It's the most wonderful time of the year!

Just a little poinsettia WIP for you because of this happy season. Although in all honesty, who's idea was it to put finals week so close to Christmas/New Years? I am not feeling the Christmas spirit at all this year. I am studying though (I'm just taking a study break to make this post) for my only final on Tuesday. I'm one of the lucky ones who doesn't have 3 or 4 finals this week, and for that I'm eternally grateful. 

In other news, I got into glass lab! At MIT, glass lab is really tough to get into considering that many people want to take it and the students are chosen by lottery. I can just say that I am blessed to have gotten in my first year. So expect some glass sculptures/bowls/cups etc. in the coming weeks.

Also, here's a love poem I wrote from a past relationship I had in high school. He gave me three red roses, and I thought (and still do think) that it was the sweetest thing ever. We did break up but we are still friends and we do talk occasionally. I decided to post the poem since its theme is a flower, a rose, and a poinsettia is a flower is well. It's kind of a stream of consciousness relation.

A Rose

a rose is a rose

symbolizing love, friendship, even innocence
he gives me three roses, red to be exact
soft as silk and red as blood
red means love you know but
even if they die
will his love still exist?
after the petals have withered and
fallen, creating a soft carpet on the floor
can i trust him to still love me?
after the poems have yellowed with age and
the kisses no longer leave impressions on my lips
will he still keep his love?
after the wedding bells have ceased their sounds and even after the
funeral marches have played
will he still love me?
i say yes
'cause each time he pulls me in his arms
each time he steals a kiss
and each time he reads me his heart
is an everlasting red rose always whispering
"i love you, forever."

And should I not post until 2013, Happy New Year!

Obsession

Obsession: the domination of one's thoughts or feelings by a persistent idea, image, or desire.

Very cliche opening, I know. It describes my feelings exactly about drawing, especially drawing eyes. Lately (as I may have said before), I have not been able to draw as much since college happened. But that doesn't mean that the desire has gone away, just that I don't have time. Well today a bunch of time opened up thanks to a girl called Sandy. I'm sure students everywhere are rejoicing for her wonderful appearance, especially since none of us are responsible for anything super important but ("just") our education. And I should be studying for an exam I have tomorrow, but art!

So, this the lovechild between me and hurricane Sandy. Two eyes drawn with weighted pencils, 4H-8B or thereabouts.

On a semi-unrelated note, this photo was taken on my new iPhone 5! That kind of explains the not so awesome quality (not to say anything bad about Apple but it is a cell phone, not a Nikon).

You'll notice that there's a slight difference in how the eyes look in terms of sharpness. On the second one, I used more of the point of the 8B pencil for the eyelashes and iris detail. Personally, I like the second one more; I paid more attention to the details in that one than I did in the first one, and it's more dynamic (basically not straight on like the first one). Thanks to Sandy, I can be productive art-wise, and maybe cure my artist's block.

Perfume

I did this mini project a while ago and frankly, I'm amazed that didn't post it earlier. For some reason, I have an obsession with drawing glass objects. Maybe it's the reflections and transparency, or maybe it's the fact that you really have to draw what you see. You can easily mess up drawing glass by misrepresenting the fall of the light and the shadows. Maybe I love drawing glass so much since it's a challenge, and I do love a challenge. But anyways, here's the perfume progress.

 For the final one, I know that the background is too light compared to the perfume bottles. I mostly just wanted to focus on the bottles and not so much the background. One day I might do an actual piece of a type of glass.

Yes, I'm Still Here

It has been a month since I posted. That's just a fact. But I must say, college life is amazing! Especially since it's at MIT. The people are nice and welcoming, the classes are just the right difficulty (not hard enough to be frustrating), and the area is just awesome. Having lived in a suburb all my life, I'm getting used to living in the city. It's always nice that there's something going on somewhere and that I'm almost always within walking distance (or a bus ride) from it. Since I am in college and the work is demanding, I haven't been drawing as much, and I do regret it. Drawing is therapeutic for me, and I love coming home and drawing just to relax. Even of what I draw isn't a finished piece of art, just the fact that I'm drawing is relaxing enough. Therefore, I've been a bit stressed since I haven't been drawing that much.

But, good news! I have been drawing and designing a little. We're trying to create an art club at MIT. I must say, we were kind of amazed that there wasn't one already. They have tons of other clubs and activities. Anyways, I volunteered to design our logo. What I design probably won't be our final logo, but it's still good to have an idea of what it would be. Here are the designs I've done so far.

My second favorite. I really liked the font (from dafont). I thought it was very artsy, especially with the little random scribbles.

This one is probably the most graphic-y and the least artsy.

Not my absolute favorite, but I wanted to try a subtractive design. 

