Inadequacy.

Hullo All,

When I wrote about how Dreams are Hard, one of the things I failed to mention was my fear of inadequacy. 

Sometimes when I hop around the internet looking for inspiration, the most common thought I have in my head is: "Oh, I don't know how to do that. My skill level is way below par."

Most recently, I was scrolling through the blog of Brittney Lee, Griselda Sastrawinata and Mall Lucidine. I love their art styles so much and one trait of their art styles that I have always loved is the texture they have in their work. 

Mermaid Lagoon by Brittney Lee

White Floties by Griselda Sastrawinata

Merrily, Merrily by Mall Licudine

Now, I know for a fact that they (at least, Brittney and Griselda) do this on Photoshop. Yet, for the life of me, I can't figure out how they are able to flawlessly remove outlines from their work--or even what brush they're using to achieve that texture. 

Whenever I see artwork and technique that stumps me, I end up Googling everything-- "How to achieve sketchy look in Photoshop" or whatever ridiculous keywords I think will help me find the answer. And when after hours of searching I still end up with nothing, I slump my head on my keyboard and think, "I am inadequate. I have no talent."

I realize that I beat myself up this way. I try to think so much and so frequently about why artists are able to do things that I can't. I grumble whenever I take four hours to do a piece that seems like it should only take thirty minutes to do. 

This tendency to compare and impatience is a major flaw in my fight for my dreams. 

And now I believe more than ever--and this was obvious to me in the beginning but I refused to believe that there wasn't any shortcuts--that I just have to suck it up and learn it slowly. Maybe I'll stumble into the answers I'm searching for, and develop the skills that I have been dying to attain. 

In the meantime, I am doing Vlogtober on my YouTube channel! Vlogtober is an annual thing that I do where I make videos for every day in October. Most artists are doing Inktober though. 

Anyway, wish me luck,

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

Art Portfolio Site

Hullo All!

Illustration has pretty much taken over me (in a good way) these past few months. And because this is more or less the life path that I've chosen to go down in the next few years, I decided that it was about time to put up a serious portfolio site for my works.

I do have my Behance and Tumblr pages, but they, to me at least, don't allow me to be as personal as I want to be with them. Somehow, while Tumblr is fun and you can immediately see the response people give your work, there is less organization involved and I really, really suck at coding. 

Behance, on the other hand, is a great way to put your work side by side with other professionals, but limits it to your projects and not much else because it's a networking site first and foremost. 

So I finally strapped on my big-girl pants and anchored myself down during the weekend to come up with a portfolio. 

Lo and Behold!

www.michelledelrosario.wix.com/mishiedelrosario

This is now a place purely for my art. I've also uploaded my work in advertising and social media on there too because they need a place in my portfolio.

Feel free to scan and drop me a line with what you think! More updates on there soon!

Tuttah,

Mishie

Meeting Michelle Phan + Barnes & Noble

Hullo All!

This has been ridiculously overdue, but it's still worth blogging about! Besides, it will something nice to look back on for sure! 

First off: some narcissistic photos of me! Yey! (Or not yey?)

I made sure to put on nice make up that day because I was going to meet someone very particular about make-up.

It was my first venture into a Sephora store! This is the one in Times Square. There was so much make-up that I was vastly overwhelmed, so I more or less stuck by the nail-polish area. It's the most colorful part so I think you can tell why I stuck around.

Make-up! Make-up everywhere!

Pretty colors! D:

After an hour of waiting (and a purchase), I got to meet the Other Michelle! :))

Michelle Phan was the whole reason I got into make-up. I was so intimidated by it before and, thanks to her, I really got into it (or is it "no thanks" to her? haha). She was also, probably the first person I became a dedicated subscriber of on YouTube before the Vlogbrothers came around in 2007. I've learned so much about beauty and skin care from her so I owe her a lot, even if she doesn't know it. 

The first thing she told me was that she loved my hair. Yey! Even if my roots were showing, it was worth it! I got a signed photo from her too so that was lovely.

So after Sephora I still had some time to kill so I decided to go over to Barnes & Noble because I've never been in one before. 

I need this in my life

Inspirational/ Freak Out books?

This book by Olly Moss is soooo awesome! As it says, it has silhouettes of people and pairs from pop culture. It was such a blast guessing all of them! They don't have captions so you have to know your pop culture!

It's-a me! ;)

You got a friend in me! ;)

And finally! ;) These are so cool. I would have paid for this book if I had any money! HAHA!

Art of Howl's Moving Castle! Have you ever seen or played the game Machinarium? It reminds me a LOT of Howl's Castle!

I'm going to go see if I can find a download of that game--I miss it suddently!

Tuttah,

Mishie

Life Strategy + Vine

Hullo All!

I am ridiculously aware of how I've neglected this blog of mine. I'd offer an excuse but I have none. Let's just say that my fickle-minded brain prioritized other things. As an essay on the Thought Catalog said, "One thing you should do in your 20's is whatever the f*** makes you happy."

Pardon the french, but I found this to be both very true and slightly confusing. 

