Start of something new

My first thought is that it's odd to be starting with the mouth, and also I don't know what I was thinking starting with my least favorite part of my face. I really don't like my mouth at all. Though my theme lately has been all about challenges. I don't know, maybe after all this I'll like my mouth a little more, see the beauty in it. I'm struggling right now but I think I need to remember to separate myself from it a bit, and just look at the color, shadow and contour. If I don't focus on what it is and what I don't like about it maybe I can see the beauty of it. And if I can see the beauty I can translate that into my work. I'm not sure if you can see that the shoulder sketched in, but this is the next one in my jewelry series that I'm working on. I'm loosely calling it my jewelry series, but it's also about cropping the face and challenging myself.
I'll work more tomorrow. I'm really excited about this, the simplicity and the color should be interesting.

Feeling good

I've sprayed my last drawing with fixative and stored it away. I've also just finished cutting off a new sheet of paper from the roll. I'll need to trim it a little. It never looks straight when it's first cut off the roll no matter how many times I measure. I'll probably start on the preliminary sketch tomorrow, I took the reference photo for the new drawing. I need the paper to spend some time with some weight on it so it won't curl so bad while I'm working. I haven't been using tape to hold the paper down, just the clips to hold it to the board.
I also put a book on Dada on hold at the library. I'm going to be reading through more books on art history again but this time I'll take notes and write articles for here on what I've read. It will be me a purpose to read for. It will also give me an outlet and focused way of talking about the new things that I learn, and maybe even how to implement it into my work.

Finished: "Something Old, Something New"

I finished up tonight, and though I'm still not 100% happy with it (but really when I am with anything I do), I love the hair. I'm so happy with the hair, and I think I fixed the issue with the second eyebrow by just adding a little more of a bang. I think the second finger looks a little off but it's alright. I'm going to take a reference photo for the next drawing in this series. Again I'm loosely calling it a series, this is really my first serious one so I'm taking this as it comes.

http://jessicamckelvin.com

Progress, panic and rationality

I've gone from ready to cry, to rationally trying to figure out how to fix this. I just realized way too late that the reason why the forehead and left side of the face looks off is because of the finger. I'm not sure if I can shift the whole finger up, because too me it looks to far up compared with the ring. Compared with the ring and the hand it looks like it should be shifted down. Part of me just wants to cry rip this up and start over. Another part of me want to salvage what I have. I could fix the angle of the finger to look right with the hand or leave it it as is. Then just try to add an eye brow, maybe even take a second reference photo to realistically show how this would look with the finger in that position.I'm not sure though. I don't want to just throw out a month's worth of progress and start over. I love how the eye looks. I almost want to just crop out the second ring, but I really want that ring in the composition. Then I think maybe some creative angular cropping, but I don't think that would work. I don't know maybe I could crop it at angle on the left side of the face but rather than blank space try to input some of the beading from the jewelery box. That might be interesting if I can cover up what I already have down. It would also help tie it to my previous piece. I'm really liking that idea if I could pull it off.
I need to think on it though and come back to this, maybe get some input.

**A bit of an edit, I've made a mock-up of the one idea. From the photo I have of my work so far and my last drawing. If I would follow this idea, I would straighten the finger and draw in the border over the work I've already done. The one long term problem I can see with this is that I'd have to include this border somehow in the rest of the series but I'm not sure how I feel about that. I like the design element of this but I'm not sure if it works really.

I have a third option as well. To just ignore it and finish it as is, but I think I can ignore the finger being a bit off or the missing eyebrow but I can't ignore both.

Please let me know what you think, and leave a comment.

When I hear any song off this album I'm instantly 14/15 years old, lying in my small bed in my cramped little room. It's night time, all the lights are off and the world is quiet and peaceful. The only sound that fills my ears is this soundtrack to the moment coming from the earbuds of my CD player.
It is such a strange feeling to be catapulted back to that tumultuous time in my life. A strange connection to the past, always out of the blue. The same song being issued out of a new set of earbuds, but from a very different piece of technology. Being heard in a very different setting at very different point in life.
A fascinating experience, an interruption by "A Boy Named Goo."

Small Update

I like the progress that I have right now. I really need to finish this soon though. My deadline is once again looming. I'm really going to have to buckle down and just finish. Though I think over the next few days I can make that happen. I just have to push a bit.

Beautiful Blogger Award

Magaly Guerro has nominated me for a Beautiful Blogger Award. Thank you Magaly for nominating me, and I'm happy you enjoy my work.There are a few rules I have to follow for this, I'll try my best to follow them. Here are the rules:

1. Thank the person who gave you the award.
2. Share 7 things about yourself.
3. Pass the award to 15 bloggers, who you have recently discovered, and who you think are fantastic.
4. Contact the Bloggers you picked and let them know about the award.

7 things about me:

1. I love the color green, favorite color used to be described as "green like Kermit" (I still like that shade of green too.
2. I used to want to be a Disney Animator and now I wouldn't mind doing something art related for Disney.
3. I wish I could wear my Fit Flops year round.
4. I'm having trouble trying to build a series, in my art. I have so much inspiration right now but a lot of it doesn't relate.
5. I used to write a lot, stories. I've always been terrible at poetry.
   
6. I take inspiration from songs, dreams and life experiences. Some of my inspiration just comes from me taking a photo and enjoying it so much that I want to draw it.
7. I have two serious blogs now I'm still trying to get the hang of this.

My nominees:

1. Witchy Mama: I've really been enjoying her holiday posts on this blog. I've been able to learn something new from each. She also has a great Disney blog that I've gotten some tips from: Family Disney Vacations.
2. Fashion for Real Girls: she has some great fashion tips.
3. Tiffany Wert: some beautiful photography on this blog. I remember her from high school too. She has another blog too: here.
   
