Friday, December 7, 2012

Page Six and A Finished Painting

Wherein Rose carries out on her warning and I call it (temporary?) quits on the "Surreal" painting. The highlighting on the fabric is still ugly, but the rest looks better enough for me to be satisfied until I get bored later and fix it.



Thursday, December 6, 2012

Page Five

In the works of a friend when she saw the inks of this page: "That escalated quickly."

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

I Can Fix It!

"Wreck-It Ralph" is a great movie by the way. Just thought should be put out there.

Today most of Intermediate Painting was spent making more adjustments to old pieces. A great deal of time also went into my current piece, but again it's going to be a gift so won't be shown here until after Christmas. Instead let's take a look at what I worked on today, and compare them to photos of how they looked before.

First, the "surrealist" painting that I was so disappointed in. Here's how it used to look:

Here's how it looks now. It still isn't finished, but it's a large improvement. The chairs still need work, and several more details will be added to the cheese house and the wine glass as well as its contents. The drapery will also be changed.

 Here's the last assignment I did, in all it's frustrating "glory"...

 ...and here's how it looks now sitting in my locker in the studio. I decided to cover the bricks, but not with paint so thick that you can't see some hint of them. It simply isn't possible with my skill level and the remaining time to fix all those bricks and make them presentable. Something needs to be added along be bottom to make the wall more tidy, and the flowers will be made neater and have more details. It's much easier for me to look at just because the bricks are covered.

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Page Four

In which the just desserts start to be served and the heroine speaks for the first time! Also a nod to women taking a stand in the comic world in the background there.

Monday, December 3, 2012

Page 3

A hero's origin story is often an unhappy one, and this one is no exception. You probably gathered that from the first two pages. To me personally this page and what it hints at are pretty intense, even knowing what will happen next.

Also I just realized that I forgot the electricity on Rose's hand.

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Heavy Workload

It's a busy week for school projects just like the next one will be.  I spent four hours in the painting studio this morning, partly to work on our last project and partly to make adjustments on old ones. These are the two that need the most work and I'm eager to make them look more how I envisioned. The current project won't be shown until after Christmas, since it's a gift.


Also, because I was an airhead and didn't save my first digital inking job of Page 3 of the comic properly, I had to ink it all over again. At least it looks better now.



Monday, November 26, 2012

Pages One and Two

I started celebrating too soon yesterday. I realized after updating my blog that I forgot to put a few speech bubbles on page one. That has been rectified and page two is also finished. It's my personal goal to have the entire thing done by Sunday night. We'll see what happens.



Sunday, November 25, 2012

Page One

I just now finished the first page of this silly thing after neglecting it and most every other school-related work since the beginning of Thanksgiving break. I worked on some Biology notes during the week and finished one of the eight artworks I need for my Mixed Media final, but other than that I was either busy shopping, wrapping gifts, or doing absolutely nothing.

Seeing this finished is rather satisfying, hopefully enough to fuel me through completing most of Page 2.

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Greener On the Other Side

Why in the world did I choose to paint a brick wall? I'm still asking myself that. That's all the bricks I plan to add, though. If I push them any further I'm afraid of what will happen. The final critique is tomorrow, however, so we'll see what the professor thinks.

Obnoxious bricks aside, it's not bad.

Sunday, November 11, 2012

Building

The bricks are improving, and those that still have issues be covered with vines or some other manner of convenient plant life. I have no intention of painting any more bricks, either. I've also made some progress with the comic, having inked page 2 and started on page 3, which will be digitally inked and colored. Right now page 1 is sitting nearby partially colored in with marker.



Friday, November 9, 2012

Mistakes into Masterpieces?

Today I sat down with the intent of finishing the trees on the other side of the wall and starting the brick pattern on the wall itself. The former went well, the latter was a horrible idea. Thus do I find myself working on re-painting the underlying colors on the first half of the wall and attempting to cover the other half with plants. That should work out okay, as long as the ground is still somewhat visible. I also used a ruler and scratched in the lines where some bricks would lay and that's working much better.

Also, for my New Media class I'm working on a short super heroine comic. It's an independent project that I chose myself, and will start off with traditional media, slowly working up to being fully digital. The first page will be colored with markers and colored pencils, the second will be traditional until I color it digitally, etc.

