"You should"...Why "Should" I?

Okay, I know I haven't written anything in a long time but this has been on my mind for months and I'm just gonna go Elsa on this sucker and let it go (yah I know we're all sick of the frozen hype).

The subject I will be tackling is entitlement and either a misunderstanding or a total disregard of time, energy and value. I'm talking about how people take artists for total granted and think because a person knows how to do art which is geeky (lets be honest here!) they should be grateful that they want an art piece from them. Well, I'm not here to be overly nice so I'm gonna just let off about this, because I see countless artists who face this and are abused because people have this mentality.

Note: This will be mainly aimed at visual artists but I see this with youtubers too (who are both graphic artists and not) so I will be addressing both.

It all starts, with the simple seemingly honest question....”Can you draw/paint/make/do a video with _______ for me?”.

To the average person, if you say no they should be oh okay, I guess it was worth a shot and be totally understanding...But is this how a lot of people act? NOPE! They're entitled, it's “how dare you not draw this thing that I demand you draw for me”. “Or, how dare you not do a collab with _____”......”If I don't get my way then I hate you”, some have even gone to the extremes of reporting people because “they were abusive and ungrateful”...How? How you may ask how they were ungrateful and/or abusive? Simple. They said no, no I have no time to draw something for you for free, and I don't even know you why would I do this?

I'm hoping that the majority of these stupid entitled people are kids and teens who are too immature to understand the value of time and money, but there is another issue that upsets me as much or maybe even more than this one.

The “You should” crowd. I don't mean the people who are being nice but using a poor choice of words, or even asking something just for them, I'm sure (or at least hoping ) that most of the people who say “you should” are just using a poor choice of words. I'm not saying I've never told a person that, I probably have I'm a person, I use a poor choice of words, however I do try to not say it because it irritates me a lot. But let me rant on this for one second.

“You should draw me a picture”

“You should draw ________ from _____”

“You should do ________ with _____”

“You HAVE TO DRAW ________”

“You NEED TO ______”

“You HAVE TO draw ____ FOR ME”

“Name your art piece _____”

“I want you to do _______ for me”

“You should make a video about ____”

You should make a video WITH____”

Uhm.

No.

No I don't have to, need to, want to, shouldn't won't, can't, and never will draw the three headed Pokemon Disney Star Wars cross-over you demand. And I don't have to collab with ____ either. Why should I draw this? Why do I want to? Who are you and why should I do anything for you? Why do I need to draw ____?? And also, who died and made you my boss? Who is____ I should be collabing with and why would I want to? I don't mean to say your ideas are bad, they might be good; but use a better choice of words. If you want a sure enough way to NOT have you suggestions heard, use these phrases. Suggestions are good and any wise person will welcome them, but nobody will listen to you if you are demanding. And trying to sound innocent whilst still demanding won't work 98% of the time either, people know when they're being played, especially when people are up their ears all the time, they just get a 6^th sense for it.

People, please, you need to grow up. I know people who are artists are interesting, I know their things they make are a party for the eyes, ears, or both. I know these things are something you enjoy, but they don't owe it to you to draw or create everything/anything you like or want. Jellie Bee loves to draw Steven Universe pictures, I don't care for Steven universe, but her watercolor style is lovely and I love it. I don't have to like what she does and she doesn't have to draw what I demand (even though as I said I love her style in and of itself). Just, please, these artists and video makers work hard every day, they work hard to make things to watch and sell for you to enjoy. Sure they are doing it for money, but they also want to make things others will enjoy. They aren't there to just make you happy, they are there to make a bunch of people happy. So if they don't wanna draw Kylo Ren genderbend with Ang from Avatar and PikachuXBlulbasour or collab with theodds1out..just..well, oh well. YOU'LL SURVIVE! I Promise! They aren't being mean, they aren't jerks, they don't hate you. Just think, if they do something for you, then they have to do something for the other 100 people. If you to the math, time doing stuff for free + using up expensive art supplies + no money coming in for said hours therefore no money to buy the arts supplies = nobody will get anything eventually because the said artist/creator is broke. So you being selfish thinking they have to do stuff for you for free is not only NOT helping you, but it's not helping anyone else. The same goes for any other type of artist or content maker, it's not all about you.

