I Was Doing So Well Posting On Here On A Schedule

And then I don't know what happened. It has been like a week since I sat down and worked on this. I really do think it is my grandfather. He sucks all the quality out of me and leaves me with nothing to write about. Argh. Working with him makes me so tired I can't do anything else when I get home.

I have big news though! Other than having all creativity and energy sucked out by my grandfather, I have had a really productive past week.


I:
1) got to see my aunt who came to visit all the way from Austin. It was a surprise and we had a lot of fun and I got to show her a lot of my artwork that she hadn't seen.

2) played dress up with my friend Chekeitha and then, after like two hours of trying on clothes, we decided to go out that night to the club because this place called 2009 was free all night for ladies. I have to say that for a spur of the moment thing, we had a lot more fun than we thought we were going to have.

3) got to see a dance battle!! I kid you not. While Chekeitha and I were out at the club these guys came down on the mostly empty dance floor at 2:30 in the morning and had a dance off that lasted like 20 minutes.

4) watched Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince for the first time. It suddenly sparked my desire to read again. I demanded that my mother bring me books from the library (where she works, I'm not just making crazy demands for things that I can go get myself.)

5) got to hang out with a friend that I haven't seen in a while and it was her birthday so she invited me out and I got to meet all her cool friends. They invited me to Spaghetti Sunday and then to float the river with them next week. I really want to go but I really don't like camping (read: I hate camping with a passion). But you know what I don't really mind at all? Sleeping in a car. I'm totally cool with that. So if I do go on this trip with them, then I'm going to have to insist that I get a trunk space or a back seat to sleep on instead of a crummy old tent on the ground with bugs and dirt where something is always wet even though it hasn't rained in forever. I hate camping.

6) was forced to reorganize my artwork out in the garage into the closet out there. It was really hot and not everything fit but I really like how it turned out and I hope that all my frames and foam board will stay accessible (that was a big problem lately). I also reorganized my closet and it looks really nice. I'm sort of excited about that too. I like it when things are organized.

Oh yeah, and 7) I GOT A JOB! (contingent on a background check that I'm sure to pass) I know! I'm really excited about it. My friend told her manager about me when she heard that they were looking for a store artist over at the Central Market in Plano. I applied and was called in for two interviews. I got even more excited about it when I talked to the GM for an hour and he really tried to explain the creative vision that he wanted and why he thought it would be a good idea to hire another store artist. I'm gonna be store artist #2. It's only part time but that's a step in the right direction!

Woohoo! So I did get something done while I was away and not posting on this blog that no one reads.

On the creative side of things, I did some character outlining the other night and did some doodles like I always do. Not much else. I haven't even touched those watercolors I was working on so hard the past month. I am actually going to finish this blog though and try and write something. I need to get my butt in gear and get some more of that done!

Argh.
KB

I Heard Somewhere That Giraffes Are Gay

Like homosexual gay, not gay in the rude way. I looked it up and yeah, the males fight each other and then sex it out when they are done. Their fighting is called necking so I guess it's just natural to go all the way after "necking" for an hour.

I bring this up because my friend Vicky's favorite animal is the giraffe (she's not gay, though). I told her I would make her wedding announcements but she hasn't picked a date or anything (well, she has the dress but that's it). I really wanted to add her wedding invitations to my design portfolio so I decided last night that I was just going to make her invitations anyway. Without her. For a totally fictional time and place. I can change it later but I wanted this in my portfolio now.

Here's what I got:

BAM! That's a pretty good, one day fake wedding announcement don't you think?

I thought that, since I had finished it so quickly and I was really proud of my Photoshoping skills, that I would quickly get on here and share. That's all.

I think I'm going to bed. My back hurts and it's nearly 3 AM.

KB.

Edit: 8/12/13 8:20 PM

Here's the RSVP that matches the invite.

I've Got a Sketchbook And I'm Finally Using It!

I am a sketchbook addict. I love to draw but I haven't been able to in the past like, year. There was a lot of stuff going on that kept me from being able to sketchbook. Time constraints, fatigue, I just wasn't feeling it for a long time, etc.

