Went to cloudy Moonlight Beach to take a few photos before I had to run to my car from it being very windy and cold. Not good for someone in shorts and flip flops. Either way, they were doing construction down there so it wasn't a grand ol' day for some photography.



Last but not least, this is a photo of my parent's house with their Christmas lights up. LOVING this camera.
Stay tuned for more photos when I get my new fisheye lens tomorrow (!!!)

I got a new DSLR Canon Rebel Camera for my birthday, and I couldn't be having more fun. These pictures were taken just outside of my friend Shane's house. I love the tree in his front yard. We don't get much of a fall here in California, so it's comforting witnessing SOME trees that change. More photographs to come later.

Some fun random sketches I created. My intentions of these pieces was to try a different style which I was inspired with from a TV show I watch, and to see where it'd lead me. I had fun with the borders. The second image "Bound forever" I drew all out and then used a program to make it smoother.

After over 15 years give or take, I finally got to carve myself a pumpkin for Halloween. Every year I would think to myself that I'd need to do this... but never got around to actually DOING it. So this year, my boyfriend Dan, friend Shane and I decided to get up off our bums and drive to Bates Nut Farm to grab ourselves some fresh pumpkins. I was also able to snag some Pumpkin Butter which is absolutely DELICIOUS!!! Every spoonful is seriously like eating pumpkin pie.

Anyhow, we got our pumpkins I would guess about two weeks ago? And finally we decided to carve them. I, unfortunately, thought it would be a FANTASTIC idea to carve a side portrait of Dan's and my beloved bearded dragon... due to the fact that I had plopped him on top of my pumpkin and he just stood there looking like godzilla on his throne. Who wouldn't be inspired by that? Well, it turned into a mental chaotic disaster since I only had steak knives, a cheap arse pumpkin carving tool which later on broke, and Dan's razor tool. And not only that, but his scales would have taken forever to carve.


 Since Dan is able to spit out artwork like no other, I had to give my pumpkin carving a rest for a day or so. Finally this afternoon, I decided to just go for it and turn it into some random...thing. It was a little annoying because I was forced to use my bearded dragon's one eye and his ear as two eyes, but it was also fun to create something out of a failed attempt. So I just carved whatever, wherever, even if it didn't make sense. I almost wish I had bought a few more pumpkins because carving it was very therapeutic for me. It also got me into the holiday spirit. I hope this motivation actually gets me inspired to put effort into a costume for this year......

Did some random sketches tonight which took about 30 minutes for all four. Just playing around and not really caring about mistakes and what not. The material I used for this was Natural Vine Charcoal.





My favorite out of the four is the one of my family's and my dog, Eddie, who recently had to be put to sleep three and a half weeks ago. I have a different drawing I've been working on of him that will have its own post with a memorial of Eddie.

On Monday, I had asked Dan to send me a nice picture of himself because I wanted to paint a portrait of him using my new oil paints. He, of course, decided to be funny and sent me a silly picture of himself ...and in my opinion...looking as if he were trying to let out a big fart. HAHA. So, I decided to draw a caricature of him like that in my sketchbook.

I used prismacolor sketch pencils, prismacolor fine line markers, a markette pen for the tip of his hair, white out for the shine, and prismacolor colored pencils & art stix. This whole thing took about two hours. One thing I'm upset about is that I didn't make him fat enough, but I still am pretty happy with the outcome. Click on the pictures to enlarge.

One of my all time favorite beaches I love to go to by myself, or with friends, is Moonlight Beach. This special place is where I love to take walks, swim in the waves, lye out while blasting hard rock music or reggae through my headphones, whatever have you. For quite some time now I've always wanted to paint this beach, and finally I got the opportunity to today.



I did this painting off a picture I took on one of my walks. I used, of course, oils. One of my favorite things about oil paints is that when you mess up, you have plenty of time to fix it. The hard part is, it's a piece of work to get your paint brushes cleaned up. Well worth it, in the end. This painting took about 3 and hours to complete. I'm pretty satisfied with the outcome, although I'd like to learn more on how to make sand look more presentable and real so my next beach painting can turn out even better.



Here's a look at the picture I took as my reference. Thanks for reading. :)

Today has been a wonderful Labor Day. I woke up at 4am being thankfully interrupted by thunder and rain. I was instantly happy and soothed. I fell back asleep and woke up again at 8 smelling the after affects of rain from the asphalt and the mud, all being carried by the wind and into my room. Today I had to paint. I lit two candles that both smelled of bamboo mist/coconut, and I just went for it.



I am the worst at being a perfectionist when it comes to hanging things up on the wall. ;) Moving on, these three paintings I did were quick, fun and easy little warm ups. I haven't been the best at keeping up with making art in a long, long while, so messing around with my oil paints was a great warming up experience.



