Day 29/365: Boredom.

Today, I can finally tell you I have a new drawing for you.
Well... Not brand spanking new. I drew the pencil lines two days ago or whenever, but I did all the outlining and the coloring today. So most of it was done today. XD

Please, for the love of all that is holy, lighten your computer screen settings before you take a serious look at this. It looks fine on a flat LCD screen, but looks like shit on my computer. 

This was the piece that I was going to do for the "blue" theme. But oh well. Boredom is a pretty broad topic.

But... yeah. I would like to do this piece again with clean coloring on the computer, but I will probably never have enough money for a tablet, and drawing with a mouse is fucking hard, so... I'm not sure when or if it'll ever happen. We'll have to see.

So... I have a food journal entry to throw together, so I'll see you later. Stay tuned for tomorrow's theme, which I'm not going to tell you in order to make it a surprise. XD

Day 28/365: Bodies of water.

Today, to make up for using shots I've previously posted on my deviantart, you get three pictures.
Let's face it. I am not good at drawing water, at all, and I didn't want to take a new picture of the lake because... it's March. All the trees are brown and boring. It's muddy and there isn't really much color anywhere yet. Also, it was rainy and foggy all day today.

Instead, I present to you two reasons I am glad to live in Clear Lake.

This was taken on a cute boat called Lady of the Lake. It was because the restaurant I work at during the summer made a shitload of money when RAGBRAI (Basically, a huge bike ride thing) went through town, so they paid for a dinner and boat ride for employees.

This one, because I like the picture, and also because in my original posting of it, my ranting about litter amused me: "A picture of ducks. I know it's not a great picture, but can you see that piece of goddam litter? Wendys! Do you condone your idiot hick customers littering their shit all over the beach? I hope not!

And direct your attention to the people in the upper right hand corner of the picture. After they left, there was an empty plastic bottle of Sobe juice there.

You people PISS ME OFF. Is that the sort of shit you want to teach your kids?

Oh go ahead kids, throw your shit on the beach. There are only DUCKS that constantly roam this beach! Don't worry about it! It's not like it'll be floating around in the lake for 15 years!"

All humor aside, liter does really piss me off. This summer, actually, I'm planning to pick up lots of trash (like I do every year) only I'll be documenting it through pictures this time. I'm also going to write an editorial to the newspaper about it. And literally, the rant about fifteen years is not an exaggeration. I have found tons of weird shit washed up on shore. Among them, a chunk of carpet, an elastic underwear band, an actual pair of underwear, an attachment brush to a vacuum, a fishing license receipt from 2006 (this was in 2010), and get this: a tv set. Bigger than the one we have at home.

Also, granted it was squished in between some big rocks, but I found a can of pepsi so old that the contest being advertised on the can ended in 1991.

So yeah. Me and litter do not hang. Anyway. Here is the third picture, as promised.

This was taken in Wisconsin, at some state park who's name I can't pronounce. We took a little day trip up there to hike. I mean, it was light hiking. We're not the type with a bunch of shit strapped to our backs who spend all day out there. The mosquitoes were awful, even though we brought spray, and we were all sweaty by the time it was over, but it was fun. XD

Tomorrow's theme is "boredom", and considering how wide a topic that can be, I should have no problem producing a drawing for you. I may even finish up the one that I was going to use for yesterday, since I remedied the hand drawing situation... by erasing the hand and redrawing the arm so the hand didn't show. XD

Anyway, I'm off to do facebooky things, eat some banana cake, and write a food blog entry for today. Toodles.

Day 27/365: Blue.

I apologize. I had a great drawing planned for today, and I was actually almost done with the pencil outlines, but the stupid hand I was trying to draw was giving me a lot of trouble. A lot. I started getting really stressed about it, so I decided to set it aside for another day. There is surely another theme on my list that I could use that drawing for.

Never fear, though. Today's picture has never been posted before, so at least you're getting something new.

I got this shot through the car window, when we drove past the lake during the kite festival.

Every winter, my town has a Color the Wind kite festival, where people basically set up shop on the frozen lake and fly giant kites and whatnot. We've actually gotten out and taken pictures before, but this particular time, we decided to just drive past it. I was lucky enough to get this shot while the car was moving. Albeit, not very fast, because it was basically like a caravan of cars slowly parading past the lake, but still.

Anyway, I'm off to do other random internety things.

Day 26/365: Blood.

Today, I took artistic license with the word blood. Since I didn't feel like fucking around with the red food coloring, the corn syrup, and shit like that, I decided to draw on myself with a red crayola marker and call it good.
Forgive me for not droning on and on, but my wrists, hands, and fingers are killing me, and it hurts to type.

I'm finally learning to play around with the exposure compensation setting on my camera, which is what allowed this picture to happen.

Here is an alternate shot that I don't like quite as much but felt it prudent to include.

