Life is a Collage

Pick out all of your favorite experiences, memories, colors, items, images, and feelings. Adhere them all in a pretty fashion on a stiff piece of, well, anything. That's collage for you. The freest type of art form there is!
Here are some excellent collages I've found.



1: unstrung65.deviantart.com | 2-3: doyveyant.deviantart.com



This one was done by my old drawing instructor, Sarah Dillon. On the older version of her portfolio website (http://www.sarahdillonstudio.com/) she mentioned me in the description of this piece. This is because I brought in a HUGE box of antique photos, newspaper clippings, papers, notes, and letters. ($10 at an antique store-- SCORE!) I shared the materials with the art class for our warm-up activity. Everyone was pretty jazzed about the whole thing, and even Sarah was pretty excited about it! Then, to my surprise, years later, I find this piece on her website. I'd remember that silly baby with the widow's peak anywhere. It warms my heart to see that a great artist such as Sarah Dillon would be so inspired by my gift to the class. :)

Here's one of my newest collages as well.

White bats are one of those critters that seem to follow me around. One of my oldest pieces that I still treasure is my albino bat, done in about 2007. Then, at Emerald City ComiCon (amazing as usual) I bought a handmade Honduran white bat figure!I was so captivated by the artist's skill and appreciation for such an obscure species of animal. (More of her cute dolls here: skinhorsedolls.deviantart.com) And then Pokemon Black/White came out, and the new pokemon Woobat and Swoobat are totally Honduran white bats and I don't care what you say.
So, I couldn't ignore the white bat's encroachment on my life. I needed to paint him. And thus it was.

It feels so good to be doing art again. For a while, my art block was miserable. I feel like I'm slowly picking my way out of it. :)

I'm Forgetting

You know how when life gets labyrinthine, so grainy and messy and confusing... that you just want to hide? And then you forget yourself, what it means to BE yourself, and you just act on instinct. This is the story of me lately. My future is uncertain, as it always has been. This does present a lovely way to appreciate the paths that life takes us down. As Shreve Stockton put it in her book The Daily Coyote, "The jewels in this life are the events we do not plan". To an extent, I love this idea. Last April, I would never have guessed that one of my best friends would become even more dear to me. I would never have guessed that I'd be working at a pet store surrounded by animals and animal lovers, which led to my buying of a mountain horned dragon. (more on this later) Life is unexpected, and our willingness to accept changes and roll with the punches, to me, is a great way to judge one's character.
Lately, my character has gone to "optimistic adventurous" to "fearful pathetic". Being strong and confident for those around me is just a front. Inside, I fear the future. When I move to a college, how will I survive? Sure, tuition and my savings will pay for college itself, but what of living? Food, rent, insurance, gas, pets, medicine...



When I get this way, my art takes a strange turn. I've noticed that the less stable my life is, the lazier and more emotional my art is. I no longer have the patience to do pieces like "Banishment" or "The Hath'Kann Moth Rider". Now my art is sporadic, emotional, and frankly, not as good. It is more confusing and more spur-of-the-moment, and results in that odd situation when I have to fudge an explanation for confused viewers, because I don't even know why I do the paintings I do. My art is as confused as I am.



On a more positive note, I've been able to cope with much of this because of Jomo.



He's already proving to be a perfect little addition to my life. He's easygoing enough to not need constant supervision, but active and interesting enough to be a great pet. He's gotten used to taking crickets from me (with tongs or from my fingers), and he's fond of perching on heads. He's decided that his favorite spot to hang out at in my room is a lanyard hanging from my lamp. He clings to it with his uber-sharp nails and has even fallen asleep on it-- hanging completely vertically. When I talk to him, he looks me in the eye and tilts his head, trying to understand. He's exactly what I needed at this stage in my life. A personal little friend to relate to.

That being said, Jomo is a distraction. He can't solve financial issues or decide what sort of living arrangement I should get when I move. But he helps me cope just by being a complex little being who I can hold and admire. I'll get through this with personal dedication. I have to, therefore, I will.

Thought Vomit

"I haven't been HERE in a while...!" the blogger said with the joyful awe you can only get by visiting an old, familiar place. She decided to dust the shelves and start writing.

Lately all I've been drawing are Neopets. It is silly how much these made-up creatures mean to me. I love them.
Phinble and Saaburu. The effortless painted-no-shading-black-outline style is wonderful.

