new ventures in the distance?

a few years ago, i started making jewelry and selling it with my friends. the only problem was, it took me something like a year to get the hang of it and make professional quality pieces, and then there was just too much competition on etsy for jewelry. i had good prices and (i think) a good product, but it was just too darn hard to make any money at it.

for a while now, ive been wanting to get into a business thats a little more unique; where my product can get noticed because theres less of us selling it, and hopefully my style can stand out. i want to draw and paint custom portraits for sale on etsy. i havent really started working on this yet, its just an idea so far. im a fine art major, and i would love to make a little money off my talents on the side before i graduate and look for a full time job.

here are some of my human and animal portraits. some ive done recently, some a few years ago. any feedback or advice would be greatly appreciated. <3

the flamingo i painted just a couple days ago as a thank you gift for a friend. the blue tropical bird i drew yesterday because i had the day off. :] tell me what you think! do you think i can make any money off commissioned pieces on etsy?

drawing portfolio

we had a portfolio review in my drawing class the other day. just wanted to share some of my drawings with you. :D

i was up all night finishing this drawing before portfolio review. national air force museum, dayton ohio.

and the rest are all self portraits.

 ink on watercolor paper

 paint markers on wood

 graphite, paint marker, ink, oil pastel. collage on paper

 graphite pencil

sharpie marker

i did this outside of class, just for fun. its my bathroom counter. chalk pastel on cardstalk.

this was for color class. we had to put together a mixed media collage with found objects. the red word on korean is "haengbok" and it means happy. i was having a bad day that day and wanted to cheer myself up. :)

and here are some new art supplies i bought myself as a little treat. :-P i couldnt get the ugly label off the pencil box so i covered it with woodgrain contact paper, cupcake stickers, and a sticker that says "i'm happy" in korean. and ive been wanting a brush holder so i can keep the bristles from fraying in my art supply bag. the ones in the art section were boring though, so i got this knitting needle case and i think it works pretty well! :D

well i hope you enjoyed looking at the drawings ive done in class. the only ones i left out were the nude studies from life and the gesture sketches. i dont think my gesture ones are very good, and the nudes are, you know, nude. so i thought id just skip that. :-P you're welcome.

be my valentine?

one of my very good guy friends was feeling down the other night. i made him this scratchboard drawing of a storm trooper that i was going to give him as a valentine's day gift, but since he wasn't having the best day, i decided to visit him at work and surprise him with it a little early. i think it cheered him up. :)

tomorrow im making valentine's cookies with a very special girl and ill be passing them out the the other boys in my life who i appreciate. i don't have "A Valentine" this year per say, but i want to let my guys know that i appreciate them in my life. even on days when they're kind of stinky or when they leave the toilet seat up.

i don't have many female friends i feel like i can be my real self more around the guys. i'll need to think of something extra special to do for the few lovely ladies in my life.

A New Art Journal

i have a tendency to abandon things when im not happy with them, and start fresh. i do it with knitting projects, diaries, sketchbooks, and *cough cough* blogs..

well here is a peek at my *newest* art journal. i wanted to capture the feeling of spring. (i say that while my city is trapped under a sheet of ice..) hey, i'm anxious for spring, ok? :-P

 yaay spring!

 new spring purse!

 ok, not really springy, but eh. this is me! :D

this is a page i did in response to Brina's prompt on her blog, Rose Colored Glasses!

The prompt was to journal a page on one of your personal catchphrases. I picked "how lovely." Honestly, i don't say it out loud much, but I'm thinking, "Well that's lovely!" and it reminds me of the song from Bye Bye Birdie. <3 Check it out!

breather

i finally got a little bit of a break today to take it easy. i spent my day jogging around the neighborhood, watching korean dramas (too addicting!), sleeping, eating leftover pizza (YUUM!), and doing my homework. this is a self portrait i did for my drawing class, its due tuesday, but i got it done early! go me! =D what do you think? can you see a resemblance?

art journal pages 1-3

As promised, here are the pages I have done so far in my art journal.

 introductory page. i was feeling a little bit of an identity crisis - not really sure what "my style" is, since i like so many styles and they're all so different. hence the page on the left: "who am i? i'm angie may. at least that much is certain." trying to figure out who i really am. (making an art journal has really helped with that, by the way.)

uuugh my crazy weird obsession with that darn korean soap opera, Playful Kiss. *Watch it on Hulu here! The first episode is a little weird.. It gets good though. :)* Sends my little heart a-flutter. <3

Oh Ha Ni + Bek Seung Jo Forever! ^^

 I went to visit a friend last night. I haven't seen him in months, and I hadn't been to his new apartment before. *just noticed i spelled apartment wrong there- oops* After missing like 3 turns in a row, I called him up and told him, "Just so you know, you don't mean this much to me. It wasn't worth this much trouble just to see you." My favorite friendships are the ones where you can be mean to each other on a regular basis and no one gets their feelings hurt. And that round black blob is gold in real life. Darn scanner.