The difference between this one and the one before it is that this one has the tertiary colors included as well. The previous one just has primary and secondary colors. But they're both my favorite. 

The rest of the art club members seem to like the first one and the last ones.

I have been doing some drawing as well, mostly with pen and ink. The following piece is just a sketch for future pieces of the same type. I'm trying to do a series of flowers in vases with pen and ink and maybe an accent of color. I'm not exactly sure yet. But here's the sketch.

Pen and ink is great; it's loose and tight at the same time, and it naturally looks refined. When it's just in black and white, it looks unfinished yet finished. I think I've fallen in love.

Minimalist Portraits

Actual drawings! Three cheers for more art! I must say, drawing in a college dorm is quite fun while listening to your Pandora account. I felt like I was getting a little rusty with my artistic-ness so I sat down and just drew for a couple of hours. It was strangely liberating and not so strangely enjoyable. The reason why the last two are a slightly different color is because it's cream paper.

Since I love drawing the features of the face more than the entire head itself, I'm enjoying drawing minimalist portraits. Doing it makes focus on each individual part of the face and its placement on the face. And the one of the portraits is a girl and one is a boy. Guess which one! I tried hard to make them distinct but it was hard once I added the eyelashes. The ear was also fun to draw. It's weird seeing that I've never really fully drawn an ear. Yeah I've drawn it with less details but I never focused on the ear alone.

Poetry

Literature is art too! And I must admit, I'm getting a little lazy making new posts since I'm in college and all. I have been drawing, it's just that my camera's batteries are dead and I haven't felt like going down to the scanner in the computer lab. Therefore, I've decided to share some of my poetry. They are all past works, most of them written for my creative writing class that I did in high school. I try to be funny sometimes in my poetry since I think poetry doesn't just have to be somber, serious, and depressing all the time. It can be lighthearted too. So here's to being artistic in many ways! *toast*

Writer's Block
a penny for your thoughts
a nickel for your dreams
a dime for all ideas that
burst forth like the streams

a quarter for your musings
half dollar for your views
golden dollar coin for
notions of different hues

dollar bill for your whims
five for all your feelings
ten for your sentiments
that work best with dealings

twenty for a great plan
fifty for all your quirks
a hundred for your brain
since mine no longer works

This is one of my most favorite poems that I wrote. I really wanted to start a poem off with a well-known quote and then kind of...run away with it. And besides, who wouldn't want to pay to get rid of writer's block?

Art
My love, my passion starts with a blank
And patiently it waits for my command
To smear it with all the thoughts I drank
And adorn it with marks from my own hand.

Just for my beloved, only the best,
The highest quality money can buy.
In prismatic gems is my love dressed
And with lavish strokes that catch the eye.

But at times it defies my instruction
This rainbow ignites an inner flame.
But its hues unite and lead in seduction,
So I'm weak to oppose this colored frame.

In creative frustration, my feelings I shove
Yet art still remains my passion, my love

Yes, it's about art. Yes, it's a sonnet.

If I Were Your Best Friend
I'd be there for you all the time
Except from 9:00 to 9:30. That's when Modern Family comes on.
I'd encourage you to do well in school
So I could copy off your homework.
I'd go with you to your annoying, second cousin's wedding in Florida
And then probably spend it with the groom's hot nephew.

I'd comfort you when your boyfriend breaks up with you
By hitting him upside the head and asking him what's wrong with him.
Then we'd share earbuds and listen to Kelly Clarkson's break-up songs.
And possibly Taylor Swift too.

I'd listen to your complaints about your parents being unfair,
Help you sneak out,
And then cover for you when they call my house wondering where you are
(I'd probably do a bad job, but I'll try).

We'd go shopping, and we'll try on clothes
That we'll never buy 'cause we don't have any money to speak of.

Then we'd end the day texting each other until we go to sleep,
Forget about our homework,
And then rush to get it done before second period,
'Cause it always has to be done before second period.

But since we're not best friends anymore,
I can only sit here behind you,
And remember all the good times we had,
All the bad times we laughed off,
And that you haven't given back that sweater you borrowed from me last week.

No, this is not in reference to any bad friend or anything like that.

Hoped you enjoyed these poems. There will probably be more to come in the future.

More Portrait Sketches

I haven't updated in a while, and for that I apologize. I'm getting ready for college so I haven't had much time to draw. I will be working on that bull commission for my mom today so you will most likely see the finished product sometime this week (it actually must be finished this week since I'm leaving for college next week. But don't worry, I'll still update from college).

Last night and this morning, I did a few portrait sketches; I haven't done those in a while. And here they are.

