Week 1 of Corpsetober Art Challenge

Can you believe the first week of October is already over? I managed to do most of the prompts for the first week of Corpsetober, an art challenge that this year presents you with very innocent-seeming prompts, but then dares you to make them horrific, spooky, or Halloweenie in whatever way you see fit. It’s been a lot of fun so far, especially since I’m not stressing myself out to complete each prompt for each day.

Prompt 1: Sunday Funnies (Comic Strips)

I had to go with an absolute childhood favorite of mine for this prompt, and choose Calvin & Hobbes.

Prompt 2: Childhood Toys

I actually never owned a Furby as a kid, but I remember them being very popular, and the recent Netflix animated film The Mitchell’s vs. The Machines has an amazing scene with Furbies that this pic I drew was directly inspired by.

Prompt 3: Retro Video Games (The 80’s)

It was so hard to pick which game to go with, but in the end I picked Pac-Man. Not only because it’s awesome, but also because I knew it would be pretty quick to draw. 😛

Prompt 4: Superheroes

I thought Zatanna would be a good choice for something fun and spooky, with her pulling some tentacled creature from her hat. I’ve always wanted to draw her, so this was a good excuse to do that.

Prompt 7: Mermaids

I love drawing mermaids. ❤ Especially creepy mermaids. This Deep Sea Mermaid was fun since I gave her a color scheme for when she was closer to the surface, and one for when she was down in the darker, deep waters. She was inspired by a few different sea creatures, some of which include: the angler fish, frilled shark, and leopard seal to name a few.

Bonus Drawings Just for Fun:

Even though I didn’t end up doing 2 of the prompts (Memes and Doggos), I did end up working on these 2 drawings instead.

I hope you guys enjoyed my weird little drawings this week. Haha I know I certainly had a lot of fun making them. 🙂 What have you been working on this October? Any goals or projects you’re working on this month?

 

Happy Shark Week 2021

Aside from binge-watching Shark Week goodness all week, I’m celebrating by participating in the #DrawingSharkWeek art challenge hosted by Marcc the Shark over on Instagram. 🙂

Some of these haven’t been posted yet on my Instagram page, but I’m posting them here anyway because I don’t feel like waiting until the end of Shark Week to do my celebratory Shark Week blog post! 😛

Prompt #1: Hybrid (Puppy Shark!)

Prompt #2: Reef

Prompt #3: Earth

Prompt #4: Titan

Prompt #5: Galactic

Prompt #6: Mutation

Prompt #7: Chonk

I hope you guys enjoyed my silly shark drawings as much as I enjoyed creating them. ❤ This was my first year doing digital Shark Week drawings and I really had a blast with it. Even though I don’t always finish all the prompts for the art challenges I participate in, I still like to give it a shot when I can since it’s a good exercise in thinking outside the box and coming up with ideas for things you may not have drawn on your own, and it’s always good to push yourself and try to learn more. 😀

Have you been watching Shark Week this year? What’s your favorite type of shark?

March 2021: Digital Art, Fluffy Friends & Other Updates

Oof, March has been an absolute whirlwind of a month. It’s been quite the mix of high and low points. Registering for classes, family health emergencies, the sudden loss of a wonderful friend who taught me so much about life and brought so much joy to everyone who knew her, house and yard projects and repairs, and many other things have had me a bit stressed these past few weeks to say the least.

I did manage to squeeze in a bit of practice on my art tablet, taking some old sketches and outlining and coloring them digitally as seen below:

 

Started playing Super Mario 3D World on the Wii U with Mr. Moth so that’s been a fun distraction from some of the more stressful stuff that’s been going on lately.

I think the only thing I baked this month was a dark chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting. Soooo good! ❤

I haven’t finished reading anything new at all this month. My mood has been all over the place, which also means my reading preferences have been just as erratic. I did start reading Leigh Bardugo’s The Lives of Saints and re-reading Shadow & Bone in preparation for the Netflix show coming out. It’s been like 7 or 8 years I think since I read S&B so I was definitely due for a refresher before the show starts. I always think it’s interesting to see the differences between a show or movie and its source material. I also started reading this big ol’ Encyclopedia of Witchcraft & Demonology that had belonged to my grandma back in the day. It’s something I have read bits and pieces from but never completed reading from start to finish so I’d like to finally do that. I’m not in a rush though, It’s a lot of information that I’d rather take my time and read here and there rather than all at once.

