New Toys...

This is a single holly hock done with the Prismacolors. I didn't really use a reference photo for this, other than looking at a few. I was quite surprised to discover that most holly hocks these days are doubles! They look like pom-poms... Anyway...

Oh! This week I got two new sets of pencils! One is the 12 pack of Derwent's Graphitint set, and the other is the 24 pack of Prismacolor 24 Watercolor color pencils. So far, I've just played a bit with the new Prismacolors seeing how they are similar and different with the Derwent watercolor pencils I have. Right now, not having actaully created a new painting with the watercolor pencils, and just playing around with them, so far I'm more impressed with the Prismacolors...

But I sure had a whole lot of fun this afternoon with the Graphitint pencils. I got out my Mark Kistler book out, and just let it spark my imagination. I created a funny little flying monster flying through the a woods. I'm really impressed with them, but they don't really work the way I thought. The Graphitints are a water soluble graphite, but they don't lay down the same as any other graphite I've used. I don't have lots of experience with graphite, but these feel ... different. And boy are they!

I'll post my funny little guy later so you can see him. Made me giggle.

The staph antibiotic really is working, but I need to get the results from the sinus culture to make sure this thing is gone all the way!

Boogers....

This is my latest painting. The view is a little complicated, but this is the view from my bedroom window... looking at the outside of my house, into my kitchen windows, and seeing the neighbor's house.
Prismacolor pencils on stonehenge paper.
I'm working on a floral painting right now. I find it rather funny that I can work with my pencils but video games are still beyond where I can operate.

I haven't posted or updated my blog in so long! Stupid sinus infection, and stupid AI! That said, this is what happened yesterday, when I finally got into see the ENT for the sinus infection....

ok, the ENT appointment lasted for something like... 2.5 hours. But that include the extra 1/2 hour she kept me waiting. She's got a new practice and her assistant was out sick.

So, what did we do during that 2 hours? A little more waiting.... and ... other things.

Ok, first things, Shelly, the Prismacolor of *my* sinus infection is Cream mixed with Lime Peel and Brunt Ochre... A whole lot of Burnt Ocher and some Raw Umber just for kicks.

She said I’ve got a staph infection, but after she was done with me, I swear by all the gods I've got a STAFF infection... She looked up my nose with her special light, was quite impressed by the pain and facial swelling I have. I look like I've got a case of mutant mumps, or a mutant with the mumps, one of the two. Or maybe both, I don't know. Many days lately I'm having trouble working a sweat shirt.

So, she looks up my nose, and decides that she can't culture the thing 'cause "stuff is in the way." Stuff? STUFF??? So she shoots some numbing spray up my nose and has me wait. While we are waiting, she attempts to look at my various CT scans and discovers that she’s forgotten her password, and no one in the office has any way for her to get her password, since she’s managed to lock herself out of the system.

(This is why we need a really good integrated biometric verification system, but I’m too sick to really go into the why and obvious wherefores of this, and besides, you all know the obvious whys and wherefores of a good integrated biometric system. )

She takes me back to the dun-dun-dun “procedure room” and starts to pull crap outta my nose. And then it HURTS. So she sprays more spray, and pulls giant boogers out of my nose. And then it HURTS EVEN MORE. So, she stops, and packs my nose with gauze and string and more numbing stuff. So there we wait for the numbing stuff to take effect. The clock in the room was off by an hour, so we thought we waited even longer than we did.

Eventually she comes back and proceeds to remove the gauze and string and more boogers. And sucks goo out, and then pulls out MORE boogers! AND GOO! And even with the extra numbing stuff, it hurts! Finally, she gets to the point where she got to “the” booger she was after, and had to break it up before she could remove it!

Turns out it wasn't just a damn booger, it was a booger dam! Mike was quite impressed with the amount and size of boogers she pulled out of my head. And you know it’s bad when the doctor is impressed… She said she’d seen worse, but that she was quite impressed with the amount of matter.

After all that, she was finally able to culture my nose to find out what exactly is causing the infection. Besides the staph infection.

She gave me one of those rinse bottles, which I used tonight, but it didn’t have much effect. Still too much swelling from the afternoon’s nasal spelunking session. The swelling has gone down quite a bit from this afternoon, and the pain level is different. Not sure if it’s better, but it… different.

