i won a thing! // best of show

Hey everybody!

   It's Darrion again. And I've got some news about the fair...

   If you missed my last post, click here to read about my entries into the local fair.

Well, here it goes.

   Before the fair, I kept it cool and my expectations low as to not have my hopes and dreams dashed against the rocks. I expected to be ranked in 1st place, and hoped for nothing more.

   Internally, I really wanted an extra ribbon. Maybe a Junior Achievement Award like last year.

   Willow and I didn't want to know what we won until our trip to the fair. So zero spoilers from our friends (and mom) were required.

   Finally, the day came and we all packed into the car, jacket thrown in the trunk from the expectation of rain, and camera hung around my neck for safety. I listened to Baba Yetu and Now We Are Free covered by Peter Hollens until we arrived.

   Our first visit was to the sewing entries, where Willow had submitted a shirtdress. She got a first place (yay!), and we saw a lot of our friend's entries as well.

  This is the shirtdress she sewed. We started sewing lessons from a lady at church about one skirt and one dress ago.

Cute, huh? :)

   Then we made our way through the other sewing entries, and finally, we got to the fine arts section. The little kids artwork was first, which was adorable to look at :) We took a minute to view theirs before my sister turned the corner and gasped.

   But first, here's a quick explanation on how their ranking system works.

   This certain fair uses the Danish system, which is ultimately an everybody wins type placing. One third gets 1st, one third gets 2nd, and the remaining one third goes to the people in 3rd. Which is okay, I guess.

But they do have special ribbons, which really determines who was the best. There's Best of Show, Class Winner, the Junior Achievement Award, and others I can't remember. There were only two I saw in my age group (I was in youth, Willow was in young adult), which were Best of Show and Class Winner (I probably glanced over the Junior Achievement).

   Okay, back to the winnings.

   I turned the corner and clapped my hands over my mouth to suppress the sequels. I was definitely not expecting that.

My Hobbit Hole door watercolor had won Best of Show in my category.

*squealing intensifies*

(photo credit to Willow)

I was so surprised, I just laughed.

   Surprisingly, it got a 2nd place on my other entry, but also a Class Winner ribbon. How that works, I do not know. I thought they'd... you know... put the winner of the class ribbon on a 1st place winner. But apparently, a few judges had different views :) I was surprised to get this in addition to best of show.

Two ribbons total. I was pumped.

(photo credit to Willow)

  
   On the next wall, we found Willow's watercolor. Surprisingly, it hadn't won a ribbon in young adult. But she had much tougher competition than I had.

I think it turned out great! Smiles and congrats all around.

   This specific door is 221B. Bakerstreet, the apartment that Sherlock Holmes lived in. She wanted a simple door, and didn't realize that black just isn't really black :) Purple was the most used color, as you may have noticed. The checkered tiling was really hard. But she pushed through it, and the lovely matting really brought out the orange.

   Willow and I worked on our doors at the same time during art class, though she finished hers first.

   Well, after that we spent the rest of the day roaming the fair, which you'll soon get to hear about in a day at the fair. I'll make a post about that adventure soon!

In the meantime, thanks for reading, guys! I really appreciate it. Blog ya later :)

Sincerely,
Darrion

*internet thumbs up*

i'm entering a thing!

Hey everybody!

   I just thought I'd let you know that I'm entering artwork into the fair again this year! But this time, I won't be demonstrating.

   To tell you the truth, I'm not a real fan of fairs. That greasy smell mixed with the woosh of rollercoasters and screams of their riders isn't that appealing to me. Also, youths holding hands and taking selfies aren't too fun to be around, either.

   But I do like looking at entries in both art and photography, and maybe a tad bit of sewing also.

   My sister Willow entered a dress she made, and a watercolor of the door of Sherlock Holmes, 221 B. Bakerstreet.

   I entered a watercolor of a blue Hobbit Hole door. Not Bilbo's house (the green door), but a mixture of two other Hobbit holes. I liked the scenery in one, but wanted the blue door of the other. So I added it :) My sister and I worked on our doors with our art teacher every Thursday for about six months to a year. Yep, it took forever. Which is why we got them framed and matted all fancy.

   Unfortunately, I didn't think to take a picture of the finished product before I submitted it. Oops :/ I wish I could show you guys, but I guess you'll just have to wait 'till the next "thing" post to see it :)

   I do, on the other hand, have a picture of the other entry, a pencil and colored pencil portrait.

(credit to Willow for holding it for two seconds {Willow's note: it was longer than two seconds! At least ten!} while I got the above picture)

   Usually, I don't post things I do for gifts. But this is an exception, since I borrowed it back to enter into the fair. I did it for a friend from church, Jenna, who was graduating from school. I had wanted to do something big and in depth for a while, and this seemed like a good opportunity.

   Normally, I'd never do something this big for a gift. I try to make things good, but this was a lot bigger than I thought it would be at the start. But since she was graduating, which is kind of a big deal, I thought "why not?"

