sarucatepes

Supah Fun Week!

Hey peeps! Hope your week was super good! I had a mostly awesome week; I loved the hot weather as a change from the super cold and wet winter that we just went through. It was 94 degrees at one point. I'm scared for this summer if it's this hot in May. Lots of dresses and shorts and going to the pool with frens! I'm going home this week on Friday, so I'll be saying goodbye to a lot of hanging out and being social, but I'm still excited to go home and relax. I didn't think I would get to this point, but I do really want to go back home. It's been hecka stressful with the finals coming up and all the exams and projects due. I have fun projects in mind for the summer, so hopefully things go according to plan and I can keep myself working hard and being productive. 

I have two new reward tiers! Be sure to hop onboard the whole postcard lifestyle because I'm excited to send you all notes and thanks!

I'm gonna keep this post short and sweet because it is 2 a.m. right now and I am gonna fall asleep; it was a long day with lots of work, and I need to do lots of work and turning in assignments tomorrow. (And finally cleaning my room and folding laundry!) 

MOVIES
I've been watching The Office (for the sixth time through) with my roommate; we just prop a laptop up so both of us can watch and we draw together! It's been really fun, and I'm gonna miss her so much when I leave. :(

MUSIC
Concentrate- Elm

Where the Down Bit Starts (feeat. Kimbra)- Great Danes, Kimbra

Flower- Melis

Forsaken Nights- Kisnou

Decoy World VIP (feat. Park Avenue)- INTERCOM, Park Avenue 

My Youtube video will be up tomorrow! I recorded audio but there was so much noise in the background that the audio kinda hurt to listen to, so I'm going to re-record tomorrow morning and post asap! For my $10 or above patrons, the real-time process has still been posted today! Night night (or good morning if you're reading this Monday). 

TWO NEW REWARD TIERS!

I have two new reward tiers up! You can now get Limited Edition Monthly Postcards as well as a monthly original drawing from me! I'm super excited to start these rewards! The postcards will be a Patreon-exclusive artwork each month, and the sketches will be high quality and the exact same amount of work put in as the drawings I would be posting in my shop for $70-80. 

April Sketchbook PDF!

Hey frens! Happy Monday! I hope your day has been super great and that it was a good start to your week! If not, it's okay (I feel you). I had my last comms class today and I had to give a speech in the morning; I went so under time but didn't even care to try too hard to get to my time limit. It's the last class meeting and I frickin hated comms with a passion, so I'm celebrating being done, and I don't care that my speech was super cringy. No more 8:15 classes ever.

About the PDF! Have fun looking at this month's weird little drawings; I want to let you know that I'm running a hashtag on Instagram called #drawmesaruca, where I draw any of your reference pictures if they are super interesting or pretty! 

I'm almost done with this Blick Sketchbook! It's taken about 4 months to complete? Thanks to you guys, I keep sketching because I know you are looking forward to each month's PDFs, so it keeps me accountable! I'm really thankful that I have been sketching more than usual. I know that if I didn't have a good reason to keep sketching, I might have barely done anything personal this semester. So thank you frens! Hugs!

Art Supplies to Review? Help!

I need your help! I would like to try out some new art supplies because I'm missing receiving big art packages and am in the mood to spend money on things I don't need, so let me know if you're curious about any watercolor palettes or intriguing art supplies! May will bring on the good YouTube videos, so I want to try out and review some new stuff. 

Please let me know! :)

Infinity War among other things!

Hey guys! I hope this week has been super good for you and that you have been enjoying the warmer weather! 

What's been going on this week

I've been working on assignments for school; mostly my one history of graphic design class and then my film photography class. This is going to be the last official week of school; exams start on the 7th and my last exam is on the 10th, so I'm going home on the 11th. 

PSAAAAAA!! Starting at the beginning of May, I'm going to be switching up my reward tiers. I'm thinking of adding postcard rewards, limited edition prints, and sketch rewards. I'm trying to figure out how to best do this, but I'm thinking that I'll be bumping down my weekly full-length process videos to the $5 tier and adding postcards at the $10? I have no idea how to manage everything, but it should be fun! I'm most excited about sketch rewards? I'm thinking of the tier being $40-50 for a 5x7 in. for a pencil or watercolor sketch (with you guys suggesting themes for your personal sketch?) but please leave suggestions for me if you have a better idea or have seen other Patreon accounts successfully managing their tiers. It's gonna be L I T. Also, my shop is opening in May, so I'll let you all know when that is and I'll be sharing a 10% discount code for you all! Im so ready to go back to full-time arting and running everything. I'm ready for my freshman year to be over already ooofff.

I went swimming this week and it was fun! I haven't gone in a while and it was super nice. I've been hanging out with people, but it's been draining my social battery, so I'm staying in tonight and tomorrow and just treating myself to some Netflix and admin work.

$5 tier patrons: tomorrow I'll be posting my sketchbook PDF for this month, and on Tuesday, I'll be posting May's coloring book page reward for you $10 folks. 

