sketches from life

Minimalist Posters

2011-07-08T00:47:00.001-05:00

7 minimalistic posters representing various mental disorders - 22 Words

I've been neglecting my blog lately! Summer, one would think, would mean an abundance of time to devote to blogging and other such ventures, but somehow, that time ends up getting spent doing other things...specifically, being lazy.

Anyway, I'm back! And hopefully the rest of the summer will bring some more posting.

This post, at any rate, is just to share this page that I just stumbled across. These minimalistic posters are really amazing. Simple, poignant, and communicative. Minimalism at its best!

Encaustic

2011-04-20T21:12:00.000-05:00

I'm taking a short break from work on a painting for class (due tomorrow! Yikes!), and I thought I'd come share a few things that I've been learning and working on lately. Namely, painting with encaustic.

Our last project in painting was to paint a small panel with encaustic. For those of you not familiar with the term, encaustic is basically painting with hot wax. It's mostly beeswax and pigment, and can give some really vibrant, beautiful colors. It's a very different medium, though, from anything else I've worked with, and it was really fun to experiment with it.
When painting with encaustic, you have to keep all the paints in liquid form by keeping them hot, so all the pots of color are kept on hot plates or griddles, and when you paint with it, it sets up very rapidly, since as soon as it begins to cool, it hardens and becomes more opaque. That being the case, you have to work pretty fast. What is fun about it, too, is how easily it takes to things like collage, transfer, and building up texture or layerss. You can incise lines into thick layers of wax and fill them with color, you can scrape away layers to reveal what's underneath, or you can attach globs of warm wax to build up semi-sculptural aspects on a piece.

The pieces we did were small, and mostly, I believe, just for the experience of working with the new medium, but it was really fun to play around with. People who know what they're doing with the medium can really do some cool things with it, too. It's also interesting to note that encaustic is incredibly archival and will last for incredible lengths of time as long as it is not exposed to enough heat to melt the wax. We know it has been in use since the time of the Ancient Egyptians, who used it to create mummy portraits. Cool!

I didn't get far enough with my encaustic practicing to figure out how to deal with representational imagery with it, though I think it would be fun to try it. However, I found the website of Kevin Frank earlier today and was amazed at what he is able to do with this fun (but tricky) medium. Take a look at a few of his paintings!

Pretty amazing, no? I was very impressed, especially after having worked with encaustic a little myself.

Anyway, I enjoyed the exercise and have a new respect for artists of Ancient Egypt -- and all other time periods that came before electric griddles and heat guns -- who managed to paint what they did with this medium!

Art and Fear

2011-04-13T00:58:00.002-05:00

Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time. -Thomas Merton

I just began reading a book called Art & Fear: Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking, and even as little as I've read so far, I've really enjoyed it. It has already made some very good points. For instance, it talked about the struggle in continuing in art, and not quitting. They rightly recognize the fear behind most instances of quitting. Basically, it's a fear of failure. That's common. It's human. But it's also dangerous.

We allow fear to stop us from accomplishing anything. We let ourselves get distracted by what's going on around us. We become discouraged when other people are doing better than we are. We call it an inability to comply with deadlines or to work under certain conditions, or sometimes we simply contribute it to laziness, but what it boils down to is a fear of failure. The book makes a very good point about this -- one which I've recently come to realize myself as well: that when we label ourselves as artists, we identify ourselves with our art, and therefore, a bad piece of art translates to mean that we are bad artists. We become so closely identified with what we are creating that if once we fail, it instantly means we are a failure. But that's not true!

As a young artist, still trying to figure out what I have to say and where I'm going with all of this, I am right there in the middle of a lot of what this book is saying so far. Basically, art is scary. It makes you vulnerable. Creating art is like opening up a bit of your soul for people to look at, examine and criticize. It's a bit unnerving sometimes if you are still figuring things out. But that's part of what makes it so exciting. It really is an adventure!

Sketch of the Day #2

2011-04-12T23:21:00.001-05:00

Artists don't get down to work until the pain of working is exceeded by the pain of not working. - Stephen DeStaebler

I did warn you that my "sketch of the day" was not likely to be a daily thing, and you can't say I didn't tell the truth. But I'm not giving it up completely! I have a sketch for you today, and I also have some clay projects to share as well.

