#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 28: eliza

I don't even know.

This is so bad but I have to do something aaaaa

IS INKTOBER OVER YET

#inktober day 24: "show me the key"

I've been loving the Secret Garden musical recently. It doesn't follow the book exactly, but it captures the spirit of it while still being original. And the harmonies will give you CHILLS. I haven't had the time to sit down and listen to the whole thing yet, but I've been listening to a few particular songs on repeat-I really love "Lily's Eyes", "Race You to the Top of the Morning", "Come to My Garden/Lift Me Up", "How Could I Ever Know", and "Hold On" (although I actually like the Motab version of that a bit better). Also, I really like "Winter's on the Wing" and "Show Me the Key". I could basically talk about it forever-but I don't have the time just now. So here's a quick sketch of Mary :)

Here's another one I really like: "I Heard Someone Crying". Lily's high notes are just perfection, and I love the harmonies. The best part starts at 2:03 when they're all singing over each other <3 <3 <3

#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!

aida

Kind of thinking about Aida when I drew this. :)

red and black

Enjolras is THE BEST. I just love him so much. Idealistic, fiery, heroic characters who want to Do The Right Thing are always my favorites, and Enjolras is definitely one of the best examples of this in all of literature! He truly understands why they're fighting as well as the price they might have to pay, which makes his unwavering commitment to liberty even more impressive. And he inspires me so much to fight for right in whatever small way I can in my own life as well. 

I've been learning to use Photoshop, and after half a year of Illustrator it's kind of an awkward jump. I'm starting small with learning how to use the background eraser tool :) so I practiced on this drawing of Enjolras from way back when. 

Also, I'm on Twitter now! I'm @theannamator and I'm looking forward to trying out some new social media. If you want to follow my personal account too, it's @anna_marie919. I haven't done much on there yet, but Amy Dashwood retweeted me this one time! That was pretty exciting ;) (she didn't follow me but I am choosing to ignore that fact because I want to think we're best friends now. Let me live in my delusion.)

P. S. A happy birthday shoutout to the lovely Nina! Go read her blog!

calamity // "the past is another land"

You know nothing about me
And care even less.

How could you understand our emptiness?

You've plundered our wisdom,

Our knowledge, our wealth. 

In bleeding us dry,

You long for our spirit

But that you will never possess!

The past is now another land

Far beyond my reach

Invaded by insidious

Foreign bodies, foreign speech

Where the timeless joys of childhood 

Lie broken on the beach.

The present is an empty space 

Between the good and bad 

A moment leading nowhere

Too pointless to be sad 

But time enough to lay to waste

Every certainty I had.

The future is a barren world

From which I can't return.

Both heartless and material,

Its wretched spoils not my concern

Shining like an evil sun 

As my childhood treasures burn

Shining like an evil sun 

As my childhood treasures burn.

I recently finished reading Calamity, the last book in the Steelheart series, and I was thinking about the song "The Past is Another Land" from Aida and how the song works well for the character Megan from the Steelheart series. So I did some fanart and a process gif for fun. I hope you like it! And if you've read the series, let me know what you thought! 

ye olde dress-up

I kind of have a thing for historical clothing! So here are a couple sketches I did while scooting through my historical costuming Pinterest board.

Regency gal throwing shade (I didn't have a particular character in mind when I started drawing this, but by the end I decided it was probably Caroline Bingley)

50s dress

"he's not a tame lion"

Hello everyone! This is a snippet from a WIP from my design class which I'll hopefully be able to share soon. Adobe Illustrator and I are becoming fast friends, despite my earlier frustration:)

Let me know which background color you like best! I'm kind of feeling the first one but I included the others because I'm trying to get comfortable with creating gradients.) Have a lovely week, wonderful readers!

#inktober day 25: a visitor from the night's plutonian shore

"Open here I flung the shutter, when, with many a flirt and flutter 
In there stepped a stately Raven of the saintly days of yore; 
Not the least obeisance made he; not a minute stopped or stayed he; 
But, with mien of lord or lady, perched above my chamber door-
Perched upon a bust of Pallas just above my chamber door-
Perched, and sat, and nothing more."
-The Raven, Edgar Allan Poe

Happy 25th day of #Inktober. . . or should I say #inkPOEber?

#inktober day 23: that's no moon

Quick Death Star playing around with water effects.

#inktober day 22: audrey 1956

Audrey Hepburn!

#inktober day 21: the future is now (GREAT SCOTT!)

Guess what today is? That's right, ladies and gentlemen. . .it's the day Marty McFly comes back to in the future!

I'm very sad that we still don't have commercially viable hoverboards available for consumer purchase. :( Oh well, I can draw hoverboards even if I can't ride them (yet?)

I've been pretty busy doing a lot of work for my design class (our first client came in and we have a lot of work to do. . .) and doing a lot of master studies to help myself improve. I'm learning a lot but it sure is time-consuming. Still, I figure that because I find time to do the things I don't really want to do but should, I can make time for drawing that I really DO want to do!

