Art Update And New Toy

This is as far as I got with it before I got...bored? Restless? Something. Maybe I'll go back to it, really don't know.

So I have had these urges to do fanart. I think I have been looking at too much of other peoples art and now want to do my own. Contagious I guess but I also look at it as a way from me to explore with drawing as some might present challenges. Of all things I have started with Pokemon, yes I still play the games and no I don't watch the anime. So a few of them are going to show up till I get this all out of my system and move on.
Here is the first one:

"Plusle and Minun"
6in. x 6in.
Colored Pencil on Bristol smooth

I read this interesting article on using mineral spirits on colored pencil. I loved the demonstrations they gave and had to try it myself. I used mineral spirits on the background of this and love how it looks. I think it did a better job of blending the two colors together then if I had done without or used a blender. So I will definitely be exploring more with the spirits in other drawings.

Today I got my new colored pencils I ordered super early. This is the first time since I started using Prisma pencils that I have bought any other brand of colored pencil.

They were on clearance with free shipping so I thought they were calling to me :D I am now going to go use them on my next drawing!

Oh and I have twitter now! *points to right side bar*

This Busy Life

I honestly hadn't planned on being away from the blog for two months but things picked up and now I have no idea where the time went! Thanksgiving was ridiculous, had to work the night of into Friday morning for Black Friday. I really hate whoever came up with the idea of having big sales the day after you say what you are grateful for. Since then people have been rude, inconsiderate, and just down right nasty. I can't wait till Christmas is over.

Speaking of, we have an interesting tree this year. I wanted something different, so I ordered orange lights online.
Yes, orange.

My husband wants to order other colors next year since they have almost every colored light imaginable on white wire. I am totally all for that!

I also got new stockings this year since the family has expanded. I had a lot of fun putting the names on them.

Since my Dad and Jake moved in that made five but...who is this Sweetie?!
Why this beautiful girl here:

Sweetie Belle, is a Bull mastiff and is only eleven months old. Already she is almost full grown and too tall for her own good :D
A friend had gotten her and couldn't handle taking care of her so we gladly took her in. She is the biggest baby, loves attention and will sit or lay on me every chance she gets. We tried to keep her off the bed and failed miserably so now she keeps me warm at night as she has to start out laying right up against me. They say money can't buy happiness, they are full of shit. I paid the person back what they paid to get her and all of us are very happy that she joined our pack and she is happy to be here.
So now I have three dogs in the house and I couldn't be happier with the two most important men in my life to boot. Hopefully after Christmas things will calm down work wise and I can do other things besides...work.

Wordless Wednesday

Current WIP

I like dragon eyes :)
Hopefully after I finish this one I will want to finish my bird and cat, they are still worth finishing. Then maybe more dragons! Ooo and I got more mat board, different colors; can't wait to play some more!!

Wordless Wednesday

Dragon Eye

"Eye of Toothless"
2.5 in. x 3.5 in.
Colored Pencil on Black Cardstock

I couldn't believe how long it took me to get this finished; but with working way more hours, sore hands and twitching eye lids (which is very annoying and makes it hard to see by the way) I was only able to do this is small spurts. I love how different it is working on black paper but this paper in particular was not made for colored pencil and I found it out the hard way. It didn't want to layer the colors right or at all and was a little frustrating. I don't think I will being using it again for pencil so maybe I will bust out the gel pens and play with it that way.

If you haven't see "How To Train Your Dragon" you are missing out on a wonderful movie. This is actually from one scene when the main character meets his future best friend. I absolutely love the detail and attention they put into these characters and dragons and I am so excited that the second season to the show just started.
I am actually hoping to do the eyes of some of the other dragons, which gives me an excuse to go get better black paper for pencils :P

Playing With Metallic Pencils

Over the weekend I had some free time to try my new pencils. I have used metallic pencils in the past, but that was over ten years ago and they weren't water soluble.

So first I made my reference cards, I have this for all my pencils. Though admittedly these are the only ones with three different ones!

