Our Second Annual Art Exchange, Lots of LOTR, and More ~ an art dump

Hey guys! We’ve officially made it through half the year. Whoohoo! And since it’s been almost half a year since my last one, I decided it’s time for another art dump.

So, some of you may remember the art exchange Earnest and I did last year for his birthday. (If you don’t remember it, you can go see it again here.) Well, we decided to do it again this year, Tolkien style. *cracks knuckles* Also my other brother, Jack, decided to join us this year. And let me tell you, I was quite impressed with what my bros created.

Jack drew the Hobbit for me. I love how he filled in the detail of the flowers on his vest. 🙂

Then Earnest drew Gandalf and the bolrog for Jack.

He also made a little something else just for fun.

*hand over heart* Isn’t it beautiful? *wipes away a tear*

And I finished my drawing for Earnest just in time to give it to him on his birthday.

He didn’t say anything when I showed it to him. Just let out a wheezy sigh, like a dying old man. Which I can only assume meant:

My siblings always expect so much from me.

My younger brother, Linus, recently went through a Frodo Baggins phase, in which he claimed to be Frodo Baggins. It was rather amusing, since he’s not old enough to read and hasn’t seen the movies.

We recently went on a walk to the creek and we all took off our shoes to dip our toes in the refreshing frigidness. Linus was climbing around barefoot and I overheard this conversation:

Linus: Look! I’m Frodo Baggins!
Older sibling: Um… Frodo has hair on his feet.
Linus: Yeah, well, I shaved ’em!

Well… not sure what to think of that.

Anyway, it was only a matter of time before he asked me to make him a picture of Mr. Frodo. So I did a digital painting for him.

He was quite pleased, but he wants a print.

Me:

“Say what?”

Well, I’m unable to make or purchase a print at the moment. But I did make a process gif where you can see all the awkward phases this little painting went through.

My personal favorite:

In other areas of art, I’ve been doing a lot of sketching in my sketchbook.

Owl City. This one was a lot of fun, but I had to stop myself before I filled in too much of the details. 😛

For this one I made a 20 minute playlist and decided to see what kind of sketch I could make in that time.

You probably have no idea who this is… If you do, wow. May I shake your virtual hand?And yes, that’s my life motto written on the bottom. This sketch is just too far beyond repair, so I just started over.

Well, look who it is again! Still not as accurate as I would like, but it’s better than my first try (Which isn’t hard to beat at all, haha.)

I sketched Steph Curry. Why? I don’t know. I just felt like drawing an athlete and Steph Curry is pretty cool. Sometimes you don’t choose fan art. Sometimes fan art chooses you.

Paul McCartney and his daughter. I’m actually pretty happy with how this one turned out…. for once.

Some more digital art…

It’s a Hispanic kid making graffiti in Queens. (Because graffiti is legal there. I done my research.) Why did I paint this? *shrugs* It was just an image that came into my mind one afternoon and I thought, “hey I should paint that.” So here we are. Earnest helped with the graffiti and there’s a couple hidden and not so hidden symbols, words, and names that we threw in there for fun.

And another digital painting I did of a friend.

I’m actually very happy with how this one turned out, and she loved it, so (for lack of a better word) yay! 

And last but not least, a little glimpse into what’s been keeping me from posting these past few weeks.

I’ve been illustrating a book. Yes, it has been a loooong, hard journey. Because, as you know, I’m really good at procrastinating. Ugh. *facepalm* Anyway, this June I decided I was going to finish the illustrations. I still have to do the cover artwork, but if I could just finish the inside illustrations that would be a huge load off my shoulders. So I did. I worked until I got it done. And, wow. Let me tell you after years of having this project hanging over my head, it feels amazing.

So, the author gave me permission to share some of my work and here’s one of my favorites.

Well, there you have it. Some of the art I’ve been making. I hope you enjoyed seeing it. My brain is too tired to write up a more of an elaborate outro, so…. Byeee!