The word bubbles aren't there yet, but basically a young woman discovers a great gift during a time of trauma (her [step?] father abusing her mother in the next room).


Wednesday, November 7, 2012

It's Not Really Weekly Anymore, Is It?

But that's okay. Life has swamped me as it often does this time of year, even without my serious participation in National Novel Writer's Month. Maybe over Thanksgiving break something not related to school will be finished, but I'm not holding my breath for that yet. Next year, however, will bring about Attempt Three at completing a work of art each week, and with next Spring being when I graduate that's actually looking more promising. Homework won't be a factor, at any rate.

The most recent painting assignment marks the beginning of my professor more or less taking his hands off the wheel as far as directing the assignments goes. This one is to be done with three different methods of painting, but the subject matter is all up to us. I admit that actually thinking of a subject was what took me the longest so far.

In the end it's going to be a sort of receding wall with trees on both sides. Bricks will be painted in as a visual cue, and there will be far more plant life, but the stripes of color will remain. The original idea was to do a sort of drip-painting in those areas, but air-headed genius that I am I forgot those supplies. So stripes it is. Also the perspective threw me for a loop while I was taking the picture.

Saturday, November 3, 2012

Week Thirty Will Be Fixed Later

Lo and behold the fruit of my labors. I was actually very frustrated with this towards the end and intend to still alter it between now and finals week, but here it is for now. I also finished the digital drawing of a characters comparison. I decided not to color it since it was taking forever already.


Sunday, October 28, 2012

Week Thirty Rebels

Not much to say right now other than I have a long way to go and until 9:30 AM tomorrow to do it!

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Week Thirty One Takes on More

Not much to say about the painting other than that it's coming along nicely. Painting holes into Swiss cheese is more difficult than expected, but so help me, I will make it work.

Also, despite my brain telling me that it's a terrible idea, I'm working on a digital drawing of a comparison between how I depict two certain "versions" of one Hetalia character. I think explaining would bore most of my readers, so just have a look at the short skinny guy next to the strong muscular one.

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Week Thirty Jumps Forward

Today's update will actually have three progressive images, since a lot was accomplished during class today, and each step of progress had its own point of interest. Okay, that and I wanted evidence of when it looked nice in case I royally screw up.


As it is right now, some adjustments need to be made to the table and chairs that hopefully aren't too obvious in the sky. I was considering adding detail to the buildings, but they have a nice, eerie presence as just shadows, so they're going to stay that way. Thankfully the ones towards the middle will be covered by the foreground.

Monday, October 8, 2012

Week Thirty One Is Going to Get Crazy

As I may have mentioned, the next painting assignment is surrealism. For years I've had the idea of a wine glass with a night sky in it, but that's just a start for a painting. So I spent the first hour of class today looking for inspiration online and brought together what you see up there. The dripping substance will hopefully resemble wine and have some sort of imagery in it. The lamp hanging off the left of the cheese-house won't be used.

Since I spent so much time conceptualizing, there isn't much to see as far as the painting except the blues of the sky that will be between the city and the dripping wine. Looks neat anyhow.


Monday, October 1, 2012

Week Thirty Closes

 Okay, this thing looks pretty darn cool. I have no idea what my professor will say on Wednesday, but I have no intentions of doing anything drastic to it.

Also, another sketch just for fun, Jensen Ackles as Dean Winchester from Supernatural. Well, a more comic-style interpretation.

Saturday, September 29, 2012

Week Thirty is Almost There

Hopefully this is "abstracted" enough for my professor, because that's as abstract as I'm willing to make it. All that's left to be done is to add a bit more to the flame at the top in the very corner. I had to make a frame for this painting. It was a fiasco that I don't want to discuss.

I also finally did some art for myself. Just a simple character sketch.


Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Week Thirty Is Stubborn

At the mid-critique yesterday, the professor stepped onto his soap box about none of us doing Abstract Expressionism correctly. One of his major complaints was that they were all too "figurative", though he didn't spend time on mine specifically he was referring to a few of them.

At this point, however, I have to put my foot down. It reminds me of my earlier years in school where I threw fits about having to do abstract things that I hated, but as a senior now I feel that I know what I want, whether it's exactly what the teacher is looking for or not. I'm not going to ruin something I'm proud of for the sake of a grade.