I'm also thinking about cleaning out my closet soon. I have a lot of pieces that are cute, but I don't wear enough to justify taking up space. 

Movies

I watched Infinity War tonight! No spoilers, but I thought you all should know I'm cool and hip and watch Marvel movies. Also, I think I got the tickets for free because of a misunderstanding with my credit card and the theater's app, so that saved me $60? I'm hecka happy anyway. 

I also have been watching The Office as I'm working on assignments, and I just finished the show for the fifth time (and I started rewatching again for the sixth). I love it so so much. 

Music!

Paraffin- Single Edit- Meadowlark

For You- Once A Tree

(For Howard)- Ill Spector

All Day- Koda (it sounds like a ripoff of Hallelujah, but is that a bad thing?)

Redemption- David O'Dowda

Alaska- Maggie Brown

That's all I have for this week! I hope you get some rest tonight and have an excellent Monday (you will, cause my sketchbook PDF will be posted duh). I kid I kid! Lots of hugs. :)

Hanging in There!

Hey guys! Same old same old with the whole "I'm busy"! I'm sorry life isn't more exciting right now, but it's just lots of wrapping up final projects before exams! I'm trying to keep afloat during these last two and a half weeks of school; I'll be making juicy content when I get back home (I'm sorry, I had to think of a cringy word to unsettle you). Also, for anyone who was wondering, my shop will be open as soon as I get back for summer break, and I will be adding a 10% off discount for my shop to all Patrons! Exciting stuff; I hope to add some cool new series if I can, so if you think of good themes, please let me know!

So this week I got sick, and I've been hecka breaking out because of stress, so my face has gone through a lot. It's been super dry and scaley and I'm trying to make sure it's all moisturized and not lookin all beat up. I cut down on some social time, and worked on assignments, but spent more time napping. I'm feeling better, but I have a runny nose.

Today, my parents came to visit me and they brought my brown bun, so that was a good time spent! We went to the mountains, and I shot my landscape photography project; hopefully I'm going to develop them tomorrow and I'll have that out of the way for the week. 

MOVIES
I actually watched stuff this week with the whole staying in sick; The Departed (one of my favorite tough kid movies; I've seen it a lot of times)  and then Se7en. The aesthetic of Se7en was super good, like a grittier American Horror Story. Lastly, I watched 6 Souls. Super weird.. not good, except for the ending, which was hecka freaky. If you've noticed, I don't really like chick flicks. I kinda roll with thriller and horror. 

MUSIC
Church- Alison Wonderland

Daydream- Tycho

Chasing Fire- Lauv (I've been listening on repeat)

Atlantis- Seafret

Ghostess- Jake Morley

It's supah late, and I've gotten no sleep this weekend, so I'ma hit the hay. Bye bye!

It's Been a Super Busy Week

Hey guys! This past week has been insanely busy. I feel like I said that in my last post, but it's been crazy. Everything is piling up now that the semester is ending and my professors have realized they only have 4 more weeks to teach everything. 

First off, comment and let me know what you would like to see from me here on Patreon!! I would love to put out content that you guys would be interested in or could learn from, so please let me know!

For my film photography class, we had a quiz, midterm, and a huge huge project due in the same week; I finished and submitted my project and took the midterm on Friday, which was not a good day for me emotionally, so I have no idea how bad my grades will be. I have a really high grade in that class though, so I think I still have a safe A .

I got back a portfolio this week from my drawing class that was worth 200 points. I'll share it with you guys as soon as I can! I still have one portfolio to share, but I haven't got around to editing it into a PDF.

I swear, once school is over, I'll have more time to invest into good rewards for you! I really want to do both postcard and print rewards, and I'm sure I will get to doing that this summer. I also would love to make some enamel pins (although I would need to use a factory in China for them, and I keep seeing designs that have been sent to China being stolen ) and acrylic charms. Maybe a zine as well? I need to get to work with concepts. I HAVE AN IDEA THOUGH! If everything pans out, I'm thinking about doing an abandoned carnival theme. Lots of poisoned food and ghost girls...?

Ooof, you know how I was super sad last week? This week has emotionally been one of my worst weeks; I haven't had depression this badly for a couple of years, and it was just terrible; schoolwork and relationships were overwhelming, and even thinking about how I'm not necessarily growing as an artist is challenging and intimidating. I talked things out with people that I knew could help me through, and I'm feeling better, but I'm really weary of getting in the same state again. I'm trying to keep afloat with all the work I have due. Prerecorded Youtube videos ftw!

I'm just waiting until I don't have so many things due for school; I'm sort of sad that I will have to leave friends and a busy life here, but I need to get back home and focus on just art. My workspace here is small and cramped and it's really hard to focus on creating good content when I'm not completely comfortable with my surroundings. 

