I've moved!

I totally forgot to update you all that I've moved blog, in case you wondered where I went. You can now find what I'm up to (including my completed Game of Thrones project) at https://kimberleykirk.wordpress.com/

Struggling with Cersei Lannister

I've spent quite a bit of time on this, but I'm struggling with her face, and also her hand holding the wine glass:

I've spent more than an hour on this

I also know I need to sort the wrinkles out on her sleeve. I'm not sure if I'll get round to finishing her tonight, I went out for a meal and drinks with the family last night, and I'm feeling a little tired from it :)

As it turns out last weekend I managed to play 14 hours on Call of Duty: Black Ops 3, as well as do other things such as cook a Sunday roast and wash the windows! I've only managed a more respectable 5 hours this weekend.

I've seen something else I'd like to buy in the future. I have some good conversations with my boyfriend on my drawing skills, and he's always telling me I'm better on paper than I am digitally. The Wacom Bamboo Spark seems like a good investment, and I will probably buy it one day. There's a review here: http://www.creativebloq.com/hardware/review-wacom-bamboo-spark-11618921

Something else I've agreed with my boyfriend is if our 3 numbers come up on the Irish lottery again then we'll go to the British Grand Prix this year.

Well, that's it for this week. I have no plans during the week, but I'm going out with my workmates for an afternoon in Sheffield on Saturday. I don't think I'll get too drunk, but you never know!

And before I forget, here's my Pinterest of the Week: https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/314548355204907532/ I've bought a watercolour set, I wonder if I can paint something as nice as this?

Stannis Baratheon finished, also Renly Baratheon is done too

Well, I've really got my skates on this week, I've finished two characters from my Game of Thrones epic drawing quest:

Stannis

Renly

That's all of the Baratheon brothers finished! I totally forgot to draw any poses this week though.

Hopefully some of you more eagle-eyed readers noticed I changed the theme on my blog. I've gone from the vibrant, orange, in-your-face colour scheme to something more muted and subtle.
Some of you may have noticed the theme change, but did any of you notice the new web link I added to my blog? It's in the menu on the right-hand side. I have my own website now! Granted, it's a free website, and it's very basic, but I have one, and it showcases some of my work. Go check it out: http://kimberleykirk.wix.com/illustration

Something I bookmarked a couple of weeks ago is the following web link: http://www.creativebloq.com/illustration/master-art-figure-drawing-new-artists-model-21619041 I'd love to get one of these but can't stretch financially to afford it. Especially as my wooden mannequin is rubbish. Guess I'll have to keep using my pose app on my phone for now.

Also, the amarylis has come back to life, and looks better than before! not sure why it's come back, but it's welcome in my house:

And on a final note, here is my Pinterest of the week: https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/314548355204907501/ Daffodils are my favourite flowers, and I have a bunch in bloom where I live. Also my boyfriend bought me a bunch last week, and they've all opened. You may remember a post where I sketch a daffodil on my tablet using a free app, I didn't realise how grey I made the final picture! http://kimshibbybob.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/the-lady-in-greyscale-and-daffodils.html

Robert Baratheon finished, Stannis Baratheon started

Another week, another Game of Thrones character's is complete:

Although I barely got this finished in time for the blog! I've also started on Stannis Baratheon's body:

But this has now stalled as I write my blog and chow down on steamed edamame beans :)

I forgot to mention that as well as wanting to go to a life drawing class I've also started drawing quick poses from Pixelovely, all of the below took 2 minutes each, guess which one I didn't sketch out the skeleton initially:

Well, I don't have much more to report on this week, caught up with an old friend on Thursday, won some money on the Irish lottery which means we can start our mortgage savings a month early :) I'm also going out to an awesome restaurant on Friday with my work mates, I'm really looking forward to it :) I've also downloaded some screen capture software, so I did a recording of starting on Stannis Baratheon, however I need to sort out some video editing software so I can speed it up. No one wants to watch me do a drawing in real time ;)

I'll leave you with my usual Pinterest of the Week: https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/314548355204907483/ what can I say; I love multicoloured artwork :)

A little bit of art...

I've not done much more in the way of art this week, but I did give the picture of the fluffy cat to my best friend as her 30th birthday present. I've also had another idea I want to start, I want to draw all of the main characters from Game of Thrones, although I'm not sure if I want to do them in a realistic style or a cartoon style. I'm sure I'll figure it out.

I have done a few quick sketches of bunnies doing yoga poses. It's a series I want to work on, as everyone seems to be into cats these day, I think bunnies are just as cute!

