Some Habits aren't habit forming..

Ok, So I haven't updated this blog in a while.. I would love to say that I have been run off my feet with activity and doing exciting things. Well, the truth is, I haven't. I changed over internet service so that I can actually do things during the day and not have to wait for the cover of darkness in order to download anything or do much of anything. I got a sewing needle broke off in my foot and had to have it removed in the ER, fun. And I have mostly been doing housework. How un-grande of me.

Also, I've been having.. problems. Now when I started writing in the blog, I sort of vowed that I wouldn't talk about it because I wanted people to know my artwork and not my disability. I was also told by the dean of art that maybe I should try not telling people, and figured I should try it someplace where I wasn't obligated to tell someone.. like not a classroom. Well, that's just really not going to happen. It doesn't define me, but I can't deny that is impacts my day to day life. So the problem that I've been having, that has been keeping from getting to drawing is.. I have had a lowering in my visual acuity. Just got a little bit. I had gone off my herbal supplements and had to build them back up in my system. I'm doing better and seeing as well as I can. Since I am legally blind, there's only so good it can get. Anyway, feast your eyes on my practice from reference photos!

Have a great weekend, I know I'm going to! I'm taking my Dad to Weird Al for his birthday!

Wiz-A-Meal

This was supposed to be a T-shirt design based on Retro Futurism. Think The Jetsons. Anyway, the idea behind this was an ad for Wiz-A-Meal, a full meal in a can. An aerosol can. And yeah, I know the jello is at the wrong angle, I'll be fixing that. I'd still love to make this into a t-shirt I think it'll be quite fun.

Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition...

Or rain/snow on Memorial Day weekend. But surprise, surprise, it's here for at least the second year in a row. And it's supposed to be 90 by Wednesday, fun. All aboard the crazy weather train!
Update on Sheba: She has started asking to go out. Only this morning her asking turned into demanding and her demanding was so frantic that she fell out of the window and into the fireplace tools. So the unhappy girl had to stay in under observation. Very spoiled little girl.

This is one of my favorite paintings, called Leaping Lizards. I dubbed the lizard/gecko things as My Little Pony-Lizards. I made them to sort of stick into silly or not well thought out situations. In other words they are sort of the reptilian version of the Three Stooges. I also get a strangle little thrill when I put Michelangelo like legs on lizard creatures. There is a lot more I want to do with these guys. They are so much fun to paint. 

Perhaps I spoke too soon...

The wind is blowing out of the southwest and there is a winter weather advisory in the mountains. Do I hear the tinkling sounds of another Junuary coming?  I just really hope it doesn't stunt our tomatoes, we planted a few new black varieties and I really want to see them produce to their fullest. Oh well, got to love global weather chaos.
Anyway, the bug bites from two days ago sparked off a fibromylgia/flare episode. Mom and I are eyeing the new chair as the cause of the bites... it's going to get sprayed real soon with Raid.
In other news, my baby feral kitten Sheba(who is almost a year old by now..) escaped outside again. She has trouble with being scared and the more scared she is the more she doesn't recognize family. However she also doesn't know how to use the potty outside, which is what brought her in last time she got out. So she escaped outside today and we settled in to wait for her to miss her Tidy Cat. Around noon she pops into the house just behind Cosette. So now she seems to be able to come in when she wants know. Though who knows when the next time she is going out, because Sheba was passed out for the rest of the day and why anyone opened the door outside she went running like she was pursued by hounds.  I think she'll stay in for awhile..
Tonight's sketch is of one of the races/critters in my story. These are little weasel/reptile things called Cobalds. They are sort of the pack rats of the magical world. They love collecting anything 'shiny'. They also have a whole society built around trap making. If you make really good traps, you have status. If you fail to avoid traps on a regular basis, you status starts to take a hit.  If you fall in your own traps, you lose a lot more status. It's a fairly uncomplicated system.  

Herald of the Season

Ah, it's summer already. My, my.. I don't even remember spring this year.  But you can definitively tell that it is summer; the crop plants have been put in the ground(or container), corn is starting to go down in price, Larry's fruit and veggie stand is set to open in a few weeks, and the bugs have come out.  I donno why I am such a tasty treat for them, but unless I take a chlorinated dip everyday, the little bugger can't seem to stay away. So my latest meeting with the little creepy crawlies left me with bite marks all down my back and the inability to sit up with out being in intense pain. Which of course lead to me sleeping half the day. I did get some stuff done.. just not artsy stuff.. Mom and I found out that that old blue recliner that was starting to look sort of broken, was broken. So we took off to the local better than Salvation Army thrift shop and picked up a really nice bright red recliner. Very pretty.