On a good note, yesterday was a good day. I worked so so much Sunday-Friday; I got no rest at all, so I decided to take a break yesterday. My boyfriend and I went to Blue Ridge mountains and hiked a bit, and then we got ice cream and went swimming with friends, and then there was a talent show last night until 2; it's a super big event at our university, and that was pretty fun. It was a really busy day, but relaxing to not have to work on anything. Monday it SNOWED, but yesterday, it was 80 degrees outside. It's crazy how fast the weather changed.. I'm extremely grateful for the warm weather though. I've been loving walking outdoors without a jacket on. 

MUSIC!

Like You- Exes

Better for It- Foreign Air

How We Used to Love- Martin Hviid Remix- Siv Jakobsen, Martin Hviid

Mental Illness- Goodnight Neverland

The Girl- JoJo Worthington

Holy Man- Om Shankar

No movies; I haven't had any time for Netflix this week!

Some thoughts

Hey guys, today I'm low energy and sort of stressed. I'll get to everything that I want to talk about after I let you know what I've been up to this week. Also, this is not going to be a positive post, so if you want good feels, this isn't gonna be the post for you, sorry!

What's been happening

I've been insanely busy with schoolwork. I have a couple of projects due every other day: design projects, research papers, speech outlines, quizzes, photography prints and assignments, and all this is gonna get worse in the next couple of weeks. I'm extremely stressed right now because I have a speech to give tomorrow for my communications class; I hate giving speeches with a passion, and I have put this project on the backburner because I've been focusing on all the other design and drawing projects I've had. I need to work on that today and practice it tons and tons to make sure I get a halfway decent grade and peer eval tomorrow. I've also had a drawing portfolio that was worth 200 points due this week, so I was making sure that it was all put together properly. 

I've also been trying to work out for the past two weeks; I've gone to the gym only once, but I've been doing pilates at my dorm. With all the sitting down to work, I've had very little time to walk around and get exercise. I hate working out, but it has been good for my mental health to step away from schoolwork and get rid of all the bad feels through working out. I do feel my legs are getting stronger, which is awesome, but my back and legs and butt have been killing me all week; it's a good burn? I'm just super sore right now.

Speaking of working out, real talk; lots of body insecurity going on in the past couple of weeks. I know everyone struggles with it, but I personally have been feeling it much more viciously than usual. I'm trying to get it under control and I'm just hoping to see results soon.  I've been extremely unhappy with my body in general. It's a horrible mentality, and I want to get rid of it, but it's extremely hard to do so in a society that over-sexualizes women. Woof, this got too real! I'm super sorry. 

I'm the kind of person who needs to find peace and acceptance within myself. Motivational things don't help me so much; I'm really stubborn and trust my mind more than other people, so body positivity online doesn't necessarily help me with my mindset. I'm just going to try super hard to eradicate all these stupid thoughts, but I thought I'd mention it since it is something that I've been focused on a lot and has been negatively impacting me in the past couple of weeks.

What else? Oh boy, about my new Youtube video (and realtime timelapse that I'll post here later today). It's an unfinished piece; I started off really excited for it. I was going to make it this cute mermaid holding an octopus and it was gonna be really adorable and different than what I usually work on, and then things started going wrong. The anatomy of the face is super bizarre and the drawing just looks off. All the drawing's features are off the tiniest bit and the painting isn't salvageable anymore. I've lost interest in it, the colors are not in harmony, and I don't like the anatomy of the body at all. I'm going to post the process for this incomplete piece because 1) I don't have time to record anything better since I have so much work due for tomorrow, and 2) this is kind of a realistic view into how basically every week recording a video is for me. I usually get a good painting on the second or third attempt at recording, but this week, I've had no time to restart. I think the recording has enough interest to be a little insightful into my digital painting process, but that's about it. I'm not in a place mentally to have faith that it will all pull together in the end. I think that I overthink Youtube and it stresses me out more than it should; I'm trying to remember my priorities right now, and those are to finish all my schoolwork for tomorrow.

Last thought! I know very very few people expect or demand content from me. I know that you guys are all extremely supportive of me and that you understand if I don't put out pieces or if I'm just going through a lot. I'm just letting you know all this stuff because Patreon is a place where I want to let you guys know how stuff in my personal life really is. I try to keep Instagram and Youtube (for the most part) pretty feel good and separated from my personal life. I don't think people need to know about all my struggles if they're just looking for my artwork, but Patreon is a "hey, get to know me!" platform for me. Don't worry about me not being okay. If I was in a really bad place, I wouldn't be letting you guys know about any of the things that have been on my mind. I usually shut myself off completely when I'm in a really bad place, so for me, honesty shows that I'm willing to face my feelings and that I want to rectify everything and pull myself together. 

I don't have movies or music this week; I've been supah busy, so I've had no time for either of these. 

I'm sorry if this was a super depressing post. I know I'll feel better after I get all my work done for tomorrow. I just need to get started on it. Thanks for hanging in there! I love you all so so much!