So why don't they owe you anything? Because they are doing what they love, and you happen to enjoy it too. Just because you being a subscriber or a follower is helping them get noticed that doesn't mean you have the right to strong-arm them in to submission for something you want or else you'll defect. They don't want that kind of negative energy around them, and neither to their true fans who love them no matter what they make, either. So if you're gonna be like that then just go away. They don't want you and neither do we who truly appreciate artists and content makers.

In the end, don't be these people:

(source is artists on other platforms I'm not saying who to prevent further embarrassment)

Warning: Strong Language (Because they're mature...right?)

Wellp, that's my rant.

Hope it was enjoyable, relate-able or eyeopening.

~ God Bless ~

~ Firefly

Collages

Here's some of my collages I've made.

Enjoy!


God bless,

~ Firefly

Okay so...some art anyone?

Yeahhhhhhhhhhhh...Wellllllllll...Lets just say I haven't been in to writing lately.

So to make up for it, here's some of my paintings I've done over the past few months.
I'll have a separate post for collages.

Thank you for your patience!


~God Bless ~

~ Firefly

Sorry that I've been MIA recently!

Hiii! I'm sorry I've been MIA recently, lots of stuff were going on for me like, computer died, was working then too tired and had no motivation to write anything...Soooooooooo..Yeah.

I have been making artwork though and I have A LOT of ideas for articles so not to worry, things shall be posted soon!


Thank you for your patience.

~ God Bless ~

~ Firefly

Press On With An Idea, My Deer Story!

I don't know about you but often if I have an idea I have to draw it that moment else I don't care about it anymore. Sometimes though I like an idea so much it stays in my head for a long time but once I draw it out in a sketch book or something, it's done in my mind and not gonna bother with it anymore....BUT SOMETIMES!!! There is an idea I love so much I have to work at it even more than a simple sketch. These are the times I want to say, keep at it! If you really love an idea, sometimes your skill set isn't adequate to do it how you see it in your head, but that's okay! You can always try again, modify it, make it better. I have done this recently and I wanted to show you my results.

My Deer Story:

I was at work and on my breaks I started to work at drawing a deer, I liked it a lot and I wanted to draw a circle around it and make like a night sky behind it (Kinda like how Kattvalk sometimes draws her pictures). A few problems...1, I don't draw good circles...2, I haven't drawn a deer in months! So? It was a sketch book anyway, so I worked at it. I finished it at home where I could put more work in to it without having to rush to get back on the production floor and not be late. The results, I loved! I knew things were lopsided, but that's okay. I loved the concept so much, and the colors (I used blues and purple)...

...I loved it so much, I had to try again, only this time using a medium I'm better at on more space (a bigger piece of paper), so I used my original as a reference but I modified it, I made the deer look more polished, I traced something that's actually a circle so it looks more completed. I changed the foreground images from leaves to a branch with flowers, and colored with watercolor instead of sharpies.

 I LOVE how it turned out. In fact, I've made an owl like I made the original deer, I might do it over with watercolor as well...not sure yet, but I might!

I suppose the idea I'm trying to convey is, you like an idea, try it out, if you like it but wanna try again, do it! It can't hurt, and it might end up being fun!


So embrace the ideas you have, and have at it!!




Thank you for reading.


~ God Bless ~


~ Firefly

#MayWeDrawDaily Review

You may recall about 3 or so weeks ago in my 13+1 drawing challenges for visual artists post, that I mentioned #MayWeDrawDaily as one of the challenges. Well, May is over and this is how it went for me.

At first I wasn't going to participate, mainly because I can't make a video and I felt bad. But after a few days I figured meh why not, at least I can post it someplace. So I did, and I suppose it went well overall.

Click image to see bigger.

