Digital

 

 

Something probably clicked here. Not sure what.

A Summary of Learning

Cross-post from my (usually) less serious art blog doodle-fart on tumblr:

Since posting that last image to show progress, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about how I didn’t magically get better at art.  There was blood, sweat, and tears in a very literal sense.  So bear with me while I am serious for this one post then return to the doodles.  Here’s a breakdown of how those eight years were spent.

2004 and before: Dicking around with drawing and doodles.  A hobbyist who watched a lot of anime.

2005 - 2008: Went to college for art history and got more and more involved with actual art studio as I became inspired by what I had seen in textbooks.  Drawing 1, Drawing 2, Life Drawing, 2D design, 3D design, Oil-based painting, and Water-based painting.  If I wasn’t studying it, I was doing it, basically surrounding myself with art at all times.

2009 - late 2011: After graduation, had a hard time finding motivation for my art even though I loved it.  Putting a good day’s (week’s/month’s) work into something you weren’t getting graded, paid, or even really noticed for is a hard sell when you should be getting a stable job and watching money.  So my artistic integrity was completely on me and how willing I was to put in the time and effort. I kept at it by drawing during lunch on the backs of receipts.

late 2011 - current: Picked up photoshop and dusted off my barely used Wacom to try my hand at digital.  And thanks to those foundation years, grasping the use of tablet as a magic brush pen was a little less painful.

So I’m still farting around with photoshop and learning something new everyday.  Never stop learning.  Never stop drawing.

Just doodlin'

Alois

Sometimes you just have to draw vaguely ethnic people riding on ram/camel/horse hybrids at 5am. They have places to go, you know, and would kindly like you to finish the stirrups so they can get there on time.

Delay

Alive, just quiet.

New Year

No matter how much time passes, drawing up someone's nose is weird. Regardless, I hope this is the start of beautiful things.

Sweets

Just to prove I haven't been slacking off lately, here's the dessert table I was working on for the LAS Charity ball this year. The Lao American Society is basically a culture group to support and conserve Lao heritage and provides enrichment events and scholarships. My mom and I help out once in awhile for decorations and desserts.

Food can also be art, yes?

One of the plates. Pictured are some hand-dipped chocolate covered pretzel rods, coconut cakes, and mini fruit tarts. The presentation is a mini Lao khan toke and folded banana leaves. The flowers are gumpaste.


Also provided were chocolate dipped strawberries, mousse cups, pudding cups, chocolate dipped marshmallows, mini chocolate cakes, purple rice with coconut topping, and petit fours.



Super secret presentation trick: Use some old cardboard boxes or pails to get the height or shape you want. Then cover liberally with fabric. TADA!!


Simple fondant covered yellow cake. Rolled wafers on the edges, with some gumpaste flowers for decoration. I was going to do some piping on the top edges, but it was 3 am and I wanted to sleep.

The table was refilled three times and then completely gone by midnight.

Here's a recap of the event by another blogger, Boon Vong: http://www.b-vong.com/journal/?p=5463

And LAS's official home page: http://www.lasga.org/