Sick

To my surprise, I figured that since school was over and done, I would be less tired and more energetic. wrong! I been very tired, not to mention I even got sick this week with a sore throat and nasal congestion. Looking for a job to just start paying bills, I have had no success thus far. I feel like a rather pathetic college graduate, living with my adopted parents with no job but I did just graduate so I guess I can give myself a little bit more credit than I am.

Sometimes I just feel like I don't draw or sketch enough in a day. I soak up and save images day in and day out but I don't draw as much as I feel I want to. I have no real reason except from my own lazyness and worry of everyday issues. Fear. It's always stopping someone from something and sometimes it's a valid reason. My reason is not valid. I do not approve of my own mentality. That should be my New Years resolution but how many people say "My New Year's resolution is to change my mentality"? I would be the first that I know of but it's not a bad idea.

Sketch Blog #12

Yet another Sun Parakeet! :D I was trying to work with shapes as the animal.

Sketch Blog #11

For my senior portfolio class, I have to come up with three new pieces just for this class. I decided to go with what I would love as a career, animal character design. I choose a Sun Parakeet and just worked with shapes. Gosh I had a lot of fun with this!

Sketch Blog #10

With an exciting event that took place last December that left me with no car, I finally had received a new car which was donated to my home church in Michigan. After a couple day's of adoring it in the driveway, I finally took it out to get it looked at, the day before I was suppose to drive 6 hours to college. I forst stopped at an oil change place to get things checked under the hood. Things were alright except my brake fluid was brownish red, not yellowish white. :p So it was old and something was leaking but I was fine for now with what little money I have. I then drive across the main road to Discount tire to get my winter tires put on. I HAD A 2 HOUR WAIT! As I sat there waiting, I decided to take out my pen and sketch pad and draw. The below image is what I drew. The old man was there when I arrived. He came with a friend, waiting for their car. About 15 minutes later, the elder women arrived, sitting 2 seats away from the old man. After about an hour, the younger man came in and say 2 seat's down from the older lady. The old man was gone by then. It was just interesting to see how people sat down and what they did to pass the time. The older man just sat there, staring at nothing in particular. The older women was doing a crossword puzzle or Sudaku while the younger man was on his cell phone, slouched, looking like a sparkly vampire! :D

Sketch Blog #9

Macaw heads! More chapel sketches!

I will admit, I have a love for macaws! They have a temper from what I hear. And loud!

Sketch Blog #8

Chapel is a great time to practice art! Well, shouldn't be but my mind doesn't stay awake. Very few sermons really speak to me to the point I drop my art pad and pen and just listen. It hardly EVER happens. Not saying the sermons are bad, after so many year's, you tend to hear the same passage, the same story, the same facts, the same morals. It's hard to be enthused each time.

But for this exercise, I tried to focus more on shapes, hard line edges. I still need a lot of learning. :)

Kitten riding a turtle

A friend linked me this youtube video and instantly fell in love with it! I found the original video and boy was the kitten just cute! Watch and enjoy! <3

To see a larger image: CLICK HERE!

Senior Show

November 8th, 2010 is the official date of my Senior Show that I am required, to put on and yet, I am glad this is something I have to do. In the past, I have never been confident in my art to place in any art exhibit, even on campus. I would focus on what other people were creating and I would say, "my art is different than their's, it wouldn't fit." or "my art doesn't look as professional as their's" and never even placed an application into the galleries. Now that I am required, I have no choice but to step on that fear I cary and break down the wall of fear and rejection I am hanging onto. It has been one crazy ride and small steps into pushing myself to be a better artist mentally.

My passion in art has always been rotating around animals, mostly large cat's. I think my passion for animals has came from my background, my childhood. My mother, who was a DNR officer for a state park in Michigan, would often bring animals home that were left at the campsite and from other people who could not take care of the animal anymore. Of course, the number's of cat's grew since we got a litter of kittens every so often. Not that I minded, I actually wanted the kittens in my room when they were born and I often carried them with me around the house. When we moved, we were able to get rid of all the cat's except two, Shiska-Bob (who was my cat) and her older sister Boots. We eventually gave Boot's away and took in someone else's cat, Tiger. Besides the cat's, we have had a total of 4 dogs: Tonka, Leroy, Gericho and Meecko. All four had passed away along with all our cat's but my love for animals have been inspired by my mom's love for animals. She merely passed it down through influence.