I did get a lot more drawings done than I normally would, and I enjoyed learning new techniques (One of which will be in another post, it was just so much fun I have to share it) I did everything from using children's acrylic paints, watercolor, pen, mixed media, and even a collage. I really got creative. I took myself out of what's right to what is fun. Somethings in life we don't make that decision but for artwork it's okay, if you don't want to outline one part but you do another, you do that! If people can draw two eyes on the same side of a face with the rest of the face being a profile, I think we've lost all reasoning already so you do whatever your little heart pleases as long as it's not malicious in some way!

Anyway, I think this challenge did improve my skills in a lot of ways, and I learned new ones. It seems every time I draw or paint, I'm learning something new. I'm in this artistic stage where everything is opening up to me. Maybe it's a maturity thing where I'm in the first years of adult-hood everything has to grow up with me, no idea and I don't really care because this is awesome!!!!

I did 21/31 days, so not the entire month, but I learned so much, and had so much fun. Looking back on it, it's much more fun than when you're in the moment just trying not to mess up this concept you like so much.
Do I like every picture I did? Nah, but I have my favorites.

So in closing, next May I HIGHLY recommend doing this challenge. And if you wanna challenge yourself now, just start in whatever month you are reading this and go and try and draw every day. It doesn't have to be the same drawing. Say you are an acrylic painter. Just work on that painting every for the whole month (if it's big enough) or do a series of small paintings...I don't know! Just have fun.

Here's a slide show if you want to see the images bigger.
Note: I use PhotoBucket, some browsers can't see PhotoBucket. 




Flash:

I hope you enjoyed my little overview!


~ God Bless ~

~ Firefly

Blue Winds

Here's a poem and picture set.

This poem is about feeling empty and bitter, but slowly coming to fruition and freedom. There's lot of context throughout the whole poem but since I'm dealing with excerpts...Yeah I'm going to just put the general gist of it.

The picture is done totally in GIMP, I did record myself drawing it but idk if I'll make a video, if I do I probably won't post it right away. I tried to make it more stylized with sharp edges but it looked terrible, I also was aiming for a more detailed face but somehow simple just looked better so I went with it. I did color everything in blues, I didn't cheat even though it killed me not to just use colorize.
I know the hands and arms look weird, I'm bad at poses and hands, and drawing with a mouse makes it worse.

There are 8 verses, I'm putting here, 1, 2, 5, 8

I feel a tug of war inside,
My emotions trying to find a place to abide,
I see and feel that something in me has died,
But I wonder, was I ever really alive?
...
Yes, I walked around and payed my daily dues,
Sure I was painting a rainbow worth of colors,
But my favorite color group was the blues,
And yes, of course I've been breathing but was it really air,
I can't really tell within all of the despair.
...
This wind it blows within me,
Swirls the storms inside,
My emotions are more unstable than the moons effect on the tide,
Surly I'm awaking to who I'm supposed to be,
Possibly I'm slowly but surly becoming free.
...
Though my tears they fall,
Being washed with the rain,
The wind that blew around me ,
No longer symbolizes pain.
But now the peace of mind but freedom I have gained.



~ God Bless ~

 ~Firefly

13 + 1 Drawing Challenges for Visual Artists!

Hello! In this post I'm going to talk about art challenges! Or more to the point why one should do them and some of the challenges that I know about that you can do and/or participate in...So without any further ado lets get going!

Art Challenges; Why should I do them?

This is a golden age for artists right now, and when I say artists I mean visual artists, I'm sure it's good for the other types of artists also but I'm not in those worlds so I won't talk about it as if I know what I'm saying! This is a time where all you need it a camera or a screen recorder and a youtube channel and you can get subscribers, maybe not millions but you can at least get a few hundred but often I see artists with thousands and some in the hundreds of thousands. And with that growing community there have arisen many art challenges that we as artists can do to be more of a community. Now before I talk on about these challenges I will note that at this time I do not have a channel. The reason is simple, I can't. Don't ask why I can't because it's personal in nature but that is my simple answer I can't, not right now. Eventually? Possibly, right now no. Anyway moving on.


These art challenges are great for people to draw, paint, and express themselves all in their own unique way. And with twitter, instagram, facebook, snapchat and all these platforms even without a youtube channel you can still participate in these challenges!