The one on the right was just from my imagination and the one on the left is a picture we took in Hawaii. They aren't the best sketches in the world but they satisfied my itching to draw.

Drawing Video

After hours of drawing, measuring, editing, and waiting, I have a video of a drawing!! *fanfare* It took longer to edit the video and make it viewable on the internet than actually drawing the picture. I wanted to draw something relatively familiar to me and easy to do. Thus, the portrait of Alicia Keys. She's one of my favorite singers and I admire her for her awesome piano/singing skills and for her general awesomeness. In case you don't notice, the music that's accompanying the art is what she has sung in the past. They are, in order, "Harlem's Nocturne", "As I Am [intro]", "Like You'll Never See Me Again", and "Superwoman". Not only do you get hear her awesome songs, you get to have a little taste of my iPod playlist. I'm sure more songs will follow. 

A photo of the finished drawing is below the video. I drew her portrait with sketching pencils (4H-4B) and graphite sticks (HB-8B). The pencils were mostly for the initial line work and shading while the sticks were used for darker shades and better blending. I used 18"x24" Strathmore Drawing paper but I only used about 17.5"x20.25" (yes I measured for the correct proportions).

In the video, you see the paper with a fine layer of graphite to start even though it's not the "true" beginning. I'm pretty sure you didn't want to see me measuring and drawing reference lines and sharpening the graphite sticks to get the graphite to rub on the paper. That would be boring.

In retrospect, the video's not the best quality, sorry. And I might have to fix the picture a little bit more.

Bear Commission Finished (plus extra studio shots)

I have finally finished the bear painting for my mom. One more painting (of a bull) to go! I might go back later and do more finishing touches; for art is never truly finished, it's only paused for a while (I think a famous artist said this, but I'm just paraphrasing). And I'm sorry for the lack of posts during the week, sometimes I just get lazy.

Yes, those are currency symbols in the background. The bear is a financial symbol you know. And very sorry for the bad lighting. My camera is in no way professional and my studio lacks good lighting.

Today, I've included some pictures of my material set-up and my "studio" space, and I use the term studio very lightly. It mostly consists of my art desk in a messy corner of my room, and if I have to paint on a large canvas, like these commissions, I go upstairs to our little storage/attic space. It's also quite messy and a little cramped. But I have no problem making room for myself and my iPod.

The space I use to work on large canvased works

My collection of paints etc.

My beautiful palette. Really, it's just a plastic party tray I got from Iparty.

A clean art desk is a rare thing indeed.

I was thinking about posting a video one day of a complete piece of art. I'm not sure what I would do but stay tuned for said video!

Commission WIPs Continued

I was finally able to get some better lighting for the pictures. Sorry for the horrible lighting on the others. See the previous post for earlier pictures.

I think the larger squares are working a lot better than the smaller squares, yes? You can't see it too well from the photo, but the small squares made a nice underpainting for the larger ones. And by the way, The pair of pieces (again, they are a bull and a bear) are done with a palette knife. It's so much easier, and more controlled, to spread the paint around on a large canvas with a palette knife than with a brush. I'm wondering if I shouldn't have bright colors in the back. They might distract from the bear.

Commission WIPs

I'm doing a commission for my mom's office. Since she works in finance, she wants canvas paintings of a bull and a bear (symbols of finance). She can be demanding and it's a little hard to imagine the finished product. However, I'm doing my best. I'm going to have to redo the background with bigger and less squares. That's the awesome thing about acrylic paint, you can repaint over it without seeing what was underneath.

Bear sketch. The actual colors will be different

The patchwork quilt mistake. It will be changed ASAP

Looking at both the sketch and the canvas together like this, I see that bigger squares or blocks would look a lot better.

More Citrus Project WIPs

As I said in the last post, I wasn't done with my citrus project. Here's the recent work I've done on them...

I think it's looking OK so far, I'm not too happy with how the grapefruit background came out. But otherwise, I'm liking how its turning out.

Citrus Project

I started my own little art project yesterday which I called "Citrus Project". I will probably be doing a few drawings and paintings where the main focus is some kind of citrus fruit. My first one is on really tiny canvases; they are about 2.5"x3.5". There are four canvases in all and I painted a section of a different type of citrus fruit on it. The whole thing took about 3.5-4 hours to do.

Yesterday, I thought I was done, but when I woke up this morning and looked at the paintings again, I thought, "You know, I can make each one a truly individual piece of art. I can paint around the sections of fruit with a different kind of fruit." You can see what I mean more clearly when you see the actual piece below. But, I'll start off with some WIPs.

As you can see, it still looks a little unfinished (although it does look pretty cool). What I'm going to do is paint slices of lemon with the orange, slices of orange with the lime etc. I'll probably finish it at some other time.