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

June 22, 2011: Blog Make-Over!!

So my drawings of the day are the new header, and the little clip arts on the side. I like this better I think- it's more... unified and clean I think. And besides, I got to include Mouse and Spider! But now it seems I have a little girl as a character as well. I may have to give these beings proper names, and maybe even a story or two! I do like to write, but I've not really made a serious effort at a story before- unless you count the books I made, wrote, and illustrated about wild ponies who won the Kentucky Derby when I was little.... I just found one of those the other day. NO. I am NOT posting it... most likely. It is rather cute, if I do say so myself.
    I am trying to think of what else I could do for this post. It seems odd to be not posting a picture. Oh! I did go see Xmen. It was... ok. Not my favorite Xmen movie. That fire spitting fairy/fly girl should have just been killed off immediately! I hated her to say the least. I am a James McAvoy fan, and so I liked that he had such a big part. Oh, and it did have Wolverine for about 30 seconds; although, I have to say, the movie wasn't the same without him as a main character.
   Well, I was going to share a painting I found or something, but for some reason either blogger or my computer isn't letting me. On the the quotes! I think this guy is pretty cool:

"Nature is pitiless; she never withdraws her flowers, her music, her fragrance, and her sunlight from before human cruelty or suffering." 

- Victor Hugo

"You who suffer because you love, love still more. To die of love, is to live by it." -Victor Hugo

June 16th, 2011: Illustration Friday

   So. I went to orientation at school. And it stunk. Most likely I am NOT going to art school this Fall. Again. So yesterday was pretty horrible. I suppose that the Bible verse I last posted was even more relevant to me than I suspected. I hate it when that happens! So I'm down in the dumps. A lot. But I know it will be ok. I just have to re-plan, and that isn't much fun.
     Ok, so, it's been awhile, and I kinda forgot about it, but it's Illustration Friday time once again! This week the word is swept. I thought about doing something all pretty and whimsical and romantic... but I'm in a bad mood, and so I thought "heck with it!" and drew a little spider being swept away firing a machine gun of some sort! TAKE THAT YOU FORCES AGAINST ART SCHOOL!!! I mean, I'm not bitter or anything. Honest! I'm not! Who knows what God intends. But, it did feel good to draw such a pathetically spitefully little spider who's returning the favor.

Heh, the little bloke reminds me of Danny in Hot Fuzz (not that I really recommend it the movie..... although I do have some fond memories of watching it over seas), when he says, "Ever fired your gun the air and yelled, 'AHHHH?" Ahem. Anyways.
      Well well, what quote do I use for such a mournful time?

"To give, and not to count the cost
to fight, and not to heed the wounds,
to toil, and not to seek for rest,
to labor, and not to ask for any reward,
save that of knowing that we do thy will" 
-St. Ignatius of  Loyola


There we go. Some comforting, slightly painful,  yet fighting spirit. 

May 12th, 2011: So Much Luv

So.... I've been very busy. I've been job/apartment searching, and making school decisions that will change my life (maybe) etc. I've finally found an art school, I think. At least for now. I am going to O'More College of Design near Nashville. You are lucky this isn't just a post of these --> !!!!!!!! I have been waiting for this since I was about 8! And I am calm..... I hope that is good. I found a lovely room to rent with a very nice lady, and I have orientation this Wednesday. I have yet to find a job, and I need a laptop, but we'll see what happens. You just NEVER know. About anything really. :P But that is straying from the main point. I AM GOING TO ART SCHOOL!!! I will be a Visual Communications major, and I will be taking some fine art and maybe photography classes on the side. Now, just what IS a vis com major? Well, it's anything and everything, which is one reason why it is ideal/confusing. I don't know what exactly I will do with it, or what I will focus on, but I have at least a year to figure that out. I know I want to take their illustration, photoshop. animation, book design, and painting classes. I also want to take their Irish Studies course, and then participate in their Ireland Study Abroad Summer Program. Anyway, I am REALLY excited, even though I am calm.
     In the mean time, I got to visit my dear friend Emily this weekend, along with her family. It was her birthday last week, and so I made her this card:

Unfinished Card

Emily's Card/Trinket Collage

It was SOO good to see her and her family! I love and miss you guys! Thanks for sharing your hotel and your agreeable company! 

   So, I am going to orientation this Wednesday as a transfer student, and to be honest I am quite nervous... ish. I know it will be fine, but, it's been a year since I've done this school thing, and it's been longer since freshman orientation. I don't want to be a freshman again- but surely that won't happen. I am also taking my Dad to see the school for the first time, and I hope he likes what he sees.

