Finally.

I'm posting some art that I've done in the last couple weeks! Finally. I kept forgetting to take pictures when I was on campus where my stuff is. This time I remembered, but these are just really quick snap shots and some of the paintings have some glare... deal with it.

These pictures are just in the order I took them in, not the order I painted them in, because I'm tired and lazy and just got back from swing dancing. So there.

Thesea are "imprimatura" studies. If you don't know what that means, Wikipedia does.

This first one is the last one I did. Its Deyoung. He was kinda making a funny face, so the expression is his fault. But if it doesn't look like him, that might be my fault. 

These next two are of the same person... though they might not look it.

I'll admit... this next one is my least favorite. Meh.

This next one is the first that I did. Like I said... these aren't in order.

Its a John Singer Sargent! Or maybe just a copy of one of his self portraits. Yeah. Thats probably what it is. 

Rembrandt! I liked this picture because its happy. 

I've been doing alot of experimenting in sketchbook. I've been trying out colored pencils... these are actually watercolor pencils, but I didn't bring a brush. So yeah. 

I've been having fun with brush pens, which are awesome. Its fun to just be loose and get something down.

Not super great, I admit, but thats what a sketchbook is for--somewhere to put all your bad practice drawings.

And then.... August Happened

So I was doing fairly well with my post-every-week goal for awhile, and then.... August happened, and my life kinda exploded. Which is fine--life happens sometimes.

I'm thinking that I would like to continue my goal of posting at least once per week now that classes have started again. These won't necessarily be things I made for fun, they might be pieces I've done for class--I'm taking head painting and sketchbook, so I think that some fun pieces should come out of that.

But since classes have only just barely started today.... nothing for this week, yet. We'll see what happens :-). I might finish off one of the pieces I started but couldn't finish because of the whole exploding thing that happened in my life this August.

Knight Banner

No art for a couple weeks... then, a whole bunch in a couple days! When it rains, it pours. (Especially in the Philippines ;-)

This is a banner I put together as an example of the style I'd like to use for a course I'm making the splash for. I wanted it to look like a picture book I remember my mom reading to me when I was little, "Dick Whittington and His Cat," which had awesome linocut (?) illustrations by Marcia Brown--it got a Caldecott Honor, I believe.

Mission Comics

During my mission, I would draw little comics about funny things that happened or could happen. Most of them have only been seen by me because they're just in my sketchbook, and frankly aren't all that great drawing-wise--most of them were just quick one-off things that I didn't spend alot of time on. But a couple weeks ago when I was going through my sketchbooks I thought, why not post these? They're kinda fun, and if they're not drawn all that well, whatever.

So. Here they are. I just took pictures of them using my computers camera and fixed them in photoshop by playing with the levels and brightness and contrast, and when that didn't work I just traced over them, so all the bad drawing and sketchiness is mostly preserved. So.

Me:Why don't we tract somewhere really far away so we have an excuse to sit in a trike for a long time?
WALK, WALK, WALK, THAT IS THE SECRET.

This one doesn't need much background. Missionaries walk alot. In the Philippines there are tricycles that will take you places much faster than you can walk there :-).

Our mission song was to the tune of "In Our Lovely Deseret," with the chorus that goes, "Hark! Hark! Hark! 'tis childrens music" but in the mission version we sang, "Work, work, work, that is the secret!" Except walking is actually the secret.

 "You know, hand washing laundry really makes you think about whether you actually got something dirty." 

That looks like its supposed to be Sister Tumaliuan. She could hand-wash laundry much faster than me. Actually, all my companions could.

So no washers for clothes is a problem. But in a hot place like the Philippines, no dryers should be no problem, right? Well, the Philippines has a rainy season, where it seriously rains for days on end. And your clothes NEVER. GET. DRY. And yes, we actually did this.

 "So, whats our goal this week for lessons punted?"

From converstaions with other RMs, it seems that different missons have different terms for things. We said "punted" when an investigator (or whoever) we had an appointment with wasn't there. Or was hiding.

 I drew this one when Sister Marzan was my companion. She had a bunch of EFY music that she would play when we were at home. Most of it I liked. But there was this one song... it was SO ANNOYING. It was pretty much the cheeziest song ever. The chorus went "I'll pray for you and you'll pray for me..." I'm afraid I usually groaned really loudly when it came on. I also might have skipped it a few times.

Computer: Dear Sister Bowthorpe, You will be giving a 2 hour workship in Zone Con next week. Good Luck.

 So one week when President Peterson was still pretty new in the mission, he really liked one of the weekly letters I wrote. I can't even remember exactly what I said, or what he said. I hadn't even ever met him in person at this point. But he replied to my letter, and said (hopefully sarcastically) that I might as well be the one to teach the workshops in the upcoming zone con. Not quite sure of president's class of humor, I didn't know how seriously to take this. All that ended up happening was he made me and Sister Tumaliuan practice teach in front of everybody. But it didn't last two hours, fortunately.

 Sister Tumaliuan: Ayos Ka Lang? (Are you ok?)
Me: Mamatay ako sa init. (I will die of the heat.)

It gets really hot in the Philippines. And humid.

Little Spider: Rawr.
Me: You're not worth the energy.

 Sister Solamillo was was kind of amused by my obvious fear of the seriously huge spiders there were in our apartment. After seeing those, "normal" sized spiders just aren't that scary.

