I decided to start doing what a lot of artists recommend to see how it works out. Lots of artists tell you not to paint on white and to instead pick a dark color, usually grey or a dark shade of the most dominant color in your picture. I picked grey for now and I will try the skin tone next time. So far, it makes it a lot easier to see what you’re doing as you add progressively lighter and lighter colors. Plus, for me it feels easier to control how much you shade different parts when you shade this way. For digital art, just fill the background with whatever color you want to put in the background. For traditional art, just pick a canvas that has the color you would like to have as the base. Of course, none of this is 100% necessary and you can always just use a white sheet of paper when following this guide.

To sketch the character, choose a color that is light enough to show up on the dark background, which is the whole point of using a dark background to begin with. These lines will show up very well.

After getting the lines out, you can now start to throw down the colors. Start with the darkest colors. On the face, the areas that are the darkest depend on what you’re drawing. For this character, the darkest areas will be under the eyes, between the nose and the cheeks, under the nose and under the mouth. If you’re drawing a neck, the area under the chin will be darkened too. With take one, don’t worry so much about getting it accurately. Just get the general area colored because you can always color over areas that need to be tweaked.

Next, start laying some more shades on the side of the nose facing away from the light source, the edges of the ears, the chin, and near the darker shades. When two different shades come together, blend them at the edges.

Now select the lightest skin color. Add highlights to the middle of the nose and the cheeks for this drawing. Where the highlights land depends a lot on the light source, but for an area where light is all over, those areas get the most light.

Cover the areas that you haven’t covered on the face yet with the base color that you would like the majority of your character’s skin color to be made up of.

Now start throwing down those special colors over the character’s face. Put reds in the cheeks, yellow on the forehead and blue or green on the chin (or nothing). For some characters, these colors are stronger than with other characters.

I finally got sick of staring at vacant holes where there should be eyes. You can do that too by simply filling in each eye with a colored circle and a color that is not pure white, but close to being white.

Then, start shading all around the eyes. Shade under the eyes and above the eyes lightly. Shade between the eye and the eyebrows very lightly, though strongly enough so that you can see the shading. Add a little yellow to the corners inside the eyes. Add highlights on the tops of the eye sockets.

Now, start adding details to the irises. Add black circles in the center of the irises where you want the pupils to be. Draw one or two rounded white objects on the eye to indicate the glare, where the light bounces off of the eye. Off of the pupil, start drawing lines, alternating between short and long lines. Surround the iris with a darker version of whatever color you used.

Next, move on to the mouth. Mouths are really interesting in that they come in different sizes and different people have lips of different thickness. This character is an Asian girl with tiny lips. The top-middle part of the mouth has a little dip, which sorta reminds me of an M. The lips are thinner near the corners of the mouth and thicker near the bottom. The lips also tend to curve inward on the sides on the lower lip. Some bottom lips are wider, while others just seem to dip. Painting lips can be very fun and lips can be very, very intricate. Some lips are very reflective and there are also nice little folds that curve outwards and travel upwards and downwards. I decided to not play around too much with the lips until later.

For the ears, draw the basic shape of the ear. The outer edge of the ear has a fold on the top half that wraps around the ear until it reaches the middle of the ear. The ear canal is drawn using shades.

When drawing the hair, I happily discovered that the whole laying down darker tones helps with the hair in Photoshop because you can still see the light strands when you create a new layer and set it to multiply. I guess using that method is better for darker hair. Anyway, regardless of whether or not you’re using traditional or digital methods, fill in the hair with the mid-color. That’s a color that you sorta pick at whim, since color shade really depends on lighting and whatnot.

This is only part 1! More details will be added soon.

