Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone! My holiday was spent with my wonderful family and friends, and of course, with Jesus at midnight mass. I have learned so much this past year, strength, trust, and love. One thing that I hold dear to my heart is that "one cannot have joy without suffering." And I wholeheartedly hope that through whatever suffering you have been in, are currently in, or will go through, I hope that you will find this immeasurable joy. Joy comes directly as a product from suffering whilst accepting it as The Will of God. I simply couldn't believe any less.

With this picture of Baby Jesus, What I wanted to convey more than anything was a sense of peace, joy and trust in this Babe that loves each and everyone so much, so to start I gave it a very soft vibe, using one of my favorite brush settings and light colors. With his smile, I wanted to give him something adorable and innocent, but something that kind of looks at you and says "Everything's ok." Maybe that sounds silly, but I absolutely love how it came out, and whenever you feel down, think of this simple but joyful smile.
So without further adieu, I give you my picture of Our Lord, Baby Jesus.

I wish you nothing less than peace of mind, soul, and heart. May you be filled with the glorious joy of Our Good Father.

Drawing Study: Speed Landscape #2

Heyo! Been a bit of a jump since my last post.

Before I get to my actual drawing I'd like to point out that I've realized I actually have a fashion, haha! Ever since forever I never really had a personal style that was my own and expressed myself. Basically what I'm trying to say is I made a funny haiku about my quirky fashion sense and wanted to share it with you.

Big fluffy red scarf,
Crayons in my messy bun
Silly striped long socks!

I don't even know if this is a "proper" haiku or if it makes sense, but I promised myself I'd try my hand at poetry and other writing types. And yes, I'm currently wearing crayons in my hair, and I think I'll do the same for the park tomorrow.

Alright, now on to the actual drawing for today.
Art Study #4: Speed Landscape #2

The snow and the branches were such tedious work and after awhile it got pretty boring, but it was a fun drawing nonetheless. I love playing with all the blue colors, especially on the centre trees.

Time Spent: 1.5 Hours
Program Used: Ratemydrawings.com

ocmign soon

Drawing Study: Speed Landscape!

Art Study #3: This time, speed landscapes! Okokok I've always REALLY stumbled when it comes to landscapes. It'll be like "Ok...I'm gonna put a flower here. One rock here. a branch.... Aaaand it looks like a great big empty wasteland of crep."

SO, I found another wonderful tutorial on DA by the amazing _____ on speed painting landscapes, found here.
Oh and by me "speedpainting" I mean I did it 3x as long as normal people do it, but it was still fast for me! XD
Unfortunately, my program really only has one different useful brush texture, so I wasn't able to play around as much as the tutorial guy did. (I DREAM of someday owning Photoshop CS5, but it's really not possible for this broke girl right now, haha.)

And without further adeiu, here is my attempt at Landscape Speedpainting!

Click the image for a better, full size image! I love how painterly it came out looking!
Time Spent: 1 hour
Program Used: Ratemydrawings.com, an awesome FREE drawing website with 3 different online drawing programs.

Drawing Study 2: Color and Light 2

Art study #2! Same thing as before, different style. (oyy, why do I always change styles?? haha)

Anyways, I kind of came up with 3 different versions;

Version 1; freckles, slightly buck toothed, and lighted eyes.

Version 2; lighted eyes

Version 3: No lighted eyes and a simple background.

Personally, I love how #1 is kind of a more "unconventional beauty" version of two.

But I also love how simplifying the picture in #3 gives it an interesting stylization.

Enjoy! (Be sure to click the image for an original size image!)

Time Spent: 3.5 hours
Program: Ratemydrawings.com

Which version do you like best?

Also, to show you how excited I am about this drawing, check out my first ever portrait painting I did a little over a year ago. Check out the (not to brag but lol...) incredible improvement I've made!

Honestly, look! Her nose is like a bizarre elephant, and her hair  is a mess of shiny purple string-cheese hehe! Although even still; I could never take away how proud I am of this old drawing. It just goes to show you that with time, practice and dedication, you will improve. BUT it's important to remember to never be ashamed or embarrassed by your drawing skill or ability. The best way to grow your art is to love what you do and be passionate about it. I've learned you'll have a hard time letting your art flourish if you can't get past your own prejudices to your own art. Look up, you're art is wonderful, and the things that you consider flaws in your art, they might come up later to be key highlights that make your style unique! 

Drawing Study 1: Color and light

I've always loved art studies. They give me an opportunity to try out new things simply for fun.
I really wanted to try my hand at different lighting and coloring for the longest time. I always thought that what  makes a really interesting portrait is the bold colors and different lighting, something that makes you look twice.
So the other day I stumbled upon a fantastic tutorial on deviantart by the amazing Ni-nig, and decided to try it out for myself. Tutorial found here.

So, without further adieu; here is my result:

Accidentally, it kind of turned out to be a self portrait. It's crazy how many different shades of color went in to this, I love the warm feel that turned up, even though I used some bright blue colors originally! 

Time Spent: approx. 3 hours

Program Used: Ratemydrawings.com

Introductions are for ninnies!

I hate introductions. I always start with them and always end with them. Either I or they must be jinxed somehow, and I can only hope it's the latter!

Anyway, I'll try and keep this short and sweet.

I'm 17 and I enjoy art. Not much to be said, I suppose. Truth be told, I hope you can learn more from me by observing my works than of me telling you. It's a lot more special that way and I hope you can at least see a glimpse of my world.
 I like experimenting in different mediums from Creative writing to digital art and then to clay sculpting. My hopes for this blog is that I'll be able to share a bit of each, as if they're all mashed up in my own private notebook. From poems and notes of a plant I created in school to cartoon doodles and realistic portraits, here is where you'll find mine. I'm going to be kicking off this blog (ouch!) with a weekly challenge for summer in which I complete 4 tasks in 4 art mediums.

Culinary - Due to my amazing (nonexistant) cooking skills, I thought it would be a good exercise to try cooking 1 dish each week.

Crafting - Since I find it rare to practice my hobbies that are outside of digital drawing, any type of hands-on craft once per week, basically anything that I don't digitally draw (*thbbt!*)

Drawing - Complete 1 digital drawing per week. Doesn't seem hard since that's all I really do right? Wrong, I'm a horrible procrastinator and never-finisher.

Reading - I also don't read very much and prefer articles online filled with hysterically melancholic woes. Since reading breeds good stuff for the soul, I'm going to try to finish a book every week, ( possibly more than 1 week since I'm a 2 legged turtle when it comes to reading. )

Random fact: I found an old story of mine that starred myself as the main character (in my defense, who hasn't done that at some point!?). However, I didn't want my sisters to find it and realize it was me. So I changed my name in the document to "Kendra Dorkfazer". Haha the memories! I'm such a dorkfazer indeed!

Favorite phrase: ha-ha-larious


And now a recent mandatory self portrait with a dramatic lighting and slightly moody eyes.