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. :)

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. :)