Alex

I was searching through my Sheezy Art page recently and I came across a lot of my old poetry I wrote. Wow, I used to have a lot of darkness burning within me. Much of poetry was depressing! It’s funny, because generally, I’m not a depressed person anymore. So why the difference? My first two years of college I was dealing with a stalker ex-boyfriend who was rather abusive when I dated him. I made a lot of mistakes with this man that I am now smart enough to avoid, but I have a lot of regrets because of things I did to save myself from his fist. I had a lot of angst and depression because of all of it, but, because of it, I wouldn’t be the person I am today. A lot of my humor stems from my tragedies I faced in life, as well as all the craziness that ensues around me. It just amazes me where people’s strength comes from and I’m proud of everyone who can muster strength to surive anything.

As I mentioned in previous posts, writing helped me get through a lot of stress and darkness. Like the aforementioned, a lot of my writing had a darkened tone to it, but I did have some humorous poetry and stories mixed in. So, today, I would like to share with you some of my writing from the past. Here goes!

Love Always,

Mari

“Blackened Proximities”

Stuck in blackened proximities,
The only confides that I know
Where tomorrow doesn’t exist.
Just corrupted thoughts,
Of fading, uncorrelating dreams
Floating imagery
Of a life never wanted.

Bewildered current state of being.
Sinking drowning sensations
From being unable to gasp for air.
The dark corridors closing in,
Consuming who I once was,
Draining life from this very soul,
Punishment for being merely mortal.

These shadowed proximities of the heart,
Powerless to it’s death-like grasp,
Asphyxiating and killing me,
Because enlightened hues refuse to kiss my flesh.
I cannot break away from obscurity
I can only let its bloody thorns caress me
Making my essence non-existent.

~*~*~*~*~

“Sconosciuto Di Titolo”

Iridescence la circonda,
Dalla luna pallida ha illuminato i cieli.
Oceani delle rotture che si lavano sopra,
Annegandosi nel suo proprio oceano.
L’anima ha macchiato, stanca,
Maiden tragico,
Inciampando sul percorso,
Morire…
Dolore causato dalle sue proprie mani.
Shard di cristallo di bellezza dentellata,
Emettendo luce, scintilla rossa di gocce,
Circondare, abbracciante il vetro eccellente,
Ha usato perforare il cuore.
Sta fermo,
Attesa…
Prevedere la liberazione della sua anima.
Silenziosamente nell’alambicco
L’alito freddo esala i suoi polmoni,
Vede l’ombra,
Una mano che raggiunge verso l’esterno…
Maiden tragico,
Cuore in pieno dei fori,
Dadi con il suo amore allineare che si leva in piedi la

Iridescence surrounds her,
From pale moonlit skies.
Oceans of tears washing over,
Drowning in her own ocean.
Blood stained, weary,
Tragic maiden,
Stumbling on the path,
Dying…
Suffering caused by her own hands.
Crystal shard of jagged beauty,
Glowing, red dropets sparkle,
Surrounding, caressing the admirable glass,
Used to pierce the heart.
She stands still,
Waiting…
Anticipating the liberation of her soul.
Silently in the stillness,
Cold breath exhales her lungs,
She sees the shadow,
A hand reaching out…
Tragic maiden,
Heart full of holes,
Dies with her true love there

~*~*~*~*~

“Kindergarten Suicides”

Jimmy stole my blocks.
Megan took my glue.
When I wasn’t lookin,’
She ate my cookie too.

With a tiny paper cut,
I will die.
But I’ll make a note first….
Miss Paddy, how do you spell “goodbye?”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“Menstruation Frustration”

Stupid monthly menstruation,
Gives me alot of frustration.
Bodily altercation,
That painful sensation.
Junk food temptation,
Female damnation.
Cramps in domination,
Disgusting incarceration.
Interrupted relaxation,
For a pad and tampon fixation.
From abdominal inflation,
There is no salvation.
Womanhood orientation,
Male reincarnation.
All this frustration,
Over stupid menstruation.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

So what do you think? This is just a small example of what I do. Hmm…

Comments?

elfdaughter.deviantart.com/"

