Hi.

Acrylic collage painting. I am really starting to like this technique. Anyway, she is a fairy.

Hi, just some sketches. No rants today. I’m tired. And lazy too. With packing and everything, I might put the scanner away soon and have no internet for a few days. But lately, my craving and desire for sweets is returning…. Not good.

This focuses on charcoal materials for life drawing, figure drawing, foundation classes, etc. This is mostly to help out people just starting out in taking figure classes and to do product reviews. Your instructor will more or less tell you how to use your stuff, but sometimes, you don’t meet them before you buy class materials. And you’re like, “Whaaaa does this do?”

I’ll just start with kneaded erasers! All illustrators should have this. Only if you’re a sketch artist, then yeah, you too. But its very versatile. What person does not know about this eraser? You can flatten it, shape it, mold it, and it leaves no eraser dust behind. It’s self-cleaning… But as you can see in the above picture, the very first one I bought for school is on the right. And the very left is quite recent, probably some months ago in the summer… So it turned black at the end of the first semester. It was dying on my second, so I bought a new one! Oh, it turned black two. In fact, I had 2 with me, because I had two of everything, two knives, two chams, and split up the charcoal, which I kept buying anyway. This was because I didn’t want to carry too much to and from school, so I kept one case at home and one at school to lighten the load. Heavy stuff! Anyway yeah, now I gather them all up and I don’t throw my kneaded erasers away. They’re useless once they’re not self-cleaning anymore. It’s hard like a rock, not as stretchy and, sometimes it erases but if you’re not careful, it’ll leave black marks… that are not erasable. And that’s shitty. So use them as wall tackies for posters!

This is my box of charcoals. The aluminum thumb tacks are there only if you’re going to a live class, otherwise, its okay if you do not buy. They’re for posting up art in front of everybody and getting teacher critiques.

Okay, first up is chamois. Or chams (shams). They are for smearing and blending large surface areas. What it once looked like is on the very right, the light yellow square thing. Yeah. But you want it dirty! It can take away or add more charcoal, it’s also easy to blend when there’s a lot on it. So I’m probably going to get a lot more years out of this thingy. I bought an extra one to use with colored conte, which the beginning student does not use until later on or when the instructor says okay.

This is a vine charcoal by daler rowney. They come in various sizes and are ideal for the beginning student because it’s easy to erase and manipulate. However, it smudges incredibly easy. It’s also used to color/tone a background. And you can erase to the white of the paper if it’s applied lightly, or not, obviously, it’s heavily applied, it’s going to stay a bit more. The middle tier in the box has more. There’s also that other box of vine charcoal on the right. It sucks. You get what you pay for. That thing was a waste of $0.99. It was hard, there wasn’t even a thing on the box that says hard, medium, or soft, it was just hard. And it didn’t go on well. I also had a box by General’s, I’m pretty sure it was soft, not extra soft, which is what the one above is, but that brand is all right. They make better compressed charcoal. I just didn’t like using it. Daler Rowney vine charcoal is the best I’ve used, not even as expensive as the General’s, I think. Oh yea, these break easily if you hold them too tightly.

Charcoal pencils. I haven’t tried others, because General’s is the cheapest and it works. I guess there is also derwent? and I also tried the one that resembles Chinese markers. Those are useful when you don’t feel like carving the wood. One must buy X-acto craft knives with no. 11 blades. I bought a 100 pack of blades and I have not used it all up, but I replace them often, it makes sharpening charcoal pencils much easier when you have a sharp blade. I always keep the extra charcoal dust for tone backgrounds, so I keep a plastic bag handy.

Hmm.. sorry, guess I shoulda lightened it. This is my compressed charcoal. Hard to see, but below are they’re retailed images.

I forgot what class had me get this, but it’s not very comfortable, but it’s so flat…. Just something to get used to. The way it goes on paper is different from the usual round ones I bought in-class. It comes in 2B, 4B, and 6B being the softest. It’s also tedious to sharpen because it’s flat-ness doesn’t make a very rounded point. But the edges are sharp so it’s good for edges. Just hard to maneuver for newbies. Compressed charcoal is not introduced until later when you get used to holding the charcoals properly and you’re used to it. All compressed charcoal are harder to erase, so you can’t use your fingers like vine charcoal to erase, sometimes the kneaded eraser will not erase all of it, so then you’d use a rubber one made for charcoal erasing.

This one, I barely used. I bought a 3 instead of a 12 pack, but the ones I bought were fat and not flat. But they break rather easily… However, it comes out very dark, darker than the others I’ve used. Do I like it? It’s got its uses, but I don’t think I will try this one out as I’ve still got broken pieces that I can still use..

Can’t remember the brand, but this resembles the usual ones I like because they’re round. Easy to sharpen to a fine point. It’s rounded, but doesn’t mean you can’t make a straight line with it.

