Hi everyone, Mari here. Happy 5th of July. Yesterday in America, Independence Day was upon us.

Again, let me begin by saying that I apologize for my lack of posts. I am still without a scanner and a desktop computer, but eventually, the money will be there for both. I’ve also been bogged down with articles for Demand Studios, but I’m starting to get faster with those. Once I get $70 together, I’ll be back and posting regularly. I promise. Click to read more …

Tags: All My Children, Cruelty, People, Personal, SoapNet Forum

Hello everyone! Marisol reporting in.

I haven’t been posting how to draw tutorials lately, and I apologize. As many readers must know, once warmer weather approaches, as does yard work. I’ve been busy planting flowers, weeding, and cutting grass, so time to myself is very rare. Besides yard work, I’ve been working really hard writing articles for other websites, and I’ve been busy with research for the Milton course Alex and I are taking this summer for graduate school.

Speaking of school, the head of the English department contacted me this morning and informed me that I should be considering the beginning aspects of my thesis if I plan on graduating very soon. Nyah? Already?! I have to choose an overseer this week, and that professor and I need to sit down and create an outline for my thesis. Frankly, I’m not ready yet. Simply put, I don’t have a concrete topic yet. Furthermore, I’m terrified! I’ve been having a panic attack today and trying to contact Alex to talk me down, but he’s difficult to get a hold of because his phone is always OFF! I always hope I never need him to save my life, because if I did, I’d be dead before he’d even know I called him. Seriously, trying to contact him is that bad.

During my hiatus, I’ve developed several projects and how to draw tutorials that I am going to post on Sketching House, however, I seem to have several problems. Click to read more …

Tags: Acer Monitors, Brusheezy, Digital Art How-To, Digital Art Tutorial, Digital Coloring, Digital Inking, John Milton, traditional Art, Traditional Art How-To, Traditional Art Tutorials

Tonight, I started writing about Photoshop brushes and the different types there are, as well as some the techniques you could use while drawing with those brushes. Then, I suddenly realized that talking about Photoshop brushes isn’t as important as other things in life.

For once, I actually realized my own mortality tonight.

It’s really hard to articulate what I am truly feeling right now, especially since the feelings came suddenly. As many of you know, I post on a soap opera forum, and according to my profile, I’ve been posting there since June 12, 2008. For some reason, I don’t remember posting that long, but that is besides the point. Throughout my time on the forum, I have met several great people who I am honored to call “friends.” Each person has his/her own quirks, obsessions, and stories, and I find it great that many of the people are willing to share their life struggles. Many of the women I’ve talked to are cancer survivors or are trying to beat the disease right now. At first, I would read their stories and comment with kind words, meaning every bit of encouragement I offered. For awhile, some of these women were just words and a screen name, but the more I talked to them and saw the people beneath the text, I realized how real each person was. For me, their words became words of wisdom; words to ponder. One lady who’ve I’ve spoken to the past few weeks has really caught my attention. To me, she seems so strong and courageous, even when the stakes are down. I admire how she uses humor and her good nature to explain her feelings and her pain, and I’ve come to look forward to posting with her. However, while taking a shower tonight, my thoughts wandered to the soap opera board and my heart suddenly ached and tears fell from my eyes like a sweeping shower. The possibility of “what if she’s no longer here” crossed my mind and I felt so sad for her, her family, and all of us who have grown to love her. I hate that line of thinking– what if– but it crashed upon me so hard that I couldn’t help but feel anguish for thinking that way and for wondering that. I felt a huge void, one I haven’t felt since my sister passed away fourteen years ago. Except, the difference between now and fourteen years ago is that now, I realize the importance of life and how short life really is. Click to read more …

Tags: Anal Cancer, Cancer, Cancer Specialists, Death, Farrah Faucet Cancer, Life, Liver Cancer, Nature, Survival

Every now and again, I like to take some time away from tutorial posting and talk about life. Today is one of those days. For those of you who have been following Sketching House since its birth in October 2008, you know that I like to do this. Now I know that there are screams and moans going on amongst the ranks saying “NOOO! Mari, why!? We want to learn about art!” but sometimes, there are things that need to be said and things that need to be done in order to preserve my sanity. However, I do love you, oh mysterious viewers. Besides, Alex posted two tutorials today. =^_^=

First order of business, please give a warm welcome to SushiGal, our newest member to the Sketching House family. She comes to us from a far off mysterious land, so please be nice. I know what it’s like to have people be mean to you unnecessarily, so please don’t do so.

