Art, Heart & Words
Hello and welcome to the final stretch of Mary’s maternity leave, wherein she’s gotten a bit bored and uninspired and has only done art of her and her baby.
Except there’s also a story in the works! But it keeps starting and stopping and it might not end up finished. It’s a good idea though! With a weird array of inspiration, haha. We’ll see.
On my husband’s birthday my Timehop was like 4 years in a row of fanart of the two of us and then when I was on my laptop working on his toast card, I fell down the rabbit hole of our whole folder of fanart and found this gem.
You can always tell how far along we were in our relationship based in part on how many tattoos we had, and definitely on the tone of the drawing. Am I still trying to impress him with being all cutesy but also, fancy pro art? We were probably actually really struggling at the time so I’m going to write encouraging things on art for us in hopes we will somehow be led to believe it? Yes, this one was probably the latter, haha. And without really knowing to what extent I would get into it, I decided this particular one needed a reprise.
And…voila.
I think I ended up spending two or three days on this one? I really really love it, except in the earlier draft I was snoozing with a little o mouth and that was why my eyes were closed. Now I look much more peaceful than I am, but we can pretend it’s general exhaustion, which is usually accurate.
I think my favorite part is the tiny kitty prints in my belly. And also Ryan’s silky smooth looking skin.
In other news, today marks 100 days until the due date for our little dude! Whether he comes that day, or hopefully before, or hopefully not after, 100 days until the day we were told about months ago when we really weren’t sure what to expect on this pregnancy journey (we’re still not).
After my semester ended and my daily digital drawings project came to a close, I felt a little void and wanted some new motivation to keep doing art regularly. So Ryan suggested another 100 days project like before our wedding, only this one would be up until our baby (should be) born. Since it’s following a fairly specific and limited project from the semester, I decided my only rule for this project is that I do a drawing more or less daily. Whether it’s an ongoing painting, a doodle in the margins of my school notes, or an unrelated cat comic like today, I’m marking the days until this baby is due by just being creative. I think I want to write the baby a note each day, but I don’t know if I’ve figured out how to document that quite yet. I’ll write today’s note, and then figure out how to tack it to the drawing when I have a full day off tomorrow.
That’s all I got! The cat comic I did today is posted on my art Insta account!
Obviously since I’m doing this daily drawing project…you know, daily, most of the time it’s been all I’ve done that day. And while I probably didn’t fully take advantage of my time at home as much in terms of art (I was, admittedly, a bit busy with finally celebrating my pregnancy *very late*, and midterms, and you know, healing), I got a few good, full illustrations or else some funny comics or good process images.
On my last weekday off a few days ago before I started work again yesterday I randomly wanted to draw a cute girl in sakura blossoms. Shani/Lucy is always my go to cute girl and it always makes it easier for me to invest in a drawing if it’s someone I “know.’
Christmas arrives in five days! I have three days of work before a planned week off at home with Ryan, including an overnight stay in Duluth. Similarly, I finished my first semester at Saint Thomas yesterday and I was excitedly biding my time until today when I could make an OC Christmas card.
At first I wanted to do a feature of an old crew but I decided I needed to honor the fact that I am STILL working on Dumping a Dragon, despite a few weeks in the last few months when I was thinking it was dying. I’m almost at 50 pages actually (which will be celebrated by a separate blog post). I was sure that just like Cadence, DaD was going to die right around 45 pages, and right at the part of the story I expected it to.
Making no promises about its future, I feel very proud of myself and humbled by my inspirations that I haven’t stopped working on it. Taking breaks is totally allowable and not indicative, apparently, of its certain doom.
I find myself regularly daydreaming about Siv and Noelia when certain songs come on, etc., and I’m finally going to reward myself in a few short pages of doing yet another flashback to fonder times for them, so I get to finally draw human Siv.
Anyway, of course it’s human Siv who graces this year’s Christmas card, but I think Noelia kinda steals the adorableness show in this one. Only I would totally wear Siv’s ominous YOU BETTER WATCH OUT Christmas sweater.
Another blogworthy event is that last night I saw “Into the Spider-Verse” and it was AMAZING. It made me glad for reading the first few issues of Miles Morales back when I was in college; I feel like it gives me some serious nerd cred now, haha. And Nick Miller as a pudgy grown up Spider-man was fantastic in every way.
