Sketchbook Tour

I decided to do a little sketchbook tour of what I have in my current sketchbook. It's.... a bit scary actually. But, I know I love spying on other's sketchbooks, so, I am going to indulge you. A bit. I won't show EVERYTHING... my camera is less than ideal, and I do want to sleep some tonight. But I will let you have a bit of a peek- consider yourself highly favored. Maybe I will do this again down the road, and I pray you (and I) will detect something resembling improvement. :)

Well, apparently I can't just group them all together..... This could be special. This is going to be a very looooooooooooooooooooonnnnnngggggggggggg post.

Sometimes I tape reference photos inside to work on from time to time

 

Bright Star cover.. and my own critique notes...

Apparently the photos have a mind of their own in regards to their placement? Sigh... so annoying. Is it just me? Yeah.. it's gotta be me.

Princess Out of Bed plans..

I can put words here! Interesting.

A bit of Last Airbender there. I LOVE that show so very much!

"Mummy" drawing around the form.

Maybe in the future, both my drawing AND my blogging layout skills will be better. Reach for the stars, Mary!

Been practicing a bit of anime style lately...

Balsa from Moribito:Guardian of the Spirit... Such a good anime and novel. :)

<-- This area looks awkward. 

More words! Oh blogger you are so accommodating.

A kind of gesture drawing of Eliza Dolittle while watching My Fair Lady.

Contour practice.

A quick Dr. Who fandom.

Not my original design... and I cannot find where it came from! Grr.

Drawn outside in nature. I felt very... refined doing it? There was a baby deer behind me.

More nature!

It's like I am playing tag with where I can figure out I can put words...

From a book cover at work (the library) during lunch break. 

More words? Huh. This looks awful. 

Boring but important quick gesture drawings.

There you have it. It's late, and I am tired, but I am glad to share this. I really need to start a new painting project or something, and not JUST sketch around. 

Maybe the next tour will be amazing.

Still crossing my fingers about art school this Fall. My financial aid with all it's power to give and take has not arrived yet... Waiting waiting waiting.

God bless!

Updates Updates

Well, in addition to my anatomy/drawing lessons from Drawing Tutorials Online...

Quick sketch of form light on a cast. Isn't that cool! No, I had NO idea about such lighting techniques before.

.... I have also added these two little activities:

I am illustrating for this lovely magazine for young ladies.

And I am participating in this little project.

Am I crazy? With that last one definitely- I haven't finished a story since I was 8 at least. Hopefully I have moved beyond stories about wild ponies who run victoriously in the Kentucky Derby.

A Drawing A Day?

How about a drawing a week? At least. It's time for excuses. 1) I have, erm, health issues (dysautonomia and POTS mainly) that sometimes makes it difficult to not just produce art but get around to posting it online, and 2) I have been doing mainly anatomy lessons, etc, and that's just boring for y'all. But here is proof that I am still alive and drawing something:

Drawn from Matthew Archambault's Portrait DVD

It's not much. But it is good for me. Sometimes it is fun- but most of it is just discovering what I don't know, rediscovering what I do know, and relearning how to do things... like how I go about drawing faces or moving my arm, etc. Fun, but no fun. Mostly boring.

What wasn't boring was my visit to Franciscan University this past weekend (my old and much missed school). I was able to receive much needed hugs and affirmations, and have some wonderful conversations with my lovely friends. I think a refresher like that is good for a person- even for art. One does have to be able to breathe you know.

So yes, it was wonderful. Even if my credit card was stolen when I failed to keep it with me during Mass.... Yeah, I love my school dearly, but I spose no place is perfect. Oh well. After my travels in Europe, I am just glad there was a computer near by to look up my bank's number, and english speaking people to communicate with. Just goes to show that God looks out for me, even if He does allow me to learn things the hard way.

I Have Been Busy Drawing Noses, Working on Commissions......

.... and reading Catholic blogs (a new favorite activity). 

And here is one.

Ugh, my very NAME is MARY and I love the feast of Our Lady of Sorrows and BOTH this year AND last year I MISSED it. I know Our Lady forgives me, and she is probably laughing at my distress now- but it does make me a bit frustrated. Anyway, I have linked to the BadCatholic blog before, and I think you should read the article linked above. Besides, he picked two VERY lovely paintings for the post (all things lead to art/the pictures!.... and Chesterton, Aquinas, Jane Austen, Tolkien, the Passion and Resurrection, and coffee.)

