Art Update: August 2020

Happy Friday!! ❤ I hope you guys are all doing well and staying safe. I know 2020 has been a total hot mess, but I hope you’re finding ways to keep yourself sane during all of this. I’ve been finding a lot of solace in drawing and it’s been really nice. Like spending time with an old friend from before the stressful days of adulthood. (Maybe it just feels like that because I haven’t actually been able to see any of my friends in-person since February due to the pandemic!)

For most of my life, drawing was such a huge part of my daily existence. The past 10 years, though, I found myself doing it less and less. Sure, sometimes I’d make time for it, but it just wasn’t how it used to be. Well, the past year I have definitely been at it more again and now I’m pushing myself to not just settle into my drawing comfort zone, but to work on new poses and techniques, and really work at strengthening my skill again. I’ve got a long way to go, and a lot of learning to do, but I’m enjoying being back on the journey. 🙂

One of the ways I need to push myself further with my art is getting back into digital art again. It’s been a long ass time. I’m strangely intimidated, to be honest. I got this great new art tablet but to quote the Joker from The Dark Knight:

“I’m like a dog chasing cars, I wouldn’t know what to do if I caught one”

Well, one thing that will eventually force my hand to branch back out into digital art is the fact that most of my markers/brush pens are on their last leg. Filling up that sketchbook I got a while back has been slowly murdering all of them. 😥

Plus, I don’t think I’ll forgive myself if by the time I eventually return to work, I STILL have not gotten the hang of the new art tablet. I mean, it’s literally been 5 months since my work had to temporarily close its doors due to the coronavirus. Usually I have the excuse of not having enough free time, but that excuse has kind of gone right out the window this year, hasn’t it?? 😉

I hope you enjoy the new art. I’ll be posting some shark illustrations soon that I’ve been working on during Shark Week for an Instagram art challenge I’m participating in. It’s been a lot of fun so I figured I’d feature them in their own little post at the end of Shark Week. 😛

What skills have you guys been building on during this year? What hobbies have you found comfort in?? What have you been doing to keep from going completely stir-crazy???

Thanks, as always, for checking out my humble little drawings and reading my ramblings! ❤ Have a great weekend!

July 2020 Wrap-Up: A Month in Photos

Whoops! Meant to do this post at the end of July but better late than never, right? 😉 After doing one of these photo-based monthly wrap-up posts for June, I thought it would be fun to carry on and make this a regular sort of installment here on my blog. 🙂 I hope everyone had a fun and safe July. Obviously with the coronavirus still running rampant this year’s 4th of July festivities were MUCH more low key, but Mr. Moth and I still had a great time.

BAKING: I made these S’mores cookies on the 4th of July. They were quite good, and I’m not even a S’mores person normally. 🙂 Another fun part of the 4th of July is that my very own little corner of the blogosphere celebrated it’s 4th Blog Birthday. Woo! 😀

OUTDOORS: It’s been far too hot for me to want to do much of anything outside this month, so I mostly just admired and watered our plants and then scuttled back inside.

We also recently had the pleasant surprise of discovering baby pumpkins! Can’t wait to have homegrown pumpkins this Halloween! That will certainly be a first. 🙂

BOOKS: In reading news, I’ve mostly been on a DC Comics binge this month. I recently joined the DC Universe streaming service and now that I have quite the catalog of DC titles at my fingertips I’m taking full advantage of it. 🙂 As for actual novels, I finished the third novel of the Innkeeper Chronicles and also fed my Leigh Bardugo addiction by finally reading King of Scars. Now that I’ve read all of the books in the “Grishaverse” that are currently out my wait begins for the follow-up to KoS. Luckily I still have her Wonder Woman novel and Ninth House to keep me going until then. 😛

DRAWING: Aside from my Weird and Wild Animal Drawings, I did find time to do some other drawings. 🙂 Near the end of the month I decided it was time to push myself out of my comfort zone and start drawing more dynamic poses. Then I kind of lurched to a halt on the drawing front. I’ll be back at it soon, though! I’ve had a lot of house and research projects keeping me busy.

