Animal Tale Thumbnails.

Once again, apologies for posting this late. Not only was I unable to get them done on time, but the power went out, along with the internet. We had storms for a whole week. Terrible. D:

Page one is wrong and even though they were awesome, the animal is acting like an animal and not a person and Teach doesn't like that. Sad.

Page two is a little crappier but has anthropomorphic animals. Except for the antelope. Those don't matter because they're both hunting them together. Also? What about Pluto and Goofy? (real dog, fake dog).

The Hunter and the Lion

I have been sooooooo busy with life and school and lack of sleep, so here goes my blog updates (apologies for the lateness).

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 The Lion and the Hunter

There was a hunter who often went into the bush to hunt.  Hunting was his work.  No other work was so sweet to him as hunting.  Every day he was trying to find where the most game could be seen.  The bush was all known to him.  He knew that in some places there was game and in other places there was none.

One day when the hunter was far in the bush looking for game, he heard a noise that sounded like something coming toward him, but he could not see anything.  In a moment he saw a large lion almost on top of him, and it was coming toward him.  The lion was so near that it was no use to think of running.  The hunter trembled with fear, for he did not know what the lion was going to do with him.  Any moment the lion might catch him and kill him.  Even if he had wanted to run he had no strength in his legs, because they were shaking.

The hunter noticed that as soon as the lion saw him he began to show him his troubles.  The lion opened his mouth, and the saliva was running down "lo-lo-lo." The hunter noticed that the lion was very poor, instead of being fat as lions usually are.  He laid down his bow and quiver and took off the shooting ring from his thumb and knelt down before the lion.  All that he could do was to praise the greatness of the lion.

The lion began to move his tail back and forth in a friendly way and came up to the hunter.  When the lion was very near the hunter, he lay down in front of him, and raised his mouth up to him.  The hunter looked into the lion's mouth and saw a large bone which was stuck in the lion's throat.  The lion had not been able to get it out for himself.

The hunter was very, very sorry for the lion.  He went to a nearby stream and washed his hands until there was no dirt left on them.  He came back and reached his arm into the lion's mouth and took hold of the bone which was fast in the lion's throat.  He carefully removed it.  When it was out, the lion gave a big sigh, "mmm."

Now the lion was free from the trouble which had overtaken him.  He went down into the little stream and lay down in the water and rolled.  Then he got up and shook himself and took a drink.  Again he lay down and washed out his throat and bathed his whole body.

When he came up from the water he went to the hunter and thanked him over and over again.  He licked the hunter's body and moved his tail back and forth in a friendly way.  The lion showed the hunter that he should stay where he was until the lion came back.  The hunter sat down to wait.

Before the lion had gone far he saw a large herd of roan antelope.  Quickly he ran ahead of the front ones and turned them toward the hunter.  When the hunter saw the large herd of roan coming, he put on his shooting ring and, taking his quiver and bow, he lay down flat on the ground and waited.  The herd of roan came right toward him.  In an instant he was on one knee shooting at them.  He hit three.  The lion caught three more large males.  The lion took the hunter and showed him the three large roan which he had caught for him.
 
The hunter went back to the village and called all the people in village to come and help skin the six roan, The hunter selected some of the best meat and took it to the lion where he
was hiding himself.  The rest of the meat was carried into the village.

This is how the hunter and the lion became great friends.  If the lion does not see the hunter each morning he thinks that something must be wrong, and he goes to hunt the hunter so that they may salute each other.  The hunter is not without meat, because his friend always drives it around to him.

Invisible Cities so far

Here's all the shots of my Invisible Cities project, still a work in progress.

 Forgot to take a picture of the drawing finished. But this is when it has the least paint on it.

 Work in progress.

 Finished underpainting.

 Close-up of underpainting.

 Another close-up.

I apologize for the slant of the picture. But this is what I have for the first critique.Of course it still needs work... THAT I already know.

Esmeralda Concept Art

My city is in the making, going MUCH better than it was a week ago.

I'll be posting the others soon. But for now, here are clothing designs for men, women, and children (divided into wealthy class and peasants).

