Uncreated Conscience

I really need to get back into the habit of drawing more often. Back in high school, I spent 6 hours a week doing art because I was in Visual Arts Conservatory. Some days it sucked pretty hard, but most days it was like therapy. It’d be nice to set aside a few hours everyday to work on art. And music. I played piano pretty much every day in high school as well. How did I find these pockets of time???? Now I barely seem to have time to exercise, let alone have hobbies.

Anyway, I found a Photoshop brush that pretty closely recreates what it’s like to sketch with graphite, so I drew a quick sketch of a sad Corliss (a character from my novel) referencing David Tennant because…everything should reference David Tennant. (Also, I seem to have forgotten how to draw on real pencil and paper. Ought to remedy that.)

I hate it when I have writing ideas and I’m motivated to write, but it’s nighttime and all I want to do is sleep. Being a morning person means that by 10PM, I have been awake for 16 hours. Vampire, I ain’t. Now if only my brain would comply and give me ideas first thing in the morning instead of right before bed…

(Of course, instead of either writing or going to bed, I spent 5 minutes jotting down this little doodle. The decisions I make…)

My parents gave me an iPad for Christmas, so naturally I’ve been going a little app crazy. Discovered Sketchbook, which is a pretty decent drawing/painting app, except for the fact that drawing with a fingertip is hard! I haven’t done that since preschool!

You can tell when I’m unable to write when a ton of drawings start cropping up instead. I recently got both Adobe Photoshop CS5 and Corel Painter 12 and have been experimenting with both. I find it easier to sketch/ink in Photoshop, but easier to colour in Painter. I was trying out the “Real Watercolour” brushes in Painter and it’s, uh, hard. (Just like actual watercolour!)

A kiss between two of my characters from a story I’m writing. (I haven’t gotten to the kiss yet.) I’m not entirely pleased with how this one turned out; I may redo it later. Yay for digital art! I think I’ve finally started to get the hang of drawing directly in Photoshop, instead of sketching and scanning.

This weekend I wrote 3600 words of Victorian porn and then illustrated it. (Seriously though, I was blushing hard as I wrote it. And nothing more unchaste than hand-holding happens!)

What I Did On My Summer Holidays, a doodle-essay by S. Jae-Jones

This is pretty much my dream come true. Some day the Doctor will show up in his TARDIS and whisk me, Bear, and White-Harp away on adventures across time and space.

Also, I needed a new desktop background, so I drew one.

I’ve been working on a drawing commission for a friend of mine this weekend, and usually I have something else on the telly to focus on while I work and of course, I’ve been watching Doctor Who Confidential. And honestly, I had to jot off this quick doodle because seriously…David Tennant’s hair is truly mesmerizing.

Continuing my artsy mood, here is a pen drawing I’ve been working on. It’s actually a drawing of the 3 protagonists from…my novel (no, no, no, I did promise to be more open with my own writing). It’s still a work in progress, as you can clearly see the bridge on which they’re standing is unfinished.

Things I am terrible with: backgrounds, perspective, and details. This is the most “background” I’ve ever put into a piece of art, and if you peer closely at it, you’ll realize exactly how sketchy I’ve left things. Oh, and this is supposed to be London. That’s St. Paul’s Cathedral in the back. Because it’s probably not recognizable.

I don’t actually sketch my characters that often, and this isn’t a scene that takes place in my novel. But sometimes art functions a bit like a Pensieve for me: a way to siphon out excess thoughts, images, moods, and feelings so I can step back and observe at a remove.

(more…)

So I couldn’t think of anything to blog about today, but that might be because I’m not in a wordy mood. I’m in a doodly mood instead.

These are random doodles from my sketchbook. I was riding home on the subway and sketched the passengers. Um, representations may not be exactly true to life. (My brain is a strange place, okay?)