ANCESTRY SEARCH: One of the research projects I started in July was that of my very own lineage. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do, and what better time than while my place of work is still shut down? I’ve been able to trace 3 of my grandparents’ family histories back pretty damn far and there have been some really fascinating results that I want to do a lot more research on.

How was your July? Any exciting plans for August?? What with the pandemic and all I can’t say I have a lot planned for August, but one thing I look forward to are the Friday night video chats with my BFF Cupcakes & Machetes as well as our current buddy read as we take on Gideon the Ninth together. 😀 Not super far yet, but really enjoying the book already. Well, that’s it for now. Hope you guys are all staying safe and well. Have an amazing August! ❤ ❤ ❤

Happy National Moth Week!

I love random weird holidays, and obviously I love moths, so you can imagine my excitement when I just discovered that the last week of July is National Moth Week! 😀

In celebration I thought I’d share some of my old moth-inspired drawings as well as some fun facts about my blog’s whimsical little namesake.

Fun Fact #1: Although the moths I drew in the image above are fluttering around in the dark, not ALL moths are nocturnal. Some are out and about in the daytime and some of them are even important pollinators. Some of our daytime pollinating moths are even confused regularly for other pollinators such as bees or even hummingbirds.

FUN FACT #2: The world’s smallest moth, the Stigmella Maya, comes from Mexico with a forewing measuring in at a mere 1.2 millimeters. On the other end of the spectrum, we have the well-named Hercules Moth, with the largest ever documented boasting a whopping wingspan of 36 centimeters!

FUN FACT #3: I was very surprised to learn this just recently, but those feathery fluffy antennae that many of us associate with moths, is actually a trait specific to male moths.

FUN FACT #4: There are some moths, like the Luna Moth, who do not even have a mouth and survive only long enough to breed. An adult Luna Moth will only live a few short days.

Well, that’s it for my little National Moth Week appreciation post! What do you think of moths? What’s your favorite kind?

Weird and Wild Animal Drawings

I recently asked for weird animal suggestions, and man, did you guys ever deliver! 😀 I’ve been posting these curious critters over on my Instagram the past couple days, but now that they’re all finished, I wanted to share them here on the blog. Special thanks to all the bloggers listed below for helping fuel my creativity with these bizarre animal suggestions! ❤

I did screenshots of these guys off my Instagram account so it cut part of the top and bottom from the picture off, but it was quite fun drawing these anteaters, suggested by none other than Precinct1313! Aside from picking interesting animals with the funnest and bushiest of tails to draw, the Precinct is always a go-to for all of your up to date DC Comics news! 😉

Here is my cotton-candy colored Nawhal, as suggested by SP’s Projects Blog. Thanks, Pete! 🙂 You can see another Narwhal in the Instagram post I did for this one. I was having some issues getting the images over onto my laptop to do this blog post, but this cheerful little Narwhal was quite fun to draw and very fun to color! You can check out Pete’s own creative works on his blog!

I haven’t really done a solid black and white piece in a while, so this was a lot of fun. Big thanks to Dawn of the Lead for suggesting the Platypus. 😀 You can check out their painting and miniature creating skills over on their blog! I gotta say, this little guy was a joy to draw.

You have no idea how happy I was to see one of my favorite sharks pop in your guys’ suggestions, so big thanks to Imperial Rebel Ork for suggesting it! He even got a bonus critter in his drawing with a little eye parasite. 😉 Check out IRO’s blog for his painting and kitbashing skills, as well as some awesome post-apocalyptic fiction he writes!

Haha I don’t think I ever would have thought of drawing a Naked Mole Rat on my own, so massive thanks to Lashaan from Bookidote for coming up with this one! 😛 It’s the perfect blend of ugly and cute, I think. Check out Lashaan’s Corner on Bookidote for some awesome book and comic reviews!

