[ definit*ve. ]

new artists, new doodles.

2010-10-10T01:27:00.001-04:00

It's been a rough while.

Part of a challenge I've made up for myself. Explanation here.

My rendition of Lewis Carroll's Caterpillar (from Alice in Wonderland). For purposes I don't feel like explaining.

Sketchdump!

I've also recently fallen in love with the art of Daniela Uhlig and Alexander McQueen (because fashion can be art, you know). And darling moosekleenex of the deviantART community has recently sold me two very lovely prints, of which I will have pictures once they are both safely in my possession and framed. (I also own something from Twelfth!)

StumbleUpon and it's "anatomy" label are my heroes at the moment. Some very fun things to play around with - if only school wasn't in the way!

Now excuse me, for I have to get up for work in about three hours. C: <3

Enjoy some Beyonce.

school update, &90th post

2010-09-08T19:12:00.000-04:00

So I'm back in school, yay school. Today was my first day and as a whole it went pretty well, minus Psychology. That class will be the death of me and I CANNOT wait to have lunch with some of my good friends fufufu. It's a "breeze" course for dumbasses and slackers, apparently. The only two people who like it are like, me, another kid in my grade, and one of my friends back from like, second grade. >:C

My Wacom comes in on Tuesday, so until then, not much in the art world. However, I am due to get my wisdom teeth removed! Wish me luck.

new leaf, new life,

2010-08-26T02:51:00.000-04:00

I always make fun of those prophetic asshole teenagers who post facebook statuses of like, Owl City lyrics and are like LOLOL MEANINGFUL LIKE MY LIFE. I gravitate towards pretty, meaningless things and tend to notice coincidences in my head. Or, well, I don't know. I might be a hypocrite.

But, uh, I don't know. I feel like with the start of each new school year, I get the chance to clean up my act a little bit and renew (reuse recycle). So, just so I have these in writing, I'm going to make a brief list of things I'd like to do.

(oh blogger and your lack of a bulleting feature)

(oh nevermind i found it!)

eat better (the nice way of saying, 'lose weight fatass')
keep your itunes library clean
kill them with kindness (except for trespassing bugs, those must die)
pick a college?
spend some more time with the family
be careful with your money
learn to drive, buy a car
get promoted
do better in school
keep up with commitments

I've spent the last few hours making a comprehensive Microsoft Excel comparison sheet of my potential schools (oooh exciting not) based on location, acceptance rate, costs, financial aid opportunities, available majors, and credibility (thankyou collegeboard.com). There are exactly two weeks left before school, and during that time I need to clean my room (it's still f-ed up from when my cousin Lina came to stay here and I cleared out a bunch of room for her), organize my closet, go school shopping, put together a day-to-day toiletry/make-up kind of thing, get a haircut, and restore my sleeping pattern to a nice 10pm to 6am basis (pffh). I also need to remind my manager to not schedule me M-F anymore.

So I don't know, if anyone ever comes across this I guess it's meant to be a, 'hey i'm a mental asshole but i can change and so can you!' kind of thing. I have drawings I need to scan in but I'll do that later. I really need to update this thing more. It's close to 100 posts. Woo.

I have no one to feature right now, but I'll probably set up a cohesive format for that soon enough. Broaden my horizons, or something.

OH AND STUDIO GHIBLI MIGHT BE CLOSING, SATOSHI KON IS GONE? WHAT HAS THE WORLD COME TO.

alive and kind well

2010-05-23T00:02:00.000-04:00

I was looking through my sketchbook because I GOT MY NEW SCANNER OMG and found this. I don't know who she is or why she's in my sketchbook but I like this whole non-proportional masculine lady. Her face is cool and I haven't uploaded in ages so here.

Now brb, gotta fix my life.

my heart is beating like a jungle drum

2010-03-25T21:27:00.008-04:00

So I've been around sort of and sketching for a while but there's nothing interesting so I'mma share random crap like I usually do.

Since J-Money and I are rewriting Darkheart to be less faggoty, I thought I'd freshen Ria up a bit. The awkward positioning is really not supposed to be there I just needed to draw the outfit. She's wearing leggings I swear.

And this is only really the basic stuff. I'll add to it and make it pretty soon and then post a COLORED VERSION FOR THE FIRST TIME IN AGES WHAT IS THIS BLASPHEMYYYY. And I'm really inspired by this guy and this girl. I really like that hidden severity in art. ;^;

Also, I might go to St. Louis for five weeks in the summer. Winner.

Saturn and Thatcher, also less faggoty! I decided to make them classy designers instead of really fking obnoxious. They are now obnoxiously classy, as cliche'd by Saturn's ascot. His hair needs a little updating, he looks too much like Eric for me to like. And he's mopey. He's really pretty happy. Self-centered yes but not a bad guy.

OHOHOHthisisexciting. If you can guess the subject then you're a winner. If you can't, well, that's just too bad. >:O

My first major project in forever.

rah, i'm a snola bear!

2010-02-13T20:35:00.000-05:00

movie review: the blind side

2010-01-26T23:25:00.003-05:00

I've wanted to see The Blind Side since I first saw the previews. Sandra Bullock is witty, charming, and one of my favorite talents, and not to mention, I do love a good uplifting story.

The film is about a kind-hearted woman who takes in a homeless, helpless giant of a boy, Michael. At first resistant to her efforts, Michael soon takes to Leigh Anne (Bullock) and slowly becomes a part of her family.

Was it as good as I thought it was going to be? Sort of.

The conflicts were weak, references inconsistent, and the opening poor. Some of the more "dramatic" parts were utterly predictable, and perhaps a little too exaggerated. Since the movie was heavily related to football, I also found it peculiar that Michael didn't show an earlier interest in it. It was a push from the coach. Who had spotted him playing basketball.

That's not to say that the movie was bad, though. Michael's 'opening up' to the Tuohy family was well paced, and quite cute. I often watched the movie with damp eyes. One of my favorite characters was the ever-hopeful biology teacher who had faith in Michael even when the rest of the staff didn't. My ultimate favorite, however, was SJ. He was enthusiastic, he was funny, and probably the coolest kid under the age of 12 in the history of the world. I was a little surprised at Tim McGraw's casting, but the fact is, him and Bullock portrayed one of the best stable marriages I have ever seen. Bullock, portraying the feisty my-way-or-the-highway Leigh Anne Tuohy, went perfectly with her laid-back husband Sean. They often played off each other, and were incredibly convincing.

Generally a good film- not great, but good. It needed a little more conflict, but it was just corny enough in the dialogue to be satisfying. The previews made it out to be much, much more dramatic than it was.

I recommend seeing it, but I'm not nearly as enthusiastic as I would be about going to see the Princess and the Frog over, and over, and over, and over again.

movie review: the princess and the frog

2010-01-26T22:55:00.005-05:00

(Hi, I figure I should start doing this since I talk about movies too much.)

So, let's face it. When I first saw the... misleading early preview for the Princess and the Frog, I thought Disney had finally stooped low enough to make an "over-ethnic" princess. I couldn't possibly wrap my head around the concept of the movie, shrugged it off as shameful, and didn't pay attention to it until late in its theatrical release.

A little intrigued by a later preview into the character of Dr. Facillier, ('A voodoo man in a princess movie? What?') I decided to call up one of my more daring friends and propose a nighttime venture to the theater, "for shits and giggles."

I was blown away.

As most of my friends now know, this movie was beyond excellent for a "post-neoclassic," as some people would call it. After basking in 3D, coming back to hand-drawn animation, even partially so, was refreshing. But, beyond the art and the huge, booming Broadway-style numbers we all know and have learned to love, we have the plot.

Tiana, who I presumed was a princess desperately seeking adventure in the "real world," is actually a hard-working waitress with a talent for cooking and a dream to turn an old sugar mill into her and her unfortunately deceased father's dream cool, jazzy restaurant. When her old-time friend Charlotte, the spoiled but shockingly good-natured daughter of announces that the visiting Prince Naveen of Maldonia (not a real country, for all you geography non-buffs) will be attending the masquerade ball that she throws specifically to woo him, she hires Tiana to cook with just enough money to make the down payment.

Tiana, happy to finally be so close to her dream, puts a bid on the old sugar mill and asks the realtors to bring the paperwork to the masquerade. That night, when Tiana is serving her delicacies modestly at her table, the realtors hesitantly inform her that she was outbid. Upset, Tiana ends up falling over and Charlotte, as lovestruck as she was at the time, brings her up to her room and gives her a new dress to wear- the misleading dress and tiara from the previews. As Tiana, hopeless, resorts to wishing on a star, something she hadn't done since she was little, sees a frog on the balcony.

There we go to the kiss that starts their magical adventure through the bayou, in search of a mystical voodoo queen, Mama Odie, who could possibly break the spell Dr. Facilier had cast on Prince Naveen and reverse the whole mess. Along for the ride come Louis, the charming trumpet-playing alligator, and Ray, the romantic cajun firefly.

This movie was everything I didn't expect it to be, and more. The music was fantastic, the characters powerful, and the plot appropriate for so many audiences. I enjoyed the dark Dr. Facilier and his manic tendencies, I loved Tiana's hard-working ethics, and found amusement in Naveen's womanizing party-boy ways. I loved how everything played off of everything else, how finally someone up there in Disney HQ said, "Let's try and tell these kids the difference between what they want and what they need." I love the message about hard work and dreaming, and I love the romance. Ray's naivete when it came to his beloved Evangeline, who is actually a star, was absolutely the sweetest, saddest thing I have ever seen in a Disney movie. Not to mention, I was severely impressed by the permanent death of a character. That's right. No return scene. There was a funeral and everything.

Now, what didn't I love?

Very few things actually bothered me. Perhaps the thing that stood out most to me was Dr. Facilier's anticlimactic end, which I can't talk about anyways because it'd spoil the film. Also, as with Beauty and the Beast, the male lead, Naveen, was far more charming as a frog than he was as a human, and I think the musical finale was just not cheesy enough, but some people might find that to be a good thing. There were also small, mild inconsistencies, annoyances, but otherwise? A masterpiece. I'll be purchasing a DVD and a digital copy as soon as it's available.

There's no way I can put everything about this wonderful, wonderful film in one post. Go watch it.

Two thumbs up.

nothin' to lose

2010-01-18T00:21:00.002-05:00

Movement exercize. Her head is too big. I might expand on it.

i love you, guenever.

2009-12-14T00:59:00.003-05:00

So hiiii, it's only been like four months lul whut.

(Since then my PC crashed and now all my art is gone what boo hoo.)

(I'll put up a picture of Jordan's Christmas present once it gets to her.)

Just letting any of those who wonder know that I live! Sort-of. And that I'm currently re-doing my room so anything that can be used for drawing is packed away into boxes and scattered throughout the house, and my scanner is resting on top of a Japanese doll that I got from my friend Josh, over in my mom's room.

My biggest art project is about 16x7ft.

This is the potential my back wall will someday reach. It's going to take some painstaking hours on a ladder, lots of scrap clothing and white paint, but I'll probably finish it before Christmas. How hard can some random tree branches be? 8D

IN ODAH NEWSS.

Happy Holidays!

(Much lovins, Leyla!)

baby behave, we'll make make it work!

2009-08-29T18:20:00.006-04:00

Just some character sheets.

Notes: Xiu's weapon handle is made out of two layers of bone, and the blades retract. Fully unsheathed, the light weapon spans 85", with the handle, 97". For some odd reason, she tends to do everything in four-inch heels. She has two arms, I'm just too lazy to finish the second.

i like mail.

2009-08-28T00:00:00.007-04:00

Just so everyone knows, when this post goes up, I'll be in Virginia Beach (a mere half an hour from our dear Jordyn's house (and I'd go there if she wasn't on vacation!)), but I figure by the time it DOES the packages will be in their respective locations and it'll be okay to post them up online.

I'm sending two letters later this week (for all of those curious, this was written Thursday, at 4:07AM)- one to Jordyn and one to Jess (VA and AR, respectively), both including esclusive doodlebug sketches and letters (Jordyn's package will contain something from a few of my friends as well as me).

So, here are the doodleys!

JORDYN~

A lovely sketch of Eric and Dre working (in which I digitally corrected the angle so it looks semi-better.)

A pin-up of Ria in a martini glass. My scanner doesn't pick up colors, but her eyes and the liquid in the glass are colored in.

A hothothot Eries.

And also the original sketch for the Mrs. Toad art I did, as well as a little cover of me saying hi, a mix CD titled after this blog, and possibly a CD with a bunch of photos of me and my friends. Possibly. OH and a comic strip of Vlad and Ria fighting as usual, fufufu.

JESS~

The original sketch for this baby here.

This lovely ink doodle of our lovely couple, Anna and Mike. I messed up when penning her face, it's so sad. v_v
And a doodle of her Hatter in the Hearts outfit. There's another, but it's not inked or colored.

off to virginia!

2009-08-22T12:01:00.004-04:00

Alright, so, I'm being pressured to clean and do stuff before we leave for VA. Mom says I have to be done by 6PM, but I'm curious as to WHY. Are we leaving at some obscure hour of the night? We better not be.

While I'm there I'll probably work on some character sheets and take some photos of the highway detour to Jordyn's town, which I shan't be visiting because she won't be there, boohoo. But I'll be back next week, hopefully with a tan and all set to go to school. Hopefully.

I'm upset that I wasn't able to pick up a Copic brush pen and some fine liners before I left, but that'll just have to wait. I leave you with this.

It won't fit, so you'll have to click this.

I don't know who made it, but they're a genius.

Featuring Tori Collis and Bulbasaur.

GOODBYE.

(Even though I'll be on MSN/AIM at night, lolol.)

i will make you a STAR!

2009-08-17T09:11:00.004-04:00

Hi I'm Leyla and I just spent my night watching animated feature films, among which was Thumbelina. This is Mrs. Toad. She will make you a STAR! Gracias, gracias. ;D

Also, does anyone else think the ending of Thumbelina was possibly one of the most beautiful animated moments? And that both Thumbelina and Cornelius were possibly the most dynamic fairy tale characters ... ever? As well as the supporting cast? And the fact that they PROVE THAT PEOPLE IN ANIMATED MUSICALS REALIZE THEY'RE SINGING?!

I'm gonna go back to crying now. ;^; 'Cause this was beautiful.

portrait study I

2009-08-14T20:51:00.004-04:00

So I've been on a bit of a facial anatomy kick, and I honestly think I'm getting somewhere! Take my pencils if I'm wrong. Anyways, I tried going for a character I was comfortable with and working on her with a new outlook on faces, in this case, Ria. I'm satisfied with her mouth, after figuring out that the one on the original sketch was not only too small, but too far over to one side. I really think I'm getting there with skin tones!

