I have been not arting as much as I should have. But this time I'll let it slide for myself since I was hanging out with other human beings during my Summer vacation time! O: It was good, but now it's time to get SERIOUS. I have some Japanese to catch up on (I have a Japanese double major), songs to learn, and most importantly ARTING TO DO!!! (I use "arting" as a verb, I've recently realized, and it's a strange yet cool thing).

I've been thinking carefully about the stuff I've made in my life thus far because there is something that I feel is a major butt-block that is hindering me more heavily than other things. In the end, I went to what my art buddy Suzie said a while ago about me not distinguishing between hard and soft shadows enough. I decided to investigate into that a lot today and I think it's helped a loooot.

I feel like this study turned out okay. The photo I found such a good photo  ! The picture quality is generally very clear and I can see the texture of the feathers soooo well! I thought about concentrating more on it, but then I told myself to not worry about it too much right now because I feel like I still have a lack of understanding of values and shapes. And honestly, how can I feel myself okay to venture into the texture if I can't trust that my shape is correct? P: I got stuck at how to portray a hard shadow on the bird's surface without it looking like a darker patch of the bird. I'm thinking of investigating that further another time (it's 5 Am right now... >__>; )

I realized today while trying to draw from my imagination that I have no idea how to make a legit looking mask... at all! I decided to do random pieces of some random Venetian masks I found on the internet. Only one is really legit looking, the rest are obviously unfinished to a horrible hell. Some more than others. The part that looks like an eyepiece was because I accidentally closed the page and couldn't find it again. =___= Ooops... Oh, well. Masks are fun! 

 

WIP! This was supposed to go along with my theme of looking into soft versus hard shadows. I thought that maybe instead of starting a painting sketchy, hard, and liney, I could maybe try mapping general light and shadow areas with a really soft brush. Obviously I'm going to add harder edges later, but for now... I'll see where this goes. P: I have no idea how to portray this well in a drawing, but the guy is supposed to be whistling. =3=