 Sis. Sola: So, what do you want to eat?
Me: ANYTHING but rice.
Sis. Sola: So, who do you want to fast for?
Me: Gnnnnnn

So, Filipinos eat alot of rice. And funnily enough, my trainer Sis. Sola ate more rice than any of my later companions. Rice for breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, and dessert. Well, maybe not always snacks. But basically, if you aren't eating rice, you aren't eating.

This is me, trying to figure out how to eat uncut meat with a spoon and a fork--the Filipino way. You mean I don't get a steak knife? How am I supposed to eat this?



There may be more of these to come, since there were some in other sketchbooks that I don't have here right now.

Do Not Offend The Gods

I was going to work on this longer and then I was like, You know what? I'm sick of looking at this. So I'm going to be done with it. So there.

So this week, I'm posting my art early. Does this make up for it being late before?

This illustrates a scene from Megan Whalen Turner's The Thief.


I was walking up steps into a small room with marble walls. There were no windows, but moonlight came from somewhere to fall on the white hair and dress of a woman waiting there for me. She was wearing the ancient peplos that fell in pleated folds to her feet, like one of the women carved in stone beside old altars. As I entered the room, she nodded as if she'd been expecting me for some time, as if I were late. I had a feeling I should recognise her, but I didn't.
"Who brings you here?" she asked.
"I bring myself."
"Do you come to offer or to take/"
"To take," I whispered, my mouth dry.
"Take what you seek if you find it then, but be cautious. Do not offend the gods." She turned to the tall three-legged table beside her. It held an open scroll and she lifted a stylus and wrote, adding my name at the bottom of a long list and placing a small mark beside it.
When I woke a moment later, Pol had dinner ready.

.....

I had been dreaming again of the lady in the chamber; her hair was held away from her face by a string of dark red stones set in gold. She used a swan feather pen to put a second mark by my name, and she seemed concerned for my sake...






Yeah, I know I did a little column thingy instead of a three-legged table. I thought it looked cooler.

I also didn't have any photo reference for this... at all. So yeah.

Catching Up

I know--I haven't posted art for two weeks. SORRY. Actually, as far as anything anyone has said to me I'm the only one who has noticed I'm behind on my goal. BUT. I still feel bad for falling behind.

I actually tried to post something the other day, but for some reason blogger didn't like the image. It showed up fine on my computer, but when it was uploaded to blogger it only showed up as a black rectangle--I have no ide why. Lets see if blogger will cooperate today. I'll post two things, one for each week that I didn't post something.

This is my design for an ambigram stained glass window. Its a reflective ambigram, which means that it reads differently when you flip it--so, as a stained glass window, you read a different word when you're inside than you do when you're outside. Cool, no? Combining the design limitations of an ambigram with those of a window is no walk in the park, though. Despite that, I think I've got a readable design. Right? Please comment and let me know whether you can read it. :-)

These are a few banners from the course I recently finished a splash for, British Literary History. I actually edited a couple of these banners since saving this image (namely, the ones for Great Expectations and Heart of Darkness) but I'm too lazy now to put in the new versions. Also I don't have access to the files on this computer. 

  

In case your screen is small or whatever, these illustrations are for:

Northanger Abbey, A Vindication of the Rights of Women, the Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Ode on a Grecian Urn, the Lady of Shalott, Great Expectations

Heart of Darkness, The Dead, the Journey of the Magi

Now, I'm caught up! I have a few more pictures I've been working on I plan on posting soon.

This week--ambigrams!

So I totally forgot to post a piece of art last week--sorry! I know, I'm probably the only one who noticed. Ah, well.

These last couple weeks I've been working on digitizing my ambigrams! I'll be printing and selling them at the Provo Farmers Market and on etsy. Here is one as a teaser... ok, two, because I missed last week. Come to the market to see more! When I get them listed on etsy I'll let everyone know :-)

Stained Glass Class

Today is the final for my Stained Glass Class! I've really enjoyed it and I want to be able to keep on making stained glass things. Except, glass is expensive. Hmm.

We started the class working with tissuepaper and posterboard instead of glass. Familiar territory.

Then we learned to cut class into little pieces, to make mosaics! We glued them onto glass containers and filled in the gaps with grout. Ta-da! Fancy candle holder.

Next project... fancier candle holder! I had fun being creative with my shapes. It reminds me of a flower, especially with the colors I used.

Final project--a leaded window! This one actually didn't turn out as nice as it could have because there were some little holes where my pieces didn't fit together quite as well as they should have. But next time, I'll do better.

This Week--swing club fliers!

So, as an untitled officer of swing club my assignment was to design fliers to advertise the club!

These are what I came up with. 
Because two-tone dancing shoes are awesome.

Speaking of, Swing Club is tomorrow night! I'm so excited! This every-other-week thing isn't working so well for me :-}.

This week--Season Series done, ambigrams to come

So last time I posted my raccoons picture I said that I wasn't entirely satisfied with it and would return to it later. So, for this week I finished the raccoon piece and then combined all four seasons designs.

 

And I found my sketchbooks from just before, during, and just after the mission. I went through them and marked all of the ambigrams or little comics I drew that I want to fix and share, so those will probably be my piece for next week, or maybe the next couple weeks. 

Can you tell what the ambigram on the top says both rightside-up and upside-down? 

Two more banners

...making a total of three.

New splash--British Literary History

I put this together to try and nail down the style I want to use for my next splash package. This is essentially the same process I used for the Latin 43 splash, but I'm using dark outlines instead of white and I created brushstrokes that will give the lines a slightly more flow-y feel, I hope.

This is an illustration for James Joyce's "The Dead"