But! Joy of joys, I have started again!

Now, I sketchbook for fun so these look nothing like my paintings. My doodles are very cartoon like and I often illustrate my stories because sometimes the ideas come out in images instead of words. I'll share with you what I have doodled in the past two days. I'm really excited about it.

I guess I could tell you a bit about each of the things I doodled.

This girly is Josephine. She has a lot of hair and she is really tall. She's from this idea for a children's or young adult fantasy story that I write in on and off that I loosely call Dreamweaver.

She is cast out of her village because her family upset the witch on the mountain. Josephine was always treated kind of funny by her village anyway because she was so much bigger than everyone else. She really has no other choice but to seek out the witch and apologize for her family.

So that first one was a really defined character that exists in my head, right? Well this picture I drew because I was watching Magnum P.I. and he was getting an award for saving a cat.

That's why I drew a picture of a girl holding a cat.

Also, I don't think I am all that great at drawing cats.


Below is another set of characters that go with a story of mine.

Okay, so I really, really like young adult fiction. It's sort of ridiculous how much I love young adult fiction so that's really what I like to write. It's not fair because I want to be all serious and write something that might change the world some day...


But alas, all that comes out of me is teen fiction. Not bad teen fiction!  I think it is loads better than some of the stuff that is out there that gives teen fiction a bad rap (also, the things that teens decide to read is crap and a lot of the really good stuff gets passed over).

Anyway. These two are from a story that I started in 7th grade. I'm really glad I didn't finish it then because I know a lot more than I did then and really reading my writing from that time is a little painful. These guys have lived in my head since then and they like to be drawn every once in a while.

By he way, he isn't naked or anything. I just don't like drawing clothes sometimes.

Okay, a lot of the time I don't like drawing clothes. But I am a fine art's major so I have drawn a lot of naked people in my time and when I'm sketching, clothes are a lot less important than balancing the image of getting the expression correct. Clothes are an after thought!



Look! I put clothes on this one-->

This is a picture that I drew of that character I have been writing about recently.  This is sort of what Artemis looks like right now. I had to have a picture of her if I was going to have pictures of the other main character. It just wouldn't be fair.

And pictures spark my imagination so at some point in my story, Artemis is going to deliver a baby.

Alright, this lady is actually inspired by this creepy doll that we have at my house. She has huge curly brown hair and a black dress and mysteriously moves around the house on her own.

She is currently sitting atop an evil looking iron cast pig with wings and she has this fabulous pink shrug. I did another picture of her and I called it "She Rides a Flying Devil Pig."

She may or may not be the evil witch in the same story that Josephine is from. 





Yep, just two days worth of sketching. That's how much I love to draw. I did three or four of these the same day that I did that really detailed painting of that girl. That was a really good art day.

I also re-watched every episode of the BBC's Sherlock series that day. So even my entertainment was top quality.

Maybe someone will understand this crazy compulsion to draw. I'm right here with you, random stranger! Stay strong!

KB

I Should Probably Do This Whole Publicity Thing, Huh?

God, it is hard enough to actually sit down and write a blog when there are so many other things that I could be doing but I also need to get it out there in the world and make people read it? That is just too much. Maybe if I just apply to enough jobs and they do an internet search on me and this blog pops up they will be engrossed and keep returning to read my wonderful stories and meaningless rambles.

So today I have been trying to update as much of my stuff for optimal searchability. Yesterday was much funner because I got a lot of art done. I wanted to share because I really like one of the paintings I started yesterday. I'm a really fast painter so this was only like six hours of painting.

I didn't like the way this was coming along until I added the hair. Hair makes such a difference. And a background. this looked terrible without a background so I threw one down real quick and it came out like this. I really like it a lot now. I have to finish the arms and the shirt, give it a tiny bit more contrast and this is done!

This is really the painting that made me go, "Yep, this is what my next series is going to look like. Really detailed portraits of girls/women."