Oh, and the pharmacy didn't have any record of the antibiotic being phoned in, so I'm guessing that they called the wrong pharmacy. I'll have to call the other local place tomorrow to see if it just went to the wrong place.

I spent most of the evening really cranky. Not sure why. Probably the pain, probably partly just wanting to be done with this whole thing. Dr. L says I sound really good on the phone. Sure, maybe I do, but I explained that it’s really an hour-by-hour thing with me lately. Thursday cannot come soon enough.

But I can tell a difference already in the infection. Just tilting my head a few degrees doesn’t hurt, and doesn’t threaten to eat my face….

So, I spent Friday and Saturday in AI. 10 hours on Friday, and again most of Saturday too. I have no idea which day, but one day I spent at least 5 minutes dry heaving and bile barfing. They always want to know how many times I throw up. I don’t ever count, it’s always measured in time. One after another, barf after barf and then barfing some more. After that I just lie there, with my face in the bucket, sharp pain from the edge cutting into my forehead. The zofran doesn’t help any more, at least not for very long. They gave me generic the last time it was refilled, but it doesn’t work as well for me. I need to talk to the soon to be fired PCP about it.

Speaking of her, she called me yesterday, wanting to know why I wanted to get a refill of the antibiotic. You mean, the reason besides still feeling like crap and still having a sinus infection for MONTHS???? I would have thought that was a good enough reason….

The refill I’d asked for a full week previously. The day she told me that she wasn’t going to treat me for the infection any more. I really need to fire that doctor. Really, really need to fire her. She kept trying to say that I’d been on it for two weeks already, the avelox, but I’d kept having to remind her that I’d been on it for THREE weeks, not two weeks. She said, “oh, it’s a really strong antibiotic, it should have cleared it up after one week.” Doh!

Ayla's Owl

This little birdie was done with color pencil on Rising stonehenge paper, and is 14X11 just to give you an idea of the size.

Something rather interesting happened to me while I was working on the tree bits... I suddenly got this huge burst of energy, and had to just walk away from the painting. It was really, really strange, sort of like the energy burst I experienced while working on the portrait of Dobby the cat. But instead of anger, as with Dobby, it was more just energy! Go! Go! Go! I ended up just bouncing for a while on my Pilates ball, which doubles as my work chair in my studio... Love that Pilates ball...

These are just my current favorite art tutorials on the web....

Dragon Art Tutorials

Dragons. Drawing, inking, dragons and other critters, Photoshop techniques... Did I mention Dragons????

The Bergsma Gallery
http://www.bergsma.com/bergsmanews.asp

She’s provided a whole lot of drawing and sketches that she’s done, that are ready for you to color. I mean, how F-A-B is this! This way you can work on your inking and coloring techniques and not have to worry about messing up something you’ve spent hours on… (ok, I admit that’s MY fear…) While technically not a tutorial, more and excuse to color and work on color techniques... :)

FARP

Fantasy Art Recourse Project

Just a whole lot of useful tutorials from drawing to inking to digital media

Drapery tutorial looks at the way fabric folds and layers, every interesting

Return on the sinus infection

Ahhhh! Will this cursed sinus infection NEVER leave??? it's like a crappy party guest that just forgets to go home. Except there was no party, and they were not invited!

I'm back to sleeping more and more and the evenings/afternoons are getting slower and slower, not fun at all!!!

Okay, this one is actually the original, larger work that I pulled the first tulip from. I posted the single tulip a couple of posts ago.

Last night I was feeling really tired, but still wanted to do something creative, so I down loaded some really fun drawings from the Bergsma Gallery. She's got some great things to color, and I thought it would be fun to just work on my coloring techniques. Plenty of fun there to be had. Anyway, I bought a set of basic Derwent watercolor pencils for another project, and decided that I was going to use those instead of the wax pencils. Wow! Now I'm gonna have to get a bigger set of watercolor pencils... heh. I think I've decided on Aqua Monolith Pencils, in the 24 set. The are the woodless ones, and I figure that will be the best value.

I've been looking at and working with a few art books and learning some more techniques, and one of those books devotes a full half to the water color techniques. I've only done one of the examples, but the results are wow!

