Category Archives: art

Easing Back in with ZOMBIES and Fanart (Sketchpost)

21 Monday May 2012

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What ho, my ornamental cherry trees! I’ve had some time to rest and recover (took a trip with my mom), and now it is time to figure out how to spend my last-ever summer break (I don’t start work till the fall). I’m trying to get back into blogging, slowly (slowly!), and a sketchpost with art from about a year/several months ago seems like the best way to get that ball rolling.

A wee mooncat! I seem to draw them all as kittens; I am not sure if this is just coincidence, or whether the adult form is significantly different and I need to design that. Hmmm! There are a lot of interesting creatures on the Menagerie moon, just starting with the Man in the Moon and his mooncats. Possibly I should do something creatively about that…

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Hello Goodbye?

13 Sunday May 2012

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My lovely pumpernickel loaves, this last semester of college has ended! I wrote a 103-page senior thesis (not counting front and back matter) called “The Arbiters of Childhood,” about how American adults viewed children and childhood in the 1950s. It covered topics from the juvenile delinquency panic to Brown v. Board of Education, mostly focusing on what the experts said with occasional excursions into how that filtered down to the average American. In my last chapter, I spent a little time discussing how the dominant 1950s model of the child is still with us today. As difficult and stressful as the process occasionally became, I’m really glad I wrote this thesis–both as a historian and as a person. It’s enabled me to do interesting scholarship in an area that fascinates me, to better understand my parents’ and grandparents’ generations, to think differently about childhood as a category, and to get hands-on experience of historical problems and processes. In some ways, I’m sad it’s over, but I don’t think my study of 1950s childhood, family life, and just life in general is done with. 1950s family history is a topic that, despite enjoying a great deal of fascinating scholarship already, still abounds with vast tracts of unexplored territory.

For now, though, I’ve done with my thesis and my classes (including piano lessons, which is kinda sad), and to my intense surprise they gave me a diploma. What were they thinking? NO ONE KNOWS. But I am apparently officially a Bachelor of Arts in History. This unexpected turn of events is so overwhelming that I need to take a week or two to recover from the shock. What I’m saying is, hiatus will continue for a little while longer, but I AM done with college and I DO plan to get back to blogging in the not-too-distant future!

Or, to put it another way:

I knew the pathway like the back of my hand (Sketchpost)

23 Monday Jan 2012

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Hello, everyone! I think it’s about time for some art. Again!

I am settling into the semester, hammering out a few pages of thesis here and there. Also I’ve started my piano lessons and TURNS OUT playing the piano requires lower-back strength in order to support sitting with decent posture during practices. So I’ve also started exercising, which I undoubtedly should have been doing anyway. “I want to feel good” was always such a vague reason that it couldn’t motivate me, whereas “I want to play the piano without pain” is sufficiently precise to, hopefully, keep me on track.

Other than that, you know, the usual semester stuff. I’ve been brooding on a few blog-related things in my spare time, which may or may not result in posts at some point. We’ll see?

For now–Linus, clothing design, and crazy Coptic monks lie below the cut!

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Eight Cats (Art)

15 Sunday Jan 2012

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Hey, everyone! I’ve had one class and a meeting with my advisor, and I’m getting the sense that this semester will be fairly doable as long as I keep my head and keep plugging away. It’s only about eighteen weeks. That alternates between being reassuring and terrifying. Only eighteen weeks to get three thesis chapters, intro and conclusion done (plus revision)! Only eighteen weeks to get in my remaining two classes, write that extra essay, and learn to play the piano! Only eighteen weeks between me and all those post-graduation to-dos! Only eighteen weeks until this extended pursuit of a degree is complete!

So. Yes. That is the state of me, largely. Don’t expect much brilliance or discussion-provoking posts for… another eighteen weeks.

I do, however, have art queued up for the next eighteen weeks! Including some silly cat drawings I did as a reward for finishing the request event.

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Request Drawings Compiled (Art)

10 Tuesday Jan 2012

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Got the requests finished earlier and posted as replies. Thanks to all the folks who’ve responded–I’m so glad you like your drawings! I always feel a little nervous because I want to explain my artistic decisions but that’s sort of overkill. So I’m happy that people are happy!

I’ve decided to compile all the request drawings in one big fat post, in case you don’t want to go through expanding the comments on the initial entry.

In a couple of days I may post the silly cat drawings I did for myself as a reward for finishing.

(WARNING: 33 images below the cut)

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You know you make me want to (Sketchpost)

06 Friday Jan 2012

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Well, this is probably the last sketchpost before school starts back up! Don’t worry, though, I have material compiled from the last two sketchbooks that should enable me to keep putting posts up periodically–plus, my schedule this semester is a lot more open than it’s been in years, meaning I’ll have time to write those sketchposts! I’m also sort of hoping to finish a short-short storylet about the McCandless family that I may post here in the next few weeks. It’s not a very plotty thing, but I think it’s an interesting bit of interactions.

