sewing project // frozen // anna's coronation dress

Hey everyone!

   I know I haven't been posting much, hence this update post...

   I don't know if I've ever told you, but Willow and I have been taking sewing lessons for a while now, and we've finally come to the point where we can sew princess dresses (with much assistance, of course).

   Originally, I wanted to do Cinderella's dress from the new movie, but Willow wanted to do Belle's dress at the same time, and seeing that we still haven't got a good look at it in the trailers, we though it would be better to wait and do them together.

   Anna's coronation dress is going to be a tough one, especially compared to Elsa's coronation dress, which Willow is doing. There's a thousand patterns on the skirt. I'm sure mine will take much longer than hers to complete.

   At the moment, I am working on her bustier, which is velveteen. I have all of the fabric, and have cut out most of the applique.

Pattern wise, I'm using this Simplicity pattern for adults.

Look at that. Just look at all of those designs on her skirt.

Groan...

I have a bad feeling about this (jinx!).

Sincerely,

Darrion

market makings // pumpkins and teacups // watercolor

Whew.

   It's been a while since I've actually posted any of my artwork, much less the more traditional, not fanart kind. But here we go! And there's a little story to go with it, too :)

   Okay, so almost every year my church holds an event called "Christmas in October", which is a money raising event for our missionaries. We send them money for Christmas early, as in October. Usually, we just donate for certain needs each missionary has. But this time, people in our church are selling their handiwork and donating the money they get from it. The event is being called Market for Missions.

   Willow is sewing five doll dresses, and I did six watercolors in frames I got from church. It took me... well, forever. Our art teacher brought some pumpkins, and I did watercolors of those. The first two are of the same pumpkins, but colored differently.

Which one do you like better, out of the two of them?

   I liked this one at first. I was happy with the tiny pumpkin and the long red and yellow one, but the background wasn't as I imagined it. But my art teacher helped me lighten it up, so I'm pretty happy with it now.

   I'm very happy with those pumpkins. It's funny, 'cause I was frustrated with the watercolor below (more specifically, the plump one on the right), so I redrew them and worked on it instead. That's how I ended up with two from the same reference.

   I'm more happy with this background, but the pumpkins are more realistically colored, so they're not as appealing to me.

   And now that I look at it, that pumpkin is kinda small... huh. Well, nothing I can do about it now!

   I was inspired to do these teacups by a birthday card I made for a friend, which was really fun to watercolor. But because I wanted to match the frame with the coloring, I chose different cups to paint than I did on the card, which changed everything. I set the stack on a bunch of books as a reference and started drawing them out. I'm not completely satisfied with it, but it's good enough to be called done.

   The middle teacup was the most fun to watercolor. I loved doing the sporadic flowers and greenery, which were more suggested than detailed.

   I've painted this bottom cup before, my first finished watercolor, actually :) It's my mom's Danish cup, so it has some sentimental value to it also. Personally, I love Danish cups. They're so pretty and blue, that really made me happy with it.

   Anyway, this top teacup was the hardest, and is the one I'm not very pleased with. It didn't end up like I had imagined it. It's a Russian cup, and I wanted to show the gold embellishment on the inside, which is why it's on the top. I don't think it's separated enough from the middle cup, which is probably because of the gold paint I used on them were the same.

My art teacher asked me to pick out a few little frames to paint tiny pictures in, seen above. Three was good enough for me, and my favorite is the one in the middle. I didn't use a reference for any of these.

I don't like this one as much because it the experiment, the first one I painted. Smack-dab in the middle, too.

This one was more Halloween inspired, with the clouds and moon like that.

This one's my favorite because of how the colors work together. Very happy with it.

Close-up for close-up sake... Oh, and I used a pen to outline them rather sloppily, to look more artsy or something ;)

Whew! That's six watercolors for one event. I have no idea if they'll sell, but I'll let you know if they do. Do you guys have a favorite? Comment below if you do!

Thanks for reading, guys!

Sincerely,

Darrion

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

digital art... here i come! // D buys a wacom intuos pen and touch medium

Hey guys! Got some exciting news...

   I just bought a digital art tablet! Whew.

   After lots of fretting, research, and general hesitance, I finally got a Wacom Intuos medium tablet.

   And, having never used one before, looked up a bunch of digital art tutorials and how-to's on Youtube. They were very helpful in making me feel less daunted by handling such a technological advancement (at least for me it will be).

   I've always liked the way digital art looks, and how clean and crisp you can get things with it. Also, I wouldn't have to go to the store to buy more pencil lead or watercolor paints, etc. That would be the cheap side of me. Buy one expensive item and never have to buy all those little ones! Yep, a real deal.

   Of course, that doesn't mean I'm not going to be doing traditional art anymore. I'll still be doing those things, but I will be concentrating on the digital side of things more.

   I also want to prove to my dad that digital art is real art. 'Cause it is.

