auguuuust

 A family vacation interlude, before I start going crazy and drawing everything in Ann Arbor ever. Zingerman's, I'm looking at you.

At the beach house! Dad chilling with his crossword.

Famous people.

General beachery.

Oh, right, Otakon happened! Three people I do not know.

I will be honest: that is not a wand. It is, in fact, a makeshift pestle.

poor ken

My sister and I are two years apart, so there was only a short span of time during our childhoods in which we were both interested in playing with Barbies.

The green slime was a recurring, and quite formidable, villain. I believe it was eventually defeated by Ken's pure heart.

...We were weird kids, weren't we?

Paint!

Whew! I, um, remembered that Grandma W's birthday is this time of year, and I'm going home for Thanksgiving tomorrow. So. A bit of a rush job, but don't tell her that!

This was painted in two parts on a nice easy-assembly picture frame: the background's on the sheet of plastic in back, while Dad and Grandma are on the pane of glass in front. You can kind of catch their shadows if you look closely.




I'm so excited for this trip! Happy almost-Thanksgiving~!

Happy birthday, Mom!

♥

Whirlwind adventures!

Well, I reformatted my computer. It is now fresh, clean, and mysteriously unresponsive to tablet pen pressure. There will be some vigorous uninstalling and reinstalling of drivers, I can assure you.

Today's a sketchdump day; this is a culmination of everything that has been going on since the last time I posted. Behold!



P and I visited my charming homestate of Virginia for a brief span. As per tradition, I bought my mother a Chinatown duck (whole, deceased, not pictured) and smuggled it onto the bus. I think that if I keep this up, she will love me most.

Anyway.



I'm not sure what to say about this, except that Final Fantasy XIII has instilled in me the desire to give everyone pink hair. Pink hair for all!

Below: people-watching adventures at Starbucks. I got there around the time when school lets out, so there was a good variety of things to draw.



Starhat Man is possibly my favorite person ever. He looked so sad, though - how could you possibly be sad in that outfit?!

Finally, we resume that fine hobby of drawing people in magazines. I recently picked up The Movie Posters of Drew Struzan at the library, and... man. This guy. I know we've all seen his stuff before, but it's really cool to be able to just sit down and stare at it. Page... by... page. It is my hope that if I keep going through the book, I will slowly absorb things. Artmosis.

So I've been trying to work out some problems I have with watercolors (large areas of skin, let's get some goddamn spot blacks in here, etc.), and anatomy in general.



First try: contrastier than I generally get, which I'm pleased with, but... their faces. What have I done?



Second: I was trying to work with cooler skin tones than usual. Note that whole large areas of skin problem I was talking about. Maybe winter clothes are the way to go.



Third: woooo patterned fabric!

...That was a very long post.

Vacation!

Well, my awesome summer vacation came and went! My family and I enjoyed a relaxing, refreshing, and very sunny week-and-a-half in North Carolina. Here, have sketches and things!

Our Siberian husky, while sweet and fun to be around, has a problem with cars. He sees that we're packing for a trip, and makes it very clear that he does not intend to be left behind. But once he's in the car... man, oh man.



Left: my dearest darlingest wake-me-when-the-afternoon-comes sister. ♥ Right: my mom, me, and then my dad's that little Santa dude in the bottom right.



Komi!



There was a pond near our place inhabited by turtles. They were adorable, except for the man-eater.

...He was pretty cute too.



Girls in magazines! Creative liberties taken!



Guess I should get back to work, huh? :(

Today's full-color post brought to you by the letter P!

And the watercolors return, with a vengeance!

One of these people is Jeff Nimoy, because I couldn't pass up the opportunity. Also, at the bottom, Zip and Can! They are pretty cool dudes.

Fifty posts!

It's so nice to have a watercolor-friendly sketchbook again. And scanner-friendly, too, for the most part! I'm so easily pleased. It's ridiculous.

To kick things off: we have my sister (unusually large here - while she is tall, she is no behemoth), mother, and two random subway people.

The lamest birthday card.

This happened. Also, looking back, it's amazing I wasn't picked on more as a kid. Tucked-in shirt, braids, pulled-up socks, and huge pink glasses...

To Grandma's!

Today, my mom and I went to visit Grandma W. This is part of her room in the medical wing.



Um, Grandma looks kind of like this. (Not the younger one, that's supposed to be Mom. ...You'd think it'd be easier for me to draw people I know.)