These are just some scans of pages from my sketchbook where I was sketching people unawares. I have a friend who calls this "Ninja sketching." I think that pretty much sums it up. They're just loose, gestural drawings, trying to catch the impression of someone before they move -- or worse, discover that you're drawing them. *Gasp*

But as I mentioned, I'd also like to share a few of my current clay projects. They're still in the works, because they are all unglazed currently. I'll just give you a little peak into the in-progress works, and hopefully by the end of this semester, they will all be nicely glazed and I can show you the finished product.

As usual, click to enlarge.

I'm enjoying clay. It's a fun medium. Messy, and a very fast-paced class, but fun.

Experimentation, Part 2

2011-04-11T22:53:00.001-05:00

Hello there! Happy Tuesday. I hope your day was pleasant. Mine was pretty good. Less productive than it should have been, but oh well, it happens. I was struggling with ideas (or rather, the lack of any idea at all) for my drawing project during class today and didn't get much work done as a result, but I think I've come up with something interesting now. Stay tuned to see if it pans out. I'll wind up posting about it in a week or so when it's done, I'm sure.
Ok, well time to continue from the last post. There are still several more paintings in the series!
Let's jump right in.

NUMBER FIVE:

For this one, I took the idea of roses from the last one, and combined it with the rectangular shape of the cards, but in a very different way. I used splatters and broad strokes of watered down paint first, letting it drip down the canvas as it would, then collaged on rectangles torn from some scrap fabric I had lying around to create the background. Then, using the flexible modelling paste mixed with some red paint, I created little roundish, rose-shaped dollops, which I highlighted with white paint to add some needed clarity to them. I then dragged some green (mixed with modelling paste) down from them with the palette knife for emphasis on the stems. That flexible modelling paste stuff is quite fun.

NUMBER SIX:

Well, after looking at the rectangles from the last one, I felt like it looked kind of like a skyline, so I decided to paint this one about a city -- lots of rectangular building shapes. To continue with the rose theme, I stretched some faintly floral-patterned fabric onto the canvas first, then painted a very rough, loose impression of a city (Venice) from a picture on an old postcard. I used some thicker paint and modelling paste with a palette knife to finish off the parts I wanted to come forward a little.

NUMBER SEVEN:

After that, I decided to use the post card from which I had taken the scene of the last painting. I also had some other post cards, most of them somewhat antiqued, which I had gotten from another student who had brought a huge box full of them to share. I liked this idea of travel and communication, so I collaged on the post cards, used pouring medium over them, and floated some old stamps (from left over post cards) and some antiqued lace into the surface.

NUMBER EIGHT:

Well, the whole time I was working with the post cards, I kept wondering about the relationships between the senders and recipients of the cards. Invariably, I wondered if there was any romantic connection between them, or if there had once been. Maybe I've just seen too many romantic movies or something, but it just seemed like such a beautiful idea. So I started thinking about love letters, and this is what came of it. The background is made up of some printouts of antique letters (in French, I believe, though the words are now so obscured that they are illegible) in lovely, sweeping calligraphy. I thought they were quite elegant. Then I painted this lovely figure over them. She was quite difficult for me, actually, as the reference I was using was very small and indistinct, and I struggled against my urge to want to make her very precise and realistic. I wanted her to be left somewhat loose and indistinct, a little painterly, yet at the same time clear. I felt it added to the "romance" of the picture. I'm...at least decently pleased with her in the end. Finally, I tied a bow with twine around the canvas, like a package to be sent to someone.

NUMBER NINE:

The final, and my least favorite, this one came from the idea of communication, and how it has changed over time. Letter writing is kind of a lost art these days. Unfortunately, I was kind of in a hurry by the time I got to this one, and I had really struggled for a decent idea for it. So I just collaged on logos and images from popular communication methods of today -- internet, phone, etcetera. Then over the top, I placed an antique letter, similar to the one in the background of the previous painting. Over that, I sketched an inkwell and pen in charcoal. Like I said, it's my least favorite, but it's acceptable, I suppose.

So there you have it!

On another, totally random note, I cut my hair! (I know that seems really mundane, but I cut it super short, and it's a rather drastic change, so I felt the need to say something about it.) It's a pixie cut now! I'm loving it.

Experimentation, Part 1

2011-04-07T10:48:00.000-05:00

Phew, it's been a crazy week or so. Projects had piled up on me and I wasn't able to get around to sharing! But thanks to one of those projects, at least, I have some fun things to share with you, readers. One of the projects that had me so busy was a painting project for which we had to paint nine small, 1'x1' canvases or framed panels. Going into it, I was concerned by the number of them, and the rather short time we had to finish the project. However, it is now one of my favorite projects we have done. I feel like I learned quite a bit, and really had some fun playing around with things that I've never been brave enough to try before.

