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

the frost // photography

Hey guys!

   You might have noticed how I disappeared for a little while. I've had a stall in my artistic spirit, so here's some photography from... last year, I think?

   So I've been busy with other things... weddings, vacation, school... quite a combination :) Maybe a post about that will follow sometime.

   What made me want to post these old photos? Well, since fall is finally here, the frost has been collecting on our lawn almost every morning. It looks so pretty, but I haven't been able to drag myself out of bed in time to capture it :) So I thought I'd share these old things with you.

Yeah, this photo is more wintery... snow on the branches and all :)

You also may have noticed the new header and background. Like it, or no? Let me know what you guys think! I took that picture on our vacation.

Well, that's all for now! Hopefully I'll have some art for you sometime later... or more photography...
or both!

Sincerely,
Darrion

self by self // pencil

Aghhhhhhh...

   I have decided that self-portraits are hard.

   Why do I keep doing them? Because I got a mirror from Ikea, that's why. And because I have no other drawing ideas, that's why.

   Anyway, I'm not sure if this one turned out better than the last one, but I look super... moody. Or just plain mad. I'm not mad, by the way, it's just hard to keep a smile while you're concentrating on drawing. Not to mention, my face hurts if I smile too much. I'm a {Willow calls from the other room: pessimist!} realist, like Tintin.

  I used the base of the mirror to make the circle, because it's impossible for one to draw a perfect circle on one's own (at least for this one). Oh, and I got this red shirt from Costco that has a zipper down the back. Weird, but stylish. That's what I'm wearing above. Gonna try to get Willow to take a picture of me in it...

   Anyway, this one had a lot of shading to do, which was fun. But I think I need to work on doing my forehead, it's a little longer than in this drawing. And work on smiling. Yeah, that too.

   I did another portrait (here) a while ago. Not sure if I've improved much. What do you guys think? See anything I need to work on? Please, tell me in the comments below! I'd love to hear it :)

Thanks for reading, guys.

Sincerely,

Darrion

a day at the fair // photography and general fairness

Back to the fair!

Okay, if you missed last post, which showcases my winnings, click here before continuing :)

   Ah yes, a wonderful day at the fair. If you haven't noticed from previous posts, I'm not too fond of the fair. In fact, I haven't enjoyed the experience before now.

   But this time, I shall :) It was more fun then I thought it would be, and I got a lot of good pictures out of it.

Just gonna quickly stick these here for no apparent reason...

*coughs awkwardly*

   Anyway, back to the other stuff we did there. After squealing our way through the artistic entries, we moved on to the livestock, which consisted of plugging our noses through the pig, sheep, and goat stalls. Then we found the other animals, including chickens stuffed into cages. It was very loud in there, seeing that this one irritating rooster wouldn't stop crowing his annoying head off. Who knew such little lungs could be so loud?

   As you can see, the other chickens weren't too appreciative. Poor things were stuck with him all day.

And then there were the adorable fluffy and tiny Guinea Pigs. *calls over shoulder* Mom, I want one!

   After that, Mom and Dad wanted to go check out the Llama pens, at which point Willow and I drew the line. We waited outside and watched 4H kids attempt to get their dogs to obey them as they roamed around the course, paying them no heed.

    Our parents emerged, pointing us to this five day old baby llama, which was absolutely adorable. Little fluffy baby :)

*baby llama don't need no drama*

   My past experience with fair food was a... let's say an unpleasant one. The burger I had after demonstrating my drawings wasn't exactly an In-N-Out.

   But the piroshki Willow and I shared, which is apparently a Russian thing, was very good. It changed my opinion of fair food, for sure :)

   Then there was this old photo studio, where they took our picture in old fashioned dress.

That was pretty cool, especially when I got to hold the pistol :)

   Because Willow and I shared that piroshki thing, we got a milkshake at the Purple Cow in addition to lunch. They were rather expensive, but tasted very good :)

Willow got boring old vanilla, and I got blackberry, which was wonderful.

Aw, so good... if you ever have the option, get a blackberry shake from the Purple Cow.

   Dark clouds looming overhead, my mother somehow convinced us that going inside, where the vendors were, was a good idea. About a hour and a half later, we decided to never do that again. It rained buckets while we were in there, but despite being indoors, I was very cold. That milkshake probably didn't help much... still worth it...

   In the end, this trip changed my view of the local fair. It was a fun family time, with good food, served up with a side of sunshine, and cool rain for desert.

   Thanks for reading my changed mind, and taking a peek at the photography! And in the comments, tell me about your experience with the fair. Do you love it or hate it? Any funny experiences? Lemme know below!

Blog again soon :)

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*