Figured I'd get around to something art-related, yeah?

[Sterling1113]

Well, it seems many of us on the forum here have had quite stressful mornings! It's nearing on 6PM here in Texas, so I've already had my morning, got through the tired mess, and taken a nap to recover just a little.. haha.
Oh, the many perks of being pregnant. An unfulfilled night of sleep always, without a doubt, leads to uncontrolled and rather obnoxious crying fits until I have a nap. (Poor Brad. He's the one that has to deal with my tired, groggy mess.) Kiwi tried to lessen my stress, but when she decided to relieve herself on my pants(That I had JUST washed) of course, that was grounds for MORE crying, even though it was so minor(Kiwi is so little!) so Brad had to collect me and Kiwi returned to her stand, confused as ever. She just wanted to help.
Anyway, so I took my nap and made some lunch and figured I'd draw something. I've had awful artists block lately, so I haven't been doing much artwork for the past few months.
It was *going* to be a Severe Macaw, but when I decided to do black and white instead of color, the species sort of went with it, but oh well. (And if anyone has ever tried to do a black and white drawing with a mechanical pencil, you feel my pain.)

I can't help but focus on the wings and face(drawing a parrot looking straight at you is weird..) but oh well. Definitely not going back to fix it. Maybe I'll re-draw it on canvas and paint it one day.

Any for the sake of bird-related art, here's something I did when I was a freshman in highschool, and still very steampunk/goth/bird savvy. (weird combination, I know.)


Most of the time my focus is more mythological. Dragons, Gryphons, anything bird/lizard/mythology related really. But I don't have the patience to go though and try to find some of my better pieces that I feel are worth showing to the world... so just theses two for now.
(Besides, the other ones are old.)

 

[jenphilly]

I love the steampunk with toucan! I hope that went into some type of art show, very impressive for a high school kid!

I wish I could draw, but my best would be stick figures And even then you'd be hard pressed to figure out a figure of what stick!!

Share more Ash when you can, very interesting. And the dark, mythology type drawings are a huge hit with both Victoria and I. She is a major Brom fan, I've spent quite a bit on his books and some of the prints. Her favorite art print is called 'Murder Scene' by Munk One. She has the gelaskin cover for her macbook and also we have 20x30 print hanging in the living room (was a birthday present for her). Here is a save of the print, gives you a better insight into her psyche



While I like alot of the stuff she does, I am much more boring and mundane, Andrew Wyeth is my favorite artist, not nearly as edgy or exciting!

 

[Sterling1113]

Thank you, Jen!
It's nice to know my "style" is shared here at the forums hehe.
Good news! I found some other drawings I posted on Facebook a while ago, some more bird stuff and some dragon-esque type things. I'll post them once I get them uploaded to photobucket!

 

[jenphilly]

Can't wait to see them!!

 

[Sterling1113]

Color Hawk-Headed Parrot I did a few years ago(Jeez, I need to start dating my pictures. I can give a vague time frame but that's it.)
(It keeps coming out sideways.. urgh. Whatever.)



Here's a leopard/dragon/thing.. drew this in 2012 if I remember correctly.


Gryphon/griffon/hippogrif/whatever you call them.


More black and white.. most of these are through my high school years, and they've all sort of blended together so I have no idea when this was. I'm thinking late 2011 though.


Aaaand here's a morph ball python. This guy is somewhat recent. Probably about 6 months ago. All my color work except for this guy is done with prisma-color pencils, and my paint is almost always done with acrylic, unless specified otherwise.


Edit: I forgot! This is the B/W Iguana I did recently (before the ball python.) Also in mechanical pencil. It was a PAIN! (Literally!!)

 

[Anansi]

Thank you so much for sharing these, Ashley! I especially enjoyed the gryphon and the iguana pics! Keep them coming!

 

[Kiwibird]

Awesome art! I LOVE the B&W conure. Hope you share more as you make them

@Jen- I am a BIG Brom fan too. I *love* dark fantasy art. I did a Brom/Boris Vellejo inspired photoshoot with my friend who's a pro photographer a few years back. It was pretty awesome, though nothing I would imagine appropriate for this forum.

 

[Sterling1113]

Thanks, you guys.
It's been a while since I've really worked on something, and it'll probably be some time after the delivery that I really sit down and do something big, but if I get a random burst of inspiration(and actually manage to get it on paper/canvas) I'll definitely share it!

 

[Mekaisto]

I love looking at other people's art, everyone is always so creative
Here are some feathers I painted about a year ago, and an egg which is more recent - eggs are fun to paint and plentiful, where I am XD

 

[Anansi]

@Mekaisto: Those are beautiful! And painting on those feathers must have been especially challenging! Impressive. Any more to share?

Awesome art! I LOVE the B&W conure. Hope you share more as you make them

@Jen- I am a BIG Brom fan too. I *love* dark fantasy art. I did a Brom/Boris Vellejo inspired photoshoot with my friend who's a pro photographer a few years back. It was pretty awesome, though nothing I would imagine appropriate for this forum.