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, Alex and I ditched Chaucer to go have some fun. For one, I had a splitting headache, but from what I gathered, we missed a good class in the beginning, but then it fizzled in the end. Anywho, so Alex asked if I wanted to go to dinner with him and I said sure. We went to a place called Anthony’s Creative Cuisine, which is right next door to our favorite restaurant, Niko’s. This was our first time trying this restaurant, so we thought it would be fun. First, we couldn’t figure out where to go in at because there was three doors; we found the right door on our first try. When we walked in, a cheerful, but fancily dressed hostess greeted us and took us to our table. First, Anthony’s is deceptively large and we ended up sitting in the terrace room. For one, it shoulda tipped me and Alex off that this was not our type of place by the décor. Everything was purple and white with grapes and grape leaves hanging all over the place. Secondly, there was a terrace room. Non-fancy restaurants do not have terrace rooms! Third, the menu was small, snooty, purple, and padded. In all my English classes, we learned that purple was the color of royalty, so uh-oh. Furthermore, the fact that this place proudly announced that they accept credit cards shoulda been another sign. Oh noes! Click to read more …

Tags: All My Children, Anthony's Creative Cuisine, Art Tutorial, Embalmer, Embalming, Expensive, Life, Money, Niko's, Purdue University, school, SoapNet

Good evening everyone! I’m back after a long absence. I’ve been busy lately, so I guess I should update you guys.

For one, I’m trying to post on here as often as possible, but I got bogged down with a lot of papers for class, but all is well with that spectrum of the universe now. I can finally catch up with all my articles for Demand Studios and for here. Another reason why I haven’t been posting so much is because I got a new job teaching a few Korean computer graphics professors English. They already know English, of course, but they want to learn it better so they can get teaching jobs in the States. I’m excited about this opportunity and it will help me get a job once I graduate with my Master’s degree. Today, I got to help one of my students practice for an interview she has with the University of Michigan Ann Arbor. I’m excited that I got to help with the interview and I wish her luck. To me, working with students is like raising children. You give them wings to fly and once they leave the nest… it’s so sad. One of my coworkers said I should be happy when the students leave because it means they gained confidence in their writing and speaking abilities, but for some reason, I don’t feel that way. A deep sense of sadness overcomes me. I don’t know if I’m suppose to feel that way, but I always do. Maybe someday, I will understand that feeling. Click to read more …

Tags: All My Children, Art Tutorial, Camera Angles, Chaucer, Comics, Crafts, Creative Writing, Geoffrey Chaucer, JoAnn Fabrics, Kodak Camera Tutorial, manga, Photography, Pilfering, Portraits, Professional Photography, Purdue University, Stark Tinkham, Stolen Goods, Tutorial, Writing

Alex and I, I think, feel very lucky today. Yesterday, there was an apartment fire at the place we were going to live at. Unfortunately, someone lost their life–very tragic! God needed an angel by his side and unfortunately… however, the fire occurred at the apartments that Alex and I were originally going to live at! If we were there, we’d be dead or homeless right now. I’d say we are lucky. May God bless this girl’s family and I hope her family remembers recover from their injuries.

I’m suppose to be studying for a Linguistics quiz right now, but I’m very far behind on things. I have six articles I need to write for Demand Studios, two blogs for Divine Carol/Country Living, help Alex with some of his blogs (if he would ever sign online and let me know where he needs help at) and I need to come up with a ten page paper for my other job. Yes, for my tutoring job, we need to write papers to be reviewed. We also need community service. What is that? That place is ticking me off something horrible and I’m terribly close to quitting. If it wasn’t for the fact that I like working with the International students, I would leave. But, I guess I should be grateful for the fact that I have a job, that I’m not amongst the unemployed. But everything is looking desperate anymore. C’est la vie. However, yesterday, Alex and I developed a plan that would fix the economy for awhile… now if we could run for joint presidency…

On Valentine’s Day, the best possible thing happened. *Jumps around excitedly.* Pitchers and catchers reported for spring training! YES! The baseball season is right around the corner (Go Yankees! Go Cubs!)! Woohoo! And today is the Daytona 500! I hope my beloved Denny Hamlin wins! He’s my Sunday boyfriend, unless he races in the Nationwide Series on Saturday, then he’s my Saturday and Sunday boyfriend. All my boys of summer are back. Feel the speed, smell the green! Boogity, boogity, boogity! Let’s go racin’ boys! Play ball!