Here are some things I just spotted, and decided could have been much better. First of all, by laws of head shape, her hair placement is too flat, and I decided only recently that her hair isn't curly enough as I draw it. I should study some of Jordyn's sketches, she always seems to get it right. Hm.

Also, her eyes are now too big the way I draw them. She looks like a dying rat to me, and that needs to be fixed. And noses? Man, don't even get me started on noses. :( Her face shape isn't satisfactory to me, either. =3= Back to Anchor and Braille... and the drawing board!

If you wanna know what the lyrics say, I'm gonna link you to the original jam first, and then quote the chorus, ktx.

And the war came with a curse and caterwaul!

And the war came with all the poise of a cannonball!

And they're picking out our eyes by coal and candlelight,

When the war came, the war came hard.

PS: Anyone else notice that I got the second line wrong on the original? P:

harper's bazaar & w magazine studies

2009-08-12T03:25:00.004-04:00

I love using these for (female) anatomy. If you know a good, trendy male fashion mag, please, please tell me!

Study I (Harper's Bazaar)

Study II (Harper's Bazaar and W Magazine)

Iduno why I colored that one eye in the corner. P: Butttt. These are my studies for today! Not much improvement, I think, but I have a better understanding of face composition. Now onwards to studying poses~ ! >D

we have a map of the piano.

2009-07-27T02:42:00.014-04:00

So, as a random two in the morning inspiration, I started to doodle, and it endured being crappy into being the first artwork I've ever done to bring me to tears. How egotistical is that?

Well, anyways, feel free to tear me apart. I'm posting the process for this piece here because I would LOVE suggestions! This is a crucial time for me, bouts of inspiration like this sometimes lead to good things.

I started sketching this on a pad of somewhat rough paper, then traced it with pen on a sheet of tracing paper and scanned that in. I fixed up the lineart with the eraser tool, and set up a nice little playlist to set the mood. It consists of the following: Mum - We Have A Map Of The Piano, The Decemberists - Of Angels and Angles, and Imogen Heap - Hallelujah.

This is kinda easy, I just fixed her eyelashes, applied a "mood background" and a basic skin tone.

Step three's just doing the face. You can see all the little imperfections in the lineart this close up, but I'll be fixing those again later. I changed the background color a little and started with yellows and pale reds to shade the skin, and went back in with a purple. I may go back in with a blue later.

Same steps as the previous one, except on the whole body. I used this as a tool. Shading vs. Less Saturated Shading. :DD

This was one of those parts where I didn't know what to do. Finding a scarring tutorial deemed impossible, so I found a legit picture of a scar and went from there. Mine look pretty decent zoomed out, so I'm not going to try much with them. Zoom in, though? They look terrible. XD

Applied a nice, heavy base for the hair. Notice the god-awful scars.

Now just to figure out how to place this so it looks good, and add some textures...

i would really love if you pulled this thread,

2009-07-26T17:19:00.004-04:00

I pretty much leave you with this sketch and a word of a project that I may or may not finish. (:

(The first doodle is a doodle I did on no sleep. It sucks, ktx.)

if there's anything,

2009-06-12T01:29:00.002-04:00

So, I understand it seems like I died. I didn't, really.

Actually, tomorrow's my last official day of school. After that, it's three exams and I'm out for the summer, and as soon as Mr. Morrow cuts off the last note at the graduation ceremony, wherever I may be, I shall no longer be a freshman. And yet, I shan't be a sophomore either since you're not really one of those until school starts up in September, and so I'll enjoy the state of limbo and just call myself a high-school kid.

But if there's anything I've learned this year, I'll state it here and now while I'm still conscious and able to procrastinate on my art project.

Misjudging people is definitely something I learned I'm capable of. The biggest, most annoying jerk in orchestra has turned out to be a good friend of mine, and the kid who always skipped earth science is actually one of the funniest people I've met this year. I guess I need to bring myself back down to human level.
Honors is a weird thing. I appreciate the opportunity, but my motivation levels are so low that doing my homework becomes more of a chore than usual, and my grades end up slipping because of that.
Orchestra is probably one of the only reasons I stay at my school any more.
German class is a joke.
It's good to know how to keep something to yourself, be it your own secret or someone else's. Likewise, it's good to keep certain opinions to yourself, and sometimes it's just nice to shut up and bear something.
I find it helpful to not bear a grudge against teachers for the way they do things, but instead take my education into my own hands and attempt to keep up.
I'm gonna miss Newman's class.
Things take time. Feeling uncomfortable is a commonality, especially in a classroom. Don't be afraid to make new friends.
Swearing is useless.
Jealousy is useless.
People are useless.
Art is a way to sustain the soul, and therefore is the reason I must keep my hands in tip-top shape.
Don't spread yourself out too thin.
There is no such thing as 'dorky' or 'cool'. There is only right and wrong. You wanna join some kids for a game of D&D? Cancel plans to study? Cancel studying for plans? As long as everything balances out, you're fine.
Be nice to everyone. Grudges are irrelevant, people change.
Stop not waiting 'till college. Enjoy high school while you can.
Don't bother calling yourself fat or ugly. You don't like something about yourself? Change it.
Yes. You do have the power. And it is your choice.
Mind your own business.
Dr. Seuss is always right. "Those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind."

So, to conclude Leyla's top 20 things she learned freshman year, I'd like to just thank everybody for being patient. I know I'm not perfect, and I can be annoying and weird and lazy, but I clearly have some friends sticking around.

Thank you.

See you all after my summer hibernation!

ich bin tot, bringt mir nicht auf.

2009-06-02T18:04:00.003-04:00

my german title is probably wrong.

self-explanatory.

bottom lyric is from a regina spektor song.

time for finals.

unstoppable

2009-05-01T18:36:00.003-04:00

So in art, we have a project that entails using the human form and negative space to show some form of motion. This is my doodle page and three references I'm heavily lenient towards (the last is courtesy of Tori).

This is the first project I'm taking seriously. Title from E.S. Posthumus song, Unstoppable.

&everybody: 1, 2, step.

2009-04-17T19:47:00.001-04:00

My three favs of a consistency exercise I did with Eric.

scientific breakthrough

2009-04-16T22:38:00.001-04:00

They were so close.

wait for me you've gone much farther, too far

2009-04-15T01:02:00.003-04:00

one step at a time,

2009-04-14T17:31:00.002-04:00

I solemnly swear to find balance, and through balance, love, and through love, health.

all i need is just a love to make it worthwhile

2009-04-01T20:55:00.016-04:00

Yes, yes, I am very much still alive, and I do pick up my pencil once in a while! It's been a busy first year of high school, my friends, but I do believe I'll be alright sooner or later. So let's start off with some of the things contributing to my business: commissions. The images above are Gaia commissions for TrinityCowgirl and P u r p l e K a r l a respectively. They definitely challenged me, the first pose-wise and the latter with its complex design. I've still yet to figure out half of the items on there.

The next is more of a personal half-project I've been working on. It's (a currently faceless-because-I-fail-at-Vlad) Vlad and a kissyface equally-copious-amount-of-fail Ria. Because I can, kay? C: And they don't have enough cute in their lives. Poor sods, I don't show either of them enough love, even though Ria's my baby and Vlad has auto-love for being wonderful&married to my baby.

This last thing is also kind of a personal thing. It's just an unfinished doodle of Ella from Happily N'Ever After, which is a fabulously addicting movie that you all should go out and see, fufufu. It'll be done when I have the time to finish it, for other things come first. C :

Last on my list is actually something even more personal: my classes (but not in proper order) for next year! I shall be taking English 10 Honors, AP World History, Chemistry, Algebra II/Trigonometry Honors, Art History, Health, Art 2 (Drawing&Painting), Orchestra, and a PE/Lab/Study Hall period. I gave up my lunch to fit in Art History and Health, because Art History is stupid and required, as is Health. :C

beauty all around you, tongue tied in awe.

2009-03-12T00:53:00.005-04:00

<-- Me trying to look cool.

So I really am alive! It's hard to believe, but that picture proves it all. I am still a fleshy, carbon-based being who wears crazy red cardigan sweaters and Claire's glasses (because I have 20/20 vision, hah!). I just thought a picture would help you get an idea of what I spend my time doing nowadays. Taking pictures and procrastinating.

I've actually been told that I have a "new picture on facebook every week," which might be true, seeing as I take my crappy Kodak everywhere. Oh Canon, how I long for you. ;o;

(I might take my parents' to Chicago with me. It's debateable.)

So, in more interesting news, here are some things to show you that YES, I DO STILL LIVE AND BREATHE AND DRAW AND PLAY MUSIC OH GOD WHAT.

A failed landscape is all I have left to show. :C
Unless you want to read my essays. Which I doubt you do.
But if you actually care about what goes on with me, here are a few landmark dates that I have sitting on my calendar!

March 27th-30th
Musical! My high school is performing Rodgers&Hammerstein's Cinderella. I'm part of the cast, thanks to a failed singing audition and my freshman-ness, but it's still an enjoyable performance.

April 3th-5th?
There is a very slight chance of my attendance at Tekkoshocon 2009 in Pittsburgh, PA. Very slight. I'd be going with Tori.

April 7th
I do believe one of my friends is performing at a concert. I'm considering going.

April 23rd-26th
I shall be going to Chicago with my orchestra for the Dixie Classic Music Festival. If you are attending, or know someone who's attending, that is where I'll be!

May 2nd
I'm going to see 3OH!3 live. No one can stop me.

May 13th
Orchestra concert. We're performing Tchaikovsky's Serenade in C Major (Movements III and IV) and Hubert C. Parry's Lady Radnor Suite in F Major.

May 21st
Our first Chamber Orchestra/Concert Chorale performance of (the majority of) Mozart's Requiem!

May 22nd-24th
I may or may not be attending Anime Boston with the lovely Sarah. Believe me, you will know if I am. I'm a very easily excited person.

May 31st
Another Chamber Orchestra/Concert Chorale performance of the Requiem. This time we're at this big beautiful stage downtown. I'm excited.

June 15th
Last day of school!

Just 24th
Last day of exams. O:

June 25th
I get to go see my cousin and a few of my music friends graduate. I will be a bawling mess.

August 17th
Field Hockey pre-season starts. Goodbye freedom.

September 9th?
First day of my Sophomore year.

There will be random events thrown in, I promise. C: These are all according to my personal and school calendar.

ich muss durch den monsun,

2009-02-19T03:08:00.001-05:00

Yeah, something like that.

not so tough found out, found out.

2009-02-18T16:04:00.014-05:00

So only after discovering how much of a pain editing Blogger can be, I have decided to pull through and actually make a post for once in a while. I swear I'm starting to become like Jordyn- ninja-like and never seen.

So this is my sketchbook cover. Ziegte. She can dismember her own body in streams of crackly magic. I might finish it if I feel up to digitizing the deal.

This is Arthur and Beluga. Arthur is my gay flowershop owner who loves his partner Zeke and his baby Beluga, who's a cracked-up man-eating plant and we all love her blahblah. She's phenomenally acidic and deadly and ... wonderful. C:

This next trio of images is actually the separated duo from my would-be webcomic type thing which I should really get back to doing 'cause it's been a while and I'd like to improve. Clearly, Evie and Claudius got a makeover. And I like it that way. Bwhahahahahah!

And this... might be my lovey-dovey belated Valentine's Day picture if I feel up to finishing it.

durch den monsun

2009-01-19T16:28:00.003-05:00

So I took up the September issue of W magazine and decided to work on some anatomy stuffs. It's all crooked 'cause I was drawing on my lap, but clearly, I am doing some work. :B

we were sixteen, maybe less, maybe a little more

2009-01-03T08:38:00.004-05:00

So I decided it might be about time to do some facial reference sheets for my characters. Make sure half of them don't look exactly the same and stuff. So I started with Ria 'cause my hand's really accustomed to drawing her, and worked out things like her eye and face shape. That nose looks too dramatic for her, but it's a good nose, so I couldn't bring myself to erase it. :B

I love how the only colored part is the one that lacks any facial structure.

i just know that she wants my heart,

2008-12-21T23:07:00.004-05:00

and that's where all my imperfections are.
but she said that i was the brightest little firefly in her jar.

Hi I'm Leyla and I'm really good at staying focused on my work.

there's an angel by your hospital bed,

2008-12-20T15:12:00.005-05:00

desperate to hear his name on your breath;
as he looks down you're not making a sound.
open your eyes, look at me!
i'll bring to you whatever you need,
and i'll tell you i'm sorry
that i can't take this pain away from you,
and i'd put it on my own body if i knew how to!
can't you see?

Oh dear sweet goodness gracious. Have I really not updated since October 27th? Daymn! I'm starting to feel kinda like Jordyn, who never updates even though she's so damn good. Har har. Shameless thrashing of a friend.

Not much has really happened in recent times. I'm rather accustomed to being in high school now, and I've made lots of new friends that, otherwise, I'd never have made before. A few of them are siblings of people in my grade who I think need to be taught a lesson on how to not fail at life, ASAP, which feels kinda strange to be frank.

I've spent the last few days kinda sick. Wednesday (at 4:47AM and 11:35AM respectively) I found myself throwing up, and I've been eating minimal amounts of food ever since. I also went to a music department holiday party that same day (around 7PM) and completely shot my legs dancing. :'D

And now there's like, two feet of snow outside (and we're expecting another foot tomorrow) because of a snowstorm, as a result of which I had a snow day yesterday! Yay! Now my skin's just really dry. xO

(Dad's blasting Armenian music next door, and it's weird upbeatness is contrasting my superchill Copeland. I might go punch something. Too bad I can only turn it up so high before I get screamed at.)

These would happen to be the WIPs of something I've been working on on and off (simply because I realized too late how off the anatomy of it all is). It's a doodle of Haseo from .hack//GU, and instead of doing some cheery-ass sunny field, I went for the SUPERCOOL night field with the weird f-- FUCKDAMN DAD TURN YOUR MUSIC DOWN I NEVER BLAST MINE.

I can't wait until I move out. (:

ANYWAYS.
There's a muchmuch cooler one of him and Atoli in the works, and a cutie fanart of Haseo&Endrance for Sarah Phee because I promised her some. XD It's wrapped up with her other gift, so I can't really show you my b&w scan.

I'm just working on the fanart and a few christmas pictures, otherwise... that'll be all!

Really anticlimatic, isn't it?

the biggest tragedy is not your death, but a life without reason.

2008-10-27T21:30:00.005-04:00

So, first and foremost, welcome back to the Klutz Kronikles, which hasn't updated since October 16th. How ever did I live?

