Pink tulips on toned tan sketch paper. This was my first time burnishing. I used the toned tan paper so that I could better see the effects of burnishing with a white pencil. I used Prismacolor soft core pencils.
April has truly started off on a high note: 3 days of warm weather (a rare occurrence in an early Chicago spring), I finally did double-backs to the floor at gymnastics, found out I won a few art contests, and I got my first COVID vaccine! It's nice to have things starting to work out, even if it is just temporarily.
This is my illustration of a specific scene from KotLC (those of you who have read Nightfall know what's about to go down). I hope you like it, please let me know what you think! I'm not good at drawing backgrounds, so I didn't do one for this picture.
I genuinely can't believe it's already March (I also can't believe it'll be a year since the pandemic really started). Yesterday also marked one year since I started journaling, which isn't an actual major thing, but still. How quickly time flies and how big of a difference a year can make. "And when it rains, the rain falls down Washing out the cattle town But she's quite safe up far away in her eiderdown And she dreams of crystal streams Of days gone by when we would lean Laughing, fit to burst, on each other."
"Chameleon, you're free again, my child." I think using song lyrics may be slightly cheating...but it is quoted text... I feel like I haven't made a 'purposeful' piece in a bit, so this drawing felt even better to make. There have been multiple ups and downs lately. Frustration, self-hate, and anxiety can take many forms, and eventually I lose sight of what they started as. I heard this song for the first time a few months ago and it's really been stuck in my head recently for various reasons. I don't know, sometimes music provides an escape that even art can't.
"There's a North in us all, but my North can't hold me anymore." Oh man, what a day/week/month it's been. Today was the end of first semester, a bit hard to believe half the year is gone, a bit hard to believe we still have half of a year left. The past 24 hours have been nothing less than mental chaos (maybe my coach was foreshadowing all of this when he asked if I was ok last night...) Anyway, here I am, here we are. Llemette on the left (name credit to Josefina), February journal on the right.
It's been an interesting week, one of which had events I didn't expect to affect me as much as they did. I'd like to say something that occurred was surprising, but quite frankly, it wasn't. It's concerning how far things have gone and how some seem to feel indifferent to or even support them. We'll see what will happen, 11 days can't pass soon enough... besides that, time ticks on. A bit too fast in my opinion, but it is what it is. I know this drawing isn't my usual style, but something about drawing like this feels mindless for me, it lets me zone out and disconnect.
Neal has found another Labrador – her name is Bella. He has also met Peter. Peter is worried about Neal. He thinks the boy might be a runaway. He is also about to patiently explain to Neal that when a dog is wearing a nametag with their owner’s info on it, then that dog is not an unwanted stray, as Neal seems to believe, but just a missing dog.
Chromatography is used in chemistry to dissolve a mixture and place it into a "mobile phase," which allows the solvent to carry it and its components up the paper. It shows the layers, exposing deeper, hidden tones and colors, something only seen when a solvent of the same polarity is used. It's odd. Life feels a bit like that, and I'm seeing the colors separate for the first time. It's all there, everything that's been hidden in the inky mess for the past however many years. And now it's smeared. Bold. Clear. But blurry. What's on me and what's on you? Where do we go from here?
This is the new way I'm going to be drawing people. I really am proud of the eyes, and it looks way better than my other crap. Let me know what you think.
Remember when Billy Shears showed up to replace him? Nah, me neither. I wasn't going to wreck my record to hear them say it either. I know the prompt was warm colors, sadly if I did the jacket in pink or red it would've been George or Ringo. Anyway, a quick but fun sketch. "See the worst thing about doing this, doing something like this, is I think that at first people sort of are a bit suspicious. 'You know, come on, what are you up to?'"
