Day One Hundred Eighteen

Mmm. I took this Monday slowly; gradually easing into the week while escaping doing any actual work. Bliss. I hope your Monday was as equally relaxing, or at least you can forgive me for so thoroughly enjoying mine.

So, time for some art. I took some serious time with my piece today; working my way through while attempting to break out of the drawing routine.

mum adj. Silent, not speaking.

I wanted to use “mum” in a darker, more in-your-face way. I decided to illustrate a character “keeping mum” against their will. I began, for once, with the eyes. Instead of crafting a face from a quickly drawn oval, I decided to begin with some seriously adorned eyes. After I finished the pencil sketch, I went over it in pen:

Then, I pulled out the pastels and worked to get some definition and color into the piece.

This piece was both interesting and surprising to me for several reasons. For one, I rarely, if ever, work in this large of a format. I did not expect this piece to be this large, and was shocked upon finishing it! I liked the addition of the bow-its bright, pink, girly look almost mocking the fact that she is tied up and kept from speaking.

I hope you enjoyed both today’s post, and this piece. As always, thanks for reading!

Xx

-r

Day One Hundred Seventeen

Listening to the drum of rain on the steps of the front porch punctuated by the frantic click of laptop keys as I type faster than I can think. If I could be any closer to this rain without drenching this computer, you would find me there. Storms have always both calmed and excited me; the change in pressure and the darkening of the sky as clouds sweep quickly across it making my heart race as I rush for a camera. As the clouds burst open, and drops begin to fall, excitement gives way to tranquility; every breath becoming increasingly deep, pulling in the scent of rain on brick and wet earth. The largest portion of this one is over now, I believe. There is only the occasional flash of lightning and crack of thunder. I suppose I’d better continue on, and fulfill the original purpose of this project.

Before I begin, I’d like to announce that Page 177 has broken free from the binding of this old Webster’s pocket dictionary, and will be cared for as tenderly as it’s the two other pieces of what was once one. (Meaning, for those of you that have not seen the careless manner with which I treat this poor book, not very tenderly.)

As I looked back on some of my older work, I realized that much of my current art has been put under the awful restraint of reality. Striving to “improve” my technique, I had lost some of the strangeness that is seen more clearly before I began to be concerned with miniscule details like the realistic portrayal of a human being. Darn this focus on technique! I decided to, little by little, peel away the layers of restraint and bring back the “weird”. Today’s word and the tools I had at hand provided the perfect opportunity to do just that.

be-smear v. To soil; to smear.

I began with a drawing in pencil of a strange character. For inspiration, I drew on the dress style I have come to love (only real women have that many buttons) and the small, dark-eyed, wild-haired creature that stared back at me from the mirror after a long, long day in the wind.

After completing the sketch, I lined it with paint to aid in the “besmearing” process, and stepped out onto the porch. Holding it out into the wind while the freezing (okay, not freezing, just cold) rain battered the both of us was not an entirely terrible process. It was oddly invigorating to be clinging to a soggy piece of watercolor paper by the light of a few windows on an empty street. Who knows what the neighbors think of me, but I’m pretty sure they’ve come to realize by now that this family is just strange. Anyway, I ended up with a very warped, very soggy, fairly interesting piece of work.

I really wish she would have smudged more; the rain was slightly too cold and separated the paint into pieces as opposed to making it run. Ah, well. There will always be another rainstorm and another sketch.

Thank you for reading; I hope you enjoyed today’s post and your weekend.

Xx

-r

Day One Hundred Thirteen

I cheated.

Today, I broke the rules.

Scratch that, I bent them.

Now, before you click away in disgust at this blogger’s shedding of artistic integrity, would you like to know what happened?

Since this is really a one-way conversation, and I’d like the chance to explain myself, I’ll go ahead and tell you anyway even if you really don’t care to know.

So, it goes like this...