So to spread more artsy goodness, there is another older piece of work.  It was originally a really large acrylic painting but never quite worked right as I had painted it.  However I needed an ad for Graphic Design and re-purposed the image. I ran it through some filters, played with the color and ta da, the hills look like they are aflame in golden slender. Honestly, I like this version so much too. It's sometimes hard to tell but the black thing is a medallion with it's chain draped around behind the dagger. The medallion had a stylized scorpion design on it. 

Darkness Falls....

So today there was a total eclipse of the Sun resulting it what is known as a Ring of Fire. And I will be honest, for the whole week they have been talking about this thing, I have been humming Ring Of Fire by Johnny Cash. Be honest, you have too. The local news had full coverage of the event and had a live stream on their website.  We didn't set up any pinhole viewers of anything, but man, the light was so strange with all these weird shadows. It was pretty awesome even if you didn't see the moon block out the Sun completely.
It has been unbearably hot today and thus I thought it the perfect time to start sketching again. Yup, I'm brilliant. Tomorrow promises to be cooler. I hope so, I am just not built for heat..I'm also not built for cold either as anyone who's heard me belly ache about the wind can attest. However the sketch that I have been working on is not done as of the time of this post, so you will get other prettiness.

So this is the last painting I did up in Humboldt, the last acrylic painting I've done in a while. It is called Baby's First Horde and is acrylic on canvas and not very big, a foot by two feet maybe. Anyway the concept of Baby's First Horde occurred to me during one of the numerous Baby Showers I attended as a teen. It struck me that the showers were nothing more than ways of getting lots of stuff for the new baby really fast. A horde if you will. So that naturally(for me at least) lead to thinking of dragons and in particular baby dragons curled up with all their nifty new things. Which sparked not only several strange looks but several versions on the same idea. I have one around somewhere that's done in ink and colored pencil... Anyway, this painting was given away as a Baby Shower gift itself. Oh, irony..  

Cats, bugs and a bird

So, I can start normalizing my sleep schedule again after weeks of staying up till 3am downloading the new World Of Warcraft expansion Beta. So besides horrible terrible bugs plaguing the games, I am very very happy. But I have been spending my time play video games and making gluten free tortillas, so no art time still. Oh, and is it too much to hope that my cats will not wake me up at 5am for the fifth morning in a row? I am hoping the little kitten, Sheba, has worn herself out chasing after a bug in the living room. Cozy is already passed out under the bed. The joys of owning cats. At least I haven't injured myself bad enough that Cozy believes she needs to hunt FOR me so that I can keep up my strength or something. Tis never dull.

So here is Still Life with Still Bird from more painting classes. I have got to set up still lives and paint again. I especially love painting drapery. It's so fun and swoopy. Actually I originally had the drape much more realistic looking, but the professor suggested that I put in more brush strokes to make it look like everything else in the painting. Can I help it if I get all caught up in fabric? 

Yeah, so I'm a geek...

Yeah, I have my new video game. Happy. Anyway, I have been playing it as non stop as possible (there are of course the post launch bugs and problems..) and haven't been doing much else. I have to admit that Tuesday was interesting. I had to go drop off paperwork for financial aid and found out that I had to take a test to essentially prove that I was smart enough to get the money. And finishing Math and English at their institution and then continuing on to get two BA's doesn't qualified me as smart enough? Nope. But if I had a High School Diploma would have. Ah the smell of red tape in the morning. Got to love it. Anyway here is a pretty picture from my un-smart university days. Enjoy.

It's Nice being Nice to the Nice

Yeah, Woo!  A colored picture! One of my first that didn't begin with a brush and gesso... Don't get me wrong, I played around with it, had school assignment and so. But this one is the first one that I did for myself. Woo and Hoo. Anyway I thought I would put up something new because I will get Diablo 3 tomorrow and my updates will probably be of old stuff for the next week or so. I also have The Shelter of Stones by Jean Auel to read and that's a four part audio book which is like 25 hours. 

This day has been a very, very long one. But I am reminded that everyday, even the ones that you wish you could just hide under a rock can be brightened and lifted by the most unexpected of strangers.  I admit part of me has become cynical from the past couple of years, both personally and globally. But just when I think I got the world figured out, someone comes in to change all that. I have to admit, I am not one for change(though really, who is?) and this one today, I think I'll treasure it awhile. Thanks. 