The painting isn't done, but if the professor wants the figure to disappear completely he's out of luck. I spent too much time planning and executing this and used too much paint to turn it into something I hate. So yes, there will be alterations, but I'm not going to destroy what I consider the integrity of this piece.

Also, a Google search turned up abstract expressionist art that does have a figure to it. So there.

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Week Thirty-Ish?

So while I haven't started any new personal work recently, this new painting assignment is really exciting. I'm not usually into abstraction but the movement and going crazy with the brush strokes is really fun. It's probably fairly obvious, but the idea here is fire dancing. There's a lot of neat videos on YouTube that make for great inspiration.

The in-progress critiques for this is on Monday.

Friday, September 14, 2012

Week Twenty Nine Finally Ends

It's Friday and I'm worn out, so all I have left to say for this is "Happy Early Birthday" to my friend Ember!

Hetalia fanart in case anyone forgot.

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Derailing from Week Twenty-Nine For A Bit

The first painting of the semester for Intermediate painting was something like completed last night, and so transferring it from my house to the bus to my first class to the actual painting studio was a bit of a chore since oil paint is never in a hurry to dry. Anyway, there were things I wasn't happy with and thanks to the critique I know what I can do to improve it... which will happen eventually. At least by the end of the semester. For now, it's time to consider my next painting.

Also, here's a fun little thing that I painted during a craft therapy-session with a couple of friends over Labor Day weekend. If woodworking and I weren't mortal enemies, I'd take off the front and re-attach it with a hinge so that I could decorate the inside too. Alas, it's not meant to be.

I'll try to have my friend's birthday drawing done by the end of this week, since that's kinda what I meant to do for Twenty Nine anyway.

Thursday, September 6, 2012

Week Twenty-Nine or Something

I've been meaning to update for at least two weeks and then forgetting as soon as it occurs to me. Since I'm working on a drawing outside of class, however, I guess it qualifies as another Weekly Art.
And yes, I'm going to try again next year. I'll only have one semester of school to contend with, after all, since I graduate in May.

This is an incredibly early birthday gift for a friend. She's already seen it up to this point, though by now it's also been inked and I've started coloring it. Her birthday isn't until the end of September, but I figure why not start the party early? That and I wanted to work on it when the inspiration was there.
And here's more of the painting for my studio class. It's progressed more since this photo was taken, but not much. It's due on Wednesday, but my plan is to take it home tomorrow and finish it over the weekend.

Also, I would like to submit a question to anyone who happens to read this. For my Mixed Media class I've been making collages cut from magazines and such. We're doing several of them as exercises until mid-term, and then we'll start working more independently. I really enjoy them, however, and I think they turn out rather interesting. Would any of you want to see them uploaded here?

Thursday, August 23, 2012

I Guess It's Week Twenty-Eight

This was actually finished a couple days after the Week 27 drawing, but since it took less than a week to finish it, it should still count as a Weekly Art, right? Apparently mid-August was a great time for drawing naked Hetalia characters. At least this one has slightly more depth. If you want more explanation for that, you can read the description on my DeviantArt upload of it.

With the start of school has come the start of Intermediate Painting, and so also comes uploading progress shots of my paintings to this blog. We've only had two class periods and this one's already more enjoyable than the Painting I class, probably because we should all know what we're doing anyway so the instructor hardly interferes. This is just fine with me.

Our current assignment is to take two "Romantic" American landscape paintings from the 19th century, collage them, and do a painting based on that. Landscape is not my favorite thing, but since we have to do it, I might as well make it fun and do something impressionistic with it. It's a combination of the following two paintings, Mendon Hills by Stacy Tolman and Summer by Sydney Burleigh, respectively.



Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Week Twenty Seven All At Once

After obtaining SAI today, I decided to run myself through a crash-course in using it and enjoying it while I was at it. I also decided to do something rather... self indulgent... before I head back to the land of academia and creating according to the professor's orders.

That pipe he's holding looks awful, so just stare at the pretty man instead.

Ivan from Hetalia.

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Week Twenty Six Ends


This could afford more polish and adjusting, but it's at a point where I'm find leaving it the way it is. Week twenty six ends tomorrow officially and I've got writing and other things to do, so we'll consider it done.

I'm still not sure if this is the eye that's green, but there's so much blue in this picture already that we'll assume it is for now. If I'm wrong, I can flip it around later.