Fairy Perspective

So…I’ve been trying to focus on developing art skills lately.

As you may have noticed, my somewhat exaggerated, personal-life experience webcomic, An Unexpected Sprout, hasn’t had many updates. As you may recall, I did mention in my first post (Blog of the Writer Who Wasn’t) that I have trouble writing about myself. Well, that includes comic-form.

So, I’ve been working on some different comic ideas that aren’t about me. Hopefully you will see a post about one in the not-too-distant future.

However, while I really am wanting to make this comic thing work, I have a long way to go with art. Bear with me, please!

I need lots and lots of practice. One thing in particular being perspectives.

I found an interesting-looking book at a store the other day on just that. It’s called Perspective Made Easy by Robbie Lee. Now, I’ve only flipped through the book, so I can’t give an accurate review at this point, but I like how it teaches in comic story-style as well as has what looks like a lesson plan for each chapter. I like the classroom-like structure.

ANYWAY, the first thing I’ve done with this book is try to somewhat copy one of the poses of its robot narrator, but with a character of my own. For some reason, I thought of a fairy. Not sure why. Probably just because I like fairies.

This is how is started:…

For an added challenge, I felt like God was leading me to try even the rough sketch on the computer. I wasn’t at all comfortable sketching on the computer, even with my BAMBOO tablet. I usually do rough sketches on real paper and then scan or take a picture of it to ink and colour on the computer after.

But it was just for practice, so I tried.

Because the robot was a more masculine one as far as build goes, that’s how the initial sketch’s structure turned out.

I considered ditching my original thought of drawing a female fairy, but I didn’t want to be lazy.

So on with the plan!

Obviously there was going to need to be some tweaking.

Ah, much better!

I’m used to inking in the lines first, and then starting the colouring, but this time I launched into the colouring early, even adding easy background and foreground stuff with some of Clip Studio’s brushes and one of its background images. I only “inked” (sometimes still with one of the program’s pencil tools) and cleaned up where I thought it was necessary.

Now, without further ado (there was much ado, wasn’t there?), I present to you…

~Fairy Perspective~

I had a lot of fun finger-paint watercolouring her hair using the laptop’s touch screen instead of the pen and tablet which I used for a lot of the other things. (Though a few of the hair touch-ups were done with the pen)

And yes, I did get lazy with her feet and didn’t draw purposefully hid them.

Thanks for reading!

 

Runaway Train

“O Lord, I call upon you; hasten to me!
    Give ear to my voice when I call to you!”
~ Psalm 141:1 (ESV)

This is kind of how I’ve been feeling lately.

Do you ever find yourself wondering, “God, do you really care about anything I’m asking? Do you really care about the hurt I’m feeling but am trying to ignore?”

“I know you do, I know you do.”

“But do you?”

It’s when my feelings are running all over the place that God often simply speaks truth to me, sometimes through other people.

Like yesterday. He used seperately both a childhood friend I haven’t spoken with in a long time and my sister (over skype text and a phone call) to speak truth and comfort me – though my crazy emotional self is still in partial denial.

Emotion doesn’t like to listen. Emotion wants to do whatever it feels like doing. Emotion likes to run off its train track and go gallivanting up and down mountains and mole hills.

But God keeps speaking, softly. I just have to grudgingly open my Bible, the treasure book He left for me, and He has something to say.

But sometimes I want Him to SHOUT! To take me by the shoulders, shake me, and tell me to snap out of it!

Really, a scary thought if I actually think about it.

I want to be fixed. I want to be better.

“My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
in your book were written, every one of them,
the days that were formed for me,
when as yet there were none of them.”
~ Psalm 139: 15-16 (ESV)

Oh, yeah. I was made perfectly, the way He made me. When my puzzle pieces scatter, He knows where to fit every piece back together. He made me with a purpose. He made me on purpose.

Interestingly…

The verse of the day on BibleGateway.com changed just a few minutes ago (time zone difference, I think) to this:
“As you do not know the way the spirit comes to the bones in the womb of a woman with child, so you do not know the work of God who makes everything.”
~ Ecclesiastes 11:5 (ESV)

From this:
“For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.”
~ Psalm 139:13-14 (NIV)

I want to love You a fraction of the way You love me.
 

To the One Who is Victorious

Just a quick Scripture thought:

(Jesus speaking to the church in Laodicea)

“To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat down with my Father on his throne.“

He’s the One who enables and empowers us to be victorious. We can do none of it without Him, and yet He gives us such an honour and reward! It’s all Him.