I'll even settle for a little pink hoverboard like this one! 

(I'm glad we don't dress like this in 2015 though!)

#inktober day 20: baymax

"I fail to see how flying makes me a better healthcare companion."
"I fail to see how YOU fail to see that it's AWESOME!"

#inktober day 17: Captain America

Captain America, as promised! :)

I did some more experimenting with shading techniques here. Capturing a wide range of values with only black and white is challenging, but I'm getting the hang of it a bit more every time I practice. I also worked a bit larger with this one than normal. It's a big step for a person who did most of her drawing in the margins of various worksheets and notebooks for years; I like drawing teeny tiny. Using a whole page for one drawing is still a little scary. But I DID IT!

Version 1

Tried to draw the shield on his back and it didn't work out so well. . .

. . . so I turned it into a star and I feel much better about it now.

#inktober day 16: hulkbuster

One of my younger brothers wanted me to draw the Hulkbuster suit from Age of Ultron. So I did, because although I will always a staunch supporter of Team Captain America (BEST. SUPERHERO. EVER.), I have to admit that the iron man suits are way cool! (that said, there may be some Captain American art in the works now because I refuse to let Iron Man be the only superhero on this blog when I love Captain America way more :) so stay tuned for that. . . )

I don't have a ton of experience drawing robotic mech-type things so this helped me figure that out more. Robots are cool, guys :)

I did a plain outline version and then in a moment of bravery I decided to shade it. Shading with ink is not one of my strengths so although it's not everything I hoped it would be, it was really useful to do and I think it's an improvement from some of my earlier stuff which will hopefully never be seen by human eyes. Anyway. Happy Inktobering to all!

#inktober day 11: step in time! UPDATED

I love Mary Poppins! And this shot in particular has been just begging for me to do something with it. So. Chimney sweeps :)

The colors on this are much, much better in real life. And the background is less grainy. But the silhouettes came out pretty nicely, I think!

10/14/15 update: messed with the colors digitally so here's another version with a bit nicer colors!

#inktober day 8: Mr E.H. Shepard

I had more time for Inktober today, so I did some studies of one of my favorite artists: E.H. Shepard! He's most famous for illustrating the Winnie-the-Pooh books and the Wind in the Willows-I watched the Disney Winnie-the-Pooh with my little brother tonight, which also sparked the idea :)

Shepard had a wonderful loose style, especially drawing trees and grass, and I love his character drawings as well. So much appeal! So much personality! I tend to be a bit more tentative with ink, so as I did these studies I worked especially at loosening up and not being afraid of the permanence of the medium. I learned a lot making these and I'm pretty happy with them!

The whole page

Shepard's design is quite different from the Disney version most people are familiar with, and you can't beat the Tigger Song (see below), but original book Tigger will always have a special place in my heart because I grew up with him :)

The wonderful thing about tiggers
Is tiggers are wonderful things!
Their tops are made out of rubber!
Their bottoms are made out of springs!
They're bouncy, trouncy, flouncy, pouncy
Fun fun fun fun fun!
But the most wonderful thing about tiggers is
I'm the only one!

Tiggers are cuddly fellas
Tiggers are awfully sweet
Everyone else is jealous
So that's why I repeat:

The wonderful thing about tiggers
Is tiggers are marvelous chaps!
They're loaded with vim and with vigor!
They love to leap in your laps!
They're jumpy, bumpy, clumpy, thumpy
Fun fun fun fun fun!
But the most wonderful thing about tiggers is
I'm the only one!

Winnie-the-Pooh! (this sketch is sadly my least favorite of the lot, but whatever I do will never truly do justice to the great Silly Old Bear himself. So I'm posting it anyway)

Shepard's trees are the best. I had a lot of fun doing these.

Thanks for reading!

dinosaurs and more

Hello lovely readers! School has just started and the crazy train is zipping full steam through life, so I've got a quick peek into some of my sketches for this post. I've been busy in art class learning how to use Adobe Illustrator, and while there have already been a lot of smacking-my-head-against-a-brick-wall moments, I'm slowly learning the program and it's been fascinating. We've been doing some fun typography stuff in class so maybe I'll get to share that later. And now to the sketches!

I'm pushing myself to draw less generic faces, so here are some  experiments with that. I was looking at some Klimt and John Singer Sargent studies recently so I think these were a bit influenced by that.

I really like the webseries Green Gables Fables and it's really good material for expression and movement studies, so here's some Season 1 stuff.

And some dinosaurs. I recently read this great article by Nicholas Kole (who makes some super inspiring art in addition to writing cool articles!) and it made me realize how crucial studying the natural world is to good design. . .and that led to some dinosaurs.

(Technically not a dinosaur, but still cool.)

Yay anatomically impossible lizard dinosaur things!

Thanks for reading, everyone. Have a lovely, wonderful day!