Have a great Sunday!! 

What Tutorials Would You Like To See?

Hey guys! I want to make rewards better, so I was thinking about doing some behind the scenes looks at pieces I'm working on and maybe doing some tutorials! What would you like to see me demonstrate? Any medium and any topic is welcome!!

Schoolwork and Reaching 200k!

Hey guys! Happy Easter! This week has been incredibly busy with all the school deadlines I've had!

What I did this week

It was both my boyfriend's sister's birthday and my brother's birthday this week, so two days were spent hanging out with them and having all the fun, and then yesterday, we gathered a buttload of friends and went out to eat with both of them for a celebratory lunch. It was a good day! I also met some of my boyfriend's relatives; they came to tour campus, so he and his sister and I took them all around. My parents also visited the next day to see my brother and I, so we took them out to eat and see more campus as well. I spent a huge amount of this week with people, which was amazing, but I'm swamped with so much work right now. I've been working nonstop today on my video and assignments for school, and I'm only halfway through everything. I'm super tired and sore from sitting and painting all day. Also! The video coming up on my channel in hopefully a few hours is gonna be sort of different? I made a digital painting for the first time in a long time, but I'm rusty with my skills and also upgraded my Krita to the newest version, so my staple brush is gone. I tweaked one of the new brushes, which is super pretty, but it's way harder to blend with it, and the whole process took forever. I'm not even too pleased with the video, but I want to keep my schedule plan for YouTube, especially now that I REACHED 200K?! It's super crazy! I'm extremely excited and honored and all the sappy, cliche things. They're just really true, and I feel super grateful to have such a wonderful community of people who support my artwork as well as each other!! Shucks, I don't know what to say! I'm really tired and out of it, so my post is all over the place. I have a design project and paper due tomorrow that I haven't even started, so I have to make sure to get them done asap. Okeydokey, I will post some more later this week mentioning any music or movies that I've heard or seen, but I legitimately haven't had time for either this week. I love you bunches and bunches!!

March Sketchbook PDF

Yello! Here's my sketchbook PDF for this past month! I've been struggling to be more original with my artwork, even though it's not super drastic. Please let me know if you have any ideas for what I can draw or themes I can incorporate into my work! 

Blind Contour Portfolio

Hey guys! Here is my second portfolio for my drawing class! It was on blind and continuous line contours. I got an 81/80 (good times!), and I'm happier with the exercises we've been doing. I don't like using charcoal. 

Spring Break!

Hello there frens. I'm sorry for not posting yesterday! I had a super busy weekend; I was working on my Youtube video and then homework yesterday afternoon. I went out to get some dinner, and came back to my roommate and two of our friends all dyeing their hair red (it looked like a massacre), so I helped out with washing everything out and cleaning up. Then my roommate and I had this super deep talk until like 1, and I fell asleep cause I was exhausted!

FIRST OFF, I NEED HELP!

My last Youtube video was about 4 hours long, so I would like to know how you guys would like to see it; an edit to around an hour long of real time footage, or 1 hour segment videos of the whole process?

What happened this week

Spring break was this past week, so I went back home. It snowed tons on Wednesday, so we were completely snowed in. I had wanted to see my friends while I was back, but roads weren't clear, so we couldn't drive and see each other. Sad day. I went out only once last week, and that was to Maryland (road trip!) to catch a movie. 

I opened my shop until Thursday, recorded a lot of little pencil drawing processes for YouTube, and live-streamed on Instagram a little bit. I also received a big order from Blick Art Supplies, and I got new Arches watercolor paper and some Reeves gouache paints to try out. I've only used gouache once before, so I really want to get better at using them. I've been obsessed with Chris Hong's art lately, and I would love to have an illustration style similar to hers mixed with Tony DiTerlizzi. I love illustrations with lots of little details and cool shadows and all the washes of watercolor and gouache mixed with pencil, so reasons for buying some cheap gouache. I want to know if I can learn the medium and enjoy using it, and then I'll probably upgrade to higher quality paints if all goes well. Anyway, I tried to use gouache for this big illustration I had in mind, and it turned out to be a disaster. I talk about it in my latest Youtube video, and you can see the new piece that I worked on after the first one failed. I ended up using Holbein watercolors for the second piece, so I didn't really get the chance to work on something successful with gouache, but I do want to try some little studies to get used to the paints before beginning a bigger illustration. Lots of meh art this week, but I like trying out new things even if they aren't successful to begin with. I'm at a point right now where I understand that messing up is a-okay, and does really aid the learning process. 