Conte crayon, I didn’t touch until the second semester…? Hm… when was my first anatomy class.. haha! It’s square, but you can sharpen it too, it’s not bulky, so easy to sharpen. The one above is a darker sanguine, I had a redder one somewhere, I used that one most because it showed up better on camera. They go on easily. I had bought a white conte to compliment a drawing done in black conte. Conte all in all is very soft, it’s not like charcoal. Erases a little more stubbornly, but not impossible just stubborn like compressed charcoal. It’s like a classy crayon without the wax.. The whitest highlight for a 3 toned drawing is with chalk. But I don’t have that… hm so. I wouldn’t buy too many of the General’s white charcoal because of its hardness and tone, probably just 1 is good. I bought a 4 pack… sigh. Still haven’t finished that 1 in the box. Or get the white charcoal pencil, it’s somewhere in the main picture. Next to the vine charcoal. That reminds me, I bought the sticks because I thought it would be different from the pencil. I’ve had that pencil for the longest time too. So a pencil should be enough because whites are for highlights, mostly.

And extras are the blending stumps. My friend taught me how to make my own, but I bought some before for detailed drawing. I heard people only use them once…. Haha… obviously, I haven’t, they’re useful when they need to be. Or use your finger.

Okay, that’s all. I’m done. Hope this was helpful. Hmm… My nose is getting clogged just by looking at it. Beware of black boogers.

Whoa. Yeah. So I’m 21 now. Won’t be long now, I’ll be complaining like the old people saying things like, “…Seems like only yesterday, I….” My next landmark is 25, where you get to rent a car… But that doesn’t sound exciting. And the very next is elgibility to run for president at 35, but that is highly unlikely for many reasons.

Just wanted to post some sketches I did after playing FFXII. See, it wasn’t all just for gaming… it was for art too. I really like the concept artist who did the FF Tactics/Ivalice series. I’m sort of tired of Nomura, but he is a good artist/character designer. Otherwise, there wouldn’t be so many Cloud cosplayers at AX. Or Sephiroth.

My sketchbook was not 9×12, so the viera’s legs became shortened! They’re so tall… taller than models. I dislike drawing extra long limbs sometimes. I remember not liking drawing 8 heads but it looks weird stretched. Ah well. 8 heads is not real. I’m just practicing assimilating styles right now, since I want to be a concept artist for video games! But I’m always thinking, who will hire me? Maybe because my knowledge is limited. I looked at the class courses for illustration. I have 2 years left of school. I was like, “WHOA! Really?!” I’m very bad at keeping track of things. I went to school 2007, and its now 2010… (and this is me counting my fingers, 2007-2008, that’s one, 2008-2009, that’s two and sophomore, 2009-2010 =junior, 2010-2011 = senior. This is how I keep track btw. I also have to use my finger to form a circle in the air for counting the months. Spatial perception is out of whack vs. the rest of the left-brained population). I can’t tell if I’ll be graduating in summer like everyone else or in the winter time. I’ll have to talk to my advisor personally later about that.

I have a free Cafepress premium account, so be sure on the lookout for links~ Haha… I really need money…!! But I’m not going to ask for it, it’s better to work for that so you don’t owe anybody. I really do hate owing people, it keeps you stuck. First time I bought health insurance, and I don’t want to depend on my student loans so much. One of my new years resolution is to get more active so I can go snowboarding. All my siblings are doing it. Gawd, it was awful. Embarassing…. -___- But being completely sporty is not my life style. :\ As a majority of the time, I will be stuck behind a drafting table.

There was one more thing I was going to say, but I forgot. Until next time~

YAYAYAY! i’m completely finished. SUPER ÜBER relieved. So tired. Comics class is still as ridiculous as ever. Illustration 2 class  taught me a lot. Clothed figure drawing 2 was so-so. English; creative persuasion and argument was cool, also learned a lot. That’s my semester. Phewwwww.

Reflecting on my finals: the two comic pages, surprising, I did not get a critique for the second page because the instructor was being forgetful, I dunno his excuse, he apologized though. I’m like, whatever, we make mistakes. I forgive you. But the irony is that that page turned out much better because the first page had a lot of crap going on. It was hard to see, I’ll admit. But really, I didn’t put my heart into it. There was something wrong with the story, I did not like it. But I couldn’t go backwards and say, I don’t want to do this. It was too late to change it. I was running on low energy, and being sad kind of makes you not want to do anything. Originally, I was going to make the fourth guy in the second panel for page one think, “Aw man, I gotta go real bad!” instead of “hide behind the rocks!” I wasn’t sure how crude we were allowed to be….

The thumbnails for the salon shop was actually my last final assignment. Class as whole was very boring, I also wanted to get it over and done with. I’m quite neutral with it. But the artist quotes we got each week was inspiring at least.

The two night and morning collages was one of the last assignments for illustration 2. Those two pictures summarized the last 3 months quite well for me, I think. And lastly, the Visual Kei poster was the most fun to do. I couldn’t wait to get started, and I thought, I’d really like this as a poster on my wall. And I will, after I clean up the borders some more and glaze it.