(Below: Me and a new lion cub, Simba, housed at Jungle Cat World in Ontario)

I had always loved tiger's, even when I felt it was over used to use decor of tiger's. I really did not know about the terrible fate the tiger holds. With my interest and passion growing for tiger's, nnow leopards and cougar's grew and before you know it, I am researching animals of all sorts. Owls have became the next love of mine along with rat's and panda's. Documentaries, The Animal Planet and the Discovery Channel have been the only TV or movie I watch (exclu

ding Naruto) because I never get enough information and with how bad my memory is, I can watch the same footage and find wit exciting and learn something new.

With friends coming into my life, I have had wonderful experience to learn and even be up close to animals. One friend of mine, Eric, gave me a wonderful opportunity to visit him in Toronto and visit the small zoo in which he volunteer's at. To say the least, I learned so much on the animals by someone who has worked and been around them, also doing research and sharing the information. I began to want to find places where I could help use my art to support these sort of places that help raise animals. I came across one sanctuary dedicated to Big Cats. Big Cat Rescue resides in Tampa, FL where they house abandoned, used, abused, and animals in

which people can not support anymore. They upload Youtube video's almost on a daily basis, sharing information to make the public aware of what they do to help conserve these animals.

I fell in love with the organization, thus my senior show idea was born.

(Below: Me and a Bobcat at Jungle Cat World in Ontario)

I wanted a show which represented me and what I love but also something I fight for. It didn't take long for me to decide what I wanted to do and why. I contacted Big Cat Rescue, asking for their permission to use testimonies from some of their big cat's to make aware that even these large cat's are abused and abandoned. It took me a while to figure out what testimonies I wanted to use, since there were over fifty to choose from (I do not know the exact number). I finally picked on four of them and incorporated them into my pieces. Before I introduced the big cat's I think it would be appropriate to share my artist's statement:

Artist's Statement:

"Control: it's something that as human's, we like to do. We try to control our future's outcome, try to control our children in the grocery store and try to control how another person behaves but there is one thing we as humans do not enjoy and that is someone controlling us. It's a vicious cycle of wanting control but not wanting to be controlled. We take this into nature, controlling the landscape and even wildlife so it's safer and more convenient for ourselves. But what if nature doesn't want to be controlled? What then? Wild and big cat's have been a target for humans to control either for profit, a goal or entertainment. When a wild cat goes out of our control, it can end disastrous and result in death either for the human and/or animal. It's doleful when an animal act's on instinct (that does not want to be controlled) is killed because of their inability to act domestically.

There are still fur farms in America where Bobcats and Lynx's are being bread and raised only to be slaughtered for their fur. Tiger's in America are in the black market where their bodies are worth more dead than alive. We get white tiger's through inbreeding and yet, not a lot of people who pay to see a white tiger know the health issues that lay underneath their fur- they just look pretty. It's the same concept we do to ourselves: we will do anything unhealthy, like starve ourselves, just to fit into a pair of jeans. Unlike humans, animals do not connect through the same senses as we do. Once we smell, touch, watch and listen to someone, it's personal and can create connect's between two people but it is not the same with animals. Even when the domesticated cat rubs it's head on a persons leg, we think it's showing affection when in reality, the cat has glads on the side of his mouth which marks and clams their territory once they rub it on someone.

I myself am still researching and pondering the fine line between control and just preserving and being educational about animal species. Being in an enclosure is not always the healthiest environment nor are they truly free but it can be through a zoo that people learn about animals and make an effort to help preserve and save the animal in the wild."

SHERE KHAN

Male Bengal/Sib

erian Tiger

DOB 12/20/94

If you saw The Tiger Next Door on Animal P

lanet, then you saw the horrid conditions at the facility owned by Dennis Hill in Flatrock, Indiana. The Ti

ger Next Door didn't air until 3/25/2010 and it was about USDA taking away

Hill's permit and the DNR (Dept. of Natural Resources) seizing all but three tigers in 2005. What the show doesn't bring out is that the conditions you saw in the movie were far better than when DNR first inspected, although there were a few glimpses of tigers in mud up to their bellies, and it doesn't show that the awful, pre 2005 conditions were the status quo as far back as 1995 when I was there.

The tigers in the documentary, The Tiger Next Door, that ended up at Joe Taft's place in Indiana, named Tony and Patty where Shere Khan's parents. When I visited in 1995 he had rows upon rows of dog run styled cages, a foot or more deep in rotting feces and mud, filthy water pans, flimsy cages, some had only a rope or belt to hold a door shut, no roofs on many of the cages and then there was the barn. You didn't see much of it in the film, but it was dark, filthy and crammed as full of leopards, tigers, cougars and other exotic cats as could be fitted in tiny, barren cages. The version on Animal Planet also didn't show much of Dennis Hill's house and the obvious signs of hoarding. It was so nasty I didn't want to touch anything in the house. My skin crawled from fleas and mites. I couldn't wait to get out of the house and back to our plane, but that is when I saw Shere Khan.