I am also reading The Hunger Games series. It's not bad, but it could be a lot better- I just find the dumbed down YA style and the ever going love triangle annoying. Ugh, I usually can hardly abide love triangles!

I have been working on my anatomy lessons as well. I will share some of them with you, because I think they are cool looking, even if with a touch of creepy- which only makes them cooler in the end.

Did you know your mouth had that many muscles? Fascinating.

The nose.

The Eye! Ugly thing ain't it?

    I also have a lovely friend who commissioned yet another artwork from me. I  have people asking for art fairly often, and this young lady gets me to do stuff for her more than anyone (which, regrettably, still isn't much)! I must love her. 

   Her commission will have one of these:

And one of these (yay!):

   I think that is quite enough links and photos and update for now. Keep a special friend in your prayers. God bless!

Welllll.... what now?

     Ok, well, I have finished a painting, and I don't really have a project to distract me anymore from, sigh, my anatomy studies. I must resume those. It will be very good for me, but not for you. I'm sure you will be quite bored. I will try to spruce things up once in a while, but for now, I really need to get back to it. I will maybe post interesting links or artworks perhaps. And, who knows, I may do draw something "real" with all it's parts... not just a section of muscle or skeleton.
                      
     In the mean time, Fall is coming, as is St. Therese's feast day AND my birthday (two of my siblings also have a birthday the same week as mine), AND......here is an amazing song from an amazing group.

   I believe this one is fairly new. I can not wait for their next album! God bless!

   P.S. If the Fall colors so inspire this year, I may try a bit of "painting outside" and perhaps have a go at a watercolor Fall painting...... That sounds attractive at the moment. Although I am skeptical of this "painting outside".... sounds a bit tedious and, well, messy. But I've never really done it, so I may be wrong.

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.'

April 4th, 2011: Therese's Eye, Color Added, And A Bit of Emo Mixed With Horse

So it has been a while since I've posted. I did warn you that I would be gone about a week. But I can't deny that I was home allll this past weekend and did not post. I was busy mind you: I was adding color to my Passion painting below. Here is a bit of it:

This is the only section of it that I am happy with, and so it is the only part I will show you right now. Ugh. Why do these things never turn out as planned!?!? But anyway, the entire painting is colorized, but  most of it needs some major reworking before it is presentable. I worked on my anatomy DVDs this weekend as well:

Yes I know, I spelt "humerus" incorrectly (I like saying "spelt" better than "spelled" for some reason). I know right, SUCH an exciting sketch! But I chose this one because you can at least tell sorta that it is the humerus bone of the arm. The mess of lines on the top is the clavicle. Yes, I learned TWO words today: humerus, and clavicle.
     I also drew an emo girl (I was wanting to do a gothic-like victorian-ish drawing from either Jane Eyre or Phantom of the Opera, but my brain was so dead that I couldn't remember a scene, nor focus enough to read one). To the left of her is a quick crooked sketch based off St. Therese's eye, and to the right is a little horse. I wanted to draw a mouse, but some how a horse came out instead. Go figure.

While I am on St. Therese, I think I will put a quote by her yet again. Yes, I am rather fond of her.
      ...... Actually I changed my mind. Fulton Sheen has the quote of the day!

Broken things are precious. We eat broken bread because we share in the death of Our Lord and his broken life. Broken flowers give perfume. Broken inscence is used in adoration. A broken ship saved Paul and many other pssengers on their way to Rome. Sometimes the only way the good Lord can get into some hearts is to break them. - Fulton Sheen.

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March 1st: Attaching the Foot to the Invention, and The Rose Elf

I have been reading Andersen's fairy tales lately, and this sketch is from a story called The Rose Elf, which I find tragic, disturbing, and absolutely charming and lovely. I do not want to tell you the story here because I want you to find and discover it for yourself. It is only a few pages long, but so packed with details and suggestions. I LOVE Andersen's work so far! I think that this sketch would look good redone as a pen and ink drawing.... I may just do that, after I tweak the composition a bit.

"And the queen bee hummed in the air and sang of the blossom's revenge and of the rose elf, and of how behind the smallest petal there lives one who can tell and can avenge a wrong." 

Drawing number two is from Structure of Man: Drawing the Human Figure From Your Mind. Look! I am attaching the foot to the Invention! Yes! That means we get to move onto the arms and hands soon! 

Art quote:

"I feel there is nothing more truly artistic than to love people." -Vincent Van Gogh....  That right there is why I think that "art for art's sake" does not stand on it's own, more or less. "Only love creates," -St. Maximillian Kolbe.