Today we're gonna start with the first product of my boredom in class- bikini girls! There's some chibi and ... Thatcher, I think. Very pink, very hoish.

This was something I drew listening to Robert Randolph's Ain't Nothing Wrong With That. And I felt like drawing poofy hair and superstar poses. So sue me. D:

Continuing on the path of music-inspired drawings, this is from Iron&Wine's Boy With A Coin, featuring, DA DADA DAAAH, GALE! Because I felt like it, kay? Really. My drawings lack any sort of form or purpose anymore. I' almost sad. Almost.

Finally, we're getting somewhere. Xiu (pronounced Zhi-oo) is my Asian OCD-ridden experiment of awesome. The last "resonator," as Jordyn knows her, and probably one of the classier additions to the team. I'm going to enjoy this. Color scheme pending.

Here's where we get srs. The first picture is my final concept of Eric once he ditches the creepy labcoat. I've got his hair worked out, the trinkets, yadda yadda. His concept design was probably my favorite, but this is the first time I've ever been able to draw his hair perfectly. Har har.

And who would I be without a Riadump? This was more fun than anything else. Meaning, it's useless. So on the left we've got a very interesting battle outfit of awesome that reminds me somewhat of Verunica's, but with a more... flat-chested twist. Watch that stuff be made of some sort of armored spandex blend. That'd be funny. Upper middle is something I uploaded because the anatomy is so whacked, and yet I wanna finish it. Lower middle is one of the more accurate representations of my baby, colored with a Q-Tip. 8D On the right is the pending design for her new uniform. Booyaaaah. 8D

i'm gonna put my hand in front of your head.

2008-10-16T23:09:00.005-04:00

I'm in such a good mood, but I'm so tired. D: My day literally went like so:

~8-2:30 - School
~3 - Bus to Sarah's house.
4:30 - Freshman football game
6:30 - Choir
7:20ish with impeccable timing - Khaled Hosseini at UB
10 - HOME. D:
So, who the hell is Hosseini? He is the world-renowned author of The Kite Runner as well as One Thousand Splendid Suns, and we got to see him (forfree!) at the local university. He was so phenomenal, it's scary, but that's for later. You see, we get mandatory school credit for doing out-of-school things and doing writeups on them, but since I didn't have my sheet, I took notes!

Three and a half pages worth, thankyou. Complete with worthless doodles! Now I just gotta get my sheet, and I'm kinda inspired to write about some of the things he said. My shorthand's the worst, I know. :'D

Right, don't ask me what this is. I was bored in Earth Science and felt like adding detail, kayh? So I drew some random girlpersonthing and added beads wherever I could. :'D

This is a kind of thing that's been stuck in my head for ages. I always draw Ria as a passive looking character, but I kinda wanna draw her with her weapon(s) out. So this is just something I was playing with in English (inwhichIhaveatesttomorrowee!), annddd... yeah. >>

And this is Nye. Because... I don't really have accurate references for his dapper self, and he's terrible to describe. Pretty boy, right? 8D

we believe in barack obama, he loves you and he loves your mama.

2008-10-15T22:44:00.003-04:00

I felt the title was appropriate. Debate today and all. Sarah and I agreed that there ought to be cage matches instead.

Thank you to Exhaltorio for posting up his lovely lineart of a kitten named Maurice, because I used it for some much-needed coloring practice. Behold!I tried to go for a more atmospherical feel in each of them, and practiced with shading out of different palettes. I'll risk it more next time, I'm still easing myself into this whole coloring thing. I think I've come a long way. Feel free to suggest situations to shove my characters into! If it's anything EXTREMELY far-fetched, I'll prolly use Ria for it. >_> She takes up most of my sketchbook anyways, the clown brain-leech. Also, found this on a friend's facebook. That's Emily (jazz hands girl), myself (holding the frisbee) and someone who I think is my stand partner Jessica all the way back in June. Don't know what Kan-Jam is? It's a game with cans. Bamo.

&i know it seems like we're never coming back.

2008-10-12T16:43:00.003-04:00

I've been in an incredibly sketchy mood as of late, so a blog entry seems... incredibly fitting. Before, I start though, I'd like to touch on three things that have bothered me MAJORLY as of late, and all of which are things my friends have said to me. The first, I remember distinctly, began with a conversation between my friend and I during art class. I was done with whatever project we were doing at the time, and I decided that, hey, maybe I should doodle for a little while, since nothing extra was assigned.

Can I just clear up, for those who think my art is just really bad realism, that I'm NOT AIMING FOR REALISM K? It's fun to have exaggerated features and limbs.

So anyways, my friend says to me, "Why do you draw those anime people? I hate them." Or something.

As much as I love said friend, and I'm not mentioning any names by any means, I got a little offended. One, not only did several people comment that my art has strayed far from anime and into a more cartoony semi-realism, but you don't just say something like that to someone. I'm like, afraid to draw around that person now in fear of making them say something else like that. Same person and I were having a discussion about our school art program and, since I might wanna have a double major in Literature and Art and a minor in Music, I said that I might have to transfer school simply because the school one of my friends goes to has a better program. And my friend says, "You'd want to transfer schools JUST for the art program?"

Well.
Yes. Since that's what I want to attempt to incorporate into the rest of my natural life. Yes.

The third thing was actually something from this morning and from a different friend, and all she asked was, "Do you ever draw real people?"
My question is, "Am I obligated to?"

I'm not sure if anyone else is bothered by stuff like that, but seriously, man. I doodle because I like to doodle, and I'm (usually) proud of my finished stuff. I really do not understand why in hell people who don't even want to do anything with art later on in their lives feel like it's necessary to criticize little things like that. And yes, I have drawn real people before, and it's hard, and I'm still working on it.

Fuck damn.

Hem.

WIP Halloween picture. Some witchy thing sitting on the edge of some cauldron, it's prolly gonna end up looking like crap anyways so I'm not even gonna talk about it.
After listening to the Decemberists (Mariner's Revenge Song), I felt like sketching something folky, and was in the mood to put Ria in different situations just because I wanted to. After much repetition, I came out with this piece of crap.Finished digital cover of my sketchbook, should do it in colored pencils on the real thing. Her claves are too long, thighs are too short, I see it, I know.

Now I'm in a crappy mood.

well, hello, hello.

2008-10-08T23:16:00.005-04:00

Well, as you can see above, I had a little bit of fun with my digicam. I mean, come on. And I figured out some cool exposure settings on Photoshop. : > I'm kinda happy I got to play this weekend a little more than usual. Anyways!

Since I finished my sketchbook, I figure it's time to go back and figure out what I didn't upload. This is a sketch of Aline that I'm not sure I uploaded, but I think it captures her attire and general expression and stuff pretty well. She's... carefree, to say the least. What a goofer. I can't wait to play her.

And here is something I've been talking about doing for... kind of a while. Getting down into the nitty-gritty of Ria's design is something I kinda gotta do if I wanna start doing her justice in my sketches, youknow?

Anyways.
Everyone needs to wish a WELCOME BACK to Wolfie, who had left us due to unprecedented reasons and stuffs for a very long time, and I'm sure we ALL MISSED HER. D<>

Too sleepy to write much more, but gotta finish my homework.

&all you ever wanted, was someone to tuly look up to you.

2008-10-02T22:11:00.004-04:00

... and six feet under water, I do.

I'm not gonna lie, guys. I'm in such a slump right now, it's crazy. I'm tired, I have no time to do anything any more, I'm almost always falling asleep in random places, and I have work up the hiznay to get done & handed in on time so my teachers don't bust caps in my ass.

There really is a bit more than this, but my brain is registering 10:14PM as late, therefore I must go to bed before my body implodes on itself. Here, have a Ziegte!Ria!Mermaid and be happy with it. 'Causeuh, I don't have anything better to offer. There's like, 10 pages of pose practice, a bunch of Ria faces and some Rosie concepts, but nothing thrilling and OMGAMAZING to post up on here. Maybe when I get my school art projects done...

Ha, wait, those are lame too. A newsprint collage of a contour line drawing of my face and a still-life that I'm not looking towards whatsoever because my art teacher thinks she's all that and can't actually teach worth a damn half the time, because she's too concerned on keeping the four obnoxious girls in my class on track and makes us do three sketches for one project against our will.

Is it that hard to let us get away with just drawing a fucking sunflower in a barrell and a rose in a wicker vase?

Go listen to some Anberlin or Hush Sound and appease me.
Birthday countdown starts next week.

then sunday morning i'm regretting it all.

2008-09-23T22:30:00.003-04:00

New layout, again. Let's see how this one works out. o_o Anyways. Here on my left is a sketch and a short description of a character named Aline- the common-sense-infested fashionista, a good friend of Cassie's (who's the woman Vlad cheats on Ria with, for those of you who know). She's got this thing about thinking that Ria may actually be alive, so she's pretty wary of letting Cassie do inaproppriate things. :< What a good friend!

And funny at the same time. She'll be great.

IIIIN THE BLUE CORNER... we have Ria as a child. : > She'ssocute.

Alrighti'mdone. 8D

if sunday morning i'm forgetting to call,

2008-09-21T20:47:00.005-04:00

I'm one of those people who, if inspired, have to draw right away, no matter the circumstances. So today, Jenna got my kiriban for 3,344 pageviews. She requested a doodle of my Gale and her Piper together, because simply, Piper scares Gale witless and she thinks of him as her best friend. Piper is a dijinni, and Gale is human. Piper eats humane essence. You get the drift.

Next up, a concept that's come back to haunt me from its grave. A long, long time ago, Jordyn and I were discussing the circumstances of Vlad and Ria meeting if they met in our world, in some point in history. We sort of decided that, if anything, they'd meet during WWII with Ria being some English nurse held hostage (for some reason) (it's so historically incorrect, Ryan and McLoughlin should slap me) by some Nazis, where Vlad is with his smexy accent and all. So they'd end up snogging in broom closets once Ria stopped being a feisty littly bitch. 8DD They allll give in to Vlad's charm at some point. /shot

Of course, here are some more or less accurate doodles. If you can't read the captions, the top one says, "Mainly in broom closets..." and the bottom says, "EH? You want to do WHAT?"

Or something along those lines. I can't be bothered to double check. D:

Harhar. >_> It's so bad that I wanna laugh at it.

I want Nazi!Vlad drawings now. >0

all i've got is what you didn't take.

2008-09-19T22:29:00.003-04:00

Welcome to the 50th klutz kronikles blog post! That's 50 entries of useless sketches, unfinished works, concepts, and random life news of the Leyla. Today I have only one work to feature, because I said I was going to draw something (less) crappy for the anniversary entry (because I keep track of that stuff). Here is the inked sketch, inked with a blue Pilot pen, of Ria and Ziegte, drawn during Sarah's choir rehearsal to some gorgeous song I can't seem to find.

Note to self: Find song.

Here on the right we have this same inked sketch with color on it. Ziegte's blood was somuchfun, if that thing even bleeds anyways. The greatest thing was that the base color for Zieg was white, shaded with blues and purples. I love how disproportional its arms are. :'DD Ria's hands are like claws, and Jenna pointed out how she looks like she's all, "CAN'T TOUCH THIS." I agree.

The final version, here on my left, is... finished. There's a color filter and Ziegte looks creepy as all hell implies, which is A-OK! Because Zieg IS creepy! If I ever find that song I sketched this with, I'll definitely link it. Itwassodramatic. And... goodness. Ziegte's arm. WHY ARE YOU SO LONG, NOODLE ARM? And Ria's bottom half is loldisproportional. Oh well. : >

HAPPY TALK LIKE A PIRATE / 50th ANNIVERSARY DAY!
Badumbadum PISH.

i know the secrets that you keep, i know where you sleep.

2008-09-17T20:41:00.012-04:00

Hello one and all and welcome to the 49th entry to the klutz kronikles. I assure you that the 50th will be celebratory, and without crap art!

Now, here on the left (this new formatting is an attempt to stop making my entries so freakin' long-looking) is something I doodled in lunch while ignoring James and talking to Jarret about some random stuff, and listening to Emily and telling Laura to stop slapping the table. I decided she'll be some sort of jester thing, but Iduno. I still have lots of time to decide!

Now, what I've actually had time to get adjusted and get some doodlin' time in class, I've been drawing several pages' worth of RiaRiaRia. She's been swimming in my mind, and since Jordyn and were planning to possibly edit the entire story, I wanted to give her younger self a slight revamp. That's for later, though. This is something cheesy I decided to doodle, because flowing leaves/flower petals seemed superfun to do at the time. And she's wearing a skirt. That'sjustweird.

Here we have something I totally FAIL at drawing - pregnant women! ;D Yousee, Zieg's gonna leave her alone when Vlad does and hit her hard after her kidsies are born. So she looks relatively healthy here, right? Right. Not for long~ ;DD

And finally, we have the last sketch in the series. This was the doodlebit I did of younger, 16-year-old Ria. I hate it. I don't like it at -all-. Why am I even scanning it? Iduno. My character design here is totally flawed. I have to go back to making her look punky with a bad haircut, 's how I'm used to seeing her when she was younger. ._. Ohboyohboy. She'ssogorgeous.

And Cassie commented on my way of drawing curly hair today. She 'wtf'd a little, even. ;DD

where you got what you wanted and ruined it all!

