spacey

The first time I've used chalk pastels.

11x14"

Chocolat expression

So a few nights ago I was up quite late but wasn't quite exhausted enough to retire to the little cot I've been sleeping on during my stay in Florida. I found a movie called Chocolat starring Johnny Depp and Juliette Binoche. Not sure how I would describe it exactly... A quaint, cute, odd movie that made me smile? Near the end, there's a somewhat-dramatic scene where the chick implies that she probably won't see Depp anymore, and he is all super-serious as well and has an expression on his pretty face that I especially liked, so that is what I drew.

2H-4B graphite, 11x14".

em sprout

I've got another updaaaaaaaate.

One of my previous entries, I showed some half-sprouted alfalfa sprouts in a jar. Only days later, I got to yield the crunchy delectable treats. Fruits of my labor, if you will. Except they're not fruits.. only seeds. High in Fiber, Vitamin C, Iron, Calcium.. all those good things a person needs.

Finished result (some have been nom'd down already since they're so irresistible):




Now for the art segment of my bloggggggthing.

I had this idea in my head where a chick's hair would be combined with spirals of a different media. Something like that. So I ended up with this little creation, based off my friend Emily:

(12x18, graphite & acrylic)

rattly guitar.

Not much to say about this one. It is modeled off of my guitar. My cheap, rattly, acoustic guitar.

Acrylic painting - 18x12in, I think.

Closeup: (Click pics to view full size)

cabbage, hugh jackman, & alfalfa sprouts

Hello all my non-existent blog-readers! G'day to you!
First, I will start with recipe time. This is a delectable meal that I made a week or two ago and is definitely one that will be created again.

This is called Stewed Cabbage.

ingredients:
1/4 c. oil (estimate)
2 onions, chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 medium head cabbage, cut into squares
1 (14.5 ounce) can stewed tomatoes, with liquid
salt and pepper to taste

Get out your handy dandy frying pan or skillet. Put in the oil, onion, celery, and garlic, and saute for a few minutes. Then add the cabbage and simmer (on low) 15 minutes. Next, add the tomatoes, salt (1/2 to 1 tsp) and pepper (a couple dashes). Cover pan and cook til the cabbage is tender, which should be about 30 minutes.

It's quite simple.

Now that I've got your mouth watering with all this cabbage talk, I will present to you one of my latest creations. This last semester I learned a more useful way of creating charcoal drawings than I had previously known. First, cover the paper with charcoal and blend it. Second, draw outlines and shadows with charcoal; and lastly, use an eraser (preferably kneadable in most cases) to create highlights. Voila! - masterpiece. One can dream.

K, so I recently watched the movie The Fountain and found it to be a fantastic journey. Or just a good movie. A beautiful movie, for sure. So add that to your Netflix or your preferred way of movie-getting. I think Hugh Jackman has a stunning face, so I decided to draw a scene of his beauty.

18x24, strathmore paper, using a charcoal stick and charcoal pencil.





Oh, also I am anticipating the end-results of a new kitchen-experiment of mine. I got myself some alfalfa seeds and am on my first round of trying to sprout them. You know, for alfalfa sprouts. It's been about 3 days and they should be ready in 5-6.

forgotton scenery.

The other night I got the urge to paint, and what better way to use that urge than to finish a painting I'd started 7 or 8 months ago? With an hour or two, my handy dandy box of acrylics, and my reference picture, the landscape was finished.

















So now it is food time:

"Raw" Carob Pudding

You will need:
A blender
2-3 avocados
1 3/4 c. pitted dates
3 Tbsp carob powder
about a cup of water

Prepare & blend the avocados (you may need to add a little water). Then add the dates, a little at a time, adding water. Once it's smooth, add the carob powder and blend til mixed evenly. Pour it in a bowl and nam it down.

I will be back soon with more artz and f00dz.

frustration abstracted.

So here is the next little update, right on time. I painted this a few days after coming home from college for the summer. Feeling exhausted from all the neat, planned out artwork I'd been doing at school, I decided to do a painting with a little more freedom, even though my mood was anything but free. I mixed and matched most of the colors I have in my pathetic acrylic paint collection, and on some parts I watered down the paint a lot and layered it. After using oil paints all semester, acrylics seem.. not as good. But I know there are more things that can be done with acrylics than what I've done in the past, so I will continue to use them.

Sometime before I did that painting, I did this drawing using soft vine charcoal, a regular charcoal stick, graphite pencils and red crayola paint. What made this one fun is that I did it all by candlelight. I wasn't feeling as morbid as it might look.

I've been doing a lot of cooking lately, which I consider also a form of art. Here is a recipe for vegan peanut butter cookies. I chose to make vegan ones because butter is plain fatness (and margarine is overprocessed crap, from what I've read). Enough of my negativity, here we go:

1 1/2 c. flour
1 c. peanut butter
1/4 c. oil
3/4 c. honey
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 c. of walnuts (other nuts, or chocolate chips, whatever you're into)

Mix it all in a bowl, roll into 2" balls and flatten a little, bake at 400 F for about 12 minutes. Mmm.