Super Heroes

Because I wish I could save the world, but I would rather draw instead.

Enjoy! Give me some requests if you have a favorite super hero!

Digital art update -- Happy Holidays!

I haven't posted in so long! I've been way too busy with trying to use tumblr, and also holiday and new toys!

One of two simple designs I made for possible holiday card ideas. Be merry!

Here's what I've been working on!

Roller girl I did this morning! Trying to work on my shading...

Snowball fight tutorial inspired by the infamous snowball fight on the U O campus! (I was there!!!)

A sketch I wanted to develop digitally. The black and white turned out way better than the color. 

Bear person? I made a series of girls wearing animal cloaks, but never got around to coloring them because I am so easily distracted when I sketch anything new. 

This is really old. I was playing with brushes and colors... which is why it looks so bad.... Sorry!

I hope everyone enjoys their holiday celebration break whatever! And please check out my tumblr where I post my sketches and other experiments. I'm trying to learn how to color digitally, so it's fun to see all my experiments with that! Promise! Here it is: http://drawingsbymary.tumblr.com/

Happy Holidays!

Mary

Some really cool stuff! And a tumblr!

I haven't been posting a lot... I have been super busy as my final is TOMORROW!
And then I get to spend ALL BREAK singing and dancing and drawing and being merry [Mary].

Anyway, I got a tumblr! So follow me here: http://drawingsbymary.tumblr.com/
I post a lot of my doodles and sketches there!

I just finished something last night-- the first digital piece that I am actually proud of!

I am gonna make it the banner for the site (soon maybe?)

I just finished this about two minutes ago:

I heard South was doing Othello, but apparently it got cancelled. Still gonna make a mock poster for it! This is Desdemona. I will reveal the rest of the poster as I finish it! YAY!!

SO GO FOLLOW ME ON TUMBLR RIGHT NOW.

Happy Holidays!

Experiments. As always.

My trial version of Photoshop finally ran out. For some reason, it lasted twice the length it should have... well, beggars can't be choosers.

Joe had been nagging me to get Pixelmator for a really long time, but I felt so overwhelmed that I refused and used GIMP (which is super glitchy but really simple.) So today, I finally got Pixelmator (as a trial) and it works AWESOME.

It's like the little brother of Photoshop with is not intimidating at all but has awesome features and runs really smoothly. Highly recommended. But, this is my first creation with Pixelmator! I am really impressed by it. Woo!

Cloudia

I have never been this excited for the holidays!

(Maybe that's a lie.)

But my brother is back, and I cannot wait to have my family be all together again.

I made this for my Arabic teacher. It says "كل عام و انتم بخير" which literally means

"Every year and you all are well"

I love it, it's so simple and kind, and it's basically what you say for a holiday. 

I made this also, which will hopefully act as the cover for my thank you cards this year! I gotta put in an order for them.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving to anyone reading this!

Finally getting back!

I had to take a little break from the drawing... because... school. Which is really upsetting, but the other night I stayed up super late and finally did some fun stuff!

Now.. it looks like my eyes are permanently bloodshot from the amount of screen-staring I have done recently, and it's not even halfway over! I cannot wait for Thanksgiving break.

Let's see if I can survive the last 3 days before break! Starting... now.

Happy Saturday!

For Brian

Really I painted this for my grandpa, but Brian is also my really good friend.

Landscapes? Really?

I was talking to my art student teacher person about stuff, like movies.
I was telling her that I was really amazed by the consistency of cartoons- I had been watching a lot of Miyazaki recently (obviously...) and she cringed at the thought of the anime eyes (Which I don't think are that bad.)

She mentioned to me how beautiful the landscapes were, and I realized that I never really had payed much attention to them. I then went back and watched like... 3 movies. And EVERY scene is gorgeous! All of the backgrounds painted to be viewed as a backdrop for 2-10 seconds. But they were beautiful, and henceforth I was set on a new project: landscapes! and stuff...

My first idea was to recreate the submarine from Ponyo (it looks so beautiful in the movie) but I didn't have much success.

And... I really was too lazy to add any detail. It was a first attempt, and I didn't want to strain myself...

Then, I decided to try something with more visible detail (the submarine picture was low resolution and really difficult to copy.) I found a beautiful scene from Castle in the Sky (Laputa) and as I began painting, I noticed that every bush, flower, tree, lilypad, or pool was so detailed that I could not possibly recreate it on a 9x12 piece of watercolor paper. The originals are done on large canvases. But I tried (and spent an unreasonable amount of time on it.)

So here it is!

(Unfinished really. But I was exhausted and decided that a cloud and a big splotch green field would be okay.)

I am actually so happy with it. It's my new desktop background.

Now, for my lit class about Genesis, we have to have a creative final project. I was thinking a Miyazaki inspired Garden of Eden, but we'll see. This blog will definitely be the first to see what comes of this...

Rainbow people

My beautiful friend Maia Watkins

My friend Katie's cat, Winston.

Lots of drawing!

Recently, I haven't had a lot of commission stuff to do. (Good or bad? I have no idea.)

And although I should be studying for my midterm tomorrow and writing my first draft of my Lit essay, I made some pretty cool art. I think. And I documented the process! Which I felt really cool about. Like maybe people care? Eh.

Here's the first thing I made, inspired by a instagram post by freepeople:

 Then I did more Miyazaki stuff because it's adorable and I refuse to believe that I'm the only one on my floor who loves the movies.

Kiki and Ursula from Kiki's Delivery Service

Shizuku from Whisper of the Heart

And here are the finals!

I just like to pretend that someday I will work for Ghibli bringing the storyboard artists coffee.

(This is really cute video of them making ramen for eachother)

Video of Miyazaki making ramen. Click this.

And here is the last thing. It's me!

Well, it's the self portrait I did of myself at midnight when I decided that studying was over. 

Well... I should probably get back to studying for my midterm. Or catching up on TV shows...

Pumpkins in the hallways

Halloween is SO SOON!

My hall seemed to come to an unsaid conclusion that carving pumpkins would stink up the place (at least, I came to that conclusion in my head) and so we all decided to paint pumpkins! There's a few in the hall, at least.

I took mine home and painted it with my acrylics!

Here's the front...

I was really proud of my landscape drawing abilities. Especially the trees and the clouds, but they aren't even a fraction as beautiful as the backgrounds in the films... Sigh...

And the best character. Period. 

Anyway, here it is! There's one problem though.

NOBODY ON MY FLOOR KNOWS WHAT IT'S FROM.

Maybe half the people on my floor haven't heard of Miyazaki films and don't even recognize the names of even the most popular ones! It's a disgrace. I just... I can't.

Sketches

What I do in lecture every day...

Oct. 23

For my wonderful boyfriend Joe.