I Looked into the Void, and the Void Tossed Back Art Supplies: New Art, Reviews, and More!

  

The last few months have been busy as ever for me, and in addition to the usual mix of work, personal projects, art, writing, raising monarchs, and social excursions, I also dove in head-first to a really fun (and admittedly: somewhat time intensive) side-hobby: doing Amazon reviews.

Now I have no intentions to turn this blog into a space for a string of extensive reviews, but rather, I wanted to take a moment to elaborate on why I've been enjoying it so much, and why I actually feel it's been beneficial to my art.

I Looked into the Void, and the Void Tossed Back Art Supplies

I started getting into doing reviews because, well, I use Amazon reviews to gauge a large amount of my purchases. From cat litter, toilet paper, batteries and other household items, through to niche art supplies. I realized that over the years I've read probably thousands of reviews, but hadn't contributed very many, and for whatever reason, that propelled me forward to look into how I could get involved into reviewing items for free or at low-cost in exchange for a review (you can Google this if you're interested in doing it too!).

In time, I was reviewing all sorts of things, and after a time I got to the point where I had enough credibility that I would sometimes reach out directly to sellers on Amazon to ask if they were interested in offering me products for them in exchange for an honest review, and it should be no surprise that some of the most interested sellers I contacted were often ones that had art supply listings with few or no reviewer photos: how sad!

So over the past few months I've reviewed over a dozen sets of brushes, as well as colored pencils, acrylics, water color pencils, and more. Some have been great, and some not. But at the end of the day, one of the things it did was that it prompted me to do more shorter, focused projects, and to reignite my love of 2D real media pieces.

Some pieces got more love than others, and the ones that got more love were usually the ones with better supplies, but even still, it felt wonderful to have the freedom to experiment and have fun without worrying so much about the final result. And as an added bonus: whatever my findings, I felt good knowing that by my reviews and photos, I was hopefully helping other artists or aspiring artists out there make informed decisions about their supplies, and where they might want to spend their money.

So what I've decided to do is to post all of the pieces I've worked on over the last few months where I was using art supplies I was reviewing. As I mentioned: sometimes the supplies weren't up to snuff, in which case I didn't spend much time creating art with them, but for most of these pieces (with the exception of the sculptures), I probably would not have ever created them were it not for the fact I was nudging myself along to do the best possible reviews I could. :) In particular, I think there is close to a 0% chance I would have ever done any face painting or work in acrylics were it not for wanting to provide reviews for various products. And a major shout out to Jessica Johnson and Jay Patel for being a model and photographer on one of the impromptu "What about having some fun collaboration with this facepaint...?" sessions. You two rock!

I'm not going to link all the reviews (since that isn't the purpose of this blog), but if you have questions on any particular ones, just let me know and I'd be more than happy to let you know! The captions below list what materials were being reviewed for each piece.

Art Created with The Help of One or More Reviewed Products
 

"Sashah's Song" (Work in Progress) - Multiple Types of Paint Brushes

"Koi" - Colored Pencils and Paint Brushes

"Huntress" - Electric Eraser

"Jeweled Lioness" - Various Paint Brushes

Water Color Pencils

Sketch Book

"Blue" - Water Color Pencils and Paint Brushes

"Raven" - Water Color Pencils and Paint Brushes

Face Paints and Paint Brushes (Inspired by a painting by the incredibly talented Balaa)

Face Paints and Paint Brushes (Model: Jessica Johnson, Photographer: Jay Patel)

Acrylic Paints

"Wulfhound" - Pen

Acrylic Paints and Paint Brushes

Fountain Pen and Aqua Brushes

"Messenger" - Paint Brushes

Gel Pens

On the whole, I've been pleased (if not a bit overwhelmed sometimes) with all the art and reviews I've been able to squeeze in, and while I'm hoping to slow my roll a bit so that I can dig back into some more involved projects like my "Sashah's Song" sculpture, I am hoping that I can keep this momentum up, and that going forward, I can squeak in a few new art smaller pieces pieces with a bit more regularity. :) That's the intent, at least!

As a random bonus, here are two tabletop doodles I did during our recent Blizzard Art Summit! That is a Rogue Dragon on the left. ;)

 

I hope you find your inspiration in the most surprising of places too!

A Dragon Koi and a Mechanical Hummingbird Papercraft Concept

The last week or so has been rather text heavy, but there have been a few standout sketches that I wanted to take the time to share.

