color!

I colored this digitally in Photoshop because I ended up really liking it . . . and now it's my new profile picture :)

#inktober day 31: return of inkPOEber + anna talks about poetry (POEtry haha) + THANK YOU

Wow. I can't believe it's the end of Inktober! And what better way to end it than with some Edgar Allan Poe? (Throwback to last Inktober when I wore out this pun in a shameful fashion . . . and here I am, dragging it out again. whoops?)

Poe is one of my favorite authors from the Romantic period, even though all his work tends to be a bit depressing. I try to follow it up with something nice and cheerful like The Importance of Being Ernest or Much Ado About Nothing or anything by Ogden Nash or Roald Dahl, to keep myself from drifting about for the rest of the day in a mood of sentimental melancholy. Never, under any circumstances, let yourself sit down and read T.S. Eliot and Edgar Allan Poe and Hamlet at the same time, unless you have the time to spare to sit and gaze out the window pondering how terribly sad it is to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune while pining away after the bright eyes of your lost love in an unreal city on the beach of the tumid river under an evening spread out against the sky like a patient etherized upon a table. It'll take a very strong does of John Donne to jolt you out of that. ("Death, Be Not Proud" always tugs at my heartstrings. You don't have to read any of the other stuff I linked to, but go read that. It will cheer you up. Promise.)

(Also, today was the last day of Poe Party, so some Poe stuff seemed to be in order. :) )

I couldn't decide which of the pictures I took was better, so I have burdened you with both of them. You tell me which one is better. ;)

And now that I 've talked about poetry for a far longer time than I intended to: I just wanted to say thank you all so much for reading this blog during this crazy month, and all the time! I know it might be kind of annoying to have these posts keep popping up EVERY DAY, so I really truly appreciate everyone reading and commenting on them. One of the nicest things about this blog was finding that there are so many lovely people out there who are interested in classic literature and art and period dramas and philosophy and theology and all sorts of interesting things, and who are willing to even read my little blogging efforts and look at my pictures and to leave the nicest, most encouraging and most thoughtful comments. As usual, Anne Shirley said it best: "Kindred spirits are not so scarce as I used to think. It's splendid to find out there are so many of them in the world." So if you're reading this, thank you so much for being a kindred spirit! :)

#inktober day 30: 40s

Almost there! Just one day left now.

Thank you so much for sticking with me through this journey.

#inktober day 29: the bravest jedi of them all

My youngest brother broke his arm last week. He's been doing well and is dealing with it all with a great attitude, but it's just plain hard sometimes to be an active little boy when your arm is out of commission! So it cheered him up considerably when my mom reminded him that his cast will fit right in with his Jedi costume :)

#inktober day 28: eliza

I don't even know.

This is so bad but I have to do something aaaaa

IS INKTOBER OVER YET

#inktober day 27: alas

#inktober day 23: archer

#inktober day 22: baseball

I don't draw guys as much-I need to work on that.

#inktober day 21: silly goose

#inktober day 20: woof

I just really like dogs okay

#inktober day 18: ANGRY EYES

"Prepare to meet . . . MR ANGRY EYES!" (Yes, that was a Toy Story quote)

Don't be grumpy (like this picture).

This has been a message from Something Splendid Studios. :)

#inktober day 17: "light! give me light!"

"Have you ever been at sea in a dense fog, when it seemed as if a tangible white darkness shut you in, and the great ship, tense and anxious, groped her way toward the shore with plummet and sounding-line, and you waited with beating heart for something to happen? I was like that ship before my education began, only I was without compass or sounding-line, and had no way of knowing how near the harbour was. 'Light! give me light!' was the wordless cry of my soul, and the light of love shone on me in that very hour." -Helen Keller

I've been reading Helen Keller's autobiography recently, and I'm absolutely amazed by her courage, endurance, and faith. Just . . . WOW. Here's another quote I really love: "Sometimes, it is true, a sense of isolation enfolds me like a cold mist as I sit alone and wait at life's shut gate. Beyond there is light, and music, and sweet companionship; but I may not enter. Fate, silent, pitiless, bars the way. Fain would I question his imperious decree; for my heart is still undisciplined and passionate, but my tongue will not utter the bitter, futile words that rise to my lips, and they fall back into my heart like unshed tears. Silence sits immense upon my soul. Then comes hope with a smile and whispers, 'There is joy in self-forgetfulness.' So I try to make the light in others' eyes my sun, the music in others' ears my symphony, the smile on others' lips my happiness."

#inktober day 16: unreal city

I saw some city sketches I really liked the other day, and I wanted to try my hand at it. :) 

Unreal City
Under the brown fog of a winter dawn, 
A crowd flowed over London Bridge, so many,
I had not though death had undone so many.
Sighs, short and infrequent, were exhaled,
And each man fixed his eyes before his feet, 
Flowed up the hill and down King William Street
To where Saint Mary Woolnoth kept the hours
With a dead sound on the final stroke of nine.
. . .
Sweet Thames, run softly till I end my song,
Sweet Thames, run softly, for I speak not loud or long.
. . .
What is the city over the mountains
Cracks and reforms and bursts in violet air
Jerusalem Athens Alexandria
Vienna London
Unreal

T. S. Eliot

(We've been studying "The Waste Land" in my English class and I've fallen into the deep dark hole of Eliot obsession once again. So yep:) )

#inktober day 15: "nothing! no ideas! useless! empty! brain!"

Ugh. I need to give myself more time to work on these things because today I had the hardest time coming up with anything. I have fifty jillion ideas that I abandoned because they weren't what I wanted :/

Big Hero 6 said it best: 

(pardon the melodrama and be assured, I'm actually okay. it's just that it's very late and I am very tired. things will look better in the morning :) )

#inktober day 14: more blue

#inktober day 13: swan song of a pen

My pen was close to expiring the whole time I was inking this, but I managed to finish before it completely died on me! Farewell, faithful pen. Maybe now I'll actually get around to going by Michael's and picking up some of those copic markers I've been eyeing for a while (or maybe I'll just get another one from the desk drawer. Let's not kid ourselves about the amount of time I'm going to have this weekend to go art-supply shopping: it will be limited in the extreme if it exists at all.)

And now, to bed. It's been a long week and the longest day is coming tomorrow. Toodle pip and cheerio, readers-I'll see you tomorrow!

#inktober day 9: "no need to call me stepmother . . .

. . . Madam will do."

(yes, she is awful . . . but I had so much fun with that dress!)

#inktober day 8: have courage & be kind

I LOVE the Cinderella movie:) I was reading this neat interview with the costume designer and it inspired today's Inktober!

#inktober day 7: concept

I've been wanting to do a lil comic based on this cool short story we read in German last year. The main character is a little old man, which is a good opportunity for me to learn how to draw those types of characters. So here's a concept of the main character:)

#inktober day 6: playin' the blues

More colored pencil and ink :)