Oh my goodness, did I have fun drawing this blob fish. I asked for strange animal suggestions, and My Bookish Dream was not messing around when she suggested this deep sea beauty. 😛 I don’t know why I had an overwhelming need to draw a little tongue sticking out of its mouth, but the need to give this fishy a “blep” face was just too much to resist, actual fish anatomy be damned, I say! Check out My Bookish Dream for a bounty of bookish delights! ❤

BIG THANKS to each and every one of you for supplying the inspiration behind these oddballs of the animal kingdom. 🙂 I really enjoyed working on them. What current (or recent) creative projects have you guys all been working on?

Inktober 2019 Final Roundup & Farewell for November

Hello, and Happy Halloween, one and all! ❤ Even though it feels like I’ve spent half of October being sick, it’s been a really good month overall. I’m pleased to report that I have now officially completed October’s annual art challenge INKTOBER! Each day of the month I have unleashed a new ink creation to plague humanity, and it’s been quite the fun teaching experience. Along the way I’ve learned new techniques, pushed myself to think outside the box to meet the daily prompts, and I’ve shown myself that I can in fact make more time for the things I love despite all the constant business of adulting. 🙂 So, before I take my previously mentioned writing hiatus for November, allow me to present my final roundup of Inktober drawings. Thank you all for all of the amazing feedback and support during this month’s challenge. ❤ It truly means a lot, and hopefully November will see me through completing a second challenge for NaNoWriMo.

Day 22: The daily prompt was “GHOST” and my immediate thought was Boo, probably my favorite fictional ghost of all time.

Day 23: The daily prompt was “ANCIENT” so I went with an elderly Joker-esque batshit crazy granny because why not? 😛

Day 24: The daily prompt was “DIZZY” and maybe I was feeling inspired by my recent trip to Theatre Bizarre, but I wanted to draw a trippy clown girl for some reason. Hey, I just go where the inspiration takes me. 🙂

Day 25: The daily prompt was “TASTY” so I made a big shadowy werewolf looking forward to his next meal. Don’t mind all the doodles in the background, it was a sketchbook scribble session before I decided to slap some ink on it and call it a day. 😛

Day 26: The daily prompt was “DARK” and I figured since I’ve been drawing sooo many people throughout the month, I wanted to draw a piece without anyone or anything with a face. There are some moths, sure, but they’re too little to see their faces, so whatever.

Day 27: The daily prompt was “COAT” and due to how cold it has been lately, I guess I was feeling inspired to draw a cute girl in a cute coat on a cold, chilly autumn day with wind and leaves blowing about.

Day 28: The daily prompt was “RIDE” and what cooler ride is there than the Cat Bus from Studio Ghibli’s My Neighbor Totoro? 😀 This one was a lot of fun to work on.

Day 29: The daily prompt was “INJURED” and initially I figured I’d draw a couple roller derby girls post-derby, with busted lips, bloody noses, etc. but then I was having an off day and couldn’t quite come up with the look I was going for, so onto Plan B. That’s when I decided to pay homage to Monty Python and the Holy Grail‘s Black Knight.

Day 30: The daily prompt was “CATCH” so I went with an arcade staple, the crane game.

Aaaaand FINALLY, we come to Day 31: And the daily prompt is “RIPE”. With it being Halloween, of course I had to go with a rotting pumpkin, past its prime and overly-ripe, with bugs crawing in and out of its face.

I hope you guys have enjoyed the various pieces I’ve worked on over the course of Inktober, and, again, thank you SO MUCH for all the kind words and encouragement along the way. ❤ It means so much, and I’m feeling inspired and enjoying drawing more like I used to again and that feels really great. 🙂

While I’m away for November participating in NaNoWriMo I hope you guys all have a very Happy Halloween, a fantastic November, and I look forward to catching up with everyone when I return to my blog in December, hopefully with good news of a completed NaNoWriMo challenge. I’ll still be doing quick posts and updates on Instagram and the NaNoWriMo website in the mean time. Until December, take care and have fun!! ❤ ❤ ❤

Inktober 2019: Week 2 Roundup

Bailey rocking her new Halloween bandana.

