Frodo and Sam

Frodo:

I can't do this, Sam.

Sam:
I know. It's all wrong. By rights we shouldn't even be here. But we are.
It's like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you didn't want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened?
But in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why.
But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn't. They kept going. Because they were holding on to something.


Frodo:
What are we holding onto, Sam?


Sam:
That there's some good in this world, Mr. Frodo... and it's worth fighting for.

 The above quote is one of the best in all of Lord of the Rings. And the above picture is the best I have ever drawn, LotR or not.

My dad's favorite LotR character is Sam. He went with Frodo every step of the way, and yet he didn't need to. He is loyal, corageous, and loving. It is Sam, as much as Frodo, who saved Middle-Earth.

After Gandalf, Aragorn, and Arwen, I decided to make a drawing of Sam for Father's Day. I searched all around, but had great difficulties finding any picture that personified Samwise Gamgee. I finally printed out one of the promotional portriats, with Sam smiling. That very day, I found a peice of art by professional artist Esteljif on Deviantart. I was astounded that the picture was not a photo! Esteljif generously sent me the screencap that I based my drawing off of-- this scene is shown for a short second at the end of The Two Towers, right after the above quote is spoken.

My fingers refused to rest! I worked on this drawing for 4 days, and usually after everyone went to bed and it was quiet. I have no idea how long I worked each day-- well over two hours! I got as caught up drawing as I do when reading a page-turner.




I am rather pleased with the drawing. It is certainly the best I have ever drawn. I think I managed to get emotion in it, despite the extreme technical difficulties (such as the angle of Frodo's face).

 Of course, now that I have put the picture in a frame, I realize that the shadow on Sam's left eye needs to be darker, and his right cheek narrower. Oh, well! :)
This was my first chance to use my drawing board. :) It is also the first time in years that I have used the dreaded graphing method. I prefer to anaylze my drawings into various underlying shapes and go total freehand. I was daunted by this picture, though, and drew a light 4 by 6 grid over both the screencap and my paper. I used it to help me with basic placement, though I soon erased the lines and did the rest by eye.

I took pictures along the way (seeing the drawing on an inch-big screen helps me as much or more than turning it upside down).

Here are those WIP (Work In Progress) pictures. I put them in a slideshow. Click the bottom right button to go to the photo album, where you can see the pictures much larger.



Here are some more pictures:

My hands. Notice all the graphite on them-- quite a mess!

And that is why I use peices of paper to protect my art from my hands. I usually had two peices-- one for my drawing hand, and one for the hand holding the picture steady.

Me, doing what I love best! (Although not looking the best! lol)

Letters

A month ago, my aunt had a baby shower, and I painted some letters to match the nursery design (she has a very specific design/pattern/color/theme). I made a C, K, N, and R-- they did not find out the baby's gender, and the initals would be either CNK (girl) or CRK (boy).
The baby, a cute little girl, was born a week or two ago!

Crocheted Baby Blanket

I made this for my newborn cousin! I got the pattern off of Ravelry. (I love that site, by the way.) It took FOREVER, simply because of its size!

Arwen

This is my first full colored-pencil portrait. I am not tottally happy with it, but it is certianly the best so far! And a good experience! I now know what colors to use for faces.

A work in progress shot

My drawing next to my reference.

FAILED: Sewing a skirt

So you thought that all I could make was some neat drawings and fun crafts? Looks can be misleading. For every good drawing showcased on my blog, I have ten pages (however unrelated, aside from technique)of terrible, horrible, nasty drawings. For every five crafts I make, one makes it to the dumpster. And of those that survive, not all make it to the blog.

But sometimes a fail has to make it to a blog. This is a particularly big fail. And... I'm posting it on my blog.

I had a pair of too small jeans with holes that I wanted to turn into a skit. I didn't want to turn it into a long skirt with two fabric triangles in front and back, like some friends of mine make. I wanted to make a knee-length skirt. And I don't know how to sew well.