Shere Khan stole our hearts when we saw him on 3/12/95. Though he was bred to be a White Tiger, he was born “the wrong color.” His birth was a result of the incessant demand for White Tigers by a public that is fascinated by oddities. Though many people believe that the White Tiger is an “endangered” species that should be bred to be saved, this is a total lie. The White Tiger results from a color mutation that happens infrequently in the wild and usually is not passed along. White animals in a forest environment would not live long due to their inability to hide and sneak up on prey. When you hear the phrase “survival of the fittest,” remember that nature does not allow the genetically mutated White Tiger to survive in the wild nor should we in captivity.

Shere Khan did not have much of a chance for survival from the start. Dennis Hill had pre-sold him as a white cub, but the purchaser kept putting off his delivery date. He finally cancelled the sale when Shere Khan was already four months old. The breeders were left with a quickly growing cub on their hands and no other facilities for him other than a small carrier. He was up to his belly in feces and decaying food in a pet taxi that seemed to just bust at the seams with tiger fur. He never got the vitamins and exercise he needed as a growing cub, so his back legs were badly underdeveloped. He was very sick for a long time and suffered major problems from calcium deficiency. X-rays showed that his baby canine teeth were rotting in their sockets from his malnourishment and they had to be excised because they had rotted through his face. His bones were mere paper shells and one wrong jump could easily break a leg. We supplemented him three times a day with calcium to encourage healthy bones and teeth.

CATERA

Male Bobcat

DOB 7/24/97

His parents, Shiloh and Indian Summer had been a bonded pair for seven years before coming to live on Easy Street. They had never reproduced, so we left them together and of course a littler of three resulted in just a few short months. The mother, on the third day, began killing the kittens and by the time the Founder could get to her, two were dead and she was biting the last one on the chest and abdomen. She snatched the bleeding kitten away from her and took it to medicate and bottle raise. It wasn't long before the she discovered why the mother had brutally attacked her offspring. Catera (named for theCaddy that zigs) was obviously brain damaged and from the condition of all three kittens, it was apparent that they had not been nursing although the dam had stayed with them faithfully. It took hours to feed Catera and every time, it was as if it was the first time for him. It took him a year to get on to solid foods and again, every meal was like the first he ever had. If his surrogate mother walks out of the room and walks back in ten minutes later, he has forgotten who she was and only through the vocalizations they have shared over and over and over does he again recognize her. Every day is new and exciting to Catera and he is quite possibly the happiest cat living on Easy Street.

Catera runs incessantly in circles and attacks everyone he can't remember, which is everyone he knows. Catera has shown much improvement over the years and is doing very well with his operant conditioning sessions. He has learned 3 behaviors in only a few months.Catera has his own Cat-a-tat that provides plenty of running room. Most of our bobcats were rescued from fur farms where they were being raised to slaughter for their fur. Some were being sold at auction where taxidermists would buy them and club them to death in the parking lot, but a few were born here in the early days when we were ignorant of the truth and were being told by the breeders and dealers that these cats should be bred for "conservation." Once we learned that there are NO captive breeding programs that actually contribute to conservation in the wild we began neutering and spaying our cats in the mid 1990's. Knowing what we do about the intelligence and magnificence of these creatures we do not believe that exotic cats should be bred for lives in cages.

Natasha

Female Siberian Lynx

DOB: unknown

Natasha (on left) was rescued, along with 27 other cats, from a fur farm. She cost more than any of the other cats because she is exquisitely beautiful. She has survived poisoning and a very scary seizure in 1996. She was diagnosed with heart worms in 1997 and recovered very slowly. We had never seen heartworms in the exotic cats, and as a result of her infestation have made it a policy to treat all of Big Cat Rescue’s animals with Ivermectin, which is a de-wormer, as a preventative. Natasha shares a Cat-a-tat with Willow, they love each others company and are two of the very first cats seen on our guided tours. One of Natasha’s favorite things to do is chew. She, like most Siberian lynx, have a love for chewing. She will chew just about anything, sticks, pine cones, cardboard tubes, but her favorite of all are pineapple tops. She does not eat these things, but rather tears off tiny pieces of them with her front teeth and then spits it out. She will continue with this until there is nothing left of whatever item fell victim to her chewing. Natasha is lovable and fun-loving and considers no one a stranger.