Now the question is, why should I put my time in to these? Well the answer isn't why you should, it's more of an answer why you would want to. Because art is one of those things most people do out of enjoyment not obligation (unless you are being paid then you have an obligation obviously).

The reasons I'd say you want to do these is:

1. Recognition.

People will see what you have made, even if they don't click on the heart to like it or comment, they still saw it. And if they do like it and/or comment it's a bonus!

2. You get to be involved in a group.

Of course everyplace has bullies, and artists are no exception. There are art bullies, but in general fellow artists are friendly and supportive; and with that you will be able to share with similar minded people as yourself.

3. You improve as an artist.

   Most of these challenges I will touch on don't forbid you from drawing what you like, so if you want to stick to drawing one thing but want to be better at that one thing you can still do that. These will simply push your creativity more even if you want to stay in one realm. I don't say however you have to limit yourself, expanding your horizons is always a good thing and I encourage it!
   

4. You have something to look back to and enjoy once it's completed!

   Some of these challenges are actually small projects and in the end you will have a pile of drawings to look over and see real results of your hard work.
   

Okay, those are some reasons, I'm sure there's more now on to the challenges! I haven't done all of these but I have done some of them. Also None of these artists asked me to link them or talk about these challenges, this is purely on my own.

The Challenges:

1. Sketch Book Video Challenge

This is a Challenge done by Juicy Ink on Youtube. Her challenge was to do a video everyday and post on YouTube of her getting back in to the habit of drawing in sketch-books and improving here video editing speed. She did this for 30 days. - I haven't done this challenge but I followed her through the process and I think if you can do it, you “should” do it. It looks hard but it would be rewarding and enjoyable! If you want to see her videos click here. For more Information about the challenge, here's her first video talking about it more.


Now you don't have to make the videos, but I think drawing everyday is a good thing if you are able to do it.

2. #MayWeDrawDaily

This is a current thing going on right now, started by Jellie Bee and Audra Auclair and inspired by the Sketch Book Video Challenge. The simple premise is drawing every day in May, if you want to post a video you can. That's it. And if you post it use the hashtag #MayWeDrawDaily. You don't have to draw everyday to participate. I'm participating in this at the moment.

3. #MerMay

This is another month long challenge, you simply draw mermaids all May long and if you post on social media put the hashtag #MerMay. I first saw this from ArtALaCarte. - I don't really draw mermaids but it's still a clever idea.

4. March of Robots

This is a drawing challenge I first heard about from Jake Parker. The premise of this one is drawing robots all the month of March. I haven't done this one either but it sounds fun.

5. Draw 100 Somethings

This is another challenge I saw from Jake Parker (You'll see a lot from him on this list), the premise of this is to take a very specific subject and draw it 100 different ways, this is to help you solve problems, think outside your respective box and expand your horizons. For example, instead of drawing 100 robots, draw 100 robot mice. It's more than a general subject it's an actual specific thing.
For more detail on this one watch his video here.

6. 8 Minute Drawing Challenge/#8MinuteDraw

This is yet another one from Jake Parker, only I think he got the idea from a book. The idea is to draw the same picture 6 times in 8 minutes starting at 4 minutes, then 2, then 1, then 30 seconds, 15, 5.
He made a timer on YouTube so you can bounce from one to the other. His video here, and his timer here. - If you post it you can take it #8MinuteDraw and you'll be in a semi popular hashtag.
I have done this one, you can read about how I approached it here.

7. Inktober

This is a challenge I'm sure more people know, InkTober.
Basically you draw pictures in ink/pen every day in October.
Jake Parker started this one to learn a new pen he received, I believe it was a brush pen at the time (something he still uses a lot) and then people started to hope on board and now it's actually a thing.
I participated in #Inktober last year and I have to say my pen skills improved a ton because of it. I HIGHTLY recommend this challenge it's so much fun! If you post it tag it #inktober and more people will see it. If you want to see the full history of #InkTober you can watch the video here.

8. Cheap Art Supply Challenge

This is a challenge a lot of people have been doing lately, where they go to the dollar store (or their country's equivalent) to buy the cheapest art supplies possible and then make art out of them. You don't have to go that cheap but it should be cheaper than brands like prismacolor or copic or a brand like that. I'm not sure who started it but I have a few favorite videos and I'll post the artist's name in the links.