I collect my ripped and pathetic dictionary from its resting place on the floor under the couch (what a poor abused little book) and stop on the first page I come to. My eyes rest on not one, but two words! Both incredible, both great sources of inspiration, both incredibly fitting! This is where I bend the rules a little...I read the definitions, I ponder, I brood...and I PICK one of them. Although the words are intended to be chosen randomly (so as to keep this artist on her toes) I believe making the choice between “flounder” and “flounce” was a necessary and meaningful one.

flounce n. A gathered piece of material attached to the upper edge of another surface, as on a curtain. v. To move with exaggerated tosses of the body.

I illustrated a strong, determined character to incorporate the choice between “flounder” and “flounce”. Despite a certain amount of floundering, I wanted today’s character to choose to flounce. To choose the light, the airy, the bubbly, over the frustration, fear, and discontent.

As usual, the hemline came up a bit short (I tend to draw the mile long legs last and, as such, have no way in which to cover them up to a decent height.) but I like the way this turned out. I incorporated my new favorite shade of orange, adding bits of pink into it to redden it up and make it blend more successfully with the bright raspberry color of the rest of the dress.

I hope you enjoyed today’s post, and can someday forgive me for rearranging a few rules.

As always, thank you for reading.

Xx

-r

Day One Hundred Nine

I spent a long day inside; curled up and hidden away from the sudden and unwelcome return to winter. Not much to report on as far as the day is concerned. Ah, well. I’ll just get down to work. After packing away some incredible, delectable, cream-and-cherry-filled Gâteau Basque courtesy of my pastry chef of a mother:

it was time to get to posting...

Today’s piece signaled the return of the drawing pen, and the temporary abandonment of my beloved pastels. Without really thinking, I grabbed a sheet of paper and began to doodle. Oh, wait...the word! I’m getting ahead of myself...

tack n. A small, short nail with a flat head; a sewing stitch used to hold something temporarily; the changing of a sailboat from one direction to another. v. To change the direction in which a sailboat is going.  

I had forgotten about the other use of “tack” as a verb (Maybe I’d blanked out the memories of dashing across our sailboat, nearly missing knocking myself out cold on the boom, lunging for the rope to pull hard against the winch while bracing my feet against the side of the boat and finally tying off after letting loose a stream of cursing aimed at the captain for letting the boat tip more than 5°.) and decided to focus more on its use as a noun. I thought it would be funny to illustrate a celebration of sorts centering on a tack. I, myself, have found that I have an ongoing love/hate relationship with tacks. As soon as I am hanging up a bit of art, they are the greatest invention mankind has yet to create. The story changes quickly, however, when a floor-residing stray decides to embed itself in my heel. Despite their occasional scream-inducing effects, I got a kick out of creating today’s piece.

I hope you enjoyed this post, and your night. Thanks for reading!

Xx

-r

Day One Hundred Six

Today began with a panicky clawing at consciousness-the kind of awakening that begins with a gasp, continues with a desperate flailing about, and ends with a shin being slammed full-force into a bedside table. The morning took a turn for the better, though, after a cup of black coffee and a trip to the auntie’s. I completed a top-secret project, and returned home to labor away on my laptop for the remainder of the day.

As a disclaimer, I will state that someone *cough* my father *cough* stole my only working mechanical pencil, and I was forced to draw today’s piece without the ability to erase. The result? An interesting, out-of-proportion/perspective pen and ink cartoon.

ra-di-o n. The technique of communicating by radio waves; the business of broadcasting programmed material to the public via radio waves.  

As I sat staring at the TV, I remembered (okay, not technically remembered but remembered hearing about) a time when radio shows were as common a source of entertainment as television is now. I thought about the largely lost relationship between families and their radios. Now, when every detail is presented in full; thrown harshly in the faces of audiences, I think it is sad that almost nothing is left to the imagination. It is as if people participate less in their entertainment and, therefore, are less able to play-to be creative. For example, a book, even a radio show, forces the audience to make decisions (consciously or not) about how to interpret the story. After a while, a reader/listener will begin to create their own personal version of the story-to build on the framework provided by the author in order to supply the senses left alone by the entertainment. With TV, this does not seem to be allowed or encouraged. Oh well, I’ll stop lamenting and start drawing.

