Thursday, January 27, 2011

A Post for You, A Post for Me, A Post for All, Is the Key!! Not Really, but Yeah

Ok! Here's a post to let you know that I am alive... the week (and the week before) has been super busy... like really busy. Yet, I managed to squeeze in some art. Two large paintings, and a few sketches.
Painting number one--a Sea Dragon that my brother has dubbed a Leviathan. The 'Leviathan' has its body facing right, while it's head is reared back and snarling over its back... Its tail is wrapped around a chest (not filled with gold :P). The Leviathan has six fins altogether and has webbing down it's back where spines would normally be. It is a dark bluish color. The background is also blue tones, and has dolphins nearby (two, and they're terrible!!) and there's a large rock. I have trouble painting sea life, so I just left it as a sandyish bottom... THAT TOOK FIVE COATS!!! Sorry. I'm yelling. But it did take five coats of paint... especially because the color wasn't going right... But that's enough of the Leviathan.
Next painting! This one was formerly a dragon, but I have given permission to Jake to make it an Air Drake.. or Airdrake... I don't know which. He wanted the scene for his book or something... he didn't tell me much. Well, anyways, the Drake is standing sort of in a dog posture, strangely... one leg stretched out farther, one front leg lifted. So the Drake is standing on a cliff like thingy near the very edge, long dark green grass around his feet and all the way over the cliff (painting the cliff killed me. Terrifying.) The sides of the cliff look more like mud/dirt than anything else, and there are tufts of grass growing in a few places. The scenery below is pretty much just grass, and then the clouds are white and puffy, outlined by darker blue and a little gray... (Jake's favorite part is the clouds, LOL) And the Drake is white with white/blue wings. The scales--I didn't have the right detail brushes, my mom's are all really old. And so I had no good ones and its not very good... only looks good from a distance.
Sketches! I don't know if I've told you of this one, but it's called 'The Call to Adventure'. First of all, there's a shadowed person (methinks its a woman) with one arm outstretched sideways beyond the paper. Behind her is two swords crossed, one with a hilt the has a large opal like gem in the pommel, and its cross-guard is a slightly curling part that goes back over the fingers and connects on the pommel. Its probably a one-handed sword. The other looks strange... almost like the cross-guard is a bunch of spider legs protruding from the hilt... it's quiet strange. And the pommel has a slight tip to it, sort of an ovalish shape. There is a circular gem and then two smaller ones on each end. Behind those is a dragon, in flight. I showed it from the top-view, so the wings are outstretched to the end of the page. Next is a woman hanging by chains over that... (just so you know, these are all like separate pictures... they are connected, but they're not... A strange concept) Someone from my book, methinks. O_o Behind her is a bunch of towers with a wall that could be a castle. It's not very pretty or elaborate, but it works. Right now I've come back to it and am shading the little bricks... but they still don't look that real. :P
This next picture starts with a sword--it looks regular, except it seems that a snake is coiled and knotted around the crossguard (not very skillfully). I think of this as part of the crossguard--though some wouldn't. I made it so that it's tail goes onto the hilt and ends on the pommel... and I also made the tail look flat, that way the wielder wouldn't be uncomfortable with ridges digging into his or her palm. And... another opal like gem in the pommel. Those seem to be my favorite! They are also the ones I can do the best. :D Next behind that is a horse--just a plain horse's head. With a blaze. Behind the sword but in front of the horse, there is a Sea Dragon--my inspiration for the Leviathan. Its also in the same position as my painted one. AND, behind all this, I had an empty space that I couldn't figure out what to put in... so finally I just looked at my hand and drew that... I was trying to do the palm, but it looked more like the back of my hand, so I put long, evil-looking nails on it, BWAHAHA. But then I did a part on it... and it looked like the palm! I kept it the back of my hand, but I don't know...
And last and least! Literally. I totally failed this one. First I did a flower with a bunch of leaves around it, its stem descending down into the leaves so its a plant. There are a few reeds sticking out, as well. Then I drew a dog that was terrible... I mean, ARTISTS OUT THERE!!! How do you do it??? Well, then I did a mum-like flower.
I think thats all! I don't have time to describe my two weeks, so lets just say they were hectic. :D Here's some of whats going to happen, though: This weekend we're going to some friends to help them move, and then driving two and a half hours from there to my dad's parents. We weren't going to be there when they were originally having it because my dad had to go to China the day after Christmas, but then my aunt had a baby on Christmas Eve! So, now we get to go to the Christmas, AND see baby William! :D
See you all soon--I hope,
--Vrenith going Crazy

Saturday, January 15, 2011

*IS BURSTING* *CAN'T WAIT* *pop*

I think I burst up there. Oops. Well, great cause for celebration!! Ok. You ask--why celebrate? That is for me to know and you to find out. So if you want to find out... KEEP READING. I already posted this all over the UG, so some of you may have already seen those posts. Ok, get ready!

