And There Was Much Rejoicing

What once was lost is now found!
My laptop has returned unto me! It returned to me this afternoon and now sits on the kitchen table, eager for its hard drive to be reinstalled so it can once again join me in my varied and amusing Internet adventures.
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In other news, I return to school on Sunday. I'm ready to head back and see my friends, plan a meal for everyone, and threaten them with knives. I'll pop in the fireplace DVD and we'll all gather around the flickering digital flames and discuss what has come to pass since we last gathered.
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What's with the picture accompanying this post, you ask? Not sure. I'm feeling cheerful and that picture just made me feel satisfied, contented and all warm and fuzzy inside. Looking at it, I realize that I now need to mark any new pictures as copyrighted in 2010, rather than 2009, as I have been doing. Now, to the bat cave! I must prepare for my next glorious, action-packed adventure!

Lonely

So, this past semester I dropped my computer and the flash drive ports on one side got all mashed up and unusable. Then my disc drive doesn't read any CDs I put in it. So now it's been sent off for repairs. The hard drive is still with me, but the rest of it is on the way to some distant land of computer tech support.

I . . . miss it.

Here's hoping it shows up in time, that is, before I get on the plane, schoolward bound. If it arrives after me, then my parents will have to send it on and it'll take days to get there and I will be without my dearly cherished laptop.

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Saw the trailer for Iron Man 2. I really, really want it to be May right now. If it were May then the movie would be out and I would have watched it twice.

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Obviously not much is going on right now, and this is a lackluster post. I suppose I'm not feeling very upbeat right now. You know, just general despair about life and art. Lack of people to talk to, away from my friends. Blah, blah, blah. The general mixed blessings of breaks from school. Sure, no class or homework, but no friends, movie nights or making dinner for a crowd. I'll go eat some of those Christmas chocolates and cheer up.

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That reminds me, Merry Christmas! And Happy New Year! Hope your holidays were enjoyable and that the coming year is even better than the last.

Meet My Friends

The imaginary ones, anyway. I've been doing some drawings of characters from the stories I write, and I thought they're turning out rather well. Keep in mind, these are all works in progress and not yet completed.

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First off, this is Vanessa Lynn.

She's friendly, I swear! Sixteen years old and a powerful sorceress, she is a supporting character in one of my stories. The story is going through a big overhaul right now, so it doesn't have a title at this time. Obviously a fantasy, hopefully an original one.

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This guy is called Matthew from the story, "Overdue". Which, by the way, exists in the same world as Vanessa's story.

Man, he doesn't look very friendly either. He's usually much more cheerful and snarky, and lots of fun to be around. He lives in the mountains and has a fascinating back story which I won't tell you about because it would give away all the twists.

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Now, for someone who actually looks cheerful, Andrew Furlen.

He's a wizard in my story, "Silent Stone". He has a rather deadpan sense of humor and usually pretends to be vague and unfocused so people won't bother him.

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Meet Gray, The Gatekeeper,

Also from "Silent Stone", he is a personification of the magical protection of the palace. He was created centuries ago and then someone lost the user manual, apparently, so not much is know about him or how he works. He is programed to intervene if the royal family or the other palace inhabitants are in immediate danger, but not until then.

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He's not Asian, by the way, I'm just trying out a kimono sort of outfit, trying to get a balance between them and the usual wizard's robes. And maybe give him a hat.

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So, how am I doing?

Something Different

It has been some time since I posted anything to do with my digital coloring and I might as well, since I have improved significantly in the intervening time.
First off, here is a picture I use as my ID online. Ignore the text, it isn't important and needs to be updated.

It's supposed to be a skin-like mask that makes the face look somewhat blank, but still have hints of the features underneath. It's rather fun to color. Here's another example of the same character:

I really liked how this one turned out (above), I think the face looks good and the hands aren't too bad either. I used to avoid drawing hands, so I always feel satisfied when my character has both hands showing and in fairly believable poses.