All the critters are doing well. Luna the baby hedgehog at my work is getting sooo big. She’s “quilling” right now so she’s a little grumpy at times but the Aveeno Oatmeal baths we’ve given her have helped a lot. Quilling is basically a process that can take up to 6 months of age where she will slowly be losing her baby quills here and there and having them replaced with her big girl quills. Here’s a pic of her after her first Oatmeal bath. She was so happy and relaxed afterward.

Bailey’s been living her best life, as always. 😛 Mr. Moth got her one of those little flower-shaped kitty water fountains and she LOVES it. It’s funny because he wasn’t exactly Team Cat before Bailey and I lived with him and he’s since turned into this Turbo Cat Dad, spoiling her rotten and researching things to make sure she is the happiest kitty she can be. ❤

My parents new fluff monster is also doing really well. 🙂 He had his first vet appointment and got a clean bill of health. He did really well while he was there and so he got a special “Shit Happens” treat from the doggy bakery. Kind of appropriate since they needed a stool sample from him for his first visit. Haha He’s such a happy boy and has already brought so much joy to my parents’ home with his goofy personality. The neighborhood squirrels may not like him but we adore him. ❤ We’ve been working on tricks and he currently knows “Sit”, “Lay Down” and “Speak”. He’s also really good at solving dog treat puzzles. ^_^

   

That’s pretty much it for my updates for March. I tried to focus on the more positive stuff for my post but it was definitely a month with its fair share of worry and tears. Hopefully April will be better. 🙂 How was your March? Oh, yeah, and Happy Spring! 😀

 

Art Update: January (and December)

Well, one of the things I was hoping to work on was practicing with other mediums (copic markers and digital art to be specific) so here are some of my more recent pieces done with that goal in mind. 🙂

I’ve been on a Rupaul’s Drag Race binge for several weeks and it had me wanting to draw some drag queens, and what better place to start than with Divine? It’s just a WIP at this point though because my red marker I was using died. D:

I love costumes and weird outfits so I could hardly resist drawing the spiky outfit from the Rodeo music video by Lil Nas X. Plus he’s got the whole vampire theme going on in the video so that just made it even more fun to draw because vampire teefs. 😛

I haven’t actually seen The Mandalorian yet (I know, I know) but I drew the little cutie pictured above on a Thank You card for someone I know to be a fan of the show. One day I’ll get around to the show and I’m sure I’ll love it, so no spoilers please! 😀

Well, I finally did it! I started playing around with my art tablet and came up with this pretty lady in purple pictured above. I have a lot of practicing to do with digital art but I’m looking forward to working at it and trying to learn new techniques. 🙂 Here’s hoping I’ll have plenty of new digital art to share in the months to come!

What have you guys been working on lately? Any fun projects or new hobbies you’re practicing at?

Fantasy Concept Art 2020

So, recently I stumbled across some old and very rough concept sketches for some fantasy creatures/beings and decided to slowly start inking and coloring them for fun. It had been years since I’d done the initial sketches so it was fun looking back on them and spiffing them up a bit. 🙂 So if Merfolk, Gorgons, and flying rats are your thing, please enjoy the following images!

I decided to take inspiration from the Frilled Shark for the coloring and gills on these two Deep Sea Merfolk. It was a lot of fun and I really enjoy this color scheme for them. 🙂

This Mer-Person, however, I wanted to play with color a little bit more.  I liked drawing the fins and whatnot on these guys, so maybe there will be more Merfolk to come in 2021. Who knows! 😀

It is both a tedious pain in the ass and very fun to draw Gorgon “hair” (aka: Danger Noodles) (aka: snakes). My attention span was not made for such things but I did thoroughly enjoy drawing these ladies. ❤

Again, this is all just concept art so please don’t mind how rough all these pieces are. 😉

I love rats. I also love bats. Needless to say, I would love to have a little rat-bat minion to ride on my shoulder and fly around town with me. Especially if that little rat-bat had purple fur like this little guy. Also, ignore the laws of aviation. I know his wings are too small but he is cute and that is clearly what really matters. ❤

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!! ❤ ❤ ❤