Bunny (child's) pose

Tree pose

Downward bunny (dog)

My idea from last week that was spawned from my dark mood hasn't been touched. Although I'm pretty sure I could've finished it by the weekend, as the week got progressively worse for me at work. I'm learning from my mistakes though, and it's only one person that winds me up (although she winds me the f*ck up!), so I'm not too bothered. I was really tired last week, so it made me really emotional. I'm over it now though:

Not really

However, I feel like I'm going to go into a food-coma, as I've been to an all-you-can-eat restaurant and made a pig of myself.

Anyway, if any of you feel like you're stuck in a creative rut the following might help; my Pinterest of the Week! https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/314548355204608653/

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/

New year, not new me

Another week, another lack of excuses of why I haven't done much art ;)

I'm feeling more lacklustre than usual at the moment, I think with it being Christmas time and lack of routine has left me feeling a bit bummed out. I'm a creature of habit. Good job I found this infographic:

I'm also a bit bummed-out about my financial situation. I'm not broke, far from it, but I'm trying to save up to buy my own house, and it's proving a lot harder than what I though. I've been renting for 3 years now, and I had hoped to have my own house by now, but I keep spending money on going to the pub and on holidays. So I've called up my nearest and dearest and told them we will be hermits this year. We *should* have a half-decent deposit saved by the end of the year.

Here's my doodling I did with my new sketching kit. This is purely done with a pencil, then inked. I'll do a cleaner line version when I get the time, but I want to colour this in.

I've also made progress on my dragon, not sure if the cave looks cave-y enough. Also the rabbit is kind of lost now:

Well, that's about it for this week, of course I will *try* to make more art... but we all know how that turns out with me! Last but not least, here is my Pinterest of the week: https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/175640454195289005/

Quick mid-week update

Just a quickie, my Schoolism subscription starts tomorrow!! So I might not be doing my daily drawing for a couple of months, but I should defo be producing something, even if it's not daily.

Also I've signed up to a free course called Start Writing Fiction with FutureLearn (through Open University). Whilst I love drawing I often struggle to think of a back story for my drawings, which can make them seem a bit pointless. So hopefully this will help me think up new ideas, which will then help me think of things to draw!

I've still been doing my daily drawings this week, and will share with you all on Sunday :)

Week 4: 1000 days of drawing

Hi everyone :) I'm back off my hols and I did no drawing whatsoever, did you really expect anything different? ;)

I was back on it as of Monday though, and have been drawing every day again:

22. Something you miss. Pizza! I miss this so much due to dieting, but since eating clean since Feb if I do eat bad my body hates it!

23. Something you need. I always need more sleep, I've been poorly since the end of my holiday, and last week really was a struggle with sleep.

24. A couple. This is my boyfriend and I dicking about at a festival a few years ago

25. Scenery. This is a sunset at Queenstown, New Zealand

26. Something you don't like. I hate tuna! Raw, cooked, steak, tinned, blegh, it's all disgusting

27. Someone you love. This is a very unflattering picture of my boyfriend

28. Anything you like. The stuff I was thinking of to draw I had already done before, so I thought I'd draw a quick chibi-style of my boyfriend and I on our cruise last year

I've also been looking at arty things on the internet, which I'd like to share with you. The following link makes me feel extremely patriotic, although you should watch it to find out what the UK has given to the art world! http://www.creativebloq.com/creativity/englands-cultural-history-91516907

Also, I'm not sure if I'm going to take part in Inktober. I'm drawing every day anyway, I'm not sure drawing in pen is going to help my skills. I am finally starting to learn what I like drawing, I like drawing portraits, and I really enjoyed the scenery piece. I'm always blown away by amazing concept art for games and films, I'd love to be able to draw something like that one day, but for now I'm pretty happy drawing from my photos :)

The start of Tea Dogs

I've done some more work on my Tea Dogs piece, although I found working out the shape of a German Shepherd's face more hard work than I realised!

The spaniel was easy for me though as I used to have one :) If anyone has any good captions let me know and I'll include it!

I've read some more of Imaginative Realism, and it's only as I've got tot he end of the book I'm coming across the section where there's a 'call-to-action'. I'm still not impressed with this book, and I'll be glad when I finish it.