DESIREE

Female Serval

DOB unknown

Arrived at Big Cat Rescue 10/11/2009

Serval Rescue! An African Serval was limping along in the Arizona desert until she collapsed alongside a road. She had almost completely given up the will to live. She was probably a pet or perhaps used in the hybrid breeding schemethat has become all the rage where Servals are bred to domestic house cats to produce Savannah Cat hybrids. The domestic cats are often killed in the process. The kittens sell for thousands of dollars, but when they mature they typically spray and bite and make awful pets. The hybrids are usually discarded by the time they are two or three years old.

This Serval was obviously abandoned and was placed by authorities at the Tucson Wildlife Center, a non-profit sanctuary dedicated to native wildlife. Lisa Bates-Lininger the founding president of the Tucson Wildlife Center said, "She was dehydrated and tired and just ready to give up. She may have died last night, but luckily we got her in. We got her emergency treatment, fluids for shock, and she's also missing a rear leg."

Despite 18 media posts including TV news in Tucson and a post on Craig's list looking for the owner no one admits to having abandoned this Serval to die in the desert. Thanks to some very generous supporters the serval was flown to her new permanent home at Big Cat Rescue where she is recovering well. Servals can live into their late teens and proper care is thousands of dollars each year. Her new 1,200 square foot Cat-a-tat had to be specially modified to accommodate her three legged hopping. It seems that she only recently lost her leg as she has a very difficult time keeping her balance. We are writing vets in the Tucson area to find out if any of them know what tragedy caused her to lose a limb and to see if there is any way to prosecute those who exposed her to such danger.

Interview with Tracy Butler

Many of you know Tracy Butler the author and artist of Lackadaisy. I had a wonderful privilege to interview her through skype on Thursday night. Amazingingly enough, she was a very kind person...not that I was expecting her to be mean.

1. You didn't attend art school, was there a reason why? Would you encourage other's to attend or do you believe that with enough passion and practice, one can become a great artist without going to an art school?

Tracy- I didn't go because of my parents were a little objective to that. They had the visual imagery of a starving artist and didn't think there was a career for artist’s out there. At the time, I was 17 going into college and I didn't have money to pay for it and since my parents paid my way through, they suggested I major in Biology but I liked it. I think any artist would benefit from the art school but I have seen some people go into the art school and coming out and going into something completely different. I would recommend research before going into art school because not all places will help you get jobs. Some just go over software and that's not what you need, you need a real foundation in art.

2. What do your parents think now that you got a job in art?

Tracy- Now my parents have came around to see that I can actually make a living from art. It's not like they had anything against art as a career its just they didn't think I would be able to make a living. I given them my stuff but they try to buy things but I stop them. I didn't gradate from college because someone found my website and I couldn't pass the opportunity and moved to St Louis. My mom didn't like it but so far I haven't regretted it.

3. What made you want to start Lackadaisy?

Tracy- I have been living on St. Louis for about 8 years and ended up buying a house that was built around the early 1900's so that ended up with me researching about the city, the caves that ran underneath the city and so fourth. I was listening to a lot of jazz music and had my cartoon cat characters since high school and just piled them all up together and it seemed they had a development. That's how Lackadaisy came into play.

4. How much research did you have to do for your Lackadaisy graphic novel before you actually started it?

Tracy- I spent about, 5 or 6 months of hardcore development before I actually started the comic. That was including comic layouts, the era, style of clothing, cards and so fourth. Its sort of a ongoing research including the guns and phones. It's been going since 2006. I have had people lecture me on some of the models of the cars and gun's I use in the comic. When someone pointed out the wrong gun for that time period, I would sometimes go back and change the picture but sometimes I just want to keep it.

5. Which Lackadaisy charter do you enjoy drawing?

Tracy-If I am in a goofy mood, I enjoy drawing rocky. Victor for sour moods. I like drawing Mitzys hair and her dramatic droopy eyes. It usually depends on my mood really.

6. Where do you get your inspirations from?

Tracy- Kind of all over the place. I don't look for it, just pick it up as I wonder about the day. This or that will inspire me as do watching tv, listening to music, and so on.

7. I was in San Diego this past summer and at a small comic book store, there was your comic at the front of the store and one of the worker's behind the desk highly encouraged me to buy your book. Did you ever imagine your book would be all over the country?

