Kermit: I need you

On my brother's birthday, we all went to see the new muppet movie...

Kermiiiitt!

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Cover

Alice “cover” FINISHED! (I was going for a more story-book look with this one.)

Now for my favorite part which inspired the drawing:

“`But I don’t want to go among mad people,’ Alice remarked.

`Oh, you can’t help that,’ said the Cat: `we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad.’

`How do you know I’m mad?’ said Alice.

`You must be,’ said the Cat, `or you wouldn’t have come here.’”

-Lewis Carroll - Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter 6: “Pig and Pepper”

Moby Dick cover

“We then turned over the book together, and I endeavored to explain to him the purpose of the printing, and the meaning of the few pictures that were in it. Thus I soon engaged his interest; and from that we went to jabbering the best we could about the various outer sights to be seen in this famous town. Soon I proposed a social smoke; and, producing his pouch and tomahawk, he quietly offered me a puff. And then we sat exchanging puffs from that wild pipe of his, and keeping it regularly passing between us. If there yet lurked any ice of indifference towards me in the Pagan’s breast, this pleasant, genial smoke we had, soon thawed it out, and left us cronies.”

Herman Melville - Moby Dick, chapter 10: “A Bosom Friend”

finished piece for my Library's Benefit Auction that is to take place on the 10th! Woo!

Dreamin' Bout Those Dreamy Eyes

Yeah, More Bone fanart! I can't seem to get enough of these guys.

I couldn't decide whether I liked it better with the rainbow color overtop, or without... so you get both!

Moby Dick: Bro hug

I just really needed to draw a happy pic today. My gal Karly is coming over on Tuesday, and this is what I'm going to do to her when she gets here. >:D She's my best friend from childhood and conviently shorter than me... Makes it easier to give her these types of hugs.

This is Ishmael and Queequeg from Moby Dick, by the way! In case you can't recognize them in color!! On a technical note, I really botched up 'Queg's tattoos, and I don't think I gave the man enough bulk, either. I'm still getting a grasp of their designs... but, man, are they just so fun to draw! :D

Moby Dick: new hat

So, I got a chance later today to actually sit down... and so I read some Moby Dick (I'd like to get the book finished before I have to return to my schoolin'). I got the the part where Queequeg saves Toshtego, and then I was stupid and scanned ahead. I didn't read any plot, but I fell on this sentence that said Queequeg lost his hat during a boat-lowering for a group of whales.

Then I had to draw this.

Ishmael, Queequeg doesn't trust you judgement!

Conversation - Bone fan art

Just a little doodly piece I just finished. I should be doing other things.... But I am so distracted! Gah!

Moby Dick - Doodles

So, I'm working on reading Moby Dick by Herman Melville right now... I'm about half way through. It's hard to put down! I absolutely love Ishmael and Queequeg. They have such a strong and awesome friendship! And they, when together, are mostly always hilarious. Sarcastic humor at it's best!! I can't pick a favorite part... It's all good.

"If there yet lurked any ice of indifference towards me in the Pagan's breast, this pleasant, genial smoke we had, soon thawed it out, and left us cronies. He seemed to take to me quite as naturally and unbiddenly as I to him; and when our smoke was over, he pressed his forehead against mine, clasped me round the waist, and said that henceforth we were married; meaning, in his country's phrase, that we were bosom friends; he would gladly die for me, if need should be. In a countryman, this sudden flame of friendship would have seemed far too premature, a thing to be much distrusted; but in this simple savage those old rules would not apply." --Moby Dick, Chapter 10 : "A Bosom Friend"

"Let me make a clean breast of it here, and frankly admit that I kept but sorry guard. With the problem of the universe revolving in me, how could I--being left completely to myself at such a thought-engendering altitude--how could I but lightly hold my obligations to observe all whale-ships' standing orders, 'Keep your weather eye open, and sing out every time.'" --Moby Dick, Chapter 35 : "The Mast Head"

Elisa Rose

We had to put my goat, Elisa, down yesterday. We knew she had cancer for a few months, but it wasn’t affecting her quality of life, so we just kept an eye on her and tried our best to make her as happy as possible. She was her normal, hyper, happy self on Sunday, but Monday morning she started acting uncomfortable, and by 5 o’clock, we knew it was time.

She was buried by 8:00, and I’m still in a bit of shock.

She was a great goat. She was my 4-H project for a few years before we were both too old to do it. The first day I brought her home, she was scared from being taken away from her mother, so I sang to her and that calmed her down. I took my schoolwork (I was homeschooled) out to the barn everyday for a few weeks. I always did my math with her in my lap.

I held her as the vet put her down, and sang a little song.

Yeah, yeah. She was just an animal. But I don’t care who you are, it’s so sad when a pet dies.

I loved that goat. She was such a sweetheart.

Booklist 2011

Novels:

Count of Monte Cristo
Man in the Iron Mask
Frankenstein
2,000 Leagues Under the Sea
The Man Who Laughs
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Alice in Wonderland
North and South (British)
The Bride Collector
Michal (Wives of King David)
Hollow Kingdom book II
Hollow Kingdom Book III
Unfinished Tales (Tolkien)
Treasure Island
To Kill a Mockingbird
The Great Gatsby
The Catcher in the Rye
For Whom the Bell Tolls
The Grapes of Wrath
Brave New World
The Call of the Wild
Swiss Family Robinson
Lord of the Flies
Bluebeard
White Noise
Teddy Roosevelt and the Rough Riders
Huckleberry Finn
Cyrano de Bergerac
Dracula
Ulysses
War and Peace
The Old Man and the Sea
Gone with the Wind
Till We Have Faces
Kidnapped
Watership Down
Moby Dick
Island of Dr. Moreau
Through the Looking Glass
The Mysterious Island
Robinson Crusoe


Series:

Tarzan
The Inheritance Series
Redwall
Book of Lost tales (two volumes - Tolkien)
Drawn to Life (two volumes)
The Rescues series (9 books) (Margery Sharp)

Comics:

Maus
Calvin and Hobbes

Re-Read:

Don Quixote
Les Miserables
Lord of the Rings
the Phantom of the Opera
the Narnia Series (7 books?)
Wuthering Heights
Hunchback of Notre Dame

Bjorn and Anja

Sketch and color testing of my characters Bjorn and Anja. He’s a Scandinavian troll-type with some giant in his genes, hence how HUGE he is. (she’s 5’10”, so he’s quite the imposing figure.)

