Distracted By Something Shiny

Today is the one year anniversary of Aretha Franklin’s death. She passed August 16, 2018 in Detroit, Michigan at the age of 76. Aretha changed the course of music. She changed the course of women in music. She changed the course of black women in music. And for me - and so many other women - her songs were anthems, getting us through too many troubles. My only complaint - as someone whose main musical gift is harmonizing - is that I could never sing along with her very well. How does one harmonize with that powerful voice?! Lol.

Anyways, right after she died, I did this little piece in my sketchbook. It’s not stellar or anything - I need to work on my fingers for sure - but I just felt the need to do a small tribute to her in my own way. Thought today was a good day to share it.










RIP, my queen.

I had a really great weekend and I have pics to show you from it, but I don't have them uploaded yet. So in the meantime, I thought I'd post pics of the painting I did for my mom for Mother's Day. She is an avid collector of leaves - (and rocks and pinecones and feathers, etc) - and her decor is very nature-like, so this will go well in her house. Also, I used some glitter, cuz...glitter. And like, earlier this week, I called my mom to come over and assist me during a flare up and so she came in my room to help me and was like, "Oh, what's this painting? Did you do it? Etc..." And I was like, 'Oh shit, what do I say?' So I said, "Moooooommmmm, I need help." Which was true, but also like, oops, she is asking about her Mother's Day present! Today when I gave it to her, she said, "Well no wonder you wouldn't answer my questions about this painting! I thought you were being so rude!" Ahahaha, nope.



( Art blahblahblahing and more pics under the cut! )

Anyways, there is my painting! I knew if I didn't get it up today, it would be next Mother's Day before I remembered!

Last year I had this idea for a painting of Pacific Rim's Stacker Pentecost and Mako Mori. It was paint, which is my preferred medium, but it was a slightly different style than I had ever tried before, profile shots of them and all. But it ended up coming out really well and then it felt a shame to just drop it in the back of my closet - (there just isn't enough room around the house for everything I paint, so most of it gets gifted, if it comes out half decent at all). So, even when I was only about halfway through with it, I was pretty sure I would be gifting it to The BFF, who fans all over Pacific Rim and who introduced me to it in the first place. (I had like very little interest in seeing this movie at first, but she was so excited and dragged us along and I fucking love her for it).

So last year for Christmas I gave her a Pacific Rim Pack - the Year Zero comic, the movie on DVD, and this painting. I am just so lazy about posting my art here that it has taken me almost a year to get this up! Anyways, here is a scan of my piece...

The Marshal And His Mako.



( 2 Photo Shots under the cut... )

After seeing Mockingjay Part 1 yesterday, I have the urge to do some Hunger Games pieces now. Maybe I'll get some time tomorrow!

I promised you guys some of my art awhile back and look at me deliver! Because it’s Hawaii Five-O night, so I thought I’d share some Danny Williams. I probably hadn’t touched my art supplies - (outside of the kids’ craft box) - for 3 years-ish. And I hadn’t used colored pencils in a decade. I actually don’t even own colored pencils, this was done with my mom’s set. But I was working on something else and I finished up and had a half hour to kill before therapy, so I was flipping through my stack of resources - (magazine pages, coloring book pages, odd clippings and some children’s books) - and found an old Charlie Brown book and thought I’d try to sketch something out. I thought about which characters in my many fandoms might look good in that style. It took less than 30 seconds for me to settle on Danny Williams because, well come on, look at the man - he basically is Charlie Brown. And his body type is perfect for it. I hardly had to change anything - broadened the shoulders a little, pumped up the hair and put him in a tie - Bam. It’s not perfect and I’m terrible as an artist being nit-picky over my own work - a hundred times worse than with my writing - but it’s cute, like Danny Williams and Charlie Brown. And it helped loosen me up for the next project. It’s like learning to ride a bike with a marathon right around the corner - I just have to keep pushing through until I’m flying again.



( Embiggened Under The Cut )

In other art news, I was asking The Nephew a bunch of questions about what his superhero team - from the book series he is writing - looks like, in great detail, because I was thinking about trying to draw them out for him for Christmas. I have since dabbled in the style I wanted to use and quickly remembered why I don’t do cartoon/comic strip style very often - I am terrible at it and I get easily frustrated by it. But apparently I have to do the drawing for him anyways, because that kid is too damn smart for his own good and he somehow picked up on what I was asking him those questions for, because yesterday he told me, “Don’t forget, you’re suppose to be drawing me a picture of my superhero team.” /throws hands in the air/ I explained to him how hard I am finding the style, but promised that I would try my best and would definitely write him the Avengers crossover story he asked for, at the least. Genius kids can be such a pain in the ass - how did he know what all those questions were for?! My boy.

That is all.