Friday, I did a buttload of taxes. Friday wasn't a good day for my bank account. I realized I had to pay way more taxes than I had anticipated, and with being a student and a dependent, I get absolutely no benefits. I put in every conceivable deduction, and it lowered the final tax by about $1,500, but it's still... a ton of money that I need to pay. I'm a little upset at the thought honestly; being a freelancer is super hard. I've spent a lot of late nights packing orders and editing and painting, and for no benefits and a crazy amount of taxes to pay, it's just discouraging. I know I want to do art, so nothing is going to stop me from pursuing this dream, but it just sucks a little bit. Also, some idiot set a claim on an order I had sent out in November (which I had tracking for and which stated that the package had arrived at the person's mailbox), and they won, so they basically stole a drawing and a couple prints from me, the money that I was supposed to get from it, and an additional $20 for bank transaction fees. I don't get angered easily online, but I think I'm allowed to be a little mad when someone steals money and frickin art from me. It pisses me off cause they took an original drawing. Like... I put in work and in a cliche way, love, into my pieces, so to have someone just steal that is stupid. 

I'm good now, it was just an intense week. It's good to see friends again and be busy. I hate just sitting around all day, so all this walking is great for me right now. 

But a word of gratitude; thank you all for the support, even if you're an Earl Grey kid! It means a lot to me that you support me and willingly just give me money to be able to keep investing in art and posting! With everything going on, and not being able to make a lot of money while I'm studying, any support helps me tremendously. So truly, thank you from the bottom of my heart!

Movies!

I saw Annihilation (the Maryland road trip) and it was trippy. It was a good movie, probably one of the best alien movies I've seen, but I definitely didn't understand all the plot elements. Visually, it was extremely beautiful, so if you want some cool rainbow morph action going on, you should watch it! Also, Natalie Portman is fine, just saying.

I've also watched the first season of Nailed It! on Netflix, and it's such a dumb show but it's okay. I love cooking and baking shows, and this one is super funny/kinda drunk. 

Music

Naive- RKCB

Underdog- Banks

Six Feet Under- Billie Ellish

Crowded Out- Funeral Suits

Ties- Slow Skies

Hunting Season- Fences

Air- Junno and Hanna

Locked and Loaded- Lael

Hope you all have had a good week! 

New Originals in My Shop!

My shop will be open from now to Thursday, so if you would like to pick up one of my drawings or paintings, be sure to give my shop a lil look: http://sarucatepes.tictail.com/

Spring Break's Started

I just got back home for spring break on Friday, so this week, I'm hoping to be super productive.

What's happened this week

Things have been better! I've been focusing on being a more considerate person and getting all my work done, and it's been pretty good. The semester is half over, so lots of midterms and projects that were due, but it should get pretty chill the next week or so. It snowed on Monday, so we had a snow day, which was fantabulous. My friends built a George Washington snowman and he had a Kim K. butt and super nice abs and nipples; we did good. Usually, Saturdays are really busy for me since I have a lot of homework and I usually work on YouTube then, so this Monday was like a proper weekend Saturday for me; no work to do at all. I didn't have school on Friday either since my professor cancelled class since he wanted to leave for spring break early. It was a chill week. Now I'm back home, and I'm sort of already done with being here. I want my friends and roommate back. Biggest thing I need to stress is that I hate just sitting; I love walking around and not being in the same place all day, and unfortunately, at home, I sit at my desk for like.. 14 hours straight. It's not healthy and it makes me feel like my legs are gonna rot off. But it's only for this week. I'll try to record as many videos as I can for Youtube.

I also wanna sell some of my new originals! I'll put them up in my shop soon, so be sure to check my Instagram for when they will be up (and possibly I'll post here too once they're all up). 

I'll also be posting my last two drawing portfolios this week!  Just gotta edit them, so look out for those as well. 

Movies

I've been watching Nailed It on Netflix, and it's such a bad show.. mediocre would be the word, but it's been playing as I've been working. Apart from that, lots of Gilmore Girls and rewatching some of my favorite movies; The Brothers Grimm is this super awesome movie that I definitely recommend, and I watched The Godfather with my boyfriend since he's never seen it before (he liked).

Music

The Best Part- Bien

Park Beers- Hayden Calnin

Sleepers- Tambour

L'apostrophe- Tambour

Sanctify- Years & Years

Hope you all had a wonderful week! Love you bunches and bunches!

We Made a Lot of Cobbler

I've been doing a lot of marker art this week and been making a lot of food with my roommate. 

How my week has been

We had a much easier week this past week because Wednesday was Assessment Day and classes were canceled. I've been spending more time in my dorm, cooking and drawing and focusing on a lil' bit of me time. I'm an introvert but love people a crazy amount, so it's a really delicate balance for me of being around people I love and just burning out from all the engagement. I've been trying to tell myself no to hanging out and social events that aren't extra special, since I think it's having a negative impact on my mood and work. I get really drained, so I'm exercising restraint and forcing myself to just be alone more and to meditate and watch some Netflix and draw. 

We made raspberry and blueberry cobbler on Wednesday and then two blueberry cobblers on Friday; my photography professor's daughter was in the ER and class had been cancelled so Sarah and I thought to bake him a cobbler. He seemed happy so I'm happy. His daughter just had a stomach bug so it's all good, but we still wanted him to know we had been thinking about him and his family. I love blueberry though, so I've been eating a bunch of ice cream and cobbler in bed and taking naps. It's been awesome. 