The assignment required that for the first small painting, we started by responding to a part of our last painting (for me, that was the large Janet Fish still life). For the second painting, we responded to the first small one in some way; for the third, we responded to the second, and so on and so forth, so that it was like a visual game of telephone in a way. My final series wound up looking a little bit on the random side, the connections being more conceptual than visual, but that's okay with me. I wanted to use the project to experiment and stretch myself. I wanted to try new things and play around with mediums.

I painted all of them using acrylics and acrylic mediums, which in itself was a stretch. I've gotten so comfortable with oils that going back to acrylic was a little irritating at times. I really wanted to play with the various acrylic mediums that our professor had shown us, though, so it was worth it to me to put up with the acrylic paint in order to allow for the experimentation!

So, enough talk, let's get down to it! The first few paintings in the series:

NUMBER ONE:

This first one I took from the section of the larger painting with the little tea cups. I painted it as representationally as I could, but left out the purple, swirly shadows from the first layer. Once it had dried, I went back in with acrylic pouring medium (cool stuff!) and poured a thin layer of that over the whole thing. I left that to dry overnight. The next day, I poured a second layer of pouring medium, and into it I swirled watered down purple paint in this swirly pattern. So there's actually a little depth between the layers thanks to the pouring medium that's not entirely visible here. Also, the bright white shine is due to the pouring medium.

NUMBER TWO:

For this one, as I tried to think about the first one and where to go with it, I just kind of got stuck on the idea of the tea cups, even though you couldn't really tell at first glance that the circular shapes in the first one were tea cups anymore. I found an old version of Alice in Wonderland lying around the house and decided to use the pages from the "Mad Tea Party" chapter and the illustrations from it. I loved the idea of using the antiqued pages and classic ink drawings. I still incorporated the swirls from the previous painting as well, but this time I made them three dimensional by using flexible modelling paste under a blue wash. I used clear gesso to collage down the pages and a very, very watered down wash over parts of it to incorporate the various parts of the painting into one another.

NUMBER THREE:

Well, now I was stuck on Alice in Wonderland. It was just too fun to let go of right away. So I started looking through the book for other illustrations that I liked, and found this one. I drew it onto watercolor paper, using the illustration as reference, and then inked over it with a pen. I put a light blue wash over the drawing, and then I ripped the drawing into pieces. I first tore out the whole drawing, then tore one of the cards (the one on the left) away from the others. I used other scraps of the paper, all with color wash of either blue or orange, and collaged them onto the panel using flexible modelling paste to put them at various levels and to create texture on visible areas or over parts of the paper.

NUMBER FOUR:

Cards, roses, roses, cards...What to do...Why not make a rose out of cards!? So I did. This rose is made out of playing cards and attached to the board and to itself using the same flexible modelling paste (I discovered this to be quite the versatile stuff). Took a while, but I was pretty pleased with it. I painted the background the same red as was on the back of the cards themselves, but left some of the brush marks slightly visible, and darkened one side. I then copied the same design that goes up the sides of the cards into the corner, and let that kind of dissolve into splatter by the right side of the painting.

Ok! I'm going to let this post be a "to be continued." Check back in a few days for the last five in the series!

Sketch of the Day #1

2011-03-11T11:08:00.001-06:00

First off, let me take this moment to say....

IT'S SPRING BREAK! YAY!!! I have a whole week of no classes to look forward to! Though I do still have a lot of work to get done for classes....But oh well. It's still a break!

Ok, now that I've gotten that out, we can resume. I'm keeping my word and I have some sketches to post!

I started playing with a white conte crayon the other night, and then I found some gray pastel paper to work with it on. I've never used a white conte before, and started having a lot of fun with it! I got a little carried away, too....I was up till like 2:30 AM playing with doing figure drawings and such with it, knowing that I had an early class the next morning. Not the smartest move...but sometimes I get started and I just can't stop. Anyway, now I have two sheets used up front and back with figure sketches and such. I thought about spreading them out over several days of daily sketches, but I decided I'd just post them as a group, and they can count for yesterday, today, and tomorrow...and maybe the next day too, depending on when I can get more up!