What do I do now? I know! Play games… a lot of it. Well, I’ll get bored though. I have some things I have to do, like a friend commissioned me to do an illustration since October! I’m still halfway done. I hope she’s not mad…. And I haven’t put made my xmas gifts yet. Agh… I’m also hoping to get back my normal schedule. Well, sleeping in the morning and sleeping at night is normal to me. It’s just out of sync with just about 70% of people in the world. That’s just a guess, btw.

So I opted to exercise a little bit today. My lungs had hurt soooo bad… and I had headaches, and my throat got dry and breathing was uncomfortable. What that means? I’m super weak and physically challenged. I only ran about 4 or 5 minutes and then, I couldn’t take it anymore! Walking is healthy too and less hazardous to my knee joints. We’ll see what kind of exercising I do tomorrow.

Perhaps in another day or two, I’ll be posting up some other concept sketches and practices I did inbetween assignments. Doing concept sketches is way more fun, but only if I like them. I’m wondering how I’ll fair with different clienteles….

My attempt at surreal art. Surprisingly, I am into spiritual and metaphysical stuff, but I don’t really show that in my art. Maybe because all I do is fantasy type stuff. Well, I think some of the surreal art is pretty cool. I had found an interesting european dude, but damn, I forgot his name, and I didn’t bookmark the page. Oh well.

Music poster preliminary for “Visual Kei” genre. I will need to make it more grungey looking in the final art poster. I used to be very captivated by this genre, listening to Dir en Grey, and some others. I got tired of the screaming, so I deleted them and moved on. The only band I keep listening to is Nightmare, who sang “Alumina” and “the World” for Deathnote. I still haven’t seen that movie, but I was a fan from before that. Because the lead singer has an awesome voice even though he is so short.. hahaha. BTW, I got most of my ideas from their cover art band score, but I changed some elements. I think I will change it some more later….

Nowadays, I listen to mellow music. It goes well with studying and drawing.

For last week’s assignment, we were to do an editorial illustration of a recent news article.

For those who have not yet read this article about a gang rape in Stanford, then go to this link. And you will understand the picture. I think I was able to put quite a lot of my own emotions into this picture. You know how articles are always monotone sounding, but even so, there was a deep feeling of rage that was boiling in my heart as I read every word of that monotone article. And this is what came out of it. I am wondering what everyone else thinks about this picture because my teacher said she found it very hard to look at and that it was scary. As the creator, I don’t really feel that way, I was very determined to make a statement… So if it was scary, I had no idea… Haha…

And I have some more lighthearted drawings.

I actually asked my mom to help me, at first it was an uptop view, but then she had to leave. But when she tried to help me, it was not at all to my liking. I try to never let an amateur take my photos, but when they can’t pose, it’s up to you. And when they can’t take a photo, then you set it up on self-timer… haha..

I’m crossing my fingers and eyes and hoping that I don’t have to do too many major changes, and also, that I’ll be so glad this class is over.

I really think wordpress should allow for editing galleries. It’s kind of annoying not being able to delete pictures in the galleries.

Who knows when the next time I sign on, so happy thanksgiving to my anonymous watchers. And some not.

Okay. WELL! It’s week 12. OMIGAWD. That’s three more weeks… D: Semester ends December 19. Crazy. I’ve been ripping out my hair this entire semester, but a little reticent about moving on because I will be going back up to San Francisco after this. :O *gasp* Yeah. I’m looking forward to my astronomy class I signed up for. And it will be at night. I hope my pepper spray hasn’t expired yet. Hahaha…

So I’m moving on to acrylic painting, using it like watercolor. It’s actually harder for me because I screw up a lot. Acrylic is more permanent. :\ Hmm. I was going to take a picture of my own cockatiel, but this photo was nicer so, I’d more or less capture him because he doesn’t let people come near. It’s sad, and I’ve tried to reach out before, but it’s annoying that he keeps hissing at me. He’s funny as heck though.

Also finished the destroying New York comic page. I don’t feel like I’ve improved much with my clothed figure drawing because all my efforts go into my two other studio classes. Hmm… Kinda feel bad about that.

I did a scratchboard art, and it’s pretty fun. I had the Ampersand clayboard kind, and I used my leftover india black ink by Higgins and coated a black layer on top. And using some sharp tools, I scratched the surface away. If you happen to mess up, you can reapply ink or white gouache, when it’s dried. It’s pretty darn messy, I’d get some newspaper and put it underneath with all the dust that comes off. I copied and printed onto a watercolor paper, but I don’t think the laser inkjet was very good because I lost detail and also it started to turn greyish. :\ Well, I had fun with it anyway. I’ll probably do more scratchboard art when I have time….

For the last two weeks, I’ve been working on an illustration for Beauty and the Beast. The classic version is found here. I also researched apparently it was a story about losing your innocence. Of course it can’t be summed up like that, but Beast is sort of like the choice for Beauty to make. In some countries, Beast is depicted as a snake, but mostly he isn’t described and is left entirely up to the reader. My Beast came from that information and Bahamuth, so he is a beast-dragon. I left the horns on. Beast in Disney is kind of like some kind of Bull.