Meditation

I call this one "Meditation," and it was inspired by the Weekly Cartooning Challenger at Action Cartooning With Ben Caldwell. The challenge was to give flight to the poor flightless Penguin. There are so many very clever and talented artists over there, and well, I just couldn't resist the challenge myself.

I don't know if this is funny, but I really liked the juxtaposition between the two penguins.

Most of this was done using my PITT pens, but the background for the Astral Penguin is obviously my color pencils.

Heh, I wonder if Judy will accept this as my Animal assignment. Doh! I guess not, since it isn't very "realistic." Good thing the Owl for Ayla is finished. I need to photograph that so I can post it.

I'm at the point where I need to figure out how to save my loose finished pieces that I've done on this one paper I've been using. I guess I'll just have to work on of the books from now on, just for continuity sake. I know I was going to do that, but I find working on my drawing board in the living room just so handy. And comfortable, and bright light from my glorious picture window...

Looking at this piece, I can see that I would like to add some more elements to the meditater portion, maybe some butterflies or something. It's definitely missing something. I'm really looking forward to getting some constructive criticisms from that forum.

I have always wanted to draw cartoons, but of course because I thought you had to have the "drawing gene" or talent or inate ability, there was no way I could ever draw, I thought I was doomed. (Oooh, what an ugly sentence!) Last year I picked up Ben Caldwell's Action! Cartooning, but I haven't really done much with it yet. Other than read it, and re-read it, and then read it some more. I've checked out his sequel Fantasy Cartooning a few times from my local library too, but I've actually worked out of that a bit.

I think I'm intimidated by the human form. Yeah, that's it. I'm intimidated by it. And currently my faces are not even close to what I'd like. That's pretty obvious from my self portrait...

On to other stuff...
I finished the anti-biotic earlier this week for my sinus infection. Not cured, still have it. Need to call and make an appointment for more and deadly anti-biotics. I don't know though, I was on them for over a month, and still I have this cursed infection. A couple of weeks ago they said no to the IV anti-biotic, even though Dr. L and Dr. N said yes... Stupid ER docs... I don't CARE what the CT scan said, the infection is NOT GETTING BETTER. or at least, not GOING AWAY.

I cannot afford to let this get away from me again. I know I cannot face another week like that week from Hell. I just don't know that I can do that.

Signs of Hope

I drew this early this week, it's actually half of a two tulip composition that I'll probably post later. It's colored pencil, but I used a blending pencil on the flower and the stem, leaving the leaves unblended. I really like the effect. I think, all in all for my first attempt at a tulip since I've been learning to draw, it's not bad.

I have been working with a couple of different books for color pencil technique, and they really are wildly different in their approach. One really advocates layer after layer, while anther wants you to go with as few as possible. The third book is a combination wax/oil color pencil and water color pencil. That one has been hard to wrap my mind around, but well... She really pushes using solvents to blend and break the surface of the pencil. I haven't done really anything beyond using the blending pencil, but I'm going to buy a blender marker the next trip I get to make.

I'm still feeling like my brain has been eaten by Cushing's.... that or the Addison's... or the AI... or well... the point is, I'm trying. Trying to learn new things is important. My son has me so pegged it's funny. He knows that my Sims Aspiration is Knowledge, no denial of that!

I read an interesting article Friday about people who have had brain trauma who suddenly have these bursts of creativity or who become actual artists. Neuros are only now starting to look at these people, and they are not sure if it is because of damage to the frontal lobe where our control lies, or somewhere else. I can see it with a little damage to the controller, that makes sense to me. If we hold ourselves ridged, then we are not open to trying different things... no brainer?

So, I actually went a full week without a full blown AI or Crisis. This is big, big exciting for me. I know that I'd given up the previous week. Being thrown repeatedly off that cliff onto the the chasm, with no hope of it stopping... it was more than I could handle, more than anyone should have to handle. But not only did I NOT go into AI, I also didn't need a stress dose 3 of the days! Hurray!

I still have the stupid sinus infection, and I need to call in a refill, but it's Sunday, and I will have to do that tomorrow. Or go in if I have to... Stupid infections...