Anyway, here they are, in the order in which I drew them. Some are more finished than others, but eh, they're sketches:

Recent Work

2011-03-08T19:14:00.003-06:00

Happy Tuesday! How are you today?

I'm doing well, and especially so since spring break starts this weekend! I'm so excited.

Anyways...

I wanted to post some of my recent artwork and sketches. I'd like to start doing a sort of "sketch of the day" sort of thing. I don't know that it will really be an every-day thing, honestly...but I'll do my best. Maybe I'll try to start with a "sketch of the week" thing first, and then slowly progress to daily sketches. I don't know. We'll just have to see how it goes! Anyway, I'll start by posting some more finished pieces.

If you read the entry just below this one, you'll remember that I was talking about my Janet Fish project in my painting class. Well, I'm pleased to say that it's done!

The difficulty I had with it was that Fish tended to use glass and reflective objects in her still life to create the patterns and colors that she used in her works, but the still life in my class was made up of opaque objects, and few that were even slightly reflective. My solution was just to do my best to imitate her color use, and, where possible, try to incorporate a little bit of her patterning as well. I tried to really look for colors that objects were picking up and to exaggerate them and bring them out, making everything very vivid and bold. I tried to imitate the way she used color relationships as well. I'm pretty pleased with the result, though it by no means fully captures the intricacy and busy brilliance of Fish's paintings.

I painted it on a canvas I built for the assignment. It's 4'x3', which is about as large as I've ever worked. It was fun, frustrating, and very time consuming. I spent about fifteen hours outside of class over the weekend working on it, plus the six or so that I spent in class, for a grand total of somewhere around 21 hours. Not terrible, but definitely enough to make me ready to be done with it!

Here are some of the other pieces that have been occupying my time lately:

Abstract from Beginning Painting

Oil on Canvas, 30"x40"

Self Portrait, from Drawing Concepts

Watercolor and graphite on paper

19"x24"

Experimental media project from Drawing Concepts

Watercolor on wood panel

18"x18"

Imitation: Janet Fish

2011-02-26T10:29:00.000-06:00

Happy Saturday! Hopefully you're having more of an actual weekend than I am! An Art History midterm has eaten my whole weekend/week and left nothing but crumbs behind. Sad day.

But anyway, on to the topic of the moment: Painting class!

In my painting class, the project we're currently working on is a still life, which we have to paint in the style of a famous modern painter. My professor gave us a list of probably about fifty to one hundred names to look at and research for this project, and the name I chose was Janet Fish.

The point of the project is less about painting the actual still life that we have set up than about mimicking the style of the painter we chose. So we have to get familiar with their works. Thus, I thought I'd share some of Fish's work with you all. She really has an interesting style. She primarily does pieces that play with the way light plays over and through glass/translucent objects. They're very interesting pieces. Her representation is very realistic, but at the same time it feels kind of fanciful. There is rarely a clear focal point in her paintings, and usually no real horizon line, so the plane is filled with vivid, intricate patterns of color and line.

Here are a few of her pieces that I particularly liked:

Pretty cool stuff, no? I love her use of color and light. I've always been fascinated by painting/drawing reflective or translucent objects. I think it's a really fun (though honestly, sometimes frustrating) challenge. The biggest difficulty I'm having with the still life in class is that, as much as I'd like to have made a set up of primarily colored glass and such so I could more easily mimic Fish's style, most of the objects we're painting are opaque, solid colored objects. So i'm just going to try to imitate her use of color and light to the best of my ability, disregarding the lack of glass in my piece. If it turns out half-way decent, I'll post it here when it's finished.

Happy weekending!

Awesome Homemade Face Mask

2011-02-24T11:09:00.001-06:00

This one is for the girls.

Yesterday, I was frustrated because my face was breaking out a bit, so I did a google search for homemade purifying face masks. After sifting through some recipes for masks which required ingredients I didn't have on hand, I found one for which I had all the necessary ingredients, and which would be easy to make. So, my roommate and I decided to try it together. Here's the recipe we used:

1/2 Cup of instant oatmeal, cooked (microwave is fine)
1 egg, raw
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1/4 Cup (or thereabouts) of honey

After mixing it all together and letting it cool a bit, we smeared it on our faces. Granted, it looked really nasty, and the clumps of oatmeal on our faces looked kind of like some sort of terrible skin disease, but apparently it tasted pretty good, because my roommate ate most of the left overs! (Note: 1/2 a cup of oatmeal made a LOT of face mask!) We let it dry for about 20 minutes, washed it off with lukewarm water, and rinsed with cold water.

