So, guys. I’m going to Fanime! I’ll take as many artsy photos as I can and bring back prints to share with you guys. I really wanna meet my favorite artists there >.<

My mom walked in right when I was finishing and took one look at this and said, “EW, it’s so ugly! I think this is the ugliest person you’ve drawn yet.” 

Thanks mom. I spent four hours drawing an ugly person.

Tip Post #41 

Hey everyone! I know I’ve been very inactive recently, and I apologize. Still catching up on schoolwork and taking our state’s STAR test (it’s a state standard test for students and it’s lasted for these two weeks. Today’s the last day for testing, WOOT!). I got up early this morning to do math homework and I finished ahead of time so I figured, what the heck, why not. So I turned on the computer and here I am. Here’s the tip!

I was surfing through a Harmony Theory ebook on my Kindle during my free time at school and I came across something interesting. It’s called the Triangle Harmonic Theory. I’m sure some of you have heard of it before, but for those who haven’t, this is the Triangle Harmonic Theory: Draw three points on a piece of paper and connect them(draw the the lines out father than the points). You draw the objects in your scene in accordance to a single line at a time and when you finish you’ll find that your drawing will turn out looking very tied together and pleasant to look at(your work will also look more complex and intellectual when art critics look at them). It was kind of confusing reading these instructions on the book, but it helps if you go and grab a piece of paper right now and try it out. Once the triangle appears you’ll probably be able to understand better how this harmony thing works. If you have any problems or whatnot drop a question in my ask box and I’ll try my best to answer it.

My artist’s bearcave and a WIP! It literally looks like a cave. I think it has something to do with my walls being navy blue and me having only one floor lamp. As you can see I was forced to break out a set of long-forgotten oil pastels since my poor white Pentel oil pastel has been reduced to a half a centimeter stump.

BTW, I’m finally back on the Rainbow Collection again. This one’s green.

An improvement meme! And yes, the pikachus are supposed to be the same person. The first one was drawn late August in 2011. The second one was drawn March 30, 2012.  

Original Meme

So, guys. I entered in an art competition over the weekend. I kinda felt like I was cheating since I have a late birthday and I just barely squeezed into the age group requirements…by like, 5 months. But anyway, the work was judged on the spot and I was kind of surprised to go there and find that I had been placed in second place. Not to be putting down other people, but when I looked at the first place winner’s work, my honest, and what I hope was unbiased, opinion was that even though it looked good, I didn’t think it was first place material. The topic was “My Dream” and this kid’s dream was to be a scuba diver. It literally looked like he pulled out a children’s storybook, put a sheet of tracing paper over it, and copied everything down. His watercolor technique was superb, but you could tell he wasn’t as experienced as the overall effect of his work suggested since his lines were shaky and he didn’t seem to know how to use sketching techniques(this was a junior competition, so it’s not expected of a person to be very experienced). It seemed to me to be well-colored and neat, but rather unoriginal. The other person who got second place with me didn’t seem to fulfill the topic very well either. She drew an abstract work with oil color. Again, it was aesthetically pleasing, and very nice. However, a random person walking by would not be able to guess what the topic was. I would have guessed flower, or garden, or nature. I thought mine fulfilled creativity and technique and had a really clear topic, but still. It was in second place. This one judge kept coming up to me and, it seemed to me like she was rubbing up to me the way a kitten does when it wants its owner’s attention (which I thought was really weird and kind of creepy but okay). After I went home, my art teacher talked to her friend, who was one of the judges, and apparently 3 out of the five judges had all given me full scores (I guess the other one gave me a neutral score or something) except for that one rubby kitten judge, who gave me one of the lowest scores possible and gave her own student, the other second place person, full score. That pulled down my score, therefore, I lost to the first place drawing by one point. They should make a rule in competitions that teachers with students in the competition can’t be judges. .__. 

^And the judge rubbing up to me, my mom speculates that she was trying to soften our opinion of her in case we ever found out that she did funny stuff to the scoring.

I don’t have the other people’s permission to post their work so I’m just going to post mine for now. I was up against 12-15 year olds so you can imagine how the other drawings looked. I pretty much thought this drawing was overkill but I guess not.

We all know how expensive painting palettes can be! I used to buy palettes until my art teacher introduced me to this cheap, enjoyable alternative. She brought out an empty box of chocolates and told me to use it instead of an actual palette and as I started squeezing paint out into the little slots I realized how useful the box was as a palette. It held quite a few colors and was waterproof as well as had a lid that could be used as a mixing plate. AND I got to eat chocolate! Added bonus! 

I usually try to find Ferrero Rocher chocolates since I know those have legitimate slots for the chocolate that can be used instead of little paper wraps. Examine the boxes first to make sure they have slots. I’m actually not sure if they sell boxes that are the same size as mine anymore(I’ve been using mine for a while.). I think they sell bigger boxes now. Like, boxes that are twice the size of mine (more chocolate! and more space!). Warning, don’t buy chocolate boxes during Valentine’s day if you’re going to use them as palettes. Most chocolate manufacturers try to make their boxes look nice and fancy on Valentine’s day and they end up coating the inside of the box with velvet and ribbons or whatever.

The only problem I have with these boxes as palettes is that I have to wipe off excess water from the lid before I cap it back on so that the water doesn’t drip down. However, I think it you buy an actual palette you would still have to clean it before putting it away anyway so…

I just thought that since I happened to start using a different brand that I would make a review on it! Here goes:

These are Simbalion oil pastels (it’s an Asian brand). After a bit of light Google surfing, I gather they’re a bit more expensive than Pentel oil pastels. The oil content in these pastels are rather high, so they go on the paper looking rather transparent， creating a more watercolor look as opposed to the oil painting look( I don’t know about you, but I like the oil painting look better). I have the 24 set right now, and I have to say, it feels so much easier to use since I like using raw colors, but I get overwhelmed sometimes and I can’t decide which color to use. Overall most of the pastels are rather soft. They don’t really blend well with other brands, as they tend to push other pastel colors around instead of mixing, but it used by themselves they can provide a luminous, highlighted look as opposed to some other thick, matte styles.

Hello dear followers!! It’s been a while since I last posted, and I apologize. I have been suffering from horrible artist blockitis and a family trip to some far off dry desert (Death Valley. The only good part about that was that I got to eat at an expensive buffet so I stuffed myself and threw up. Aaand I brought back a few reference pictures. I’ll try to find the better photos from my dad’s fancy camera and post them up here later.). 

A quick hand study with graphite pencil and copic markers. I had to edit out writing on the edges since I’ve decided to keep an art diary! Basically, since I can’t seem to be able to remember to draw every day and since I can’t seem to be able to keep a diary past 2 days I’ve decided to combine my passion with a diary/notebook for inspiration and see how that works out. (think of it as a 100 day challenge, only…unlimited. Until your paper runs out, anyway. All of you should try it! It’s a great way to keep track of your thoughts and your art.)

Am I cute now? Drawing (actually redraw) of my friend as a pikachu. It really wasn’t what she had in mind…