My boyfriend and I's small business is now a legitimate business with a legitimate website. Much work is ahead for us.

Speaking of Stark, things are hard for him. Somehow I feel that my easy-ass life thus far has put me in a great position to help him. What I mean to say is that I feel like this moment, this beautiful human being, is my reason for being here. His hard life balances my one that I've coasted through. I, being the stronger person (in some aspects), will support him. I see his potential. I see the fire in his eyes. I love him and will help him always. Feeling this way feels like being alive.

Here are some random tidbits from my new "Random Poetic Thoughts Journal". I often have little poetic rantings or bouts of colorful language. I decided to buy a journal to write them down in.
"It's one of those futile feelings. When you're searching for something, even though your rational brain knows where you left it and that is isn't there. Your hands still sift through your pockets, purse, backpack. Maybe it's just the principal of the thing. You feel like you need to look for it anyway due to its importance. Such is the stubbornness of the human habit. "

"Someone honked at me while I was driving today. It was dark, raining, the light was red, I stopped to look to turn right. There it was: a car's horn behind me. Distant and cruel, something that demands angry attention. Car horns were designed for letting other cars know about potentially dangerous things... 'Don't back into me,' 'stop', 'watch out'. But we have turned them into on-road, language-less curses... Angry and anonymous yelling. Whenever I hear a car's horn, my mind snaps into frantic and guilty thoughts. What did I do wrong? Am I not doing what I'm supposed to? Even if the noise wasn't meant for me, it gets me on edge. That person had an ISSUE with me. After that, my mind tricks me into thinking everyone's got a bone to pick with me. The man sitting in the parking lot booth is displeased with the speed I'm going. The person parked next to me thinks I am too close. Right here: the embodiment of a common paranoia. I hate driving. "

"The sound of rain is absolutely different every moment you hear it. Technically, every drop is different and hits a different spot on the ground, the plants, the umbrellas, the cars... So it should logically make its own special sound. The really beautiful thing about it is that it doesn't."

I hope you got something out of them. :)
Be safe everyone.

Episode III: An Update

Stanley. He's my muse.
Seriously, though, how could a stuffed animal turkey vulture with a fake moustache NOT be inspiring? Just look at this mug! That fashionable neck ruff, his cute little beady eyes... ahh. What a fine figure of a stuffed animal.




It is also crucial to rememer that You Can Always Trust a Snake. Especially yellow eyelash vipers, which may me the cutest venomous animal ever. I have decided this and thus it shall be. (I mean, really... eyelashes. Need I say more?)



These two are painted on a wonderful (albeit odd) surface called aquaboard. It's a super-absorbant, stiff, sort of toothy board that is all sorts of wonderful. The paints soak in quickly, but I find that you can almost always go back over it with a stiff brush and water to blend. I'm a fan.
AQUABOARD! Check it out if you like watercolors or goache.

And now, for a new episode of Maranda's life.

My New Job
I am now a dog grooming assistant! No more fried food, grease spills, incompetant managers, or unhappy shifts. I basically get paid to hang out with dogs all day and I earn a 40% commission from all my sales. I am blissing out about this, for sure. I must have racked up some excellent karma to get this gig. All six months of my suffering at the deli led to this! The world can be a fair place to be, after all. Between the puppies, people, and clean atmosphere... this new job is wonderous. Plain and simple. Life is looking up. I have also learned that English bulldog puppies are sleepiness incarnate. They get nap attacks like nobody's business. That kind of cuteness is unfair. It really is.

My Skin
Ever heard of burrows solution? Smells like: vinegar. Feels like: pond water! Makes my skin feel like: a goddess's.
Soaking cotton material in the solution and wearing it (cold, wet, jumping into a mountain lake at 3am) at first was not fun. Miserable, even. I have to do this odd treatment because of my dermatologist. Upon visiting him, I was told that I was to a) avoid Stark's house because of the cats and b) chill out! Because the stress was making my skin worse. So every day since then, I woke up early and jumped into a black garbage bag sandwich: burrows-solution-soaked cotton pajamas and me being the meaty bits. Cold! Cold! But half an hour later I was leaping out and moisturizing like a madwoman. The morning and evening ritual gives me time to reflect (and watch the best anime ever: Mushi-Shi). I find that waking up at 5:30am, slipping into icy clothes, and sitting still for half an hour gives me time to wake up and clear my mind. When I rush out of the door in the morning due to waking up 20 minutes before I have to be out the door, I find it hard to finalize thoughts or regard events with any significance. I float through my day in a haze and end up quite grumpy because of it. As odd as it sounds, freezing my butt off every morning really gets the juices flowing! (And wow, did that sound odd.)