I feel like the movie paid such homage to comic books in a way I never thought I’d see; it got me at once jealous and emotional, haha. Since it’s just hit theaters there aren’t any good screenshots to demonstrate what I’m talking about. But the film regularly overlaid their handsome CGI with comic elements including yellow-background narrative text, motion lines, and sound effects. I even cried a few times! In the first few moments of the film I was like “um Miles is supposed to biracial” (because his mom presented as African American) and then she yells at him in Spanish and I was like “…oh good!” haha. There are also some noteworthy voice actors in it which I was proud of myself for recognizing.
And it was great that Miles spends the first 75% of the movie kinda failing. He doesn’t immediately gain control of his super-powers; he doesn’t even immediately believe in himself.
Oh, also, I will say the big screen did nothing to add interest or appeal to Spider-Gwen for me. She’s as boring, generic, and Trying Too Hard as she ever has been (and her ballet flats were really stupid.)
Anyway, I was glad I got to usher in a short break from school and responsibilities with such a good comic book film! Aaaugh!
Also my husband and I are big dorks and I love him so much because we always laugh loudly at the same fucking things and I’m sure everyone in the theater hated us, but I don’t care and I love us. SO. MUCH.
I can’t wait till after Christmas so I can finally post my new art of us. Only that also means I have to make cat art since Scribbles isn’t in it. *tear*
What can I say? Mostly all that’s guaranteed to inspire me is my life with my adorable husband. And sometimes when I’m mean to myself I get in trouble.
Getting poked in the sides is a pretty regular occurrence so I’m in the process of turning us into a cute goofy drawing. Just haven’t finished the shading.
Oh and then this experiment from this afternoon.
And then my husband’s entertaining wordplay turned into a little doodle. This is from a few weeks ago though.
True recollection of a very true event when we were shopping over the weekend. I was so confused as to why he was pulling on my bun but alas, I was just a prop.
I feel like I’m in a bit of a creative rut lately. I feel like most of what I’ve done has been derivative of previous works and I haven’t really done anything new or worthwhile in a bit. I’ve been rereading Sun-Walking, and it makes me at once sad and nostalgic because like, I just want that again. But how come I can’t make something that’s better? Fart.
Trying to figure out how next to fucking push myself. There’s gotta be something I can do.
Once in a blue moon (approx. once every year and a half), I make fanart. And who better to dedicate this seldom occasion than KAMALA KHAAAAAAAN! I love her so much. I can never kick the sensation/wish that she’s actually out there in Jersey City being quirky and fearless, with pensive narration popping up over her head in pale yellow boxes.
This one actually hung me up and stopped me from doing art for about the last two weeks. I couldn’t get past the shapes before I added back in lineart. I really, really love how it turned out though!
Literally don’t have anything to say about these drawings…but they’re cute and they’re what I’ve been working on in the last month!
Been keeping busy with painting strong women in shades of red & blue.
I also got into my Art Therapy program! Grad school starts next week! I’m gonna be so Adlerian.
That’s…that’s it.
BUT A BUNCH OF THESE ARE DONE WITH OIL! Because I went out and bought acrylics and then hated how they work so my mom plopped her starter oil kit (water-soluble) onto my desk and I started putsing with them and then I LOVED THEM AND THEY GO SO FAR
booptastic acrylic girl
SEE LOOK AT THIS SWEET OIL PAINTING I LOVE IT IT’S SO INTERESTING
love the dots on this watercolor. so delicate, and thus unlike me.
…and bespectacled felines
also cool manga-style pages of lyrics I love, sans color because I haven’t finished a digital draft of colors that I like & I’ve been afraid to try watercoloring it. So.
After seven years (I got it on 7/7/07) with my first and only other tablet, my Wacom Graphire 4 has been offically retired to make way for my birthday present – my fabulous new Intuos Pen/Touch. Aside from a few glaring black dots somehow acquired when I flipped from pen to eraser, the transition into my new toy has been gleeful.
To thank my boyfriend for making me the luckiest weird little artist around, I’ve dusted off my old cat comic style and penned his own crazy ridiculously huge and loving cat Jericho.
SORRY I’M NOT SORRY that I love sketchy lines and coloring, I NEED TO GO TO BED IT’S A SCHOOL NIGHT ah