Hello, it’s your resident sick girl here, living her best couch potato life with her trusted fuzzy minion cohort by her side, and we’ve got lots of new Inktober pieces for ya. A whole week’s worth, in fact!

Day 8: The daily prompt was “FRAIL” and I took my inspiration from old desiccated mummy faces. I then kind of took it into a more living dead sort of direction and ended up with this:

Day 9: The daily prompt was “SWING” and chose to do a little sketchbook quickie of my girl, Batwoman (Bombshells batter style, of course!) 😉

Day 10: The daily prompt was “PATTERN” and I was completely and utterly stumped on this one. I decided to just draw some quick little jack o’lanterns in a pattern of sizes (tall-short-tall-short). Hey, they can’t all be winners, right? 😛

Day 11: The daily prompt was “SNOW” and at this point I really wanted to up my Inktober game. I took inspiration from the legends of the wendigo since they’re associated with winter/snow.

Day 12: The daily prompt was “DRAGON” and I was feeling sick as a dog at this point, so I *technically* posted this the morning of Day 13, but oh, well. I did start it on the 12th, but NyQuil landed me in bed earlier than I would have intended.

Day 13: The daily prompt was “ASH” and I embraced my sickly current state and drew a sickly woman covered in ash.

Day 14: The daily prompt was “OVERGROWN” and I went with a wild forest nymph with overgrown, wild red hair and branches growing out of her head because why the hell not?? 😉

Well, that’s this week’s Inktober installment from yours truly. I hope you guys have been enjoying your October so far. There’s plenty of Halloween fun still to be had this month. What fun autumn hijinks have you been up to? What creative stuff are you working on? 🙂

Sketchbook Update: Joker Toxin Edition

Sketchbook Update! This fan art quickie was from a couple weeks ago, so some of you may have already seen it over on my Instagram account, but I figured I should go ahead and post it here anyway. 🙂

There’s something so fun about drawing twisted creepy grins like these. This unfortunate duo are just my interpretation of some poor unfortunate souls who crossed paths with everyone’s favorite Clown Prince of Crime.

Done with watercolor markers and sharpies.

What creative shenanigans have you guys been up to? 😀 August is shaping up to be incredibly busy but I’m hoping to continue my effort to make more time for drawing. Life’s too short not to make time for what makes you happy. ❤

Shark Week Drawings: 2019

❤ Ahoy! Happy Shark Week! ❤

Fan art for the game Hungry Shark World by yours truly.

This has truly been a Jawsome Shark Week so far, but it has also been a VERY busy one! I was beginning to fear that I would run out of time to do some Shark Week art this year, but I managed to squeeze in the time for at least 2! (Which is one more than last year! Haha) 😛

I recently learned about the game Hungry Shark World (and totally want to play it) which resulted in the fan art you see above. All the sharks in the game have attitude and some are really outlandish and cool looking. It even has zombie sharks and prehistoric sharks you can play as, along with a few other non-shark species. I guess the premise of just eat all the things is pretty simple, but it looks fun to me, so, why not? 😀

The other drawing I did is definitely more in the “doodle” category, but I did it more for fun anyway. 😛 Every single time I see a photo of a basking shark gliding through the water with its mouth gaping open as it feeds, all I can imagine is it saying “Hey, you guys!” in the voice of Sloth from The Goonies. Don’t ask why my brain works the way it does, because even I couldn’t tell you sometimes. Haha

If you don’t know about basking sharks, here’s a quick little Basking Shark 101 for ya:

Basking Sharks are the second largest shark in the entire world, dwarfed only by the whale shark.