Dragon Koi Sketch

"Dragon Koi Sketches" - Completed on July 25th, 2014

Probably around twenty years ago or so, I recall writing about a dragon koi in one of the stories I was working on at the time. The idea and anatomy was never really fleshed out beyond the concept that it was equally at home in both water and air, and could somehow breathe in both environments.  I recall sketching it once or twice, but nothing really came of it until 2005 when I sculpted an extremely small dragon koi for a 1/4 Scale Model/Miniature Wizard Retreat. This project was a labor of love that created from scratch as part of an Art Direction project for college. I.... may have gone a bit overboard with that project...

 

I'm hoping one day to collect some of the better photos I have of the model, but in the meantime, you can see the dragon koi in the water on the left photo, and you can see more photos of this project here on my very old and outdated website. In 2005 through 2006 I even worked on a walkthrough on my LiveJournal days, but it appears as though I never posted the final shots! I'll have to see about fixing that...

As a side note: it was from this project that I learned the value of knowing what you plan to do with a project once you're done with it. ;)

 Papercraft Mechanical Hummingbird Concept

 "Papercraft Mechanical Hummingbird Concept" - Completed during December of 2013

Around the holiday season last year, I toyed with the idea of sending out cards that included a papercraft mechanical hummingbird that the recipient could assemble themselves. The project never made it past this postage stamp-sized thumbnail, but perhaps one day... 

I had actually planned to have areas in the winds and belly that could be cut out and lined with colored acetate in order to create a stained glass-like effect, but after some consideration, it seemed that I might be overambitious in my design, and it seemed unlikely to me that many of my family members would be interested in a project that required so much detailed cutting assembly. That said, I still hope to do a papercraft like this one day, and I think it would be a fun challenge to sculpt a mechanical hummingbird as well!

Have you been up to any fun projects lately?

Mechanical Hummingbird Tattoo

Recently I received a message from Ricardo Dominguez, who was touched by a piece of my art, and decided to get it as a tattoo! His story really touched me, and he’s given me permission to share it with all of you.

His tattoo was inspired by this piece of art I sketch back in 2011, when I was exploring different designs for one of the characters in my stories:

“Mechanical Hummingbird Concept” – Completed on February 3rd, 2011

WIP shot of his recently-completed tattoo.

“Hi,

Well, I don't know exactly how to begin with my story, but about 2 years ago my mother reached heaven, but a couple of months after that, a hummingbird appeared when I was sleeping, you know, that point when you are half sleepy half awake, and I heard my mother’s voice talking to me, so, after that I decided that I will tattoo that hummingbird, also I was curious why a hummingbird, and found the legend that says hummingbirds can go between heaven and earth and deliver messages, so I've started looking for images for the tattoo, but I didn't find anything that looks cool and not to girly, after some time I give up, and about a couple months ago, decided to start searching again, and in the first try I've found your illustration and fall in love with it, I knew, that was the right one, so I really hope you don't mind I've used it, I'm really happy with the result, thanks for everything! I can see you're a great artist, I'm a graphic designer and a make-up artist too, and really enjoy all your work, I can't find enough words to thank you, and I know my mom is happy too!!
Hope to know more about you, and you work."

Ricardo’s story really touched me, and I shared with him about why hummingbirds mean a lot to me as well (which you can read about in this blog entry). Sometimes something extraordinary unexplainable simply happens, and you're left breathless, feeling as if you were changed for the experience.

The final tattoo!

Ricardo's tattoo was marvelously done, and was created by Pete Wylde of Wakantanka Tattoos.

It's truly an honor to have my art used in this way, and I'm looking forward to when I can share with you all about the story behind the little mechanical hummingbird in my upcoming story. :)

My Little Piece of Paradise

My Little Piece of Paradise

During the last few months I've also been doing quite a lot to beautify and add life to our yard and garden! It’s come a long way since it was just a sun-parched patch of dead grass, and while the it’s taken time to beautify the area, it’s been a very worthwhile project, and one that I've been enjoying quite a lot (even if the upkeep is a bit time-intensive).  The plus side of so much gardening, is that it is likewise encouraging me to keep eating healthy!

