The Importance of Quality Art Supplies

I. Am. Frustrated.

     I did a really awesome drawing that I was super happy with--a scene from Adventure Time with the genderbent characters Fionna and Cake. I sketched it out in pencil, and inked it with my brand spanking new Pigma Sensei marker set:

I recently bought these from JoAnne's and can honestly say it has totally elevated my drawings, being able to ink them with high quality,non-bleeding markers that come in several incredibly useful sizes.

     Anyhow, here's my drawing freshly inked:

I whole-heartedly own that I'm a novice when it comes to drawing and understand that more experienced people may have pointers as to how I can improve (which is MORE than welcome!), but I'm really happy with this drawing. 

     Both of my sisters draw as well, and Sam has a 12-pack of Prismacolor coloring pencils. I am in love with how smooth they are, so I wanted to use them and color in this drawing. I knew that the basic pack she has did not include any real skin tones, but I have colorless blending pencils and hoped maybe I could make a color that approximated Fionna's skin tone.

     From a few feet away, my blending job looked awesome, but from close enough to take a picture....

There's really only so much you can do with twelve basic colors. Yes, they have soft cores that lend themselves to blending--but let's be real, it's not the level of blending you could achieve with a medium like paint. This has proven to me that I need to invest in a larger set of Prismacolors for my own use, and luckily I met some very nice people at Knightrokon last week who told me of a discount site of magical wonder.

Everybody,I'd like to introduce you to DickBlick . I know, I know, the name sounds sketchy. Hahaha,art pun. It's a discount site for art supplies, where the beautiful,gorgeous, massive set of 150 prismacolor pencils is $126. Which is still a lot of money, but it's a good discount for these lovelies.

And so,the moral of my terribly colored drawing is to not only invest in high quality art materials, but to make sure that if you plan to color your work you have a WIDE VARIETY OF COLORS. 

Keep Creating!

--Kayla

The Magical Land of Anime Conventions

This past weekend I went to my first Anime Convention. It was held at UCF where I attend school, and was only $15 for the weekend because it's a fairly new con, so I brought along my two sisters and a few of their friends as well. I'd like to start by saying that there are definitely exceptions to this rule, but the people at that con were so incredibly encouraging and just...fun! The costumes were awesome, and it made me happy to see that the costumes that maybe didn't look as professionally done as other were just as well received.

 Personally, I'm diggin' the gender bent Loki.

 Jesse and James were part of an interactive display for the duration of the con and went around "in disguise" with their groucho glasses.

 While I have no idea who he's supposed to be, his wig is epic.

I know she's from Portal, but I've never actually played Portal so...

I was defnitely addicted to the vendor floor, and spend most of the weekend drooling over all the awesome art. I ended up spending most of my money on prints of awesome artwork, with my last $20 on a handmade leather bottle holster because it was so cool it made me want to start a Steampunk cosplay. 

A sample of the pure awesome I purchased at Knighrokon.

I walked away from the con feeling very inspired to keep trying to improve my drawing skills, as I'm very new to drawing. I spent most of the day yesterday drawing characters from different television shows I like:

SO. I think it's safe to say that I will be attending more cons in the future, and will continue to practice my art skills.

Keep Creating!

--Kayla