"Whatever you are, be the best you can be."

Sunday, 24 July 2011

Fantasy Creature - Gryphon

Today I had a go at Wetcanvas' Creature Feature - the challenge this month is to create a Gryphon, a fantasy creature with combined elements of an Eagle and a Lion. I have since discovered that I need a little more practice at drawing animals, as that's the best way to learn how to create convincing supernatural creatures. I am pleased with how my beak turned out, the eagle's head is good although I think I shortened the neck a little too much. The wings I would move further along the back, and possibly make them larger. Proportions are very difficult to get when you are combining various elements of different animals! Here is the reference photos I used to create this Gryphon.

Saturday, 23 July 2011

A Happy Little Shieldbug!


Finally we have colour! I really had to push myself today to have a go at something. I haven't done any drawing for a while, and I guess the insecurities start to creep in. Can I still do this? But thankfully, once I chose a picture I liked, and looked simple enough for me to have a go at, this is what I came up with - A Happy Little Shieldbug!

I've seen these creatures in my back garden, I think they're really cute! Tiny, but they seem able to just leap from one plant leaf to another. Love them! :)

Friday, 22 July 2011

Fearless Fashion

Fearless Fashion

Never be afraid to create your own style.

This is what I came up with today when I started to have a play on Polyvore. I created a funky red and black combination, being daring and fearless, and combining anything I damn well pleased! And it felt good! We should have more confidence in dressing ourselves up anyway we please. Never mind what anyone else thinks, this is our style, our fashion, we do it our way!

And this is the image that inspired me today:

Thursday, 21 July 2011

Can't Wait to Put Your 20's Behind You?


I just discovered an article on Sienna Miller, saying she Can't wait to put her 20's behind her. Sienna Miller is a 29 year old English actress, model and fashion designer, who turns 30 in December later this year. She says she can't wait to put her 20's behind her and embrace her 30's.

"I think, if you put a camera in anyone's life and document it daily from the age of 21 to 27, there are going to be things that aren't always pretty. I feel as though I experienced my 20's in all their glory and all their disastrousness. Now, I'm much more calm. It feels like a new, more serious decade." Sienna said, then added, "I can't wait to be seen as a woman. But I know I probably have to contribute to that with behaviour."

I find this really interesting as I am also 29 at the moment, but don't turn 30 myself until next year. And now I wonder, will my 30's be better than my 20's? Perhaps the decade you spend living in your 20's is really an experimental decade, when you are still discovering who you are and who you want to be.

When I was younger, in my late teens, I thought when you were in your 20's, you had reached adulthood, and were a proper adult then. But now I'm not so sure. A lot of people in their early-mid 20's go to university or college, still learning their trade and profession, and figuring out who they want to be, and what they want to do with their life. Personally, I finished my education in my late teens, and started working then, in an office. Since then, on and off through different companies, I have pretty much done the same line of work, with one minor blip in cooking when I worked in the kitchen of a small cafe. But generally, it's been office work for me. I find myself at the end of my 20's decade, unemployed, unable so far to get an office job, and still harbouring what feels like distant dreams to be an artist and writer.

This decade hasn't been easy for me, being a teen in my previous decade seems a doddle in comparison. It was fairly straight forward what you do - you go to school because you have to, then it was a fairly easy decision to go to sixth form and study, because I didn't know what I wanted to do. But in this decade, there has been no straightforward plan, I have moved from company to company, and perhaps found it a little difficult adjusting to working life, student life seemed so much easier and familiar, which it would do after 12 years of education as a child. If I could go back and relive my 20's, I would probably do things differently, I've had some tough times then, so no I wouldn't want to relive it. But I hope that the next decade will be easier, with less difficulty. But who knows what the future holds?

I would like my next decade to be much more productive for me, doing the things I want to do. I want to become a respected lady, like Sienna Miller begins to describe. (I am very inspired by ElegantWoman.org website for that). I want to be ladylike and shed any bad habits I've accumulated over the last few years. I want to practice my art and become a skilled artist. If I had worked hard on my art in the few years I have been unemployed in my life, I am sure my skills would be much farther on my now. I also want to work on my fiction writing skills. Why can't I be a writer and get a novel published? Hard work and perseverance should improve my skills. And I'd like to improve my Maths skills without a calculator too.

Perhaps this next decade will be a self-improvement and accomplishment decade? One where I turn myself into a lady, improve my art, fiction and maths skills; get a part time job, and finally get my art and writing published. Then perhaps come the end of my 30's, I can look back with satisfaction and joy, thinking By Golly I've done a good job!

Friday, 15 July 2011

Book Review: The Vampire Diaries

I recently finished reading the first novel of Vampire Diaries - The Awakening & The Struggle (Books 1 and 2). I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would. I love the TV Series, and watched the first two seasons before reading this book. I got quite a surprise, the characters do not exactly match those in the series, sometimes it's just hair colour and history, and small differences in names, like Tyler Lockwood in the series, is known as Tyler Smallwood in this novel. But there are also large personality differences, and major plot differences, certain characters are killed and others turned into vampires that certainly hasn't happened in the series.

So in summary, if you are not too worried about differences between plots, characters and mythology between the series and the books, and you aren't looking for something to mirror the TV series you know and love, then happily read this book. Otherwise, I'd just stick to the series.