Arthouse Sketchbook Project

       As I mentioned before, a loooong time ago when I did regular posts (who am I kidding- I've always been ify on that particular subject) I told you about the Arthouse Sketchbook Project that I started. Below are a few excerpts from what I have done so far:

          When signing up for a sketchbook, you have to chose a topic. Their list of rather vague topics leave lots of wiggle room. I chose, "the secret and how to tell it," for mine, and the title is Childish Things. Yeah, that's going to allow me to draw pretty much whatever I want. Just what the secret is, I don't really know yet, and it so far it hasn't really mattered. I figure it has something to do with imagination, common sense,  childhood, etc. Just think, of course, what Chesterton would say on the matter. 

       I am also TRYING to start painting digitally with my new bamboo tablet and Painter X. It's rather very very difficult, but, I am doing my best to teach myself. 

     Now some quotes on the before mentioned theme:

“Critics who treat 'adult' as a term of approval, instead of as a merely descriptive term, cannot be adult themselves. To be concerned about being grown up, to admire the grown up because it is grown up, to blush at the suspicion of being childish; these things are the marks of childhood and adolescence. And in childhood and adolescence they are, in moderation, healthy symptoms. Young things ought to want to grow. But to carry on into middle life or even into early manhood this concern about being adult is a mark of really arrested development. When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up.” -C.S. Lewis

“Grown up, and that is a terribly hard thing to do. It is much easier to skip it and go from one childhood to another.”-F. Scott Fitzgerald

“Well, one can't get over the habit of being a little girl all at once.”

-L.M. Montgomery

Fairies, Christmas, and the Doctor

 It's been a while since I have posted. I have been busy working everyone's last minute vacation hours at work, trying not to spend all my money on lovely presents for lovely people, trying to do some drawing tutorials here and there, and falling in love with Doctor Who in between.  

    I bought my sister a book of Flower Fairies for Christmas- partly for me, partly for her. I want to practice drawing children's faces, and the faces in this book are adorable. Besides, I've always like the Flower Fairies: they are old fashioned and proper. 

   I am particularly fond of this little guy:

(I am having some difficulty with the formating in blogger lately- thus the reason all my images are in the middle, and not put stylishly on one side or the other. I am sure I must have selected some option that has caused this, or something like that. I hope to fix it soon. This is annoying.)

    Anyway, so there was a Doctor Who Christmas special on, I watched it, and I am officially hooked. At least, to the 11th Doctor. I rather love him rather a lot. I will try to spare you too many quotes and general fandom, but the last thing I can do is promise that the Doctor won't make an appearance now and then. For now, "bow ties are cool." 

    I hope you had a Merry Christmas!

Carried Off by a Murder of Crows

Yes, I am still alive. Have some health issues that seem to like tmaking sure I am working hard, but, somehow things always work out.

.... Hopefully. My commissions and things ain't gettin themselves done. Sigh. What I wouldn't do for a bit of health. Maybe it's best this way. Keeps me from being a Drawing Terror of some sort.

Back to the drawing. This is a quick sketch I did inspired by the book Wildwood by Colin Meloy. It's been rather charming.

I thought a little quick sketch of someone's little brother being hauled off by birds was more engaging than more anatomy lessons.....

Latest GK quotes via my Dad:

"A man cannot be wise enough to be a great artist without being wise enough to wish to be a philosopher.  A man cannot have the energy to produce good art without having the energy to wish to pass beyond it.  A small artist is content with art; a great artist is content with nothing except everything." -GKC, "Heretics"

Cuteness Alert

I love this blog. She. Is. Adorable. Kind of like Ponyo- which I just watched. Made my night so much better!

If you want to die of cuteness, I suggest Ponyo. As well as Howl's Moving Castle. I love Hayao Miyazaki.

July 12th, 2011: Finding Neverland

So, last night I decided to watch a bit of Finding Neverland to pause it here and there to draw. I love drawing little kids apparently, and Freddie Highmore is one of the cutest! (at least, when he was little, I don't know what he's looking like nowa days) While it is rather depressing, I do like that movie quite a bit.  For one thing, it has the BEST soundtrack EVER! And it's cute and quirky and ridiculous.... I seem to e attracted to that more and more. Anyways, I love action movies and such as much as anybody, but, I don't know, I find the whole children's book industry (illustration, etc) a welcome retreat from, well, the world, and things that are just too complicated.
   I thought about drawing Johnny Depp, but, it was late, and I rather chickened out of drawing someone so well known for the public to see: at least while I was tired and wanting to read my book a bit before bed.  Speaking of cute kids, I am reading/watching Harry Potter! Yes, the bug bit me. I always thought "how on earth could something that popular be that good?" and surprise! It is that good. At least to me. Harry and Ron are so cute in the first two movies so far! Especially Ron! (I LOVE red hair- I WANT red hair) Hermione is cute, but a liiitttle bit annoying- at least this far. But somehow I think that is the point sometimes. I was hoping to read all the books on time to watch the last movie in theaters- and so far I have read 3 books in a week and a half ( That Is Alot for me, seeing as I am a slow reader)(click on the link! I was proud of that!). I have a feeling this will just get more challenging though, seeing as the books just get longer and longer.