Now, for a bit of a dynamic piece:

These are all my original character, Currer Bell. He's not meant to be an author avatar of any sort, he's just fun to draw. At the moment most of my completed pictures are of Currer Bell, or of my sister's original character, Jay:

Or sometimes both of them together:

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These pictures are drawn by hand, scanned into the computer, then colored in photoshop. I've been doing this for about six months and having much fun.

How I Spent My Fall Break

Fall break was over going on two weeks now, so I thought I'd take a look at that long ago vacation and post some pictures. First off, an example of what I was doing during those blissful four days.

Yes, that is a skull in the middle of my painting project. I set up all my various painterly implements on a table and worked there on and off all break. The skull's name is Yorick, by the way. He's been a great help to me, especially with my current project. Speaking of the Grim Tea Party:

Here's the progress. Truthfully, I've done quite a lot of work since I took this picture. A couple of the pictures (strawberry and green eyes) are entirely different at this point. More pictures will be posted later, promise.

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My next project is probably going to be in the abstract. I decided to do realism for the tea party, since it took me outside my comfort zone and forced me to take a different approach. I was planning to do another series, a continuation of this one, but with time issues, I've decided just to do three abstracts. However, they're inspired by this series, for instance, there'll be one with orange slices and probably one with fruit loops.

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Honestly, no abstracts the whole semester? I'm going through withdrawal.

Fall Break

The break is Fall and Fall is broken. School is out until Monday. Both my roommates have gone home and so I reign supreme within my apartment, free to do . . . everything I usually do just without people watching. Really, I'm already bored.
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Midterms have come and gone with fairly good grades, of which I have no complaints. My graphic design teacher said I needed to be edgier in my artwork, and in Print Making he said I needed to be looser, less precise, as the medium (lino cut) isn't suited for precision. Here's some examples of my work.

I know, flowers, boring. Give me a break, I was sick and creatively stifled. I'm reworking the plates, so expect great things.

I think orange slices are my new thing. I have a few shapes and objects I use a lot, including webbing and paper fans. Orange slices just got added to the list.

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In other news, I had the flu and it hit me real hard. Missed a lot of class, but I caught up with all of it and my absences were excused. All absences due to flu-like symptoms of excused since the swine flu/H1N1 scare is still in effect. Lucky me.

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My previously mentioned project (the painted series, The Grim Tea Party) is progressing very nicely and I should have photos of the works in progress by tomorrow or the day after. I keep forgetting to bring a camera up to the painting classroom.

Long Time No Babble

Hello my loyal Blog Minions! The lapse in posts was caused in part by my life being unnoteworthy and then by the business of packing my unnoteworthy life in hollow cardboard cubes and entrusting them to the You-Pea-Ess. Now I have returned to school and just finished retrieving all the cubes from the mailroom.

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This semester I am in Painting 4. This would be of no particular interest except that I am the only Painting 4 student on campus at this time. The rest are in either Painting 1 or 2. I've been dropped in among the number twos and told to write up a proposal instead of getting assignments.

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Just recently I had discovered the artist Wayne Thiebuad. His is the picture at the beginning of the post. Most of his artwork consists of cakes, pastries and other delicious food items depicted in luscious detail. Since I want to practice my realism and the more technical side of drawing, I found Thiebaud's work the perfect inspiration.

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But how to make it my own?

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What if . . . there was this cookie. Chocolate chip, I think, beautifully rendered. Moist, delicious . . . being held by a horrible monster shadow hand.

Now I'm calling the project "Grim Tea Party". There will be nine to twelve panels, all 8x10 inches, with corresponding images in all of them. The center panel will be a desolate asphalt road with a beautifully set tea table smack in the middle. There will be no color except for some bright lollipops in a vase.

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Pictures of my progress will be posted now and again. I'm looking forward to trying such a different project and doing it all on wood panels instead of canvas for a change.