Snow Leopard Starbeast

The style is inspired by Pazyryki tatto designs (Here), and I have two more like it that I'll post once I get the photos all straightened out :)

And it's a photo because reasons (no scanner still = sad face)

Portrait of a house

     Based from a photo my mom took of the house.

Happy Holidays!

     I know its a little late but I hope everyone had a great Christmas/ Hanukkah/ Kwanzaa/ Yule/ or Tuesday :D
     I've been working on quite a few things and as soon as I find my camera (oops!) I'll start posting things again.
     But it might take awhile, we've been getting a ton of snow here in the North East and I don't want to spend any more time inside than I have to...

An exercise in letting go

     Nothing like giving yourself only two hours to completely finish a self-portrait. I am happy to say it vaguely resembles me. My eyes are crooked, but I think that means I need to stop tilting the paper when I draw (I'm left-handed. All of my papers show that..... and the side of my hand), I don't care.



      And I also have to share this fellow. I have him down to family (Trigolo-something-idae). And then I accidentally broke his head off. Oops.

     That's all for now, I've put off calling a guy about an apartment for too long now.

     Breebird out.



The story of the little college student who could

     Whew, the last few weeks have flown by and I've barely had time to catch my breath. Last week was Thanksgiving break (so much fooooood), and I had the entire week off but wasn't really able to enjoy much of it due to some papers and a presentation and the like. My dad and I got three does which will last us most of the year; yesterday he put 5 pounds in his new smoker to make jerky. It is fantastic and I definitely recommend deer jerky or steak to everyone, it's not only delicious, but is more ecologically responsible than most other meat products as well.
     Two more weeks before finals and then I have a month off XD Can not wait. I have a painting I sketched out last week I'll be able to work on net time I'm home. And not ID-ing bees, which is what I'm going to be logging heavy hours with the next few weeks.

The metallic ones are my favorite. Especially when they look just black or brown until you get them under the scope. And then BAM! *gasp* they're blue or green

This one's a little creepy looking but still really neat



     My brother finally brought my art from the alumni show home, so I can finally share my favorite painting to date:

Voila. :) Five/Six hours of my love right there

     And I turned in the last of my little art cards for the kids who will be spending the holidays in the hospital. Lesson learned: if I do this again net year start way ahead, and sketching each one out (5 min max) before coloring is the fasted method. A shout out to the Tumblr community for posting age-appropriate stuff that day just by chance ;)



 

     In total I made around 60 of these little guys. Hope the kids enjoy them or feel inspired. I know I do. Feel there are going to be some larger sized paintings from these.

     "I think I can I think I can" said the little college student who thought maybe, just maybe she would survive this semester with a box of Christmas cookies by her side.....

     I'll get off my soap box, 'cuz I need to pack lunch :D

     Peace out, chickadees.

A little something I wrote

     After much deliberation... I bring you poetry. After coming to college I stopped writing. My old laptop was full of character historys, parts of their past, the palce we would all meet for tea. There were pages of poetry and scatter-brained sentance fragments floating around. Now, there are a surplus of academic essays, lab reports and scholarly articles about bees and ericoid mycorrhizal fungi diversity.

An imaginative wasteland

       So I've decided to change that. The Frankenstine of my words shall live again! (Feel free to evil laugh) Anyways, my goal with what I pen is to transport you to another place, and constructive critisism is welcome! These are pretty much rough-drafts, but when I finalize something it'll be here and here. (There's a longer piece in the works that I'll get to, that I'm hoping to illustrate, more on that later, post-editing).

I.

Feel the wild places on your skin

Hollow places seeking heat within

Deeply turning in fogs of doom

By lightening boom, heralds sing

Welcome again to the King

Wild places joy again

Long lost the fear, the pain within

Aching for untold sin

Never to end, never to begin

In deep dark forests, spirits wait

For pale weak souls to find their peace

Not minding time or place

Ignoring the summons of a rhyme

Crackling songs unknown to those

Lost in wild places under creeping boughs

Birds flit softly here and there

But naught land for shame of fire here.

*Insert Freakout*

     Sometimes professors get together and plot your demise. Not really, but I feel like workloads at school come in waves and sometimes I have stuff to do for all five of my classes and not enough hours in the days. But it's cool, because I have beautiful insects to identify (Bringing my camera to the lab next time so I can try to take shots through the dissecting scope), and actual drive to do a triathlon; possibly on my birthday this summer :)
     Anyways! That's all sorted out and my printer kind of works! Well, it can scan... but doesn't recognize that there's actually paper in the slot. So close! But here's the painting I was finally able to scan, and it looks a lot better.