That is all for now, friends.
Oh, and also, you should buy Dice Sprites for your friends for Christmas. Or whatever winter gift-giving holiday you celebrate.
http://www.etsy.com/shop/claymancers

Necessary Evil

Lately, on Facebook, some friends (and others) have been involved in heated debates. This is my response to it.



Making a tough decision-- to change your mind, to prevent a travesty, to save yourself-- does not make you a monster. It does not make you a beast, unholy, or immoral. Sometimes life calls for hard decisions. Understanding that some evils are necessary is fundamental to understanding each other as human beings. Life is hard, and we often make decisions we do not want to make.

It makes me SO sad that we continue to argue about certain topics (abortion) as if the issue is black and white. It is really not black, white, or red. It is grey. Grey. No one can be correct and there is no right answer. I don't care if your science says you're right or your religion says you're right. I don't care.
I just want us to understand each other.


But I guess that just isn't going to happen, is it?

What I'm Doing

Hello, all!
In the life of Maranda, things are looking up at last. I've told my parents of my plans to finish my first half of college and then move into my boyfriend's house in order to take a year off and build a portfolio for an art school. (I'm thinking Digipen now, sound cool? yeah!) They don't seem keen on it, but I feel better with them knowing the truth. If it's anything I hate it's keeping things that are important in my life from the ones I love. It drives me insane!
That aside, I'm also very excited about school. My classes are about as liberal-artsy as you can get. Yoga, poetry, design, and French. Whooo, man, you definitely can't tell what I'M majoring in, eh?
In my world of art, things are going as usual. I'm working on some new stuff for an art show on the 25th. Here's one! Left my camera at Stark's, so here's a really disappointing webcam shot. Oh well, it's not even done. Here ya go anyway!


It started as "I have nothing to do while Stark plays a card game, so um... here's a bird I guess. Whoah yeah let's paint it!" Most of my best pieces start out with little to no planning and evolve as they're done. Hopefully this one's no exception.
I'm also working on another crazy collage dead animal sculpture. People seem to like them for some reason. :D The link is Tally, my first one. I still need to upload Furlough and Agatha. For another day!
Best of all, this news comes to you with great joy.
...
...
pause for dramatic effect...
...


I QUIT THE DELI JOB!
Yes indeed! I worked my little tail off and got two interviews: one at a pet store and one at a craft store: two places I adore to be. The pet store gave me a job first so that is where I am headed to. I'm a dog bather. =D Well, starting in October anyway. The location is perfect, the hours work, and I get to spend all day with dogs. It's a win, win, win, win, and possibly win situation.

So that is where I stand and I promise to have some new art updates up soon. Thanks a bunch for reading. :3

It's Been a While

Hello, what readers I still may (or may not) have.
I hate to keep posting these "I'm too busy lately to blog", but I'm afraid that's what this is. :( Stark and I have been working overtime on our large order of Dice Sprites, school is starting on the 20th, and on the 25th I still have that art festival (which I am very excited for). I've got my work cut out for me this coming month. Not to mention actual work! My deli job is still crap, but at least I'm growing calluses. After a slight emotional breakdown one day, ever since then I've been harder to bother and my hide's grown in thickness (not including that incident with cold, smelly chicken grease... almost barfed, lol).
That aside, I'm hanging in there. I'm living in the moment and getting through each day trying to stay stress-free. In a year, I have no idea where I'll be. In a week, I don't know. Heck, I don't even know the plan for tomorrow. It's a bit disheartening, in a way, but I must keep reminding myself that I'll always have the three things that are most important to me. The people I surround myself with (Stark, parents, friends), my art, and the company of animals. As long as I have those (and the living necessities, of course) I'll be fine no matter what I'm doing or where I'm living. It's a constant effort to remind myself of this fact. I'm going to believe Stark when he tells me that I am strong and capable, and I'll overcome everything that comes in my way.
That's basically all I have to say at this point, but even if you didn't read it, here's a screenshot of something I'm working on on-and-off.