I’m easing my way back into thesis work, now–this chapter has a more general focus, on the overall concern with well-adjusted children: how do we get them? Since it’s not as clear-cut an ISSUE I’m not sure how it’s going to go, but we’ll see! They tell me that in the next eighteen weeks or so I am going to produce three more chapters as well as an intro and conclusion; this is startling and astonishing to me, but! Supposedly it will happen. Wish me luck, my elegant friends.

As far as requests go, I am plugging along steadily–I decided to pace myself this time, instead of my usual MUST FINISH ALL REQUESTS NOW frenzy. My goal is to have them all finished and uploaded a week from this Saturday. I’m really having fun with your requests! Especially all the kitties.

Here, have a somewhat small sketchpost!

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No lies, you and me are one (Sketchpost)

29 Thursday Dec 2011

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It’s about time, I believe, for a sketchpost! This is an extra-large one. It’s got some of the usual stuff from the last sketchbook, but also some digital things I just did to test out my new tablet.

Last sketchpost included some good news for people who like the Robo-Beatles; this time around it’s good news for people who like the Beat boys. After something like four years of watching these characters kick ideas around my brain, building an enormous setting around them, and writing a succession of less-than-successful stories about them, I have finally figured out what I am trying to do with their project. I wrote a purpose statement the other evening to keep me on track, and this makes me hopeful that come graduation I can actually start DOING SOMETHING with this thing. And maybe not self-indulgent unpublishable somethings, either.

In a few days I’ll probably start poking at thesis, as well as some real-world art obligations and general back-to-school prep, because school fires back up in a couple of weeks! Exciting and a little bit scary. If I can make it through the next twenty weeks or so there is every chance that I will have a real honest-to-goodness degree. I’ve got a long list of post-graduation to-dos as far as art, writing, and blogging are concerned.

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Christmas Morning!

25 Sunday Dec 2011

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HAPPY CHRISTMAS!

Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. (Isa 7:14)

Is there much to add? Immanuel, God with us, and God is with all that trust in His Son through the righteous life, death, and resurrection whose commencement we celebrate today. I hope you and yours have a blessed, beautiful day!

(p.s. drew the above this morning with my brand-new Bamboo, included it because I figured Theo comes with his own Christmas coloring)

The weather’s fine (sketchpost)

19 Monday Dec 2011

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First and foremost, oh my goodness squishy robot! You can’t tell me that’s not great. I was so excited about this that I drew a picture of one making friends with Paul-Robot. I was pleasantly surprised to realize that having shifted the robots towards silly and stylized, and having let go of some baggage, I am now a LOT better at drawing them than I used to be, plus I actually ENJOY drawing them! Certain of my readers may find this news exciting.

In other news, the semester is formally over and that means I’m working on my second thesis chapter! About children and television. And let me tell you, experts in the 1950s certainly had ideas about children and television. I’m also noticing some themes that may answer a whole lot of my questions and help me understand better where I’m going with this crazy thesis. Not going into detail yet, but it’s exciting to say the least. I’m doing a lot more speculating in this chapter, which will probably make Magical Thesis Advisor happy.

(this also means it’s long past time for me to reply to those nice comments people left during crunch time. Ahem.)

Oh, hey, Christmas is coming! Christmas is easily foremost in my Top Three for holidays, for religious and personal reasons. There’s powerful magic at the end of the year. I don’t have any interesting Internet Christmas plans, to my chagrin, except for the usual post-Christmas-morning holiday wishes post. I’ve been listening to carols on and off, more because I get so absorbed in thesis-ing that I forget I could have music playing. We decorated the house and the tree Saturday. I was the one to unearth from the boxes the Most Important Decoration–the venerable Christmas Elephant. It’s a wooden jumping-jack painted white, green, and red, with a loop at the top for hanging on a doorknob. Some of the twine that makes it jump has broken, but most of it still works–which is surprising because it’s been in the family for generations and is probably eyeballing its first century. While it’s amazingly sturdy for a cheap wooden jumping-jack (can you imagine a modern equivalent lasting that long? I know it’s a cliche but things really were made much sturdier in the past), it’s still around a hundred years old and requires care. So my mother and I spent several minutes hunting all over the house for a relatively unused doorknob, from which it would be safe to hang the Christmas Elephant. We roamed from room to room, calling back and forth, myself clutching the Elephant. You don’t realize how many knobs and handles there are, and how frequently you use them, until you’re looking for the one that nobody uses much. We did finally find a place for it on one of the glass bookcase-doors in the library, on a relatively infrequently used collection of books.

ANYWAY, how about some drawings?

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This time of year you always disappear (Sketchpost)

28 Monday Nov 2011

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I hope folks had a happy Thanksgiving, who celebrate it! I got some much-needed rest from schoolwork–though I could wish for a little more, since I’ve got continuous term papers through the end of the semester, and then thesis work over break! But it was good. Wonder of wonders, I even did some drawing! Like working on a McCandless-Moon family tree for which I categorically DO NOT have time. But it’s fun tracing resemblances (fun fact: in every generation there is always one ridiculously charming dark-haired McCandless male).