Well, though the application of the mask was kind of gross (and led to much laughter and my roommate flinging some of it on me), it worked wonderfully! This morning I woke up with super-soft, clearer skin, as did my roomie. Needless to say, this recipe is going to stay in my arsenal of tricks, though next time, I might try smashing the oats a little more before hand so it's a little less lumpy...

The Heavens Declare

2011-02-21T00:24:00.001-06:00

Ok, this is going to be quick, because I'm actually in the middle of studying for an Astronomy test and an art history midterm, but I just wanted to share this before I continued.
We're still in the first chapters of my astronomy text book, and it's talking about the simple stuff: Earth's rotation and revolution, the celestial sphere, etc. Yet, even though this is all very basic and most of it could be considered common knowledge, it struck me how precise and delicate the whole system is. Every little detail of the way the solar system works is perfectly set so that life is possible on Earth.

The thing that really got me going on this train of thought was a passage in my textbook in the section explaining seasonal changes based on Earth's revolution around the sun. It was explaining how the tilt of the earth has far more to do with the changes of seasons than does the Earth's actual proximity to the Sun. The earth is actually closest to the sun in mid January, and if proximity was the determining factor for seasons, the entire earth would experience summer at that point during the year, and winter during the opposite. However, because the seasons are determined based on the tilt of the earth instead (because this affects the angle, and therefore the intensity of the sun's light), the earth is closest to the sun during summer for the Southern Hemisphere, and winter for the Northern Hemisphere. The cool thing is this: were it not for the fact that the Southern Hemisphere has more area covered by oceans, which reflect much of that light (and heat) back into space, the earth would heat up far more during these months than it actually does. So if the distributions of the continents were not as it is, summer in the Southern Hemisphere would probably be fatally toasty!

All of that to say, God is really cool.

Just think: if the angle of the earth was different than it is, our seasons would be all out of wack and thus the growing cycle wouldn't work properly. If there was more land mass in the Southern Hemisphere, we'd roast over there in the summer. If the distance between Earth and the sun was any greater or less, life on Earth would be impossible. There are so many factors that play into the working of our delicate existence! I just can't understand how some people believe this all to have happened by chance. There's just no way. This has GOT to be intelligently designed. It's just too perfect.

"The Heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands."
-Psalm 19:1

A Literary Mood

2011-02-18T12:50:00.001-06:00

I'm in a literary mood today. Well, for more than just today, I suppose. I'm on a literary kick right now. I recently started reading Jane Austen novels for the first time, and I've really enjoyed them. I started out over Christmas break by reading Emma, then moved on to Pride and Prejudice. I had to stop once the full swing of classes recommenced, but I plan on reading the rest of her books eventually.

And not only have I been reading her books, but also watching the movies. That started with Pride and Prejudice, the most recent version with Kiera Knightly. That's such a beautiful movie. It's really fantastic. And I was pleasantly surprised to find, upon reading the book for myself after having watched the movie, that the movie did a great job of capturing the essence of the book, even though it had to condense the story. Shortly thereafter, my mom (who also loves Jane Austen) called me to tell me that she had found a few other Austen movies, so I've been visiting my parents to have movie nights with my mom. So far, we've watched Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Persuasion, and Emma. All of them are lovely stories, though none of the other movies come close to the level of cinematographic excellence of Pride and Prejudice. I'd still recommend them to anyone who likes that style of movie.

My last movie date with my mom consisted of a Jane Austen movie (Emma), and also of Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre. After having seen this older version ("older" only by comparison -- it was made in 1997), and especially since I recently saw a preview for a new Jane Eyre movie to come out in the near future, I became very interested in reading that book as well. However, as I mentioned before, now that school is back in full swing, I don't have much time for leisure reading. This was a problem.

The solution, I found, was a free app for my i-pod touch: an audiobook app. I've never really been one for audiobooks, as I really prefer to actually hold and read the book, see the words, and feel the pages. Somehow, listening to someone else read it feels like cheating to me. But with so little time that I can give up to reading, guilt free, it felt like a good option. I can listen while I'm driving to and from class. I can listen during my drawing class, clay class, and painting class, as long as the professor has nothing to say. I can listen while doing any homework that doesn't require reading or anything left-brained, really. I just finished Jane Eyre, and I only read about two chapters from the actual book. I'm really enjoying this app. It lets me get my "story fix" and yet I waste no time. I'm able to be productive and even use class time to read. I'm now trying to decide what book I'll listen to next!

