Artistically, I've been all over the map the past few months, bits and pieces of it popping up here. I'm having fun trying new things, stretching myself, trying out these new wings that say "artist" on them and seeing what I like, what I'm good at.

I've dropped a couple sketches I did this afternoon into my scraps folder. Sketches of people, even.

I wonder at what point I got it in my head that I was not an artist? A writer, yes, something I've been fixated on since I was in 4th grade. But I never in a million years imagined myself as someone who would be posting sketches of people on a public website. Oh, they may not be very good, but they're not terrible, either -- imagine if I'd had training in school? Or had been practicing drawing, even without formal art education, for the past twenty years? Imagine what I'd be doing now!

I'm glad I figured it out, though. And I hope I never plant in my own children the same strangling weed of wrong belief that someone, somewhere once planted in me. We can do anything, you know. If we just put our minds to it. Every one of us.

The artistic process is a funny thing. It's odd how when you're working on something, you can go from being absolutely in love with it, to absolutely hating it, to absolutely hating it, to absolutely loving it again, all within the space of a few minutes. In this case, all it takes to make my inner editor flip flop is a few clicks of the mouse, a little smudge here, a little different color there...

I didn't mean too, but I was so happy with my Edouard portrait that I had to go ahead right away and start on Mark. I couldn't believe how fast he went from look from some blobs of digital paint to something actually resembling a person. With Edouard, the eyes were the first thing to come together, the first detail that made me want to keep working on the picture as a whole. How could I not finish, with those eyes watching me? Naturally, Mark's eyes are being much more troublesome. I'm probably on my fourth revision already. His nose was actually the first feature that I accomplished this time around, which is quite surprising, and I think I can avoid having to do more than the suggestion of an ear. The hair was being difficult, but I think I have if figured out now, though I'll have to wait until I finish his clothes in before I do the final version. The clothes themselves could be a trial...though the dimensions of this picture are actually smaller, the scale is smaller, too, and shows more of his upper body. Hopefully, my dolling experience will help out there!

Of course, the biggest obstacle is the fact that Mark's description (he's an RPG char, for those who don't know) says that he's "handsome", so I have to make sure he is. Which is harder than it looks, especially given that there are so many different opinions of what makes someone handsome. Hopefully I'll be able to fulfill the mental pictures of at least a few of you!

Ok, enough rambling here. Gotta go make some eyelashes or something...

Been having ever so much fun on Deviant Art since getting cable internet a week ago. I can actually browse through art now without having to wait 5 minutes for every thumbnail on the page to load. Man, there is some great stuff here, and I've been slapping favs and watches left and right.

I haven't been making any art myself, however...I haven't even made any dolls in nearly six months. I do have some images I want to make LJ icons from. Eventually. Actually, I was inspired last week by ~adren-00 (sorry...no clue how to link1) to muck around with a digital character portrait in photoshop, but it's not in any condition to show anyone yet. There's also a pile of half-finished paper art projects I need to finish up. Someday.

Well, must take the wee singing one off to school. More later.

These first images of mine are from my webwork, The Book of Ten Queens. Not much else to say about it!