figure drawing

given that its been about 8 years since I've actually drawn from a live model, I think I will give myself a break and say that I am seeing an improvement...if I don't look at it for too long, I would almost like to try and finish this one. 

...Also, hypothetically speaking, if someone were to take part in a figure drawing group week after week and continue to draw nothing but the model's boobs... can I say something to them or should I just let it go unless further creepiness follows? 

They are beautifully rendered boobs, but I'm not sure thats the point... 

I've been reading a lot of fairy tales...then this happened.

IF-Bottled

So heres a sketch, (below) I wasnt going to do anything new as I am all busy and the like, but I started this the other night while I was half asleep, totally forgot about it and then found it in my sketchpad this morning... maybe I will turn it into something... maybe I wont...its all a mystery. I think perhaps it is time for another cup of coffee. Also theres this drawing I did few years ago that just proves that I have stopped developing as an artist!  "bottled" Yay stagnation!

sadly I think I like the older version better.
...two days later: finished! (above)

Balloon Planets

Sophie (who is 11 and will show up sporadically at the studio with her dad demanding crafts) and I made planets on Friday. Usually Sophie just wants to make different kinds of birds, but this week I was able to convince her that it would be way more awesome to build an entire world!*
Sophie's Planet was colorful and decorated with tiny flocked bunnies and frogs, we made a small boat with a feather mast to sail the ocean and a weird nurse goddess to watch over the planet.
My planet is brown and made from inside out cereal boxes and used packing paper.
Incidentally, cereal boxes are my most favorite of craft supplies, they can become almost anything and are basically free!
Sophie named our creations Balloon Planets, although no balloons were used in the making of our tiny worlds.


*something I've wanted to do since boyfriend bought me Little Big Planet last year...next I will turn my work area into a life size "pod"and decorate it with googly eyes on stalks and stickers! I can never seem to find good stickers though, the only ones I have that I like at all are my friend Jennifer's business stickers...maybe I shall start making my own. 

Daisy, Cheesecake and Dennis

This morning I went to the pet store and instead of buying a rabbit, which would have been adorable and fluffy and left poop in all my shoes I bought more fish! it's possible that I have a problem, I started with one little tank and a couple of little stripy jobbies and now I have the little tank, (which is mostly just breeding snails at this point) and a 15 gallon tank with 7 neon tetras (all named Jeff), 4 zebra danios (the little stripy jobbies), two big fat ones, Cheesecake and Dennis, Ted the poopfish (I can't remember what he is exactly but he seems to enjoy eating poop) and a hatchet something or other I named Daisy.
I'm thinking that I will start emailing pictures of my fish to my friends who like to send me pictures of their kids/puppies...

WALL!!!!!

The wall is almost finished! we have the Alum show coming up next weekend and, due to the number of submissions, we actually needed more wall space so we built a new wall... technically its more of a mobile room than a wall, and really Robert mostly built it, I just held things, did a lot of measuring and drilled holes where I was told. Today I filled all the seams, screw holes and molded a corner from wood filler and then sanded it, now I am waiting for my second coat of primer to dry so that I can start on the top coat, then we can attach the trim, move it into place, load up the shelves cunningly hidden in the back portion of the wall, rearrange some of the track lighting to properly illuminate our glorious new studio addition, and hang art on it!

....on an unrelated note, and I feel very strongly about this: art is hung, people are hanged! 

Dammit!

Dandelion & Burdock

Dandelion&Burdock

This is the birthday present I made for my sister.

I started it a while ago and for some reason I couldn't seem to get it right. I am mostly happy with it now, so it probably wont change at all. I did steal the house for IF's "cultivate" and a small section of the background for "duet" but I might change the background of that one because I was feeling lazy and it doesn't really fit the image. 

Dandelion and Burdock was this weird fizzy drink my gran used to buy when I was a kid, it sort of tastes a little like dr. pepper, I haven't seen it since I moved to the states. 

let the randomness begin....

Ok, this is just  string of random comments and thoughts, its mostly pointless, but its a blog, what do you expect?
My boyfriend pointed out to me that I can be somewhat judgmental (a word, I feel, that deserves to have an "e" in the middle of it) and perhaps, overly critical? but whatevs, I have 6 weeks left of my twenties, I'm not really going to change any time soon (although this is probably to my detriment)

This week I have been wondering these things:
1. how can a person eat a tub of icecream and a packet of milkduds a night and yet never gain a single pound. I wonder this not because I am jealous, I think that much candy would just put me off, but mostly I just don't understand it. where does it go? do the calories evaporate? how do you not have diabetes? (also someone should probably explain to me how you develop diabetes)
2. how can a person practice something for years and call it their trade and yet not get any better at it? I have things I am bad at, lots of them actually, but I think that if I were to pick one thing and practice it everyday, I might just get a little better at it.

 crap, I just got my first mosquito bite of the year!

3. why did Firefly get cancelled?
4. what the hell am I going to submit to the alum show? I managed to annoy/bully many others into participating, now I have two weeks to submit something myself.
5. do people get shallower as they get older? it seems that way, I doubt that ten years ago I would have been blogging about ice-cream consumption and cancelled tv shows... nor would I have had a blog.
...but one day, will I stop caring about things altogether and start painting pictures of my pets? or my plants assuming I am unable to keep a pet alive long enough to actually render it's portrait.

Borders is going out of business. I got a pile of books for the studio,  one that is just various artists interpretations of disney princesses. I will probably keep that one for myself. and I might start drawing disney princesses.

Started reading a blog belonging to a woman who drew a picture of a giraffe everyday for 300 days and then posted them to that blog. I can't quite decide how I feel about that. I probably don't.

my baby sister turned 24 today. Happy Birthday Dan!

IF-duet

It feels like it's been a very long week.