Then it was time to play with the black paper, something I have never used before. I was hoping it would bring out the metallic more but I think some of the color I used under them for shading took that away. I tried taking a picture of it with the camera and also scanning it to see the difference. Definitely going to have to play with it some more.

Scanner:

What a silly smile he seems to have.

Camera:

Then I tried something that I have been wanting to do but afraid to, watered the subject and not just the background.

Scanner:

Camera:

First off, I LOVE this guy! I feel for my first attempt, this came out awesome, even if it isn't perfect. I might even frame it. Secondly I used actual water color paper this time. Not sure if most notice this, but a lot of papers have a different tooth on the back side of them. I used the back of the water color paper cause I thought it looked neat (and there was a weird splotch on the front). As you can see when watered, the pencils lose their metallic altogether.

Next I will have to try them on regular white paper, though when I was doing my little reference card I wasn't impressed but that just could have been the paper type. So here is to me crossing my fingers I get some free time again soon!

New Stuff

Out of some serious curiosity I finally looked for and bought some colored mat board. A small shop the next town over had some 'scrap mat' for sale and I thought they were the perfect size for a test trial. I also got some black card stock paper to try for my new metallic pencils.

If you'll excuse me, I have new shiny toys to play with in the little free time I am now enjoying! ^_^

Living Treasures Animal Park

Went and seen the animals for my birthday. I think I spent more time playing with the goats then taking actual pictures :D

This cutie was just cuteness overload for me, so little and fuzzy!

This little piglet managed to get out of the enclosure because it was so small and fit right through the openings. Momma pig was not happy about it and made sure to keep it with the others after that!

That was the first time I had ever seen a baby zebra.

The first picture I took, I was scared to try to stick the lens through the fence because it was watching me so closely and I thought it might try to peck the camera. The second time I stuck it through with no problems but the first one I am definitely using for a future drawing!

Sometimes, Things Don't Work Out

Well, I definitely didn't make the deadline because this is as far as I have gotten. The colors are brighter then that, just didn't care I had poor lighting when I took the picture. I started out steadily working on this everyday, and then I got my second job and that picked up drastically. So the last two weeks before, I had almost no time to work on it. This week is just has work heavy and I believe the rest of the year is going to be this busy. I know I am going to want to finish this, but right now it feels like more of a demand then something enjoyable and so I am just letting it sit till things are less crazy.

My Lobelia 'Crystal Palace' had finally came up, which at first I thought they were weeds till I let them flower.

They are a really vibrant purple that almost makes them look 3D and the camera just wouldn't pick that up. The hubby likes them and wants to landscape them into the front yard next year.

I took a trip to the park a few weeks ago and saw this butterfly and these orange flowers.

I don't know what kind of flowers those are but they were very pretty and it seemed the bees liked them just as much.

We went to the Animal Park for my birthday this past weekend, I'll post that later. I'm super excited about one of the pictures because it is going to make an amazing reference photo in the future!
Time for bed, have to finish my full work week and all that :/

Lilies and More

My flowers finally popped out, was pretty excited when I got to see them. Oddly enough it was only one color that made it to full maturity. I keep wondering why that in the mixed batch only the yellows came out and the rest either stopped growing half way or didn't come up at all.

They seem so perfect!
Then there were my "I will be amazed if I get flowers out of these".

Got some bachelor buttons...

and a well chewed on scarlet flax. There was another flower that had survived but it didn't last long enough for me to get a picture. We got a bunch of rain and now are being hit with a heat wave, fun fun.

Picked the first tomato from the garden today, it is just a cherry tomato but seems decent sized for one.

Swapping Subjects

Got a little bit colored and now I am putting this aside for something else. I will come back to it (I hope) but something caught my attention.

The Color Pencil Magazine had a drawing competition every month. I have been watching it for awhile now, waiting to see if anything 'calls out' to me and this months finally has.
-->Here<-- is the subject, I don't care about winning; I just know that if I draw that bird, when I am done, it will feel really good. There is a good chance I won't even enter it in.
I won't be posting progress of it or anything, sounds silly but this has that "Do it privately" feel to it.