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.

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? :(

winter work, continued

Magazines!



My winter/summer job. Sometimes, it was very busy. Sometimes, we played checkers using labeling tape and notebook paper.

Magazines and television.

While vacationing at the beach, my kid sis and I watched a lot of late-night television. Some of the sketches above are of characters from Will & Grace and Sex and the City. And Pretty Woman! Richard Gere is all sorts of fantastic.

You'd think I would have drawn more pictures of sand and surf, but oh well.



And ... back to magazines. I soon became more interested in drawing what I wanted to see, rather than faithfully capturing the models' appearances.





What I should be doing: preparing for classes!

Sketchy sketches.

Due to a filing mishap (documents, not fingernails), I found myself with a tragically stitched finger. (This ranks highly among my Very Strange Reasons to Leave Work.) I have finally recovered from the trauma, and am drawing like someone who draws a lot. This is a good thing.

Also, my sister loaned me a charming fashion magazine. Hence: women who look slightly more like women than men (my most glaring Achilles heel)!

Watercolors, continued!

Back home for the summer, and thought I'd start scanning stuff in. Above are more adventures with waterbrush - part of Washington Square Park as seen from the eighth floor of a building, and my workplace. (It isn't actually that colorful, sadly.)



I found an old magazine at work. These three are based on advertisements I found in that magazine. I'm much more familiar with acrylic paint, so it was frustrating trying to get the colors to match what I saw. Eventually, I gave up on that (orange skin, anyone?).

Sometimes, I just let my mind wander and doodle. It tends to look like this. (The lab was quiet that day.)



Next up: what I started drawing after 1) acquiring a real, portable watercolor kit! (as opposed to the watercolor pencils I'd been using) and 2) leaving NY.