Really great at starting things...not so good at finishing/keeping up with things

I am halfway done with Einstein I think.  I had to get different paper before I started because the charcoal was not sticking to the paper I chose.  My mom picked me up some special charcoal paper, and the charcoal stick okay, but now I'm having issues with the paper peeling.  I don't know what's going on.  Oh, well, I just have to be careful.  I took a 5 week summer drawing class and I drew one of my pictures I took in Sedona. In real life it's 18' by 24".  The picture does a bad job showing what the drawing looks like in real life. 

 

I had so much fun doing this landscape drawing.  Before this class, the only things I drew were portraits and I thought drawing landscapes would be boring and hard. I kept thinking of drawing ten-thousand individual leaves on a tree and that did not sound like fun.  Turns out, landscape drawing is just a bunch of smudgy values to create the illusion of texture of a tree or a rock, etc.. 

I really liked how this turned out so I decided to choose another one of my own landscape pictures for my final drawing.  Something with lots of trees so I could smudge values to my heart's content! Anyways.  Here's a picture of my final drawing.  I decided to incorporate some colored pencil. This is also on high-quality handmade drawing paper that I bought specially for my final drawing.  

I think it's 20" by 30"

I took this picture last summer in France.  This is just a random bridge in some beautiful random greenery at Leonardo da Vinci's last residence.

I've also painted a couple of things and sewn alot since my last post in March, but I'm terrible at taking pictures of what I make.  I will try to do better next time so I can actually post here more often!

Albert Einstein Charcoal Drawing

I've begun the prep work for my latest project.  I'm doing a charcoal drawing of Albert Einstein for my friend Tyler.  I haven't done a charcoal drawing for a long time and I'm really excited to get back to it! Here's a few pictures because what would a blog post be without 'em. 

 I'm using this brilliant photo taken by Yousuf Karsh.

I need a coffee refill!

 I'm doing a grid technique which will help me get more precise proportions(great for the perfectionist that I am).  Basically, I draw a square grid over my photo.  Then I rub charcoal over my entire paper and use an eraser to make grid lines on the paper that have the same amount of squares as my photo.  Then you work square by square.  If that makes sense.  

 About to rub charcoal on my paper! ....But.  I used the wrong kind of paper.  I just used what we had lying around the house (watercolor paper), and the charcoal would not stay on the page!

YAY! More coffee!!

 See?  It's suppose to be evenly covered.  And it's not.  So I bought new paper specifically for charcoal, and now it's just a matter of redoing the taping/measuring and charcoaling.  I will hopefully get to this Tuesday night!  Bye for now!  

I'M BACK!

Hello everyone! I know.  I have been gone from this blog for a very very long time.  You probably thought I left for good.  In all honesty, I thought I had! But I've decided to pick it up again! And I gave it a design remodel.  (I was getting tired of Purple and Teal.  Too much color. aahh, my eyes.)

I just created a fun website using wix.com.  You can follow the link here.

I would like to eventually start a new shop on Etsy but that will take time and planning.  The mistake I made when I started my first Etsy shop is that I rushed into it.

Starting a new Etsy shop is just an idea I'm playing around with in my head.  I have lots of cool ideas but I need to actually sit down and put them together.  Which means it might have to wait for Summer break (8 more weeks!!!!! woohoo!!!)

Speaking of school, I just kinda sorta switched from a business major to a fine arts major.  So that's all going down in Fall 2013.  AND I'M SCARED.  And I don't know anything. And I'm afraid that I'm making a huge mistake.  And what if I'm wasting my time? That said, fall is kind of going to be my test semester for fine arts.  I might decide to also major in business.  That would just mean I would have to spend probably an extra year at community college to get both of my associates degrees.  I'm not sure what I want to do yet, but I have time (that's what everybody tells you when you are in college). 

ANYWAYS... this blog used to be all sewing but I've decided to also add my art and anything else I might be creating.  I also might post random little musings like this on my blog, but don't worry, I will try to keep these to a minimum! 

So be ready for me to post really anything I might be making and thoughts in general about the art world. Thanks for reading!

Best of 2010

I was looking through the BurdaStyle album "Best of 2010" and 2 of my projects were in it! God has really blessed me this year.

Screenshot.

Here's the link: Best of 2010
Photo 12 is of the prom dress and photo 48 is of the Urban Outfitters inspired bag.
There's lots of other fantastic projects in that album.

Lots of Projects

I haven't posted in forever.  It's because of that time thing, you know? I've made several things, let me just show the pictures. They are in order from oldest to newest.  A total of 4 projects finished.  3 of which were completed during break. 

 This is Leigh Anne's dress.  She was asking me for it for a long time... I finally finished it. 

It was inspired from this dress (hope it's ok i'm using this picture KK)

Flower ruffle detail

Tie in back... a little longer than I wanted it to be... oh well.

Front.  And let me just say It looks and fits much better on the actual person. 

My mannequin doesn't understand curves.

This purse was for Hannah B.'s birthday present.  I was told her favorite color is purple.

I think my machine needle broke 5 times while sewing this. 

Inside - has three pockets and zipper pocket

This guy was easier to show in one collage of photos.  It's an owl wallet made out of leather.  My sewing machine actually put up with it.  I gave this to Hannah H. for her late birthday/christmas present. 

Yea, horrible picture taking lighting.

This is a purse I made for my grandma's Christmas present.

The weaving was the most time consuming thing ever. It took a full 8-10 hours to cut out every piece and sew it, and then turn it right side out, then iron it flat. I should have taken a pic of all the pieces together. 

This is the back. There are 2 pockets that close with small magnetic snaps.

Font with flap opened.

This is the inside.  1 pocket. 1 zipper pocket. 1 water bottle pocket.  My grandma always carries a water bottle with her so I knew she would like that pocket. 

And here's a small peak of Dusty's dress in the making.  I'm finishing it today! finally.