Mistborn and a Gargoyle

The other day, I finished Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn,and just had to create some fan art. Behold Kelsier, the Survivor of Hathsin, looking a bit younger than he should, but also looking epic with his mistcloak and glass daggers. 

And here, for the first time ever, my brother's art is on the internet. One of my summer projects was to purify some of the clay in the backyard so I could fire it in a kiln my brother built himself. After spending hours washing and straining it, I had a satisfactory orange lump. Unfortunately, however, I had not cleaned it well enough, and it breaks apart much too easily. When my brother discovered my unsuccessful attempts at creating something, he decided to carve what began as a smiley face into a lovely gargoyle head.

And So, She Flees

Her bare feat slap the cold pavement, and her heel skids on a pebble.
Her hair whips behind her, and wind rushes past her ears.
Her heart pounds, and she gasps for breath as the chill air fills her lungs.
She can't stop.
All she knows is that she must release this frantic pain, this anger, this confusion.
And so, she flees.

And thus begins my quest to describe humans with a graphite pencil. =)

Paris Is Always a Good Idea

Just a drawing I did over Spring break, and just now remembered to post. 

Why Do Artists Create?

A painter paints to unload himself of feelings and visions. ~Pablo Picasso

When I first encountered that quote, I focused on feelings. A painter paints to unload himself of feelings. I began to wonder why the art I had created with the heavy hand of frustration or the slow strokes of melancholy was hidden away in a small sketchbook on my shelf. Only one of those drawings has been seen by anyone else. Maybe I should not hide that. Maybe I should create more work to express my feelings.

Lifted by the soaring notes of the Prince Caspian soundtrack, I picked up my pencil and began this sketch. I found myself in another world--the world I used to enter every time I drew when I was younger, and it was magical. That brought me to my conclusion. Unlike Pablo Picasso, I do not usually create work to express my feelings. Art is an escape. It's a way to make another world as I allow my thoughts to drift away from the stresses of life. It's meant to be relaxing, not a way of venting.

Adventures with Markers

I received an incredibly exciting set of Prismacolor markers and immediately began a picture of our tree. Markers are seriously one of the most fun mediums ever. I created four pictures in one day. The fourth is not shown because I messed it up this morning by trying to draw a background. That's what I get for not leaving well enough alone. 

I have no idea what this picture means. Maybe it symbolizes how much I love rain, but you can make of it what you will.

Last night, my dad read "Ragman" by Walter Wangerin Jr. Although I generally don't like allegory, the imagery this created was particularly striking. You can find the story here: https://www.csh.rit.edu/~ding/ragman_by_walter_wangerin_jr1.htm

Because Trees and Seasons...

Our final assignment in Beginning Hand Building involved creating sets of dishes. I made everything with slabs and had some great adventures with glazes. Who knew that clear glaze on top of streaks of blue could turn into grey and burgundy? So, I'm not thrilled with the outcome of the mugs, but everything else turned out satisfactorily. Now to figure out how to transport everything.

Finished Clocktower

I walked into the art studio today and found my clocktower dwarfing an assortment of bowls and miscellaneous pottery. It has been fired!

First and Last Coil Piece

Coils aren't my friend. I've tried to establish some sort of relationship, but they refuse to fulfill their end of the bargain. After several hours working together, we've come to a mutual dislike. Here's one of the pieces I attempted when coils and I first met. At least I can say that I tried to make it work.

Word Wielder

This is for all my writer friends, especially those crazy enough to tackle NaNoWriMo next week... I'm considering trying it as well.

Steampunk Clocktower in Progress

"You'll build a box," she said. Box. How boring. Then she showed us pictures and everything changed. As we passed around the laptop, one photo caught my eye. A tall, wavy box, shaped very much like a clocktower. Turns out, it wasn't a clock, but my mind had already begun racing. Clocktower equalsMinyrva (a novel written by a friend who wishes to remain anonymous). Minyrva equals steampunk. Thus, my vision began to grow from mere thoughts to a drawing, to the actual tower, and it was so.much.fun. Before this project, I had found working with clay incredibly frustrating. Somehow the material refused to obey my will, but that had been coils. Now I could build with slabs, which brought me back to creating things with my brother in his basement workshop. Of course wood doesn't comply quite as well as clay, but the process still seemed a bit more familiar. So, here it is, the result of my three-week adventure, and I still need to glaze it.