       After I mention this fact, I will stop talking about Harry Potter: I WANT a snow owl to give me letters! I WANT Hedwig! Red hair, a snow owl, and Ireland- oh, and a baby grand piano- then my life will be complete. Ok, I'm done. For now. I'm afraid you will hear more about Potter later on.
    I need a quote for the week..... hmm... (going to look at my quote collection and my goodreads quotes)..... CHESTERTON!

         

        “Impartiality is a pompous name for indifference, which is an elegant name for ignorance.” – The Speaker (oops, I am rather impartial most of the time... )

        “What embitters the world is not excess of criticism, but an absence of self-criticism.” – Sidelights on New London and Newer New York

  

Now, just how I went from Finding Neverland, to Harry Potter, to G.K. Chesterton I am not sure- but somehow I think it fits: all roads lead to Chesterton. I think it makes sense, because he was so very common, normal, and charitable. 

June 27th, 2011: The Person You Need is Nanny McPhee!

I was watching Nanny McPhee early this evening, and I paused it here and there to sketch a bit from it. Except for the parts that are disgusting (eeeevvil pink ladies!!), I think that movie is adorable! Love the house, love the father, love the children (especially Simon and the hungry child), love Nanny Mcphee, and I WANT a snow flake wedding! I mean, Evangeline, the dress, Simon's adorable eyes, and Nanny McPhee's smile = a wonderful ending. At least for me.

   Anyways, here are two of the best parts of my sketches. This one is supposed to be Simon; I don't really think it looks much like him, but it seems to have his spirit. I love Simon! I want to kidnap him!

"THEY'VE EATEN THE BABY!!!"

Or have they? Hmm......

Yes, I am trying the "center to the right or left" blog photo technique: I was bored with simply centering them in the center all the time.

    Anyway, I love to read and watch such works as Nanny McPhee, Lemony Snicket, The Willoughbys, Spiderwick Chronicles, etc. My latest finding is The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place by Rosemary Wood. I am on the second book, and of course, it's adorable.
        I want to watch/pause Nanny Mcphee again: I want to practice drawing the children, especially Simon. Maybe I will do the same eventually for Nanny McPhee Returns. Yes, there is a second one, and while it doesn't have Simon or the snow flake wedding, it does have cute little kids of it's own. I saw the previews for it playing in the Undergournd while I was in London! That of course adds special charm to it for me.
    Now, have a good night, and always remember. "Beehive!!."



"There is something you should understand about the way I work. When you need me but do not want me, then I must stay. When you want me but no longer need me, then I have to go. It's rather sad, really, but there it is." -Nanny McPhee

April 6th, 2011: A Blustery Day and Runaway Umbrella

Ok, so I think umbrella's are cute- especially red runaway umbrellas.... and so I decided to do a quick sketch before bed, and delay practicing piano yet again. I used an adorable child's face from an old children's prose book that's filled with Jessie Willcox Smith illustrations. ( I love that book. SO MANY pretty pictures.) There is an odd shadow in the top left corner that is not on the original, but that I cannot get rid of no matter how many times I scan the picture. I am a little too tired to care much about it right now; I want to go read a book or sleep or something. Anything BUT practice piano.

Hehe. Where is the mouse? See him? I love mice at the moment. Five second cuteness right there (i.e. takes a short to draw, just incase you were confused). How about some Despereaux Tilling quotes then? (What? How did we go from kidnapping umbrella's to Kate DiCamillo's The Tale of Despereaux? I don't know. I don't plan these things.)

"Once upon a time," he said out loud to the darkness. He said these words because they were the best, the most powerful words that he knew and just the saying of them comforted him." 


"There is nothing sweeter in this sad world than the sound of someone you love calling your name." 


"Despereaux marveled at his own bravery. 
He admired his own defiance. 
And then, reader, he fainted."


 "He was reading from the beginning so that he could get to the end, where the reader was assured that the knight and the fair maiden lived together happily ever after." 


"Love is ridiculous. But love is also wonderful. And powerful. And Despereaux's love for the Princess Pea would prove, in time, to be all of these things: powerful, wonderful, and ridiculous." 


I spose I got a bit carried away there. That is easy to do with such a lovely book. I love Despereaux! Is it insane to be a smidgen bit in love with such a tiny big heart? He has the most adorable over-sized ears! (Look at me gushing over a mouse.)