The problem, as I later found out, was that the pants were too small. Nevermind that they fit around the waist-- a skirt tight in the hips does not work very well. Maybe this would have worked if I had a pair of fitting jeans. My other problem was that I tried to make it below knee length, and did not have enough fabric from the bottom of the legs to fill in the skirt.

^And there was my problem, and the reason I never finished the skirt. Had that not been an issue I would have finished sewing and given it to someone smaller.

My Brothers' Stuff

Arts, crafts, and crazy creativeness might not be the biggest thing in our family, but every now and then I convince my brothers to join me.

Ben has done some excellent drawings and poems, and William and Nick have both written some pretty good stories. But I don't have pictures of those.

But I do have these pictures to share:

SOME of the rings William made (I made the top right one for his Aragorn costume, but he made the rest without help):

A balloon William drew on for Mother's Day. It is our house with a "SOLD" sign. (We've been trying to move for... a long time.)

Ben, working on a drawing. He worked on it the same time I was working on my Aragorn. I think he got discouraged that my drawing actually turned out OK-- he gave up on it. :( He got pretty far and pretty good, though.

Ben is working on a rosary now, and I am teaching 3 of my brothers chainmaille. :)

My 2 year old brother had to join the fun, of course:

Craft Basket

I finally organised my craft basket. Don't worry if it doesn't look organized-- its organized to me. At least stuff is not falling out.

My beads and wire are in an under-the-bed box.

Drawings

A few weeks ago, we visited my cousins for a First Communion and a Confirmation. Mom suggested I draw pictures for them (the day before!) and this is what I came up with-- St. George and the Dragon for my cousin recieving his first Communion, and St. Benedict for my cousin recieving Confirmation with St. Benedict as his patron.

Teaching my sister

This picture is from sometime around last Christmas. EVERY BIT of my jewelry stuff was out all over the floor. Since then I've used most of it up and have more stuff! lol!

"How To Make A Rosary"

A few months ago I wrote this article for Ink and Fairydust. I thought I should post it on my blog-- I'm a little proud of my photography, graphics, and making sense of Miss Wendy's typos. :)

I'm going to take a moment to add that I draw a monthly comic and write a monthly art column for I&F.

Open publication - Free publishing -

Broken Camera

Many of my promised updates will not be coming for awhile... I broke my camera. It fell to the concrete ground just as I was pulling the strap over my head. The inside lens came loose. Mom thinks it can be repaired. It had better be able to! It was a very nice camera.

Anyway, I have pictures for some, but by no means all, of the updates I promised. Keep an eye out; I'm busy, but I'll be posting every now and then.

I'm also going to add "Work in Progress" as a label. I've taken pictures and posted instructions for many of my crafts; I've found such things imensely helpful when attempting crafts myself.

 I recently saw an artist's website where she had pictures of her painting in progress. I can't tell you how wonderful it was, to see the artwork come alive and to find the style and buildup of the artwork. It also showed me just how much tedious work went into it!

As I get time I'll go through my artwork, updating and labeling with all work-in-progress pictures that I have.

Updates Coming Soon

Updates coming! So far I've spent my summer vacation doing all sorts of artsy things. Don't worry, I haven't disappeared. But there are more important things than blogs, you know. (*runs away from angry blog-followers*)

Here is some stuff to look for:

My "How to Make a Rosary" article from Ink and Fairydust and my brother's attempts at making one
A few bits and pieces of jewelry
My second colored-pencil portrait
Flower Fairies! (I finally found the box of fairies I made years ago; twas in storage)
HDR (High Dynamic Range) photography attempts
My brothers' creations
Updates on my writing
A failed sewing attempt
Work-in-progress of my GANDALF and LUCY PEVENSIE drawings.
a scarf
flower pen
fairy charm bracelet, washer necklaces, rings, and (what I am working on) a jewelry set

As always, please enjoy browsing through previous posts! I am going to do some revising of old posts. Any "instruction" pages will now carry links to other projects made that same way, and I will be removing "read more" from my oldest posts.

P.S. Is the blog loading slowly for everyone? Or is it just me?