Card Board: The Poor Man's Canvas

As I've said once before, Cardboard is just great and really fun to paint on. I use it a lot when I'm in a mood to paint and/or am too cheap to go out and buy a legit canvas. But really, it's better than you would think and thought it was worth devoting a post to.

I first started using it when my stupid art teacher made us use it (partly my fault becuase of this report I did on Edvard Munch). I found

that I actually really liked it and almost prefered it over canvas. With cardboard, you don't feel pressured to produce something fantastic so you can have fun. It was also a great chance for me to get back into painting. I never really painted up until this point so I wasn't that good at it and hadn't done it since middle school.

Like in the picture to the right, cardboard provides a texture and a feel that canvas doesn't really have. it's almost organic or maybe even grungy like you're journalling instead of painting.

Cardboard is also prefect for those projects that you just need to get out of your system but don't want to really invest in anything fancy or whatever. Like with this one; this idea had been at the back of my mind ever since I read JTHM but didn't really want to get a canvas for something that was going to look really cool but be super simple. So, I just busted out a piece of cardboard and painted one of my favorite quotes from the story. I think it was also appropriate because this material is low quality and protrays desperateness, just as the character Jonny feels when he says this.

So yeah. Cardboard is great. Cardboard is good and can be found conviently any where in your house hold for that spur of the moment insperation high. If you're intrested in starting painting but don't want to waste canvases on what could possibly be flops, don't. Just tear up that box that's been sitting in the back of your cuboard and hope to it!

Sorry that this blog wasn't all that special and I hope to make up for it soon. Either way, hope this was somewhat enjoyable and thanks.

OC Age Charts

***Sorry about no post last week (if you even caught that)! I ment to on the normal time but something came up and then totally forgot to on friday when I was supposibly going to make up for it. So maybe I'll do another post about a spot light artist or something like that.***

Now this is a piece I did back in december of 2011 I believe when I was working on my independent study. I thought it would be really fun to play around with characters and how they progress with age. It was also a great chance to sit and actually think about their back ground as well.
So this is Pinky from ages six to twenty-one, some ages I found to be milestones in her life as I drew them. I tried to make them all start at the same point so the height could be actually measured but that didn't really happen. Each were individually cut out because I had planned to back them on something but never found anything suitable which made me very sad and my efforts never got a chance to be fully appreciated.

This is the little background I made up for her as I went along-

Age 6: Pinky was very bold and talkitive at this age and everybody knew who she was and was over all liked (except by Fusia, her childhood rival). This is pretty much the attitude she has through out most of her life; confident, happy, and very sociable.

Age 12: Ah. The ackward preteen years made worse by the fact this was the age Pinky moved to a new city and went to a new school. For this time period, I found me and Pinky had very simialr middle school exsperiences, we looked ackward and felt very ackward and hadn't really found out who we were or what we wanted to be as far as who we appeared. So she is very quiet at this time and also meets her best friend Red.

Age 16: The high school years were more kinder to Pinky then they have been for me as this was when she gets her mojo back and sorta regresses back to how she was in grade school as far as being confident and socialble. This is the age I draw her most in as well so it was very easy to come up with and the part of her I know best.

Age 21: Pinky is in colledge now and also has to wear glasses from time to time as her eyesight get progressivly worse. I'm not sure what she is majoring in. Possibly art or to become a lawyer or something like that. I felt like at this age she still kept that care free attitude but in a more professional way.

This was a extremely fun exercise and made me feel even closer to a character I have had for years but never really knew until now. It was also fun trying to come up with outfits that I thought would be fitting for them in that certin period. The hardest part was trying to make them all look similar but at the same time show signs of change and maturaty.
Sorry that this post is kinda bland. I'm running out of projects to post even though I've been working a lot. Next week I have either a painting or card board post planned for you all. We'll just see what happens! Thanks for reading!

It's Like an Update but Not

I know I said I was only going to post on Wensdays but posts like these don't count. I can add these in whenever I want and you can't stop me!