Above the Storm

It's been a long time, but among summer events, sewing, knitting, entering artwork in the county fair and going to college, I haven't gotten around to doing any noteworthy art to post here. Yesterday, however, a tidal wave of inspiration hit me at approximately 12:30 - a terrible time when you planned to spend your afternoon researching the crusades - and I came up with a myriad of different ideas, one of them being this. It began as a simple sketch, which needed ink, so in the name of Inktober, I attempted to make beautiful black lines, then, it needed color. When will I ever learn to buy watercolor pads instead of simple sketchpads? Decent washes don't really happen. Oh well, I had fun. And really, that's all that matters.

The Way of Kings

It's official. I love The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson. That book is just incredible: thoughtful, imaginative and incredibly complex. I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys fantasy.

This first drawing began as Kaladin, but I thought that he looked too old. Also, it didn't really express his character properly. After drawing the brands on his forehead, I became thoroughly convinced that this was not him. Then, I erased them again and realized I had drawn how I imagine Highprince Sadeas.

And here's Syl, because she's awesome.

I Want Adventure in the Great, Wide Somewhere

I want it more than I can tell. 

~Belle-Reprise: Beauty and the Beast

I wanted to paint something really special for my friend's eighteenth birthday. After mulling over a few possiblities involving travel, I suddenly remembered her graduation photos. This one happened to be perfect, because I don't feel terribly confident painting faces yet. Also, source photo credit goes to Jason Bailey at Pixlphoto.com

Two Drawings!

I really haven't been ignoring art, just never got around to uploading stuff. So, here are two of my latest pieces.

The girl here looks a bit too old to be riding one of those stick horses, but children are hard. I have yet to make them look young enough. Also, by the time I got to the horse, I was rather tired of the picture.

Lately, I've been in the mood for drawing lines from songs. This drawing I based on "Thrive" by Switchfoot. It portrays the line, "I wanna thrive, not just survive." 

Watercolour Phone Booth

In honour of my love of Great Britain

Dreams of Magic

If you may not have yet noticed, I tend to favor the romantic, magical scenes. Therefore, I scour the internet in search of these scenes to alter and make my own. Here is one such piece.

It's rather difficult to photograph a canvass covered in acrylic paint without getting some glare, so really there shouldn't be any white marks in the darker areas.

Rhiannon

While browsing the web in search of a bow, I came across the etsy store of Arm Street, an incredible store which specializes in Medieval costumes and accessories. Having quite the obsession with anything medieval, save torture devices of course, I promptly downloaded a bunch of photos from the shop. Consequently, many of my future drawings will probably be renditions of those.
Oh, and my friend gave her the Welsh name Rhiannon.

My Dog

For the last year or so, I've fallen out of drawing animals. Drawing each hair takes so much time and I find people, well, more interesting. Animal's portraits cannot express the same emotion that a human can. While a dog may seem to smile, humans have different smiles for different emotions. While a dog may bare his teeth, humans use their entire faces to convey anger. Anyway, a couple days ago, I decided to take the plunge and go through the work of drawing my Golden Retriever. To my surprise, drawing each hair wasn't extremely tedious.

Feather

A couple of days ago, I set out to draw an average feather with far from average colors. Instead, I glanced at the peacock feather in a glass soda bottle on my dresser and thought how awesome it is. They are just such fascinating feathers, changing colors in different lights. To simulate this, I mixed green glitter with some of the paint. All in all, the painting would look a bit better with a different background color, but I'd rather not change that now. 

Perseverance

I began this project confident in my ability with acrylics. Yeah, I've painted before, I can do this. Never before, have I been so wrong. Painting with acrylics does not simply mean sitting down and slapping a few coats of paint on in two hours. My art teacher, Betsy Dill (betsydill.com), showed me how intensive it can be. She taught me about pre-painting techniques and thinning my paint. Sometimes, I must admit, I became rather frustrated when she pointed out details that needed some major attention. But without Ms. Dill, I never would have even finished this picture. She has taught me, among other things, to persevere even when my art looks awful. And so, this blog post is dedicated to her. Thank you so much Ms. Dill!

Oh, I gotta mention that it looks a bit better in person. Somehow the colors tend to look weird when I take pictures of them.