Caught in the Middle

Hullo All!

This is the challenge I chose to face today:

Challenge #21: Make an illustration influenced by your favorite illustrator.

Miss Edith Crawley from Downton Abbey, one of my favorite shows that just cannot come back on air soon enough! Sadly, Edith is one of my least favorite characters. But even though I feel sympathy for her the least, I feel bad that she's just so unlikeable. People are just now making fun of her on Tumblr. I feel awful because she's being cyber bullied, and she isn't even a real person!

I feel that it might be because she's a middle child. Or maybe it's because her attitude about getting what she wants is not to my liking?

Now onto my artspiration.

Truth be told, I have a lot of artspirations! But one of the first that I truly admired is Victoria Ying, who works at Disney Animation, my dream job destination! She did really amazing (understatement) work in Tangled and I could tear my eyes away from her blog when I first found it!

Now, she has many amazing art pieces, but these are probably my favorites. One is an original piece and one is, obviously, tribute art to The Little Mermaid. 

I have no formal training in art whatsoever, but I like how both "stiff" and "flowy" her works are. You can pretty much break the elements down into abstract shapes that flow, but the lines are bordering on being pointed or jagged. I don't know why that makes me like it so much, but I do. 

Case in point, instead of having Ariel's tail as a flowy "S" shape that most mermaid illustrations have (including my own), Victoria makes it like an upside-down L, and or a stiff looking "S." I don't know, by the dynamic is really exciting. It makes the illustration strong, but the subject matter of her drawings make them soft again!

And her coloring is very blocked. Although the colors blend and complement each other, you can still very clearly tell where one color ends and another begins. So her shadows are very clear and crisp. For me, I find that very educational because I learn a lot about lighting just by looking at her work as reference because obviously (as you can tell from my attempt above), I don't do stark shadows very well. I feel very off about it. But that's why looking at these works help. :) 

So, I honestly don't know if I was able to capture the look and feel of Victoria's work, but I was (and always am) surely inspired by her!

Tuttah,

Mishie

Fair Fortune.

Hullo All,

I got really excited about today's challenge!

Challenge #6: Make a children's book spread of a fairy tale

It seemed like a no-brainer to go for Grimm's or Hans Christian Anderson. Both collections are ones that I love, but I got really excited to show off my Potter nerdiness and put a twist to this challenge!

And so, I created a spread for The Fountain of Fair Fortune, from The Tales of Beetle the Bard, a collection of tales for wizarding children!

Click to enlarge and see the excerpt! (Might be a spoiler, though!)

I found this (The Tales) a great insight into the Wizarding World. Recently, it was announced that JK Rowling would be writing a screenplay for Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them! I feel that the Potterverse is so broad that, someday, these takes from Beetle the Bard could be films as well!

As for why I got attracted to this particular tale, I don't know. I just like it the most!

Are you a Potterhead? Please let me know! I loooove meeting fellow fans!

Tuttah,

Mishie

I Live for the Applause.

Hullo All,

Today's challenge is #3: Illustrate a song.

While I was tempted to go with a song with more story into it, I couldn't seem to shake off this image when Lady Gaga's "Applause" came on my Spotify playlist.

For me, this song falls into the same category as Britney Spear's "Lucky." Obviously your head might be screaming "What?!" but if you think about it, Gaga and Britney were talking about some kind of discussion about Hollywood.

What song do you find is powerful? 

Tuttah,

Mishie

The Risk of Weeping

Hullo All,

Determined to get the ball rolling with my path to Visual Development (like spiritual enlightenment), I've decided to take on some art challenges to hone my skills.

So, I turned to the Internet for ideas and came up with these awesome prompts/challenges for artists.

Challenge #1: Make a book cover for your favorite classic novel. 

Le Petit Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

While not really a classic novel, this novella really means a lot to me. When I first read it in senior year, the story is so meaningful and full of explorations about life, humanity and love.

"One runs the risk of weeping, if one lets himself be tamed."