     Her face needs some work. Going to attempt to get some more practice in before doing any thing dramatic.
     Up on the plate is another painting based on a dream I had over the weekend and some more cards once I have some time to sit down and do them.
     I hope everyone had a wonderful Halloween! (Or a nice Wednesday, I stayed in and watched werewolf movies) :D

Moar Shtuff

     Sharing some more cards since I have a few days break before I need to start worrying about exams. Again. So, without further ado, numbers 6 through 25:

6-10

11-25



     I've also managed to find time to do some water coloring (ad apparently break my m key...). She's Our Lady of Owls.

     I'm going home this weekend, and hopefully will be able to fix my laptop, no one here's been able to help me :(
     Until then hot tea and leftover ofenguck, toodles.

Another adventure!

     So between all of my school work I've decided to help my mom with a project she and a few other wonderful ladies have been doing the last few years. Starting in late September they start making these cute little bags (My mom's planning on making a whopping 200 of these!) which are then filled with small gifts and closer to Christmas are given to children who have to spend the holidays in the hospital.

This is only half of the cards, the other sheet needs to be cut up yet. Might make little bookmarks with the scraps.

 

     I'm making 132 (potentially more if there's a need and if I don't go crazy) art cards. Starting from a huge sheet of poster board. Each sheet gives me about 65- 66 cards. It's a pain to draw straight, parallel lines... Guess what I'm not good at! But I' hope they turn out well in the end.

 

     Here are the five I've done so far using colored pencils. Since these are the most portable medium this will be common. Going to see if I can amp up the colors though... It may just be the light but they look rather pale on this end. I've got another month to do this so there will be time to figure everything out.

     My goal is to do between 5 and 15 a day depending on my schedule. I'll post group pictures here and on my Deviantart, maybe individual photos of the nicer ones here (My printer still isn't working! So still no scans)

     And here is the finished painting I mentioned a post of two ago. I added some gold pencil work to it this morning and it make a huge difference. It showed up really nicely on the for once not "waxy" black background, and I'm envisioning other pieces with this effect. :D It still needs some work-- what doesn't?-- but It'll be Finished, completely and totally soon I hope.
     I'm still working on that dratted Magician. Think it's telling me to master my use of time. And patience and not freak out about everything.
     Time for cookies here I think... It's going to be a long week.
     Peace out lovelies.

Wow

Yesterday was the best day I've had in awhile between midterms and endless quizzes and whatnot.
One World concert features not only some absolutely wonderful performers, but a talk by the Dalai Lama himself.
Let me say, there's nothing quite like being pretty much made to sit down by His Holiness (some of us would have stood up the entire hour and a half he talked!).
It was fantastic, but unfortunately I was unable to bring my camera. Sad face. Also, there was the ignorance of some people of the significance of this event. I overheard many comments about how boring his speech was, and a few people wondering when Counting Crows would be preforming.
How many times in your life are you given the chance to see the Dalai Lame in person? (Of course these were probably wealthier folk from my college's sister university, where I'm pretty sure the average income is much higher; maybe they can afford to see him whenever they want? I'll try not to judge.)
Unfortunately, I think this is a sign of the times. Stateside, disrespect for elders, and other such people of wisdom has diminished, and if you have to, heaven forbid, wait for something, people get angry.
But, I digress. If ever given the chance to see him speak, take it. His laugh and unfathomable energy will make you feel like you're five again.
And in other news, my printer/scanner died, so I won't be able to post any quality pictures until that gets fixed. I have one new painting and am plotting another. Hint: you can tell it's getting colder and darker here! But I'll get them up as soon as I can (and maybe some video of the concert if I can, it was PHENOMENAL)
Breebird out, dearies :) 

Shh, don't tell...

...But I'll have some new stuff to post soon, it's been crazy here between exams and quizzes and the like.

Some pages from my mini-sketchbook that I carry with me everywhere just in case an idea hits. What we have here is a poem/short story idea and a painting that I've started (I've missed my water colors!).
I'm going to do some deer and smammal (small mammal) trapping this weekend, which should be exciting. And hopefully after that I'll have some photos and finished works to present (coughtigernandmagiciancough). If entomology lab doesn't take up too much time.
Wish me luck!