Meditations

Everyone's got their own way of eliminating, ignoring, and confronting stress. Some people go for a long drive with the windows down and music blaring, some people watch their favorite movie over and over, and others (like me) meditate.
I haven't done much meditations in my life. To deal with stress and hardships I normally just dealt with it in a usual way. But lately, I've wanted something more. So this is what I did.
I laid out some pretty silk handkerchiefs and a scarf I bought in France. I set up a diorama of sorts which included a few of my favorite objects to look at. A skeleton key, a couple animal skulls, beads, stones, feathers, bones, candles, a goblet full of water. I set a bundle of sage on fire and let it smolder as I leaned back, closed my eyes, and focused on my breathing.
It's not often I can not think about anything. It's the hardest thing to not think. Having a blank mind almost never happens for me. But I came close tonight. Breathing in and out deeply, noticing how my body moved as I relaxed, smelling the sage...
Needless to say, I overcame my bad day at work very well. Afterwards, stage two of my meditation began: painting and tea. Here's what I painted.

A simple portrait of my favorite animal in my favorite color scheme. Perfect for unwinding and loosing my pent-up negative feelings.
In my quest to become a freelance artist, I've discovered that at this point in my life that's not a very realistic career path. But I can still retreat into my art Zen mode to escape the world. That shall always remain.

Long Awaited

Lately I've been struggling with attempting to work on my art so I might be able to quit my terrible job. Recent events have led me to instead resolve to basically tough it out and stop being such a whiner.
That aside, Stark and I have been making boo-koo Dice Sprites and even have a spot in a nearby town's art festival in September. We've got our work cut out for us, but I am quite excited for it. An art career while working AND attending college is going to be quite an undertaking, but I have to make myself believe that I can do it.

And with that, I leave you with a crazy monster drawn on the back of my paycheck with a ballpoint pen.

Good News Bears

It's always a delightful feeling when
A) your fingers smell like fresh lavender
B) your boyfriend is coming home soon from a long trip
C) you got some new awesome things at the thrift store
and D) you earned 3x as much money selling art and manning a booth than one week's work at your crappy real job.
This is what I am going through now and I couldn't be happier. (Ok, well, it would be nice if my boyfriend was home NOW, but he's having fun and coming home soon anyway. <3)


Cornucopia Days was a huge success, if you hadn't gathered that already!
I had a lot of fun hanging out with Sandy and my friends who popped by to visit. Also, Chubby Kitten was my wingman the whole weekend. Here he is watching my purse while I grub out on ice cream. He fits perfectly inside my folding chair's cup holder.

Something else happened this weekend, too: and by "something" I do not mean "watching Sinbad Legend of the Seven Seas twice in 3 days", but it is rather along the lines of "a gift that made me feel more amazing than any gift has".
An old scraggly looking guy with missing front teeth bought one of my prints. He was cordial and polite and I liked him, even though he looked like a drugged-out ex-hippie who played wild-stringed guitars on the sidewalk. After he bought my print he left and came back a short while later with a little plastic bag.
"Here, a gift for you. Some of my art."
Inside was a black leather belt. Simple, stiff, with an unassuming silver buckle. But on the other side...
I nearly cried. This guy, a perfect stranger, went out of his way to not only support my art but also gift me this wonderful, touching message. It's people like him that reassure me that there are good people left in the world.

I'm extremely grateful to be surrounded by such interesting, kind, generous, fun, and loving people. This weekend also marks a huge step in my quest to become free from my job at the deli and another step towards my budding art business. I'm excited for the rest of my life.

Gumball Machine

Or should I say DICE MACHINE. AWW YEAH
My friend Jessie is super cool and is collecting dice to fill her cute little antique gumball machine with. She then commissioned me to do three Dice Sprites to be playing on it. I think the little triplets came out good! They're very silly.