2008-09-12T22:21:00.007-04:00

First and foremost, I would like to wish a happy (belated!) 17th birthday to Joe! I realize I promised him arts, but I just haven't had time. D: So here are the doodles I actually DID come up with! Grief, Kitty!Joe, and Irwin for you.
GodIswearI'lldosomethingbetterlater.
This next piece is actually something I've been doing in Art 1 as of late, our beginning project! Blind contours~ (although I did peek on some of these). I basically contorted my hand into a bunch of poses and did... this. Two-page spread fo you. Really, not that thrilling.
Also something I did in Art 1 (and some other classes...) after I was done doing contour Pepsi cans. Demented animals! There's a dragonfly, a ladybug, a flower, and my favorite one of them all, a fish with an impossibly long tail. I might even color it.
Yes, I know fish don't make noise. So it said, "CHEE!" Sue me.Next up are my Darkheart doodles, as per always. Ziegte, the genderless illness (I did a test on my lunch table, and most guessed either male or couldn't guess at all!) is really an illness to me, too. It's been showing up... almost everywhere now. D: Which is scary.
This one's a concept I'd like to flesh out. Ria and Ziegte with a shared speech balloon, "I speak through you." It's crap, but most of my concepts are. ;D

I just liked how this came out. Except for her scalp being too tall (that's something I tend to do in my doodles), I think I near nailed how Ria's supposed to look. o_o
Say hello to my new journal footer! ;D Will be finished soon.Not much of a story behind this one. I was done with a German quiz and decided to doodle on the back of my paper. Second time I handed in something to Mr. Murphy with Ria drawn on it. I happened to particularly like this.Iduno. Ria again. >_> What a great thing to leave off with.

i know the bed and the room and the wall and the house,

2008-09-08T00:15:00.005-04:00

I'm starting off the entry with two sketches of Roche! The first, a close-up headshot that I will color... sometime tomorrow (Since I have just been shooed off to bed by my father, despite the fact that I know what I'm doing right now. Funny thing is, every time he tells me how long I'll be asleep for tonight, it shrinks down by an hour... "Five and a half!" "Four and a half!" It's like, only midnight, yanno? Six hours of sleep, ahoy! Not my fault people fail at helping me manage my timetable.) OH. And, see? NO FEET. She walks on -cones-. 8D Toocool. (You know I had to.)
I wanted to practice that weird semi-realism crap I've been into lately, and drew my Gaia avi as practice. Say hello! I feel as if her lips are way too small. >> I did attempt Ria, but my pencil is too faint. D: These images have already undergone heavy manipulation so that my cheap pencils, you know, show through. *has to buy new ones tomorrow* I think I'm doing alright. :

What's this about? Bleach1114 and lotte pepero have won the first round of my Gaian model search. I'll be drawing them full-bodies sometime this and/or next week, and I'm mildly thrilled to have some... recent art shop examples. Jordyn, I might feel like stopping the model search where it is and just drawing Darkheart people for the rest of the examples. Vlad/Ria as couple shot example, eh, eh? And I promised Joe/Tsukiyohei some boyxboy of his avi and that prince thing next to him. :'D
I just wanna draw lotte's suspenders, honestly. *has such a cool pose thought up*

Oh, I'm prolly not gonna get to tell you this tomorrow, Jordyn, but... I might draw something to appease my inner weaboo later, and you won't get to see it till it's done. It may burn your retinas, I warn you. >>

A cool dance.

NEWFAVEHUSHSOUNDSONG.
The Boys Are Too Refined.

i know each trick you played, whore you laid, dream you stole.

2008-09-07T02:40:00.002-04:00

Souhm, there was this photo on deviantART. Whisper by girltripped, that I thought was -phenomenal-. So, being me, I printed it, traced it, and colored it with some basic colors 'cause I wanted to get a feel for facial anatomy. This obviously does not belong to me and was done for practical purposes only. D:
A long overdue commission for Daewalker of Gaia. I doo looove his coat. *would wear that*
And of course, Roche. She's my Death God for an Adv. Lit DeathNote RP. ;"D

i know your tainted flesh, i know your filthy soul.

2008-09-06T01:38:00.003-04:00

Soquitebasically, today is when I scan in bits and pieces of my sketchbook. >> This would be our first actual art assignment of the year (I still can't believe I'm taking a year-long art class...) and it was -fun- as all -hell-. Contour line hands. We can't look at the paper, only our hands, and we cannot under any circumstances lift our pencil off the paper. This is the first out of the... six I drew? Idk, I thought it was thrilling. >> I did my friend Courtney's hand for one of them, and her ring... oh god her ring. :'DDD
Eyes faces eyes eyes noses faces. This page creeped the bejibees out of Cassie. ;D
Moar faces. Two combined pages of -faces-.
And Ziegte because I was bored. I tried to make it adrogynous.
Epicphail.

i'm sure it's not like it was before.

2008-09-04T17:24:00.004-04:00

So, for those of us who actually care, I'm adjusting to high school rather nicely, having made a pretty powerful impression on most of my teachers. >>;;

Leyla: ... It's an exoskeleton I tell you!
Cassie: You can't tell it's a -hard- -exoskeleton- just from a -picture!-
Newman: o-O You guys -are- really overanalyzing this...
SomeKid: It is an exoskeleton. >.>;
Cassie: YOU CAN'T TELL FROM THE PICTUREEE. D:

Dobmeirer: So, what'd you think of the book?
Ley: *HANDFLY*
Dobmeier: Yes, Leyla? >>;;
Ley: No book has ever given me more grief than this one. D:

Ryan: So what'd you think?
Glorious: Maybe the man was trying to steal his briefcase?
Ley: Screw the briefcase. That guy wanted the fedora. Fedoras are on a -whole- other level of -win-.
Brian: Real funny, Leyla.
Ryan: Leyla, I'm gonna be honest. There are times in the year when I'm going to listen to what you have to say, and then all I'll respond with is, "Thank you, Leyla." So, thank you, Leyla. >> ;;

Leyla+Cassie: JAZZBAND.
Laura: D:
Guifre: Jazz band -again-? >>;

IthinkMaronehatesmetoo. x0

Annnd I'm gonna be late to the first choir rehearsal of the season~ joooy to the wooorld. My parents should remember the absurd amount of money they're paying for this. >>;

Anyways. I can has -two- drawings.

The first is mildly inspired by Kitty, Jenna, and Emilie Autumn, because I keep wanting to draw half-Ziegte Ria, mainly 'cuz it's fun as all hell. And Jean-Pierre for Osi. >>

i've been trying to get back to the center.

2008-08-31T15:12:00.002-04:00

So, in procrastinating finishing my summer project/cleaning my room/practicing my audition piece/e-mailing my choir director/paying the other half of tuition for choir/getting a supply sheet/getting a field hockey schedule, I decided to start working on faces in my "style". I've heard one of my BFFLs, Tori, that she totally loves my proportions and body skills, but she's "just not a big fan of your [my] faces."
I sort of took that to heart, and I"m trying to play around with a few things to sort of... push some realism onto my characters. I'm still having terrible trouble with lips and noses in front view, but I'm getting there.

This was actually my second expression sheet. I was playing around with some things, disregarding anatomy and that kinda stuff. I sketched this -entirely- in pen to see where I mess up the most. Obviously, -someone- doesn't like drawing female side profiles.

Firefox, why are you telling me I spelled "doesn't" wrong?
This was technically the sheet drawn first. I made a little box in the corner to show myself that yes, I have improved (in four years). I'm rather fond of the giant eye on that page. >_> And the little expression by the too-long nose that goes with it. x3

Trying get away from the anime sideways checkmark is a little hard at this point in time, but I think I'm doing okay. : D I think my inspiration to do noses differently came from Wolf's Rain. They just made it look good. You can't blame me! D: I was on an addiction. T_T

Oh!
About my new titles.
I've decided that every month, I'm gonna pick a new song and use the lines from there as my title. I wanna know if anyone can guess them. :'DD

if you remember, remember.

2008-08-30T02:22:00.006-04:00

LEYLA CAN HAS NEW SCANNER OH GOD THANK YOU FATHER I LOVE YOU FOR SPOILING ME. My new Brother MFC-240C All-In-One scanner/printer/copier/fax machine is made of ultimate win and beast. It scans at like, 2400dpi if it wants to (I keep it at 600) and the images turn out huge and gorgeous. o_o SO ANYWAYS. Sketch dump for you? ;D

Let's start out by introducing my new OC, Arthur Bedegraine! He's my favorite dork-glasses gay boy, and he runs a magical flowershop with his BF(FL), Zeke! 8) More on him later, he too sexy for his shirt.

Next up, Tales!Ley! From the Tales of the Rising Shadow and the Crimson Adventurous Tears of the Dusk in the Moonlight, otherwise known simply as Tales. She has a pet duck. Fear it.

Joe says:
So, basically, TTOTRSATCATOTDINTM
Osi says:
*snort* In short?
Osi says:
XD
Joe says:
Abbreviated ^^

THIS IS NYE. NYE IS SEXY. ... Well anyways, this is Nye's demon form that I doodled while babysitting. His tattoos make me glee with joy, and I'm pretty happy with the overall turn out. o_o He's too pretty.

This is the result of playing way too many MMOs. I doodled Tori (left) and myself (right) as MMO characters. It's... a work in progress. >_> Tori looks like she's drunk, for God's sake.

And finally, what you've all been waiting for, the it's-all-in-the-swish boy that EVERYONE loves and wants for their own- JAYE! This loverboy belongs to none other than Jenna, and simply put, he's my faaavorite. x33 So I drew him. >_>

These two pieces are just two doodles I was playing around with a little. They're obviously unfinished (and it kinda tells you about my sketching process), but I was listening to Hoppipolla and I wanted to draw mush ('cause I never do). So here's some unproportional Vlad/Ria crap for you! ;D

Remember my animation project? SAY HELLO TO FRAME ONE. <3

Ria/Ivirie and Asher in the corner. >_> Citadel doodles. Associated with drabbles. I loff it, sorta.

Ria's dad! Well, a doodle of him, anyways. >_> I was bored at six in the morning, therefore propotions are way out of whack. Leave me alone. D:

This piece is clustered with the following, but I think it deserves its own description. Athie and Vlad. And a lanky Ria doodle. Gods. I'm gonna cry when we have to write that out. She looks up to him too much.

And of course, an Athie reference sheet for story five. She's just made of too much win. <3

So I had chores today.

2008-08-28T18:10:00.003-04:00

You know, whatever. xD Wash the dishes, take the laundry downstairs, et cetera, and one of them was to watch my (generally bratty) little brother of two years old. So whatev, I woke up late, and I come out with my laundry hamper and my kid brother's with my dad, so I'm like, "Eyh! Tony! Lessgo play downstairs!"

So the kid -runs- downstairs, takes the -long- way around our floor plan, and then -jumps- on the couch. I lol'd a little before turning the TV on. >_>

I felt like sharing.

the hush sound is phenomenal, end of story.

2008-08-25T16:05:00.003-04:00

MAJOR EDIT AT THE BOTTOM!

I was too tired to blog about this last night, but now I'm awake and listening to some new music I acquired. From what band, you ask?
I'm getting there.

So, last night I had the pleasure of taking (read: forcefully dragging) Josh to a Hush Sound concert with opening bands that I've heard of before, but never really took the time to listen to. Here are the links to their pages because, quite frankly, they were all rather good in my eyes (and ears).

The Morning Light
The Steel Train
The Cab
The Hush Sound

In order of how they played, to my memory.

Anyways.
It was a small gig at a skate park during the Hush Sound's "Dance Across The Country" tour in a kinda crappy part of my small, generally safe city. Getting in was a little nerve-wrecking for me, because I can't get adjusted to crowds after being practically isolated for two months of my life, and because I had ordered my ticket and needed to show them my ID to get it (I selected the "Will Call" thing on tickets.com, so I had to pick mine up at the venue), and Josh needed to buy his at the door. Still, we got in (and not without a few kind of embarrassing moments along the way). The first thing I did was buy a Hush Sound tour tee, which fits really loosely, is of good quality, and looking awesome. :3 Tenacious D's 'Tribute'. I swear, I was like one of the maybe five or ten people in the audience who knew what the hell he was doing and singing along to the parts I knew. Alex came on stage and started talking about how they called Ian "Goldfish" because he couldn't keep his attention on one thing at a time, ever, but after they do that song he's focused for like, the entire day. :'D It was too bad Shauna wasn't there, since she wanted to see them live.

The Hush Sound came on next. Dear sweet Jesus. I somehow progressed to the front row about three inches for the MASSIVE SPEAKER TOWER OF BASS DOOM during the whole show, and oh my god. They were phenomenal, coming out with Intro and going STRAIGHT into another song ("Not Your Concern," I think). They were so amazing it almost made me cry, and I sang along to almost every song (I think the girl next to me -heard- me even though I couldn't hear -myself-, and got slightly annoyed. Sorry random girl!) and and oh god. Their last song was something where people from all the bands came out and helped them out on, with Ian on the harmonica and they even did a rap bit in there with one of the drummers. And then the audience demanded an encore after they left the stage, sooo...
The Hush Sound returned and performed Honey for us! :'D Brilliant.

Since it was a super small venue, the people were all kinda chill and I got to meet a bunch of the performers (read: High-fived them for a "beast performance" and said hi and stuff).

Harrison and Bobby from The Morning Light.
Alex from The Cab.
Greta from The Hush Sound.

(I think meeting Greta was the most awkward out of all of them, since I had to wait for her to finish talking to a few more people before talking to me, and I was overwhelmed and my throat was dry so I sounded like an idiot. She did say I had a pretty name, though! xDD)

So, all in all, I'm phenomenally satisfied with the whole thing, and it was -so -worth the 18$ I paid for the tickets, taxes, processing fees and all. <3

I FOUND SOME VIDEOS~

Ian covering Tenacious D's Tribute
The Hush Sound believes in Barrack Obama. :'D
Alex doing Vegas Skies with Rattlesnake on stage.
Alex and Ian doing some acoustic stuff.
The Hush Sound - We Intertwined
The Hush Sound - Molasses

more color to sketches.

2008-08-23T05:02:00.004-04:00

Two posts in one day?! What is -this-?!

First up on the menu is a chibi of Ria and Vlad that I submitted to dA. There's so many flaws in it, it's not even funny.
BUT I LIKE IT.
Playing around with colors again.

I NEED TO SLEEP HOLY SHIT.

Pointless things I wanted to write about today.

2008-08-23T03:02:00.002-04:00

I'm always walking around and I get these random ideas for short stories, and I'm just curious if anyone thinks they're any weirder than I do. >_>
(That sentence sounded good in my head, I swear.)

- A sort of I-take-what-I-get-and-don't-ask-questions type of girl goes to get ice cream with her polar-opposite mother. The mother gets the wrong order and makes the girl re-order. She apologizes incessantly to her server, a boy from her school, and he tells her that it's alright.
Onward from there, cheesy high school bullshit, blah blah blah.

- Satan gets offended about Halloween.
"What? Kids dressing up as me? Kukuku-- AH! WHAT? I'm not -cute-! I don't -ask- for candy! If I wanted some fucking candy, I'd kill the mother fucker who has it and -take- it -myself-!"

- I feel like writing some character development bullshit with Ria and her dad going to meet all the lab kids. 'S prolly what I'll do.

- A backstory to Ziegte. Teehee. It'd be so terribly violent.

...
I need to stop staying up late with cran-raspberry juice and the Eels.
Wastin' space at this point. xDD

/scuttles off to work on Eric's history and Thatcher/Rosie's profiles.

equipment situation update.

2008-08-21T15:41:00.002-04:00

So, we all know that I'm a little flawed in the equipment department at the moment.

Last night I called my mom up to tell her that I'm in a rut because a) I screwed up on installing our new Canon SD790 on my computer and b) If I were to sell my scanner on eBay, it'd be worth less that 10$. (That's how ancient my scanner is.)

