Tuesday, November 29, 2011

My Doubt Monster


Something I realized this week is that one of the biggest things I struggle with are doubts. 
Every single week that we are given an animation at school, before I start it I think, 'Oh boy, am I going to be able to do this?'
All the time things running through my head are: 
'Will I meet up to expectations?' 
'Can I do this job?' 
'Is this even good enough?'
And there always seems to be this resounding echo of:
'No. No. No'

I discovered I pretty much have a Doubt Monster.
And mine at the moment is looking preeeeetty obese and villainous - because I have been massively overfeeding him recently. 
So the decision has been made. 
He is going on a diet. 

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Yup...

...I'm going through a bird phase at the moment.


Tuesday, November 15, 2011

What I did...

...when I was supposed to be working.


Monday, November 14, 2011

Gah

Well I have been scraping my way through the coffers to see if I have anything I can share with everyone - things have been so busy again recently that I haven't had any time to do anything new that I can share. 


So I did find this little guy, whom I painted up earlier this year (eep can't believe that it is almost the end of the year!) - So I shall share him. I also want to do some more of my 'inspirational artists' posts, and have a few up my sleeve, but will have to do a little bit more work before I can do them even a remote amount of justice. 

Also, there might be some very few people who are out there, who would be interested in knowing about a craft that I did last week. I am a leader for a girls club called GEMS, and I've been wanting to do something crafty with the girls for ages. I found a tutorial on an amazing blog I follow - ALISA BURKE. She's a pretty amazing lady, and has some very cool crafty ideas on her blog that she shares. I made the Fall Leaves Wreath and then started making it with the girls last week. We have yet to finish, but so far so good!
So a here's relatively bad pic of mine...


It's not as interesting as Alisa's, and I forgot to put the acorns on! 
But I was surprised at hope quick it was to make. : ) 
Right, now off to bed!



Thursday, November 10, 2011

Glow bugs


Trying to be sketchy.
Trying to be sketchy in Photoshop.
Didn't really work.
But that's ok. 
: )

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

And this....

And since I'm doing random today - I have been listening to Bon Iver a lot lately, and I thought I'd share this up here.


And I love the cover art on the album.


London


"It was a September evening, and not yet seven o'clock, but the day had been a dreary one, and a dense drizzly fog lay low upon the great city. Mud-colored clouds drooped sadly over the muddy streets. Down the Strand the lamps were but misty splotches of diffused light which threw a feeble circular glimmer upon the slimy pavement. The yellow glare from the shop-windows streamed out into the steamy, vaporous air, and threw a murky, shifting radiance across the crowded thoroughfare. There was, to my mind, something eerie and ghost-like in the endless procession of faces which flitted across these narrow bars of light,--sad faces and glad, haggard and merry. Like all human kind, they flitted from the gloom into the light, and so back into the gloom once more." 
~Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Sign of the Four~

This wasn't quite our experience of London, but there was a wonderful feeling of history and even mystery shrouding the city. Having come from New Zealand, which is a very 'young' country in so far as Western history goes; London seemed ancient. And that was one aspect that I loved about it. 

I was going through some of our photos from a few years ago when we were living in that great city, and got a bit reminiscent. I'm home sick at the moment, and don't have any drawings that I can share just yet, so I hope you don't mind if I diverge into some photography. Here is some of what we experienced in London...

The Albert Memorial ~ Regent's Park 
(and behind it is the Royal Albert Hall)

The view from out the window of our attic flat in Notting Hill

Decorations at Oxford Circus

St. Paul's Cathedral
(with the usual queues out the door)

Green Park Tube Station
(despite the crowds - I really miss the tube!)

The Natural History Museum
(and the museums are awesome)

And the iconic Buckingham Palace

Hurrah for London!
Right, I'm off to have a cup of tea.


Monday, November 7, 2011

Prom night

Well, we don't really have 'prom' over here - but it's pretty much the same thing we just call it a 'ball'. Unless things have changed since I was at school. 

I was doing some sketchiness today and then decided that I would take the time to colour! Coz I do love colour and these days don't get heaps of time to do it! 

So I did this...


Which really came out of nowhere. Then I coloured it...


What is so crazy is that I kinda prefer her expression in the sketch - there has been something lost in the redoing of her face in the final version. Maybe it's just me coz I've been looking at it for too long or something. Anyway, overall, it was fun to colour something - and get something finished. And I kinda like her dress. : )

My high school ball dress was bright bright pink. 

And look, since I'm feeling super generous - I'll even share a picture. 
It's small and blurry, but it was the only one I am brave enough to share.


Hehe, yup. My friend would probably kill me if she knew I had put this up here, but, hopefully she won't know... : D
Hope everyone had an excellent Monday!

Friday, November 4, 2011

Getting real

I was quite happy with this pic - coz it was a really quick one leaning out of the back of the car while we were waiting at the lights. It's an old church in Auckland city. 


Those are the best kinds of photos often aye? The ones that are accidental shots that you feel pretty sure are going to fail (and they often do), but then every now and then, you get a gem. And although this one won't win any awards, I'm happy with how it came out. :)


Here is a recent Instagram-sketch. 

To be honest with you, over the past 6 years, Josh and I have been dealing with infertility. And as a result recently we have been faced with some crazy difficult decisions. The kinds of decisions that people shouldn't have to make. And that most of the time (thankfully) people don't have to make because it's taken out of their hands. 
I'm just thankful, that despite the fact that it seems like Josh and I are the ones having to make these really serious decisions, ultimately it's in God's hands. 
So very thankful for that - because I don't trust my own decision making. 

"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." ~Romans 8:28
Ironically, (or perhaps, not so ironically) our wedding text.

  We'll get there in the end. Here's just hoping that we will survive in the process!

Thanks for checking in - hope that everyone has a lovely weekend. :)

Thursday, November 3, 2011

It's late...

So here's just a couple of pics for you : )




Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Boom bo boom ba

I am quite a music fan - and have very random and eclectic taste in regards to music. I like jazz and blues, indie and rock, house and pop, old and new. One artist that I have been enjoying recently is Kimbra. She is cool because she is very clever, quirky and a Kiwi. I love the way she dances. She's unique, and her music is eclectic too. To top it all off, she is a gorgeous girl - and I love the cover of her new album. So I did some fan art of it. 

I must admit, I'm not entirely happy with it - it doesn't quite look like her; and I went a bit overboard on the hair (which is typical - I do get carried away with drawing hair). Also the painted stuff I made up, because the original artwork was too epic for me to replicate (and I was working off a 3 inch square image) - so one of these days I might redo it - especially to get her hair and face right.



Anyway, I hope you like - and if you haven't heard Kimbra's music yet - check it out!


Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Here we go

Due to the busyness of life I don't have a lot of drawings that I can put up here unfortunately. However I do have some Instagrams. Hurrah!

And I have been having a bit of fun turning some of my drawings into Instagrams - so here's one of those for ya too. : ) 

This one is taken from a trip we did down in the South Island of New Zealand, a gorgeous little place called Akaroa. 


Here's me sketch Instagram : )


And I took this one this morning on my way to school - this awesome red tree art installation outside the newly refurbished Auckland Art Gallery.