In case anyone happens to read this...
I have my piece all ready, and it is AWESOME.
However.
The lighting is NOT awesome. And taking a picture of this portrait has proved a failure.
Therefore, I will post the picture tomorrow, when I can take a photo of my painting in the daylight. I will try to finish my portraits a little sooner to prevent this from happening...but I can't make any promises as my life is about to get a LOT busier.
Hugs!
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Sunday, July 24, 2011
1/100 Grandpa
For my first one, I wanted to depict someone who is really special to me, so I decided on doing a portrait of my Grandpa, my mom's dad. He is a huge part of why I am an artist--he took me to my first art museum as a little girl, the Norton Simon in Los Angeles. I fell in love immediately. He is also one of the most Christ-like individuals I have ever met. If their was ever a child trapped in an elderly body, it is definitely my Grandpa. :)
As for the piece, for the first one I decided to do something simple but I used a medium I have used only once for an actual piece--marker. I used just 2 tones--black and gray. More than capturing exactness in his features, I wanted to capture his "likeness," or personality. The hardest part about the piece, was the only smiling photograph I could find of him, he was wearing sunglasses! So I had to use other pictures to get the eyes and kind of guess as to how they would look when smiles.
Things learned--marker is tricky, since if you mess up, too bad for you. I used pencil first and then went over it in marker to minimize errors, but still wish I hadn't gone so dark on his left eye. Also learned--a photograph of the art piece doesn't usually show what the piece really looks like. This one looks way better in real life. Maybe I'll try scanning and see if that helps.
As for the piece, for the first one I decided to do something simple but I used a medium I have used only once for an actual piece--marker. I used just 2 tones--black and gray. More than capturing exactness in his features, I wanted to capture his "likeness," or personality. The hardest part about the piece, was the only smiling photograph I could find of him, he was wearing sunglasses! So I had to use other pictures to get the eyes and kind of guess as to how they would look when smiles.
Things learned--marker is tricky, since if you mess up, too bad for you. I used pencil first and then went over it in marker to minimize errors, but still wish I hadn't gone so dark on his left eye. Also learned--a photograph of the art piece doesn't usually show what the piece really looks like. This one looks way better in real life. Maybe I'll try scanning and see if that helps.
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Announcement!
Before any rumors fly, NO I am not engaged (or close.) And that's fine. But I wanted to announce the new project I am starting on: The 100/100 Concept. Inspired by the movie Julie & Julia, I have decided that I am going to artistically create one portrait each week for the next one hundred weeks. That is almost two years. Each Sunday night I will post a picture of the portrait created that week in this blog. I will still occasionally write about an embarrassing moment, but as I am almost out of those stories (or at least the best ones), I regret to say that those will occur less frequently.
Now, for the 100/100 Concept, I will for the most part depict only people that I know personally. Now here's where it gets interesting for you--I will occasionally have "Drawing Drawings"--raffles in which you can submit your name and hope have your name drawn to get your face drawn for the next week's portrait. These raffles will be announced mostly via my blog. I will be using different mediums and styles...basically this is a creative exploration. And it will be awesome. :D
So peeps, get excited. Because the first one begins THIS Sunday. :D :D :D :D :D (Can you tell I'm excited? We'll see how excited I am in a year! ha!)
Anyway, I know it's not as exciting as getting married or having a baby, but since those things won't be happening any time soon, I want to make the most out of the things I've been given, and this seemed like a pretty good way to do it. :) And I'm open to ideas if you've got them! Love ya all!
Now, for the 100/100 Concept, I will for the most part depict only people that I know personally. Now here's where it gets interesting for you--I will occasionally have "Drawing Drawings"--raffles in which you can submit your name and hope have your name drawn to get your face drawn for the next week's portrait. These raffles will be announced mostly via my blog. I will be using different mediums and styles...basically this is a creative exploration. And it will be awesome. :D
So peeps, get excited. Because the first one begins THIS Sunday. :D :D :D :D :D (Can you tell I'm excited? We'll see how excited I am in a year! ha!)
Anyway, I know it's not as exciting as getting married or having a baby, but since those things won't be happening any time soon, I want to make the most out of the things I've been given, and this seemed like a pretty good way to do it. :) And I'm open to ideas if you've got them! Love ya all!
Thursday, July 14, 2011
#33: Printers--another reason why technology and I don't get along
So, currently I am working as a secretary on-campus in the HR department. The printer we use is connected with 6 computers located within the office, so the sound of printing has practically become white noise to me. It makes it exciting when you're trying to print
Well, I needed to print something off of the database, which contains a lot of confidential information about the people that come to us. I just needed to print off this one page, so I went to menu-->print--->print, like anyone would do. Well, when I hit "print" the little hourglass icon popped up along with a box that said: printing: 1..2..3..10...25...50... pages. I realized that the printer wasn't going to just print the one page, but the WHOLE database, and with every half-second the number kept getting higher... 100....156....189....256...310...."Stop! Stop! STOOOPPP!!!! AAaAAaaAAAaAaAAAHHH!!!!"
