The cat is done, evil will not triumph

I finished the cat! Her name is Milly, and she is the spawn of satan:

Don't let the fluffiness or cute eyes deceive you, she will claw your eyes out the first chance she gets

I really enjoyed doing this piece. There's something incredibly satisfying drawing art traditionally rather than on a computer, however traditional art doesn't have an Undo button (and I had to rub out most of her forehead to redo the eyebrows, yeah, those wispy little white strands). I've even had approval from my peers for this, so it must be good!

On top of the colouring pencils I bought I've also bought some chalks and some wax crayons. More on that on a later post...

The amarylis hasn't bloomed properly. There's 6 flowers in one head, and I think it's just so crowded the flowers won't open properly. And it looks like it's dying :(

I have a couple of ideas in the pipeline for some art (the wax crayons above being one of them), but I need to get a few more bits. I wanted to get some fixative spray for the above artwork, as it's done with graphite. It's a good job I didn't buy the 'fixative spray' from my local stationers, as what they think is fixative spray is sprayable glue!

And lastly is my Pinterest of the week, what this artist does on such a natural and tiny space is incredible: https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/314548355204564003/

Cat WIP

I think I'm over my laziness now, I've been working today on drawing my friend's cat today (she tasked me with it on Monday as I didn't have any ideas on what to draw), and I have a few progress photo's:

Milly, the spawn of satan

I've quit Facebook again, as I spend way too much time procrastinating on there. I'm still on Twitter though. Funnily enough, I do feel like I've got more done since quitting Facebook.

I bought a new colouring pencil kit the other week (a half decent kit this time, not cheap pencils), and I haven't used them! Instead I've been using the kit my parents bought me for Christmas, the cat pictures above have been done with a graphite pencil only. I have an amarylis, and I'm waiting for it to bloom before using my new colouring pencils. It's nearly there:

How many flower heads?!

In November I bought 10 yoga classes at my local leisure centre for £10, which is a bargain. However, the site I bought them from stated it was for yoga, but the leisure centre stated it was for Pilates. When I arrived it had changed again - to Stretch and Tone! Whatever, I enjoyed the class anyway, and even after going to the class on Thursday I'm still aching today. I've also been doing a daily yoga practise using the DoYouYoga Youtube video's, however I can't do them for a little while now as I put my back out today.

Anyway, I'll continue with the picture of the cat and see how far I get. I'm also going to try upgrading my laptop to Windows 10, I'm really apprehensive about it as when I upgraded my tablet the integrated Wacom pen driver wouldn't work anymore. Plus, the tablet kept crashing, so I reverted it back to its original operating system. Here's hoping my laptop copes with the upgrade.

One last thing that I nearly forgot, it's my Pinterest of the week, hope you enjoy! I think it's really pretty https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/314548355204375006/

The start of my Schoolism subscription

Still back in the old habits I'm afraid, but it's not for lack of trying this week. I've watched the first lesson by Bobby Chui, and whilst there wasn't much visually in the video there was a lot said which has given me stuff to think about. He talks about the virality of art, and what makes art viral. So my assignment was to think up 10 creatures. I've thought of 3, and drawn 2. I don't know how far we're supposed to take the drawings, so I've done it quickly in a cartoon style. What feelings do the following inspire, and would you share them to friends or just move on with whatever you were doing at the time?

Something I know I need to work on is perspective, particularly in the top drawing.

The cool thing about signing up to Schoolism is that (if you sign up for the full course) your work is critiqued, but as I've done mine through Kickstarter I don't get that option. However I see feedback videos that Bobby Chiu has recorded, so I'm still learning a lot from those.

Anyway, I've not done, or seen, much else in the art world this week. I've kind of enjoyed the downtime of not having pressure to draw something every day, however trying to think up 10 ideas for creatures that could go viral has been so difficult. I'm thinking maybe the Tea Dogs idea could be one, however it would need a witty quote to go with it to make it truly humorous. I think I'm just going to go for 5 creatures rather than beat myself up over the fact I can't think of 10, otherwise I will probably spend the rest of October trying to think of good creature ideas. I only have until the end of November on my subscription, so I need to get a move on!