Cool fact of the day:
Deep breathing gives you health benefits similar to aerobics.
Cool. Time to go do some breathing then.....

Knowing versus Knowing

2011-02-07T20:22:00.004-06:00

First, let us start off with a cool picture for the day:

Ok, maybe two pictures. I couldn't decide which one was cooler. They work better together than apart. These were taken by Clark Little. Bravo, sir. Very cool!

Ok, now on to the item of the day.
My roommate and I were talking the other day, and the conversation turned towards the way people think about "knowing" God. You see, for a lot of people, and even for a lot of Christians, knowing God just means that they know who He is. They know some of the stories about Him, they've gone to church, they've listened to preachers and other people talk about Him. But despite all the head knowledge they may have of Him, they don't really know who He is.

This is the difference between knowing about someone, and actually knowing them.

Think about it this way: Say you have a favorite celebrity, and you know all sorts of things about them. You can know their name, the names of their family members, what their favorite foods are, and where they live. You can know their likes and dislikes, their pet projects, and what they stand for. You may even claim to love this person, respect and esteem them. But if you've never spent time with this person, no relationship exists there. In all likelihood, they don't even know you exist. You can't truly know someone until you've invested time in building a relationship with that person. It doesn't matter how much head knowledge you have. Until you have built heart knowledge about that person, you don't really know them.

It works similarly with God. Many Christians today only know him through what they hear about from others. They get their weekly dose of God and Christianity on Sunday morning, and the rest of the week they just coast through and do their own thing. They say they love Him. They believe He's there. They may even try to adjust their behavior to suit what they think He wants. But what kind of relationship is that? There's no communication, no expenditure of effort, no heart knowledge. You can't know God by spending an hour once a week listening to someone else tell you about how they know Him.

What God wants from us is not a charade of obedience over an indifferent, distant heart. He wants to know you. To really know you. He already knows everything about you. He created you. The Bible says He knitted you together in your mothers womb and knows the number of hairs on your head. But that's not enough. He wants relationship with you, and He wants it enough to have sent Jesus to die a horrible death to allow that relationship to exist.

And yet, rather than embrace that opportunity for the prize, the treasure that it is, we let it pass us by. We're content just to squeeze all of God into a Sunday morning sermon (if even that) and go on without Him the rest of the week. But that doesn't even begin to encompass what it means to know God.

To know God, you must die to yourself. You have to spend time with Him. Read the Word for yourself and talk to Him through prayer constantly. How else is a relationship supposed to grow? Just as with earthly relationships, if you don't spend time with someone, the relationship atrophies. If you only speak to Him on rare occasions, of course it will feel awkward when you do. But it's not meant to be that way. When you spend the time to get to know someone well, you become more comfortable with them. The same is true with God. The more time you spend with Him, the easier it becomes to talk to Him and to hear His voice. And only then will you truly begin to know God.

So don't settle for just knowing about God. Take advantage of the sacrifice He made so that we can truly know Him.

Five Ways to Score Brownie Points With Your Girlfriend This Valentine's Day

2011-02-05T21:06:00.001-06:00

Valentine's Day is coming up! So guys, you've got to get ready. I know this can be a time of stress and pressure for all of you, so let me try to help you out a little. I'm going to give you a girls perspective on some Valentine's Day ideas. Disclaimer: I am only one girl. These pointers are not all inclusive, so you have to take your date's personality, likes and dislikes into account when considering these things. But I'm going to help you out. Here are some things that almost every girl will appreciate.

1. Buy her roses.

You can hardly go wrong with roses, unless your girlfriend is allergic to them. Roses are romantic. They are beautiful. They say, "I value you; I think you're beautiful." Color is important though. Don't you dare go buy your date yellow roses for Valentine's Day. Those say something different. Romantic roses should be red, or sometimes white. A mixture of red and white is also nice. Pink can sometimes work too, but they are a little more sweet than romantic.

Of course, roses are not all that original (though that doesn't really diminish the pleasure of receiving them) so if you want to get a little more creative, that's fine as well, but make sure you think about what the flowers are saying. Carnations aren't nearly as romantic as roses, for instance. The point is, make sure the flowers you buy her make her feel beautiful and cherished. And by all means, if she has a favorite flower that you know about, buy those for her. It will show her that you listen.

