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

Hi everyone. Sorry I’ve been gone so long. The evil finals are finally gone, so I’m back, hopefully for good. I hit a little burnout last week, but now I think I’m finally ready to go.

The tutorial I have today I came up with spontaneously while working on a picture of a tribal character I’m working on. He’s from the prehistory Phillipines, an area that I’ve never heard of a story being written about. Such a fascinating area.

That picture up there shows Snake Island in the Philippines. The completely naturally formed landbridge connecting two islands is shaped like a snake. Click the thumbnail to see how beautiful and clear the water looks. Anyway, I can’t get myself to draw the main protagonist as I see him in my mind.

Anyway, as I was working on trying to draw him a few nights ago, I realized that a lot of people draw the majority of their characters the same way. They’re always standing forward or to the side with their legs straight or slightly bend. But in real life there is a whole range of positions and motions that an individual can do. So I decided that my newest tutorial would be on how to draw a character sitting. Click to read more …

Tags: Anatomy, character, characters, draw, drawing, Drawings, drew, How to Draw, Life, lines, Night, Perspective, picture, poses, profile, proportions, real, Returning, side, Travel, Tutorial, Tutorials, Work

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