Jane

I've managed to lose both my art pencil and my blending stump...so I resorted to sketching with a plain mechanical pencil and experimenting with cross-hatching. I rather like how it turned out, actually :) 

(Jane Bennett, from Pride and Prejudice)

Experimental Sketches!

Okay, so I've been branching out with my sketching...since my Bristol paper warps here and nothing shades right in this humidity, I can't do my full-blown realistic pencil drawings.

Thus, I've been doing more sketches, and my most recent inspiration has been Studio Ghibli...

Needless to say, HOWL

Like I said, not my normal!! I DID have a reference - I am not capable of watching something and then drawing the characters in a style so completely different from my own. ;) But still, I think it's a good start, and I really love the result.

Also, by Theo's request - Aang, from Avatar: The Last Airbender. :3

Various Paintings

I've gotten several paintings done recently but I've only just now gotten around to posting them. :P

This is a more traditional Liberian painting - less blended. My favorite part is probably the sky...but I also loved doing the grass. My least favorite part would be drawing the boy and trying to get his fishing pole right. :P I have found that details are easy for me...it's straight, simple lines that give me such a hard time. 

Anyway, I took this to a Christmas gift exchange and I'm happy to say it ended up with someone who loves it. ^.^

This one was a commission (!!!) from a good family friend. It's based off of a photo my sister took at the beach here in Liberia. At first I wasn't sure I would like it - after all, the first coat was that ugly pink color that you only find in old lady's bathrooms - but now that I've finished with it I like how...crisp it feels. :3

I sent it back with my brother and sister (who were visiting for Christmas) and it has since been recieved by said friend!

Never judge a painting by it's first coat...for example, this one just below was supposed to be the beginning of a seascape. 

And here, it begins to shape up...the whole first coat done, and second coat and details on the sky.

And this one is an awful photo. For comparision, in reality the finished sky is just as bright as the last picture...I took this photo at night in fluorescent lighting. Bad mistake. I sent it to America with the siblings, so I have no way of taking a better picture.

But still! As you can see, it DID end up being a seascape after all. 

Inktober

Yeah, I know it's November...but I semi-participated in Inktober. Meaning, I did probably a dozen ink drawings. As I am not used to ink, and there's no erasing, I messed up quite a few, but I enjoyed it while I did it.

This one was one of my first, and while I originally based it off of a reference photo, I ended up changing it quite a bit, so now it doesn't resemble. Still, I like how it turned out.

Arabians make amazing subjects if you're going for contrast. This one is tiny, and was drawn on the corner of a piece of paper, but I really love how it turned out. As you can see, I was trying a little different technique than I did with the face.

And another horse. Of course.

And HAIR

I have found a love for inking hair

It's addictive

and lovely

So anyway I did draw the whole face, but I didn't like how the mouth turned out, so. They eyes and the hair make me happy. :3 

And there you go.

Painting

I've always wanted to  paint, but starting was the hardest part. In America, good, quality acrylic or oil paint is expensive, and then you have to buy the brushes, the canvas, everything. It gets complicated. And for someone like me, a teenager in a third world country, how was I ever going to be able to LEARN how to paint?

My mom met an artist at a craft fair, and he agreed to teach my friend and I how to paint. Little did we know. 

First, where do you get your canvas? 

You learn to stretch it yourself. Our teacher got canvas cloth, wooden frames (although the ones in this photo aren't the proper wooden frames; we fixed that later), and...shoe tacks. You nail the canvas onto the frame, stretching it as tight as you can. 

Next, primer. 

We bought a bucket of white water paint, added a little more water, and wood glue. We coated the canvas, and then we were ready for painting!

Unfortunately, to buy one tube of 'cheap' acrylic paint is crazy expensive, so we got to make our own. We got oil house paint from the store - red, yellow, blue, black, and white. We opened them up and set them on the coal pot (sorry - no picture) until the paint began to boil. We broke plain wax candles and removed the wick. We then added those to the boiling paint, stirring until the wax had mixed in completely.

Taking it off the fire, we set the bucket of paint in water so that it would cool, constantly stirring. After that, we let it sit...and thicken!

It may not be the best paint in the world, but we've done pretty well with it. Three months later, we still have plenty of paint, and the paintings far outweigh the costs of the materials! 

My teacher wanted me to start with a flower. 

I'm very happy with the result! 

Since then, I've painted quite a bit - we do lessons every Saturday. I don't have photos of all of my paintings, but here are a few of the recent ones. 

'Bold' is the word for this one. Thankfully, that's what I was going for. I painted the whole background first, and then the tree and the elephants. 

I am super happy with this one. Normally I'm a pencil artist, so I'm used to black and white shading. I found this one immensely satisfying, even if it did take forever! I'm estimating around fourteen hours, but I didn't keep track. 

Also pleased to announce that I SOLD it. Like, someone asked me if they could buy it and they actually did. :D

Holmes

Well, all the puppies are gone, save one. It's sad, but I'm very happy that we found homes for them all! I was really worried for awhile. 

Anyway, this one, that I called Holmes, was the first to go and left back in December. His new name is Bailey, and he's doing awesome in his new home! He was by far the most laid-back puppy of the litter, and so sweet and friendly. :D

Done in black crayon. I'm not fond of the background, but you can't erase crayon, so. :P

Puppies

This post is actually really late. We have puppies...ten of 'em! And they're already six weeks old. :P

Before the puppy comes the mom. Beatrice is my baby (one of them, anyway).

She's half Great Pyrenees, half Border Collie/Australian Shepherd mix.

We're not quite sure what the father is, but some kind of hunting dog. 

So I checked out a book - 'The Dog Owner's Veterinary Handbook.' I read a few chapters of it. Then, maybe a week later, we figured out that Beatrice was pregnant.

So I read the whole section 'Pregnancy and Whelping.' It was very in-depth and I really enjoyed it.

The morning started with Bea getting herself stuck under the wash house (an outbuilding that we use as a toolshed but call the wash house). We had to dig her out because she had evidently forgotten about her massive stomach. Once we had gotten her out, she paced around for awhile.

Well, wouldn't you know, I found her less than an hour later under the back porch with three babies. We moved them to her whelping box.

I won't gross you out with details, but I delivered the rest of the puppies, and happily saved the lives of three of them. I definitely recommend that book. 

In the picture above there's actually only nine puppies...that tenth one came as a bit of a surprise. I guess they all did, in a way.

The pictures below were taken a few weeks ago.

This one doesn't have a nickname, but he is definitely adorable. Has a little more of a hound look to him, especially now (but I don't have any more recent pictures)

And this one's Barbossa - he's all white with that one dark patch over his eye. He's very friendly and loves to cuddle - and eat. 

I don't normally play favorites, but this is my favorite. Nicknamed Gandalf. He is gorgeous and friendly and so sweet. Besides, it's not every day you get a mix that looks like this! He's the only 'true' gray in the litter, plus the biggest. Isn't he just so stinkin' adorable? This is a more recent picture of him (actually only taken a few days ago. :3 He's HUGE. Look at those paws. 

And this is Mademoiselle. 

She always wants to be held and cuddled and is always the first to greet me when I walk in the door. She and her sister look very similar but her sister (Penguin) is slightly bigger, sweet but more enthusiastic, and has more white on her belly.

I don't have any more 'single' pictures, but here's a few group ones.

Holmes is another one that we've nicknamed, but I don't have a specific picture of him. He's a shy little brown hound. <3

There are more puppies than those that I've listed, but they're unnamed or I don't have pictures. :)

But aren't they all so ADORABLE?