The first painting I did this morning is an abstract mess with colors, and in the middle is of a girl holding tightly to her man during the storm. Every individual has their moment where they can be at their lowest, but having that one person they can lean on and love always makes a difference.



The next piece I quickly slapped on blues, greens, reds and yellows to create a fast wave. Not a favorite, but still had fun painting this. I wanted to add texture to this painting.



Lastly, I've wanted to practice quickly painting the human body in an abstract, somewhat shadowing yet beautiful form. This, I'd have to say is my favorite out of the three just because I was most happy with the way it turned out, especially in such a fast pace. My goal in my next paintings is to get more detailed and concentrated with my work, but I'm pretty happy with what I've done today. Happy Labor Day!

I had an great opportunity to go to Aaron Brother's for their major Labor Day weekend sale, and bought a mountain top of art supplies: New paints, brushes, canvases, prismacolor pencils, sketchbook, and prismacolor sketch pencils. With all that, I had a little fun.


This is a painting of a raven I did for my best friend, Shane. Three years ago, I painted a fast warmup painting of a raven (shown below) that I used for an art show I participated in at the Kava Lounge, and Shane really wanted something like that, except he wanted the background to be black and blued as opposed to the red. I originally was going to pretty much paint a duplicate of that, but instead I came up with wanting to add a tree, the moonlight and the bird flying. He was very pleased with the results. The choice of paints I used for the blue raven are oils, and the bottom raven I used acrylics. 

I suppose I was on a bird kick today because the following piece is what I did of a bald eagle. Oh man, these birds are INSANELY bad arse. I mean, I never KNEW they could prey on DEER. Check it out HERE. Yeah, crazy ridiculous, right? Awesome. Well, getting back to the point, I decide to draw this magnificent creature using my new prismacolor pencils on one of Dan's mat boards. Sorry, Dan... I had taken three about a month ago. But you have a GINORMOUS everlasting stack, so, I think you'll be okay. ;) Any how, it didn't quite turn out the way I wanted it to, well, at all more like... but I still enjoyed drawing and coloring this piece and was just having fun.



And last, but certainly not least, I HAD to use my freshly new sketchbook. Dan was on my mind, so I decided to draw him. I had searched his Facebook photos to find my "picture victim" and alas, he had a good one in his carving pumpkins album.



It has been a fun day. More projects to come. Thanks for stopping by. Ciao!

"If there was a better way to go then it would find me. I can't help it, the road just rolls out behind me. Be kind to me, or treat me mean. I'll make the most of it, I'm an extraordinary machine" ~ Fiona Apple


Fiona Apple has been someone I have admired since I first saw her on television with her music video Fast As You Can. Her music, lyrics, and talented live performances performing on the piano glued me constantly to the screen. Recently, her song "Extraordinary Machine" had really helped me feel upbeat and inspired me to draw her. Please, Fiona... make a new album soon. It has been far too long.

Today, I decided to draw Saul Williams, an intelligent man that has a lot of energy, power with his words, and attitude. He's a poet, a songwriter, and an author. This was just a short sketch for fun.


Here's a taste of Saul's music. One off his new album called "EXPLAIN MY HEART".

An attempt at drawing a pacific ocean wave with the San Diego skyline on the inside of the tunnel. I drew it out and colored it with Dan's new Prismacolor pencils (shhh) on one of his mat boards (again, shhhh) and used toon paint and a program for effects and color boosts.


Next is another doodle I did capturing a horse on another one of Dan's mat boards. Thanks for all the supplies, Danny! ;) His constant spurts of art work has pushed me to become inspired, and although it's not exactly how I'd have liked for both pieces to have turned out, it still feels good to kick myself back to drawing again. For the horse, I didn't add any special effects. It is what it is. I had a cheerful experience drawing this one specifically because I jolted back to my childhood love for horses. One of my goals this year before I turn 27 is to go for a ride.

I've been slowly getting myself back on the art track, which has felt pretty good. I got a call from an old friend of mine asking if I could draw a t-shirt design for her boss. It's for a kid's camp, and the theme is called "Get Your Dirt On". The kids will have fun activities to do along with a crazy obstacle course that involves: water balloons, shopping carts, a huge duck boat, hula hoops, LOTS of mud, basketball, and more. This is what I came up with, and they loved it:





Next is a piece inspired by my boyfriend, Danny. We were at the Del Mar Fair walking around and stopped for a beer break when he asked if we could draw while we relaxed for a little. I gave him a look of yes - but I am very uninspired... but he encouraged me to let loose and just draw. So I did: