tripsis' Art Blog

In honour of the fact that I've been playing RuneScape, I drew a quick little runecrafting sketch :XD: If I continue with this picture, I think I'll make the person bigger. At first I wanted the nature altar to look really big, but looking at it, I feel like the person needs to be bigger. She needs fixing anyway because my anatomy is faaaaail!

Book of Zamorak Update

Some of the pages are still drying. I folded about half of them into signatures but some of the pages were still a bit too damp for my liking. So the folded half are currently sitting under some heavy stuff to flatten them out a bit and the other half is still drying! :) Hopefully the other half will be ready for folding by tomorrow or the day after. Then I can start sewing!

So it's been a few days (nearly a week actually) since I've posted an update on my RL Book of Zamorak. I did manage to dye *most* of the pages that I had cut out. I ended up skipping some because it got late and I was tired, but the book will still be pretty thick, which is good. Still over 200 pages, I think. Unfortunately the pages are STILL drying. Since I had to take them to university, I don't have enough space to lay them out to dry one at a time, so I had to stack them in three separate piles which GREATLY increases the time it takes to dry D: I guess it's not a big deal though since I'm still waiting for some supplies that's on order. I had a hard time finding corner protectors that were big enough so I bought an array of decorative corners that I will have to spray paint black. Also, I decided to make my own bookmark charm. Originally I wanted to craft the Zamorak Unholy Symbol out of Precious Metal Clay but that would require me to spend $50 on supplies (for the clay and a torch/kiln to fire it). So I decided to settle for second best: Polymer Clay. It's a bit cheaper and can be baked in a regular oven so there's no need to splurge on a torch. Hopefully this will work.. I've never been very good at working with clay XD But if all goes well, I will make a Zamorak Unholy Symbol charm, paint it black, attach it to a leather cord and use it as a bookmark for the book. I'm really hoping that I'll be able to start working on the signature block by Sunday (if the paper dries by then) so keep your fingers crossed for me! And just a side note, the paper looks great! It truly looks like paper that washed up to shore :D

Also, I'm going to create at least one practice book before binding the Book of Zamorak. There are a few things I want to do that I haven't done before and I want to make sure I do them right :) So once the cover boards (basically extra sturdy cardboard) I ordered arrive, I will work on my practice book.

MATERIALS LIST

[x] = Obtained

[ ] = On order

[x] Paper

[x] Closures

[x] Corners

[x] Bookbinding thread

[ ] Leather

[ ] Cover board

[ ] Sculpey (Polymer) Clay

BOOKBINDING STEPS

[x] = Completed

[ ] = Uncompleted

[x] Paper cut

[x] Paper dyed

(above two steps took 9 1/2 hours)

[ ] Signatures sewn into block & endpages attached

[ ] Cover boards and spine cut and design/spine bands pasted on

[ ] Unholy charm made & baked

[ ] Bookmark attached

[ ] Leather glued on & signature block attached

[ ] Corners and closures attached

[ ] Title page written (and possibly other pages of the book)

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In other news, I have been working on my next assignment for my art class. The topic this week was "texture" so I've been working on a leather carving :) It's not done yet, but here's what I have so far. It's a peacock if you couldn't tell :P

I have embarked on a new book-related project! This one is going to be much more time consuming than my last two books, first of all because it's going to be more intricate, and second of all because it's going to be THICK (over 200 pages). So far here's what I'm thinking:

A red leather-bound book with "aged" pages. On the front cover, the leather will be engraved with the Zamorak symbol. On the corners of the book will be black metal corner protectors. I may add other engravings/decorations to the front cover, but I haven't decided. I might just want to keep it more simple. The book will have clasps (closures) to help keep the book closed, but mostly just for decorations. The inside pages will be dyed in tea/coffee to give them an aged look. I'm also thinking of actually writing in the book (just random Zamorak stuff - maybe his history/spell/armour and maybe the Zamorak God Letters). But if I'm terribly bored of this project by that point, I may not write in it.. but it would be epic if I did!

Progress So Far:

Time spent planning, looking for supplies and buying supplies: 2 hours

Time spent measuring/cutting/dyeing paper: 4 hours and counting (not even halfway done! D: )

I have to get all the paper dyed by tomorrow because I'm going back to university and it's not really realistic for me to do any dyeing there.

[hide=Photos]Cutting Paper

Dyeing Paper in Tea

Paper Drying

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I have enough supplies to get the signature block done and I have the rest of the supplies (leather, claps, etc.) on order!

I made this journal for my sister :) Sewed the pages and made the cover myself, I didn't just throw some fabric over a pre-made journal ;) It's 80 pages and I used a lovely Chinese silk for the front cover (as well as some rhinestone trim along the edges). The bookmark isn't totally done yet. The leaf charm actually isn't attached to the cord yet, I need to find an O-ring somewhere. Once I do, the cord will be trimmed down and the charm will be attached. I don't want the cord to be quite that long :P

I apologize for the low quality images. The fabric is really quite stunning in person. The photograph doesn't do it justice!

I can't remember if I said this in a previous entry or not, but I've been teaching myself a few new crafts, one of which is bookbinding! I finished my very first book tonight! It's INCREDIBLY simple and there are many flaws, but it's only my first attempt! I will hopefully be creating more interesting and intricate leather-bound books with all sorts of fun embellishments in the future. So attempt #1:

I didn't have any proper fabric laying around but I wanted to finish the book tonight so I just grabbed a piece of an old, ripped up bed sheet :XD:

Anyway everything you see was handmade! I cut out all the sheets of paper, sewed them together, put together the cover/spine and then attached the signature block to the cover. It's not just a handmade book cover - the whole thing is handmade :) The cover boards and spine are made from the box that my new hard drive came in.. which is awesome, imo :XD:

Here is half of my assignment for art class. This photo is absolutely terrible. The lighting in my room at uni sucks, making the image dark and just desaturating most of the colours D:

Meh I don't know if I'll continue with this. It's just a crappy sketch at the moment and I'm far from happy with it. If I decide to continue, I'll have to spend a lot more time on refining the sketch and getting the anatomy right >_

P.S. If anyone has any cool, large, high quality RuneScape screenshots, feel free to post or PM them to me! I may use them as references for future drawings!

EDIT: Random sketch from class today :) It's of a classmate of mine.

I finally got around to finishing my Avatar picture!

I have a few assignments for my art class coming up so I may end up posting those in the next two weeks or so XD If I like how they turn out, that is :P

If you're reading this, hopefully you've seen Avatar (and in 3D), but if not, then I command you to go see it! I decided to jump on the Avatar fan art bandwagon and have a go at drawing Neytiri. Here's what I have so far and you can see the earlier WIP screenshots below that ;)

Here's the eye at 100% zoom, because I have an eye fetish:

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Drawing braids is TERRIBLE but hopefully I will get the hair done tomorrow D:

I posted the first WIP screenshots of my Queen of Hearts drawing a few weeks ago now D: I have since done a bit more work on it (though not much, admittedly):

That screenshot is at 25% zoom. Here are some 100% zoom screenshots for fun:

The designs on the throne aren't final and definitely won't be that obvious in the final version. They'll have a more "subtly engraved" look. I'm just throwing around some design ideas.

P.S. There are currently 192 hearts in this picture!

Final exams suck. This is how I study. I think I have an eye fetish.

I haven't made a new blog entry in what has felt like ages so I thought I'd post what I've been working on.. I've been working on this picture off and on for like a week or two now. I actually have an even more recent version than the latest one posted here, but the screenshot I took while I was working on it had a nasty word in it that I have to get rid of for posting on Tip.it and I'm too lazy to fix that now :D

The background design and floor textures are from CGTextures. The ground, at least, will eventually be removed and then redrawn by me. Just trying to get a feel for how I want it to look. And as you can see in the second two images, these screenshots are taken at 25%.

Just a quick doodle for fun. I was bored with it by the time I got to the hair, which is why it sucks :-# (there are other flaws too, I know)

I hope you have a great day ;)

I've been working on this off and on the past few days and it's finally done :)

And some fun, cheesy love quotes just because:

"True love is not something that comes everyday, Follow your heart, it knows the right answer."

"Love is a gift, not an obligation, follow your heart and always trust the person you love."

"To be able to say how much you love is to love but little."

"Some people come into our lives, leave footprints on our hearts, and we are never the same."

"Let your heart guide you...but listen closely because it whispers."

"Love is like a butterfly, it settles upon you when you least expect it."

Not sure if I like how it's coming tbh >_

So I was feeling lovey dovey and romantic tonight and thus I started a new picture, which I'm titling Follow Your Heart. It's still in the VERY FIRST stage so... don't judge it too much :lol: I literally only just threw down a gradient to set the mood, sketched out the characters (still have plenty of things to fix/redraw/change/add) and plotted down the base colours that I will be using.

In other news, I have the cutest snugglebug of a cat. My mom e-mailed me some photos (as I'm at uni):

I don't know what else to call it, so I'm calling it Muse :P Anyway I worked on this picture a bit more today. I'm not really sure if I like it. I'm not happy with the shading on the blue hand and I feel like the center is far too cluttered now. Might try to fix it, might not :P

Bleeeeeeeeeeeeeehhhhhhhhhhh. This (unfinished and may never be finished) drawing looked so much better in my head:

It started with Starlight by Muse:

My Life

You electrify my life

Let's conspire to re-ignite

All the souls that would die just to feel alive

From that, I got this idea of two hands touching and 'electrifying' each other in some romantic way, like having the spark between the two hands take the form of a heart or a butterfly. Then I started working off of this whole "opposites attract" theme with the canvas being divided into two different colours (of course, the typical male = blue; female = pink). Then I tried shading the hands (not shown) and my motivation disappeared when I realized how it was turning out (terribly).

Anyway, used a reference for the top right hand, and mostly used my own hand as a reference for the bottom left.

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Random note, but does anyone else keep track of books that they've read? I started doing that August 2008. I just thought it'd be cool to see how many books I read :XD: Here's my list if anyone is interested. At first I wasn't going to keep track of rereads but I changed my mind half way through.. so I read a few of these books multiple times :oops:

[hide=Books Read August 2008 to November 2009](August 2008)

1. Stardust by Neil Gaiman

2. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

3. Benito Cereno by Herman Melville

4. Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison

5. Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison

6. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

7. The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman

8. The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman

9. The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman

10. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling

11. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling

12. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling

13. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling

14. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling

15. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling

16. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling

17. Eragon by Christopher Paolini

18. Eldest by Christopher Paolini

19. Brisingr by Christopher Paolini

20. Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

21. Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer

22. New Moon by Stephenie Meyer

23. Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer

24. Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer

25. The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks

26. Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard

27. All The Little Live Things by Wallace Stegner

28. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis

29. Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis

30. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis

31. The Giver by Lois Lowry

32. Endymion Spring by Matthew Skelton

33. The Tapestry: The Hound of Rowan by Henry H. Neff

34. Evernight by Claudia Gray

35. Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton

36. The Companion's Quartet, Book One: Secret of the Sirens by Julia Golding

37. The Companion's Quartet, Book Two: The Gorgon's Gaze by Julia Golding

38. The Companion's Quartet, Book Three: Mines of the Minotaur by Julia Golding

39. The Tapestry: The Second Siege by Henry H. Neff

40. The Lost World by Michael Crichton

41. Angels & Demons by Dan Brown

42. The Companion's Quartet, Book Four: The Chimera's Curse by Julia Golding

43. A Series of Unfortunate Events, Book the Fifth: The Austere Academy by Lemony Snicket

44. A Series of Unfortunate Events, Book the Sixth: The Ersatz Elevator by Lemony Snicket

45. A Series of Unfortunate Events, Book the Seventh: The Vile Village by Lemony Snicket

46. Percy Jackson & The Olympians, Book One: The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

47. Percy Jackson & The Olympians, Book Two: The Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan

48. Percy Jackson & The Olympians, Book Three: The Titan's Curse by Rick Riordan

49. Percy Jackson & The Olympians, Book Four: The Battle of the Labyrinth by Rick Riordan

50. Percy Jackson & The Olympians, Book Five: The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan

51. A Bend In The Road by Nicholas Sparks

52. A Walk To Remember by Nicholas Sparks

53. Message In A Bottle by Nicholas Sparks

54. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling

55. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling

56. The Translator by Daoud Hari

57. The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown

58. When Heaven and Earth Changed Places by Le Ly Hayslip

59. Lipstick Jihad by Azadeh Moaveni (currently reading)[/hide]

Just a few more screenshots of my progress on the Scorpion King picture and what I have so far at the end of the day:

Working on the refined version, starting with the eyes (100% zoom)

Moved the army standard to the left (25% zoom)

Two layers of shadows, one layer of highlights on the face only (33.33% zoom)

Current version (25% zoom)

Random Notes

• I hate the nose, but I doubt I'll fix it (or even be able to).
  
• I may add scars/veins etc.
  
• I will be redoing the army standard. Right now it's still very much a sketch.
  
• May add more details to the background.
  
• May attempt to add some texture to the claw >_

If you've seen The Mummy Returns, you'll know who this is :P

The above images are all still sketches. The Scorpion King Army Standard will be much more refined and just... better XD Most of the drawings are pretty crappy.

[hide=W.I.P. #1][/hide]

This is just a sketch and me blocking in the colours to get the mood/lighting right. Hopefully I'll actually finish this >_

A bit early I know...

I was talking to Chris on MSN while drawing the picture, which resulted in me taking a bunch of "in progress" screenshots. So if you're interested you can check them out :P

[hide=Halloween WIP Screenshots]

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[hide=Details]Some screenshots of the picture while the canvas is zoomed in at 100%:

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And on a completely unrelated note, I love my kitty:

Cliche stuff is fun.

If I was feeling really cliche (and not lazy) I would have found a dictionary and made the heart right next to the definition of love. But I don't have a dictionary so I settled for my lame school book (which I so don't love) D:

I felt artsy today and thus drawing took priority over homework (as usual). This means I get to wake up at 8am to finish my homework but that's okay.

I told myself I was going to draw a realistic person for once so I started off with a black and white sketch just to see if it would work. I am ACTUALLY going to finish this one I promise :P So here's what I have so far:

Everything will be much more refined in the coloured version (and the lighting will be a bit better) but Peter said I should post this one :P

I don't know if I'll work anymore on this, so I guess I'll post it here :XD: Just decided to sketch a horse. It's obviously pretty messy but it was more of a sketch than a refined piece of artwork.