Anyways.
I had told her about getting a tablet before (I've always been a bit scared of doing so because the Wacoms I want are so -damn- expensive), but I've never actually like, asked for one. Yesterday I got pestered about it, explained the concept to my dad, and pulled the page up for him for a Wacom Inutos3 8x6, costing a handy 329$. Ouch, right?

So Dad pulled me over today and told me to (put one of our bills in the mail box, but that's besides the point). He said that since I take art pretty seriously and I'm so interested in learning it, he'd love to buy me a Wacom, just not right at this moment. I'm supposed to be getting some absurd amount of school clothes for this year, and Field Hockey equipment, and then my actual school supplies (which are weighed down by my TI-83 graphing calculator, weighing in at some absurd 100$).

Quite basically, this is -lame-. I hate spending tons of money on school, and we have a trip coming up this year, oi. ._. I so wanna go, but I'm not sure if I can pay for it by fundraising alone (job time, ahoy!).

Dad and I agreed that he'd probably get me the Wacom as a Christmas present. I kinda feel bad, since this year I've been leeching -tons- of money from my parents. I appreciate it tons, too. ._.;; I feel so baaad.

ANYWAYS.
Basically, any art from me is gonna be in few and far-between sketch dumps because I don't have the equipment to do stuff. My available outlets are the new Canon (via Dad's computer, again), Tori's scanner (which is noisy and slow and does crappy scanning and takes a lot of effort to use, so I'd rather not bother her about that), Sarah's scanner (also noisy and we have to be very careful when scanning stuff, so I might pass stuff along to her for transfer), or Sarah's tablet (which I don't wanna ask her to use too often, because I've only been to her house once before).

I'll probably have a few things around Sunday, since I'm going to Sarah's house and from there we'll be going to the Hush Sound show (maybe with Shauna).
Alalala.
That would be it. ;D

animation project?

2008-08-20T01:43:00.005-04:00

You heard me.

So, a while ago Jordyn and I were discussing animating Vlad (more accurate reference on the left) singing Jordan Knight's Give It To You (I think that's the most hyperlinking I've ever put in a single sentence), and I told her that I actually have all the necessary equipment to make an animation of my own. Which, I do. My trusty LightTracer II and I are the perfect simple animation team!

Now, Jordyn's promised to animate Vlad for me (I'll have to find some denying song to do Ria with xD), but since I have lots of time and no imaging software, I deceided on trying something short. Back when I was a wee little toddlekin, I watched a special about one of my favorite cartoons, and they said that in traditional animation, it takes 24 drawings per second to make the thing flow right. Jordyn and I did some calculations, and to animate something like Nara (which is about five minutes long), about seven thousand sketches are involved. A feature length Disney movie, say about two hours long? Something around 170,000 individual pictures.

No way am I doing something like that on my own, kay? ;D

So instead, I planned out a little 50-55 sketch animation of how regular peppy-o Ria goes into full-on Ziegte mode. It'd be a decently large file animated by hand, edited in Adobe Photoshop 7.0 and animated in Adobe ImageReady. A lengthy project, but if I do a little at a time, I ought to get it done.

(If I ever felt up to it, I'd complete it. But I'm estimating it'd be... 35-40 seconds long, meaning like 840-960 sketches.)

Yes, it'd be tons easier in Flash 'cause every line's a vector.
Yes, I'm set on doing it traditionally.
(It's just more dramatic the way I have it planned.)

INOTHERNEWS~
I'm gonna try to use our old Kodak cam to take pictures of my drawings and upload 'em that way. :3 I wonder if it'll work ~

Oh.
And as for background music, I'm thinking of composing my own. xD

Edit:
A quick, mouse-drawn plan of what this thing is gonna look like. Don't click if you don't want spoilers (if you can count this as spoiling anything...). I'm in the middle of doing the math to figure out just how much I'm gonna need. (I'm calculating over 100 drawings because of the short sequences at the beginning and at the end). Split into two parts 'cause Blogger hates big files. xD

Edit II:

So, I did the math, and came up with the scary-as-all-hell number of 734-753 frames. There's a cheap trick I can use to eliminate about 336 of them, so I think I'll do that instead and end up with 398-417 frames. It's prolly even less than that, now that I think about it. Mid to upper 300s, definitely.
It's gonna take a while, but I'm looking forward to it. : D

coloring practice!

2008-08-19T02:02:00.005-04:00

It seems I'm beginning to ditch my German titles. ; ; Poop.

ANYWAYS.
I got bored and decided to color something. xDIt's obviously a scan of the Chapter 39 manga cover for Ouran Host Club, so I don't really own the image. xDD I just got bored and decided to practice a little bit, because the intricate hair just called to me. o_o
Happy 35th post!
I might actually have some arts on the 24th. xDD
(And pictures. Ohgod you won't ever stop seeing pictures, since I'll have gone to the Hush Sound concert with Sarahphay.) There's also this lovely lineart I found on deviantART.
I just had to color it. :'D Credit to PrincessElemmiriel for the lines, and I did the colors for practice. xD
Leave feedback if you're up to it. I'm off to bed. ; ; Annie's moving tomorrow.

Tell, not show.

2008-08-15T00:14:00.002-04:00

SJKHJfkhsdkhdsjkfhsdjkfhsdfsjdahfs!
D:
THAT'S JUST ABOUT HOW FULL OF ART JUICE I AM RIGHT NOW.
So, not only did I find a new manga series to follow (Elemental Gelade), but listening to Hoppipolla (song in this video) inspired me to draw -- *GASP* CUTE THINGS. D:

Solike, in front of me is this thing of sketcherdoodles of early story five concepts. I mean, I think one of the more touching parts of Vlad's return would be the fact that almost everyone would be mad at him, but then out of like, the entire lab crowd, you'd just see Athie just RUN at him and hug him for all she's worth. She wouldn't give three flying fucks about any other woman he'd be with. Athie's like... the innocent little sister. :'D &She'd be all grown up and teenager-like and pretty and just... come running and crying like, "I DON'T CARE WHAT YOU DID OR WHO YOU'RE WITH, I'M JUST SO GLAD YOU'RE BACK! D:"

And then Ria would come out with her hairdryer.
"Get the fuck out of my house, you cheating, lying, unfaithful bastard!"
And then she'd like, fall over.
What an interesting birthday that'll be~ : D

I'm also drawing 48573574 concept sketches of s5 Ria, becauseee... I can't seem to be able to draw underweight sick people? D: Fufufufu.

tessa's art exchange!

2008-08-13T22:48:00.004-04:00

So, I inconveniently signed up for Tessa's Art Exchange when my scanner decided to inconveniently DIE. So, basically, I had to do the exchange piece in Photoshop entirely, by mouse. =3= Here are some progress shots fo you!

So then, I fiddled with a background color and some [lame] gradient effects to get...
I really need to do more decent drawings for people. ; ;

ich denke das sehr ... shitfuck, what's the word for sad? D:

2008-08-12T17:28:00.010-04:00

Lalala, I got bored today && decided that I wanted to color stuff from my massive sketchdump because that many of my characters don't have color refs. Lalala. Here be a colored Tessa fo you, complete with crappy monologue on the deviantART submission.
" Remember this, she may look like her mother, but the recklessness, the disregard for the rules, her power to pour so much of her love and attention to one person, and most importantly, her eyes, those come from our side of the family. The eyes, Vladimir, those are the most important feature of a true Davidson. Know the eyes, and you can read her like a book. Stop her before she becomes a martyr, and know when she's willing to risk it all."
Lalala. Excuse the crappiness. Let's continue.Up next is a WIP of the colored Ziegte!Ria piece. :3 I felt like dual tone paintings, so here you are. The finished version below. Took a lot of gradient work. @@;; And... dodge tool rape. BUT IT'S DONE FUFUFUFU. Prolly gonna color one more before the end of the night, though. :'D I'm having fun. And voila! Last (unfinished) piece. :3 I wanted to try setting like... a mood or something. xD A feel for the picture. It's not done, so don't say a word. o_o EDIT!
LALALA! After listening to Nara by ES Posthumus about 290389038 times, I HAVE DECIDED TO DRAW DRAMATIC THINGS, fufufu. So, since I don't have a scanner OR a tablet OR a camera, I'mma tell you about this. :3
Basically, Jordyn and I have discussed the details of the end of the... major fighting parts of our RP in decent detail, and we said Ria would -almost- die. So I drew that. With Vlad holding her and shizzles and he looks all sad and stuff because his wife's bleeding and slowly de-transformnig from Ziegte mode as she's slowly a-slippin' away. And in the corner I drew a dying/happyish Ria face, and her caption says, "I believe in you, now finish this. I promised you forever, didn't I?"
LAWL @ CHEESY CORNY SOB-STORY CAPTION OH LAWD.

EDIT TWO!
I finished the Ria piece!

two words: sketch flood.

2008-08-11T01:14:00.014-04:00

Lalala. Welcome to Ley's sketch flood of massive incomplete crap-tastic awesome! Please don't feel obliged to even glance at this entry because, let's face it, it's fookin hooge. D: So lalala, again, enjoy if you please. :'D

DOODLES

For the first time (in a long time?) ever, say hello to Alex! I drew Andy too, but his hair I can never get right. :'D So here's Alex, Ria's trusty trouble-making cousin who's swept many a lady off her feet. He's such a player. I love him dearly.
This is from the good old days of my .hack//GU obsession! In order, there's Atoli, Kuhn, Pi, X-Form Haseo, and Endrance(lawl). Please excuse the crappiness.
Only for Sarah do I do this: THE BUTT PAGE. Hello, a page of Ria's ass. :'D There is actually a reason for this page! D: I wanted to do this DRAMATIC 4-page comic of Ziegte!Ria vs Sygro, and... well, I needed her ass for the first panel. :'D BECAUSE IT'S DRAMATIC, OKAY?

(POSSIBLY) TO BE REWORKED

There was a caption to this before I cut it to fit in a massive scan on Sarah's beloved scanner. It read, "Love, you are foolish, you're tired. Your sleeplessness makes you a liar," and said caption is from a Hush Sound song. Lighthouse, I believe. And, well, Eric just happens to be tired. Leave him 'lone, he's my favorite man child. D< Ziegte!Ria. That's all. She's definitely my favorite psycho, ever. I love her. End of story.
:'D Vlad and Ria. As demented chibis. Vlad had an "*eyebrow waggle*" thing next to him, but it got cut out. &&So that's why Ria's all, "No."
Beach!Ria. With a picnic basket. Isn't she lovely and disproportional and just LOVELY?
Lolololol Seamus. I wanted to draw him, so I did. End of story.

A group picture that I was working on before I just said, "CRAP THIS LOOKS HORRIBLE," and dumped it. Ria, Athie, and Eric. There's like, a shadow of Vlad somewhere in there, maybe. Ria and Vlad. It looks so bad, but I like it. And Vlad's hair looks like a dead rat mob and it's bothering the shit out of me, but it looked worse before. Chibi captions say, "Stop undressing me with your mind," "Ass," and "Suddenly naked? Wtf! xD."

CONCEPT SKETCHES

I decided that if there was ever a shoujo of our little Darkheart thing, Ria would look like so. & I 'm making fun of Kagome in the chibi on the lower right, because... Ria's doing the "dramatic" name-calling thing that Kagome does AT LEAST THREE TIMES PER EPISODE. No wonder I stopped watching that show. Chibi Eric with his axe. Isn't he cuuuute?
This is Ziegte! The personified virus that split itself into like, 29493483 pieces and infected random expeiments. It is an it, beause it has no gender. Is it androgynous enough?
A psuedo GU character that has no name yet! But I like her&&her swords enough, soo... she's getting posted. Stfu.
RIA'S DAD AND HER MOM IN THE LOWER LEFT FUFUFU. It's a concept through and through! I did something better of him, but I looost it.
La di da, I like drawing Ziegte!Ria too much. Such a creeper, eee.
I told you I like drawing her too much.
I was trying to do a redesign of story 1 Ria. I think it's a little better than the mop she had before. xD
Basically, normal Ria, and what-if Ria. There used to be this whole spiel on how if she wasn't a hero, she'd be this eccentric music teacher, but she likes being a hero better because of Vladdy and travel at the cost of a limb and her life. :'D But her music teacher self would be taller, fufufu.
TESSA. I have been hiding this since like, story two, but Tessa used to be a maaaageee oh she so lovely. Lookither! WHAT AN AUNT. Ria's a luckylucky girl. :'D Alex and Andy don't even know. I've been good about keeping this a secret.

that's it. i'm getting a tablet.

2008-08-10T19:03:00.005-04:00

So, as I said I would be, I am currently at Sarahphee's house. I tried on her awesomekickass 8x6 wacom, and I NEVER WANT TO GO BACK TO MOUSE DRAWING AGAIN. D:

Look how preeetttyyy. &&This is also a PS7 demo for Sarah because she only uses OpenCanvas. :'D <3>

Ahem.

Sketchflood to come. >3

referential recordings - neu!

2008-08-08T16:53:00.003-04:00

Hi guys!
I'm not really posting art, that'll be around Monday afternoon (Sarahphee is letting me use her scanner on Sunday, which means I won't be here all day. It's Gaia&&YouTube all Sunday with mah dork!twin.) I'm actually just here to inform you that I have made a second blog for the purpose of keeping my character profiles intact! The new one, referential recordings, is located at http://leyleykeepsherprofileshere.blogspot.com/ and will be kicked off as soon as I stop being lazy and start filling in skeletons.

Why am I even posting this?
To remind myself to stop being lazy and start filling in skeletons. :3 <3
And, if you'd like to know a bit more about the crazies I draw, click it. I don't promise much. :'D

[/shot for being crappy at writing and character development]

ich weiss- opencanvas aber photoshop?

2008-08-02T20:15:00.009-04:00

I saved the Lilith lineart separately so I could experiment a little in OpenCanvas. I didn't bother finishing this because I got frustrated. :'D

What I don't like about oC1.1:

The interface is... too simple, I suppose. There aren't enough tools and modifications for those tools for me to get done what I need to get done.
Everything is in broken English or in Japanese. ; ;
There are no normal layers- just multiply, add, and subtract. I want my normal layers back. ; ;
The brush cursor does not expand when you increase the brush size! D: It's nearly impossible to fill in lineart when you don't know how big your brush is. D<

What I like about oC1.1:

I'll admit that it works a lot faster than PS7. >_>
The colors auto-blend!
I'm in love with the watercolor brush.

What I learned about oC1.1:

The colors I use need to be closer together on the palette for them to blend better. That means a lot more in-betweeners for dramatic shading. Yikes. Lazy meter going off!