I livestreamed on Instagram this week! It was a great time; I love doing it, even though I barely do, so it gave me a lot of life talking to people again and catching up with some of my art buddies. I want to do it more, and I'm going to try to do it again this week. Maybe with some sketching and thinking up ideas for complex or creative paintings for the future. 

Spring break is just 6 days away, and I'm torn about if I want to go back home or not. I know it will be good for me to see my mom again and friends from home and to binge Netflix and bake and record videos. I love my space at home so much. My room is amazing; everything is black and smells like pine, and there's so much space to record videos and work on my shop. I'm excited! I think I need a break from how hectic and emotionally draining college is, and I'm super close to my mom, so I think having her around will help me get back in my zone. She's my biggest supporter, and she always will text or call me when I upload a photo or video and let me know that she loves it. She's the cutest and honestly goals.

Tv

I haven't been watching really anything recently except letting Gilmore Girls run in the background as I'm working on art assigments. I did start watching Collateral on Netflix yesterday. I'm just on the second episode, but I like it by now. I like the diversity in characters; I'm not a social justice warrior, and I'm not like I NEED MINORITIES, but I do appreciate when various types of people are portrayed realistically in movies. (Watch the show end really badly or be super offensive, and then I'll get in a bunch of trouble).

Music

Chasma- Silver Maple

Reflections- The Neighbourhood

Too Serious- The Neighbourhood

Valse N.1-  Tambour

Ballet of the Little Cafe- Brian Crain

I Love You- RIOPY

As a Relief- Tambour

Sorry for No Post on Sunday!

Hey frens. I'm so sorry for not posting on Sunday. It was a big day. Personal stuff happened that I don't really wanna go into, but I had my video and posts planned out and then I was just too exhausted to get to them. My week had been super busy because I had a ton of engagements and assignments that I wanted to get out of the way before the weekend, and then my weekend plans didn't pan out. It was just a sad week, and honestly, I'm just getting over some of the stuff that happened and trying to focus on art and working. I don't know how successful I'll be because I'm honestly really worn out right now. 

Also, we had a whole unplugged challenge at my university which was basically not having earbuds in for the whole week, no being on your phone, just trying to be more involved in the world and people around. S it was kinda depressing; I need music to function so it just made my mood way worse. 

Silver lining is that my roommate and I are gonna be cooking and baking a butt ton tonight and gonna be bringing all our friends drumsticks and stirfry and fried rice and mac and cheese and cobbler. She's the cutest ever and one of the most wonderful people in my life right now. I feel extremely blessed to have her because she's been there for me this whole week with everything going on. 

Also, I'm okay! I'm posting today because I'm finally at a more okay place and it's all good, and I wanna be back. I need to work on a video for Sunday so I'm wondering what to paint or draw. Maybe marker art? 

I love you all, thanks so much for your patience!

MUSIC:

Pursuit of Happiness (Bonus Track)- Ilya Beshevli

COPYCAT- Billie Ellish

THE SOUND- The Plot in You

I ALWAYS WANTED TO LEAVE- The Plot in You

February Sketchbook PDF

Here's the second part of my February sketchbook! The way I use my sketchbook is by opening to random pages and drawing; it makes keeping one much easier since there isn't too much pressure to keep everything orderly and perfect. Just letting you know that because of that, some pages barely have any drawings on them since I probably would have grabbed my sketchbook and doodled in between classes, and then would close it once I got to where I needed to be. Then I just open to another random page when I want to draw again. I might go back and fill up different pages later on, we shall see. 

How My Week Has Been

Hey my frens! This week has definitely been a little better than last week; I attempted to be productive, completed some art assigments, did a Youtube vid (even tho it's poop), and played lots of games.

Meet my fren Earl

This is Earl (cause earl GREY TEA get it, cause he's gray..). I got him from Cracker Barrel for $17! He's the biggest fluffy and his ears are super floppy and heavy, and I love gray so he made my day. I was having a sucky evening and then I saw him and everything became better. He's my new buddy.

What I did this week

So, the weather got incredibly more wonderful this week; it was like 73 degrees one day, and I got to sit outside at a table and play card games with my boyfriend while the breeze was swooshing around. It was wonderful; I miss the warm spring weather and I'm so excited to go back to wearing blouses and flats even though I love all my ankle boots and thrifted sweaters. You guys probably know what I mean, but there's this type of warm weather that makes me super nostalgic. It just reminds me of cool summer evenings and good memories from when I was a little one, so I was super happy to have two of those evenings this week. My university has tubing up on the mountain, so I did that with my bro last night. It's just been a good week for getting my schoolwork done and enjoying free time. Unfortunately, I have to give a speech tomorrow morning at 8:15 for my speech class, so kill me now. You have no idea how much I hate speeches. Tomorrow is not gonna be a good day. 