In other news, I'm going to be selling a bunch of my art (and Sprites!) at a local street fair this weekend! Man, I am excited as all heck. I took some of my new art to the printing place and got some small prints made. I love hanging out with the print guys, too, they're just very personable and honest people. I packaged the prints at Browser's, my favorite shop, and I finally got to see Greg again. He's kind of like the grandfather or really cool uncle I never had. Growing up with no grandpas, that's kind of a big deal for me. Greg is awesome. Sadly I am not working in his booth this year, but I am going to be working for a nice lady named Sandy at her new little gift shop that moved in next door. Her store was quaint and cute, and she was very nice and excited to have some help for the fair. Not only am I going to be hanging out with fun people in beautiful weather, but I'm also getting eight dollars an hour PLUS anything I earn from my art. Cornucopia Days is probably my favorite thing about the summer!
If you live around the Kent, Washington area, be sure to stop by and say hi. :)

Sprite Update

Hello, followers and anonymous readers! I bring you good tidings regarding my Dice Sprites.
But first, let me say that my boyfriend is amazing. Not only is he amazing for just being an amazing person, being fun to be around, and all that-- but he's adopted the title of my art business manager as well. He really believes in me (and especially my Dice Sprites) and he really believes that my art business can be successful if we really get the Sprites out there.
So we took the Sprites down to our local Uncle's Games store at the mall. We met the regional manager there, and he agreed to let us sell the Sprites there for $6.99. I get $3.50 for each Sprite that sells. I'm super excited about this, because a) Uncle's is in the mall and the mall is very popular and b) them being at the store is hopefully going to get me a lot of publicity! Not like I need any more orders at this point (ok who am I kidding, let the custom requests pour in!).
So far I have at least seven potential AND legitimate requests for custom Dice Sprites from my friends. Also (thanks to my wonderful boyfriend <3) a guy in New York (!!!) wants a WHOLE SET of them. A whole set! There is also rumor of the Sprites being taken to a gaming convention and being sold at a street fair next weekend.
Am I excited? You bet your lucky dice I am!

That aside, here are some new (and mostly unfinished) members to my Sprite family.








The first one (sleepy brown guy) has already sold out of Uncle's. He came out the best and was definitely my favorite, but I'm happy he's being enjoyed by someone. I love it when my art makes people happy. <3
That is all I have to report for now.
If you'd like a custom Sprite, be sure to email me your request and as soon as I have boxes and shipping materials, I'll make you a Sprite. =D
majestic_kirai@hotmail.com

Dice Sprites

An update on my newest set of critters: Dice Sprites!
Here is a little blurb about them.

Since the Dawn of Time (or at least the Dawn of Dice-Based Role Playing Games) people have had their own personal type of luck. Some people have rotten luck, some people have awesome luck, and some people swear that their luck has attention deficit disorder. Only recently have we discovered that luck actually has a physical form: Dice Sprites. When you roll a dice for the first time, your Dice Sprite is sprung into existence. From then on he/she develops their own personality, colors, body shape, and attitude. They stay with you and govern your dice rolls as they see fit. Some Dice Sprites even adopt their humans's attitudes toward gaming itself. It is not uncommon that Dice Sprites start becoming little embodiments of their humans's gaming essence. Like humans, every Dice Sprite is different. They will forever remain our cute little imps of luck for as long as there is a game which involves dice rolling.

And here they are, all four of them thus far.





They will be for sale soon! Stay tuned. My Etsy shop will be my next major endeavor. I plan to fill it with all sorts of fun things, like the Dice Sprites, artist trading cards, prints, dyed bandannas, jewelry... ah. I often daydream about being an entirely self-sufficient artist. Someday that day will come. Unitl then, I'll keep making Dice Sprites!

New Design, New Purpose

Hello all! These new blog designs are quite stylish, don't you agree? But that is not all I have to say!


As you may or may not know, I work in a deli. A corporate grocery store chain's deli. I fry food, mix salads, toss garbage, sweep, mop, wipe up meat juice, deal with my intolerable manager, and up-sell crappy food to customers (among other unsavory things). I have to have this job to save money for when I move out of the house to live on my own and go to a four-year university. I appreciate the fact that I am paid and have a job, all the same, but in the end this job is grating on my sanity. Every day I dread going in to work, and that sort of negativity is never healthy for any mind. At this point it's not hard to admit I'm complaining: I really do not like my job and I miss the freedom that came with being unemployed. I feel that any other sort of retail or grunt-work job would be better (what could be worse than hot oil burns and waste-food-dishwater-soup?). But why settle for that when I have artistic gifts at my fingertips? I can paint, draw, sew, sculpt, and design! Therefore, I am seeking alternative employment to replace my current, disgusting job. And by alternative employment, I mean Etsy craft selling and art galleries.
So far I have written my plans in a well organized list. Materials shopping list, action plans, costs, product ideas, etc. Doing this will hopefully do a few things.
A) Earn money
B) Improve my self-promotion drive (ya gotta have it in order to be a freelance anything)
C) Give me more to blog about!