I freaked out and by the time we cancelled it and I exited out of the database the number had reach 500-something. Fortunately no pages had actually printed. Phew.
Then, a few minutes later, someone inside their office started printing a document, or so it seemed. I continued working and by second nature ignored the sound of the printing. I hardly even noticed that several minutes later the printer was still spewing out pages. Then my co-worker went by, looked at it and realized,"It's the database!!!!!"
She canceled it, and sure enough, there was a huge stack of freshly printed pages directly from my computer. I sighed, knowing that it's destination would be straight to one of the huge paper shredders we had. I felt terrible that I had just wasted so much paper, and had probably annihilated the equivalent of a small tree, and then my other co-worker suggested that maybe it would end up as some gerbil's bedding.
Sigh. I'm glad I could contribute to the Bedless Gerbil Cause. Stupid printer.
Well, I needed to print something off of the database, which contains a lot of confidential information about the people that come to us. I just needed to print off this one page, so I went to menu-->print--->print, like anyone would do. Well, when I hit "print" the little hourglass icon popped up along with a box that said: printing: 1..2..3..10...25...50... pages. I realized that the printer wasn't going to just print the one page, but the WHOLE database, and with every half-second the number kept getting higher... 100....156....189....256...310...."Stop! Stop! STOOOPPP!!!! AAaAAaaAAAaAaAAAHHH!!!!"
I freaked out and by the time we cancelled it and I exited out of the database the number had reach 500-something. Fortunately no pages had actually printed. Phew.
Then, a few minutes later, someone inside their office started printing a document, or so it seemed. I continued working and by second nature ignored the sound of the printing. I hardly even noticed that several minutes later the printer was still spewing out pages. Then my co-worker went by, looked at it and realized,"It's the database!!!!!"
She canceled it, and sure enough, there was a huge stack of freshly printed pages directly from my computer. I sighed, knowing that it's destination would be straight to one of the huge paper shredders we had. I felt terrible that I had just wasted so much paper, and had probably annihilated the equivalent of a small tree, and then my other co-worker suggested that maybe it would end up as some gerbil's bedding.
Sigh. I'm glad I could contribute to the Bedless Gerbil Cause. Stupid printer.
Thursday, July 7, 2011
#32: FD: At a Football Game
Although I am not a huge sports fan, my freshman year of college I faithfully went to every BYU football game. Did I understand the game? Nooooo. But it was fun to hang out with friends/family if anything.
One game, I went with some friends. They were sitting up in the middle of the bleachers, and for some reason I was on the bottom...I think I had dropped something and had to go down several rows to get it. Or maybe I was coming back from the bathroom. I don't remember. But anyway, I got this bright idea of running back up the bleachers.
I forgot that my shoes had exactly ZERO traction.
I think when I got to the third bleacher my legs completely swiveled out from under me and I SMASHED to the bench. In front of everyone. I looked up from my pathetic position and made eye contact with my friend Julie B and we both started laughing hysterically. I'm sure the people I had landed by thought I was suffering from cranial damage. I gathered myself together and made it back to my seat, with a sore leg and smaller ego.
The next day, I had the biggest bruise I have EVER obtained on the side of my right knee. Oh man what a pretty purple it was. It was so impressive, especially as it began to to make swirly yellowish colors that my sister took a picture of it on her phone and sent it to her husband. Unfortunately, that photo is gone, otherwise I'd post it here.
Moral: 1) Don't run up bleachers. 2) traction on shoes is a good thing. 3) save all pictures :)
One game, I went with some friends. They were sitting up in the middle of the bleachers, and for some reason I was on the bottom...I think I had dropped something and had to go down several rows to get it. Or maybe I was coming back from the bathroom. I don't remember. But anyway, I got this bright idea of running back up the bleachers.
I forgot that my shoes had exactly ZERO traction.
I think when I got to the third bleacher my legs completely swiveled out from under me and I SMASHED to the bench. In front of everyone. I looked up from my pathetic position and made eye contact with my friend Julie B and we both started laughing hysterically. I'm sure the people I had landed by thought I was suffering from cranial damage. I gathered myself together and made it back to my seat, with a sore leg and smaller ego.
The next day, I had the biggest bruise I have EVER obtained on the side of my right knee. Oh man what a pretty purple it was. It was so impressive, especially as it began to to make swirly yellowish colors that my sister took a picture of it on her phone and sent it to her husband. Unfortunately, that photo is gone, otherwise I'd post it here.
Moral: 1) Don't run up bleachers. 2) traction on shoes is a good thing. 3) save all pictures :)
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