Figure Drawing

I love this figure and gesture drawing site. Today I spent an hour doing some practice sketches because I want to improve my figure drawing skills. Here are a few examples from today's session:

A Faun and a Pink-Haired Goth

Some recent character doodles from my sketchbook, including a young faun...

...and a pink-haired retro-goth girl named Sydney, who also happens to be a superhero. Yeah, she really is all that. And I didn't even mention what her superpower is. (Don't worry, she'll probably show up again...)

Carewick the Candlemaker

Here's some more concept art for my Bluewillow project. This is Wendell Carewick, the candlemaker. He's a gruff, old widower, but he's got a soft spot for the blue-haired girl who appears under his willow tree. This isn't the final design, but I like it so far. 

A sneak peek at my current project

Now that I'm on Christmas Break from school, I've returned to one of my personal projects: a short comic based on the first chapter of my fantasy novel, Bluewillow. (Read an excerpt)  I've been working on the thumbnails/layouts for each page and designing the characters. Here's a work-in-progress of one of the panels I've been working on.

(Click to view larger)

The World is My Classroom, Part 2

As I sit at my desk amidst the mess of my clothes, books, and art supplies, anticipation rises for tomorrow, when my college classes resume. I attend Northwestern College in Minnesota, where I am in my second year of studying art and animation.

In this previous post from 2010, I gave my reasons for not going to college, and what that meant for my education. But since I’ve now been in college for a year and a half, I’ve decided that it’s time to add to the record of my unusual educational journey.

I loved growing up homeschooled, and my “2 years off” after high school were packed with even more fantastic learning opportunites. I attended the Florida Christian Writers Conference, wrote two more novels and started a couple of screenplays, practiced my drawing, studied story structure, read voraciously, took over ten thousand photos, earned some money, performed a piano solo at the State Fair, and dissected my favorite movie plots.

However, despite all of this, I eventually realized that God had something more in store for me. (Isn’t that a common theme?)

Some of the reasons I finally decided to go to college:

-I finally figured out what career path I wanted to pursue (pre-production for animated films), and I needed to learn and improve my skills a lot before I was ready for it. I know there are a lot of great online schools out there, but a traditional college seemed like the best environment for me.

-I began to feel lonely spending all day at home, since everyone in my family either worked during the day or went to school themselves. Despite my severe introverted tendencies, I wanted to be a part of a community that fosters faith, learning, and fellowship.

-College can be a fantastic place to make important connections, find opportunities and new experiences, and become a well-rounded human being. At home I was so wrapped up in my own little world, and I wanted to break out of my self-inflicted shell of comfort.

-I felt like God wanted me to go to college for his own reasons. He’s omnicient, so of course he’d know what’s best for my life. I decided to trust him and go.

-Last, but not least, I was intensely curious about the whole thing.

I looked at several colleges, and after praying a lot about it, I found myself here.

Many of my peers have a like-minded passion for learning, which is both exciting and inspiring for me. Some, however, simply float through college and aren't even sure what it means to learn. I try to enjoy every day (even the challenges), and embrace each door that God places before me in my path to knowing more about Him and His incredible creation. 

NaNoWriMo... AGAIN!

So, it's November.

You know what that means, right?

NaNoWriMo! 
(aka National Novel Writing Month)

Yup, I'm writing another novel. I don't know when I'll find the time to squeeze it in around work and college and work and more college... Yeah.

But I do have some secret weapons:

-M&Ms
-Write or Die
-Fingerless gloves
-Friends who are also writing!
-My Snowflake document 
-A NaNo playlist full of soundtrack music that fits my story
-A Pinterest pinboard full of images that make me excited to write
-My sketchbook

My novel this year is fantasy with strong elements of steampunk. It's set in Victorian London. I've been doing a lot of research in the last year or so getting ready for this, and I STILL don't feel qualified to write about a real time and place. So I'm just going to toss all my nonfiction books about Victorian London out the window and write the dang story first.

Title: Twyndyllyng

The story revolves around a young inventor named Alexander "Phoenix" Gaffney, the son of two ornithologists. He's working on a revolutionary invention that could change history forever if successful - the world's first flying machine. His only problem: ever since boyhood he has been cursed with a degenerative disease that will kill him if a cure is not found.

His mother, who gave him his mythical nickname when he was first diagnosed, raised him on fanciful stories of a powerful being called the Twyndyllyng, the magical link between humans and birds. If anyone could help him, the Twyndyllyng could. However, the Twyndyllyng has not been seen for over a century, and for Phoenix, time is running out. And if by some miracle, he can find the Twyndyllyng, he may find that she's not at all what he expected.


That's it, folks! What are YOU doing this November?

Midnight on a Lake

It is after 1:00 in the morning as I write this.

I'm staying with some friends in a real life log cabin on a lake in Wisconsin for the weekend. We've spent our time tramping around in the boggy woods, building forts, kayaking, eating sloppy joes, star-tipping, and canoeing at midnight. Pretty cool.

This evening, after returning from going out on the lake, several of us just flopped down on the dock and stared up at the multitudes of stars. It's a clear night, and the lake is secluded, so we could see everything.

The first shooting star I saw, I automatically thought of a wish. But after it was gone, I felt unsatisfied. What's the point of wishing for stuff on a dying meteorite? It's just a rock! Instead, what if every time I saw a star, I spoke to the God who created all the flying objects up there? A prayer for each brilliant streak across the sky...

Another celestial light zipped across the Milky Way. Floating beneath a canopy woven by a Creative Genius, I smiled to myself and thought of something to say.