So, I mean, yeah. Otherwise, guys, guess what? I might just be attending my first ever anime con in two months! Located in Philadelphia, PA, TAKII (the asian kareoke idol invitational) is a free-admission culture type thing with hall cosplays and lots of fun-seeming music events. Tori and I are not dressing up for this one due to the date, but for the two later ones that she picked out, we just might (that is, if we're able to go). I'm definitely going to be Howl for one of the later ones because it requires not much except my mom's sewing skills and a rigorous workout schedule. I have dark enough hair to just need to cut and straighten. :'D

Another idea that we're discussing as I type this is the possibility of doing a pairing.

tori: mm, lawl, let's do one from ouran xD

leyla : ... YES.

tori: which one suits us though?

leey la: i could be kyouya, but who goes with him?

tori: tamaki ://

tori: not happening

leey la: LAWWWLLL

- a bit of pondering later -

leyla: mm, i think ouran is ruled out for pairings :'D

leyla: we could be L and light

tori: mmm. i'd look like michael jackson with black hair

tori: &light scares me

- more pondering here -

tori: AHA, what if we really diddo sasunaru?!

tori: xD

leyla: i'd need to paint a frown on my face

leyla: but we could do ridiculous dances

leyla: and make ourselves look like idiots!

tori: yesm xD

leyla: the tell me* would come in handy :'D

- ideas ideas -

leyla: if i ever dress up as sasuke, i will sing the real suga baby. you know that song?

tori: YES

Our brainstorming process is lovely, no? Anyways, yeah. >_> We're plotting to attack cons. If you live near enough and plan on attending these, do tell! I might try to spot you and give a glomp. : D

TAKII in Philadelphia, PA
Ani-Aikousha-Con in Rochester, NY
Tekkoshocon 2009 in Greentree, PA

Perfect opportunity for people to stalk me. >_>;; Whoops.
So yes, those are the plans. I think if we continue going to cons, as I improve my art skills, I might get a table with Tori. ;3

*tell me: The Tell Me dance by Wonder Girls. You can find it here.
**the real suga baby: The Real Suga Baby is a song by Stephanie Beard that I have memorized. :'D You can find it here.

Also, you should see Naruto leaning like a cholo.

ich bin ... aw, fuck it. :'D

2008-08-01T05:36:00.002-04:00

More Lilith fo you!
A chibi this time. :3 <3

This update is mainly to tell you that... Dad's going to -attempt- to fix my sound and scanner tomorrow. I might just have 30+ sketches for you!

And if he fixes it before I go to the post office, I can show you the letter I made for Harley*!

*Harley: A good friend of mine who moved away last month. She resides in Mulberry, FL right now. Her birthday was July 30th, but I only just now got enough money to express mail a CD and a letter to her. :'D

was ist das?!

2008-07-31T05:25:00.003-04:00

I HAVE FULLY COLORED ART FTW. This is my new Damekko Dobutsu-based character Lilith for an RP that Tori and I started on Gaia. Give us a visit and ponder joining, if you will!

Otherwise, I feel very shy about my German having befriended an actual German native via the world of Flyff. xDD My Deutsch titles are unworthy, oh no! Silly me. And speaking of Flyff, if anyone plays, I have characters in the Clockworks, Lawolf, and Aibatt servers (I'm almost always in Aibatt- the Clockworks was an accident and I'm in Lawolf to play with Kitty). Look me up as...

Aibatt:
Leyley (38), Detoxx(30), or Mohfo(2)
Lawolf:
Technotronic (16)
Clockworks:
Leyley (5) (I think)

I might make art of my friend Tori, Deniz (the German native I mentioned earlier) and myself. We had a conversation about name meanings, and we're Grace, Ocean, and Night respectively. :'D Flyff brings people together!

Hem.
I still can't get my scanner to go. I might be in need of a new one, and I have my eyes on this new Visioneer OneTouch 7400. Better than my bulky 7600. D: So, yeah. That's my unfortunate experience with artwork. xDD If I get anything in, it'll be from Tori's house. She has a working scanner. ; ;

... Or when Dad gets un-mad at me, I can ask him to toy around and install a scanner driver. :3

That's my news!

&& Remember that Vlad doodle from months ago? I've decided to redraw it completely. : D

wo ist mein kunst? D:

2008-07-23T07:25:00.002-04:00

Where, oh where is my art?
Why, there are 30 sketches right here on my desk! Over 30, actually, classified into "Chibi," "Old," "Workable," and "Concepts."
And as I'm importing the Backstreet Boys self-titled CD into my iTunes, I face a problem.

My scanner refuses to connect.
More on the issue later.

kommst du zum mein fahrstuhl? wollst du mir mich schlafen?

2008-07-08T17:29:00.003-04:00

I can make perverted comments at my level of German! : D
My title reads, "Will you come to my elevator? Do you want to sleep with me?"
[/shot]

Anyways, I felt this was historical enough to document.
I am computer less as of July 4th, at 3:30AM. Luckily enough, I'm getting a new PC as soon as my Dad buys a new one for himself (yay hand-me-downs!). He ordered the thing today, and says the monitor should be in on Saturday, while the processor should be here on Monday. So... by the time I get internet set up, I should be on on late Monday, maybe Tuesday. :3 No promises.

Programs I get to (re)install!
- Ares
- iTunes
- PSCS2 (3?)
- AIM
- Windows Live Messenger (already installed?)
- Firefox
- Windows Media Player
- Real Player
- Quick Time
- ActiveX
- Shockwave
- Flash

ich denke das komisch.

2008-06-26T08:43:00.003-04:00

A Thatcher and some other crap on a page that I did because I had an hour left after completing my biology exam (to which my score was a 98!) and had Candy Pop stuck in my head. Click the link. It'll make you fruity up the loopy.
My friend's mom described that song as "something a gay bar would play at the end of the night to chase the stragglers out."
I think it's the catchiest thing. :'D And something Thatcher would dance to. Duh.

seamus ist sehr shoen.

2008-06-23T00:52:00.005-04:00

A sketchdoodle of my new OC, Seamus! Seamus is a fairy. Say hi, Seamus!
... Yeah. Seamus is an Irish fairy to go along with Janice's Lucy, who is made of win and hearts and love. Tidus kisses (read: almost rapes ) Yuna played back in my head. Just thought I'd let you know. XD

But yeah, you'll be seeing more of this brainchild. :3

ich kann ein bleistift nehmen nicht.

2008-06-22T00:00:00.005-04:00

I haven't been able to draw anything in over a week.
I'm so deadbeat tired, it's not even funny.

But at least I finished my Drawing Day 2008 entry! I've been complimented on it a few times, so it means I'm progressing in the art world? : D Exciting, innit? But there's so much I wanna draw. ; ; So let's talk about what I wanna and/or have to draw, shall we? XD

There's this song that I've been listening to nonstop for over a day, El Tango De Roxanne, and I keep thinking of a scene that will probably never happen in the RP between Jordyn and I, but it's interesting enough to think about it. Kinda like... Vlad's mental breakdown. I mean, he'll come back from a super!long absence thinking his wife is dead and with another woman, and then he'll get stuff thrown at him like the fact that he's the father of two, and that his wife is very much alive, very pissed off, and very ill with three months to live unless she starts taking her pills like a good girl. I can just see him plopping down on a couch and breaking down.
Fuego is a great song too. It makes me wanna draw something rave-like of Alex, Andy, and Dan. 'Cause they don't get enough art love. Or maybe even Thatcher and Rosie. Or all five of them. Iduno, it could do for some cool pictures. : D
Being the perverted youngin that I am, I kinda wanna draw something semi-sexy thanks to Supermassive Black Hole.
Unintended (despite its shitty intro) calls for something sad and cute. D: I keep sounding like an obsessive dork, but I mean, it suits Vlad and Ria more than I'd like to go into. "You could be my unintended choice / to live my life extended, / You could be the one I'll always love." F'sho.

I'm gonna go OC with Jenna now. XD Sotired.

sie stellten meine seele brennend ein

2008-06-17T22:22:00.003-04:00

My mother finally got my Montreal photos (it's been a while- remember, I went from May 9th to May 12th!), and I must say I'm quite content with how most of them came out. XD <3 Let's start displaying a few.

This is our tour guide, who's French accent made me swoon, qui? ;D His name is Alexis (pronounced Alexi), and he was the biggest goofball I've ever met. Actually pulled my bandana right off my head once as we were boarding the "moach" (motor coach). Weirdo.

Alexis again, but Josh and Sarah take up the frontal in this photo. I think Josh is wondering who the hell I'm taking a picture of, and Sarah is all, "WTFWHEREAMI?!" Or something. She doesn't get out much.
One of my hotel-room-mates (Sydney) and I on the "moach". I think this was still on the way. XD We look terrible, and I'm in the middle of laughing my ass off, but still. ;D Weird angle contorts mah face. D:
A street in Montreal. <3 Very pretty town. Gorgeous. I could live there. ; ; <3
THIS WAS THE GREATEST THING EVAH. We were walking to a restaurant, and I spotted this cool cool van, so I -had- to take a picture of it.<3 'Twas amazing.
So yes. I might post some pretty scenery later on, but that's just a gist of things. I think I went through two disposables? XD <3 Stupid cam breaking... hem. Anyways. Going to convince my parents to buy a Canon PowerShot. ; D

Now, to talk a little bit about what I've been fearing since I walked into school- the Integrated Algebra Regents* exam. It was a lot easier than I thought it'd be, but I think I did poorly, 'cause... well, everyone else said they had a tough time. Means I did something wrong, I think. D: But yeah. I find out my grade without the curve** (if there is one) tomorrow, and I'm kinda anxious, because Math is the last class of the day. I might pop in during homeroom and check it out. That'd take a HUGE weight off my shoulders.

But, yeah, tomorrow... I gotta lug a giant postercoard and like six bags of stoof to school, 'cause we made presents for teachers. Andstuff. My Orchestra teacher gets a giant posterboard, and my Social Studies teacher is getting a gift basket. I might get something for my English and Science teachers, and my guidance counselor, too. Just like, cards. I really do bother too much. XD <3 So yes, busybusy.
And I've drawn absolutely nothing. : D

*Regents: A type of exam in New York State that basically decides if you pass or fail a course. See, our school year, like most, is divided into four quarters, and we get a grade for each until its reset. If you average the four quarters, and the percent total is BELOW 65, even if you pass the Regents, you fail the course. If you go with flying colors all year and fail the Regents, you fail the course.
It sucks.

**Curve: A percentage that's added onto our grades depending on how an area of the state did. Usually, done like (actual % earned) x (curved percentage). For example, .82 x 1.07 = .88. Your final score would be 88% instead of an 82 with a 7% curve.

ich have viel arbeit.

2008-06-10T17:58:00.002-04:00

I'm done doing title translations. Just 'cause it sounds cooler when I don't. 8D

Anyways, this is what's going to happen over the next two weeks or so, because it's the end of the year and I got stoof to do. ; ;
Tomorrow is probably my busiest day of them all, not only because it's Friday the 13th and I gotta cause some mischief, but because it's our 8th Grade Dance. Most teachers refer to it as the '8th Grade Party', but that sounds cheesy, so we just call it 'the dance'. I've got a dress, and a date and a half (half = my friend Courtney, who doesn't count as a datedate 'cause she's a girl), and a lot of stuff to do. x0 I might only be able to hop onto the PC for about an hour since, I gots school and a hair appointment at 1PM (which means I get to skip Gym!<3), then Kaylah and maybe Tom are coming over to help with Kaylah's outfit/makeup, and at 6:45 we're off to the dance. X3 <3 I'm going out to eat after it, so me being back before midnight = FAT CHANCE.
Hem.

Otherwise, Tuesday is my first exam, which is in Math. I'm ripping my hair out over that one, because it's Regents. I know I'll PASS, but it's never been given before, so... I gotta watch out and triple check my problems to make sure that I can at least scrape a 90. Hoping there's an upward curve. D: Then exams kick into full gear on Thursday, and the day of my Regents Biology exam, I get to go see Wicked live!<3 Sosososoexciiited. And my Dad's agreed to buy me Warped Tour tickets.
And I'm still looking for a job.

No art today, sorry kiddos. I gotta run to the mall to accessory shop with Mariah. XD <3

kunst tag ist fertig. :<

2008-06-08T00:00:00.011-04:00

Title Translation: Art Day is Over. :(

I'm surprised I'm still putting up German titles even after I finished the speaking part. XD Speaking of, that turned out kinda funny. I walked in with like, a fortune cookie (my exam was at the end of lunch) and we sat down and stuff, but... yeah. 1) We had four colored stacks of cards, each representing a task. I arranged them in rainbow order before allowing my teacher to begin. 2) We talked for a while before letting each other commence the examination. 3) One of the tasks, "Expressing Your Feelings," was an interesting one. She made up this new Biology teacher, and asked me how I felt about her.
Frau N: [We have a new Biology teacher. What do you think about her?]
Leyla: [She has... an ugly skirt? : D]
Frau N: [Ah, yes, she's also very boring and very old. What's her name, do you know?]
Leyla: [Yes! It's ... uh... Mrs. Uglyskirt!] -insert massive giggle fit here-
Frau N: [Yes, yes, she must be at least 100 years old.]
Leyla: [More like three hundred.] Frau N: All right then! Let's diss the teacher! I'm the only one who could have fun in an exam, I swear.

3:20PM
So, the first part of a piece that I finished today is a background for the theme Apocalypse Please. This alone took me four hours to complete (give or take- I took breaks).
I think it's pretty awesome!

7:49PM
So basically, there's 4 hours and 11 minutes left of Drawing Day 2008, and I'm barely done with anything. ; o; I did, though, redraw [secretsecret] Obviously a few things to fix, but let's remember something here, kids! It's only a sketch!

11:17PM
Gah! Almost over. ; ; I'm so sad! But I've got a few sketches to submit. xD First of all, let's finish this piece.
This is Ria's [secretsecret] form, and she's basically everything Ria is not. Badass, beast, ruthless, et cetera. And she's white, which disproves the common theory that Ria's design was based off a raven. Let's keep in mind that [secretsecret] is also a very unfortunate and unintended side effect. And this is the finished piece, as uploaded on my deviantART. I finally made my signature a brush, and experimented with textures and stuff. So awesome... hem. Anyways, the composition took somewhere around seven or eight hours to complete, and those puffballs of light are explosions, and there's smoke and ruined buildings behind them. Just so you know.

11:52PM
Ah, officially my last submission for 'official' drawing day. XD Everything else I draw after this edit will go into another blog post. So here are my three artworks~ This first one is Janice's Lucy the Fairy, and with her, I can hit three birds in one stone. The Drawing Day submission on deviantART, the Fairy theme in my challenge, and my Kiriban picture. Good job, Wolfie! : DThis is a very, very quick sketch of mine and Jessica's characters that are based off of the Cheshire Cat and Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland. They are luau-ing. With teacups. And I think I did Hatter totally wrong. Whoops. D: SorryJessJess!And last but not least, a commission for fellow RP-er, Daewalker of GaiaOnline! : D He request an OC, and an OC he shall get. This will be colored later, ftw. I'm kind of excited, he has a fun palette!

