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. My desktop computer is out of commission, first of all. The tower still works and everything, but the stupid flat screen monitor died. This is the second time that screen died and it’s EXPENSIVE to fix. The first flat screen I had luckily died BEFORE the warranty ran out, so I sent it to Texas for a new screen. Unfortunately, this screen’s warranty did run out. The screen dying is bad because my gimpy 12-year old scanner is attached to that stupid computer. Without a screen, I can’t tell if I’m scanning. My printer is also attached to that computer. That computer runs on Windows XP still, as does my scanner and printer. My laptop, unfortunately, is Windows Vista, meaning that my scanner and printer are not compatible with my system, meaning, tough luck– I can’t scan and print! Why? The companies are not developing drivers for the printer or scanner that would make them compatible with Vista. Doesn’t that just suck? My only hope is my old laptop–my Acer. That laptop still has Windows XP, but the backlight for the stupid LSD screen is shot, so the colors on the darn thing are green and red (the laptop is 6 years old). Again, this is also expensive to fix, and quite frankly, given this economy and Obamanomics, I’m short on cash flow. Hoohaa! Life is great! NOT!

How I wish to live in another country.

Anyway, until I discover a solution or fall into a money pit, there’s going to be a delay in tutorials from me. I can create a bunch of digital art-based tutorials, but in a way, I feel Sketching House is weighing too heavily on digital art tutorials, thus, leaving traditional artists out in the cold. Many of the tutorials I developed are saturated in the traditional art medium, especially since that medium is my first love and passion over digital art. So please, bare with me while I find a solution to my ever-amounting technological problems.

Until I get all that settled, I have two digital drawing how-tos to post. One is how to ink a scanned drawing; the other is another coloring tutorial using skin texture brushes. Here are the drawings:

This is Ten'on and Tsuyoi, the subjects of my skin texture tutorial.

This is Tsuyoi; she's going to be subject to my inking tutorial.

So, once my Photo Shop stops freezing (yet, another issue), I will have these posted. Until next time, happy creating!

Marisol