2. Be a gentleman.

Hopefully, this is not just a once-a-year thing for you, but at least this once, go all out. Be the perfect gentleman. When you go to pick her up (with your flowers, of course), go to her door and knock. Don't sit in your car and text her, "I'm outside." For real. And if you do that on your other dates, stop it. Always go up to her door. Always.

Once she's answered the door and you've given her the flowers, walk her to the car and open the door for her. When you've arrived at your destination, open her door again. Even if you have to tell her to stay put to allow you time to get around to her door, do it. Believe me, it says a lot when you're obviously trying to treat us well. We like to be taken care of. It makes us feel special. So open all the doors for her. Pull out her chair (if you can do so without accidentally pulling it out from under her....). Even if you're just going to McDonalds, these little things don't go unnoticed.

3. Write a note or love letter.

We understand that most of you guys don't really like to talk all that much about your feelings, but we still like to hear them. We want to be told how much you value us, how you feel about us, and so forth. A love letter is a beautiful way to do this. This is something that doesn't have to be done just for Valentine's Day. And even if it is for Valentine's Day, don't necessarily give it to her while you're on your date. If you're with her, be with her and tell her things face to face. But maybe a letter in the mailbox a day or two before or after, telling her how excited you are to spend Valentine's Day with her, or how much you enjoyed your date on Valentine's Day, along with some sweet (and genuine!) flatteries and such is always a nice gesture. Even just a short little note hidden somewhere for her to find later is an incredibly appreciated gesture. And don't worry. If you're a really terrible writer, get someone to help you out. Just make sure that the content of your letter is from your heart. It doesn't make you less of a man, so get over it.

4. Buy her a gift.

It doesn't have to be expensive. It doesn't have to be flashy. You can go with the traditional chocolates, flowers and jewelry if you like, but as that's become somewhat cliche, you might want to get a little more creative with it. Whatever your choice, make sure it's significant to both you and her. It's the thought that counts, but make sure that it's an actual thought, not last minute panic. Start thinking now about what you could do. Maybe enlist one of her friends to try to figure out something she'd appreciate. Surprise her with something personal and sweet.

5. Make it romantic.

There are lots of ways to go about this. You could go all out, cook her dinner and serve her at a candle lit table for two. You could take her to a favorite restaurant. You could have a picnic under the stars. Take a long walk if the weather is nice. Cuddle up on the couch for a good movie. What you do is really less important than how you do it. Choose something that you know she likes -- even if it's not something you like. Make sure she knows that the evening is all about her. I had a date once who made me a CD with favorite love songs on it, which we listened to over dinner at his house. It was a sweet gesture and a lovely surprise. See, it doesn't have to be expensive and elaborate -- it just has to be heartfelt.

So let the V-Day preparations begin! Don't panic though. Make it fun. Enjoy yourselves. Be yourself and let her do the same.

Good luck!

Oh! And I did promise to post the picture of my finished drawing, so here it is:

click here for larger image

No Days Like Snow Days

2011-02-03T12:04:00.001-06:00

I'm really not a cold weather person. I don't mean that in a "take it or leave it" sort of way. I mean the kind of dislike where I'd really rather just hole up in my house whenever the temperature drops to freezing. Luckily, living in Texas means I don't have to deal with really crazy cold weather all too often. We have it usually at least once a year, but most of the time it doesn't last all that long, and life goes on.

But here's something crazy: Today is our THIRD snow day in a row! And many schools are saying that they're on watch for tomorrow and Monday's weather as well! I believe the highest temperature we've had the last few days was in the twenties, which, for Texas, is unheard of. Now, I know you northerners are probably laughing at us right now, but just hold your abderian horses! (And see the previous post if you don't know what that word means! We're learning things. Look at that.) Here in Texas, when we get weather like this, it's not snow, per se. Sure, the first day it might be snow, but very soon, it just turns to ice. And being that we only get weather like this maybe once a year, nobody knows how to drive on icy roads. So yeah, everything pretty much shuts down after an inch or two of icy precipitation. Normally though, by midday it will have melted away thanks to the beautiful, warm sun. This time, it did not. It's just too darn cold. So quit laughing before Karma comes and smacks you upside the head with a 105 degree summer! (Just kidding...I don't really believe in Karma. But still...watch yourselves.)

