I had been wanting to try out something in oils after going down to Atlanta to spend some time with Sasha this past September, and this seemed like a good enough excuse~~

What was perhaps more intimidating than the unfamiliarity (and price!) of this medium was the time restriction. I transferred the pencil image onto the canvas around Dec. 17 and knew that I would only have about 15 days to complete the painting, after which point it would take at least a few days for it to dry--just in time for the date of entry for the January exhibition. It would've been nice for those 15 days to have been completely free, but thanks to my work schedule, that potential working time was severely cut.

I still have a bit of work to do on the painting, but I think that the hardest parts are done. An associate at Blick suggested Galkyd as a painting medium--it drastically reduces the drying time, which gives me today and tomorrow to work. :)

Sometimes it feels like I am getting a little too ahead of myself, getting too distracted by all the projects I would like to take on/complete. Seems like there's not enough time and energy. I'm sure this is not a problem particular to just myself. :)

Getting really close to finishing Chloe's commission~ Will reflect on it once it's actually done. XD

Post-JLPT Update

I had to dye my hair!! D:> But that is a discussion for later.

The JLPT is finally over, which is a pretty big relief. I was getting really sick of constantly trying to catch up on those study books. :\ I made some stupid mistakes and obviously didn't know some things, but I hope I somehow pass anyway! It's taking a bit of effort to get back into the drawing groove, especially since my emotional energy is being depleted by spending a considerable amount of time scouring job listings online (with no real success). >__>;;

Got this from the family as a birthday present:

Not the cat, the printer!! :D I really hope this will help the quality of my prints to be more consistent. Oh, the potential convenience of printing at home... Just a USB cable and some nice paper away from realization. :3 ♥

FAIL

Less than a month after embarking on this blogging adventure, I abandoned it. :P
Sometimes words feel very vulnerable to me. Vulnerable to misinterpretation, vulnerable to distortion. They are left out in the cold, unable to fight for themselves. But only sometimes. I don't know how much of what I wrote before is still true, but that's okay. I feel like I have experienced a slight (or maybe not so slight) shift of mindset recently, and I'll be able to express it as I work on more art.

The JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test) is coming up in just a few days. Studying has been driving me a little crazy and I don't really feel like I'm ready (how could I?), but I'm looking forward to being done with the test and having more time to work on my own projects as well as projects I have taken on from other people.

In the meantime, here is something I started a while ago. I'm trying to work in a looser style, going for the finished-yet-unfinished look-- something in which you can see the "grain." Not focusing so much on perfect lines, at least for this piece.

Jui; future "postcards" in jeopardy XD

I finally found my super-crappy sketchbook (the one in which all the "postcards" are born >__>;;), so here's something that's complete bs because it's straight from a reference photo. XD Jui from Vidoll:


I don't know if I'll really keep drawing things like this. Originally, I started the sketchbook to practice getting the shapes/lines/contours down while drawing from references and to experiment with different modes of coloring, but I don't want to keep drawing from professional photography. Even if I deviate from the original photo significantly in the final result, it's still very questionable, from the perspectives of both legitimacy and worth. >__>;;

In other news, the last two weeks of the quarter are here and they're going to be pretty chaotic, so I have to keep suppressing my urge to draw until spring break. ;___;;