   Quote time! (or the time where I feel like being a deep meaningful blogger, and so add a deep quote to make up for not writing something real) This one is rather appropriate for me, in more than one way:

"I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now." ~John 16:12

This post is entitled "so much luv" because as much as change scares me, I have no choice but to face it. Love calls one to do so. AND because I found a lovely place to live at school. AND, because my lovely Mimi sent me a card and a ridiculous cute penguin baby book! *AND* because I got to see Emily! **AND** just because, just because. 

May 26th, 2011: McDonalds, Coffee, And Drawing.

    So I went to TN to visit my lovely friend from waay back during my model horse playing days. :) I had a blast as I always do- complete with anime, Opry Mills, an introduction to Firefly and Dr. Who and Dance Dance Revolution, and lots of shopping and coffee and talking in between.
    We went to McDonald's one day for lunch, and we drew each other while I drank coffee. It was really fun actually.
    Here's is Monica's drawing of myself:

And here is my drawing of Monica:

   I think it is interesting how the two contrast. I am definitely the more quick and rough sketcher here, and she is more deliberate and refined and just more patient, as I should learn to be. Ugh, I had her mouth almost perfect... and then I went and messed it up when I realized I had to erase and shift her whole face. Anyway, we will have to do this again! 

    I also sketched the mouse after I finished Monica, and she wanted me to sit still so she could draw my profile. 

    Oh and please say a quick prayer for me: I just found a scholarship due on the 31st, and I have to write the essay for it TOMORROW, and I have no idea what I am going to write about. It is for the American Chesterton Society... and so it has to be Chestertonish. Sigh, I am having difficulty finding a way to go to art school this Fall, and this scholarship could really make all the difference- I just wish I had found it sooner! I write about something that has to do with art, only I have no idea just what exactly. Oh well. Maybe my angel will do it for me!

   

"Idealism is only considering everything in its practical essence." -G.K. Chesterton 

Hehe, I almost feel like saying "St. GKC, pray for me." I mean, he's pretty much the pope after Tolkien isn't he?  Totally kidding of course. Or am I? Hmm.... 

May 15th (I think), 2011: Hand Bones And A Death

So... today was boring for you guys. I for one thought it was nice: I got to talk to both Mimi and Ed today, and I got text from Anne (even though I don't have texting- which makes it quite exciting when it happens anyway). So much socializing! I feel spoiled.
   Ok, so I worked on my anatomy CDs... and I am DONE with the skeleton! Finally. Now we are moving on to the muscles.

    The hand bones. On a messy desk. But, after all, "An empty desk is the sign of an empty mind." I look to use that quite whenever I can.
     So my little sister was watching High School Musical- she loves that movie, and so was quite animated and adorable as she was watching it. If I give that movie credit for anything it's for making my little sis light up, and for coming up with the song that goes "It's hard to believe, that I couldn't see, that you were always there beside me," which I find rather catchy. Anyway, so I was going to sketch her little lit up face, and reached for the little drawing pad inside my adorable new modcloth purse that has roses all over it (I am rather proud of it). But everything inside my purse was soaking wet! I don't know why! It wasn't wet last night, and it's been hanging on the coat rack all day. But yeah, my lovely perfectly sized drawing pad is completely ruined. It didn't even have a chance to grow up. I didn't even get to write my name on it.
     And so I drew this little tribute. And the mouse is here with his trusty hanky. And there's me again, with the cute boots and the awesome hair.

 Rest in peace nameless drawing pad. At least my check book wasn't ruined in my purse flood.
       I would do another Illustration Friday this week, but the topic is "safari", and I think that sounds boring, and has too many warm colors. I am a rain person most of the time, and I do not want to deal with a bunch of yellows and oranges right now.
       How about some Chesterton:

"To be wrong, and to be carefully wrong, that is the definition of decadence." ~GKC: 'A Miscellany of Men.'

May 14th, 2011: Yes I Have Been Busy! Ish.

   This painting is a commission I did for a friend, to be a graduation gift for another friend. So really, I was doing it for two friends- only, one got the painting, and the other did not. I will see what I can do for the paintingless friend in the future. ;)
   This painting is part of a style I seem to be developing: sketchy, impressionistic I suppose, and more contrasting. I like it. It's fun. I also actually really truly like this painting; which is odd, because I hardly ever like my work. It was rather painful to give up.

Hmm... how about another St. Therese quote I reread last night- I think it is rather perfect:

My joy I find in pain and loss,
I love the thorns that guard the rose;
With joy I kiss each heavy cross,
And smile with every tear that flows.
-St. Therese