So yes. Four minutes from the end of the -greatest- holiday of the year. X3 Yay for everyone that participated!

Of course, there are things I'm still working on, like the commission for Fourelements on GaiaOnline, and a cutesy Ria/Vlad picture (nowthatIhaverefs).<3

heute ist kunst tag!

2008-06-06T23:25:00.005-04:00

Title Translation: Today is Art Day!

So, the countdown to National Drawing Day stands at 33 minutes and 56 seconds. I have got to say that I'm about as psyched as it gets.

I'm planning a full, 24-hour draw-a-palooza, here! As soon as my parents get up, I'm making a thermos full of coffee to last me the night, some snackage, preparing the headphones (for late-night drawing while mi padre is still up) and my favorite list of 300 themes before I get paper, sketchbooks, pencils, pens, et cetera, and start drawing. I'm really excited. x3 I hope Wolfie and Kitty will join me on this wonderful holiday/draw-a-palooza. <3 Will update in 24, 30 minutes, and 55 seconds.

drei hunderd kunst.

2008-06-05T23:05:00.001-04:00

Title Translation: 300 Art.

Pathetic. I know.
But! I have a list of 300 themes for you that is also posted on my deviantART account!
1. Beginnings
2. Are You Challenging Me?
3. Happiness
4. All You Need Is Love
5. Sunlight
6. Ice Cream
7. Smile
8. Laugh
9. Love
10. Warmth
11. Friends
12. Precious
13. Sparkle
14. Wedding
15. Dance
16. Poison
17. Chains
18. After a Battle
19. Fear
20. Vortex
21. Upside-Down
22. Fading
23. End Of The World
24. Envy
25. Chaos
26. Scar
27. Pessimistic
28. Confusion
29. Idle
30. Insomnia
31. Zombies
32. Weary
33. Gray
34. Was It A Dream?
35. Imaginary
36. Working Hard
37. Hardly Working
38. Hope
39. Cursed
40. Lost
41. Falling
42. Weakness
43. Safe
44. Holiday
45. Fiesta
46. Play
47. Candyland
48. Fairy
49. Garden
50. Strawberry Fields
51. Content
52. Blame You
53. Rivalry
54. Excuses
55. Never Again
56. Failure
57. Forgotten
58. Exhaustion
59. Frost
60. Bitter
61. Memories
62. Picking Up The Pieces
63. Across the Universe
64. Board It Up
65. Bullet
66. And Who Will Kiss?
67. Losing Yourself
68. Ill
69. Wrath
70. Forever and a Day
71. Summer Haze
72. Snow
73. Serenity
74. Stress
75. Lose Yourself
76. Moonlight
77. Standing Still
78. Abandoned
79. Expectations
80. Two Roads
81. Waiting
82. Illusion
83. Sacrifice
84. Kick In The Head
85. No Way Out
86. Rejection
87. Want
88. Need
89. Traps
90. Broken Pieces
91. Give Up
92. Last Hope
93. Rot
94. Away
95. Misfortune
96. Last Hope
97. Cut
98. Rainy Monday
99. Lurking
100. Cold Embrace
101. Two Guns
102. Drop
103. Dirt
104. Desecrate
105. Need
106. Rape
107. Storm
108. Across The Sky
109. What?
110. Adhesive
111. Mecha
112. Random
113. Video Game
114. Ice
115. Clumsy
116. Song
117. Surprise
118. Internet
119. Fire
120. Orange
121. Puppy
122. Fate
123. Chores
124. Relationship
125. Famous
126. Emotion
127. Run
128. Wild
129. Beating
130. Morning
131. Grow
132. Sweet
133. Wrong
134. Right
135. Star
136. Courage
137. Woman
138. Dream
139. Purple
140. Pink
141. Park
142. Lake
143. Green
144. Lullaby
145. Simple
146. He
147. She
148. Smoking
149. Destiny
150. Complicated
151. Making History
152. Eternity
153. Gateway
154. Opportunities
155. 33%
156. Judgement
157. Vengeance
158. Tears
159. My Inspiration
160. Umbrella
161. Stirring of the Wind
162. Separation
163. Everything For You
164. A Moment in Time
165. The True You
166. Patience
167. Only Human
168. Advantage
169. Breakfast
170. Echoes
171. Simplicity
172. Revolution
173. Windmill
174. Make Your Mark
175. Crashing Waves
176. Bobby Pin
177. Headphone
178. Drum
179. Crisis
180. All That I Have
181. Panties
182. Europe
183. Urban
184. Fly Me To The Moon
185. Walk
186. See
187. Dream
188. 4:29 PM
189. Citric Acid
190. Still
191. Young
192. Old-School
193. Iron
194. Soft
195. Advertisement
196. Fantasy
197. Lock and Key
198. Apocalypse Please
199. Heart
200. Stitch
201. Dragon
202. Zodiac
203. One Shape
204. Future
205. Mascot
206. Wings
207. Progress
208. Child of Royalty
209. Hysteria
210. Sunburn
211. Automatic
212. Sharp
213. Censored
214. East Meets West
215. Hologram
216. Tattoo
217. Dinosaur
218. What If.…
219. Portal
220. Lace
221. Study
222. Movie
223. Silhouette
224. Robot
225. Bird
226. Jewelry
227. Fashion
228. Redesign
229. Stamp
230. Buttons
231. Space
232. Pirate
233. Freedom
234. Inevitable
235. Convention
236. Puppets
237. Flight
238. RLY???
239. Sound Effect
240. Pants
241. Froof
242. Rock
243. Message
244. Bugs
245. Effort
246. Bandaid
247. Discovery
248. Gray
249. Fortitude
250. Mother Nature
251. Cat
252. No Time
253. Foreign
254. Sorrow
255. Under the Rain
256. Flowers
257. Stars
258. Hold My Hand
259. Eyes
260. Dreams
261. Family
262. Childhood
263. Stripes
264. Fairy Tale
265. Everyday Magic
266. Do Not Disturb
267. Multitasking
268. Playing the Melody
269. Hero
270. 67%
271. Obsession
272. Mischief Managed
273. Mirror
274. Mundane
275. Bliss
276. Paper Wings
277. Beanie
278. Devil Inside
279. Stamina Rose
280. Honey
281. Mesmerize
282. Inner Universe
283. Rise
284. Furry Cheese
285. I Should Tell You
286. Faster
287. The End Is All I Can See
288. Take It Easy
289. There! Right There!
290. Bumblebee
291. Butterfly
292. Elf
293. Myth
294. Metal
295. Corset
296. Drink
297. Dying
298. Heal
299. Almost…
300. Ends

der fahrstuhl ist sehr bequem. (: nicht!

2008-05-29T22:57:00.004-04:00

Title translation: "The elevator is very comfortable. Not!"

The only logical reason that I can think of for that title is... well, my friends were making fun of the German word for elevator, "fahrstuhl", which literally means "riding chair", and their little song is stuck in my head. Ohboy. D:

Anyways. I'm in a pathetic art slump right now, so it's like... grawr. I can't draw anything half-way decent, but... I gotta go to a theme park tomorrow, so maybe I'll grab a huge purse and my sketchbook and like... go nuts. Lots of people having fun there, right? : D<3 And I'm not going on -any- rides because I discovered about three summers ago that I do not. Like. Rides. So I'll be chilling with Sarah on the land down un-dah!

But! I do have stuff for you! XD
A Gale doodle. Is all. :< Disappointing, I know.

Otherwise, Jordyn and I were looking around for actors that we could giggle about being our OCs in some sort of movie or something, and I found a -perfect- Ria reference. Reika Hashimoto is my new hero, man. I printed out a few close-ups of her face, but like, my block is like, "NOPE NO REFERENCE FOH YOO!" We also talked about Jared Leto as Vlad and... Cillian Murphy as Baron, and we've yet to find a sick-looking bastard for Sygro.
And Ria still refuses to talk to me. D: She's in my head, she's awake, but she's pissy. :< Poor dear. I do feel kinda bad for torturing her, though. Only for the rape bit. Everything else was coming for her and her big mouth. D:

ich weiss nicht meine kunst.

2008-05-23T13:07:00.004-04:00

Title translation: "I don't know my art."

Gods, my 2-year-old German grammar is so pathetic and dramatic, I think it's the most hilarious thing ever. XD I just try to pull together words I know to make a coherent topic, I swear!

Anyways~
I've been doodling a lot lately, mostly like, face stuff. Eyes, noses, lips, and I've recently moved on to eyebrows. Semi-realism is so cool in so many ways! Like, instead of big-eyed "cute and pretty" (Janice knows.) characters that all look the same minus maybe some body things and hair styles, you can experiment and make people awesome. XD I love awesome. Awesome kicks ass. So like, this is what I've figured out so far about myself.

I don't like drawing the upper lip. At all. I might make a gesture line to indicate its there, but I don't like it. It bothers me.
Semi-realistic eyes for the WIN. Are you serious? Who wants real eyes when you can have natural mascara 24/7? 8D !!
Noses. Are. So. Much. Fun. They're really frustrating to get at first, but after that little period of awkward trying to figure things out, a lot of experimenting can be done to like, totally make characters different via noses. Win.
I gotta re-learn face proportion. I literally learned it out of a Western-ized Shoujo book by Christopher Hart and now that I try to make my eyes less HUGE and blown-up ish, it's kinda hard for me to position everything. And, you know, noses aren't sideways check marks anymore, so that's throwing me off, too. ._.
Eyebrows are fun. xD<3

Soyes. And now for what my sketchbook looks like, yay! : D
I draw Ria a bunch, just 'cause I'm comfortable with her design and she's fun, and I've actually gotten annoyed with the old way of drawing her hair. XD And she smiles a lot more in my doodles now, too. x3<3

die neue klamotten, und musik fuer dich

2008-05-21T19:44:00.009-04:00

Title Translation: "The New Clothes and Music for You"

For the past two days or so, I've been toying with the idea of Ria in casual clothes, just meandering about and doing the whatnot. xD Working on the house, maybe! You never know with her. You start to feel kinda bad for the poor lass once you spend some time working with her. :<
Just a little bit of pose stuff here, it's not even that clear on the scan, but 'tis Ria on a couch. XD I wanted to let her have some sort of remote control, but my bio teacher was passing out papers at the time, so I couldn't. :< This, though, is something I could see her wearing just around. Jeans and an off-the-shoulder top and some form of necklace. Or sweatpants. I imagine she's a big sweatpants person. xD ANDLOOKIGOTHERHAIRRIGHT. Sorta. XD

Now, for music! <3 I got lots of new little tracks to share.
Coheed and Cambria - Welcome Home
Anberlin - Dismantle.Repair (Acoustic), Dismantle.Repair, The Haunting, A Whisper and a Clamor
Lola Ray - Automatic Girl, Slave
Copeland - Coffee, Priceless, No One Really Wins, Hold Nothing Back, Brightest

ich zeichne, was ich will.

2008-05-20T20:12:00.007-04:00

Title translation: I draw what I want.
(I actually pulled that together on my own, and babelfish said it was accurate!)

The title sounds a bit more serious than the current issue I have is, but hey, if it lets me practice German before the exam... yeah. Anyways! Today was a bit of a weird day, because I can't find my writing notebook, but I carried my sketchbook around with me all day. I really don't like people looking through it because most of the sketches in there are shitty and unfinished, but most importantly there's story concept sketches and even some boobies. Most middle school students can't handle that, so I tend to keep my stuff to myself.
Today, though, I had three people actually look through my sketchbook. I got the first one away quick enough by saying that there was just really crappy stuff in there, but the second time was in tech and it was Karen that grabbed it. I'm generally very close to my personal items at all times, but Karen is Karen, and it was just her and Kristen around anyways, so... yeah! I didn't care, but I told them about the boobage about ten times. When they got kinda close, I flipped the page for them, but I think Kristen caught it and she got that... look on her face that's kinda like, "Oh, whoa, that's weird, I don't approve," expression that she gets sometimes. I about snapped but we were in the middle of a movie on the electric car, so.
Basically, I had my sketchbook raped.
And there's this one really bad doodle of Ria and Eries in a position that could look kinda funny at first glance unless you know that they're out to get each other. D: So I kinda like, don't like showing that to people. I really need artist friends at my school. ; ;

AHEM. EMO-AWAY.
Time for the actual art portion of this stuff. (:Here's the good portion of my Lily page. She's a strategic observer and skilled spearwoman, but enjoys gambling a little too much. She usually hitches rides to new places to escape debt and charms some helpless young man in letting her live with him. Surprisingly, she's never slept with any of them. She hasn't admitted to it, anyways.
Lily is from the same RP as Pierre and Pleefle. xD
And here's a colored, finalized Irvine doodle. :3 This is my useless succubus! Andyouknowwhat? I LOVE HER. >D BWAHAHAHA.

...
Hem. Anyways.
I'm gonna DDR and finish my homework now. <3 Gig tomorrow. x0 Wishmeluck, I'mma try a solo.

sketchbook madness.

2008-05-20T00:00:00.003-04:00

OCD thing about posting a lot. Already stated. :3

Anyways, I have three things today! Two new OCs and one underdrawn comic villain. Let's go in alphabetical order.
Appervel! He's a bit of an awesome wizard psycho. :3 I should draw his henchmen. And he's in love with himself, go figure.
Next on the list if my new succubus, Irvine. Despite looking like a slut with a giant axe, she's actually a prude and a scaredy-cat (read: comic relief). She's more useful for reading than anything else.
Last but not least, it's Pierre and Pleefle! Pierre's a clueless, slow, and silly young wizard who actually knows more than he lets on, while Pleefle was his sister's mistake. Still, he carries the animal around and plays with it- she enjoys the attention.

That is all! 8D

( whot, no Ria sketches today? O: )

Introducing: JOE THE MAGNIFICENT

2008-05-17T00:29:00.005-04:00

Quick update because I have solo fest in the morning (meaning I play my violin for a judge x0) and I need to get up early so I can shower and get dressed and the whatnot. D:

Anyways, we have a new Biology assignment to make a comic strip about stuff that has to do with blood cells, so I made a comic about a white blood cell named Joe the Magnificent! He's a flamboyant wimp that gets credit (Gilderoy Lockhart, anyone?) for stuff he didn't really do on purpose. This is page one out of three and not colored (but it shall be by Monday), and there might be a title page if I feel up to it. x:
Remind me to start sketching Lily and Pierre.