Today, I got my dad to finally put up that desk I got for Christmas that has been blocking up a third of the hallway for about four months now I think. I was really nervous to put it up because I thought it was going to be too big and drive me nuts since I find small, clutered spaces displeasing. Instead, it is really cool looking and I think I may be in love and found a new wave of insperation from it. It makes me want to run down to the art store and buy the place out. I feel so offical with this thing! It's got draws and the desk can lean forward and what not! I keep looking over at it and it makes me happy to see it.

So my biggest project at the moment is an art study I started at the begining of the month. I plan on going back and looking at all my favorite cartoons and studying the styles in order to learn how to copy and duplicate as if I were working for a cartoon. I'm looking at this as a career or maybe just a useless hobby that is fun either way. I'm also going to use this as part two of my indepent art study for my art class. Pretty stoked for that even though that's not for a while. Maybe when I'm done with it, I'll post something here for you all.

So far this post has been pretty pointless but I really wanted to blog some art related stuff (in a round about way, yes). I guess before I sign off, I want to talk about a few things I've noticed in my art class about these so called 'artists'.

First, painting is like whereing name brand shirts; know one notices how pretty your shirt is if it isn't from Holister. Same thing applies for art. No one really cares what you're doing in art unless you are painting. I mean, when I was working on my first indepent study back in December, hardly anyone wandered over to my table and commented on how nice my drawings were. You pratically had to hold their heads down to make them even look at the damn things. But, as soon as I began to paint the my Pinky portriat (the one that should have one something at that stupid art gallery), everybody was all like, 'Wow! That looks really nice!" and I'm sitting there like, '...What about all the other equally nice things I've been producind over the last two weeks?'.
Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the compliments but I just found it strange that I only got them when I was painting. You can also notice how 99% paint for all their projects (I'm that 1% who prefers drawing). So it's like painting is like being part of the in crowd or something. I really don't know! It just really intrests me why this is. It must bug me because I like drawing over painting so I exspect more love for me doing what I love. Whateveh.

Lastly, a topic you all know lives on the top of my hit list: Abstract art. Dear God that stuff makes me so upset! Abstact art is for me like it is for normal people who flip out when someone speaks to them in another launguage; it frustrates and confuses me. To me, this form of art holds no value and requires no imagination. You litarelly take a peice of paper and slap a paint brush on it and call it art...BUT IT'S NOT ART!
Last week, we did an absract unit and it was torture. I could make four pieces in a minute and then got really bored. I tried as best as I could to add meaning to them but as you all remeber from my facebook post, I get really dark when I try to do stuff like this.
To me, abstracts art is really an excape goat for 'artists' out there who have either A) no imagination B) don't want actually put effort forward into their work or C) like to take the easy way out of a world they're suppose to be control in! It is really the lamest excuse to go 'I like abstarct art because, if I mess up, I can just pretend I ment to do that, call it abstarct, and still have it be art'. No you can't. It really doesn't work that way. If it didn't turn out the way you wanted it to, go back and fix it. You're the damn artist, you control what happens, not that piece. And if you're going to call it anything, be origonal and say 'it's my interpritation of what I saw'. Oh Lawdry! You sound all dignified and artsy when you put it that way!
Hopefully now you can understand my pain. And if you don't agree with me, let me have this and don't bother telling me~

Welp. I hope you have enjoyed this random reading (that is if anyone is reading at all) and can't wait for next weeks post...what that will be I haven't decided. I have quite a few things I could put together for a post but whatev.

Love you all!

I Love Cherry Blossoms

Welp. This photo isn't very pretty but I promise you it looks better in real life...but only a little more so.

This was based off a Van Gogh painiting that I miss took to be a painting of cherry blossoms, which are my favorite flowers. In truth, it was actually an almond tree. An almond tree? Who knew they had flowers? If your intrested in seeing the original, look no further ---> http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=van+gogh+almond+blossom&id=CCBF517BB7999FC92EF48AC2A0E54D6B039F0459&FORM=IQFRBA
Compared to the origonal, mine's not nearly as beautiful as Van Gogh. There is a reason Van Gogh is the man~

This painting was really time comsuming and I wasn't very happy with it through out the process. The background is a really weird colors and the limbs were so hard to paint because they were made with texture paste.

This is going in my room...I guess.