Kattvalk – Cheap Ball Point Pens
Baylee Jae – Cheap Art Supplies (Mixed)
Sakuems - Cheap Watercolor
Kattvalk – Cheap Water-Based Markers
Jellie Bee – Cheap Art Supplies (Mixed)
Sakuems - Cheap Markers



Sharpies also count as a challenge too.


I can't say that I have or have not participated in this challenge because I can't afford good markers that cost 6 dollars each so I use sharpies, and I have prismacolor pencils but I also use Crayola and off brands as well. I mix it up so for me it's not a challenge it's how I am normally. But if you use the fancy stuff, try to do a drawing with the cheaper stuff!

9. Crayola Challenge

Again, for me this isn't a challenge because I always use crayola mixed with better brands but if you do not use crayola then this would be a good challenge for you to try, and if you're not going to use the supplies again you can give to a kid that likes to doodle! Basically you do all you coloring with crayola products. Many artists have done this challenge I'll post a few below.


ArtAlaCarte – Crayola Crayons
Jellie Bee - Crayola Markers
Baylee Jae - Crayola Colored Pencils

10. Wrong Hand Challenge/Left Hand Challenge

I first saw this one from Baylee Jae but I think she got if from somewhere else (not sure). The idea is that you draw a picture first with your native hand, then try to redraw it with your none native hand. I've tried this and it's quite hard but it was interesting to look at when I was done. It's normally called the left hand challenge but since Baylee and I are both Lefties I call it wrong hand challenge.


You can watch her video here.

11. 3 Marker Challenge

The premise for this one is you close your eyes and pick out 3 markers at random and try to color a drawing with them. Some people get all up tight saying you're cheating if you draw a picture to go with the drawing, or if you ink with a pen but there are no rules except to color with the 3 markers that were randomly selected.  Baylee Jae's video made this one popular, I think Sakuems made a video a while back but it got taken down due to music or something stupid because Youtube is a bunch of jerks sometimes But she has made (another?) one after that which you can see here. You can see her (Baylee's) 3 marker challenge videos here, and here. I highly recommend searching in youtube 3 marker challenge and watch the different videos ( I haven't seen them all so I don't guarantee the rating on every image, however in general they are G or PG, just watch your step). - And I have tried this with my Sharpie/Bic markers.

Sakuems also took this principle and did a 3 watercolor (color) challenge you can see here.

12. 1 Marker Challenge

Also made popular by Baylee Jae, it's basically the same as 3 marker challenge only you only pick 1 marker.
You can see her original video here. - I have not done this one.

Others:
Sakuems Video
Jellie Bee Video 
That Artsy Girl's Video

There are many others these are just a few I like.


And in honor of Friday the 13^th, here is the 13^th challenge I will cover.

13. The Blindfold Challenge.

For this one you blindfold yourself and try to draw and color an image blindfolded. The first video I ever saw of this was Baylee Jae but I don't know if she started it. There are many videos of people doing this one, it's quite amusing so please search in youtube for some videos!


Those are the challenges I know of so far, there is one last challenge but it isn't really a thing so I'll add it as an unofficial challenge because as far as I know only I have done this.

14. Poetry/Drawing Challenge

Here in the states April is national poetry month so for that I wrote poems and drew pictures to go with them, my goal was 15 sets but I only did 10 so I'm still working on it a little bit. So if you want to go with national poetry month or make little stories every day and draw a picture to go with them that would be a good challenge.


And with that I shall bid you all good day, I hope you enjoy your challenges!




~God Bless ~


~ Firefly

Unbrella Beach

Been slacking I know I missed last week! I'm sorry! I was very busy then I just wanted to relax.
Here's a little timelapse of a picture I drew last night. Took me about an hour real time.

~ God Bless ~

~ Firefly

New Drawings/Paintings!

In this post here are a few paintings and drawings.