There are so many things I want to do and achieve in my life. Most people might tell me to focus only on one thing and one thing only to increase my chances of success in that field. But try as I might, I cannot just set aside the other things I want to achieve. Not lucrative they may be as a career, and implausible as they are now with my current skill set, I still want to be able to reach these dreams of mine. They aren't all that practical, but I want to go for them anyway. I know it is what will make me happy, so why deny it to myself? 

Time to have a serious talk with myself. You're welcome to hear my thoughts!

On Artwork and Tumblr

Hullo All!

My hands and brain are not fast enough to update this blog with all the things! But trust me when I say that I have a bunch of stuff lined up. There have already been about a thousand visits to my blog and I'm quite happy about that! Yey!

*pulls party poppers*

But as we all (including me) wonder when I'll have my next post up, I wanted to talk about art a bit. :)

I have an "Art" section on this page *points up* that let's you see some of the work I've done, but I also wanted to let you know that the works I put up here may not be as extensive as those that I will be putting up on my main "Art Blog" (aka. Tumblr).

You can check out that link here:

Mishie's Art Blog

The link above contains more of my work, including sketches. I'm doing this so that things will be more organized! :) I have a few personal/life posts there too from before I set up this blog here. But other than that, it's all art goodness! :)

If you want to see what kind of stuff I reblog on Tumblr, you can head on over to my "Reblogging Tumblr" for all the fandom and crazy that I get obsessed about!

That link is here:

Mishie's Reblog Tumblr

So yes! Follow me if you'd like--if you enjoy the same things I do or appreciate my ever changing "art style." I appreciate and would love to see you there! Yey!

Tuttah,

Mishie

Instagram Mega Post

Hullo All!

I always knew that the day I get an Apple device with a camera was the day I raid Instagram with all my pictures. I've had the pleasure of borrowing and iPhone or two from my friends before and my favorite app would always be Instagram. I can explain why, but that's how it's always been. 

And so, prepare for an Instagram Mega Post! This won't be all of my Instagram photos, but those that have more story in them. :)

                                                                         FOOD                                                                              

I take a lot of photos of food for most of my blog entries, but not on Instagram. My food-photo rule is that I only take photos of cravings and novelty foods.

I haven't been away from home for too long but already I missed barbeque. Luckily, while my mom was getting her hair cut, I went ahead and ate at a Filipino restaurant next door! :) I even got to eat some  paksiw na lechon (okay, I don't know how to translate that. It's usually left-over roasted pig with sauce and vinegar)! 

MILO. I can't express how much I love Milo. I will be 1000% honest and say that this is one of the things I knew I would miss by moving here.

Arroz cubana! Unfortunately, despite my mom saying this is easy to cook, I never learned how to do it. So, I haven't eaten it in years. Imagine my happiness when my mom obliged me by cooking this!

French toast is one of the few breakfast foods I can, uh, cook. And I don't do it often so as unappetizing as it looks, I enjoy it.

Christmas M&M's! I love the original milk chocolate ones the best!

And, of course, my first thanksgiving deserved a photo. :)

                                                                               ART                                                                             

I've been trying to do more and more art as the time goes by. And because I'm proud of my own progress, I take photos of my favorites. :D

This is based on a dream I had. It was so eerie, amazing and vivid that I just had to translate onto paper.

Disclaimer: not mine! This is by one of my favorite Disney artists of all time, Brittney Lee! If you haven't seen her paper tole work and mermaid sketches, you have been missing out.

A new style of drawing that I just discovered! I love discovering my capabilities, I had to take note.

And of course, some mandatory Disney sketch practice/inspiration to get me into the mood!

Not one of my best works, but my first drawing session with my niece. :)

There will definitely be more artworks making their way into my Instagram in the future. I can already tell you this because I'm in the process of making more of them! :) I'm so excited!

Tuttah,

Mishie

Character Design: Celestine

This is the first contest piece I've made in the seven years that I've been on DeviantArt. A super talented artist called Skirtzzz is having a contest and the task was to draw her character, Celestine. 

I am not sure if it is because her character has a name so close to my own original character which led me to participate, but either way, I appreciate the opportunity to draw and practice my hand at character design--which I want to do fulltime eventually. :)

About this piece: this is a reference piece that I used to model my own interpretation of the character. I am a bit shocked at my own ability to draw her "trademark boobies." It is safe to say that Celestine is the most "scandalously"- clad character I've ever worked on.

Art Exercise: Animal Shapes

Hullo all!

やった!

I finally got around to doing some art! The past few weeks have been all about adjusting, sight-seeing and just being in a new environment. Now that we've settled down a bit, I can now do a little bit more "work."

This is the first of a few that I've been working on recently. Hopefully I will be putting the rest up soon after this!

Feel free to tilt your head around. Also, this could make you dizzy. Advanced apologies!

A few weeks before leaving the Philippines, I decided that my art was getting rusty. I haven't had that must practice since being at work and my imagination needed to be let loose again. I thought that I needed some type of art exercise to get my brain working again. 

I think I saw this idea somewhere to make random shapes and see what you can doodle out of them. So, I asked my brother to do one shape for me. After I filled out one shape, I asked him to make another one, so on and so forth. I gradually realized that I started to be seeing all animals, so I went with it. This is the result! :)