@April: Really? You tell us about an awesome photoshoot that you did, and then say you can't show us?!? Smh. Such a tease!

@Ashley: Looking forward to more from you!

 

[Mekaisto]

Haha unfortunately not - these were painted as gifts, I don't put nearly as much effort into stuff for myself XD

 

[mtdoramike]

WOW, what talent. I'm in awe of people with real talent like this. The only thing I have really done art or craft wise is model ship building and a few R/C planes that I built for people.

I built a couple of USS Constitution ship models for an Insurance Corp in CT. and a Computer Software firm in New Jersey. Both took me a total of about 1600 hours each. I even incorporated real wood from the original Constitution ship that I got from the Constitution Museum when ever they did their refit of the ship. I used it to make cross trees, anchor collars and other various things on the ship.

I have built probably 20 models over the years mainly just a hobby thing for something to do.

The models were 4 feet long and over 3 feet tall.

 

[MomtoPercy]

Wow, such awesome talent here!!! Beautiful work!

 

[Mekaisto]

Wow! Now that's dedication!

 

[Sterling1113]

Mekaisto: Those are awesome! I can't imagine trying to paint on feathers.. (But then again, my conures have small feathers..) I feel like it would be SO easy to apply too much pressure and mess up! How do you preserve the egg? That's really neat!

mtdoramike: Those are awesome! My boyfriend tried to get into model building, but his focus is rather short. I know I wouldn't have the patience.. even puzzles get me going! Haha.

 

[jenphilly]

Mike - Those are artwork all in their own right!! Wow is all I can say for the tall ship. No way I'd have the patience to sit thru all of that (forget talent, we're not even going there!!!).

Is that plane a Jenny? My husband is into RC planes and I tried to get him the Jenny at Xmas (RC kit), but no luck with finding one.

 

[Mekaisto]

Mekaisto: Those are awesome! I can't imagine trying to paint on feathers.. (But then again, my conures have small feathers..) I feel like it would be SO easy to apply too much pressure and mess up! How do you preserve the egg? That's really neat!

Yeah, I chose macaw feathers which are quite a bit larger. A quick, light spray with fixative (usually sprayed on finished oil paintings) helps keep the barbs together, but you still have to be quite careful not to press too hard

The egg's an easy one, a tiny hole in the top and bottom, get all the gunk out, and you have a nice, empty egg which doesn't go rotten

 

[mtdoramike]

Mike - Those are artwork all in their own right!! Wow is all I can say for the tall ship. No way I'd have the patience to sit thru all of that (forget talent, we're not even going there!!!).

Is that plane a Jenny? My husband is into RC planes and I tried to get him the Jenny at Xmas (RC kit), but no luck with finding one.

Thanks Jen, no, it's called a PT-17 trainer. The funny thing was the guy who asked me to build it for him was a novice R/C guy and after finishing it, he didn't want it because he felt it was too large and fragile for him to fly. I had over $200.00 in materials and about 250 hours in time in the plane and sold it for $100.00. It even had all the servos, receiver and motor installed in it. I'm sure you husband will attest that I gave the plane away hahahahahaha.

Talk about patience, the first ship model I built, I got about half way through building it, lost patience and took it out to the driveway and stomped it to pieces When I came back in, my wife was standing there and just had to ask if it made me feel better and make sure I cleaned it up out of the driveway. I told her, yes, it made me feel better, but then while walking back inside I starting feel the loss of over 300 hours of time and and better than $150.00 in materials, which made me want to cry hahahahahahaha. I gained a lot more patience after that day.

 

[Kiwibird]

@April: Really? You tell us about an awesome photoshoot that you did, and then say you can't show us?!? Smh. Such a tease!

Well some of the photos are a little on the gory side for a family website, but he has a few on his website that aren't *so bad*. Plus, even though I'm the subject, all the photos belong to him, so I'll link to what he posted online-

Christopher Marchetti Photography | Fashion Photography

Row 1- first photo/Row 4-2nd photo/Row 5-4th photo (that was the gore makeup)/Row 6- 1st pic is me (though not from that shoot) and then the 3rd photo. If that makes sense

 

[Kiwibird]

Mekaisto: Those are awesome! I can't imagine trying to paint on feathers.. (But then again, my conures have small feathers..) I feel like it would be SO easy to apply too much pressure and mess up! How do you preserve the egg? That's really neat!

Yeah, I chose macaw feathers which are quite a bit larger. A quick, light spray with fixative (usually sprayed on finished oil paintings) helps keep the barbs together, but you still have to be quite careful not to press too hard

The egg's an easy one, a tiny hole in the top and bottom, get all the gunk out, and you have a nice, empty egg which doesn't go rotten

I have *tried* to empty eggs before, but been unsuccessful. I would put my bets on painting a feather than emptying an eggshell lol. But I do love what you did on the egg. The hawk looks so real! And I like the feather painted on just one half. Very neat