Watercolor

Okay, so several weeks ago I took an all-day Saturday class from my art teacher on watercolors. I wasn't sure about it at first because even though I'd always wanted to paint, I didn't find the thought of the watery ways of watercolors (ooh, alliteration!) to be attractive. I thought I'd end up using acrylic or maybe oil.

Oh, well.

I took this class and now I like watercolors. ^_^ They're fun. They're relatively easy to use and apply, and it's not a complicated thing to clean up. My teacher showed me the basics, and I finished this drawing under her instruction.

I expected the watercolors to be a little more loose and that I wouldn't be able to do any detail work, only blobs of color. Well, I *can* do detail work. Detail makes me happy. This painting is not incredibly detailed, but it worked. It was all done with a single brush and probably five different colors. I mixed a lot of it with only a selection of about ten colors available.

I am very happy with how it turned out.

The only problem is that I don't have a name for it. :) Any ideas?

(Sorry: this is also a phone picture)

- Vrenith

Rose and Kitty

Rose and Kitty, two peas in a pod...

Not really, actually. O_o

I've been gone a long time. I'm in America now, and things are going crazy. Fun, but crazy. I love Beatrice...and we have two kittens named Hobbes and Tam...

Anyways, back to the point. As much as I love kittens and could talk about them all day, I have another reason for blogging -

I actually have some artwork to post! xD I went to that five-day seminar thing under my art teacher (Lee Hammond) again, and I finished two drawings and started two more. So here are the finished ones.

Rose Tyler! :D This one took forever. And I love it. A good friend actually requested it, but I get to keep the original as she just wants a scanned copy. Another thing I learned with this drawing is that blonde hair is a lot darker than one would think.

This is my kitty! ...Well, not *MY* kitty, actually, but one off of a calendar. I thought it was really cute, so I drew it. :)

So there ya go! Two drawings.

After so many months, I should be ashamed. XD

(Note: These are phone pictures, and thus not very good quality.)

- Vrenith

Cheers!

Everything is very nice here. :) My mom's back after being shipped out of the country for medical attention (okay, so I never mentioned it. XD You'll just have to assume what happened), along with Alex. :D AND, guess what?! I finished another drawing. It's sort of a Valentine's Day drawing, albeit belated. >_> I actually started it several months ago but never had time to finish. I edited it small, and...voila!

The scanner messed it up a bit; the bay horse (left) is a lot darker in real life, and you can't see all those pencil lines in the shadow on the neck. >_< Ah, well, oh, well. XD

See how many hearts you can find in my 'Valentine's Day Drawing!' :D

ANYWAYS...miss ya'll! I'm a horrible blogger. *sympathetic pats*

--Vrenith

P.S. I'm on the OYAN forum now, if any of you are OYANers...under the name Siah Akerlah. 

Artwork

Finally! The elusive blogger has returned with a pinch! :D With artwork, too! :D :D :D

 This was a Christmas present for my mom. Not the best of my works, but.... It actually took hardly any time to draw. Very easy, very simple. I got it from my teacher's book. :P I'm such a cheater.

Now this! I am VERY happy with how this turned out!!! :D This is Cess, one of our kittens. I took this picture awhile ago, and I've always wanted to draw it but haven't had the time. Then, I realized I had to figure out a birthday present for my older sister. Well, she loves the kittens, especially this one, so I decided to try it out! While the tail didn't get as much attention as it should have (I was rushed!), I think it turned out really well. :)

Well, sorry to end this blogpost so soon, but...

--Vrenith

P.S. I LOVE THE PRINCESS BRIDE SO MUCH!!!

Contest

Hey ya'll! Bad blogger is me. :P Sense I make.

Hey, for all those artists following my blog, there's a contest going on at The Dracopedia Project! http://dracopediaproject.blogspot.com/2013/01/winter-dragon-art-challenge.html?showComment=1360446365371#c7500350435610022980

I entered the last contest hosted, with my Dust Dragon. Which...I don't think I ever posted on here. O_o Well, anyways, this one's on Winter Dragons.

I think I'll be entering. :D

--Vrenith

Malaria

Hey! Long time, yes. Sorry-o.

My week has been lovely. Believe me.

In short?

Typhoid and malaria.

Didn't I tell you it would be lovely? 

Not just that, but I've been in the hospital for the last two days...I just got home today. My welcome home gift--two long scratches from my dog Sam. :P 

So the typhoid wasn't bothering me, but the malaria was giving me a lot of trouble. I'd be fine in the morning, but in the late afternoon towards evening I'd start to shiver as the fever went up, and then I'd be literally unable to stop shaking. (I don't wonder where the malaria 'aches' come from.) For four days, it kept getting worse and worse, and then at one point I had to bathe in cold water from the freezer. >_< Can I just say-- "TORTURE METHOD?!" 

Well, on Friday we couldn't get it down at all, cold bath or not. It made it all the way up to 105.7, where I was promptly whisked off to find a clinic with cold waterbags pressed on my forehead, the back of my neck. We stopped at one clinic; no doctor. We called a friend and found a hospital to go to, and I was admitted (after much confusion on the Liberian side about medicine) and given a shot. They tested me for malaria again to see if the quinine was doing it's work, but instead of bringing the 1+ that I'd been diagnosed with before, I got a nice 3+--very serious malaria. They got me a room and I started treatment, and I immediately started feeling better. Every twelve hours I got a dose of medicine through an IV. 

Well, like I said, a lovely (BORING) two days in the hospital. :) There were very few nice Liberian nurses...and it was weird when they came in to sweep and mop the room while we slept at 6:00 A.M., but all else was good. XD

But I'm back. 

I will haunt you all by way of this blog. 

*BWAHAHAHA*

Bye-bye. ;)

--Vrenith

Fun!

Lots of fun, yes.

First, NaNoWriMo--I finished on the fifteenth/sixteenth (late night), at 50,035 words! :D So I started another one, but I don't know if that one will actually get finished before the end of November...I'd have to write four thousand words a nigh. O_O

Second, I had a little accident. >_> I DIDN'T DIE!! Don't worry. ;) I'm not dead.

Well, we had to carry some things across to our other compound, so I carried a box with things stacked on top. Unfortunately, the bridge broke a few days before (MORE FUN), and they fixed it crookedly. So that they could fix it they drained the lagoon, too. So a good six feet in the air.

Well, I couldn't see over the box and stepped one foot off of the bridge. >_< I hit the bridge hard (and now have a bruised tailbone and achy back) and then flipped and landed on my back in the mud. Definitely had the wind knocked out of me.

First thing I saw was this Liberian girl screaming. She grabbed my hand, crying, trying to pull me up. Next I saw Jake running down, and then I thought, "Now I know what I put my characters through." XD Well, I was not hurt permanently, but I did have mud all over my clothes. In my sister's own words, "I thought you had DIED. I will never be a nurse in traumatic circumstances because I stopped breathing when I saw you fall." Haha. In MY own words, "Then you would have been the next patient!"

Everybody was trying to pull me to my feet, but my hips were really painful at that point. Now, though, I'm fine. Mostly.

Funny things--I managed to leave the box ON the bridge while I fell off. And after the girl stopped crying my sister heard her bragging about how 'she helped the white woman up.' Everyone was more scared than I was, too. XD

My dad and younger sister were coming back from the compound and a dozen different people told them the white woman fell of the bridge. The first time they heard (secondhand from my sister):

Liberian: "The white woman fell of the bridge!"

Dad: "Which one?"

Liberian: "The small one."

Good to know I'm 'the small one.' XD

Well, drawing is going well, but not much else is going on. :P

:D

--Vrenith