Sunday, July 31, 2011

Day 160/365: Hide.

Today, all the pictures I'm posting are new. Well. I took them in the spring of this year, but I haven't posted them anywhere before today, so they're new.


It was actually slow enough in town for me to be able to set my camera in the road. 


I liked the shadows those posts and chains were casting.


I thought that was a pretty cool triple shadow our thermometer was casting, so I took a picture. I like this shot because it looks like a movie still or something. I'm into pictures like that.


I noticed the sun was reflecting strangely off a plastic cup we have so I took a picture.


I was holding a pair of sunglasses in front of my camera lens, hence the reddish hue off to the right.

If you're wondering how these pictures relate to the theme... I've been told I have a knack for noticing things other people might pass without a second thought. I'm just weird. I like being odd and unique but sometimes it feels lonely because there are so few others that think the way I do. I'm sure they're out there, I just haven't connected with them yet. Oh well.


Tomorrow's theme is "hobby"... which is nice and vague, just the way I like it. XD





Saturday, July 30, 2011

Day 159/365: Historic.

Today, I'm going to post you two pictures that aren't that great but are special to me. They're the pictures I can trace back to the first moment when I thought "Hey, you know, this photography stuff is fun. I think this might be what I want to do in life". So it was historic only relating to me and my little world. But still historic in a way.
They were taken in the summer of 2006.

I can't remember if that was my footprint or Vanessa's.


This is the better of the two. In my defense, these were taken with my old 35mm camera that used to belong to my mom, so I couldn't really see what was going on. And I didn't really know what I was doing.


But... yeah. Today has been odd and roller coaster-y. I thought of drawing something but the inspiration just wasn't there. Tomorrow I hope to have something new for you all.

Friday, July 29, 2011

Day 158/365: Heal.

Today, I made you two brand new pictures without even thinking. I didn't know what today's theme was, but I remembered an idea I'd seen someone else do once a long time ago, and it just so happened to fit today's theme.


I wanted to include this shot for the sheer irony. A bunch of ripped up leafy bits and a flower... sitting on top of my brother's laptop. I should have taken the picture from a better angle so the rotation wouldn't be all wonky, but I had to be careful not to get my reflection in the shot.

This shot is my favorite.
That almost came out "this shit", and my first instinct was to put "this shit is bananas!". I figured you should know that since it amused me.

Next, I need to give you an update on yesterday's entry. You know, when I posted this:


which was inspired by the Thomas Dolby song "Oceanea".  Yesterday, I told you I posted a link to this picture on the Thomas Dolby facebook page, which he sometimes updates himself.
Well, I can't be sure if that was the case or if one of the people who updates it for him did it, but I feel like you should see this.


I had to stare at that post for a while to fully comprehend it. What this means is that it's quite possible that my favorite artist of all time actually saw something I made based on one of his songs. That made my somewhat shitty morning heaps and heaps better.
(I'll give you the short version: This morning my bike was messing up and I had to drag it home from the paper route, then the back wheel popped and we discovered said back wheel is crooked. Then I decided to make lemon raspberry bars and all my mother said was "[Using the oven] is going to heat up the house ").

But seeing that post totally made my damn day. I'm actually still getting chills just looking at that screenshot.
I've decided to start a bucket list. The first thing on that list is "See Thomas Dolby play live". Ideally I'd like to meet him as well, but beggars can't be choosers (or choosy, whichever version of the saying you're familiar with) so I'll take what I can get.

Anyhoo, tomorrow's theme is "historic" so... yeah. I'll think of something



Thursday, July 28, 2011

Day 157/365: Heart's desire.

Today... I am posting something new. By new, I mean the watercolor painting you're about to see has sat nearly finished for a couple months, but I just scanned it today. So it's new in the sense that nobody on the internet will have seen it before today. I posted a bad webcam preview when I had all the lineart inked, but nobody has seen it in this incarnation.



Please, listen to the song it was inspired by.

It also took a great deal of inspiration from the photos used in the slideshow.

There were supposed to be some mountains in the background of my painting, but I could only find our smallest, cheapest set of watercolors... the set that doesn't have black OR white, so I couldn't get the grey shade I wanted. I also had to piece together two scans because the picture is so big, and I attempted to make the seams less noticeable but you can still see them. Also, as a result of having to use two scans, I had to crop about an inch off the bottom. Nothing really important was going on there, you could just see more of the purple dress the ocean/earth/whatever lady had on.

I know it probably won't matter, but I posted a link to my picture on the Thomas Dolby facebook fanpage. Mr. Dolby himself occasionally updates that page, so there's a small chance that he'll run across it. I'm grasping at thin air with that assumption, but as the movie Chicken Run taught us (in not so many words) 'If there's a one in a million chance, then there's still a chance'.
Which was painfully optimistic for me to say. 