EDIT:
I finished the comic. xD

sketches galore! not.

2008-05-15T23:04:00.005-04:00

I have this funny OCD thing about updating frequently, so I looked about my desk and found a few doodles that I should probably finish soon, but don't have the time to.
Whoops?

Anyways, let's start off with something I'm actually mildly satisfied with- the Ria reference sheet! It's not very detailed, but it's about as accurate as something needs to be. 'Cept I should have made her hair curlier. Let's not ask when this was drawn, 'cause I won't be able to tell you. XD
I do rather enjoy the little expression I doodled. There was actually a caption I cropped that said, "WHAT ARE YOU IMPLYING?" Good times, good times. ;D
Now, this next doodle is somewhat of a self-portrait. Note the somewhat. Actually, it's a bandwagon challenge that I should really get to soon. If you can't read the text, it says, "Prone to weird situations, like getting caught in a Disney-style bear trap with a paper expression in hand." I love how weird it looks, honestly. XD
Should reeally get to finishing that.
Oh well.
For now, comic page! : D

In other new-- ooh! My hair's all soft. <3
... Ahem. Anyways! In OTHER NEWS, I managed to superglue my hair to a clip today. How? Well, it all started when my mother was UNAWARE OF MY EXTRA SHELVING (floor) and stepped on a clippy. I superglued it together today, but then I had to leave for a choir audition, and, you know, being impatient little old me, I shoved it onto my head to look spiff.
Came home to discover that a strand was rather safely secured onto the clip. Needless to say that I had to cut it Obviously not a very big deal, but... Yeah. I think I oughta go to bed. XD

anatomy study. [MATURE WARNING]

2008-05-13T15:10:00.003-04:00

I've been pondering on putting forth an effort to change my style from the weird anime thing I've got going for me, because honestly, I look at artists like Jordyn ( this pile of doodles cracks me up ) and Twelfth, who have these awesome semi-realistic styles that I admire so much because they can convey so much emotion and I get really jealous really quick.

That was the hugest run-on in the history of run-ons. So shoot me D:

So anyways, now that I'm home from Quebec, I whipped out my mother's anatomy book (thanks to her for being a doctor) and just got to doodlin' skulls and bones and the whatnot. "So," you may say, "why the mature warning for a bunch of bones?"
Because the second one has boobies, and I don't want to offend a bunch of five year olds for studying the human body. : D Hereyouallgo.

And as a final note, I'd like to show you this. Why?
a) It's the best thing I've drawn all weekend.
b) I finally figured out how to crop stuff in PaperPort.
c) Hair should be flowy.
d) LOOK, YOU CAN SEE HER SHOULDERS.O:

IDEASIDEAS.<3

2008-05-05T23:53:00.005-04:00

So this isn't a picture post. Sorry. D:
Basically, it's almost midnight, but I have to get this idea down somewhere or I'm gonna explode. x:

So I have an idea to like, display all of my awesome experiment fighters (becausehonestly, I've never drawn all of them accurately. There's a pretty spiff sketch of Saturn in my notebook, though...) and I feel like they need it.
So I was thinking something in the style of this picture, except like three times as aggressive and with WEAPONS ftw! Like Ria's cannon prototype! And I might attempt Adderson's guns. >> 'Cause he's awesome.
Butyeah. I'll try to sketch that while I'm in Canada! (More info on the Canada trip later. :3)

Oh, and I lied.
Updated page layout for you. Enjoy Claudius and Mortimer goodness! Evie's namesake is coming in on the next page. :3 She's just a less awesome/younger version of this girl here.
Remind me to re-attempt the comic script. XD

getting to work now.

2008-05-04T03:43:00.002-04:00

Good morning, Blogger! ;D It's actually about 4AM, but whatever. I feel mildly inspired to work after getting /really/ close to beating Via Infinito on FFX-2 (which is basically a 100-level dungeon). Got a game over with a Mega Tonberry, though. D: Oh well. Spent the rest of my time maxing out Rikku's Black Mage dressphere on the highroad, so the session isn't entirely wasted. :3

Anways. The reason I even shut off my PS2 was to work on the second page of my webcomic (first page, initial planning/plot). That didn't come easy to me at all, because I did the first page about two months ago. x0 So after doodling a while, I needed to get out of the drawing Ria stage and get INTO drawing Claudius and introducing Mortimer. For all those curious how I re-inspire myself to draw, here. Shouldn't even be considered a sketchdump. Lots of unfinished faces and anatomy-lacking poses, some random faces, a scribble about how I like Claud's hair, et cetera. Kinda gets my hand working again so I can actually move onto the more serious stuff.
So maybe the three or four of you that follow my blog get to take a peek at the next comic page. It's nothing special at all- tilted and uneven and a bunch of floating figures- but it's the initial plan. XD And no, you're not supposed to read my handwriting. D<
I don't know when this'll be finished. >>
What's a blog update without an update on this drawing?
Obviously I took out my lightbox and cleaned this up a bit. I decided that the dove will be some sort of tropical bird, but that's still subject to change. Vlad's right (our right) leg bothers me, so that'll be fixed very very soon. Otherwise, this is all you get. (: Bwahaha!
*coughhacklecough* ; ; Still haven't gotten rid of the stupid sickness...

draw something original, darn it.

2008-05-02T23:19:00.004-04:00

I only have one work for you all today! It's another RiaDump, but I kinda like this one. x0 I even bothered to color two of the sketches. So, here!
I think I've finally got a look for her hair. And, you know, Iduno, but I never saw her as very pretty. Her mindset always applied to the way I thought of her, "average, nothing special," but I'm starting to see that she has a little bit going on thur! xD The dress sketch will be justified in something I might employ later with Jordyn, but we'll see. Anyways.

I finally ordered a new violin bow and shoulder rest (and a new Suzuki book ftw), and now I gotta just wait for that to come in and coax my dad to get me a new mouse. :/ As for the Vlad art I'm working on, that's stuck at stage three. I might actually whip out my lightbox /now/ and work on it, though...

if you want it, you already got it O:

2008-04-28T19:16:00.007-04:00

Leave it to me to title my blog entry after a Justin Timberlake / Madonna / Timbaland song.

4 Minutes - Madonna ft. Justin Timberlake ft. Timbaland.
(:

Anyways, since this is my... you know, art blog, I think it's time I show you some pretty pictures.
My cousin alwaysalwaysalways complains that a) I don't draw anything for her and b) my characters are never drawn happy. So with that in thought and wanting to do flowy hair, I doodled this the other day. It's not finished, but I like it because of how flowy it is. x0 So it gets posted here after sitting in my folder.

A commission for GaiaOnline user Reinik that should be watermarked but so isn't. This is just the sketch and color palette, but I just wanted to show that I have a strange obsession with weird toggle coats. x0 FROGTOGGLESONRIA'SJACKETFTW.

The last thing is MIA, but it was this reeeeeealllllly cool cockatiel I drew last night, but I can't find it! D:
Wanted to finish that one too... poo. ; ; Oh well, if I find it, I'll edit it in later.

EDIT I:
Jeez, can that get more obnoxiously bright? D: Anyways, this is the third stage of the fabulous fanart of Jordyn's character, Vlad! I whipped out the colored pencils and added in a bit of a background and some shading on the bird. I even signed it in green pencil! : D But, yeah. I attempted clothing items, and decided on a rather simplistic outfit. Travel clothes, youknow? There's still a lot to be fixed, so I may have to whip out the ol' lightbox soon and resketch for accuracy. (:

I'll need a new mouse before I can actually... you know. /Work/ on this, meaning lineart and all. Although, it is tempting to pen it... Ahem.

Still can't find that dang bird that I love so much!
I think I might move on to mammals soon. :3 Like... bunnies! And then I'll get to studying human motion and possibly delve a little into realism.
Le sigh. How I wish for some art academy to just come along and fish me out of artistic misery. :/ Someday! *shakes fist*

EDIT II:

I FOUND THE COCKATIEL! I'm rather proud of this one, and I do want to finish it. Now, see, the thing is, it got crumpled up at the bottom of my bag, so I'm going to have to work with it digitally. Woe, oh woe is me! D:
Woe needs a new mouse nao. (:

Okay, I better get to bed. >> Nai!

character designs, yum.

2008-04-27T12:19:00.012-04:00

Now, see, the cool thing about blogging is that I don't have to fill out descriptions and categories for EVERYTHING I DO. Just throw on a few sentences, a couple of tags so when I over-blog I can fish this stuff out, and upload. Voila, insta-picture dump! So, anyways. What you're seeing above is another thing of bird sketches that I did last night. Credit will go where it's due, so thrumyeye shall receive it. I referenced all of these from their bird gallery. :3 My personal favorite is the duck and macaw, but I never said that. There is a method to my madness, but that's later.

Now, what is this? You're going to have to click it to full view, but that's my design for Ria's 'Diepullae' plot outfit. She looks like a freakin' admiral and I love it! : D Thatcher does think of functionality when she works, yanno. So, anyways, it's time to whip out the Style-o-Pedia on all of you, because I'm going to use some hard-core vocab. :3

Her jacket's Asian-inspired (doesn't help that we have a cool oriental store at the mall), with a Nehru-type 'collar' (it's not really a collar, more like the neckline) on the jacket, along with frog toggles and gauntlet cuffs. She retains her turtleneck underneath, but I gave her sleeves this time, and it laces up to just under her bust. Now, the cool thing that I didn't show is this: when the going gets rough and she's too tired of the clothing restriction, BAM! Off with the jacket, pull a string, and the bottom part of her turtleneck unlaces and zips right off. There's a reason for this that I'd rather not talk about. Since her rapier appears spontaneously, I didn't have to add a belt. The last two things I'm failing to mention is the clip that's holding her hair back and the metal band at the end of the fingerless gloves she wears. Think wolverine.
She has seven claws instead of five now.

This next display of awesome is a doodle (andspoiler) for Thatcher and Rosalia's story five designs. Rosie's a kitty, and Thatch is an awesome hummingbird. x0 This means she's super fast and durable. There's also a sun tattoo on her hip! She gets it... sometime later. Post-Diepullae. Rosie obviously never transformed back all the way, because her eyes are still freaky, and she may or may not have claws that she has to trim regularly, but it's not a big deal to her. She's still taciturn and awesome. WITH A HAIRCUT FTW.

What I'm about to post next is supposed to be top secret from Jordyn (fellow blogger), but I find it more suspensful to watch the progress of something. :3 Iduno why. So here!

Stage one!
This was drawn early last night, and sent out to Jenna, Osi, and Joe. They spotted mistakes with the bird (I'm not sure if it'll be a dove or some sort of finch...) and with Vlad's composure. He looked like he was leaning back, and I spotted that later. One thing I won't fix is the way his body's proportioned- I tried, and failed.

Stage two!
I fixed the head angle, the body proportions (a little) and the beak of the bird. I also gave it a few more feathers on the wings. Obviously, this isn't even CLOSE to the final sketch, but it's getting more and more refined. If Janice (fellow blogger) could do me a favor and (harshly) crit this (mostly the bird) too, I'd love her even more. x0 (Sending me more Akiko Shikata/Fairy Queen music would earn you <33 points, too...)

So, that's that for today, kiddos. I may or may not come back in the evening with more doodles. :3 Expect a playlist to be up soon!

animal doodles and mirror tricks.

2008-04-26T18:18:00.009-04:00

So I've realized that a lot of great artists I'm friends with (Livvy, Janice, Kitty) can draw animals. I live in a deciduous forest, darnit! I should be able to at least make a recognizable doodle of an animal. So my mission on Day 1 of Bum Weekend was to learn to sketch at least two animals. Not well, mind you, but just to get the gist and to make sure my doodles look like the real thing to some extent. I found a spiffy dove tutorial and some rabbit ones (even a dragon tutorial!) to test my pencil out on. I've got a long, long way to go, but I think I've got the idea.

Critiques are encouraged, mind you.

Is it just me, or does my rabbit look like an evil Asian? Oo That's so weird. Reminds me of... that one movie villain who's name escapes me. Actually, he reminds me of that guy with the notepad from Mulan. Weird. xD My next drawing is actually a gift for my friend Joejoe, who's having it kinda rough right now. I would like Jenna to get her booty back to the PC and tell me if there's any... obvious mistakes.

Spot Ria and get a prize! XD The prize of my... eternal love? o: Anyways, I had fun with this. I don't normally draw guys with long hair (andI'mprettysureGriefhaslonghair), nor do I draw them with mobs of chibi fangirls. x0 I do hope I didn't murder Grief, really.

Ah, speaking of Ria! I drew a doodle page around 1AM last night, and JenJen helped me spot a couple of anatomy mistakes. After I woke up today, I decided to be brave and take the page to a mirror (in fact, the Grief image on the left was taken to a mirror, too!)

It was horrible. I had mistakes up the ying-yang to fix, but I like the new outcome.

So this is part one, where most of the mistakes occurred. The one in the center bothered me the most, I think. Her body was entirely askew, and it still kind of is, but it's definitely better. The one on the right was bothering me, too. Yay for mirrors!

This is the second part. I changed Eric to Saturn, because simply put, I can't draw Eric's hair and Saturn's awesome. : D Surprisingly, the anatomy here was an easy fix since there was little to nothing to correct.

'Cept Saturn has to be girlier.
Oh well. I'm posting a lot of pictures today, and this last one was the first to be taken to a mirror. (: There were a lot of little things to fix, and I think she looks a little too manly, but I'm starting to learn. Bam!

That's (finally) all for today, folks. (: I'll be back later with more art stoof to shove on here.

cannon arm, anyone?

2008-04-25T20:41:00.003-04:00

Bwahaha! The first entry on my blog, and here we are, with a new doodle. I have issues with her midsection, but Jenna says she likes the legs, so... yeah. Ria doodle for everyone. I'm thinking of this being one of her final weapons, either used in the Diepullae plot or in the final showdown with Sygro. x0 Either way, it's a cannon arm. She's not pulling a KOS-MOS with having her arm transform into a cannon, but it's actually just over her arm. The firing mechanism is just past her hand, which grips the trigger. There's a glass panel covering the buttons and levers (which, I think, there should be more of) when they're not in use.
Wow, that's way too detailed to be on a blog. xD Oh well.

Anyways, this is much a work in progress, and there's still much to add. Still, I'm proud of it because of the angle (pose referenced from http://www.posemaniacs.com) and ... yeah! I've never drawn any of her cannons accurately. So there it is. :3 I will finish this later, I promise.
More doodles for you.
More of a concept than a doodle, for I fail at drawing Vlad entirely. Maybe someday I'll flesh the concept out...