Gallery... Kinda

I've made a gallery-like space where I"ll be uploading pieces that I share here as well as older ones. You can find it here if interested. :)
It's just a little Tumblr for shame-less self promotion.
And I'm not familiar really with anything else.
And it was easier than making a new page.
Because I"m bad with computers.
Really bad.
Also, still working on The Magician. He's being uncooperative and I've been horribly busy because of studying and overall too many classes.  Not that I'll ever admit that.
So! Soon to come a more easy-to-locate button for the gallery if I can figure it out and hopefully the pencil drawing before too long (Especially since my goal is two cards a month- eek!)
Peace out butter cups

Alumni Show and Cultural Fair

Just returned from my adventures among the wide array of folks who live in this city. And I must admit, as much as I hate living in the city, being close to events such as this is pretty neat.
There were all kinds of vendors and interesting Fair-goers, who may unwittingly embedded their image so much in to my brain that I draw them later... (On a side note: new graphite pencils! They're so lovely)
Also, the alumni art gallery was great! I wasn't able to take any photos (I arrived late; the main crowd had left and it would have been awkward.... just a bit), but trust me, it was great. There was a lot of diversity in what people had submitted. There were a few ceramic pieces, several fiber ones (It looked like a mixture of knitting and sewing with yards, which is an impressive mixture) and many pen drawings and paintings. My mom surprised me by submitting two more of my pieces; an oil on wood cookie and colored pencil on... well, you'll see ;)

Unfortunately, my best version of this is in quarantine for bug damage :(

The second one is on an artists' conk, which is now one of my favorite mediums. I seek them out every time I'm in the woods (within reason of course!). Still working on a way to get rid of the various insects that reside within, just gluing the bottom and sealing it doesn't appear to be enough, and I"m rather loathe to using pesticides or something like that on them... Once I have free time from college and such I'll figure something out ;)
Speaking of college, gotta run; and exam and turtle quiz this week, eep!

New Painting

Finally getting around to using some of the canvases I received for Christmas (Loverly found me a pack of six!), and have been staring at, longingly, since DECEMBER. All because I couldn't find my oil paints.

Ignore my pomegranate tree, losing leaves like crazy, I try to keep from moving it. Ever.

 The color quality isn't great, but it is hanging and drying in my room and I love it. Once it dries I will be painting the edges black, always a sophisticated look and how I like finishing my canvas paintings.

And another photo, showing a much older painting of mine. Because I can.

Sleep tight little mites <3 (Sorry, I had 4 hours of Entomology today, it's bugging me. Pun intended.)

Instead of studying

I wonder if it would be possible to live on just my bike. I could travel the country making and selling my art like a badass and it would be awesome. Unless it was raining.
Sorry, this is really quite random. When mommy and daddy stress love each other very much...
Yeah, that kind of night.
And to showcase this night, as a form of procrastination, I give you:

Me. On the EPICBIKE.
Sadly, I'm sober.
See y'all in the morning.

Of Cards and Moons and Shiny Things

And by shiny things I mean I'm dabbling in coffee alchemy. It has been a long week and tonight I'm going to The Devil Makes Three (SO EXCITED) concert that's going to have me up until tomorrow morning. So yeah, coffee.
Anyways, over that last few days I've finished the first cards of my tarot deck: the Fool. I'm still debating whether or not to outline this fellow in pen or not, any suggestions?

He's just crying out for some more definition... I can get to that later.

 Next up is the Magician, which is another great card, and I'm hoping to finish him up before October. I'm also working on the overall patterns for the major arcana and the suites. I've already chosen Yew to represent the Major Arcana because of its associations with the World tree, and the "spirituality" kinda feel that goes with these major cards. The others will likely fall into place as this progresses however.
A few months ago I painted a little sun, and I just finished his sister, the moon. Both are done in a stained glass style, which was fun.

Ignore the non-croppedness XD

And, last but not least, a preview of two of my paintings that are going to be in an alumni art gallery with 24/25 other folks, I can't wait for the opening.

By the way, you can find me on Deviantart, here. Feel free to stalk... I mean watch me :)
Until next time, peanut butter and thyme

Holy Frijoles Batman, Productivity!

A term I am not all that familiar with, as I tend to drag things out instead of doing them all in one smaller chunk of time... This should change.
Anywho, I've almost finished thefirst card in my tarot set:

This is a close up before the colored pencils invaded. It's wanderlust/environmentalism themed, and will be quite the adventure.

I'm also trying to finish a tiger piece, and am plotting a small series of lovely words with imagery, among other things.

My character. She doesn't have a name yet but will likely reappear soon with one.

The tiger, an experimentation on black cardstocky paper.
 

Chow time!

Something New Always Starts

I'm still not quite sure what has led me to do this, and as such this space may not be permenant.
However, at the risk of being inaniloqient, here goes. I'm a student of the ecological sciences, but my heart has always beat quicker for art, so I've continued creating and hope to share my creations with the world, or at least some people I know. :)
More to come is assured.
Peace, love and cheese sticks my dears.