I'VE DONE IT... FINALLY. NEARING THE END... I THINK. LISTEN CLOSELY... OR NOT BECAUSE YOU WILL HEAR THIS NO MATTER WHAT. Keep on reading. And NO, this is NOT an advertisement. Believe me. Now READ!!

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YES!! You read correctly!! I DID IT!!! FINALLY!!! PARTY!!!! Ok. Now. Give out my thank-yous.

JAKE: You... um... were my brother. Yes. When I told you about many plot things I used... you did many facepalms (in a good way). And you were always being encouraging, claiming that I could do it... (though I didn't believe I could) And you kept bugging me to kill procrastination. One of the only ways I reached my goal. Hopefully he'll keep doing these things, because I still have more long hours of writing ahead, for my book is not yet finished. So Jake, THANK YOU.

MOM: Always doing strange things... that I like. Always encouraging, always... fun, and always loving. She is an AWESOME MOM. THANK YOU, MOM!!

DAD: Always talking different subjects. "Try out new things," or something like that. But mostly to Jake, because he didn't even know about my book (I didn't tell anyone, really, except many found out) until it was over twenty thousand words. All in all, I've got an awesome Dad. THANK YOU.

MANNY: She was (and hopefully still is) going to read some of my chapters and help me with paragraphs (which I am TERRIBLE at) and editing. She was also encouraging, and is a great sister.

TO ALL YOU UG-ers OUT THERE: Allowed me to make my own thread about my book, then complimented excerpts I posted. You guys (and gals) are great! Always awesome, always encouraging. And always helping. THANK YOU.

TO ALL MY FOLLOWERS: You guys followed my blog, listened to my babbling, even when it was useless! You guys (and gals) are awesome! Glad you all stayed with me through this. Please stay a little while longer... until I finish my book.


THANK YOU ALL!!!
*Scribbles*
--Vrenith

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Ooh... test your skills. O_o

Another blog post for you! I stumbled over these pictures while getting my gravatar for the UG and thought they were cool. So, short post for you, but with pictures!

THERE ARE SEVEN HORSES IN THIS PICTURE: FIND THEM
Cool, huh? Yeah. Did you find them? Baffled my eyes. Then again, I have terrible eyes.















THIS ONE ALSO HAS SEVEN HORSES: FIND THEM
I rather liked this one for the bright colors. I spotted MOST of the horses, but I wasn't counting, so I'm not sure how many. Have fun!











And a little more things to say. About books. I read two books by Bryan Davis called "Beyond the Reflection's Edge", and "Eternity's Edge". Quite good books. I haven't gotten to it yet, but I am going to order "Nightmare's Edge" next. And good news! I have found "The Tower of Geburah"! So now I may continue the series. And, (sorry I use 'And's so much) I got a book from my grandparent's library called Children of the Lamp--Book One. I read them YEARS ago, way back when we lived in Iowa... Which was like three or four houses ago.
Oh! And that mention of my Grandparents reminds me! I am here, for certain reasons. One, Jake, Manny, and my parents went to Arizona for some group thing, and my younger sister and I (since we were not in that group) were picked up by our Grandparents who live two and a half hours away. So I am here until the seventeenth (I think), and I hope I don't go crazy (its not the house or my Grandparents, but I've always wanted to go to Arizona!). So, ya'll, sorry I've bored you for another few moments. G'bye! Farewell! Have fun with... whatever you're doing... *mumbles*
--Vrenith

Sunday, January 9, 2011

One Reason to Babble--SNOW!!

Methinks. Yeah, snow! You guys are probably all thinking, "Really? But what does this have to do with this post? Its just snow." Well, probably not. But thats what I would be thinking. But then again, I think some pretty strange things sometimes. But the thing is--this is only the second snow this winter! We had one other snow (DRY snow) really early in the winter. Since then, its been NICE out. One day it was even sixty degrees. I mean, SERIOUSLY!! But we finally got snow, and its going to snow some more. Thats good. Usually we have a lot of snow during the winter (you know, icy roads, higher than your ankle, and in the drifts your knees) But the snow still barely covered the grass. But there's going to be more! Ok. Done with this paragraph.

