Washington DC

A few days ago I had the fortunate opportunity to go to Washington DC with the Spartan Marching Band to support our football team against Bowling Green State University in the 2012 Military Bowl.

Even though I couldn't spend Christmas with my family, I was glad I went on the trip nonetheless as it was definitely an experience to remember and one that can never be replicated. 

Some photos I snapped with my phone!

Now It's hard to tell from these photos but at the time these were taken, it was pouring rain and a little more than just cold. Nevertheless it didn't stop me and it was actually really fun!

The White House.......and trees....(Our hotel was about four blocks from it!)

Department of the Treasury?

Washington Monument

Lincoln Memorial

Washington Monument from the Lincoln Memorial

Where he had a dream....

White House....from the back!

Lincoln Memorial...up close.

Capitol Building from afar

So in the middle of the day, we had a scheduled rehearsal. Now at this point it was TORRENTIALLY raining but we still had practice. Only we were all "decked" out in ponchos and no instruments. The turf was underwater, and quite frankly it was one of the most exciting rehearsals I've ever had. 

After dinner, (which I went to a Belgian Pub where I had the most delicious oysters ever), I went out again with another group of friends around close to midnight.

The Eisenhower Executive Office Building

World War II Memorial

Washington Monument....at night!

(Taken while at the World War II Monument)

This one was taken from the Lincoln Memorial

Honestly one of the best parts was seeing the Lincoln Memorial lit up at night. Everything was just so much more beautiful, and it was starting to snow a little too!

Oh and the game? We won. :)

The Gouache

Well I decided to break out the gouache in a long time, and it was fun to use! I was just playing around with it on a page of my watercolor moleskine.

All of these were done without reference. Is it weird that things tend to turn out better from my imagination than from a photo or from life?

Day 2

Day 2 is Someone you like (A crush, celebrity, etc).

I wasn't too sure who to choose so I did Emma Watson. It was another quick one and I don't have my scanner with me at the moment so a picture for now. I'd say half of her face looks allright.....

Gotta keep practicing! 

Going to get some painting in tonight as well!

Day 1

Day 1 of the challenge.

Draw yourself or your persona.

Here is a quick one I did today.

It's me on the sousaphone! :]

Here is the list of the challenge from Sachin Teng.

Winter Break!

So I am officially done with finals and winter break has started for me.

Definitely am going to make it a productive one, to paint and draw everyday and PRACTICE. I'm part of a group that is going to do a -30 Day challenge over the break- 

...which I will post as soon as I do it.

For now, it's my journal I did for my Ani 50 class. 

As tedious it was towards the end, it was pretty cool seeing the finished project.

More to come. Stay tuned!

Final Rendering

For our final, we did our black and white sill life in color based on one of 16 color comps we did. 

I chose to do Limited/Neutral palette.

Granted, I didn't put in as much hours in it as I should have. Although I am glad to say I at least made some type of progress over the course of this semester.

The black and white rendering

I'll take a better picture of both of these later, or scan them.....

Anyhow, Inga wants me to continue working on it and make it a finished piece.

And that I shall do!

Looking forward to winter break where I can just paint and paint some more. Gotta get that mileage in!

Sketchity

Just some more sketchbook stuff. Mostly pen and waterbrush. The water bottle was from watercolor pencils I recently got. Going to try to use them more and experiment. ><

Still-life

Black and white still life rendering in acrylic.

Wedding photography.

Pencil Egg

Here is a pencil rendering I did of an egg for class. It needs work. I'm going to do another one sometime in the near future.

Either way though, rendering in pencil is fun. I'm looking forward to doing another one.

The Starry Skies

Last night was the Perseid meteor shower and while I did not attend, two of my good friends did, Sean and Jeremy. Even though they stayed up all night knowing there was church in the morning, I'm sure neither of them regret staying up one bit. 

This painting is inspired by them, who took the time to admire God's beautiful creation. It was under the stars where they saw just how small we are. There are numerous stars out there that are much larger than our very own Sun, yet they seem so minuscule being so far away. But these things, no matter the size pales in comparison to the ever-awesome power of our Heavenly Father. Yet even as small as we are, He loves us just the same.

Sean and Jeremy learned something that night, and they inspired me to be hungry, hungry for more knowledge and to keep learning to succeed as an artist under God's grace.

Gouache, no reference

*I originally wanted the sky to be opaque, but I ended up liking the watery look. ^^

From a Photo

I'm not sure if you can call it a study, but alas I referenced my good friend and roommate, Sean Michael Whitmore's photo for a quick painting. It's a little dark because of the camera.

~45 minutes

Now that I'm looking at it like this, I see I didn't get some of the shapes right among others. My biggest thing is getting a skin tone. I'm not sure what colors to mix for it.

I should probably do more photo studies if I can't do plein airs. D:

P.S. The person in the photo is my good friend, Danielle.

-Signed it after I uploaded this.

Sketch Update

Some sketches over the past two or so weeks.

 Some from life, some from imagination.

Must do more......a LOT more.

In other news, I recently got a Macbook Pro and Adobe CS5. The Wacom Intuos 5 should be arriving soon as well, and then I can start practicing speed paintings. In the meantime, I should go out and break out the gouache.

Since it was quite some time since I painted anything, (bad on my part, I know D:), I decided to do a lit sphere with no reference. I forgot to time it so I'm not exactly sure how long it took.

I really need to make sure I crack down, especially with school coming up.

Update on my trip down to SoCal to come soon!

Summer Starting........?

Some things I've done since summer started. It's not as much as I wanted, but I'm starting to be more productive.

Using the Prismacolor Markers were still fun but I think I've gotten a little better. The two top fishes were from life, and the clownfish was from a photo.

A plein air that I actually like. Got to not be afraid of the paint, but fun nonetheless!

Tried watercolor for the first time too. It was kind of weird actually, too much water.....

An old drawing redone

For our Word of the Week group, we decided to do an old drawing redone. I didn't have many to choose from since I don't really know where my old drawing pads went. But alas, I did this one.

The original (2010).

Redo (2012).

It was done in pen and Prismacolor Art Markers. I don't have a marker for a skin tone so I just left it white.

Maybe I'll go back and work on it more on Photoshop if I ever get the chance.

For now. back to the sketchbook!

Shooba do

I got a new book today, "The Vilppu Sketching on Location Manual." I started reading it and it's pretty interesting. I always found it difficult to whip out a quick sketch and have it look good in a short period of time, so I think it'll really help with my sketching.

Also, I recently purchased the 24 set of Prismacolor Double-ended Art Markers. They're really nice and fun to use. The ink flows smoothly, and gives a great color. The only thing though, is that they blled through the paper like mad. But oh well.

This is one of my pages from my anatomy book I did for class and also the first thing I colored using the markers.

School ends in a week and a half and Finals are around the corner! D :