Before I forget to include an explanation... the painting fits today's theme because... Well because. Thomas Dolby is one of my favorite artists that is unlike any other favorite I have. Nobody else's music has spoken to me quite the same way Mr. Dolby's has. If I ever get a chance to see one of his concerts or to meet him, I will be able to die happy. XD

Anyway, before I delve any deeper into the world of shameless fantard rambling, I should probably go figure out something to eat for dinner.
Tomorrow's theme is "heal" so... yeah. Have fun with that.

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Day 156/365: Hats.

Do you remember yesterday when I told you I'd have something new for you?
The good news is, I do have something new for you. The bad news is... it doesn't involve a hat. However, I took the liberty of finding some old pictures involving hats. First I'll post those, then the new picture that isn't of a hat.


I was kind of depressed that day, and it shows.


You've probably already seen this, but I don't care.


This was me in the winter of 2009-2010. I was trying to think of something to make me smile. At the time I was in a Beatles obsession, so I thought about Paul McCartney in his underwear.


That is my reflection. I am wearing a hat, although that may be hard to see.

And now for the new picture, in which I am not wearing a hat.

My brother decided he wanted to put waves in my hair, but then he just decided to go all 80s on it and rat it out. The ring I'm wearing is his. My eyes look a little red, but I have allergies so that's to be expected this time of year. Also I was directly facing the sunlight so the sun was blinding me. My brother took the picture, btw.
As someone who hates a majority of the pictures taken of me, I can safely say I really like this picture. The only make up I have on is some yellow eyeshadow and a little bit of light blush.


Tomorrow's theme is "heart's desire", and I WILL post something new, and it WILL relate to the theme. :)




Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Day 155/365: Hate.

I apologize but today, you're getting old pictures. I did make it to Hobby Lobby today but all I bought was a package of two white gel pens. I decided against buying any more prismacolor markers because none of the colors really stuck out at me. I can get most of the other colors I need in some cheap pack of crayola markers. If I had money to burn I'd buy up a shitload of copic markers, but I'm poor.


Anyhoo, here we go.


This came up in my search because I was talking about hating winter. That was several years ago. Winter and I have a sort of mutual dislike now. There are times when I almost enjoy winter, but I still wouldn't say I "like" it, persay.


Pretty sure you've seen this already, but I don't have that many pictures that involve hate. The sign used to say "heating".


If there's one thing I hate, it's litter. I found this can floating in the lake. The design on the can is from 1994 but I'm pretty sure it hadn't been floating in the lake for 16 years... it looked too new. XD


Tomorrow's theme is hats. I'll have to take a picture in my fedora, or take a picture OF my fedora. I don't know. But it will be new. I promise. :)




Monday, July 25, 2011

Day 154/365: Harvest.

Today, you're getting the fruits of my drawing labor. The harvest, you might say.

Okay. That's a weak excuse, but I have only harvested one zucchini from my garden so far and I already made it into bread, so I don't have any freshly harvested vegetables to post pictures of.


Lyrics are from the A-ha song "Stay on these roads".


Hopefully the person who posted this video allows embedding. Otherwise, just search for "stay on these roads aha" in the youtube search bar.

I was going through all the A-ha music I have on this computer to see if there were any lyrics that fit the drawing, and "Stay on these roads" was one of the first songs whose lyrics I looked up.

Anyway, I plan on adding more color to the picture, but I like scanning things after I outline everything... just in case I fuck it up during the coloring process.

Anyway, tomorrow's theme is "hate", so we'll see how that goes. If I get to Hobby Lobby and buy a few new art supplies, it might inspire me to draw you something, but I doubt it. My artistic inspiration has been unpredictable, if it's present at all.
Now it's time to say good night (shameless Beatles lyric theft)... I meant to be in bed at least half an hour ago.

Sunday, July 24, 2011

Day 153/365: Happy.

Today, I'm posting a few pictures of flowers. I believe I took them in March of this year (can't remember), but I'm pretty sure I haven't posted them anywhere yet, so they're still new.











I lied to you yesterday when I said I would draw something. Well. I am working on a drawing... but it's in honor of what happened in Norway, and considering today's theme is happy, I didn't really feel that it would be an appropriate picture to post. Tomorrow's theme is "harvest", so you probably won't see it tomorrow either. You may possibly see it the day after tomorrow, but I'm not sure.




Saturday, July 23, 2011

Day 152/365: Haphazard.

Today, I didn't really feel like making anything artsy fartsy, so I'll be posting a random selection of shit from my photobucket account. You probably haven't seen it before, though, so whatever.

Lately, I just haven't been in much of an artistic mood. Hopefully I'll get better about that.


A picture I took in 2008, at the zoo.


Back when I was active on the Queen Online message boards, I wanted a small picture to put in my signature. So, I ended up making this little banner of just a few of the men I found incredibly attractive at the time. I still find them all extremely attractive.


A 150x150 Paul McCartney icon I made back in my Beatlemaniac days. You're welcome to use it, but if people ask, you should tell them where they can find my site.