   Jenna really likes vintage things, especially clothing. And since I wanted to draw her in a vintage dress, I pulled a picture off of Pinterest of a lady from Downton Abbey in this wonderful striped dress. Willow and I had done a photoshoot with Jenna awhile ago, so I got a picture of her from one of those photos and mentally transplanted her head onto the neck of the dress lady. Drawing the bottom half as the dress and the top half as her very own head and face, I got the perfect picture.

   This took about a week or two to complete (I think...), since her party was coming up soon. It was very rushed, and to tell the truth I nearly broke down in front of my teacher because I had to redraw the outline so many times, but I made it in the end!

   Since they don't contact you and let you know what place you've gotten (and we've forbade our friends from spoilers), we'll be heading out to the fair to see for ourselves. I'll make a post about that trip as soon as possible, so keep a whether eye on the horizon for that :)

   If you're interested in seeing my entries in the fair last year, as well as hear the stories about demonstrating, click here for the part one and here for part two.

Thanks for viewing, guys! Wish me luck :)

Sincerely,

Darrion

agent carter // signed by hayley atwell // pencil, colored pencil, tinted paper

This is an interesting one.

   My Dad took Willow (my older sister), our good friend Ammelia, and myself to the Emerald City Comic Convention last March (2015) for one day, Friday.

   We got a few things signed (and photos taken with all) by different people (Alex Kingston, Hayley Atwell, and Chloe Bennett), but that's for another post.

   We were one of the last people to make it into the line for Hayley Atwell's (Agent Peggy Carter from Marvel) signature. But the thing was, we had to get pictures with Alex Kingston, and get there fast, it was going to be done soon, which was rather unnerving. But finally, the stragglers of the group got their signatures and it was my turn.

   She said it was fantastic, and that I was very talented. I didn't talk much, we didn't have much time. But her accent was beautiful :) She was a nice person, from the brief moments we got to talk to her. Ammelia pointed out that she seemed tired. I didn't notice, but she probably was. All that smiling... ugh, it'd make anyone's face hurt.

   After that, we raced to Alex Kingston's photo booth. We got them, by the way :) All's good, we never missed anybody in our trip.

    I carefully laid out the picture so that, when she signed, her name would be above "as Agent Carter", so it would end up being "Hayley Atwell as Agent Carter". That was kind of cool. I had to look up fonts from Agent Carter quotes to get the lettering right.

   It's kind of funny, I wasn't done with this when we were on our way to the Con. I was finishing the words while we were stuck in the painfully slow traffic. I didn't get to line the words with pen until we got back home. It was kind of a rush project :)

   I wasn't very happy with the paper my art teacher brought at first, because of it's texture. It had little indents (you can see 'em above, in her blue jacket), and it looked funny at first. But soon enough, it came out looking kind of comic-book-like, so it was fine.

   The colors really popped, I'm very happy with how the red and blue came out. My teacher was so helpful, she helped me mix the colored pencils to make good blues and reds.

   Anyway, that was an adventure to remember! I'm going to have this framed someday, hopefully. I hope you enjoy this little tale, and the art too, even if you're not in the fandom :)

Sincerely,

Darrion

he's fast // quicksilver // pencil and colored pencil

   So, drowning in feels from the Avengers: Age of Ultron (which we saw the day it came out), I thought I'd do a quick (lame pun) sketch of my favorite character from the movie.

   No, not Cap (though he is my favorite Avenger for obvious reasons), Tony, Thor, Bruce (nope), Clint, the Vision, or Nat (definitely not her, ugh), but a new character, Pietro Maximoff.

   You didn't see that coming?

   Note that this was just a quick sketch, I didn't put lots into it. I'm thinking about doing a better one on grey tinted paper. Thoughts? Also, maybe one of Wanda on said paper that says, she's weird.

   I'm working on a digital art piece of him (it's going great so far, he's super fun to draw), so be watching for that in the near future.

 Oh, and about what happened to him in the end.

I didn't see it coming.

Sincerely,

Darrion

star wars oc character mj // pencil and colored pencil

Okay, sorry I've disappeared for a few days.

   I said I'd have some digital art to show you. And I do, though it's not finished yet, which is why I'm posting this instead.

   But yeah, the tablet's going great! It's not as difficult to transition from traditional to digital as I thought it would be, though you've really got to watch which layer you're on when you're drawing...

   But anyway, this alien (Togrutan, actually. You may know the species, like Ahsoka Tano or Shaak Ti?) girl is an OC (original character) of mine, nicknamed MJ (real name Magenta). I've placed her in the Star Wars galaxy, when the Empire is reigning with an iron fist. She's sweet, curious, and always wants to help, though she does have an odd line of work... she helps her 'dad' (not her real dad, but the guy who's raising her) during school break, who happens to be a professional bounty hunter. She's good with tech and a blaster, though never takes a life unless it's necessary.

    I drew this to kind of prove to myself that I could still do portraits, since I hadn't drawn something like this in a while. I also wanted to work with my colored pencils some more.

   I'm pleased with how it turned out, just like I pictured it. I have no real face reference to go off of, though I did use my own eye-shape as a reference. I used some photos of Ahsoka as a guide to her montrals (head-tale-things), which were a complete joy to color and shape.