So, wish me luck. This will take all of my determination. I want this very badly, though, and it will be good for me as well! Good for my future, my present, and most of all: good for my mental health. I can do this. I need this!

When I Photograph My Art, I Hold My Breath

Sorry for the slow updates! I'd like to pull a classic college student move and blame finals for my inactivity. Thank you, thank you.
Here are my final art pieces. They're badly photo'd, cropped terribly, and the colors are a bit yellowed: but it's better than nothing and it's all I have to share at the moment. Well, unless you'd like to read my book review of Fermat's Enigma by Simon Singh, but I highly doubt that. So on to the art!

Here we have a weasel woman and a snake man. That is all I shall say on this piece.

This piece is actually my final-final. However, I like my other piece better...

This piece: Ant-Woman and Teapot-Head Moth! I do enjoy psychedelic garbage like this every once in a while. That and pastels + smooth paper + layers of colors = epic love.

I do believe this calls for more Teapotmoths and Antwomen. They're too much fun to draw! With every piece I do I fall more and more in love with soft chalk pastels.

I shall update again close to Friday: when I am FREE! Free from finals. Won't that be lovely. *mind wanders, daydreams*

The Avanti and the Tha'ram

Because we're awesome, my boyfriend and I are working on a campaign setting for Dungeons & Dragons. I am certain that you are jealous.
Anyway, we've been designing races to fill this realm, and here are a couple concept paintings I came up with for two of them.


The first one is the Avanti, the garishly-garbed iguana man. They inhabit the massive floating islands in this world, and they're quite elitist. They look down on others (haha get it, they live on a floating island?! Looking "down"? I slay me.) And they take great pride in their dress and appearance.


This little guy is a Tha'ram. Loosely based on an aardwolf, these guys are very traditional and superstitious. They live in desert caves and cliff-side villages. They're about the size of a Halfling, roughly 4'-5' tall.

Our realm is slowly coming together, and it's all sorts of fun to collaborate creatively on a project like this. Thinking about the history of the world, where the continents lay, what sorts of religions prevail, designing creatures... I can't get enough of this stuff. I feel like it's what I was meant to do: designing fantastical worlds. One of these days I'll get paid for doing this stuff, haha. Until then, I'll keep creating.

Another Day, Another Art Dump

And by "art dump" I mean "hey let me talk at you about some of my drawings lol".


First on my list is this piece. You must know by now that I often dive into art without a preconceived thought or plan, so things turn out like this.
See, there's a maned wolf, a Japanese woodblock print of waves, street signs, and a cat with records. Make sense of it. I dare you.
The whole reason for this collage was a) I found some cool images in a newspaper and cut them out and b) I hadn't done a collage in a long time. It sort of evolved into this odd conglomeration of imagery. It is totally open for interpretation: when I thought about it more in depth, I decided to name it "California". The waves, bright colors, street signs, street-art inspired cat, and playful sunny disposition of the maned wolf made me think of that carefree, summery atmosphere associated with California.


Here's the story behind this guy.
Every day when I arrive at my college campus, I pass the ceramics department building. The campus is very green and woodsy, so the ceramics building is crawling with trees and little patches of leaves. There's a pile of these beautiful, very rustic and old-looking bricks out back, which I am strangely drawn to. (Haha get it, "drawn"?) I always pass the bricks, all nestled underneath tree branches and white speckled leaves, and I think to myself, man I'd love to paint that sometime. Well today, our model for class didn't show up, so we went outside to draw. It was good fun, I always love a change of scenery, especially when the weather is sunny and warm.
I'm normally all sorts of terrified drawing anything vaguely square-shaped and three dimensional, so at first I was a bit hesitant with my pastel drawing of bricks. But the thing with pastels is that you just have to keep going. When you think that all is lost and your drawing is terrible and you'll never be an artist and you'll retire to the mountains to herd goats for the rest of your life because you can't draw... just KEEP. GOING. (And cancel your rush-order of goats.) Pastels are very forgiving. The more you do, the better it gets.
That aside, I came up with this drawing out of a pile of bricks. Because of the half-finished clay sculpture of a demon head on the pile of bricks, I included it, too: only I added some crazy hands and a tail. God forbid I draw something normal. Honestly.