I drew a quick sketch of a young girl lying in front of a radio. Up on her elbows, she’s listening intently. I like this sketch because the character is in an unusual pose for me as an artist, and I really identify with the posture.

Thanks so much for reading; I hope you have a great night!

Xx

-r 

Day One Hundred Three

First off, I’d like to explain the recent drastic changes to the look of this blog. I spent most of the day yesterday (as I said in yesterday’s post) working on an online portfolio for my work. Published within that portfolio will be my new, shiny, clean Ink Drop blog! As soon as I have my domain name secured, I will be posting a link to my website to enable all of you readers to have one art-filled location to explore.

Onward! Following a long, long day kayaking on the Kansas River, we collapsed at home.

Yay! Crazy face. 

Rolling off the couch full of enchiladas, I decided I’d better get to work on today’s piece. Having had younger brothers, (Well, I guess I still have them. But, ya know.) I really identified with today’s word.

tug v. To strain and pull vigorously; n. A hard pull; a strong force.

It made me remember having long hair and, also, having it yanked, pulled, and tugged by the younger kids. Gah! I remember how, after a while, I began to get used to it and stopped reacting. Around this time, I think, was when they stopped being amused by it. (There’s nothing fun about getting zero reaction when you’re trying to bother someone.) So, for today’s piece, I decided to illustrate this (somewhat fond?) memory.

I liked that the person doing the “tugging” was much, much smaller than the girl. I thought that her expression was adorable; she’s kind of in pain, but also confused by the rather strange little character tugging on her hair.

Thank you so much for reading; I’m looking forward to getting to show off my new portfolio soon! Have a great night.

Xx

-r

Day One Hundred Two

I awoke this morning with a sense of renewal; a motivation to quit wasting time and get down to work. I’m not one that subscribes to the new-age, eh...what-have-you of spiritual messages and such, but when motivation to change, to work, or to grow comes along, I try not to ignore it. Today happened to be one of those rare (almost nonexistent) Saturdays that, leaping out of bed at 8:30 (okay, shuffling out of bed at 9:30) I was ready to go! Not that the cup, or two, or three of coffee hurt my situation, but I really do believe today was a little different in terms of morale? motivation? m...mojo? Well, whichever “m” word it is, it worked.

It took most of the afternoon, but a plan to work at a coffee shop downtown finally came to fruition at a tiny table in a moderately crowded Z’s. Seems like, with the rain and a slight chill, everyone in town had the same Saturday plan. After returning home, I managed to set up (most of the way) my online portfolio. At last! A link will be posted soon; it hasn’t been “published” to the internets yet.

Partially because I was feeling motivated, and mostly because I needed a distraction from 127 hours (Could you? I could. Could I? Could you? *shudder*) I began today’s project much earlier than usual. It started, as it has literally one hundred one times before, with a word...

sky-light n. The light of the sky.

I decided to go with the other definition (well, I guess it is sort of the same definition) of skylight; you know, the one that goes in the roof of a house. I’ve always, always wanted one of those no matter how much they can supposedly leak around the edges. (That’s what buckets/jars/mugs/pans are for, right?) So, with that in mind, I decided to illustrate a small girl sitting under a skylight.

I began with a very simple pen-and-ink drawing of a girl sitting on a bed.

Then, I laid down layer upon layer of pastel. I started with shades of blue (darkness always seems to me to have a blue tinge to it) and then covered the blue with gray and black. I added a smidgen of yellow pastel to the lightest area of the illustration to add a nice soft glow. I then “framed” the illustration with a hand-cut piece of mat board to add some dimension and emphasize the off-centeredness (Woah, is that a word?) of the piece.

I really like the way the shading came out in this illustration; it was a pleasure to create. I’m not entirely sure what direction this piece shows for this blog or for my art in general (or if there is one, or if I should even care) but it’s sure nice to have even the slightest bit of change. I hope you, as a reader, enjoy this post even half as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Thanks for reading.

Xx

-r 

Day One Hundred One

Oh jeez. I have to start off today’s post with a disclaimer: I do NOT know how to draw weapons, at all, in any way. Hah! Well, with that in mind, I shall continue.