 Really terrible beginning ideas for buildings, mixed with a cool idea for some upper level canals

 My thief girl. I figured it would be cool to design her, seeing as I wrote a whole story about her life.

 Wealthy class Esmeraldan woman. OBSERVE THE ROMAN/TOKUGAWA-PERIOD INFLUENCES!!!!

 Peasant man.

 Wealthy class man. Notice how I made him a sort of top-knot thing...

 Peasant woman. Not every peasant woman can look as cool as my thief girl!

Wealthy class children compared to peasant children. Somehow the girls ended up being really short...

Textures (meant to put these up forever ago)

Two of them still need more work, but that will happen later. Promise!

In order from left to right, going by row.

1. Floor (concrete)
2. Cloth
3. Back of my hand (I apologize the fleshtone looks like a burn victim)
4. Stone
5. Something shiny (my aluminum water bottle thing)
6. Something fuzzy (the mane on a stuffed lion I have)
7. Brick
8. Dirt (needs work, but getting there)
9. Leaf
10. Back of someone else's hand (at like 3/4 view. Sorry)
11. Another leaf
12. My hair (still needs work)

He wanted 12 textures, but for some reason I only had 11 written down. I checked and double checked, and somehow I didn't have 12 to begin with. So I added my hair.

A Day in the Life of a Thief in Esmeralda.

     Esmeralda is a wonderful place for a person such as myself. Being unable to afford my own food, clothes, and lodgings, I simply borrow from others, not necessarily with their permission. This morning, I walked by an archway with a couple meeting in secret standing underneath. I quickly pocketed the man's purse as I passed. He would be quite surprised when he took his paramour out to lunch that afternoon.

     Going down one flight of steps, I gracefully step onto a boat that is about to embark. I look up and immediately recognize my mistake. This boat is full of the wealthy class. I apologize, pretending to be embarrassed while I grab a few coins from a woman's pocket. She had plenty more where that came from. These few coins were enough to buy me food for the whole day, and perhaps a warm cloak. The boat had floated down the river a ways before I disembarked, and found myself under the archway leading to the marketplace. All the people were crowded around the stalls rather than the street. I joined them and reached into another man's pocket, pretending to try and progress through the crowd when he turned around and gave me a look. To avoid a confrontation, I charmed him with my blue eyes and my smile. He smiled, and I sensed ulterior motives in his bared teeth and quickly pushed my way through the mass of people. After buying a loaf of bread and some fruit, I make my way up another staircase, just barely dodging the glance of two policeman walking into the marketplace. Actually, I find it quite laughable. A police force in this city? Most policemen need a map of the city to even hope to navigate it. And everyday it's a different map, for they need to carry pens of many different colors to mark the ways they've already been. One wonders how they ever find their way home at night...

     The sun floated above me and shown brightly in the blue sky. The shade of the city chilled me, and my shawl couldn't warm me forever. It barely managed to do that much to begin with. I walked up more stairs, several levels above canal level and used my shawl to ascend a column onto a restaurant balcony. I briefly looked around. Yet another possession of the wealthy class. I waved and smiled seductively at the man I recognized from this morning, sitting at a table a few feet in front of me. Before he could open his mouth to say something, I pointed towards the back of the room and screamed.

     "RAT!!"

     Women jumped from their seats, tripping over their skirts. Men rose to their feet, eyes darting every which way in search of the vermin. I made my escape swiftly onto the roof in an orchestra of shattering plates and clattering silver. It quite amused me. Those fools. There were so many cats in the city that one hardly ever saw a rat.

     And speak of the devil, what did I find on the roof but a cat hissing at me. As he hissed, he stepped cautiously backwards, tripping over a foot. It cried as it fell, and I squinted my eyes to see that his foot was injured.

     "Kitty..." I sat down carefully in a non-threatening way. He meowed at me and stared. "Come here, kitty." I clicked my tongue and outstretched my arm, rubbing my fingers together.

     "Mow mow mow..." Cats were hard to coax, but I usually achieved good results when I mimicked them. Slowly he began to get up and limp towards me.