I was getting the feeling from this other painting I am working on. (I have to work on multiple paintings at a time because watercolor takes so long to dry so while the back ground on this one was sopping wet, I picked up this other one I had been working on.) I really liked what I was doing with this other one and I do feel like they go together (which is really important if I'm going to be making a series from these girls.)

I posted this one yesterday but she was as done as she is here and I got a better picture any way.

I think this is going to turn out really well.








KB

My Newest Ladies

I've been gone for a while now, sorry to whomever might care I wasn't here to post randomness no one reads anyway. I went to a wedding in Stillwater, Oklahoma this weekend. That's where I went to college and so did the two getting hitched. They also went to my high school and, along with my friend Darby, were the only Garland grads to make it to OSU. Not that making it into OSU is a big deal. The friend that just got married told me that if you could breathe, you could get into OSU. I thought that was a little mean until I actually got to the college. I thought it was even meaner when I meet people who couldn't make it straight into OSU.

I digress. I went to this wedding in Stillwater and staid with my friend, Karen in Tulsa. I really like Tulsa. And I really like Karen. I miss her a lot since we live so far away now. It's a lot closer than she was a year ago, she was living in South Africa a year ago. Oklahoma is a smidgen closer to me than that. So now I can go and see her on occasion. She was my date to the wedding and we had a blast while we were there (can you say open bar and a photo booth?)

And then on Monday I got up late and spent the rest of the afternoon baking cakes for my friends's birthdays. I made a really good strawberry cake and a chocolate cake. After I got home from the party, I then put together a design portfolio and picked out my clothes for an interview I had in the morning at Central Market for their Store Artist position that one of the friends having a birthday told me about and hooked me up.

After the long and kind of strange group interview, I went to see my grandpa and give him a cupcake and some metal testing acids that I finally found at this place called Rock Barrel. Isn't that what every grandkid gives their grandpa? Acid? Actually, the last time my grandpa and acid were involved, I got chemical burns on my leg and a hole in my jeans. He had claimed it was the best way to strip paint off some copper fan blades. I heard the paint brush cry out in pain, sizzle and die in my hand when I dipped it in the acid. Thankfully, what I gave him wasn't that kind of acid. I think.

He responded by giving me a bunch of art books that are actually really cool. They are about portraits and sketching. The two things that I absolutely love. So I looked those over and then, feeling really tired, when home and thought crawling in bed to rest was a good idea. It wasn't, I didn't wake up for 20 something hours. I don't know why but I was dead tired and felt really sick. Whatever it was, I'm over it now. And that is why I haven't posted in 8 days. Ta-da!


The real reason that I got on here to post a blog is to update on my art work! I have been rushing to get some work done for when my turn comes up at JR's Bar. What happened was that I accidentally put together a full set of art work that I need to get professionally photographed and post on my website. Here is just a taste though. Remember that I took these on my phone in my living room, not the best art photography that I've ever done but it gets to point across.

I ended up painting what I love to paint, which is portraits of women (also the title of one of the art books my grandpa gave me). I think the series is pretty cohesive, with the exception of the blonde girl, and I think that when I get a few more knocked out (that last picture isn't finished yet and I have quite a few more waiting in the wings) I can start shopping around galleries with my two complete collections to possibly show. I know I haven't done that yet but life kind of got in the way. Now I have sort of decided that I really do want to do stuff like this so I am going to get a little bit more serious about this sort of stuff.

I have a few of them framed already (which is going to make taking photos of them a pain, not that photographing work isn't already a pain) and frames waiting for a few more. That's the biggest expense at the moment. I have tons of paper and I just keep buying it like I have an addiction. It really is a problem because I also don't have enough space for all this watercolor paper. Argh!

I hope that I can get a few commissions off of this series too, and not just people wanting paintings of their pets. That sort of thing puts me off painting all together. I really don't want to make a living painting cats. That sounds like hell to me. Why can't people love their children as much as their dogs? Oh well.

I think next time I will post some of the photo booth pictures that I took with my friends at the wedding. You'll get to see what I really look like (Gasp!). Well, that one lonely internet surfer will get to see photos of me. Go you one lucky internet surfer.

Alright, it is bed time for me. Nighty-night.

KB