What an awesome, incomprehensible love He has for us.

Valentine’s Day

So it was yesterday, not today…I realize that.

I love Valentine’s Day. I always have. I’ve also always been single on Valentine’s.

For me, growing up, the holiday was never restricted to “just couples.” Especially when I was younger, my mom would often make a special Valentine’s breakfast for us (like heart-shaped scones).

This picture is from a previous blog post:  A Moment for Scones

Because we have an early start on Sunday mornings, she didn’t make any yesterday, though she did surprise us this morning with them! (I had been secretly hoping she would)

My school also had a very fun way of celebrating the day. We could order what we called “Valentine Grams” in advance, which one of the high school grades (my school was K-12) was responsible for organizing. There were three types of grams: candy, rose, and singing – all for different prices, but not very expensive. Then, on Valentine’s Day, the grade responsible for making the grams would deliver them to all the classes. These grams weren’t limited to couples (our school didn’t have that many official ones anyway). Students sent them to friends, classmates, teachers – whoever they wanted to. Teachers also often sent ones to their students (it was a small school). My dad, who was a teacher there, would send my siblings and I ones every year.

So yeah, Valentine’s was a happy holiday =)

Back to this year ~

I went out to coffee after the church sermon with my discussion group and the coffee shop had two Valentine specials. The one I got, I didn’t see a display for, but when I had asked about the other drink that was advertised, the barista informed me there were actually two specials and recommended this one to me:

I think she said it was a white mocha with raspberries. It was yummy as well as pretty. No complaints here!

When I home later that evening, I found that my dad had left a heart-shaped chocolate box and a chocolate rose. The tradition is still alive! (recent previous years had made me worry)

You don’t need to get depressed if you’re single on Valentine’s Day. Spend time with family and friends, exchange chocolate, roses, or whatever. It’s a day to enjoy, yet another day to show people you love them.

Better yet, as a friend quoted yesterday, make every day Valentine’s Day ❤

Blog Days

So, yeah…this whole writing about myself thing is working…well….as you can tell.

I’m apparently a rather private person – this is both true and not, I think. When it comes to social media, I don’t usually like to get too personal, especially if it’s negative. Face-to-face, I tend to be more open, though it’s still limited and depends on the person I’m speaking to and how desperate I am to blurt out my emotions.

Just in case you were wondering, I’m not telling you this teeny bit and then journaling my heart out privately. I don’t do that either (except very occasionally in a prayer journal between God and me). Journaling is work. It’s exhausting. And I’ve always had the fear of someone opening my journal up and reading my secret, embarrassing thoughts.

But I don’t want to give up on this blog. It probably won’t always be personal, and hopefully it won’t have too many more whining about blogging posts (I hope you’ll still stick with me if it does).

This is where you, my readers, come in.

I’ve been wondering what to write about. I’ve debated about doing more cooking-themed posts (of a not-very-experienced cook). I’ve asked for writing prompts. I’ve been wanting to try a story comic instead of or to go along with An Unexpected Sprout (which, being about me, I also have been struggling with), so I would love to hear some ideas for that. But I bet there are even more things to blog about that maybe I wouldn’t even think of.

Waiting hopefully for your thoughts ~

When Writing in a Cafe

And I just realized they’re playing a Beach Boys song.

I’m sitting in a cafe, attempting to write more of one of my novels. So far, I have only reread parts I’ve previously written and changed a word or two. I seem to always hit writers block whenever I sit down to write.

What am I saying? Writers Block is where I live.

I wouldn’t recommend it. Though I’d welcome a neighbor. It’s lonely here.

Back to Beach Boys. Oh! Another song by them is playing! It sounds like it’s from a Christmas album. I think one of my brothers received their Christmas CD many years back.

I used to love the Beach Boys. I remember listening to one of their tapes during a long car ride to California when I was a kid. Both my sister and I were major fans for several of our childhood years (long after the Beach Boys were popular or even playing).

I’m not sure how we were introduced to them, probably by my dad. Given the lyrics, I’m surprised my mom let us listen to them at all.

Now, the Beach Boys are a sweet nostalgic memory.

The cafe is filling up. At 2:27, it must be their Saturday rush hour. It is, however, only my second time here, yesterday being the first.

When I got here around 12:30 today (at that point, I was doing my Bible study, not writing), I was the only person not taking my order to go, not counting someone who seemed like an off-duty employee. There were a few others at different points in time, but it was still not very busy.

Wow, I’m getting bored writing this, so I wonder how you’re doing reading it.