Back then, we had been given a project to make a project of any sort inspired by The Little Prince.  I had made a journal, sketch, scrap book. I chose my favorite quotes, made illustrations and then essays about why those quotes meant a lot to me. I put a lot of heart and of myself into that work that year. The best works were displayed in the school lobby for the whole school to see. My work was not one of those displayed. But, to my surprise, when we got our works back from our teacher, he had slipped in a little note saying that he had really wanted to display my work in the lobby, but thought that my personal thoughts that I shared with him in my project might not be something I'd be comfortable sharing. I treasured his consideration and it meant more to me than having my work displayed. It just showed how much this book has affected me. 

Since then, I've also come up with a few The Little Prince inspired projects. In college, I used the idea to create a Writer's Manual for my Narrative class. I always get high grades when I am inspired by this, because it always triggers passion from me. 

What books have inspired you?

Tuttah,

Mishie

Dreams are Hard.

Hullo All,

Dreams are Hard.

Actually, let me correct myself. Dreaming is easy. Achieving those dreams is what's hard. 

It's sometimes too easy to dream. Technically and subconsciously speaking, dreams already let you live out what you desperately want in life. You are the person you want to be, doing the things you want to do, or experiencing things that you couldn't even believe you could go through in your waking life. It's an amazingly triumphant and ecstatic feeling--which is what makes waking so painful. That blissful feeling you get in that dream slips away really fast, and you get up in the morning, reeling at what it could be like, and what really is just doesn't hold up in comparison. 

Personally speaking, I don't mean this to apply to every aspect of my life. In many ways, I know that I am happier than I ever was. A few years ago, everything I am living now was figuratively and literally thousands of miles away. I had to live vicariously through the dream fulfillment of other people. 

People I knew, like Rainbowholic, was living in her dream country and working toward doing what she loved doing as her main profession. Other people simply blogged about what made them happy and what they did in their every day life and suddenly that is what they did to earn income. 

Anyone that knows me beyond as an acquaintance probably already knows that I would love to be a Visual Development Artist. But then again, the same people may also know that I want to write, whether for page or screen. To do either or both would be bliss and I realize, that I want to do is to tell stories. 

What made me decide to want to pursue visual development then? 

Well, from childhood to adulthood I have always enjoyed stories. The stories I loved the most are those that let me feel the stories from all the senses imaginable. It wasn't just Disney that taught me to dream; so did Harry Potter, Hey Arnold, anime, Final Fantasy, The Little Prince--and all these wonderful stories that taught me about life through different worlds. They taught me to be happy, sad, frustrated, angry, anxious and scared. I not only experienced these stories, but met so many wonderful people and had many real world experiences through them. 

Harry Potter helped me meet my very best friends. I've had so many laughs and emotional moments with them. Referencing these stories helped make sense of the real life experiences we were having and helped us through different challenges. The same goes with other stories.

What I would like, no, what I would love is to be able to do this for others. Drawing and writing are skills I have been given so that I could really communicate the same magic with many people. This is what I dream to do in my life. 

And now, call it a Quarter Life Crisis or what have you, I am experiencing a frustration. Now more than ever, I want to start reaching my goal. Dreams let you so easily imagine what it is already like to be in that state that you desire, but experiencing the grind to reach the top is the biggest struggle I've ever faced. Lately, it has been stressing me out physically and emotionally--even spiritually. Days go by where I would get up in the morning and think, "Why can't I just be there already?"

I have spent many late nights, wide awake and thinking about how hard it is to be where I am now and what could already be. Every morning, I heave a sigh and suck it up. 

But the hardest thing about dreams is not doing anything about it. The more time I spend heaving sighs and sucking it up, the more time I spend not doing anything to reach my dream, the more time I spend not living it. 

So, for the past few days I have been trying to pick myself up. And as an added spice of destiny, it was another magical wizard from an amazing story that gave me the inspiration to turn my dream into reality. 

I am beginning with the end in mind. That is what the Merlin Method states. 

I can see the end. And now, I'm going to power through to get to it. 

This is the moment where I break out of my routine. Everything from here on end will have a purpose, exactly like everything in storytelling and visual development. 

I am going to get there. Watch me transfigure dreams into reality like BAMF wizard. 

- MishieWishie