Tracy- No! I am still kind of bull dovered. Recently someone showed me an image of a store in South Africa that had my comic. I was also sent images of my comic in Iceland. Its mind boggeling. I got a chance to go to Italy late 2008 for a comic invention and I saw it in a display in a store. After all the years of work I put into it, it's satisfying to see it all over the world.

8. Deviant Art, why do you post there, and not sell your books? You could get more money if you didn't put all the pages up on DA and just previews.

Tracy- I don't mind they see it and not pay for it, but it's it's own reward and I enjoy working on it. It can be stressful when I post because I don't know how people will react to it but it's rewarding that people will read it. The other thing is that, it's exposure. I think if I just published it and not having the pages out on DA, no one would have know about it and I think a lot of artists do that. They get fan base online and you will get some people to pay for your items. I think it's helped the comic more than anything. A lot of games are going the same direction because it's free to play and people will get into your game and a small percentage will pay, it's enough to pay for the ongoing project.

9. Did you think you would go into the game Industry?

Tracy- I never thought I would be in the game industry and I played it when I was younger but not that I am in it, I don't have time to play video games. But I never thought that I would be doing that some day. Looking back, its a little bizarre.

There you have it! The 30 minute long interview with Tracy! My roommate Caitlin had also asked interview question's and I have a copy of her's but for the sake of time and also effort, I did not post them. My question's were more targeted towards her graphic novel than her as a person and her art interest's. Why would I ask her the same question's that my roommate would ask?

Please go support Tracy Butler! If you already read her comic, read it again! She works so hard everyday.

RANDOM FACT: Most of her character's are based off cat's she, a family member or a friend has owned. Some were lined up with their personalities!

Sketch Blog #7

Giraffe's have always been one weakness of mine. Well, I guess not just giraffe's but horses because of their muscles and hoofs. While I was in San Diego, I had visited the San Diego zoo twice and was able to get some really good reference images of many different mammals which was a huge benefit for me. The only animal I wish I had more of were of the canine family. There were very few dog families and what I did fond of the feline family, ended up being bad shots. Maybe I will have better chances in the future. But I did get good pictures of Giraffes, Elephants, Flamingo's, Koala, and random other animals and landscape.


What I did learn about the animal is that at the tip of the horns have hair around the ends but in the center is a bump which is not covered by hair. Female horns are typically smaller than males and is one way tour guides can distinguish gender among them. Newborn's are born at around 5-6 feet tall and can live between 20-30 years...which is longer than a tiger which live 12-20 years old...most never make it to 20 years. They usually sleep around 2 hours a day in ten minute increments or the full 2 hours. A giraffe's heart can weight up to 20-25 pounds and is around 2 feet long and because of the long neck, it takes more muscles in the heart to pump the blood up.

Sketch Blog #6

Finally, I was able to sit down and just...draw something and actually felt happy about it, especially for a class. I used myself as a reference and collected several references I had and photos of a while fluffy hooded jacket I have at home. My main color scheme was purple and yellow but then I used the wrong colored pencil for the scarf and it turned orange (opps). So in the end, I was happy with what I did. I was disappointed in myself...scratch that, I am disappointed in myself for lack of challenging myself and creating more time on drawing.

This drawing is on watercolor paper. Prisma colored pencils, Gouache, graphite pencil and oil pastels. Critiques of my own: No focal point really. I feel the eye was no where to run except everywhere and the brightest and saturated yellow pulls the eye to that area. I didn't mean for the eyes to turn green...yellow was a BAD mix with blue. Simple Color Theory problem and I was stupid to ignore it. Glove. The glove looks funny. I don't know, maybe better folds would have helped it more. And the eyes are large but I don't mind that so much. Positive things I have to say: I love the fur texture and folds. The scarf could have been better but I was pleased with the scarf over the lower half of the face. Mixing media. I find it fun and a relief to use actual mediums I can touch. This was actually my 2nd attempt at the project. The old one turned out terrible. So this was the best I could come up with at the moment. I am praising God for getting me 1/2 through this semester. :)

Sketch Blog #5

I took time tonight to draw and color with colored pencil an image for someone on DA for Valentines day. After I drew and colored, I used a thinner to blend the colors and then scanned in. Sadly, when I scanned in the image, it turned out finny and thus came photoshop. It looks much better in my opinion but I still like the original a lot more...well, not the scanned in one...the original looks 100 times better than the scanned in image.