   To distingish her from the popular jedi padawan of Masker Skywalker, Ahsoka Tano, I've colored her more red than Ahsoka's orange. Her montrals have different markings also. I've tried different facial markings, but ended up with a simple (and rather similar) eyebrows, cheek defining markings, and an arrow shaped going down her forehead. I'm not quite settled on those, I'm still experimenting with different looks. I also added green eyes, compared to Ahsoka's bright blue ones.

   Anyway, I hope you like this portrait, you'll probably be seeing more art of this OC in the future. I'm working on my digital art, I'll try and have something to show you by the next time I post.

Sincerely,

Darrion

Commander Ponds // pencil and colored pencil // notebook sketch

Hey guys!

   Yes, another notebook sketch. Yes, it's a clone again.

   This time, it's Commander Ponds. He served under Jedi General Windu during the Clone Wars, until he had a little run-in with Boba Fett. Awful ending of a great character. Really wish he could've at least had a more honorable death.

   His hands are probably too small, but other than that, I'm quite happy with how he turned out. The shading was fun, and using the tinted graphite and colored pencils added some color.

   'Cause I love photography close-ups... here's a bonus one :)

Sincerely,

Darrion

Commander Jet // pencil and colored pencil // notebook

Hey everyone!

   Yes, another Star Wars fanart notebook sketch for you. You might not recognize this clone, since he's only in a few episodes of the Clone Wars. He's ranked under General Ki Adi Mundi for a time while in the second battle of Geonosis.

   His armor is different than most of the troops, painted to camouflage with the Geonosis greenery (*cough cough* or the lack of *cough cough*). I think his visor is a bit off, but oh well :) I used my led colored pencils for his armor, and regular pencil for everything else.

   I've got one more clone sketch in my notebook coming soon, so watch out for that :) Thanks for viewing guys!

Sincerely,

Darrion

Commander Gree // pencil and colored pencil // notebook

Happy Saint Patrick's Day, everyone!

   I hope you had a good time of... celebrating... whatever is suppose to be celebrated today...

   Anyway, I've got a green fanart drawing for you!

   He's the Commander of the Green Company, a young man interested in alien cultures and warfare, and eventually got stabbed in the chest by a little green guy.

   Any guesses?

   Yep, you guessed it: clone Commander Gree of the 41st. Elite Corps (the last hint did it for you, huh?). Though I actually don't know that much about him (since his character wasn't fleshed out much in the Star Wars movies or the Clone Wars TV show), I'd like to. He has an interesting angle to his character.

   I did this one in my smaller notebook (the same one I did my Rex sketch in), and took a while refining it. I used the led colored pencils and regular Prismacolor type to bring out more color, since the led ones are more earthy and toned down, and used regular pencils for everything else.

There's more of these clone notebook sketches to come!

Happy Saint Patrick's Day, everyone!

Sincerely,

Darrion

thorin in blue // pencil and colored pencil

Hey guys! Darrion again.

   Quick announcement, I've joined a Pinterest group board called Christian Artists where a bunch of us Pinterest artists can post our artwork. Click here if you'd like to take a peek! There's quick a variety of styles on there, seeing that there are over 40 people who've joined.

  Okay, back to our regular programing ;)

   It's Thorin drawn in his own eye color, blue (though in some early photos he actually has gray eyes, which is odd...). I did this one a while ago, actually... I think it was in mid 2014, but I'm not positive since I've only recently started putting dates on the back of the paper.

   Anyway, this was my first experimentation with colored pencils and regular pencils together, so pardon the mess. The woman in red I posted earlier was done a while after this one, and Thorin is a great deal smaller than her, hence less detail.

   I hope you guys like this one! Also, I did one of Thrain (with red again) shortly after Thorin, so that one should be coming soon.

Sincerely,

Darrion

woman in red drawing // pencil and colored pencil

Hey again! It's D.

   Departing from the flow of fanart I've posted, here's a more normal type of drawing. I was playing around with colored pencils and I ended up doing an all red portrait (not of myself of course, but some lady's photo I pulled off of the internet).

   To start, I did a rough sketch of her face and the direction of her hair to give myself a guideline to go off of as I continued, and did it all in pencil. Her face actually doesn't look so much like it did in the photo, but that happens.

   Then I went over that with a red colored pencil (the usual Prismacolor type), then went over that again with a darker, normal pencil to add more shadow.

    Her hair was really dark in the photo I got off of Pinterest, so I went free range and sort of made it up, since I couldn't see any detail. The top was sort of an Elsa kind of hair thing, but I had a lot of fun with it as I made my way down. I ended up really liking the way her hair came to a point on the right side (her right, of course).

   Her lips were a bit difficult, her eyelashes didn't look quite right, and her cheekbone was a challenge (I kept making it too dark). But over all it was really fun to draw, and a good experiment with colored pencils and portraits.

   There'll be more of these to come, since I did one small one of Thorin and one of Thrain. Also, a 'making of' a sketch is coming soon.

Thanks for viewing! :)

Sincerely,
Darrion