Also in the UK there's a new 'theme park' opened called Dismaland, by Banksy. I wish I could go as it looks very interesting, there's a review of it here: http://www.creativebloq.com/street-art/why-banksys-dismaland-better-youd-ever-expected-81516387

I've been so good on fat fighters this week that I'm expecting a half-decent weight loss, I think I might cry if I don't :( I even abstained from having anything bad at a family BBQ yesterday, and hardly drank anything alcoholic, so it would be nice to see my efforts pay off.

Anyway, I hope to get Tea Dogs finished off this week (although I have a pretty action-packed week ahead of me), have a good week!

Not coping with Windows 10...

As you may know, I own an Asus VivoTab Note 8, which is like the poor-man's version of the Wacom Cintiq. Last weekend I had the option to upgrade from Windows 8 to Windows 10. I was so excited I upgraded straight away without researching if anything would be affected on my tablet.
The pen function does not work anymore.
And it's not isolated to all VivoTab's; some work and some don't! Unfortunately mine is in the 'don't' category, and now I'm looking on the internet to find ways to fix it. By the sounds of it though I'll have to wait for an update to fix the driver. However I keep getting sidetracked, especially with Google Hangouts at the moment.

Needless to say I haven't done any art. I actually cracked out my notebook and pencil earlier today, as I've had an idea in my head for a few days and wanted to get it on paper:

It's supposed to be 2 dogs sitting at a table enjoying afternoon tea. I've also been toying with the idea of having humans on leads so it's like a reverse situation, but I think if I drew that it would come across a bit weird. I'm not even sure where I got the inspiration to draw that from, or why I even would, but I figured I like tea and I like dogs so why not combine them? I'll have to get on my Wacom Bamboo to flesh it out. At least I still have that! I need to start drawing things that inspire me more, to hopefully get into a better groove for drawing. I just feel like I've had an art block that's lasted for far too long now.

I washed my car yesterday, and listened to something on Youtube to try and inspire me to do something with my life... the link is here, and it's well worth a listen: https://youtu.be/GakfEmYBukQ

I haven't read any of Imaginative Realism this week, I only read at night and I'm been so tired when I've gone to bed this past week I've just gone straight to sleep!

I'm back on Fat Fighters now :) We have a party for Slimmer of the Year tomorrow, so I'm going to take some cucumber cups for the party (thick cucumber slices, seeds scooped out to make a 'cup', then filled with a mixture of low-fat cottage cheese, garlic and chives).

So, here's to another fab week at work, and to me getting out of my artistic rut!

Briefbox submission

Hi all, I've finished the Briefbox assignment, but I can't get on their website to post it as it's been hacked! So here it is in all its glory:

I'm still reading Imaginative Realism, and I'm halfway through. I get the concepts he writes about, but I'm not overly bothered by the book. I want to read it to the end this time though. It kinda sucks, as I want to draw a scene from a book I like, but I'm reading Imaginative Realism instead :( I haven't ready any more of Fun With A Pencil, though I hope to start that properly once I finish Imaginative Realism.

Saw an old friend at the weekend (me being my usual observant self didn't notice her until she was practically in my face, haha ;) ), hopefully we'll get to catch up soon :)

I also decided to not join a gym, as I have one at work and can use that when I please. Although I think I need to do some stretching for my back, as I've developed a glass back since camping.

My diet plan is not, ahem, going to plan! I've learned at my weight-loss group that you can make 'healthier' cupcakes using a packet mix and a can of diet pop, they are rather nice!

Madeira cupcakes (inspired by the Great British Bake Off) and chocolate fudge cupcake. Both with chocolate chips

Work is going from strength the strength, it's nice to work somewhere where 1) You are treated as an adult and 2) I genuinely feel useful and needed, not just needed because there's a high attrition of staff... Although I'm trying to put some extra hours in to cover my holidays I had booked for the end of the year, I just couldn't face working late on Friday :) It's the weekend after all!

Only a quickie

I haven't done any art this week.

Nothing. Nada. Zip.

2 reasons for that, number one is the usual 'not found time'; again I've been out every night in the week just gone, and I have no intentions of slowing down! I think I have plans for every night this coming week as well. I'm itching to draw, but I'm barely getting time to sit down at the moment. I'm hoping when I go on holiday I'll have loads of spare time to sketch. I'm certainly taking my tablet, and a pencil & paper too.

Also, I've found last week to be the hardest at work since being in that job for nearly 4 years. Handing over to someone who doesn't know our systems, or our customers, has been absolutely draining. I don't think it's been handled properly. Normally my colleagues have a shuffle round of accounts, so the newbies get the easier accounts, and the more experienced get the difficult accounts. Not so in this case, they're very short staffed where I am at the moment, also my replacement looks promising so they've just done a straight swap, the poor soul is getting all of my work. It also doesn't help that she has tomorrow morning off work, I have tomorrow afternoon off work, and my last day is on Wednesday! I hate caring so much sometimes...