So, anyways, after a great day out on the town...

we started off the evening by attempting to make pizza. Unfortunately, we had an issue with the yeast (I claim it was dead, others don’t agree) and the dough did not rise (also, we were too hungry to wait longer than 10 minutes for it to do so). So, we rolled the dough out and ended up with a rather strange triangle pizza:

The result was, well, strange. I think it would have been worse had we not been starving to the point of insanity. So, after a strange dinner of...pizza? I was ready for today’s project.

fierce adj. Savage and violent in nature. Slang Very difficult or disagreeable.

Immediately, I thought of the rather goofy use of “fierce” that has been changed around and applied to good-looking women. I thought...oh, no...nope, not doing that. I couldn’t bring myself to draw a “fierce” woman, so I decided to draw a fierce one. 

I began with a pencil sketch of a rather usual pretty woman, and then outfitted her with a few serious weapons. I had a lot of fun coming up with this one, but I’m fairly sure my twelve year old weapons enthusiast of a brother would have a few choice remarks about the way these weapons are drawn. Ah, well. There’s always time to learn.

I hope you enjoyed today’s post; thanks for reading!

Xx

-r

Day Ninety Six

That was one quick weekend! It’s strange, though; I find myself looking forward to the enormous amount of work this week is sure to present. I can see the end of the insanity (at least schedule-wise...much of the insanity is probably here to stay) and am ecstatic to be finishing this year of schooling around two months ahead of schedule (sorry, people, this much work requires a little bragging). Today was one of those days in this blog that I plan, before beginning, to “just get it over with” and make something quick and easy. This was also one of those days that I was swept up in it all and fell deeper in love with art. What was going to be a quick pencil sketch before bed turned quickly into a full-on project with research, careful shading, color, and *gasp* A HAND!

house-coat n.  A woman’s informal garment to be worn around the house.

Although I already knew what a house coat was, I did a little research to get ideas about styling in order to do a glamorous, vintage take on today’s word. Immediately after reading today’s word, I thought of a very sophisticated woman who, although she was simply lounging around, did not in any way lose her glamour or beauty. In fact, I tend to think that an effortless, raw look intensifies it.

I took photos throughout drawing today’s piece in order to show the steps taken to create it.

I began, as usual, with a pencil sketch and then inked it to increase the definition.

After this, I took a bit of black pastel smudged on a q-tip and did some shading.

Finally, I took another q-tip, this time with red pastel on it, and colored her “house coat”. After several layers of pastel to get the color correct, I was finished.

I am very pleased with the way this turned out; I have never before drawn a character in this position.

I hope you enjoyed today’s post; thank you for reading.

Xx

-r

Day Ninety

Oh, gloomy Mondays... Although I have no excuse to be complaining about being tired (my schedule is dictated entirely by my record-breaking teenage sleeping patterns), it never stops me from doing so. Maybe some art will wake me up? Worth a shot...

I shuffled over to my dictionary this evening to find that its spine had been fully broken, and the cover had been ripped!! Although I admit that the living room floor is not the safest place for an unprotected, pocket-size dictionary, I suspect foul play.

So my dictionary, despite its sorry condition (I may be introducing it to a smidgen of duct tape before long) offered up a great word for today’s project.

pig-my n., pl. –ies A very small person or animal; a dwarf.

Having slowed to a halt at the towering height of 5’2”, I can definitely identify with today’s word. I wanted to illustrate a very small, very fashionable young character for today’s piece. So, I grabbed a piece of posterboard and a few pencils and began.

After I had finished the character, (and noticing the illustration had taken on a French-y theme) I decided to continue with the piece and add a background. I thought a street lamp would add a nice Parisian touch to the piece. I soon realized that (duh) I wouldn’t be able to show the “lamp” of the street lamp in order for the perspective to be correct (she is, after all, pygmy size). So, I decided to add another lamp a ways behind her. I used smudged pencil in order to convey a sense of romantic fogginess.

I hope you enjoyed today’s post; thanks for reading!!

Xx

-r