Honestly, I would push myself a little more to keep creating artwork and to post on my social media, but I realized that art is always gonna be there for me. I can always go back to it, but I don't wanna miss any memories that I could be making with my friends right now. I haven't told the internet, but college is the most exposure to people and friends and relationships that I've had, and I do want to treasure the time that I have with my friends because I know all too well how I won't be guaranteed opportunities like this in the future. I don't feel bad about it, and I just wanted to let you know that this is what feels right at this point in my life. But like duh, I'm still gonna post here and everywhere else and keep sketching and making videos. I just don't sit and draw for 7 hours a day like I did back home. 

I DEVELOPED FILM!!

So, in my film photography class, we finally learned how to develop our black and white film by hand, so that's what I did yesterday. It was a trip trying to make sure I had everything perfect since it was the first time that I've ever done it, but YOOOOOO! My pictures turned out! I scanned my negatives and inverted them in Photoshop, and I love how they turned out. I gotta properly print them now (and see what my professor says about the negatives), but I'm crazy excited!

Also, my roommate might sell her Instax Wide 300 to me, so I'll get to do some instant photography as well. I've been really loving this film photography class, and ironically, it was the one class that I registered for that I was dreading. It's the most fun class ever; I have made a bunch of friends in that class and the professor has the best sense of humor and is okay with his classroom of only girls making idiotic jokes all the time. I can't wait to take more pictures of my friends and be all artsy and hipster with my film photography.  

Games

So I bought a buttload of card games this week; I bought and learned how to play Dutch Blitz, and then I bought an.. 8-pack? of kid's card games, so I relearned how to play Go Fish and Old Maid and Memory. Super duper fun. This has been a week for card games; some UNO as well. If you have any fun card games or board games that you could recommend me to try out, please let me know! We usually play with 3-8 people. In my friend group, I'm officially the game person cause I have a job and have more money to spend on games than anyone else (I technically don't, but I like buying things to make people happy so..). 

Whale, that's about it for this week. Love you all!

My First Drawing Portfolio

I've attached a PDF of my first drawing portfolio assignment: it was the gesture unit, and I received a 48/50 (2 points off for the wrong size of binder clips.. it's so lame).

Drawn on 18"x24" newsprint, all of them were 60 second studies (some were 120 seconds), so they are super quick life drawings; half of them were done during class time and half for homework.  Timed life drawings are super stressful, I'm not even gonna lie. I didn't like, but they're beneficial I guess? This is some of what I've been working on rather than drawing pretty girls. feelsbadman.

Getting Better at Time Management

Hey peeps! This past week wasn't my most productive, and I'm hoping the next week will be much better.

What happened this week

I didn't do too much this week apart from school and hanging out with people. Tuesday and Wednesday I just hung out with my boyfriend cause it was our anniversary and then Valentine's Day and he's a cheesy type of person (I'm too alternative to care about cheesy things). I wrote papers for classes, did some art assignments, took some photos-- all things that aren't the most amazing, but they take a lot of time. Yesterday, we went on a double date to see Black Panther and have dinner. It was a good time. 

I have to do a pretty detailed silhouette and contour drawing for my drawing class, so that's what I'm going to do for the rest of the day. Ugh, stupid art assignments; I could be doing personal art right now, but I suppose it's a good idea to get this out of the way so I can focus on personal pieces for the rest of the week (or until I get a new assignment.. on Tuesday). I'll show you guys the first portfolio I had to submit, as well as my lab and homework drawings as soon as I can! Hopefully sometime this week. 

I submitted two of my works to a Digital Arts competition at my university: a photo and a digital painting. I attached the two pieces as a PDF if you wanna see them; they probably won't win anything, but hey, I get extra credit for my film photography class for entering, so I don't have anything to lose. 

Today, I felt uber sick so I didn't go to church; I slept until 1, made myself some tea and fancy mac and cheese, and I've been bundled up in bed working on Youtube all day. IT'S SUCH A SHAME because the weather is freaking splendiforous outside! Poop. Hopefully it stays the same tomorrow and I'll go hammock. :)

HELP!

I got the 48 color set of Holbein watercolors for Christmas, and I really wanna use them, but I need ideas for what I should paint. I wanna do something illustration-y and with nature. What scenes from fairytales or stories should I paint?

MOVIES

I've started watching Gilmore Girls as I've been working on assigments, and it's super.. cringe and not good but good at the same time? It's pretty binge-worthy, not gonna lie. I'm gonna slowly keep watching as I work on assignments.

