An attempt at people. This is Holy Week for some of us. Yesterday was Palm Sunday, and we watched mass on our church's new YouTube channel. The Gospel reading was very long, so everyone in the frame was standing still for a good while. I was really looking forward to our spring class People in the Park because I haven't done much figure work. It was postponed of course, so your constructive criticism is welcome.
The Blood Angels were the IX Legion of the original Space Marine Legions under their Primarch Sanguinius. They are particularly well known for their bloodthirsty nature in battle. They are also one of the most long-lived Chapters, and have a refined aesthetic sense.
Ornament - according to dictionary.com: an accessory, article, or detail used to beautify the appearance of something to which it is added or of which it is a part: architectural ornaments
-any adornment or means of adornment.
That time when Lord Commander Jeor Mormont have Jon Snow his family sword, Longclaw, but change the pommel from his house sigil of a bear to a direwolf.
The direwolf is a neat ornament on Longclaw!
"Unthought-of Frailties cheat us in the Wise."
~ Alexander Pope, Moral Essays (1731-35), Epistle To Temple, line 69.
I really had to ponder this quote and figure out how to illustrate it. A spider came to mind...so tiny and fragile in comparison yet invokes so much fear. Then considered a daddy long leg.
“Beware the wild rushes”, my mother told me. “They grow on the bank side along the salt sea!”. But I, being young, I heeded her none. (Inktober inspired by the Decemberists!!)
Watercolor with pink pen. One of my favorite things to do when I draw is just to pile on. It does take longer to complete but I always end up happy that I did it.
This is a canvas made with a page from my Route 66 travel journal. As I was creating this, the Cubs won the World Series, so I had to add the hat...we'd waited a long time to see those hats on the lions.
An illustrated poem I did as part of my drive to learn Korean. I did this, along with 40 plus other illustrated poems, in my notebook. Here is an English translation of the poem: :
High Pine
Close to the brook I'm looking at a high pine
High pine I want to talk to you
Many questions I have
How many people have you seen?
How many sunny days have you seen?
How many rainy days have you seen?
How many people's voices have you heard?
How many birds' songs have you heard?
High pine can you hear me?
High pine can you hear me?
High pine do you have any good stories?
High pine do you have any good stories
I will listen well
Really
Really
Really
Then everything started shrinking. Every piece of furniture became elongated and narrow and disappeared towards the ceiling. There was something crawling under the rag rugs in the hall. It was also narrow and thin and wriggled in the middle, sometimes very quickly and sometimes very slowly.
- Sculptor's Daughter by Tove Jansson
#dailydrawing #tovejansson
I kept my eyes on it the whole time. Now it was moving so slowly that you couldn't really see whether it was coming towards you or not. Occasionally its shape changed just slightly and its black tummy swept over the concrete floor. I could hardly breathe. I knew that I ought to run away and hide bur I just couldn't. Now it moved diagonally again towards the wall and wasn't to be seen any longer. It was in the pile of junk behind the modelling stand, it was somewhere behind the sacks of plaster and might appear again just anywhere.
It was getting dark in the studio. I knew that it was me who had let the creature out and I couldn't capture it and lock it up again.
- Sculptor's Daughter by Tove Jansson
Revisiting something untouched for a long time. The vibes have not changed, but the design concept did. The paper is very messy, because of many, many, random sketches trying to... find something. Something came to my mind suddenly, to remove nearly all the details and changed the eye design. Suddenly, everything snapped into place and the character came to life, again.
The eyes are indeed the windows to the soul, huh?
Anoia is an actual Goddess, and not a Patron Saint, but I really wanted to draw her.
Anoia is the Goddess of Things That Get Stuck in Drawers, a minor goddess on the Discworld (by Terry Pratchett - and if you don't know who he is, you should read his books! You can start with Small Gods -it is a standalone in the Discworld world. Or Guards! Guards! is another good choice).
When someone rattles a drawer and cries "How can it close on the damned thing but not open with it? Who bought this? Do we ever use it?", even though the person might be genuinely irritated or even exasperated, it is as praise unto Anoia. Faithful Anoians (worshippers of Anoia) purposefully rattle their drawers and complain every day. Anoia also finds objects that roll under other objects and things stuck in sofa cushions, and is considering handling stuck zippers. She eats corkscrews. Her name is clearly derived from "annoy".
Anoia she was formerly the volcano goddess Lela. She mentions that she has not been in her current position long, but what constitutes a long time to a god is unclear.
discworld.fandom.com/wiki/Anoia
#patronSaints #terryPratchett
Pyotr Ilich Tchaikovsky (1840–1893)
At 9:30, Tchaikovsky set to work—composing at the piano only after he had dealt with any proofs or his correspondence, chores that he disliked. “Before setting about the pleasant task,” his brother noted, “Pyotr Ilich always hastened to get rid of the unpleasant.”
After lunch he went for a long walk, regardless of the weather. His brother writes, “Somewhere at sometime he had discovered that a man needs a two-hour walk for his health, and his observance of this rule was pedantic and superstitious, as though if he returned five minutes early he would fall ill, and unbelievable misfortunes of some sort would ensue.”
- From Daily Rituals: How Artists Work by Mason Currey
“Truly there would be reason to go mad were it not for music.”
― Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky
“If you do not want to write, at least spit on a piece of paper, put it in an envelope, and send it to me. You are not taking any notice of me at all. God forgive you – all I wanted was a few words from you.”
― Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
#dailyrituals #inktober #PeterTchaikovsky @masoncurrey
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901)
Toulouse-Lautrec drank constantly and slept little. After a long night of drawing and binge-drinking, he would often wake early to print lithographs, then head to a café for lunch and several glasses of wine. Returning to his studio, he would take a nap to sleep off the wine, then paint until the late afternoon, when it was time for aperitifs.
(One of his inventions was the Maiden Blush, a combination of absinthe, mandarin, bitters, red wine, and champagne. He wanted the sensation, he said, of “a peacock’s tail in the mouth.”)
From Daily rituals by Mason Currey
#dailyrituals #inktober #henriToulouseLautrec @masoncurrey
This one is important to me. I had been having a very long dry spell, not making any art, and then one day last Fall, while on a road trip, camping in Mesa Verde park, I drew this using some copic grey scale brush markers and a fine liner, and it was like my vision was returning. I got really into seeing, and imagining ... Anyway since then I've still been struggling to make more work, but have been making more creative things when I do get productive, and been organizing older work... It's also interesting that I titled this piece Phase Transition back in Nov '23, and subsequently had quite a sea change of life experiences, adventure, and new visions. Now if I could just sit down and draw more...