 

I cleaned my room. Yeah. :)

fat cat in little box <3

Drawing class is my favorite

And that's how it should be, really. I'm an artist. I'm working towards my fine art degree. Drawing class really should be my favorite. My past drawing classes were loathsome, but this one is nice. I really enjoy it. Once we finished with the still life that I mentioned a few days ago, we started drawing figures. Plaster casts of famous sculptures. It's been pretty fun so far. Here is a little peek at the homework I've been doing for that class lately.

 We had to make a little movable figure so we could see how the hips and shoulders align in the contraposto pose. (putting your weight on one leg- kind of casually slouching) I actually made this before he really talked about the assignment, and I ended up making it too small.. So much for being pro-active. :-P  I'll have to do it over. But eh, oh well.

 Some 30-second gesture drawings of people in the library. This was super awkward for me.. I was so afraid people would notice me drawing them, and be creeped out.

 This is the full spread of the page I posted the other day. I added some song lyrics and a crow to the skulls to give it sort of a theme, just because it's my sketchbook and I wanted it to reflect how I myself feel about the skulls. They remind me of Halloween and Taeyang's music video for the song I'll Be There. So I wanted to incorporate my thoughts. <--- if you haven't seen this music vid yet, you NEED to see it ;) one of my favs.

If it works for me..

I know I've said it more than once, but I can't stress it enough. A change in attitude works wonders. Whatever it is that's driving you nuts in your life, just try (yeah, it may not work, but TRY) to look on the bright side of things.

I HATED drawing classes. HATED. Until I started looking at it from the point of, "Yes, I'd drawing a stupid, ugly pile of random crap. But I'm gunna draw the best pile of crap ever. I'll impress my teacher. I'll leave a mark in this Art Department and open up new opportunities for me in the art field. YES!"

:] Wooo peptalk.

On Thursday by the end of class, I still had a long way to go on my little collage, here. My instructor suggested we all come in over the weekend and finish, so we can start something new on Tuesday. In the past, I would have said, "Psh! Heck no. Good enough," but this time I put in that extra effort. I came in an hour on Friday and an hour today. And it's done. It's still an ugly stool with random plaster molds and a maniquin head from behind, but still. My major is fine art. I'm not half-assing it anymore.

Change your attitude. It makes life so much easier. In so many ways.

it's starting to make sense

I'm in my third drawing class at the University. I hope I don't jinx myself, but I have to say that this is the best one so far. The first two I HAAATED. Seriously, torture. Three and a half hours long. Cold. iPod-less. Silent. Tedious. Hell.

This one's long and cold and i-Podless and silent, too, but I don't hate it so much. <3 I feel like I'm learning and working towards a goal, so the tediousness goes away.

I won't get into a rant about the details,  but let's just say now I know why we spent so freaking long drawing boxes on tables in Drawing 1 and 2. The box and line weight concept are actually really helpful.

Little side note: Thursday we were sitting in the hall waiting for the door to be unlocked. A girl got up and accidentally knocked the fire exstinguisher off the wall. It hit the ground with a big bang. My teacher rushes out of the art office and says, "Vut vus dat?"  .. Oooh Russian accents. I wish I had one. Or should I say, "I vish I hod vun." :]

the start of something

Today I drew this.

It was a homework assignment for my drawing class. The rule was that we had to draw something solid as if it were see-through. Meaning we had to be able to see the edges on the other side. (like when you draw a 3D box) I chose to draw my sewing machine because it was complicated enough to be interesting, but simple enough to be easy to draw and easy to see.

I know it doesn't look like much now, but I'm planning on doing something with it in Adobe Illustrator. Not sure what, yet, but something cool. :]

so here's what i got so far

so you may have noticed my recent re-kindled interest in illustration lately. I haven't had much time lately to work on anything, since school started this week, but I did manage to do a little sketch of one of my favorite outfits. You may be familiar with the flickr group Wardrobe Remix. Well I've always liked the group What I Wore Today: Drawing's Only. I'm planning on submitting this. I know it's kind of simple, and not the best thing ever, but I'm still pretty proud of how it turned out.

Live the Dream Life.

 sketchbook version

adobe illustrator version

what do you think? constructive criticism encouraged! :-P

illustration attitude check

I've taken two drawing classes at my University, and hated them both. I felt like the still lives were either boring (random boxes) or ugly, and a waste of time (a tea cup, a shoe, a manequin head, more boxes). On Tuesday, I started my third drawing class, and I've decided to go into this with a different attitude. Yes, it's still an ugly set-up, and I still feel like it's a waste of time. Because when you finish, it's like, "Look! I did a great drawing of.. some random crap on a table.."

But gosh darn it, I'm determined to draw the best darn ugly assemblage of random-crap-on-a-table that you ever did see!

Today our still life was a manequin head (and I got stuck drawing it from the back), a stool, two plaster molds, some boxes, and some random metal wire things. Ugly. But I did my best. And it felt great.

Here's a little illustration inspiration for you. And for me. ;)
(none of these are mine- all from we heart it)

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just a few random pretty things that make my inner artist drool <3