OKEYDOKE BLACK PANTHER! It was such a yummy movie; I looooooooveeeeeeeed it. Visually, it was sooo beautiful and there were so many beautiful people and gorgeous outfits and beautiful accents and freakin abs and Michael B. Jordan's hair and great music and awesome story line. Just 10/10. I'm not a huge Marvel fan, but lately, they've stepped up their game so much. I love that they're becoming just good standalone movies but at the same time, they do connect to the whole universe. Also, Stan Lee just showed up at a random scene and I was like hello epic man. Go see it if you haven't; it's freakin impeccable. (Also, I don't like movies that are longer than feature length, but this one was captivating all the freakin way. And the second end credit scene, #Romanianbeanboy)

SONGS

Northern Eyes- Little Oceans

Secret Garden (feat. Merival)- Izzard, Soda Island, Merival

Hypnotise- Polarheart

Stay in Your Bed- Astre

Awake, Asleep- REMMI

Crawl- Tyne

Deja Vu- Runaway Weekend

Peace out, girl scout. 

FIRST SKETCHBOOK PDF!

Hello! Okeydokey, I wanna let you know that I plan on releasing sketchbook PDFs at the end of every month, but since my Patreon is a baby, I wanna add a couple extra posts to begin with. There will be another sketchbook PDF at the end of February, but I just wanted to show you guys what I've been working on for the past couple days. 

I just got a new sketchbook, the Blick Wirebound Sketchbook - 12" x 9", and I like that it's a cheap but purty okay quality sketchbook for pencil and ink. I like relatively inexpensive sketchbooks because I don't feel guilty about making ugly drawings or carrying it around everywhere with me. These are my first drawings in it. :)

Have a great evening!

My Week Has Been Crazy

Hi there! First proper post for this Patreon. This is crazy.

What happened this week

          So this semester, I'm taking a basic drawing class. It's supposed to teach me some of the fundamentals, such as gesture drawing, mass and line drawing, blind contour and continuous line blind contour (well, this is what we've learned by now). It's halfway really interesting and fun, because we get to draw during class! Like yo. It's also pretty boring and rough; my professor is the sweetest lil' dude ever, but he talks slowly and rehashes the same concepts over and over. It takes a while to get to the actual lab session where we get to draw, but once we do, it's freakin' stressful. We've been doing 1 minute timed drawings, with the exception of the contour drawings,  for the past couple of weeks, and and.. it's hard! I need a little bit of time to figure out where to best place my lines and how to have the best flow and just a pleasing line shape, but with the 60 second drawings, I gotta just put marks down and hope for the best. Yeesh. Ironically, when looking over my lab sessions and homework, he really likes artwork that I thought was meh, and he manages to find something wrong with whatever I'm actually happy with. 

          I also have a film photography class, and I just shot my first roll of black and white 400 film. I had to take pictures of my friends being weird; hopefully they turned out nicely. The great thing about this photography class is that I met this girl Sarah (yehyeh) and she lived in the same dorm building that I did, only in a much better room. She asked if I wanted to room with her, since her old roommate switched colleges, so this week was a lot of moving all my stuff to the fourth floor and RA check-outs. It's great though; she's the same major as I am, and she's adorable. You can find her art Insta here: https://www.instagram.com/snickerdoodlesforyou/?hl=en

          Next up: new computer! I'm crazy, I got an Alienware laptop. It's huge, super heavy, and the screen is magnificent. It's my new workhorse, even though I know it's low-key sacrilegious to use a gaming laptop for anything other than gaming. The specs are good, so that's all that matters to me. I'm very broke right now. :-)

          Games! My friend group and I have been playing lots of Codenames recently. It's this great tabletop card game that is a mix of Minesweeper, Battleship, and Catch Phrase. It's such a nerdy game but honestly so much fun. 

MOVIES

Okay, I did not like the new Jumanji. Jack Black saved it a little, but I feel like their reasoning behind the movie was DUDE: the Rock and Nick Jonas. That's all we need. If you liked the movie, I'm really happy! I just was one of the few people who was such an avid fan of the first one with Robin Williams ever since I was a munchkin, so this was too... not the first one. 

Breakfast at Tiffany's: 2/10 It's crazy overrated

I've started watching Captain Underpants, and it is not a good movie but not bad either. Some of the darker humor is so funny though, I wish more kids movies had darker humor! 

SONGS!!

California- The Lagoons

Out of Order- Michl

Fiji Water- Owl City

Lie- Shallou, Riah

Particle- Hundred Waters

Habits- Plested

Okeydokey boys and girls, Have a great rest of your weekend; enjoy some hot beverage (it's been raining for forever here and I'm curled up in bed with this super hot laptop to warm my legs). Love you! :)

AHHH this is happening!

          I'm super nervous and excited about this whole Patreon dealio! It's been in the back of my brain for ages now, and I didn't think I would have the time to consistently post since I have college, but yo! I like DOING THINGS, and art is a good thing to do, so I'm really happy to have the opportunity to share more of my personal life with you and to work on self-improvement. 

          Hopefully, the reward tiers I have right now are great for you! Let me know if you would like any adjustments to the tiers or if you have any insights. I'm a Patreon baby, but I pinky promise to deliver on them each month.