“UNREQUITED LOVE” ~ Elfdaughter
Marisol’s Take

When I was searching for an image to analyze, I came across “Unrequited Love.” From the moment I laid eyes upon this image, I was blown away! The softness of the edges and the clarity of the textures really make this piece appealing to the eye. The light, shadows, and colors included in this piece draw me in, and it is hard to avoid not looking at this image. The negative space and the pure whiteness really does draw my eye to the center of the piece where I can’t help but notice the shimmering tears streaming down the girl’s face. My heart instantly breaks because there is so much in this piece and there are many different interpretations to be found.
On Elfdaughter’s image description, she states that “[s]ometimes, not even the princess gets her prince…” Given the luxurious textures, fancy decor, and the tell-tale crown, one can interpret this young lady as being a princess. The man in the image even has princely clothes, so this is most likely the predominant interpretation. Adding the title of the piece into the mix, it is clear that the woman in the image loved this man with all her heart, but he did not feel the same. In a way, her shoelessness could also remind one of Cinderella, except in this story, there is no happy ending.
Another interpretation that one may arrive at is that this woman was a bride in waiting and that the man in the portrait was her intended husband. Apparently, he left her at the altar and she is distraught over this fact. The small bouquet of flowers leads one to believe that she was a bride. The fallen petals could serve as an indication of frustration, meaning that the woman could have thrown her bouquet, making the petals fall, or she could have plucked the petals off in a “he loves me, loves me not” fashion. The last petal: “he loves me not.” Her wrinkled, shortened dress looks as disheveled as her feelings.
There are other symbols that need to looked at in “Unrequited Love.” Notice how the majority of the image is done in white. Whiteness is a sign of purity and innocence. This woman is probably pure and chaste and someone of great integrity. Looking at her, one feels as if she saved herself for this man: a dream now unrealized. As for innocence, she probably didn’t do anything to cause this man to leave, instead, she was a victim to his heartless game. Furthermore, the man in the portrait is wearing black, a sign of impurity and evil. Based on the portrait as a whole, it is clear that this man was impure of heart if he was capable of hurting this girl.
Looking at the flowers, one may be able to dig deeper into the portrait. Metaphorically, flowers are symbols of human nature and emotion. Roses are a sign of love and devotion, whereas the color purple is a sign of the unattainable, enchantment, and impossibility. With the aforementioned considered, the woman’s love and devotion is unreturnable by her male counterpart, so she was blinded by love’s enchantment; the fact that the man left her also screams that a “happily ever after” is unattainable. Furthermore, the woman’s eyeshadow is purple, indicating that she may have fell for him “at first sight” and she was disillusioned by his falsified devotion. It is possible that in the back of her mind, she knew that he did not love her the way she needed him to, which is why parting is even more bittersweet…

Alex’s Take

I see that the love interest is not in the scene but is only in a photograph. The character is feeling distance and loneliness, maybe even hopelessness. The model feels more than longing. She feels despair and holds weakly on to the furry blanket.

If looked at in a certain way, it almost seems like she’s holding on to a small cliff and trying to pull herself up to her love interest. The cliff also almost looks snowy, which brings to mind coldness. The model does not receive any warmth from the figure since her feelings are not reciprocated.

White also creates blankness. The model’s mind is like a blank piece of paper with only her love interest, herself and the rose petals on her mind. The picture frame is very decorative, which might symbolize how she idealizes him. But the picture frame lacks bright colors, reminding me of a faded photograph.

She lays almost as if broken and tossed crumpled up in a corner. The rose petals are not bright, which could symbolize cheerfulness and romance. Instead, they symbolize faded memories of a hope for love that once existed but is now fading.

The only part that I couldn’t figure out any meaning for was the tiara, which brings to mind princess and prom. The tiara might represent her special and beautiful heart that she could have offered to her love interest in that she still has. But I feel that the tiara interpretation is a stretch.

Incredibly expressive and emotive picture!