These 2 are "sketches". The first one I was experimenting with putting down color first without a sketch then inking over the top of it, the second one I was testing how things would look if they were all outlined in blue. Both are colored in watercolor, the second one also has crayola marker blended in.

 This one is watercolor, small bits of children's acrylic paint, lots of watercolor, colored pencil, some soft pastel, white pen, and before coloring the while image was outlined in brown ink.

This one is just pen.

I hope you enjoyed these pictures!

~ God Bless ~

~ Firefly

Coloring VS Rendering (Drawing)

Hi! In this post I will be talking about the difference between coloring and rendering a drawing.

Note: When I say render I am referring to the drawing realm only, I am not talking about rendering a picture by cutting it out using a program or 3D rendering.

Okey so, lets get started!

If I was going to ask you what is the difference between rendering and coloring what would you say? This might be an obvious answer for some or maybe even most people but to be honest I never thought about it until a few days ago when I was working on a picture. Well today I'm going to give you that answer, and even if you already know what I'm about to say please stay with me, I might say something new to think about, you never know!

If I was going to put simply the difference between rendering and coloring I'd say this:

Coloring = Colored "in the lines", or put color in the areas they belong.
Rendering = Making the image really pop, by adding shading and details so it looks more polished and professional.

Like this:

There is another key difference between coloring and rendering. If you color, obviously you need to use color to define the area, but rendering you do not need to use color to shade your sketch or pen drawings. If you use hatching, cross hatching and other types of ways to shade using patterns you are not coloring but making lines, yet you can still make something look three-dimensional.

 Look at this drawing for example, the first image is pencil, the second is pen (Pardon the low quality images). As you can tell there is no media being used to color in the areas to make everything look defined, it's all rendered color-free.

Here are a few other ink/pen drawings, these don't have any color but they are fully rendered.

 The truth of the matter is you do not need color to render pictures, you need color to bring another dimension of life to a picture. You can make photo realistic images without color, but there is something about color that makes an image look truly alive. Using color properly can make it look as if a person has blood running through their veins and life in their eyes, and flowers look so alive the scent is almost in the air. Color adds to be magic but it's not needed for the magic to begin.

Here's a picture I rendered first in pen but then I colored with watercolor. See how the color makes the character seem more alive? Now, I'm not a professional colorist but I think the results are still nice.
Where the shading is, there are pen lines, they might not be as bold but they are there.

There are different levels of rendering, you have the illustration above which is done in light coloring. Then you have this illustration where much more time was taken, more types of media are used and all the rest. The pen outline was rendered nicely, but the color made it alive.

You can still color and have amazing art. If you have ever watched Looney Tunes the characters themselves never had shading unless it added to a scene (like lightning or something dramatic) but they still looked alive somehow, even though they did not look "real" in the sense of visual realism. Part of that was of course the genius that was the late Mel Blanc but still voice acting aside, the expressions and visual appeal of the animation made them look alive. Or even Steam Boat Willie, The first official Disney cartoon, though maybe not the most advanced it still looked good even for it's age. No color, bad sound but it still was appealing.

I'll end this with a little video, it's a shading demo me taking one flower and going from simply color to a more advanced rendering. It's done in GIMP but the principles still apply. I hope this was an enjoyable article, and thank you for reading

God Bless,

~ Firefly

Animation Demo - Me Animating Atoms on a Path

Yes, you get two posts this week! Yay you! This time it's an animation demo, what I mean by that is you will see me animating something. It won't be in real time but double speed.
All animation is done in GIMP.

 Hopefully something useful will come out of this for somebody!

I'm animating this:

 This is a sprite for Tilly's Rose Garden. It will be used when she "dies". I don't want bloody violence in my games so this is what I came up with so you get the point she's incapacitated but without the blood or anything.

I did sketch out the basic idea of what I wanted to do in my sketch book.

Here's The Video:
No sound for your own convenience. I also didn't put any captions because doing that takes up too much space on the screen. I'm uploading directly to blogspot not youtube or anything like that so I can't add annotations. 

This animation only has 8 frames, and took me about 20 minutes to make, maybe less or more I can't tell by the footage. It says a very low amount of minutes and I find it hard to believe I did this that fast. LOL

Oh well, I hope this was enjoyable!