Scanned:
After Photoshop:

Sketch Blog #4

With severe pain in my hip/leg area, I been laying around in my dorm room, on my bed. I hate moving and getting up to even use the rest room or even eat. Showering is hard, luckily we do have a tub so I just take a bath or just sit. Also with some ex-boyfriend issues and school and money issues, I been tied down to doing things I enjoy which does not account to anything posting wise. So I am just going to upload what I have been working on as a commission. I will only show a small portion and it will be my character Penda but I am trying new things on photoshop and approaching it in a different style. Oh gosh, since Illustration III, I have been doing animals more realistic. I don't mind, I learned a lot about animal anatomy while doing research and I hope to buy some animal books so I can learn more about different animals. I have 2 eye-witness books, one on Cats and one on Dogs and they are helpful since I like simple books made easy to read with a lot of pictures. Another goal is to get a camera of great working condition so I can go out to zoo's and photograph animals. Oh I wish I had a car and money and a camera! Anyways, so here's a small preview with only 3 layers of coloring. I love the Multiply option for layers. I just found out about it on Christmas break!

Sketch Blog #3

Illustration 2 with Professor Mazellan is probably the best class I can have at the moment. Its not just the fact that I really don't want to be in the class but the fact that I hate it so much is what is making this class one that I am going to learn in. I am not sure why I don't like the class so much but I have a feeling its going to teach me to be better than any of the other classes I like. For our project, we were to do a sketch that was "finished" to class for us to work on during the time we have. I decided to go with something a little different.

The assignment was about Martin Luther King Junior and the freedom train theme. Watching clips, it really encouraged me to think about how so many people traveled to the Lincoln memorial just to hear MLK give his speech. I thought about how that had played a huge role in society and even though I was not alive to experience it, when I see the pool and the memorial, I think of MLK and the freedom the African Americans had to go through. I also thought about how kids have humility and how we are suppose to be like kids to get into the kingdom of heaven (Bible reference I know). Well, I drew two kids walking/jogging towards the memorial; ones African American and the other Caucasian. They are excited as the littl boy points at the destination. I also choose the "sun setting" as a time of day so that the memorial sort of "glows" and the path is like "gold". Its just to lead the audience into the whole "follow the yellow brick road" idea only...this is grass. :) Of course, the girls looks Ghostly in the sketch but its 2 in the morning and I will work more on it later today.

Sketch Blog #2

During Illustration II class, I took the initiative to listen to my professor, who I adore, to actually start drawing and understanding animals and their structure. I know tigers all to well and decided to expand to the domestic dog. So I drew a couple of sketches here of the dogs muzzle/nose area. The top sketch is my own memory of the form of a dogs mouth and nose but the larger sketch below that one was after looking at a reference a bit longer. As you can tell, my version has a small cup above the mouth like cat's have. I am not saying dogs don't have that "cup" but I realized that its not noticeable as cats. Rather, the dogs upper skin sort of folds as the dog opens its mouth and "folds".

This is all from a husky dog by the way, some dogs have droops like that and others don't...it depends on the breed. But I also noticed that the dogs "droop" mouth can be seen from the other side when drawing the mouth at an angle. The cut between the mouth under the nose is not as curved as cats as well, its more settle. I do hope to draw more canines in the future along with other animals.

Sketch Blog #1

Sketches are loose concepts and idea's placed on paper which is generally used by a pencil. Most use a pencil to erase any mistakes or what a friend of mine uses it for- drawing. He claims I do a "stop and go" style, and sadly, I saw what he meant when we worked on the following sketch together:
Through this, he pointed out interesting shapes that can be used to make the drawing and subject more interesting to look at and also the flow of the pencil marks can make the sketch much more interesting. When you have a moving and flowing sketch, it helps keep it consistent and working evenly with each section. Hopefully I work more flowing like this image had turned out. Even if it was a collaberation sketch, I felt it helped me more than anything.

Introduction

My college career has been one crazy ride and still is. I came to Indiana Wesleyan University as a youth ministry major. I wanted to work with teens and preach God's word. After some incidents that happened, I felt that ministry was not where I was suppose to be. So I changed my major 1/2 through my sophomore year to a fine arts degree and then my junior year, to illustration. I have not one bit doubted that Illustration is where I am suppose to be. The work is hard, I feel I still have a lot of catching up to do in just 2 semesters, but in the past year, I have changed so much in my art. As a result, I feel that doing a daily blog of sketches would help keep me on track with exercising and exploring. This is a good way for me to show what I sketch and what my thought process was. Even if no one reads this, I am getting this down and making it official and that is the first step to making a mark in myself.

I still use my Live Journal
and my art is displayed on Deviant Art