(maybe i'll finish this cinderella watercolor someday, i dunno... just wanted to stick this on here to show you my messy/cluttered traditional art workspace, i.e. the dining room table) {*Willow hacks D's blog* her workspace is usually a lot messier, I don't know why she says it's "messy". You ain't seen nothin' yet!}

   So, it's suppose to arrive pretty soon... sometime between this week and the end of the next. Hopefully I'll have something to show you from it, maybe a quite test sketch or something.

   If you've ever used digital art before (or just a art tablet, you know), please, leave a comment below and give me a tip/trick! Seriously, I'd love to hear them :)

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

new pinterest board for my art // announcement

Hey guys! It's Darrion. I've got an announcement to make.

   Yes, I have a Pinterest board for my artwork. It's rather new, and I forgot to tell you guys on my blog :) Hence the update post.

   Click here to see the board, which doesn't have much on it yet, but will as I go along with making posts on the blog.

   Also, a new header/background is here!

Looking forward...

A colored pencil drawing (*ahem* above *ahem*)

A 'making of' drawing

Hobbit fanart

Star Wars fanart

etc.

Sincerely,

Darrion

I Did the Thing!

Hey guys!

   Yes, I have done the thing. If you don't know the beginning of the story, click here to see that post.

   Well, if you did read that, you know that I entered two drawings (one pencil and one pen-and-ink) into the localish fair, and that I signed up to do a demonstration.

   Yesterday I did just that! I was surprisingly calm (thank you God!) and packed up printed out pictures to draw, pencils, everything I would need. Dad packed the food (since we would be there from 2 to 6, meaning 4 straight hours), I listed to Peter Hollen's cover of Baba Yetu all the way there, and we made it safely.

   Let's just get straight that I don't really like fairs. Actually, I think I've only been to a few when I was pretty young, so I couldn't say much about them before now. The sound of kids screaming combined with the buzzing of rides, the shady teenagers continually flipping their overgrown bangs out of their faces and always hanging on their significant-other's arm, and the smell of animal exhibits are not appealing to me.

    But I wasn't their to see the sights. Inside the long building, before we went looking for the superintendent, I went through the 'fine arts' exhibits. Adults, young adults (older teens), little kids, and finally 'youth' (younger teenagers).

   Immediately I looked for my stippling, and found it with a '1st' on the tag.

   Then, on the same wall, my pencil drawing of Rachel McAdams was labeled '1st' with a blue ribbon next to it.

   I beamed, having not expected a blue ribbon. But then I noticed something peculiar. In the group of entries, more than half of them were placed 1st. Then the rest were 2nd, and only a couple were 3d. I suppose some people look at that as 'everyone's a winner', but I find it a hallow victory. I mean, if everyone wins, no one wins, because there's no real competition . I was looking for the 1st, 2nd, 3d, and the rest would be honorable mentions. But only a few had ribbons, which made me feel better about the system of judging.

   What do you do with ribbons, anyway? Hang them on your wall or something? (I never thought I'd have to ask this)

   I also noticed another pencil sketch, of (and called) Amy Pond. Man, I wish the girl who drew that was there when I was. It was a great sketch, too.

   After quickly looking to where I had placed, we found the lady who was in charge and she gave me the choice of two tables, one next to someone else (a guy with a bunch of model aircraft) or one all by itself in the middle of the hall.

   I picked the one next to Mr. Aircraft and spread my drawings around. The guy wasn't annoying or anything, it's just that because different people came by at different times, he had to tell the dumpster story one too any times, and that was annoying.

   Mom and Dad went off to enjoy the fair, and Willow stuck with me (since she decided that she doesn't like fairs at all).

Willow, the every cheerful, helpful, and uplifting spirit.

   Look at that, she's looking up sarcastically at my caption :) Anyway, she was good company as I started to finish my first drawing.

   I had been working on this drawing of Mason (Aidan Turner) for a while, but had never gotten around to finishing the background. But now was the perfect time, so I whipped it out and started on completing it. This is the end product, a bit sloppy, but I like it, though it still needs some work.

   One of the things I found is that when drawing in a warm environment, your hands can get rather sweaty. Which means when you try to smear the pencil led for shading, it sort of sticks to the page more, so you can't get it off when you want to, and it's uneven. It gets all over your fingers and hand. But as my teacher had told me, I ripped a piece of clean paper and put it on where my hand rests on the page, and the led didn't smear there like it normally would. Basically, it prevents this...

   After that I started a brand new drawing of a photo I pulled off of the internet. It was also a bit sloppy, but I'm going to try and fix it up sometime soon.

   And then I started another, this one fanart. It's of the Winter Soldier and Cap's shield (not yet colored, of course). I didn't get to finish it, by the time I had gotten halfway through, it was already six.

Me drawing the Winter Soldier...

 

   A good number of people stopped and looked at the drawings I had displayed and commented on them. Since it was senior day, the nice old people said how they liked it. A few asked how old I was. One thing I learned from this is that from now on I'm going to stop and tell the demonstrators how I like their stuff. It feels really great to hear what people think, and it's sort of disappointing if they don't say anything.

All in all, it went really well. Thanks to you guys who encouraged me on this, it was real helpful :)

Post again soon!

Sincerely,

Darrion