So since Tuesday, I have not left my apartment. I keep seeing facebook posts about having cabin fever, but I'm really doing just fine. My roommate and I had just stocked up on groceries before the storm hit, so praise the Lord, we've got plenty of food and such. So we've just been working on homework and having movie marathons! My roommate (who, coincidentally, has the same name as I: Rebecca) has gone out once or twice, and yesterday bought us a few more movies to add to our limited collection. The thing is that we don't have cable, so movies are our only source of lazy visual entertainment. We're just too cheap to give in to the cable companies. Hey, we're college students.

Unfortunately, that means that we have probably seen every movie we own at least twice. And some of them we've seen too many times to keep count. We love Disney movies. The classics, you know. Or at least classics from our childhood. We don't have some of the true classics that I'd like to have, but we do have some of my childhood favorites like Beauty and the Beast, Lion King, Aristocats, Fox and the Hound, etc. I wouldn't necessarily put Tarzan or Mulan among the classics, but we have those too, among others. Since the snow in, I've been working on a drawing for my Drawing Concepts class, and while I've been working, we've been having our movie marathon. Here's a list of what we've watched so far (Hold on to your hats, this will be a long ride):

Miss Congeniality
The Mummy
Beauty and the Beast
Tarzan
Norbit
Pride and Prejudice
Anastasia
Aladin
The Devil Wears Prada
Deliver Us From Eva
Hunchback of Notredame
Rush Hour 2
Pocahontas
Space Jam
Jurasic Park

Phew...Ok, I think that's all, if not most of them. I may have missed one or two, but you get the point. But don't think we've been totally unproductive. Like I said, we've been doing homework while watching them. And my drawing is almost done. I'll post a picture of it when it's done. I'm quite pleased with it, and there's only a little more necessary to finish. It was actually due today, but seeing as the roads are still iced over and school is still cancelled, I was fortunate enough to have a little extra time on it, so I didn't have to kill myself about finishing it last night. I've also got to finish a painting for another class before Monday, though, so I've really got to get moving on that as well. I'm glad I brought that home after class on Monday!

Ok, time for the random fact of the day: did you know that on every continent there is a city called Rome? Interesting.

And purely for your entertainment....

Yes, that is a snowman army. No, I did not make them. (Like I said, I've not gone outside since the 20 degree weather hit!) But that's pretty awesome. Not to mention somewhat intimidating. Maybe they're the ones scaring the sun away. But then, the sun is bigger and badder than any army of tiny snowmen. He could melt them all away with a single well-directed ray of warmth and wonderfulness. But who knows. Maybe he got a little intimidated. Hopefully he'll man-up soon and fight back!

I'm so ready for summer.

Ready, Set, Go!

2011-02-02T11:17:00.001-06:00

Well, here we are. You've stumbled upon my blog! You're probably now wondering what this blog is about. If you read the tagline, you'll already have read that this is a blog about everything...or almost everything.

My name is Rebecca. I'm a college student working on my undergrad in art. I'm a painting major! The follow-up question I invariably get after that statement is, "Oh, wow, that's interesting...what do you plan to do with that?" Well, I won't bore you with the particulars of my answer to that question, but I'm sure I'll do just fine. I really don't plan on being a starving artist living in a box. However, if I did live in a box, you can be sure that it would be a lovely box, decorated on all sides with the cheapest set of crayolas I could find. I'd rock that box. But again, I really don't plan on living in a box.

So I am an artist. I am also a Christian. I'd like to get that out of the way right up front, so I don't have to beat around the bush later. I love the Lord with all my heart, soul and mind, and that's a pretty big part of my life. So I'm warning you now, I might get a little spiritual on you every once in a while. My faith in Christ is very important to me and shapes everything else in my life.

I have always felt that you should learn something new every day, so I'm going to resolve that you should have the opportunity to learn something new (and hopefully entertaining) at least once during each of my blogs. We'll see how that goes. Maybe I'll just throw some obscure and entertaining word or factoid at you in the middle of it every time. Who knows. I'll also probably throw a few pieces of art at you every once in a while. Really, you'll probably just be getting a taste of whatever most caught my interest in any particular day, so be prepared: this could get pretty random.

Ok, well I suppose that will do for an introduction for now. Goodnight, and God bless.

Oh! But before I go, let me jump right into resolution #1!
Abderian: adj. - Given to laughter; inclined to foolish or incessant merriment.
So go find and abderian friend to have a wonderfully entertaining conversation with!