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

Hi y’all!

I, Marisol, have added new pictures to my image gallery. Woo-ha! So feel free to visit.

Marisol

Tags: Art, Art gallery, Drawings, Gallery

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

I took a shot at drawing a character for a story I’ve been working on for awhile (months, years)? This isn’t really a tutorial but a record of the steps I took to draw her. This character is not done at all and she’s getting more folds and shading. I need to decide if I want to do cell shading again or try a harder type of shading.

I’m not even sure who this character will be but she’s temporarily named Angora. I might not even use her since I don’t hold on to characters unless they feel right. Maybe she needs some redesigning. Click to read more …

Tags: Alex, angle, artist, Artists, Blogs, blue, cartoon, cartooning, character, characters, clothes, clothing, Color, coloring, colors, dark, draw, drawing, drew, eye, Eyes, face, features, hair, lines, Lips, Love, manga, Marisol, Night, Nose, Noses, Plugs, proportion, proportions, real, Saw, school, shades, shading, side, sketch, sketching, Tutorial, Tutorials, Work, write, Writing

Y’all are probably sick of me writing about my dreams, but to me, a dream is a movie built in one’s subconscious. Movies are art, therefore, so are dreams. Dreams are rather artistic if you think about. The colors are more vivid and you can do things in a dream that you probably couldn’t do in real life. In real life, can you flap your arms and fly? Didn’t think so, unless you’re a duck or any other type of flying mammal or aviary animal–flying squirrel, sparrow, falcon, goose–just don’t be a turkey. I can’t fly in waking life or in my dreams. Dreams are the subconscious’ way of painting portraits of our lives, like a Salvadore Dali painting, only without melting clocks…  unless you dream about melting clocks, then be my guest.

Every night, I’ve been having the same dream over-and-over again. Remember the mass-suicide-via-poisoned-punch dream? I keep having that dream every night. In addition to that dream, a new dream has occurred, but I’ve only had this dream for a few days. My dream involved getting married–a happy occassion–but not this time. Click to read more …

Tags: Boyfriend, cars, computers, Crying, Dali, Dream Analysis, Dreams, Falcons, freelance writing, incompetency, Marriage, Marry, melting clocks, Persistence, Salvador Dali, snowblowers, tears, Wedding

Sorry for not posting so much. Marisol and I are back in school and we’re busy trying to earn enough money to make rent. Everything’s going well in all departments against this one. *smacks own hand* I really need to stop the cycle. I need to make sure that we don’t turn into the other art websites where the artists start posting less and less frequently and then eventually stop altogether.

Well I’m breaking that trend. Tomorrow I’m going to work hard, get my articles done for the day, get my studying done, and post a tutorial on trees. I already started it and drew all the trees and such. I just have to write it up. Click to read more …

Life is mysterious and cruel sometimes, don’t you agree? Sometimes, everything is great, then things fall apart like bricks from a building freshly struck by a wrecking ball. For me, this is how the past few days has been like: a rollercoaster on a rusted track. There has been many emotions, many tears. I have been angry, sad, and downright defeated. I have had my share of happiness, also, but that emotion did not come often. It was a week of mourning and displeasure. Click to read more …

Tags: Animal Charities, bitter cold, Chicago, Despair, Dream Analysis, Dreams, Judge Judy, links, mental illness, no art, non-art tutorial, Pet Loss, psychology, psychology of dreams, Purdue University, Relationships, Sadness, Scattergories

The spring semester started Monday and so far, my classes are okay. I love linguistics! The professor who teaches the class is my secondary boss and I love him very much. He’s great and soft-spoken. I didn’t get to have class tonight due to a snowstorm.

What a storm! There’s a foot of new snow outside and the windchills are hovering around -40! The wind is biting and the snow is swirling. I am so sick of winter! I hate cold. I hate snow! If only I had a magic wand to make it all go away…

…

Hey! That’s a great idea! A magic wand! Maybe I’ll make one.

Continuing with my “Kid Crafts” series, I will show you how to create a wand out just paper, hot glue, and paint. This is a low budget option for those kids who want Harry Potter wands but can’t afford them. Think of it this way, all the wands you make using this tutorial will be unique, just like the wands all the kids from Harry Potter possess! So shall we get started? Let’s go! Click to read more …

Tags: Art, Art Tutorial, Cedric Diggerty, Children's Crafts, Craft Kids, Craft Tutorial, Daniel Radcliffe, Draco Malfoy, Emma Watson, Fun with Harry Potter, Fun with Kids, Gyffindor, Harry Potter, Harry Potter Art, Harry Potter Crafts, Hermione Granger, Hogwarts, Hufflepuff, Kid's crafts, LUna Lovegood, Lupin, Magic, Magic Art, Magic Crafts, Magic Tutorial, Magicians, Muggles, Nymphodora Tonks, Paper Crafts, Paper Folding, Ravenclaw, Ron Weasley, Severus Snape, Sirius Black, Slithering, Tutorial, Warlocks, Witches

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Perspective is one of the ultra-mega hurdles to overcome when learning how to draw. Where you put your vanishing point helps you figure out what the hallway will look like from the point-of-view. To give you an idea of how that works, draw a horizontal line across a page. Then put a vanishing point somewhere on that line. I put it in the middle because it’s easier to see the different varieties of vanishing points. From the vanishing point, you need to figure out where the front wall of your hallway should be. An interesting trick to know is that you can increase or shrink the size of the hallway by increasing or shrinking the back wall of the hallway. So let’s see how it works.

You can then put the front walls wherever you want. All these front walls are is boxes. Go you… you’re almost done with the basic structure of the hallway. Here I drew three boxes because I’m going to draw three hallways. I want to show you how a hallway is shaped in relationship to the vanishing point! Click to read more …