It is a well-known fact among my friends and family that I am never farther than 10 feet away from my sketchbook. I draw all the time. This habit is especially handy when you're stuck at Les Schwab waiting to have your car's tires rotated. I sketched myself a quick little slindragon, then wondered what I was to do after that. I had no colors, no pens, no nothing-- save for my pencil. And by then I was too art-ADD to keep sketching. So I got up, poured a cup of complementary coffee, took a sip, gagged, grabbed a stir straw, and sat back down. Using the straw I placed the coffee on the paper like I would with watercolor paints. I attracted the attention of a woman passing by; she thought it was the coolest thing that I was painting with a straw and cheap coffee. We chatted a while (turns out she knew Rob, my old art teacher) and I ended up giving her one of my business cards. Cha-ching!

I suppose that is all, for now.
Thanks for reading, hopefully your eyes aren't bleeding at this point. Thumbs up!

Blow Out the Candles

When canines get scared, they appear angry and defensive. They're just trying to protect themselves and fend off potential danger.

I fear certain changes in my life, currently. This painting was basically me telling myself "It's alright to be scared, but things will be fine. Patience."

I always turn to maned wolves when I need to do inward reflections. They're the easiest and the most stress-free thing I can draw or paint, and when I draw/paint, I am focused.
So thanks, maned wolves.

Giving a Big "Screw You" to Art-Hating Taggers

For the past, oh, five years or so, I have been paying frequent visits to a neighborhood book store called Browser's Books. They're a used book store that also specializes in fantasy art like Amy Brown, Stephanie Pui-Mun Law, and my old art teacher Rob Carlos. If it weren't for the awesome people at Browser's (Greg, Kathi, and Rob) I would likely be only half the artist (and human being) I am now. Those guys are such an awesome part of my life. I love going to hang out there, chatting with Kathi and listening to one of Greg's many zany stories about his life.
On the back wall of the building, Rob did a really cool mural of a dragon and some fairies reading books and just recently, this happened to the mural.

When I first saw this photo on Facebook my mouth dropped open in shock. How anyone could have the nerve and destructive mind to destroy such a cool piece of art is beyond me. I practically grew up looking at that mural, and now this!
Immediately, Rob, his wife, Kathi, and Greg organized a giant re-painting get together, sort of a community event. All sorts of people showed up: friends, fans of Rob's art, patrons from the store, and me! I had to be a part of the re-painting, being an artist and devoted fan of Browser's.
Instead of re-painting the old mural, though, Rob pumped out a whole new idea almost immediately after the unfortunate tagging! Here's his original sketch of the mural:


He did this so fast, and set to work on it early on Saturday. Since Rob is a painting machine, he pretty much got most of it done before I got there at 11-ish.
But I had a different job to do!

Greg gave me a small space to paint a little dragon next to the back door. I was extremely excited about it and after a short preliminary sketch I set to work on a little dragon. Everyone seemed to enjoy how smiley and happy he was. He's been fondly dubbed the "Guardian Puppy Dragon", though I think "Dandelion" is a cute name. Everyone was saying how he's guarding the building from being defaced and acting as a really cute "graffiti deterrent".
Here he is!

I started with a black outline and some lighter shadows, then went over it with a really thick and awesome yellow color. Purple accents were a must, as well. I am very happy to have contributed to this big slap-in-the-face to the taggers who defaced Rob's mural.

Here is a photo of the mural, all completed and wonderful!

Everyone who worked on the main wall got to paint their own butterfly, too. How poetic, am I right?
Also, my friend Bri painted a dragon along with mine! They're BFFs, totally.

CUTE, RIGHT, OH MY GOSH.
Anyway!
I am glad that I could share this wonderful artistic community event with the world. Thanks to everyone who helped on it, and especially thanks to Rob, who is an amazing, dedicated painting machine who took the whole thing very graciously and even-tempered.