Drawrings & Things

nature is a cathedral
Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Many things have transpired since my last post:

- I wrote a 20 page research paper (double spaced!), entitled "Development of Production and Purification Procedures for Calbindin D9k Mutants for Solid State Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy". as the title suggests, it is just as thrilling to read as it was to write.
- I finished my lab internship
- I discovered that my laptop was infected with a horrible virus.
- With the help of some more technologically-savvy friends, we deleted everything on my computer, reformatted the hard drive, and then put everything back. and then some. I now finally have Photoshop CS (no more Photoshop Elements!), Office 2007, and a faux Mac OS X! :)
- I left Washington. I don't know when I'll ever return. :( :( :(
- Chilling with the family here in Ohio is great, however. We have a kitty! He's an adorrrrable orange tabby. The fam named him Simba, but I secretly call him Genghis Khan (clearly the better name of the two).
- There are many. many. cornfields in Ohio. So far the stereotypically Midwestern-ness of this town (cornfields, rolling country roads, barns, and farmhouses) is still charming and amusing to me. I'm glad I'm only here for a few weeks before school starts, because I think small town America will quickly lose its charm for me.
- After several indecisive, agonizing hours spent poring over Axess , the undergraduate engineering handbook, and the course bulletin, I've chosen my classes! I am stoked for sophomore year!
- Design I: Fundamental Visual Language (4 units)
- Drawing I: MAKING DRAWRINGS :D (4 units)
- E14 Statics: Using Math to Make Sure Things Don't Fall Down (3 units)
- CS106A: I hope to God I'm Good at Coding Or Else This Class Will be the Bane of My Existence (4 units)
- HARRY POTTER and the Art of Storytelling (2 units)
...5 classes, but only 17 units? troubling.

Actual art update:

I spent the better part of today working on this. Not bad for my first time using Photoshop CS to paint something. I can't blend as well as I can in opencanvas, but, painting in Photoshop is still an amazing experience.

She's supposed to look youthful and mischievous...not pale and...old. I think it's her mouth. haha. At one point, she looked exactly like Angelina Jolie. Which was cool, but not what I was going for.
I redid her features soooo many times, because her face kept looking glassy-eyed and creepy.

[right] Detail shot
[top top left] Full image. Actual size of working image is something ridiculous, like 2600 x 6000 pixels. The reduction in detail when I resize it to more practical dimensions makes me a little sad inside. I SLAVED OVER EVERY EYELASH!

Posted bySHELLY! at 9:17 PM 1 comments  

Labels: ohio, photoshop CS, portrait, work in progress

the beet is the most intense of vegetables.
Monday, August 13, 2007

Occasionally, I do t-shirt designs for friends because I am kind and generous. and, okay, for monetary compensation too.


Senior girls shirt for Kennewick High's Class of 2006. Their motto reads "As Good As it Gets".






I am a proud alumna of PNNL's Young Women in Science program. In loving memory of all the good times had by all at the lab, we decided to start an annual t-shirt tradition. I can't find the first one I helped design, but here's last year's:

note proper safety attire, like gloves, closed-toe shoes, and safety goggles.









Here's the design for this year. The girls wanted something Charlie's Angels-esque, so I came up with something remniscent of Tomb Raider. This year's shirts will be kelly green. I love kelly green. It's a great color.

the stabby thing she's wielding is not a knife. I took artistic license with a serological pipette. harhar. My biological in-jokes are hilarious!










And last but not least, I haven't forgotten about this picture! I'm about halfway done with the hair. I kept going back and forth between shading it too dark and then compensating by making it too bright and red.

Although I'm pretty pleased with how it's coming along, it's taking along a wiggish (as in, like a wig) quality. Like it should be on the head of another person. This coloring thing is hard.


IN OTHER NEWS: I WENT TO PORTLAND AND PURCHASED A PAIR OF ZEBRA-STRIPED CONVERSE. HAPPY!

Posted bySHELLY! at 11:57 PM 1 comments  

Labels: SHOES, t-shirt design, work in progress

the history of (white) women in art
Saturday, August 4, 2007

Posted bySHELLY! at 3:39 PM 1 comments  

structured procrastination
Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Posted bySHELLY! at 11:33 PM 3 comments  

Labels: fanart, silly, snapes on a plane

Your camisole was a sprightly light magenta
Thursday, July 26, 2007

in memoriam of Dumbledore (my second favorite headmaster), the end of the Harry Potter series, and feverish fan speculation/general ridiculosity that heralded the release of Deathly Hallows (See the DIGS theory, or, Dumbledore Is a Giant Squid Theory, for further enlightenment):



Inspired by graffiti I saw (and subsequently admired, deeply) on my most recent trip to San Francisco:

Posted bySHELLY! at 11:36 PM 3 comments  

Labels: harry potter, silly, sketches, work in progress

helter skelter in the summer swelter
Tuesday, July 24, 2007

I've never figured out how to color skin. I've been questing for the perfect Flesh Tone ever since endless, frustrating digs through my 64 box of Crayolas in kindergarten.

<< click to see a bigger image

When I started dabbling in computer graphics, I discovered the dropper tool. Finally! I could just pick the appropriate color off of a reference image of a person, and paint with that. An exact replica of skin color! I win!

Ha. It is never that easy. Every color picked up by the dropper was a grayish orange hue. Unless I wanted my portraits to resemble overly tanned zombies, I would have to figure something else out. In the meantime, I cried a lot and wrote bad poetry about my artistic shortcomings.

Actually, I spent a lot (read: too much) time staring at other people's art and...staring at other people (this tactic was probably creepy and difficult to explain: "I couldn't help noticing the yellow undertones of your inner arm. Also, this lighting is making these sweet periwinkle shadows on your face."). I've come to understand that the most effective, most realistic, most lively, and most engaging faces are done with seemingly unexpected colors. In her (fabulous!) tutorial, digital illustrator Linda Bergkvist used colors like orange, coral red, icy turquoise, and purple to bring out the tones in her painting. In this step-by-step tutorial, the artist decided that a dark forest green was a great base color for coloring skin. crazyface!

I decided to give it a try, in my usual biting-off-more-than-I-can-chew way. I picked out some random ass colors, bumbled and felt my way around, and started blending away as I saw fit. Blending is waaay fun. on par with other simple, wholesome pleasures, like finger painting, or oil wrestling. It was all very intuitive and organic (this is fancy schmancypants pretentious artist talk for "I don't know how this happened. Sorry.").

My little skintone experiment in OpenCanvas** is turning into a full-fledged painting. I'm not sure how realistic her skin is, but I like the colors that are turning up. Her face is very...evocative of a sunset. I think this is a good thing.

**an a-mazing Japanese program that simulates the feel and blending of 'real media' like oil or watercolor. if you're a fan of engrish, or cheap digital painting programs, check out their website.

Her eyes are small and wonky. This must be fixed. Also, as cool as her hair may look in its current technicolor state, keep in mind that it's still very much a work in progress. I'm still trying to figure out skin. ...Next Artistic Melodrama? HAIR. eek. stay tuned.

Posted bySHELLY! at 9:32 PM 2 comments  

Labels: opencanvas, skintone, tutorials, work in progress