Emily

Art swap with a lovely lady. Traded a graphite portrait for a fun photoshoot! Emily takes really pretty pictures, so I think it was a pretty fantastic deal. And it was wonderful getting to hang out with her for a bit (:

First large portrait I've done since my Ben portrait from 2010, I think... Good practice! 

Leaving for college in a little over one day!!! Crazy stuff. Taking my sketchbooks and pencils! Hopefully I'll still be able to make time for them (:

roots

It feels good to sketch and know I still can ... It's been so long since I've drawn a face freehand, and I've missed it dearly. There's something about faces which captivates me ... there are some photos I'll see online, and I just have to draw them. It's inspiring to see photographers capture not only someone's likeness but someone's spirit in a picture, and I've always wanted to mimic that with pencil and paper. I often find myself trying to do the crinkle of someone's eye justice, tracing the curve with my eyes and my pencil, only to erase and try again. Other times, the crooked smile I've drawn doesn't have enough charm, the bottom lip doesn't have enough shine, the hair doesn't look wispy enough. 

No matter how much I experiment with other mediums and how much I become enraptured by the colors I can mix with paints, I always come back to my pencils and fall in love all over again. The bare simplicity of grayscale graphite can create such a range of beauty, and there is nothing I love more than working with a single sharpened pencil.

Drawn with HB pencil only. Because less can always be more.

final painting

Final painting for class. This canvas won't even fit in my car...

One and a half weeks of school left! And then I'll be done with high school!

I am too much in the sun

Senior year is winding down. APs in a couple of weeks. Looking forward to being done.

-S

paint dump

cor cordium

First free choice done this year. Canvas is on the larger scale. It's supposed to be Love personified. The inscription in gold on the heart says 'cor cordium' which means heart of hearts in Latin. I had lot of fun with the limited color palette, and it was exciting doing something from imagination since I don't usually do that. The color red is really growing on me this year.

 Concentration

Free choice - I really liked how a sketch I did of a friend who sits in front of me in calc class turned out, so I turned it into a painting. This photo makes everything look really crooked... This was good hair and skin tone practice. And I really like how it turned out, especially against the dark chalkboard green.

 Assignment for class in which we had to paint something to do with the ocean for a local festival down at the harbor. It's technically a festival celebrating whales... but I didn't want to paint a whale... so I googled beach sunsets, found a pretty picture and painted it without the pier. I didn't try to keep this one realistic. Had fun with my fan brush doing rough, multi-colored strokes for the clouds and reflections on the water. The colors were lots of fun.

Assignment for class in which we took a field trip down to the beach and took a bunch of photographs for inspiration. My friend took this one of me, and I decided to paint it for the assignment. Meh. got bored with this one a bit. It's just... nice. Doesn't really do anything for me. So of course, this is the one my mom likes the most...

My next canvas is almost bigger than I am (:

Mr. Woods

There's a series of beautiful, framed prints of famous composers in the music hall at my school. Bach, Liszt, Mozart, etc. They're all by the same artist, framed with thin, dark wood, with these gorgeous Impressionistic/dabbed backgrounds in blues and reds with the greatest names in music stoically posed in front. And then there was this not-matching, huge, print of Haydn with a background of music notes and a gilded frame in the middle of all the others. Then the portrait of Haydn fell down, leaving an open space in the line of portraits.

So I painted the choir director/head of our arts program who was also my AP music theory teacher! I've been wanting to do a portrait of him in the same style and then the space opened up for it ahahha. I hung it up without telling him. Apparently he noticed it later that day, according to my friend in choir. And it seems like he likes it! Though he said he "didn't deserve to be up there next to all those great composers" hahaha.

Anyway, this was basically a thank you gift for everything he's done for me in high school. He's gotten me a couple of local gigs as a pianist as well as plenty of performing opportunities in school shows.

My drawing/painting teacher made the frame. (As well as the canvas since we make everything for our paintings in art class). I spraypainted the frame gold and didn't do that well of a job ahaha. Missed a couple of spots and had drippage. My teacher said he could tell I hadn't tagged anything before haha...

It was fun trying to mimic someone's style. Really pleased with how this turned out.

boring text update

I've been painting tons, I swear. I just haven't gotten around to taking pictures of anything since all my canvases are at school. Just stretched and gessoed a canvas almost as tall as I am today though! We'll see what that turns into.

Pictures will be up soon of at least three finished paintings! (:

-S.

the girl who waited

College apps are all done! Now, I get to wait till April...

red, white, black

Hi! Just a quick post in the midst of senior year shenanigans. Things have been kind of crazy because of applications and whatnot. The end is in sight though! Especially with all these lovely breaks from school coming up (:

This is just something I've been working on in art class at school. Quality of the photo isn't the best since it's from my friend's phone, but the main idea is there! She isn't that pale in actuality. Though I kind of wish she were, since it looks super awesome with her glowing all stark-white and everything. Three color acrylic palette! Red, White, Black. Had some brown in the background, but it doesn't show much. This is the first time I've really tried to paint something from imagination, kind of. I've been using references, but I have to piece together the whole thing myself, which is something I haven't had much experience with. It's fun though! Might try more stuff like this in the future.