Busy busy busy..

I have been meaning to start sketching again, but I have been really busy with a laundry list of stuff. Making gluten free tortillas that can not double as lace curtains, clearing the area for the tomatoes, various shopping trips pack into the last four days.. and more. I have to cut up and individually package mega packs of meat we got while shopping, make more snacks to nibble on.. Anyway, yeah...busy. So I will get to sketching again, but probably not until late next week.. maybe.. the reason for the maybe is that a game that I have been waiting on for months is coming out Tuesday and I will be trying to OD on it.

So everyone knows that tomorrow is Mother's Day, and it's sort of become a tradition for me to sketch out a Mom's Day card early in the morning. But because the gift that I also ordered this year was cancelled on me, Mom has given me permission to combine Mother's Day and Father"s Day into one big Parent's Day. So Mom and Dad will be getting cards then, but here is a scan of last years Mother's Day card. Hope that everyone has a wonderful Mother's Day, and make sure you hug a Mom.

More Laziness..

Well.. not quit laziness, but just being tired and sort of run down. Parents and I have been doing marathon shopping. I am bushed and there is still more to do. Mom and I also tackled the second frig which was in desperate need of cleaning. I have a very sensitive nose that can't help but take in all nuanced of slim, mold and yuck. So I have adopted an old CSI trick of placing a dub of something strong smelling under the nose to overpower the stench. Today's scent: Peppermint.

So here's a sketch for today. I have been working on anatomy though I still tend to have 'barbie syndrome'. Ever had a barbie that you popped the head of then just couldn't get it black on?  Well, I am having a hang up on putting a head on a full length figure. The only cure is practice.
And here is the amended Salmon Patty Recipe that I made the other night.
16 oz. canned pink salmon
1 1/2 cups bread crumbs
1/4 cup or 2 lemons worth of zest
2 Tbsp dill weed
2 tsp black pepper
2 large eggs

Preheat oven to 350*.
Mix all together and form into 6-10 patties. Heat skillet over medium heat and brown patties. Set patties
in to oven safe dish and finish brown in the oven for 7 minutes.

Corn Chutney
1 diced tomato
1 can of corn, drained or 1 cup of frozen corn, thawed
1 cucumber, diced finely
1 inch piece of ginger, minced
2-3 cloves garlic, minced

Saute tomato in a medium frying pan over medium heat along with about half of the ginger for 3 minutes. Add in corn and cook until heated through. Set aside until cool then add in the cucumber, the rest of the ginger and garlic. Toss to combine.

Savory sause
3 Tbsp mayo
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 tsp soy sause
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp smoked hot paprika
1/2 tsp black pepper

Thin mayo with lemon juice and soy sauce. Add in the garlic powder, paprika and pepper into the thinned mayo and whisk to combine.
Enjoy!

The time for playing nurse is now

Alright, here are some sketches of Obcidian, because the coloring on the other pic is going a bit slow and I am soing to be making lots of puddings for Dad since he's going in for minor oral surgery tomorrow. And I will also be working to master the art of gluten free tortilla making on the new electric tortilla press. So far they have lots of cracks and holes..but after watching a handful of "Making Rotis on a electric tortilla/roti maker", I think I have a better idea.

In further news, I made gluten free crispy salmon patties with corn chutney that I found on Dr Oz's website. I had to severely change the recipe however and guess at a lot of the rest, since the directions aren't so great. Anyway, I might post the recipe once I sit down and figure out what I did. Just know: it was damn good and both satisfied my mother and father who have different ideas on what should be done with fish. 

And lastly. Go watch Avengers. Don't argue. Just see it. It will change your life. 

Illustrator FTW!

Well, been working on digital inking since I have to sit up and babysit the my downloads. So anyways, inked in Illustrator CS5, using the nifty width tool. It actually probably would have gone a lot faster if I had put in all the lines THEN messed with the width.. but it was so shiny I had to play. I'll be working on color next. Can't stay up to 6am again though as Mom and I are going to the Solano Campus to play around in some Job Education thing. Sounds fun and there's all kinda of stuff to do like pounding rivets!

Oops, I'm back?

Ok, well, that first post was sort of a lie, but a well meaning one. People have been wanting to see a blog with my art, so I am going to be trying to use this place for that, since LiveJournal still confounds me. And now the test: Ok, at least easier.. the aspect might be off, but oh well. I'll work on shrinking them in the future so the actual size will be seen.