Hurry and count to 30! *EDIT* with color

Here's the value sketch for one of my assignments that required us to have an artificial light source. The entire process of developing this idea has been such a good learning experience. Just the vast amount of work I have to put in to stay a float in my classes has gotten me a little down trodden and frustrated with my limitations, but the product seems really worth it you know?  The final colored version is due next week, and here I increased the contrast and darkened it to get the effect I want in the final. Am so scared of redoing it again though, me and coloring do not get along :)

Oh and here's one of the reference photos of my roomate, its almost if not more beautiful than the sketch! Just look at those shapes refracting off the wall.

I love monsters so much. I know they're not supposed to be real, but I swear to god they existed at some point, if only when we were all little kids stranded atop our beds, in fear that if we ventured out for a glass of water, the moment our bare feet touched the ground something would grab us. That something was so tangible and real back then! And yet even though it was the darkest part of our psyche we could somehow protect ourselves by either not opening our eyes or taking refuge under our unpenetrable blankets.

To bad the monsters arn't as easy to find now.

Am so tired.

*EDIT*

Oop the final color! Ugh, so just between you and me I really don't understand the purpose of gausche (guasche, gauche?). My roommate said that it may help to get the same dreamy and smooth quality as the sketch, but I, like always, just ended up using it as watercolor! Gaah, what a fool. But really, the only upside to using it seems to be that the colors move around a bit when touched by water, but it ends up becoming just as transparent as watercolor. 

Feedback was minimal, nothing I didn't expect. Composition was wack, said my colors were washed out etc. etc. I seem to lack that whole sense about how to use composition. The major complaint from the teacher was that it was so busy, and yet seeing that I left just some open space that I guess I thought made it all right. Plus idk, detail just seems so attractive. I want people to roam about my picture with their eyes, not sit like a lump on a log.

and, AND (!!!) all right guys, I didn't want the focal point to be the child, the monster is the character I care about because the child is ITS monster! Maybe becoming penpal's with ones teacher is advised, because I didn't realize how frustrated I was until I started editing this entry and writing about the critique.

That's my Daughter in the water.

The Obligatory "So hows school going?"

**With the start of school comes the lacking of time issue, but I'm going to shoot for updating this here blog once a week, however if push comes to shove and things get too hectic (like during finals) I may skip a week. Not sure who I'm talking to haha but whatevs.  

This is the Watermelon girl and the grape girl and a cuttlelfish. 

Aha! I'm currently communicating to you via the School of Visual Arts computer lab since scheduling has created a six (yes six!) hour gap between my two classes today. Alas, its alright since thus far today's classes have been great. My Principles of Illustration teacher got the class (or me at least) really jazzed about illustration, and fighting to be the absolute best artist you can be. Oh dang. The guy clearly knows what he's doing. He was able to inspire and scare us all totally shitless!

Do you guys ever think that life in general is way more interesting than we give it credit for? I mean really, i feel as if, especially in the past week, the combination of old characters popping up in my life, and mini adventures and just beautiful blips in time have grown frequent. Its not all good, but the structure of life itself has shifted a little bit and being able to look back at the summer has brought up even more almost heartbreaking realizations. That being said, this week may be as boring as the last was exhilarating hahah. 

Listened to that song from the Where the Wild Things are Trailer? The one by Arcade Fire? Listen to it now, I have it on loop.

I wish I were at Versaille.

Hello everyone out in cyberspace. Sorry about the lack of updates, I've moved and have no internet! or scanner! But thats okay, to tell you the truth i havn't really done anything creative because of all the running around. However since it is the last day of summer before school starts, an entry seemed to be appropriate. Thus lacking art i've been combing my computer for something interesting to share with you and came up with these pictures from not this summer's, but last summer's trip I went on with my french class

As you may have guessed this is the Palace of Versaille in France. I don't often take photos, but having been threatened by my mother to bring photo documentation of everything on the trip I snapped more pictures than I had snapped in my entire life. What was so great was that once I got used to wielding the camera, i was no longer sure what was picture worthy and what wasn't. I didn't want to miss one moment of the entire trip and so everything from candy, to errant squirrels to funny old men were captured on my camera forever.

I was watching Two Days in Paris (which is a super cute movie, I highly recommend it) and the main character, a photographer complains about her boyfriend constantly taking photos on their super romantic Europe trip and that he became a bystander instead of participating in this great adventure they were having together. This is so true! You don't know how many masses of tourists I see walking about New York just globbed into groups with their cameras out.

Are we all this terrified of forgetting? That was the reason I took photos. Being a little more forgetful than the average person, I'm bewildered to know that so many moments are lost to us once gone and that the only way we will ever be able to find them is if somehow they're fished out by some smell or song. Its all so random. 

So be careful folks! If something amazing happens write it down! Take a picture! But have faith in your memory too. Anyway, wishing everyone a great first day of school/ work/ life!