On a better note I was given a day pass to visit one of the holiday villages of where I'll be working, so I've gone for a visit today, and all I can say is Wow! I can see why guests love this place so much. All of the staff look really happy too, so I'm hoping my new job will be good!

I finished the Leonardo Da Vinci documentary. I'd got most of the way through it by my last blog post, but finished it off yesterday. There wasn't really much left for me to watch, Peter Capaldi was good in it acting as Leonardo Da Vinci.

So, sorry for the week of bitching, Turns out this blog post wasn't a quickie! I'm not sure what this next week is going to bring either!

30 days of lacking!!

Well, I've had a better stab at drawing more this week:

Random lamp study

Quick ornament study

Another hand study

30 days of graphic design. Redesign the nearest shop's logo. This is only a quick sketchy idea

30 days of graphic design. Pick 3 designers and make a new design mixing their styles. I chose Milton Glaser, Stefan Sagmeister & Paula Scher 

I've also watched a film, Inside the mind of Leonardo Da Vinci, which I've found immensely interesting. For example he was an illegitimate child, and because of this received no formal education during his childhood, yet to look at his sketches you'd think he'd completed an engineering degree at university! It's another proven point to me that you don't need to be educated to a higher standard for something in this industry (although I'm sure it helps of course).

I'm not sure if I'll carry on with this particular 30 days of art/graphic design, as I feel it's not drawing. While I enjoy making the initial sketches I don't have the time in the day to make a fully refined drawing every day. After coming home from work, eating dinner, etc I'm lucky to squeeze in an hour to sketch (and most days I don't!). There's loads of other '30 days of art' out there, so I'll find one that will give me the motivation to finish it!

Anyhow, not long now until the first holiday of the year, but first we have AC/DC to see before that in a few weeks! I only have 1.5 weeks left at my current job, it's all happening at the moment!

Re-learning techniques

Again, I've not done much in the way of art this week, I did manage to get a foot drawn quickly yesterday, but mostly opted to watch films and play games with my spare time yesterday.

I'm getting a bit of a headache, so this will be a quick post anyway.

So, this is the one piece I've done, in Graphiter on my tablet:

This is not my foot!

I haven't done anything else art-wise this weekend, but I have been making use of the free magazines my library offer online, and I've re-learned the use of masks in Photoshop. When I drew the statue of the lady I spent about 45 mins getting the lines down, maybe an hour or two shading, and then the rest of the time cleaning it up, and this took hours. Using masks with the transparency layer locked I won't have to clean up my line work all of the time, so should save me lots if time in the future.

Art expo, hands and general doodling

So, I'm feeling a lot better! Although I managed to shake off my sore throat from last weekend it was promptly replaced with a cold, which I didn't start to shift until Thursday, but then by Thursday evening it was like I had never been ill.

I've been trying to get more daily sketching in, even though I haven't done it every day I've at least done more than what I would normally. On my tablet (which has a stylus so I can draw on it like a Wacom Cintiq) I've downloaded a free app called Graphiter, which is a great little program for sketching on without having to load Photoshop all the time with all of its fancy gadgets. I've been focussing on hands this week, and initially I was just copying pictures from Google using the Drawing On The Right Side Of The Brain techniques, which looked pretty OK. However (I had an 'ah-ha!' moment), I realised if I wanted to progress with my art I would need to work out the mechanics of what I'm drawing, not just copy, otherwise if I want to draw something in the future I'll struggle as I wouldn't have learned anything:

Top-left & top-middle are the ones I copied direct from Google Images. Bottom middle is my hand with the fingers foreshortened, that was harder to work out the mechanics

I've also done a bit of general doodling this week, the first was quickly sketching my partner close-up as he's playing a video game, although when he's concentrating he sticks his tongue out and moves it around, so I struggled to get the lips right:

The other doodle I did made up a character while my fella and I were taking turns playing games, I've no idea where it was going at the time, not bad for 10 minutes though huh?

Also I've noticed there's a new Wacom Cintiq that +CreativeBloq have reviewed. It's their most affordable yet, although to be honest if I had a bit more cash I would probably get the Surface Pro 3.