     "You poor thing," I said sympathetically as I observed the wound on his foot. He sniffed my hand and rubbed his face against it. Slowly I began to wonder how he got up here. Then I saw the top of an archway going across the upper level canal on the ground below. He had crossed this and somehow climbed onto the roof, I imagined. He laid down against my leg and began to paw at my bag of food. I offered him a scrap of the bread and he happily ate it up, licking any crumbs off my fingers. I smiled. I wasn't quite fond of other people for the most part, but I loved the cats. After bandaging his foot with a scrap torn off the bottom of my dress, I heard a ruckus in the restaurant, talking about all the trouble a peasant girl had caused just minutes before with the false cry of "Rat!"

     "Damn!" I certainly didn't want to be caught lunching on the roof if they hadn't appreciated my little prank. I crawled across the roof quickly and crept carefully over to the top of the archway. I was about to attempt to cross it when I felt the cat rub up against my leg. I stroked his cheek in return and he purred. Slowly I began to stand and cross the archway, like a tightrope walker. The cat followed, and I just let him.

     After crossing several rooftops in this fashion, I had come to one of my favorite points in the city. It was a place where one could sit on the rooftop and stare down at all the many different levels of the city. I sat and ate, enjoying the warmth of the sun, and the company my new friend brought me.

     At some point in time, I must have dozed off. I awoke to a beautiful sunset, a mixture of orange and pink painted across the sky. This was another wonderful thing about this spot. One could stare for hours and watch the sun set, the shadows dance along the many levels of the city, the light glitter along the water of the canals, and at some point watch the moon rise where the sun had once been. Having nothing better to do, that's exactly what I did.

    Once the moon had risen, so had I. I began to descend and find my way back down to the street below and navigated my way back "home" by way of the stars. I had turned several corners and was now making my way under the archway that led to my usual spot, where I slept at night. Just as I passed under the archway, I felt someone grab my wrist. I stopped, surprised, and slightly alarmed.

     "I've been looking for you all afternoon," whispered a familiar voice.

     I looked over my shoulder. It was none other than my friend from the restaurant. He slid his hand into mine and pushed his fingers in between mine. I couldn't hold back a smile as he did so.

     "Well, after seeing you with that other woman, I figured I didn't have to wait around for you anymore."

     "Well," he mimicked. "That woman tried very hard, but I got bored with her after awhile. And plus..." He swung me around to face him and pulled me back under the archway, so that my back was against one of its sides. "I believe you have something of mine."

   I ran a hand through my long, black curls and threw my head back, laughing. "Of course," I whispered devilishly as I pulled a purse out of my belt. I held it up between us, teasing him with my gaze. "Here's your wallet."



EDIT: This is totally WAY more than 300-500 words. For that I'm sorry. I hope that's okay.

Invisible Cities

I've decided Persian culture would just be too complicated to use for this project. So much stuff that is kind of unclear and not really... just no.

I've decided instead that I'll use Japanese culture from the Edo (or Tokugawa) period and the culture of Pompeii. I've been to Pompeii and the city is really interesting, especially the art they have in the houses and around the city. Like in the brothels, which are surprisingly one of the big things people want to see when they tour Pompeii (I was not aware until I went there).

Final Periodic Table Painting.

That's really all I have to say about that. It's late and I have things to do.

Invisible Cities!

Spring Break is over. And I got little done.

That's NOT to say that it won't be done LATER! And by later, I mean ON TIME.

So, this next project is the Invisible Cities project, where we read these descriptions about these cities and choose one to design. The one I think piqued my interest most was probably Esmeralda, "city of water." This city is filled with canals and streets that intersect each other. Its inhabitants are always taking new routes to their destination, and can choose to walk on the street, travel by boat in the canals, or mix it up along the way. "The most fixed and calm lives in Esmeralda," it says, "are spent without any repetition."

Here's another passage I really liked:

"Secret and adventurous lives, here as elsewhere, are subject to greater restrictions. Esmeralda's cats, thieves, illicit lovers move along higher, discontinuous ways, dropping from a rooftop to a balcony, following gutterings with acrobats' steps."