~ God Bless ~

~ Firefly

Mourning Monastery - Timelapse + Poem Excerpt

This week we get a speedpaint! Ohhhh God, it's been so long since I've drawn/painted a picture on the computer that my arm literally hurts right now. It had a pump for a while even, that's just sad to be honest...but anyway.

Okey so, this is a darker drawing than what I normally do but it's based off of a poem I wrote and my writing is normally somewhat dismal with a dash of sass so...Yep.

I also tried out a new screen recorder called ShareX...I don't know if I like it or not yet, the number one thing I don't like so far is I can't find a pause feature only stop, and lots of clips is a pain to edit so...........

I'll give an excerpt from the poem since it'll give the artwork more context. There are 8 verses these are 1, 3, 8.

Look at these old walls,
Perfected in their height,
Sculpted as if from angels in all their holy light.
Painted ceilings a plenty,
Majesty of which only the galaxies would compete,
But yet there is rubble, and dust on the seats.
 ...
These walls though having no voice,
Looking at them they speak,
They remember the times when they used to be a sanctuary for the weak.
The echos of hymns and spiritual songs echo in the gale,
If you listen close these echos prove that will angels prevail.
...

Perhaps though a brighter end will come to pass, and in to play,
Maybe the sun will shine again and show the light of day,
And possibly, you never know, maybe back will come the might,
And maybe, just possibly, back will come the Holy Light.

Everything drawn/made in GIMP.

I hope you enjoyed this little set here.
Thank you for looking!


~ God Bless ~

~ Firefly

3 New Drawings

Hi! These are 2 new drawings I've done. These are for a project I'm not gonna talk about yet.

Enjoy!



These the more abstract one is a do over of the fully colored one. 

Fully Colored one is watercolor, marker and colored pencil.
Abstract is pen and markers.

This one is mostly watercolor and colored pencil with some pen and marker.

  


I hope this was a pleasant little post!

~ God Bless ~

~ Firefly

Dry Mediums Versus Wet Mediums

Hi! This week I'm going to talk about some of the major differences between wet and draw traditional art mediums. I won't go in to express details but just some general things to keep in mind.

Okay, lets begin!

Control-ability:

This is in general easier with dry media; Colored pencils and charcoal pencils can be sharpened to a point and do fine details, whereas things like watercolors and gouache is a lot harder to control because you need brushes and water. Markers are much easier if you want wet media, and the harder medium for dry would

be soft and oil pastels as they are neither brushed on nor always in pencil form but are closer to being small blocks most of the time, but you can but soft pencils in some places as pencils.

 

 

Blending:

Blended with baby-oil and blender pencil

Blending things like colored pencils is based off of layering and burnishing , there are many techniques including using a blender pencil, a white colored pencil, or baby-oil to blend colored pencils. For graphics pencils and soft pastels there are blending stubs that are made to blend the more powedery medium together, you can also use cotton swabs you buy from the bath section of he store or your finger, but I've had some unhappy accidents with using my fingers for blending like forgetting which finger had which color then I mixed and made an ugly color...ugggghhhh don't do that!

Watercolor blended with more watercolor and water

For watercolors you need water to blend, and water-based markers...well...you pretty much don't have a good blending capability with them unless you want to use them also as watercolors (how to do that will be

talked about another time). For alcohol-based markers they're blended using a colorless blender and eachother, different brands have colorless blenders and I have never used one but I have watched many other artists use them and they are quite useful.

Color Depth:

This is something that can be a bit irritating but c'est la vie. With wet media the color you put down is never the color that dries, it always dries lighter. Depending on the medium and quality, the color, texture, and depth will change from not so bad to drastic. For example, you can put down a wash of watercolor from a decent brand, the color you put on is vibrant and saturated, once it dries the white of the paper comes out a bit and lightens the color. Markers are the same, and a side tip never believe the color on the barrel of the marker, test it first, the colors they put on the barrel are never accurate; But anyway back on point... Here's another example: If you put down a medium purple but it looks very dark wait a few minutes for it to dry it will lighten up a bit. 