I managed to get to the art expo this weekend, I really enjoyed it, and it's nice having something like that in my hometown, where it's a small town and nothing much really happens. I was quite inspired by a few pieces I've seen, and I thought the art being sold was very affordable, although we weren't looking to buy. Some were ridiculously overpriced though, but I guess that's just my opinion. There was a range of art for sale, all different subjects and mediums, quite a lot of watercolours which, while I think looks pretty, is not my medium of choice. 
It was also my gateway to see what our local Art Society did, and while I enjoyed the art I don't think joining the society is for me. They do have life drawing sessions every Wednesday which is open to non-members, so I may pop along to one of those in the future. I've looked up other art groups in my area, and they're either not for me (ie ceramics) or closed groups. I think if I want to do a collaboration in the future I'll need to do one online. I keep meaning to join a Hangout on Google+ on the Sycra forums but I always seem to miss them (I think because they're over in the states and me being in the UK it's always the time difference).

Anyway, not many plans for next week, will just try to keep up the sketching, and maybe finish my logo, and might try to get a BriefBox done this weekend too.

Moving on - job opportunities, further education, and practice

Since finishing Drawing On The Right Side Of The Brain I haven't completed many new works of note.

It's been easy for the first blog posts for this blog, all I have done is post my previous work from years gone by. However to keep this blog a regular feature I now need to produce more art in a shorter time frame. Ideal for practising, but hard to do when I have a full time job, a house to keep, and also like to fit in other leisurely activities (keeping fit, watching films, etc). It doesn't leave much time for creativity.

I was very nearly ready to give this up again when an excellent job opportunity came up in my area; a trainee baker. I worked in a bakery when I lived in Australia, and I hugely enjoyed it. However this opportunity wasn't meant to be, as I didn't get the job. Everything for a reason, as my mum says...

In my first post I mentioned about taking a university course. My views on this haven't changed, I still want to take a degree in fine art, but now the issue is money, as I'm saving for a house. I think I will leave it a few more months and see what I want to do then. My work situation seems to be taking a turn for the better, I won't mention any more than that for now, but depending on how things go will determine whether I go ahead with the university course.

In regards to practising I haven't done much since finishing Drawing On The Right Side Of The Brain, and you know what? I have absolutely no excuse for it. I've carried on with CTRL+ Paint, but I've only covered 2 videos, imagining things & Expressiveness in Drawing. Below are a few of my very quick sketches:



Imagining

Man in hat, exaggerating the beard and drawing a different hat, looks a bit like Gandalf!



Man in hat, exaggerating the hat but diminishing the eyes

 

James (my partner), exaggerating his hair & sideburns, diminishing his jaw

James, normal



James, exaggerating his nose, diminishing all other features

Since drawing the above I popped into my local stationery store and noticed they were selling a beginners artist paint set. In a near little foldaway case is an artist pad with 4 sheets of canvas 'paper', 6 acrylic paints, brush, pencil, eraser, sharpener and pallet, all for the affordable price of £4



Well loved

I have 3 ideas for my 4 sheets of paper: a landscape picture (Uluru), a self portrait and an F1 car. I'm not sure what to do for my fourth piece. I have already completed my landscape painting, my canvas is too small at 5 x 7", at least for any detailed work. I enjoy painting. Painting block colours and working out nearly everything to do with drawing is quicker than my tablet (but this is due to lack of practice in any medium). Painting and trying to blend colours with acrylics is much harder and takes a lot longer, I find rendering on my tablet much easier. Anyhow, below is my painting of Uluru, aka Ayres Rock, Australia. It only took an hour, and it was just so I could practice painting as I've never painted before. I think my painting sucks, but every single person I have shown has said it's good, even my mum who is my next harshest critic after myself:



Uluru, 5 x 7"acrylic on canvas paper

I'm currently working on a self portrait painting, same spec as above. I really am finding it difficult, but it's a good learning curve. When I paint the F1 car next I'm going to paint using a different technique. I enjoyed painting the above so much that I've bought more paint, more brushes and an actual canvas. I have an idea for that, but it's hard to explain.

On this blog post I want to try and make myself more accountable for my art, so I will propose the following tasks for myself for the week ahead:
Finish my self portrait.
Actively participate in an active art forum.
Critique at least one piece of work.
Try to promote my blog at least once.
Start a graphic design piece to add to my portfolio.

Also my local cinema is screening some interesting shows in the coming months, art at the Vatican, and Van Gogh's work. I may have to book myself a ticket!

PS I keep posting a comment which is a duplicate of my blog post and I have no idea how to remove it!