We have to research two different cultures and I guess use this research to design our city. Besides that, we also need to write about "A Day in the Life" of an inhabitant of the city. While I could just do an average, ordinary inhabitant of the city, I think it would be really cool to write mine from a thief's perspective. OR someone who's sneaking around with someone other than a spouse. But I think the thief would be more fun.

As far as cultures I'd like to research, I think I would really like to research the culture of the Persian Empire, and maybe... Hm... I'll look around for another culture. And report back with my findings. c:

Periodic Table Project

It's been awhile, but I've been working on my periodic table project, with my Gold illustration (NOT my "God" illustration that I almost typed XD).

SOOOOOO... here we go!

The Drawing

The Underpainting

Work in progress

 Another work in progress

The final project

The project isn't done yet, but this is what I have so far. I plan on fixing his skin and the clouds a little bit. He also wants more defined edges, so that will probably happen too. :D

Illustrator Research - N.C. Wyeth

N.C. Wyeth (1882-1945) was an American artist and illustrator. A star pupil of Howard Pyle, he became one of America's greatest illustrators. During his lifetime, Wyeth created over 3,000 paintings and illustrated 112 books, 25 of them for Scribner's, the Scribner Classics, which is the work for which he is best-known. The first of these, Treasure Island, was his masterpiece, and the proceeds paid for his studio.

Illustrator Research - Jessie Willcox Smith

Jessie Willcox Smith (1863-1935) was an American illustrator famous for her work in magazines such as Ladies Home Journal and for her work in children's books. In 1884 she attended the School of Design for Women, which is now Moore College of Art and Design; later, she studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts under Thomas Eakins. She graduated in 1888, and a year later, she started working in the production department of the Ladies Home Journal. After five years, she left to take classes under Howard Pyle, first at Drexel and then at the Brandywine School.

Illustrator Research - Egon Schiele

Egon Schiele (1890-1918) was an Austrian painter and a protege of Gustav Klimt. He was also a major figurative painter of the early 20th century. Schiele is noted for the intensity of his work, and the many self portraits he produced. The twisted body shapes and the expressive line that characterize Schiele's paintings and drawings mark him as an early exponent of Expressionism, although still strongly associated with the art nouveau movement.

Illustrator Research - Norman Rockwell

Norman Rockwell (1894-1978) was an American painter and illustrator. Rockwell always wanted to be an artist. At 14, he enrolled in art classes at what is now the New York School of Art. In 1910, he left high school for the National Academy of Design, and shortly after transferred to the Art Students League. He became successful very early in his life. Before the age of 16, Rockwell got his first commission for four Christmas cards. Then, while still in his teens, he was hired as art director of Boys' Life, the official publication of the Boy Scouts of America. From there he began a freelance career doing work for other publications geared towards young people.

The 30s and 40s, however, were considered to be Rockwell's most fruitful years. In 1939, his work became recognized as being representative of a small-town America. In 1943, he was inspired by FDR's address to Congress and painted his Four Freedoms paintings, and these were all reproduced in four consecutive issues of The Saturday Evening Post. Rockwell is known also for his other illustrations for The Saturday Evening Post.

Illustrator Research - Frederic Remington

Frederic Remington (1861-1909) was an American painter, illustrator, sculptor, and writer who specialized in depictions of the Old American West. Specifically, he concentrated on the last quarter of the 19th century American West, and images of cowboys, indians, and U.S. Cavalry.

Illustrator Research - Arthur Rackham

Arthur Rackham (1867-1939) was an English book illustrator. At the age of 18, he became a clerk and eventually began studying art part-time at the Lambeth School of Art. Rackham's early work showed facility but little else. The humor and romance and soul that were to make him the premier illustrator of the early twentieth century had not manifested themselves yet. When he quit his clerk job and became a reporter for the Westminster Budget, his work showed that he was still trying to find his style. Many of his pieces were quite different from each other, and it was hard to tell that they were done by the same artist. After quite some time, in 1905, his style began to flower when he did an edition of Rip van Winkle by Washington Irving.