Life Musings

  • Close crop of a digital painting of a female mercenary, with the words work in progress on top
    Digital Painting,  Life Musings

    Digital Painting WIP

    It’s so much easier to make time for digital painting when I also have a TV show streaming on my other monitor. That’s the trick, I think, to getting myself to work on paintings at a computer, after coming home from working at a computer all day. Shading of the flat layers I’d left off with is going well – I feel like between this piece and last summer I’ve gotten a better handle on keeping the light source in my mind’s eye and having it be a three-dimensional lighting situation. I completely credit most of my progress to regularly dashing off quick life studies in my sketchbooks; even if…

  • Pencils ontop of a sketchbook, with a razor and sandpaper to the right
    Drawing,  Life Musings,  Sketchbooks

    Sharpening Pencils

    I finally feel like I’m getting the hang of using a single-edge razor to sharpen pencils. They really do work so much better to have a variety of line, but I’m still fond of cheap mechanical pencils too – nostalgia is a strong force. And of course a consistent line weight has its advantages on occasion. I feel a little silly, showing fundamental drills/practice work like value bars, but honestly, even if they don’t look very special, putting the time in on simple exercises really does make a difference. I’m getting more confident with graphite, but dip pens are still rough. The ink feathers so much on most paper. It…

  • A college of an older drawing of a female knight on the left and a newer version of the same character the right with the words Drawing Redux. The artwork is in pencil.
    Digital Painting,  Drawing,  Life Musings,  Sketchbooks

    Drawing redux fun

    Decided to redraw a super old sketch from high school (so…2003 o_O). I was kinda lazy about my scan quality, I won’t deny it, but I kind of like the rough smudgy texture of how it turned out. Plus I’ve inked it digitally (WIP of digital painting further below), so I didn’t need the scan to be perfect. Cleaning up scans is just…ugh, it’s annoying.

  • A photo of my scanner and art file folders
    Digital Painting,  Drawing,  Intuitive Art,  Life Musings,  Sketchbooks

    Misc art update

    My sinuses feel like a million bees having a rave in my face. It’s not a happy rave. In spite of that, I want to post a bunch of art because I made it and it makes me sad when I don’t share my work. It’s a pretty random collection of art from (mostly) the last couple weeks, with an old drawing from Winter Solstice thrown into the mix.

  • Cover of Strathmore Vision mixed media with digital handdrawn letters saying "new sketchbook"
    Drawing,  Life Musings,  Pixel Art,  Sketchbooks

    Zen or stressed out, still making art

    Well, it’s been long enough since I painted digitally that Windows is once again bugging out and not correctly interpreting my Wacom tablet’s pressure. Hooray >_< I forget how I fixed it last time… a text file added somewhere in user config settings? Gah ~_~ adding it to the To Do List of Doom. Been stressing this week – trying to find energy after work has been kind of monumentally impossible. But hey, I’m all caught up on The Magicians. Which means *wipes a tear away*, I have to wait until Thursday to watch S4E7 (because Amazon Prime adds it later than it airs and we don’t have cable). I…

  • Life Musings,  Pixel Art

    I am sick of cold and ice, but hey pixels to warm the soul

    Totally not having it with this weather and feeling trapped indoors, wanting to go hiking or, I don’t know, see more sunlight in a given 24 cycle, is that too much to ask? I feel like I used all my energy up at work today, so there wasn’t much left by the time I got home. I have been recharging with…you guessed it, more Magicians. I finally got to the episode where Margo and Elliot speak in fandom references, and the GoT wiki note killed me. I too started with only reading the wiki, bwahahahaha. At the least I have some new pixel art. Pixel art – the new comfort…

  • Life Musings

    Snowy Sunday

    Went out today with friends, even though it was snowing quite heavily; I’m glad I didn’t have to drive, especially not in my tiny compact car which weeps little car tears at the sight of unplowed roads. We managed a JoAnne’s run (Presidents’ Day sale, yay), Starbucks, and some quick groceries. I picked up the cutting mat I’d been eyeing – a light green one to use as a video backdrop for art videos. Now I just need an SD card to start filming. *happy dance* I also picked up some of the Happy Planner stuff that was on sale. After trying so many apps for to do list and…