Sketches.

My art teacher would strangle me if she knew I drew with cheap mechanical pencils. But hey, they're just sketches, right? Just practice? Anyway, I've been getting very bored in school lately, so I've taken to carrying around my sketchbook and an old isse of Seventeen and drawing the models in the ads. It's not serious art, I guess. They're rushed and lopsided and the shading's all wrong, but it's okay. Lately, I've just been grateful to have the desire to draw anything at all. And since I got a scanner for Christmas, I figured I'd share some of them.

These two were done over the course of two seven-hour school days, respectively, in the spare time I had between copying notes, listening to teachers, and talking to people. Mechanical pencil, of people in a magazine.

This took longer, but not by much. Mechanical pencil and a little coloured pencil in the eyes. Meant to be Zooey Deschanel.



Also, happy February! Last week, there was snow. This weekend, it was warm enough for short-sleeves. This week, we've had two snow days in a row. Our weather is bipolar. Where is the spring?

Soaring.

This blog really doesn't have anything to do with giraffes. It mostly has to do with me and my amateur art. When I was little, all I wanted to be was an artist. As I got older, I realized that being an artist wasn't the best career choice for me, and something more practical was needed. Even though I left the dream of being paid to be artsy-fartsy behind, I never gave up art. Just because you're not a professional doesn't mean you can't love it, right?

Mostly, I draw. Nothing particularly fancy, usually, just pencil sketches of people, either out of magazines or out of my mind. Over the summer, I picked up photography, which I've grown to really love. I've been messing around with editing software and trying to get better at it. I also dabble in painting, but I'm not that great. I guess I'll post whatever my most recent or favourite art projects on a semi-regular basis, maybe with a nice little accompanying blog about whatever.

So, for this first post, a picture I took in Arizona during Christmas of my nephew. That was a really lovely trip. Getting on a plane in St. Louis where it's snowing and getting off in Phoenix where it's warm enough for shorts is crazy. It was like landing on another planet. Deserts and catci replaced the heavy forests and fir trees that I'm used to. It was really beautiful, though, all sorts of mountains and plants. Anyway, his dad was throwing him up high in the air, and with the gorgeous hills and blue sky that Arizona so generously provided, I couldn't resist. I call it Soaring.

P.S. A few hours ago, my ticket for Next to Normal showed up. The show isn't until April, but I'm already super pumped. It's my favourite musical, hands-down. To watch Alice Ripley perform is one of the great wonders of the world, I've heard. I don't know if Aaron Tveit is going to be on the tour, but if he is, I'll die of fangirl excitement overload.