Fortune Teller

Drawn a week ago.

Mistakes and Admiration

Today (well yesterday now, it's past midnight when I'm posting this) I went to Disneyland to paint. It was my first real solo trip in a while, and it was really nice to take a leisurely walk around the parks without the hustle and bustle of rushing to attractions or complying with other peoples wants and needs. Which, granted, is kind of the point of Disneyland, but anxiety is kind of messing with my ability/enjoyment of the attractions. :( I actually didn't go on anything while I was there. Although I did attempt to see Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln... but it wasn't showing soon due to some technical difficulties. I think I'm one of the few who is legitimately sad about that. Anyway, you're probably looking at my blog to see some art, not hear about all this randomness. I give you art:

Yes it isn't finished. Due to some major proportion problems I made which later led to frustration. I decided to stop while it was still okay... Plus it was really hot and I wasn't exactly sitting in the shade. Not very fun painting conditions. 

For the second painting I did it was a requirement that I found someplace with shade. Problem is... that is quite the task. In both parks actually, but moreso DCA. Luckily, I found a pretty nice spot and set up my makeshift studio atop a trash can. (classy painter right there.) 

By the time I finished I had already gotten so many compliments. Random guests, some Cast Members, and even some Japanese tourists wanted to take a photo of it! It's actually something of a moral booster, especially since I've been feeling so down in the dumps about my art lately.

Flame Dance

Doodle to unwind. I really need to work on improving my digital art skills.

Something Different

 I've been experiencing a lot of anxiety lately. I've been quite the emotional mess, and feeling quite rotten about a lot of things, my art abilities included. Since I wasn't too happy with my normal art, I decided to do something a little different to get myself out of that horrible funk. It turned out to be a very soothing exercise. Little by little I'm regaining my confidence in myself and my work. It'll take time though, as most of my anxiety issues do.

watercolor and ballpoint pen

watercolor and gouache

Fowler's Inn

I went to Disneyland today... and instead of going on the attractions like a normal guest, I painted this picture. I always forget this place exists, it's over near the docks for the Sailing Ship Columbia. It's a really nice little area, especially since it doesn't see nearly as much foot traffic as other areas in the park. That is if you can stand listening to Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah for a few hours. haha

Leaping Lizards

Here are a few sketches from a trip to the San Diego Zoo the day before Comic Con started. I didn't draw as much as I probably should have, but I wasn't too fond of my sketches that day. These turned out okay though.

Life Painting

This past semester I took a life painting class. Now I love life drawing and I love painting... but the two together? I was a little hesitant. I've never been very good at painting the human form, especially when it comes to rendering flesh. The first few weeks were monochromatic paintings mainly of still lifes and mannequins. 

Then we moved onto painting people in black and white so that we could focus on the values that form the body. A little intimidating at first... but not really that much to worry about.

Then came the worrying as we broke out the color paints. Did a lot of experimenting the first few weeks, trying to figure out how color works.

Oh, drapery. The love of every art student. From this moment onward we were told that we'd be moving away from painting just nudes. And sure enough, as the weeks progressed the models started getting more and more clothed. 

^This model was super cool. She brought a ton of props and she had playlists of themed music for us to paint to. She played a bunch of spy themes and such while we were painting the second one. Really helped to immerse us all in the storytelling. At least I think so. 

Probably my personal favorite painting from the semester.

For our final painting of the semester we had to create our own background. My background turned out okay, it's definitely one of the things I need to work on over summer. 

Various homework:

We had to recreate a master's work. First in black and white and then again in color. I chose a work by Degas. I really liked the colors in the piece and the pose so I decided to paint it, disregarding the fact that it isn't an oil painting to begin with. I was more focused on the color.

We had an assignment to paint our ears, eyes, nose, and mouth from 3 different angles. I thought just painting them individually would be boring, so I drew three angles of my face and painted only the parts I had to paint. I'm actually surprised I was the only student to do this. 

Kind of creepy if you look at it too long.

Our final homework assignment was to paint a friend in an environment. My sister always is telling me to draw her, and she jumped at the chance to be my model. However once I started painting, she wasn't as enthusiastic. I don't think she'll be modeling for me again anytime soon. We probably should've found an easier pose. Looking at this painting now, I think I went a little crazy with the colors.

And I will end this post with a self portrait: 

THIS IS MY FACE!