My child named Nano

So far in my Space Research class (sculpture), we have finished one project.  I know that is a long time to spend on one project but the materials we used required 'making' time and 'drying' time.  We made galvanized steel hardware cloth armatures for a papier mache exterior.  This wasn't the flour and water papier mache; it was the shredded paper, saw dust, marble dust, water, and wood glue papier mache.  It looked a lot like tuna or cat vomit.  

Anyways.  For this project we had to recreate a pre-existing object but enlarging it or shrinking it.  Or we had to take an object and actually build off of it as if to customize it or something.  I made my silver nano ipod, but it's not really my ipod.  It plays on my ipod's name.  You see, there once was a time when I hated my ipod because I didn't like it or want it.  I wanted a black 4GB ipod but Cosco didn't have any so I had to get a silver one instead.  I know this sounds very selfish of me but I was buying it myself.  In my anger and frustration, I named my nano ipod the Silver Monster.  So I made a silver monster papier mache sculpture who is coincidentally named Nano.  

I didn't want my silver monster to be too big, preferably 2.5 feet tall.  He ended up being the size of my refrigerator in my dorm room.  He's child size so he's my little child.

Here, mother and child are posing and holding hands, how cute!

Now the mother and child are dancing.  Yeah, the sculpture looks heavy but it really isn't.

That project is finished and now I'm working on a cardboard Mesopotamian Lion Demon mask.  Sounds cool, huh?!  

Two Perspective Drawings - dedicated to Fillippo

In Drawing Studio, we have finished studying perspective! We had the choice of doing a one or a two point perspective drawing in class and then doing the other at home. I did my two-point drawing in class, so it shows off the wonderful building and hallway. This building is very... peculiar. My teacher warned us that we can't trust anything that we see, meaning some of the walls aren't perfectly vertical and the ceilings aren't exactly horizontal. Yes! They slant ever so slightly that you can't tell unless your staring at them for three hours with a ruler!!!!! My wonderful professor gave us of the choice of drawing the building as it is, with all of its imperfections, or draw it assuming everything is perfectly horizontal and vertical. So in the end, I made an ass out of myself and the walls and ceilings. Here is the proof of our humiliation:


Then for my second drawing, I hunted around for the ideal spot to draw: someplace that was quiet, had interesting architectural features, and a Starbucks... The Library!!!! No surprise there, right? This is by far my favorite of the two!


Who is Fillippo you wonder. How could I forget?! I dedicate these two perspective drawings to Fillippo, Fillippo Brunelleschi that is! Brunelleschi was an early Italian Renaissance architect who built the Dome of the Florence Cathedral. He is also credited with figuring out linear perspective!! Ah ha!!!!!!

Still more still lifes

Still more still lifes but perspective drawings are on the horizon. In fact, we've started studying perspective in Drawing Studio! I can sit down while drawing my 2 point perspective of the hallway (a nice break from standing for 3 hours :) ). Here are the last two still life drawings I did for homework.



I've been really busy lately with all of my art projects and haven't really found time to draw in my sketchbook. It takes me a whole week to finish one fun little drawing. The last things I had drawn were the dress designs for Nora Davenport. I decided to color in the second, more elegant dress and include some sort of faint ballroom background. I definitely like this dress better than the first!!!!


Then I drew, or started drawing (because he's not finished yet), a picture of Mr. Woodrosin. He's a very fun character to draw just because he's so laid back but also extremely mischievous.

Library Day

Today is Sunday, which means it's Library Day!!!  Not only did I look at the juvenile books but I actually worked on a paper, but who cares.  The interesting book I found today is called Kate Greenway's Family Treasury with the subtitle: "Selections from Kate Greenway's A Applepie, Book of Games, Marigold Garden, Mother Goose, and Under the Window".  The book is a compilation of nursery rhymes and very old game descriptions, such as "follow-my-leader", "puss in the corner", and my favorite, "battledore and shuttercock".  The illustrations for the games and rhymes are done with Regency style clothes.

I thought this one was particularly pretty.  The rhyme is very nice, too.  There are some incredibly funny rhymes.  My favorite humours one from the "Kate Greenway's Mother Goose or the Old Nursery Rhymes" section goes:

Goosey, goosey, gander,

Where shall I wander?

Up stairs, down stairs,

And in my lady's chamber:

There I met an old man,

Would not say his prayrers;

Take him by the left leg,

Throw him down the stair. (59)

What I want to know is why the old man was in the lady's chamber... hmmm.  Beside this book, I checked out the Heartache of a French Cat so I could show you how amazing the illustrations are.  This is one of my favorites:

Isn't it beautiful?

Looking back at this book and the new one inspired me to draw my own Regency pen drawings.  My subject matter is the main character of my sister's story The Tale of Miss. Davenport and Mr. Woodrosin (I'm not sure what else to call it because I don't think it has a real title at the moment).  This is Nora Davenport, the heroine of the story.  The book takes place during the Regency Era, which means empire waists!!!  I love that style and live for any chance I get to draw it!  These are two styles for Nora's masked ball gown.  Her dress's theme is butterfly/fairy.

I personally like the second one best.  It's extra elegant!

Recently, I finished reading Neil Gaiman's latest novel The Graveyard Book, some what inspired by The Jungle Book, but is about a boy who is raised by ghosts in a graveyard.  I loved this book.  It had a very uplifting ending but I still cried (I cry at almost everything).  At the end of the book, I felt like I had to draw something so I drew the Grey Lady whom everybody rides eventually at the end of their life.  Dave McKean, one of my most favorite illustrators, illustrated the book.  I pictured the Grey Lady differently from his version.  I saw her hooded, very much like the Virgin Mary (I don't know why but it looked cool).  Here it is.

I'm very pleased with this drawing.  Sometimes I begin my pen drawings with a graphite foundation but this one I went straight at it with pen.  Again, I'm very happy with it!

Greenaway, Kate.  Kate Greenaway's Family Treasury: Selections from Kate Greenaway's A Applepie, Book of Games, Marigold Garden, Mother Goose, and Under the Window.  New York: Derrydale Books, 1979.