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.