The photo on the left is from about two weeks before we took possession of our home. After that point, the yard got worse and worse to the point where it was nearly all dead and brown and full of large dirt-filled areas with no grass. After taking possession, I tended to the lawn 2-3 times a day, including thatching old and dead grass, watering, fertilizing, and planting new grass seed.

From there, my desire to beautify the garden took hold in earnest, and over these last Spring months, it's gone from this:

To this:

My little piece of paradise has all of these, and more:

Albion Strawberries, Aloe, Arugula, Australian Tree Fern, Bee Balm, Birds of Paradise, Bloodgood Japanese Maple, Blue Hibiscus, Blueberries, Bougainvillea, Carmen Sweet Pepper, Catnip, Chef's Choice Rosemary, Cherry Tomatoes, Creeping Myrtle, "Crystal Palace Lobelia," Dahlberg Daisy, Dwarf Lemon Tree, Dwarf Tangelo Tree, Forget-Me-Nots, Garden Sage, Golden Apricot Tree, Gypsy Sweet Peppers, Heritage Glass Gem Corn, Jade, Japanese Aralia, July Elberta Peach Tree, Lavender, Linaria, Lettuce, Marigolds, Miniature Japanese Maple, Orange Bell Sweet Pepper, Orange Thyme, Osteospermum, Pinkerton Avocado Tree, Purple and Green Kale, Rosemary, Sage, Scabiosa "Butterfly Blue," Scarlet Milkweed, Sequoia Strawberries, Serissa Japonica, Serrano Pepper, Snow Princess, “Spin the Bottle” Hibiscus, Sugar Snap Peas, Sunset Hibiscus, Sweet Basil, Sweet Pea Early Multiflora Mix, Telstar Scarlet Dianthus, Thyme, Yellow Cherry Tomatoes (Sun Gold Hybrid), Zucchini, some assorted plants, and three different varieties of milkweeds for the monarchs.

I may not be able to dig up our yard, but I'm darn well going to make the most of the space I have!

The yard has changed and evolved over the last few months, and the photos below showcase a few of my favorite shots (which aren't in chronological order since the garden is ever-changing).

The above section of my garden is one of those that I'm probably the most excited about. It includes the beginnings of some stalks of heritage glass gem corn! Among other residents, I have three hummingbirds who have made nests in my garden!

 

  

 

Peppers! So many peppers!

The Monarchs Arrive

Last year sometime around August, I noticed that some of the plants I’d recently purchased were being attacked by some manner of pest, and after a time I realized that it appeared to be some brightly-colored black, yellow, and white caterpillars that were responsible.

 

After some Googling, I discovered that these were monarch butterfly caterpillars, and that I had inadvertently invited them in when I’d purchased some milkweed plants. Unbeknownst to me, this initial generation of caterpillars would inspire me to seek out an ever-growing supply of milkweed for these voracious eaters, and it got me very interested in helping to support our local population of monarchs.  I plan to dive into that adventure a bit more deeply in a future blog, but it's related to...

The Plant Shelf Project

After realizing there were monarchs interested in my milkweeds, I started focusing a lot of effort of growing milkweed, and at some point this spring I realized that I really wasn't fond of just having a bunch of plastic-potted plants sitting on my entryway. Thus began the "How about I build some plant shelves?" project.

The cost and time-involvement of this particular project were were... much higher than anticipated, but at long last, they were completed! And over the passing months, this area has come to include and ever-growing assortment of herbs, flowers, and bonsai.

The wood were made from center-cut redwood, which was then sanded and dremeled, and then stained with 2 layers of red oak stain, and 3 layers of oil-based polyurethane. The wood shimmers like giant slabs of tiger's eye gemstone in the sunlight, and it was totally worth all the time and effort I put into laboring over them. The masonry section is red clay stone, and the lion is my two stone Lawn Lions!

The color of the planks is incredible in the sunlight! This shot shows how they looked after just one coat.

I was so happy when this project was complete, but like they say: gardening is a never-ending project, and I’m eager to see how the yard will continue to evolve and grow! For the moment though, it’s my little piece of paradise, and I’m ever-so thankful for that touch of nature outside my front door.

Lions and Other Statues

There's a lot of lion imagery in the stories I'm writing, so I also have two lion statues standing "guard" in my yard.  I'd love to sculpt my own statues, and hopefully one of these days I'll have time to do just that. :)

What things do you do or surround yourself with that bring you a sense of peace and tranquility?