Let me briefly describe the cafe to you.

It’s a nice roomy size. Simple tables and chairs are in the center of the hardwood (or maybe wood tile) floor surrounded by plump leather couches and armchairs. Large, arched windows are outlined with bricks and painted the same creamy-grey of the walls. Those with iron and glass wall lamps (though unlit) give the room an almost medieval lodge-like feel.

Perfect for writing fantasies.

Which I should get back to doing….

Except now my brother is coming to join me. Ah, well =)

Of Chalk in the Rain and Monstrous Toadstools

Sometimes we need a bit of silliness in our day.

As my brother and I finished homeschool for the day (I’m his teacher), we were drawn to the rain.

I stepped out into it just because, and to see how my mother’s pansies were faring. Many of the little ones were drooping, but a few of the larger were standing tall.

Ah, but the rain was nice.

I continued walking around outside, my brother shadowing closely behind. Sometimes I skipped.

Then, a slightly crazy notion came to me.

“You know what might be fun? Chalk in the rain.”

I remember getting chalk wet when I was a kid and being fascinated by how paint-like it became.

My brother seemed reluctant for a few seconds, then said, “If you get the chalk.”

We made wavy lines, swirls, a fish, monsters, cat faces, a snail, and random splashes and splotches of colour. In the end, he embraced his abstract artist tendencies and made a giant splotch of mixed colours, the remains of which you can see in the picture above. (We had to play in it, after all)

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There’s a strange and mysterious thing that’s been growing by a tree in front of our house for a very long time. It’s changed a lot in appearance over the weeks (months?), growing more and more grotesque.

I do believe it’s a toadstool of some sort. This picture wasn’t taken today, but I just went out and measured it and it’s about 10 inches or 25 centimeters across (these are not exact measurements). I measured lengthwise as it’s not an exact circle.

Anyone have an idea what kind of fungus this is?

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I hope you think about adding some silliness to your day ~

Blind Faith

Sometimes I get plagued with doubts, doubts about my future. The random, scary thought that popped into my brain tonight was “Why am I even still living?” Wouldn’t it be easier to not have to worry about the frightening maybes of the future? I could just go be in Heaven and rest.

I quickly buried those thoughts. I’m over-tired, watching a Korean drama about these older childhood friends who are obviously meant for each other but hold back. They both have careers, but I feel like I can relate to them because in so many ways they still act like teenagers. I feel like I can relate….except for the career part (we’re not even gonna talk about the relationship part right now).

Not attending college nor having a “career” nor even plans for one is…scary, embarrassing, worrying…

People look at you, confused…

But I don’t know what I should do. I want to do what God wants me to do. I just don’t always know what that is.

When I think about life in the grand scheme of things, what is a career? What’s the point of having a brag-worthy job? I’m not saying anything against those jobs, by the way, if they are the ones for you. It’s the idea that in order to succeed at life, you must at least do this.

I don’t usually think of myself as a “rebellious” person, but I guess when it comes to this type of thing, I am.

However, as rebellious or idealistic as I am, I still have doubts and fears. Sometimes they’re almost overwhelming and I don’t know what will happen if God doesn’t pull me out of the sinking sand.

But He is faithful. He sends people to remind me of that. He uses His written Word to comfort me.

Tonight it was the daily verse on BibleGateway (an hour or so ahead of my time, so technically the next day’s):

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. ~Jeremiah 29:11

I think what it comes down to sometimes is blindly believing, blindly trusting. I don’t know what He has in store for me next year, next month, next week, or tomorrow. But He always presents something, often when I least expect it.

I just want to hold on to His hand, to the One who sees clearly the future that is completely hidden from my eyes. I want to follow blindly because His eyes are better than mine.

Third Page!!

So this is a few days late, but I’ve finally posted the third page of An Unexpected Sprout!!!

You can check it out here: An Unexpected Sprout

Where I’ve been

Some of you may (or may not) have noticed that I’ve been somewhat remiss in the updating of this blog.

I think the negligence really started around the beginning of school. I home-school my youngest brother and that often takes a lot of time and energy. It can also sap my creativity.

The school year has also brought a few other time-commitments.

So I’ve been busy. When I’m not busy, I tend to want to do something relaxing (which I don’t generally define writing as). I kind of envy those people who write, draw, or cook to relax. I often wish I was more like that. I do have my moments, though =)

Just a quick post to let you know what’s been up. Now off to (hopefully) work on the webcomic ~Up, up, and away~~~