Short but sweet

There's not much to report on this week, as I've done no art! I've tried to work on my digital drawing of Cersei Lannister this afternoon, and I've spent a couple of hours working on her hair, but I realised I hadn't done it long enough at all. That's and my laptop crashed, so I've thrown my toys out of the pram and not doing anymore today. My mood isn't helped by the fact I had so little sleep last night due to being in the sweat box of a spare room my nan has. So I'm pretty grumpy today, and in no mood to do art to make up for the fact I haven't done any all week.

On the upside I've bought more paper (although it's still not the same stuff, but it's got to the point where it will never be the correct paper as it's been discontinued, so I'll have to make do with what I have).

I finished the Shaw Academy Graphic Design course, and found the last 2 lessons pointless; needless to say I won't be signing up to their advanced course, nor paying to take the final exam to get my certificate of completion. I have seen a short course to do at a university, but after seeing what this online course was like that I've just done I need to go through the university course with a fine toothcomb before committing money to it.

I'm doing a school holiday art course starting on Thursday for the next 6 weeks which will be interesting, I've managed to get some of my colleagues to join me too.

I've also started following a blog: http://drawboy.blogspot.co.uk/ but I'm finding my blog isn't generating much traffic though Blogger, so I'm thinking of moving it to WordPress and see what they're about.

Anyway, I'm not one for sentimental inspirational quotes, but I'm feeling down in the dumps today, so here's one for my Pinterest of the Week: https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/494833077785572089/

Robert Baratheon finished

I've finished Robert Baratheon:

But now I've run out of paper, and the paper I've been using is now obsolete! Not sure what I'm going to do... I'm pretty certain the paper is 160gsm watercolour paper as it has quite a thick grain on it, but for now I can't do any more drawings without them being consistent!

I'm still finding the Shaw Academy Graphic Design course a bit useless, out of the 6 lessons I've had so far I've only found 2 useful, as the other lessons are tutorials in Adobe CC (and Shaw Academy also have courses for these programs). I've already done courses for the programs themselves. I'm hoping tomorrow's course is more informative. I'm glad I haven't paid for this course or I'd be really annoyed.

I genuinely enjoyed my introduction to yoga on Tuesday, so much that I've signed up for an actual lesson on Tuesday! I didn't think I was stressed out or anything, but when I left the yoga centre I felt like I was on another planet, I was that blissed out.

Not really much else going on with my life at the moment; July is shaping up to be a quiet month, but then it's all systems go from August through to mid-September. I've booked some tickets for Alter Bridge in November, so I've got that to look forward to, plus my break to Center Parcs in September, and I've just used the Jongleurs Comedy Gift Card my colleagues got me for my 30th (going for the bank holiday weekend in August).

Anyway, for this week's Pinterest of the Week is to showcase other artists: https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/314548355206883532/ I love the amount of detail that goes into some of these works; it's the reason things like Studio Ghibli films are so popular and why I love them too.

Robert Baratheon started, and Shaw Academy course started

I've only managed to get an hour in of colouring this week for Robert Baratheon, but I really enjoyed doing his face. I think it's the closest likeness I've achieved so far, and I especially liked colouring his beard:

I'm really going to struggle to get any done this week. I started the Shaw Academy Graphic Design course last week. Lesson 1 I found pointless, as it was talking about the lessons due in the course, and a quick overview of Photoshop layers. Lesson 2 I found immensely helpful, and Shaw Academy have saved the slideshow as a PDF which I've since downloaded (I really wanted this as it has lots of good information on it). Lesson 3 was an on-demand lesson which was released on Friday, and I've only just got round to watching it today (Sunday). The first half I already knew (how to basically use Photoshop), and the other half how to make composite images, and using things like filters and effects. I thought this week's assignment was to make a composite image, but actually it was a test (I passed, 85%), but I decided to make a composite image anyway:

Who doesn't love penguins in the desert?

Anyway, I have 2 more lessons this week, plus I'm attending an Introduction to Yoga course on Tuesday. Together with catching up with friends will leave little time for finishing Robert Baratheon, but I will try!

Anyway, for my Pinterest of the Week, it's kind of art, but also a tattoo idea I've seen: https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/314548355206637476/

Renly Baratheon colouring finished

I managed to do this one in 2 takes, not sure if I'm getting quicker, or more slack with my detail (I can be such a 'glass is half empty kind of person sometimes):

I've done the line drawing for Robert Baratheon, which I'll be colouring in this week.

The big news of the week has been the referendum in the UK, whether to stay in the EU or leave. After the votes were counted 52% (just over 1.2 million votes difference between remain and leave) were in favour of leaving. I voted to stay in the UK, and feel a bit disappointed that the UK will leave the EU. However, both my boyfriend and myself are still confused even though everything has happened (he voted leave). I've been of the opinion 'If it isn't broke don't try to fix it', but other countries in the EU now want to leave the EU, which suggests the EU has problems. Also, my boyfriend now regrets voting leave, as do many other people who thought their vote wouldn't count! It just feels like people voted to leave to stick it to the man and didn't research the facts (although from the Leave campaign they didn't have many facts to research). It's all a bit weird, and even now people are quitting the Labour party, and over 3 million people have signed a petition calling for a second referendum (where were these people when voting was happening?!). I'm not happy with the decision, but that's democracy for you, but I feel like the margin that the leave campaign won with should've been more than 52%, it just seems a bit indecisive to me.

Anyway, apologies for the political post this week, I wouldn't normally do it but the referendum could seriously affect my future. Something a bit more relevant to my blog, I'm starting a free graphic design course with Shaw Academy tomorrow, it runs 2 webinars a week for the next month, and I'm excited about starting!

I'll sign off with my Pinterest of the Week, it's good to see with practise and dedication you can improve in what you want to do: https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/314548355205789845/