As mentioned, yesterday was Valentine’s Day. Alex and I went out to breakfast, went to the mall, took a long walk, had smoothies, went for dessert, went to Borders, and watched a movie called Towelhead (if you haven’t seen this movie or read the book, I recommend you do). It was a simple day, overall. I like simple, but I guess there’s a part of me that yearns for more romance. I guess I’m just a hopeless romantic at heart: always hoping for more.  I guess the romantic side of me is the side that wishes for “the next step,” even though it scares me at the same time. I’m very afraid of that “next step” because of the drama it will cause. I’m tired of drama, fearful of monster in-laws, and all the meddling. Thinking of that “next step” makes me anxious–good and bad. I’ve gotten to the point where I don’t want a whole big shabang, instead, eloping sounds nice. Think of the money we’d save! But, taking that step is just a distant and frightening thought. I’m not going to bother with it any longer. But, I’d give up my heart for him, since he already owns it.

So what kind of tutorial shall we do today? I’m not exactly sure what I have to offer today. Since I haven’t had time to draw in awhile, I’m going to have to use a tutorial I did over the summer for another website. Let me see… how about how to draw elf ears? I promised an ear tutorial a long time ago, so I guess this counts. Click to read more …

Tags: Angles, Art Tutorial, Baseball, Bewitched, Boogity boogity boogity Let's go racin' boys, Chicago Cubs, Dale Earnhardt Jr, Daytona 500, Denny Hamlin, Digital Art Tutorial, drawing, Drawing Ears, drawing tutorial, Ear Drawing Tutorial, Ear Tutorial, economy, Elf Ear Tutorial, Elf Ears, Face Tutorial, films, fires, How to Draw Elf Ears, how to draw faces, How To Shade, Jimmy Wayne, Major League Baseball Spring Training 2009, Matt Kenseth, MLB, Movie TOwelhead, Movies, New York Yankees, romance, Shading Tutorial, Sketching Lines, Sketching Tutorial, Towelhead, Towelhead movie, Tracing Tutorial, traditional Art, traditional drawing, Traditional Shading Tutorial, Tutorial, Valentine's Day

Hiya, Marisol here… who else? I’m the only one who knows how to post, I swear. *Sigh.* Welcome to my life. Everyone is so busy, but apparently not me since I’m the only one here. My partners seemed to have ditched me, so what am I to do?

As we all know, Valentine’s Day is right around the corner. I’m not looking forward to it. I see Valentine’s Day like my birthday: not worth celebrating. I mean, yea, it’s nice to get something from my boyfriend because it lets me know he cared enough to think about me on such a Hallmark-Holiday, but to me, it’s not a good day for anything. I find it hard to feel enthusiastic about it, personally. I never liked Valentine’s Day; it’s just another day to feel forgotten, for me. Recently, I’ve felt lonely and really, I cry a lot over that feeling. I wake up with a renewed sense of things are going to get better, but throughout the day, that sense drifts away. The lacking conversation, the inability to see a certain someone… it’s made me rather depressed. At night, I do cry myself to sleep because of my overwhelming loneliness although I know I shouldn’t be a baby and I should just suck it up, you know. All my pain comes from too much work… all my boyfriend and I do is work, work, work and I think both of us are afraid to say “you know what, I need a break and I just want to be with him/her right now.” Sure, we have Saturdays, but when you really need someone, really miss somebody, that’s not enough. I guess that’s why Valentine’s Day is such a pain in my arse this year. It holds no bearing for me, it doesn’t foster hope, it doesn’t scream love and joy. Valentine’s Day is just another day. Luckily, it’s on a Saturday, but still… it means nothing to me. I want to avoid it because nothing good can come from it. It’ll be just like every other Saturday. I’ll wake up, hang out with my boyfriend, get dropped off at my house, he’ll come back over, leave at midnight, and I’ll be left yearning for more just so I can wake up on Sunday and crave him and conversation and just get nothing. Then it will be back into Monday’s five minutes together, Tuesday’s five minutes and so on and so forth until the end of the semester. So Valentine’s Day is just another worthless day set out to taunt me and toy with my heart. No heavy love, minimal conversation, and then parting… what’s the point?

I miss him…

I was going to add a tutorial tonight, but I have a splitting headache right now. Tomorrow, I will add one. Until then, goodnight everyone.