More updates to come! Hope everyone's year is going swell.

S.

wave

Water is so ridiculous to paint ahaha
I don't even know.

A gift for my calculus teacher! (He surfs, but I was too scared to paint a person surfing. Thus it's just a wave.) but shhhh... it's a surprise. I'll probably give it to him around Christmas time. Just wanted to get it done before the school year started and things got hectic!

Yay for first legitimate painting since freshman year? whoohoooo so psyched for another year of art!

Jensen

Jensen Ackles as Dean Winchester from Supernatural.

yeahhh... I don't watch this show. but he has a nice face. and that's the only reason I need ahaha. It's for drawjensen.tumblr.com, so just a bit a fun. I left it rough because I kind of like the look of the cross-hatching.

So close with being done with my summerwork. One and a half weeks left until school starts ahhhhh when did that happen.

lines

So far, every drawing in my moleskine is fairly quick, freehand sketch of a fashion photography reference. Different from what I usually draw (close-up facial portraits of male celebrities ahahah), but they're good practice.

This was practice with strong, clean lines, so I didn't go into much detail with shading and whatnot. A little minimalist, but it suits its purpose.

School is starting so soon. Aughhh summer where did you go.

Misha

Misha Collins from Supernatural

This is for a fun thing that euclase has put together called Draw Misha Day. You can submit drawings of Misha, and she'll post them all on August 21, I believe. Should be fun to see all the submissions! To be honest, I've never watched Supernatural or seen Misha Collins in anything else ahahah but he has a nice face. And that's all the reason I need to draw someone (:

So, this is my first graphite portrait in a while, and man does it feel good to draw again. Tried a new technique for his skin, which is drawing in tiny little circular patterns before blending with a tissue. I like the result, so I'll most likely be keeping to that in the future as well. Yeah. His proportions are slightly off, but this was mainly an excuse to get back into practice anyway.

Planning on doing some acrylic painting next, but I probably won't have much to show for it, since college apps are now upon me. annnd I need to finish my summerwork. I can't believe it's August already. Summer's going by so fast.

Third drawing in my moleskine! Reference was a fashion post on tumblr that showed up on my dashboard. I liked her hair and pose, so tried a quick sketch. Played around with lines a bit, since I really do love strong linework. I should sketch more.

Went to SDCC on Saturday. It was awesome. So tiring though. I slept until past 1 the next day ahaha

Emma

This is supposed to be Emma Watson.
I haven't seen the new HP. or the last three HPs either ahah...
I am really behind the times.

blahhh digital painting is so surreal to me...
This took 2 hours ahahahaha. I really don't know how to paint with my tablet. maybe it's time I learned how to.

Damon

Belated birthday present for my friend, Allison, who loves Damon Albarn and Gorillaz. Her birthday is in May, right smack in the middle of the AP testing hell weeks, so that's why it's late ahahaha

Second time using Prismacolors. I still feel rather like a grade-schooler while using them, since coloring is so foreign to me. Turned out all right though, although I'm not entirely happy with his eye or his clothing or the color scheme. ahahhaa oh well.

I need to paint sometime soon. I have 8 canvases sitting in my house. And I haven't even touched them.

Otherwise, summer is going swell. Keeping pretty busy but still have a good amount of free time. It's nice.

COLORS

Matt Doyle
from Broadway's War Horse, Spring Awakening
also Gossip Girl and Private Romeo

His EP, Daylight, is available on iTunes! Go give it a listen and buy it! It's fabulous. He's super talented.

I think this is my first official Prismacolor drawing. Colors are tricky. I definitely haven't gotten the hang of them yet, but they're rather fun. I need to get some better paper though. The kind I used for this drawing really didn't work well with Prismas.

His face is all colorful because the reference I used is a concert picture (I think I got it from broadwayworld), and concert lighting always makes skin tone go all funky. I like it though. His proportions are off, but I think you can tell it's him, which is good enough for me since this drawing was mostly a learning process anyway.

SCHOOL IS OUT IN THREE DAYS
SUMMER HERE I COME

P.S. Plaid is kind of evil, but it turned out okay, I think? So I'm happy.

what I did in calculus

Ellen.

She's on her phone haha.

didn't do anything in class because we took our AP test last week.

one more exam! and then I paint.

withDRAWals

I've sworn not to go on tumblr, watch TV, or draw until AP testing season is over. I want to draw so badly it's ridiculous.

just one and a half more weeks. and then I'm going to watch the new Doctor Who episodes and go on tumblr and DRAW AND PAINT SO SO MUCH. SO EXCITED I CAN'T EVEN.

mrawww

lol I haven't done one of these since 2009.

I think I've gotten worse. I should do more.

also:

Karen Gillan (from Doctor Who)

some quick and small sketches. good practice.

One more day of Spring Break left. Ridiculous.