4. Adventures in Mommydom: I've loved reading her posts. Especially this last one with the leprechaun traps. (I'm subscribed through my mommy blog).
5. We Blog Artists: I love the artwork here. I really love the shoe series.
6. A Day Late and A Dollar Short: A great blog with some great tips. I've gotten heads up on some coupons and deals from this blog. (Also subscribed through my mommy blog).
7. Disney Driven Life: Another great Disney blog.
8. Blue Summer: A really great writer, and she has helped me out a bunch over the past few months.
9. StickyLikeMicky: I've know her since highschool and I love her style.
10. SuggestiveTongue: I love her blog, some great advice here.
11. Michelle Phan: Great make-up tutorials.
12. Home Grown Families: A great homeschool blog. Really enjoyed the posts on dinosaurs. (subscribed through my mommy blog).
    
13. Headbanger Homeschool: Another great homeschooler blog. She also has a great taste in books (subscribed through my mommy blog).
14. Joanna Said SO: I love her cakes, she just makes some beautiful cakes.
15. Our Worldwide Classroom: A lot of great ideas on here (subscribed through my mommy blog).

I nominated people mostly that I know through other blogs, because I've been reading more blogs through my subscription list on my mommy blog lately. So they were on the forefront of my mind.
So now I'm off to contact everyone : )

More progress

Once again I'm wondering what I've gotten myself into. That seems to be my new theme. This is proving to be a huge challenge for me. I'm starting to get used to the colored pencil, I still think it's the more difficult media that I work in right now. I seem to be challenging myself lately. I just realized that I've never really done a ring before. This angle on the face is a problem and difficult time with the hair (I struggle with hair a lot). So far I like the ring, though I may have put it a little high on the finger, I think I can make it work though. The foreshortening in the finger is driving me crazy and I don't like the left part of the forehead right now. I'm just going to keep working through it though.
I honestly didn't spend that much time working on this tonight, but I did need to step away from it. I was starting to feel like giving up and starting over. Now I feel better about it though. I just need to work on a few things a bit more and it will be fine.

I've been sick

I have been sick so I took a few days off, mostly because I kept falling asleep early on in the night so I just didn't get to work. Surprisingly I'm still on track with my personal deadline. I think if I just buckle down and get to work I may be able to finish before my deadline. I'm going to work tonight and hopefully get some progress posted as well. I want to get the second ring sketched in properly and then get the whole composition finalized.

Little progress

I've actually gone back and done some sketching on this since I took the photo. The second ring needs to be completely redone at this point. Because if I would crop this way the ring should be cut off partially. I do like the sketch for the first ring though. It has a lot of intricate detail which should be fun to do with colored pencil. I'm liking the eye so far, but the hair is bothering me right now. I need to just keep working and keep moving forward.

Little bit of work

I got a little bit of work done tonight. It's not much but I do think it's looking better. I was having a little trouble trying to sketch in the ring. Hopefully that will turn out ok in the end. I'm not sure if the drawing is going to be a large as I originally intended. I suppose that is fine though. I may even have enough paper to cut off a small piece and create a smaller drawing on it.
Also I'm still working through some website host issues. I'm going to be switching hosts, for sure this time. I already signed up with a new one. There is no real big issue, I just found a host that offers less for less. My old host was descent but I wasn't using everything I was paying for. Now I'll be paying a little less and that will definitely help out. I'm still waiting for everything to go through though, so I'm not sure if my site will go down or not.

Small update

I got a little done tonight. Honestly I think it looks really neat right now and I wanted to take a photo so that's why I chose this as a stopping point. I'm really happy with how this is going.I think the eyeball still needs a little more work but I figure as I work on the flesh around the eye I'll go back into that as well.

Also I got all my website issues worked out, just a bit of run around but really no visible changes.
http://jessicamckelvin.com

New Drawing

I've started my new drawing though I'm not quite sure about how I feel about it. Right now I'm not sure if I should start over or just keep going. The eye just feels a bit off to me and it's very important, I think it has mostly to do with the eyelashes and the line of the eyeball/eyelid to the left. I'm really excited about this composition and the level of detail. This concept is inspired by my last drawing. I'm happy with my reference and the media I have chosen, I'm just unsure of my start. I may work on this more tomorrow and see how it goes.

Finished drawing, and new projects

http://jessicamckelvin.com

I've updated my site with this new drawing. I also made a few minor pages to the front page. I have already gotten some excellent feedback on this drawing. One artist that has served as an inspiration to me, suggested I do a series a with this. I've already been thinking about a new drawing and now have two reference photos I'm thinking of working with. I feel that they have been inspired by this but I do wonder if they will be strong enough in relation to be a series. I think either way it would be best to do them in colored pencil. My husband is also encouraging me saying that they will relate enough to be a series and that I should do them in colored pencil.
When I was thinking about this next piece I was earlier debating on my choice of media, and I almost immediately moved away from pencil. Though there is nothing wrong with it and it's where I started out, I just don't like it as much as charcoal and colored pencil anymore. Right now I'm also really enjoying the challenge of colored pencil and vibrant color. I've been seeking to challenge myself with my new work, working larger, seeking things that really challenge me in a composition.
Anyway tomorrow I should be spraying my last piece with fixative so I can clear the board for new work. I think I'll make my deadline March 31, and we'll see if I can stick with that. I'm really trying to focus on building my portfolio this year and I feel my monthly deadline will really help that. Though my goal is for 11 drawings by the end of the year it would be nice to exceed that.