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.