Luckily, like the whale shark, basking sharks are one of three gentle giants of the sea, using filter-feeding as their method of consumption. That means, despite the intimidating size and wide, gaping mouths, they’re really just cruising around for plankton and other itty bitty prey.

They are surprisingly capable of breaching the surface and launching themselves out of the water, which, when you consider their size, is pretty cool and terrifying all at once if you just so happen to be in a boat beside one. 😛 The reason they do this isn’t really known since they aren’t doing it for hunting purposes like great whites do. Some theories are that it could be a move to impress the ladies during mating season, or that it is in an effort to rid themselves of parasites and lamprey eels that hitch along on them for a ride. No one knows for certain, though. Apparently one is reported to have unintentionally capsize a boat off the coast of Scotland while breaching, resulting in the drowning of 3 people. 😦

Anyway, hope you guys enjoyed the Shark Week drawings this year! 🙂 I wish I’d had the time to do more, but even though it’s still technically shark week, I am going to be too busy having fun and hanging out with Mr. and Mrs. Cupcakes and Machetes this weekend as we enjoy shark week, our body weight in rum, and celebrating Mr. C&M’s birthday! Have a great weekend, everyone!! ❤ ❤ ❤

SPECIAL SHARK WEEK SPOTLIGHT: Sharktopia

I love art and I love wildlife conservation. Combine the two and you have such an utterly amazing win-win situation on your hands. 🙂 I recently discovered the site sharktopia.org through their Instagram account and I am absolutely over the moon about it! ❤

Sharktopia is run by the friendly and talented Caiti Rose, a self-described “coffee-loving, shark-obsessed, happy vegan artist with the goal of altering the misconceptions surrounding sharks and other Ocean life”.

Stickers!

She uses her creative and amazing art to help spread awareness about a variety of topics regarding sharks and other ocean life. Her work ranges from absolutely adorable and lighthearted to impactful and eyeopening, and all of it is for the benefit and love of sharks.

The line work and coloring and cuteness, I just absolutely adore it. ❤

I’ve already purchased and received my own shark goodies and can honestly say that they were absolutely worth the money. 🙂 I love what I ordered. ❤ I also printed some of the free coloring pages available on the site for my participants at work to color and learn more about different types of sharks as they do so. The coloring pages are awesome and so informative!

 

Be sure to check out the Sharktopia website and enjoy some great artwork featuring our favorite finned friends and Caiti Rose’s great mission to raise awareness about their struggle. There’s the free downloadable coloring pages I mentioned, a great shop, and more to be discovered there, so dive on in! 🙂

The Return to the Sketchbook

After some neglect, I finally brushed off my sketchbook and have been showing it a little love again. I figured I’d share some of my recent illustration-sketch thingies with you guys. 🙂 Here are my 3 latest pieces, all done with watercolor markers and sharpies. Some of you may have already seen them over on Instagram but I figured I’d share them here anyway. ❤

Not my usual color palette, but hey, it’s fun to tinker around with different colors from time to time. Yellow was a bold jump out of my comfort zone.

This one was kind of inspired by the dead twins in The Shining, but I was listening to The Birthday Massacre, hence the bunny mask. This one was just a quickie since I felt I needed to push myself that day to practice more. I wish I’d taken my time with it more, but hey, that’s what re-draws are for, right? 😉

Just did this one tonight. Was wanting to do a creepy spin on those cute poses couples do for photos so I thought it’d be fun to have a girl covering the guy’s eyes with bloody claw hands while he’s obliviously unaware he’s about to be dinner.

Hopefully there will be more of these art posts. Shark Week is coming up so I’d love to do some Shark illustrations soon, like last year’s whale shark drawing I did. Definitely need to buy some new watercolor markers soon. My poor little babies are drying up!! D:

Anywayyy, hope you guys enjoyed the drawings. What creative stuff have you been up to lately? 🙂 I’d love to chat about it!