I made him as a stop-motion puppet two years ago for a school assignment: here’s some pics from a past post: http://livies-mind-has-been-compromised.blogspot.com/2009/11/stop-mo-puppet.html



They’re from a Swedish fairy-tale re-telling I’ve been working on “on-off” since my senior year in high school. (first pics of them are on lined paper) Tale’s called “The Princess Who Danced with a Troll Every Night”—long winded title! But it is so rich, even in the simple fairy-tale style it’s written in, and it ends so abruptly! I have a bit written on it already, but part of me is wondering if I should switch to making it into something sequential… That might be fun.

Final Projects Illustration 222 - Heads and Hands

Had to do a self portrait over aperiod of four weeks (the first week was just taking reference photos) and this is what I got! I used black and white charcoal on grey toned paper.

And along with that, on the final week our assignmnet was to choose a reference photo with at least the full head and shoulders and use whichever medium we wanted to make it. I just got back into the Lord of the Rings, and I re-discovered that I really liked the character of Grima Wormtongue, so I popped in my DVD and took a "screen cap" of him and painted it using Acrylics. It was a load of fun!

The Best Books Never Get Old

Fan art I drew for Jeff Smith's Bone. This was created using brush and ink on recycled brown paper, and then colored in Photoshop.

It was for Me.. Happy Easter, 2011

I don’t understand why the Creator of the universe would suffer and die the most painful death imaginable, and then raise from the dead three days later, all so He could pay the price for my sins. Why? Because He wants me to spend eternity with Him.

Eternity.

Me.

I just don’t understand how someone could love me that much, but he does…

I hope you had a Happy Easter, everyone! I hope you’ve experienced the love I’ve found in Christ. It is beautiful, and there is nothing like it.

Suzi

Summer Colors! :D

Mouths and noses from heads and hands

Brenda

Oh yeah, she's stylin'

Carl and Brenda Sketch dump

Make it big to read the little descriptions! :)

the difference inking makes

This is an old drawing from last year. I found the pencil version on my hard-drive last night, and thought: what fun to compare! I like Fone Bone much better in ink, but I think I prefer Thorn in pencils. Ain’t it fun how drawings change from sketch to ink?

(Can’t get on the academy, so I thought I should update my blogs…)

Stuff from Heads and Hands!

These are the "finished" pieces from my class "ILL_222 Heads and Hands"

This was the midterm project. We had to copy a master's original. I chose a piece by William Bouguereau. He is a wonderful artist... This particular piece is a "detail" of his piece "Yvonette"

Happy Birthday, Jeff!

I found out it was one of my favorite Illustrators/comic book artist, Jeff Smith's birthday today (Feb the 27th)and so I thought it appropriate to post some of the fan art I've been unashamedly doodling in my spare (HA) time.

I think I've said it a few times, but you really have to read BONE. It's one of the most genuine stories you'll get your fists on. And, the art is awesome to boot. You'll laugh, you'll cry, and you'll be left wanting a LOT more even though the book has more than 1300 pages.

I have tried and failed to describe it, so you're just going to have to read it for yourself.

Thorn and Fone Bone are my favorite characters---you can't pick one between them. They're too much a part of each other to pick a favorite from the two.

disclamer....Bone, Thorn, and Fone Bone are Jeff Smith's! Again, HAPPY BIRTHDAY! :D

Merlin and Vivian

So, I've been listening to Heather Dale songs alot lately. They not only sound nice, but tell stories! Now, I don't know about you, but those sound-good-and-tell-a-story songs are my favorite. They're fun to listen to when you're doing something mindless and boring. Lately, my favorite of her's has been "Hawthorn Tree."




This stinkin' song has reminded me how much I love Arthurian legends. I have this huge hardback of Tennyson's Idylls of the King (illustrated by one of my favorites of all time--Gustave Dore')

I also had to do a quick google search on Merlin and Vivian. I love how different the story get's each time it's told. (My favorite versions are the ones where she imprisons him to save him. And they love eachother unconditionally. I'm a sap that way.)

(Words in this one are adapted from one of Tennyson's Arthurian poems)

Also, Merlin's being moody.

"Maid as fair as Apple Blossoms"

"My eye's are old, but still can see."

Fun fact: Sanguine pens make almost anything look remotely nice. Also, I experimented and didn't do a pencil sketch underneath the inks on any of these. I just drew these straight ahead, no planning, reference, or anything. Okay, I looked up Apple Blossoms to make sure I got them right. But that's it.

I almost forgot that Merlin was a crazy old bat living in the woods for a loooong time. Which is awesome---You gotta love those crazy mountain men. Apparently, because of this, he's often associated with Apple tree's in the various legends and literature he shows up in. (Apple Trees=Apple Blossoms??) Man, I love Heather Dale and her ability to actually care enough about these fun old stories to actually put little things like that into her rhymns.

Gotta love it!

~Livie