Laurie

simple is better

I wanted to make a simple painting of a forest from the National Geographic magazine because I never paint trees. Started painting it, without much enthusiasm since it was just a speedpaint, and lo and behold! people ended up loving it. Here is the picture

 Then I started painting some ballerinas. I was very excited at first but then, after like 3 hours, got bored. And it didn't get much appreciation...

 

And the next picture is a belated portrait for a friend.

Bill Weasley

I've been looking around forums, searching for people who want to turn their stories into manga. You would think I had friends with that aspiration.... The only one that wants to do it, didn't want me to collaborate with her. (yeah Ash, it's you. But don't worry, no harm done. lol)

So after some hunting I found a guy that has this awesome story and nobody had yet offered to help. I tried to get his email but I had to register to the website first. When I tried to register, a message kept popping up saying the user name was already in use (which was really odd after trying 6 different names...). That was so annoying.
I still can't register to the page! D:

This week I've been working on two portraits. One is the singer of the electro-goth band BlutEngel, Chris Pohl. The other was a birthday request. I was working on it on Geometry class. I don't get why all the people in the room were so confused. It was calculating area for god's sake! These people keep getting dumber by the minute. >.>

Anyways, happy birthday Frances!! Hope you like the drawing.

The price of excellence

   Being good at something requires a lot of practice, perseverance,

dedication and patience. Art is not an exception. To tell the truth, art is one of

the most time-consuming activities around. You need to do a lot of gesture

drawings to capture the escence, movement and spirit of the object or person.

Anatomy studies are always imperative if you don't want your figures to look

deformed. Studying the Great Masters of the past lets you open the door to the

thinking and reasoning that led to those immortal paintings and sculptures that

never cease to amaze us. Then there's the color theory, perspective, contrast,

line weight, lighting, form, texture... the list is endless.
 
    Every little bit of free time you have, you need to spend practicing.

It's the only way to polish your skills and learn new techniques. Even when you

don't feel like grabbing that pencil, you have to give yourself a pep talk and keep

going because time will surely not wait for you. For every "good" piece you do,

you have probably done 20 horrible ones. For every sudden epiphany you get

about the way to effectively achieve a certain texture effect or the reflectiveness

of a glass cup, you have probably spent 50 hours getting it always wrong and

raging about it.You need to put in countless hours of hard work in order to

produce that which may one day be called your Masterpiece. Annoying indeed.

    People ask why I don't hang out often or why am I always drawing.

There is a price you have to pay in order to excel. In my case, it is my social

life. Art is certainly a bittersweet therapy.