Art!! Been gone, but I haven't painted at all (we're painting the living room right now, so its a little busy, though I myself am not painting) and sorry about those pictures I never got on here. My BROTHER still needs to SEND them to me. They are no longer on the camera, so I can't download them. :P Ok, so what pictures have I done?
One, I was really bored and pulled out my brand new sketchbook (Its really a sketch-book) and opened to the first page, which I hadn't used. In fact, I hadn't used any of the pages. I was saving it for planned out drawings (which isn't like me) and I had something in my head that I REALLY wanted to get down. So I started with a horse's head. Then added a bare tree behind that. Then I added a dragon at the bottom, flying belly up with its tail wrapped around the tree's trunk. And then I added a snake around the horse's neck (keep in mind--I am terrible at snakes) and last, I drew a bowl with treasure in it leaning on its side, a few things spilled. And also a stone with code writing on it. (okay, so I was bored. I know its wierd, but wierd things happen when you're bored!) The second drawing! It is probably one of my favorites. Okay, so what I'm doing for all of these is that I'm mixing different things together, as if telling a story. And when I look at this next one, I seriously get a story in my head--same thing with the third and the fourth. Okay, so back to subject. It is a picture of a person (I KNOW)--*coughs* Excuse me, a cloaked person. I made her (yes her, I can't seem to draw men! Unless they're heavily cloaked) head bowed, so you can't see her face, and legs spread apart. Her hands are holding her cloak outward, as if she was a dragon (or a bird, for that matter) spreading her wings. Behind her, there is a sword and a scepter (I believe thats what it is... It may be a staff. :P) crossed. And behind that, there is a black bird, one wing to its side, and one extended to the other side of the paper (as if gesturing at something). And the third! Sorry if I bore you with my many words. So the third one is a dragon flying, with a figure on its head that looks more like something else. :P Its tail goes beyond the paper, but I made it appear again, as if it was just curving. The end of the tail is holding an orb of some kind. Next, I tried a face. A person's face. With tears running down, and hair blowing. It worked okay--but not that well. And then, behind the dragons, I placed a ring. (I don't know why) Beneath the dragons... Hind legs, I think, is a stone city. (not very well drawn, mind you) And then behind the girl's face, but not extending to her blowing hair, is an egg shaped thingy, shaded (though very poorly). I think that is all on that one. And the last but not least! This one was pretty simple--well, not simple, its just that it consisted of just two things. One was a cloaked figure, pointing with a sword, face hidden, and behind that, is a dragon's eye, slitted pupil, angryish look. I shaded it (not very well!) and then put scales over it, save for the real EYE part of it. 

And I think thats all! Nothing much more to say--wait! I'm wrong. There is always books. Even though I have not had a book to read for... three or four days now, I think, I shall tell you about the books I read since I saw--er, blogged last. First of all, I read The Sword Bearer, by John White (methinks), and also Gaal the Conqueror and half of The Tower of Geburah, all by John White. These books are pretty good, and based off Narnia. Sorry I don't have much to tell you about them. I have read them once before--and then Jake gave them to me for Christmas. But unfortunately, The Tower of Geburah got lost, and that with two or three more books in the series! So anyways, it was gone for days, and you know, I started getting impatient. And then Jake had another book for me to read, called Sir Quinlan and the Swords of Valor, by Chuck Black. I almost didn't want to read it, because his other books had been TOO allegorical, and almost had no creativity. But this one was good--no, REALLY good. I thought that Quinlan's nickname at his home was funny--Twitch. I am bad at writing reviews, and I don't have time to do so for all these books, so sorry. :P All I can say is that I highly reccomend them. :D And the next book I read was By Darkness Hid, one of my favorite books of all time! (save the romance, :P) This one didn't have much romance in it--but the second one had more. But I like them. They are probably more for older teens, so I wouldn't always reccomend them. Ah! I am saying 'them'. Here is my reason: I also got to read To Darkness Fled, the next book! And all this on Jake's kindle (only those two). Sadly, I have a long wait for the next book. Not as long as most, but its still long. For me. I wait until April First. Gack. But maybe its all a lie--cause you know, thats April Fool's Day. But push those thoughts aside! Have hope! Oh, yes, and last of all, but of course not least, Auralia's Colors. (I'm not sure I spelled that correctly) Twas a strange fantasy, but very good! I liked it and can't wait till the next book comes in at the library. :D But I am once more bereaved of books... And that isn't good. I must find something to read... Aha! I must find The Tower of Geburah! Yes! CHARGE!!! Oh, sorry. Goodbye! 
--Vrenith Sylversmith