There are several other shots of this nature involving little hearts drawn on my fingers, but I'm too lazy to edit them right now. These two are unedited, having come straight off the camera exactly how I wanted.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to throw together my food journal blog and then I'm watching Spirited Away on the computer, since mom's got the tv.

Day 25/365: Blind.

Today, I took artistic license with the word "blind" and used a lyric from Blackbird by the Beatles. I had an epic drawing planned out, which you still might see, reworked to fit another theme on the list.

This week, I've been kind of distracted artwise, and I apologize for that. My brother is home from college only until Sunday afternoon, since this is his spring break. While it's true that there is only about a month after that until he's home for the entire summer, I still haven't wanted to be in my corner, knelt over a huge, intricate drawing.

Next week, when he goes back to college, I'll have more energy to devote to drawing or new photography.
I enjoy keeping this blog and all, but I think what I'm learning is that my drawings are not meant to be churned out every day. I mean, when I look at how frequently I drew before (which wasn't a whole lot. I might have produced two or three really good drawings in a month) and then I look at this project, which calls for a new piece every day? There's no way I could have them all be drawings.

I am going to continue to draw for this blog, but I don't want to feel like I'm letting you all down if I post a picture or a collage, or something.

Anyway, now that I'm through rambling, we can get on with today's picture.

It's a little collage of Paul McCartney. The background picture is one I took, in our house, of a window. Yes, we have both blinds and curtains on them.

I haven't done a collage of that nature for a while. Usually I don't screw with the opacity anymore, which makes them look clearer, but they're a lot harder to make. I thought I'd pay homage to the type of collages I used to make all the time.

I'm trying not to be all OCD about this. I keep thinking there is an edge of a picture I forgot to erase, but really, it's just the shadows of the blinds in the background picture. LOL

Anyway, I've got to throw together an entry for my food journal, so I'll catch you all later. I'm not telling you what tomorrow's theme is so you can be surprised. XD

Day 24/365: Black.

Considering I wasn't home all day, I reserve the right to use a picture I've posted on my deviantart.
Literally. I got up at 6:30 this morning, we left for my grandma's at about 7:30, and I just got home an hour ago. So I don't feel at all bad about using something that isn't technically new.

That was a picture I took in 2009, of graffiti on the side of a building in town. They left it up for months and months, but I believe they had it removed before July 4th of that year, since July 4th is kind of a big deal here in town.

I'm sorry. I completely forgot about this blog until like half an hour ago. I'm afraid I exhausted a whole lot of artistic energy making yesterday's piece, so I had literally no idea what I was going to do today. Seeing as the picture yesterday took me hours to finish, today wasn't going to be a super intricate work of art anyway.

Still. I think I'm going to take more pictures for this blog anyway, seeing as photography is my true love, I think.

I mean, I love to draw, paint, use pastel crayons... Hell. I even write the occasional Labyrinth fanfic on the side, even though I don't think my writing is very good. Still. I feel like photography is my passion, over everything else.

Tomorrow's theme is blind. I have an idea that I may end up using for that, but I don't know. I might change my mind between now and then. So we'll see.

Day 23/365: big events.

So, you know the little picture in honor of Japan that I mentioned yesterday? I decided the shitstorm that Japan has had hurled at them recently qualifies as a big event. It's a huge event. I can't even imagine that level of devastation. It's just... hard to believe. I feel for them.

Now, I don't want any of you shmucks bitching about "Oh, this many people didn't freak out about Katrina, or Haiti, or, the Gulf oil spill, or blahblahblah" or "You just care more about the disaster in Japan because you're an anime tard" or whatever bullshit you like. I don't care. It's a tragedy, and since I'm absolutely flat broke, I can't exactly ship them off a huge crate of money.

I'm sorry. You'll have to excuse my "bitch" mood swing. Mother nature and her lovely gift are still lingering around moodwise.

Now for the picture.

The background picture is not mine. NOT MINE. Go here: Go here. These people sound pretty awesome.

Also, I really hope it's not against their background stock rules to post this picture here. I'm sending them a link to this entry as soon as it's finished.

Now, I have to tell you... I am pretty much a noob at pixel art, pixel dolling, any of that stuff. So be nice. Also, this isn't going to look right unless you look at it on a regular computer screen, not an LCD flat screen. It will look washed out and bad on a flat screen.

Anyway, it's a little abstract tribute to one of my favorite Hayao Miyazaki movies, Howl's Moving Castle. I've been on somewhat of a Studio Ghibli kick lately, due in part to a newfound love for a composer named Joe Hisaishi, who composes music for a bunch of Miyazaki movies. But yeah.

I have a raging headache, and I'm starting to ramble, so I'm going to cut the entry off here. I still have my food journal wordpress blog to throw together. Tomorrow's theme is "black", so stay tuned for that.