Mari

Tags: Art Tutorial, Dating, Family, Holidays, Valentine's Day

My boyfriend is very inconsiderate sometimes. He does not have Internet access (surprise, surprise), so I ask him to PLEASE call me when he gets home from school. Does he? Not at all. Do I know if he got home safely? Not at all. So I called him and left two messages. Does he answer or call back? NOPE! But no, someone on his end can pick up his cell phone and hang up on me. Nice! I call because I care about him and I get treated like garbage. Is it my fault he can’t take some responsibility and pink up a phone? Nope. That would be his. I just hope he knows that that is his ONE REALLY ANNOYING TRAIT THAT I WISH HE WOULD FIX! Stop being an airhead and pick up the phone! It isn’t that hard! Guys, let your girl know you care about them and call when you leave somewhere late at night, okay? They’ll really appreciate the gesture. It’s a very nice thing to do and prevents worry. Not to mention that it helps build trust. Remember that, sweeties. And girls, if your guy asks the same of you, return the favor; maybe your call will help him remember next time. Then again, that last part could be wishful thinking. Who knows.

So I’ve been busy with school work, tutoring and orientations, and freelance work. So far, so good on all fronts. I am able to keep up with everything, I just need to stop procrastinating so much. I have the ability to finish things on time, I seriously do, I just don’t. The other day, I finished 4 articles for one of my jobs in under 30 minutes. This week, it took me 5 days to write a one page paper for a class. Um… bad me!

Okay, now for the art stuff.

Tala asked me for some old drawings of mine, and I was surprised I still had them! Looking at some of those old drawings, I am amazed at how much I improved over the years! Right now, I feel like my drawing ability has been sub par, but overall, it’s improved immensely! My porportions have gotten better and my realism has improved. Let’s take a look, shall we? Click to read more …

Tags: anime drawing, anime how to, Art, art blog, artist sketches, artist's blog, Artists, characters, Digital Art, digitaL DRAWING, draw, drawing, drawing faces, Drawing Guidelines, drawing proportions, Drawings, facial features, features, frelance writing, how to draw hair, How to Draw, how to draw anime, how to draw clothes, how to draw faces, how to draw features, how to draw folds in clothes, how to draw fur, how to draw proportions, how to draw shoes, how to indicate light source, Improvements, original characters, Paintings, Photoshop, realism, realistic how to, sketches, sketching

Hello everyone! It’s been a while. Alex, Tala, and I apologize for lacking in the post department, but we’ve been really busy. As mentioned before, all three of us have returned to school, so the semester is getting in the way. Please have patience with us, though. Once things slow down, we will be back to posting on a regular basis.

Alex and I have also been busy working. We both took up extra jobs because we finally got our apartment. WOOHOO! The only problem is that the landlord wants $1,400 up front–OUCH! So Alex and I have been working like crazy in hopes of reaching that goal by the third week of February. Cross your fingers!

I also have great news! While I was work today, I met a fantastic student who introduced me to an artist I never heard of. Why is this great news? This particular student had me check a paper of his that had to do with art analysis. Houen (sweetie, I hope I spelled your name right) wrote a paper about Luo Zhongli’s oil painting, “Father.” Click to read more …

Tags: Art, Artists, Artists from China, China, Chinese Artists, Contemporary Art, Father, Father Oil Painting, Father Painting, Luo Zhongli, Oil Painting Father, Painting Father, Paintings, Zhongli Luo

I think about weird things when I’m stressed and/or angry. It’s been one of those weeks again, but I will spare you all and not go into detail. All I know is that things aren’t getting any better for me.

While I was brushing my teeth this morning, a thought crossed my mind (and I assure you, I didn’t hurt myself thinking). When I was in fifth grade many moons ago, a friend of mine (whom is now in the Air Force) and I took an art class at one of the local community centers. The art program at our elementary school honored us with free art classes because we were considered “gifted artists” (I wonder what happened to me ). Every Wednesday, she and I would make the pilgrimage over to the Center of Visual and Performing Arts for our two hour art classes. I remember that this was when Beanie Babies were big, so most people brought Beanie Babies to draw (not really; Nikki and I were the only one’s under 50). Our art instructor didn’t find this amusing at all; she wanted us to learn how to draw serious art. Click to read more …

Tags: Art, Art Class, Art Teacher, drawing, How to Draw, How to Draw Sunflowers, Shadinh, Sunflowers, traditional Art