Oh, hey! I was reminded of this video the other day and showed it to a relative, so I thought I’d show it to y’all, too. I can’t remember where I found it, I’m afraid. Apologies if it was you and I’m forgetting: Obvious to you. Amazing to others.

Not much else to report! Here, have some drawings.

I don’t recall when I concluded that there were brass mice in Menagerie, but they go with several other peculiar animals–rubber tigers, wire elk, glass wolves… all the usual wildlife you get after reality gets taken apart and but back together poorly.

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I’m making a note here, huge success (Sketchpost)

17 Thursday Nov 2011

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I finished my first thesis chapter!!! So exciting! It ran 25 pages, all about the attempts of sociologists and child psychologists and other “experts” to make sense of the juvenile delinquency “epidemic.” Now I am elbow-deep in term papers, but I have to keep doing some thesis research on the side because Chapter 2 is due about a week after finals ends.

There’s no turning back now, I guess.

Over Thanksgiving break I’m going to be working on a Christmas card design, which I hope to post as a free downloadable if I can figure out the formatting. I’m hoping to try putting up a tip jar with the post, largely to test the waters. I have a few other super-secret holiday plans, too (I wish they included writing, but! all writing energy goes to the thesis monster). I’ll say more about those when we’re in December.

Also, a sketchpost!

This little guy is my user icon one or two places (devART, I think? I’ve put myself on devART hiatus this semester because SOME things had to give). I started drawing him on whiteboards on my campus, randomly, and became rather fond of him. He’s called the Mustachebeast, for lack of a better name. In an ideal world he would form part of my coat of arms, but I don’t have a coat of arms (yet). I drew this quick ink version up for use as an icon and so forth.

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She’s an artist, she don’t look back (Sketchpost)

02 Wednesday Nov 2011

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Hey, guys! I’ve been surprisingly active blogwise the past few days, mostly because I’m making the final push to finish my first thesis chapter, and in between being diligent I panic and have to do something to take my mind of it. Such as working piecemeal on blog posts. Plus some friends visited over the weekend and one of them hadn’t seen my blog, so we took at look at it together and now I’m excited about blogging. Even though I shouldn’t be.

Thanks for the music recs, everyone! I am well on my way to constructing a great Halloween playlist! This will come in handy in the future.

Also over the weekend, while having little panics (in all seriousness I am feeling a lot better about it the more I write), I went ahead and read MCA Hogarth‘s novella “Family.” Which is delicious, especially with some Mozart and a cupcake. It is something like a cupcake itself.

Besides my enthusiasm for writing posts, the imminence of my demise/thesis chapter (and after that I go headlong into churning out term papers, hurray), and the charming story I read, I have a sketchpost for you!

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Wake me if you’re out there (Sketchpost)

21 Friday Oct 2011

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It’s officially on the cards that I should not be writing a sketchpost. I should probably be working. Thesis chapter is due earlier than I realized, so I’m having to regroup and do a bunch of work I didn’t expect to be doing yet. It’s pretty crazy. Not a whole lot else going on, honestly. Which is good because that’s enough. I have a full sketchbook from… some… past time… and while I feel almost no urge and have even less time to start another one, periodically I do open up the old one and do a little greyscaling on this or that sketch. Just to keep from going crazy.

I keep WANTING to write more Marigold Woman, but every time I seriously think about it I realize I don’t know what to say. I’m waiting. Marigold Woman is either there, or it’s not. Nature of the beast, I guess.

I am debating whether to link to my G+ account here. On the one hand, social networking! and… stuff! On the other hand, it has my boring legal non-blog-associated name up top (not that it’s a deadly secret, since as we’ve seen I’ll post it on this blog when circumstances REALLY warrant–I’m not particularly concerned if you find out my legal name, I just prefer to use the pen name for blogginess and writerbusiness). ALSO on the other hand, I am still waiting to see if Google is going to continue being generally ridiculous about this “Real Names” nonsense. So I’m not sure. Any thoughts?

Anyhow, here’s a sketchpost.

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I’m pickin’ up good vibrations (sketchpost)

07 Friday Oct 2011

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Hi! How have things been going for y’all? I’ve been reading LJs and Twitters as I can, but midterms are approaching (already??? already!) and that’s always crazy times. As followers of my Twitter may have noticed, I’m making headway on the first thesis chapter–slowly, but surely! I’m trying a different approach than I’ve done with previous papers, at the suggestion of my advisor.

Noting that it’s October, I must ask: are any of you doing NaNoWriMo this year? I am not, alas, but I will be cheering you on as I slave away at this thesis chapter (how is it that a thesis chapter is roughly one-tenth the length of a NaNovel but five times as arduous? Truly a mystery of the unknown).

ALSO noting that it’s October, who is excited for Halloween? I AM EXCITED FOR HALLOWEEN. No idea what to do for a costume, no idea if I’ll find the time to pull something together.

Coincidentally, I have some drawings to post, one of which involves seasonally-appropriate skeletons!

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