A picture I took a few years ago.


A public access dock not even a five walk from my house.


A Paul McCartney wallpaper I made. I can't remember if it's 800x600 or 1024x768, but if you have a normal rectangular computer screen, it should work just fine.


Back when I knew where my Def Leppard dvd was, I liked to take screenshots. Because of the anti piracy software on the dvd, I had to do that by pausing the dvd and taking a picture of the screen with my digital camera.  You can probably see my reflection in there if you look hard enough.


Joe Elliot was really hot with long hair. Not that he wasn't super hot anyway. He just looked a lot better with long hair.


Seriously, I want to jump through the screen and tackle him.


This would be the amazing one armed wonder, Rick Allen, who is my favorite member of Def Leppard. I love them all, but Rick is my favorite. :)


Feast your eyes upon this beautiful icon. I painstakingly went through my entire Def Leppard and Rick Allen picture folders, cropping each one and saving a .gif frame, then using the freeware program unFreez to animate it. Go to Google, type in UnFreez, then click "I'm feeling lucky" to find it.


There is something I miss about the euphoria of my Def Leppard fanatic days. PS: To all hardcore DL fans: No pun intended. XD


I almost die of laughter every time I see this picture.

And... yeah. That's it for today. I had intended on trying to make you some new art. Sadly, I am back in the throes of a particularly horrible art block. After the art posting binge I went on when I discovered how awesome Peter Gabriel was, I knew it was only a matter of time until I hit a creative lull. These really suck.

I'll try to get back on board, but no guarantees as to when that will happen. Maybe if stuff is on sale the next time I'm at Hobby Lobby, I'll be inspired to make you some art, but I don't know.

Tomorrow's theme is "happy", and I will force myself to draw something, even if it is just a cute little anime sketch. 
















Friday, July 22, 2011

Day 151/365: Hands.

Today, I have two new pictures for you. And they're actually relevant. I don't have to stretch the limits of today's theme to make them fit.


This is a picture of my little fat fist. I took this picture in the car on the way home from Des Moines.


That would also be my hand. I noticed something printed on the car window was casting a shadow on mom's hand, but she moved too fast so I tried the idea out on my own hand. I would like to experiment more with that sort of thing, so you could call this shot a rough version of a good idea.

So.... yeah. Tomorrow's theme is "haphazard", so that should be fun.

Thursday, July 21, 2011

Day 150/365: Handicraft.

Hopefully drawing/coloring counts as a handicraft because it's what I'm using for today's picture. It's new, btw.


Just a little doodle with some text added for the hell of it.


And... that's pretty much it right now. Today has been pretty good I suppose. We finally got a break from the insane heat. We're not out of the woods yet, though, because weather.com says there will be a high of 91 tomorrow. It says 93 for Saturday, but back to 82 for Sunday so... hopefully they're right. I'm not sure how much more of that super high temp crap I can take.

Lately, I've been listening to lots of A-ha, but now I've got the urge to read lots of manga. I re-read Dramacon, which is my favorite manga ever, and it just put me in a manga mood.
That's actually what I'm running off to do after I submit this blog, and my food journal. Plus my fan is upstairs, and it's hot. And I don't want to lug it down here for a couple hours then have to carry it upstairs again before I sleep.

Tomorrow's theme is hands, so be ready for that. Lol.

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Day 149/365: Half

Today, the theme was something stupid, so I found another word that was between yesterday's and today's in the dictionary.
I don't know how well the pictures fit today's theme, but they were all taken today, and none of them have been edited in any way. So you could say I'm half assing it. ZING. Today's theme. :)
Tomorrow should be better, so don't fret.









And there you have it.
I really can't spend any more time on this. There is no air flow in here at all and I'm dying of heat. The sweat is  dripping off me. It feels so gross. The heatwave is supposed to break tomorrow or so, so maybe we'll get a break, but this is seriously brutal. I have no damn energy whatsoever.
I love summer, and by no means do I want it to end, but this heat is ridiculous, and it would be nice for a break.

Anyway, I'll talk to you guys tomorrow. Can't remember what tomorrow's theme is so it'll be a surprise again.





Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Day 148/365: Hair.

Today you're getting old pictures. I was literally gone all day at my grandparents' house, so I didn't have any time to make anything really.


This was done in Paint Shop Pro 8.


This was inspired by a bunch of Art Nouveau stuff. The hair was inspired by Alfonse Mucha's work. I wanted this to be a lot better, but will do for now.


This is a drawing I did in 2007. It's complete crap to look at now, but I guess it just shows how far I've come.


This was also done in 2007. 


A picture of me from 2008.


Yeah, pretty pathetic selection, and I'm sorry, but it's just too hot for me to go searching around anymore. I've got sweat dripping down my back, my front, and everything in between. It's disgusting. I'm going to go dump a bucket of water on my head now.

I don't know what tomorrow's theme is so you'll just have to be surprised. I will try my very hardest to have something new for you guys.