Colored with Colored pencil - Background with watercolor

Dry mediums on the other hand, the color you put down is the color you get, there is no drying time so whatever you see on the paper is what you will always see (as long as you consider aging which cause things to fade over time). Another thing to remember is the color of your paper will account for

the color of the medium you put down. If you have a black toned paper, don't expect to see any marker unless you have some kind of neon paint marker. If you use something like colored pencils on the other hand, you're much more likely to see the pencil. Lighter colors are obviously recommended.

____

Okay, after reading these 3 contrasting differences which one do I think is better?

None! Each are different, and special, taking days, months and/or years of practice. And to be honest, I generally do not use only one medium in a drawing. Even in a colored pencil dominated drawing I will use watercolor for the background and/or pastels. For a marker piece I'll use colored pencils to shade. For watercolors I'll use water-based markers and colored pencils to shade. Just because these things are different doesn't mean they can't work together. I find it a bit amazing actually that each one of these mediums when used alone or together can all make photo-realistic artwork or super cartoony artwork. Some do it better than others, but the results are astonishing.

So where to start? Well, that's also for another time, but if I was to say anything, I'd say a graphite normal pencil, an eraser that works, and a sketch book. That's really all you need.

Now go out there and draw something! The world is looking for new things to discover!

Thank you for reading.

~ God Bless ~

~ Firefly

My First Collage!

Hai. This week will be a little less depressing than the past two, this week I'm gonna show you my first collage!! For those who don't know what a collage is, it's basically paper crafting cutting out shapes to make a piece of artwork gluing or taping together. Some people go all out and use fabric and other 3D things like beads, buttons, other trinkets, sometimes pressed or live flowers, really anything to make a 3D piece of art. I personally used my drawing and painting tools and craft patterned paper I was given by somebody.

I'll tell you a little about what I used since I think it might be interesting.


First, I used printer quality cardstock, it's pretty thick, perfect for marker because it's super smooth but not spongy, it's not good for watercolor though. I used this to cut out the butterflies and the leaves on the middle flower. To cut out the butterflies I cut a smaller piece off of the cardstock and folded it in half drew the wings on one side and cut it out, when unfolded it was even in size and shape. Then I sketched the basic pattern on it and colored with sharpies and Bic markers along with a white gel-pen. I based the orange butterfly off of a Monarch though it's not really a Monarch, and the yellow butterfly is based off of a Swallow-tail butterfly but it doesn't actually look like one at all. I basically based the colors and type of patterns more than anything else. I did make a blue butterfly but it was too big so I gave it to my mother to play with.


For the flowers, I made the purple check-patterned one first, for that one I cut out each petal resulting in a variety of sizes because I did one at a time. For the other two I cut a horizontal strip of the paper I wanted, then cut a piece vertically off of it and used that as a template to cut and have all paper being the basic same size then. After that I piled and used a paperclip to keep secured, drew the petal shape and cut it. - Gluing I glued the petals on to the center part (all centers were made with cardstock) and I glued a scrap piece of cardstock to keep the flowers secured together.


I didn't plan the layout for anything at the start I used laid it out on the paper as I went along. I added all shading and details myself using colored pencils and markers. The background is watercolor, the grassy area is craft paper too.

All Supplies Used:

• 6 Craft Papers (Patterned paper)
• Cardstock (White)
• Mixed media paper – Base paper (what everything is glued on)
• 14 Colored Pencils (5 Prismacolors, 5 Crayola, 2 EK Memory Pencils, 2 Other/Cheap)
• 20 Markers (11 Sharpies, 4 Bic, 4 IDenti Pens, 1 Prismacolor Black)
• Watercolor (Off brand, Raphael)
• 2 Brushes (one flat and one round)

• Scissors
• Eraser
• Stick Glue
• White Pen
• Prismacolor 03 Pen
• Sakura 0.3 mm Pen
• Mechanical pencil
• Three 3D Paint Pens.

Thank you for reading! I hope this was interesting. If you enjoy all things art, please +1, share on whatever social media you like to use, and follow me here. Thanks!


~ God Bless ~


~ Firefly