School.... Again...

=) I'm actually happy to go back to school! I am soooo ready to get back into it! x) I woke up at 6:30 today, the earliest I've been up in quite awhile. =P Even during the first part of school, I would get up at 7, so I feel horrid right now... Ugh. x) But I'll get used to it! The thing that motivates me the most is getting to see my friends again. =) ... Now it's time for the final sprint to the end of the year. It's nonstop business until June, so I'm gonna hafta be on top of things and not let myself get lazy.....

More Paintings!

More paintings, wooooo!!! =) Heheh... Yeah, I think I'm starting to really like this painting thing... I downloaded the app Brushes onto Dad's iPad. It was developed with the assistance of some artists from companies like Dreamworks and Pixar so it is well designed has many of the tools that a painter needs. =) I love it! Best app I've ever used! Anyhows, here are my first two paintings with the software... I did them with my finger! x) Perhaps I'll get a PogoSketch sometime....... nah. =P

I don't usually draw guns... =P Only reason I did this time was cuz we, my brother, Dad, and I, went target shooting at a friend's house and that was what was on my mind at the time... =)
More later!

Happy New Year!

Recently I've been quite discouraged about my painting... actually my art in general... not really sure why... maybe I'm just moody. =) but last night I decided to pick up the tablet and give it another shot! so here's what I came up with... and it made me a little bit happier about it all... =)

 So! It's a new year... 2012... Some people say the world's going to end this year... For some dear friends of mine, their lives are just beginning... For me, well... I've got things I aim to do and things I aim to fix. I'm a little bit wary of writing them down here because it's so easy to let yourself off the hook when nobody knows you're on the hook. x) But I suppose that makes this a positive thing, so here it goes. I organized them into categories and limited myself to two per category:

Health:
1.  Strength - I am weak. Quite simply put. I am a very skinny guy with barely any muscle on my bones. I'd love to be a bit more... solid. =P (besides, my g.f. likes muscle... as do most girls, I hear. ;) Now, I don't know a lot about measuring strength and can't exactly put a measurable amount on this goal except for an estimate by weight: I weigh 110 lbs. I'd like to be 120 by the end of the year. (I'm taking into account the fact that I'll probably grow some too... I'm not going for 10 pounds of muscle... that sounds like a lot to me... I was thinking more like 5 pounds...)
2.  Flexibility - This one goes along with the previous one. I want to make sure any muscle I build stays healthy and useful and maintaining flexibility will help with that.

Art:
1.  Voice - While I do have goals I want to achieve with the piano as well as learning to get comfortable with my newly-acquired flute, I figured those things would come more easily to me and I'll probably get to them anyways even without them being on my list... The hard thing that will actually take a bit of focused work is my voice. I'm in the school choir now so I'm singing more regularly than I was. But I'd like to sound good on my own too... I don't exactly have a game plan for this goal....... I'll figure it out eventually, I guess... Perhaps I'll talk to my choir teacher about it...
2.  Painting - Well, as you can see above and in my previous post, I've already started in on this goal... I simply intend on being more regular about this... 3D is progressing quite nicely... I just want to balance my artistic efforts a bit...

School:
1.  Work Ethic - [sigh] I don't have a game plan for this one either... It really is just "buckle down and do it"... I think this one will be improved, though, by the next one...
2.  Time Management - I'm going to try and schedule my day even more precisely... Like, after-school stuff too... I come home and have my evening planned out already... Give myself a half hour of flexibility for whatever in case I need to run an errand or something, but at four my evening schedule begins... This should help me get into a working mindset more easily...

Personal:
1.  Time With God - I know we all say this one every year... But I mean it just as earnestly as I did last year and the year before... And one can only just try again... and again... Regular time with God... Now, I think He understands that I'm not a morning person... =P He made me not a morning person... So prayer time in the morning will have to do... I'll do my devotional time before bed in the evening... Can't read first thing in the morning..... but I MUST have some kind of time with Him every day...
2.  Stuff - I have a lot of stuff... in my room... it's ridiculous, really... if I'm going to simplify down my life, I need to get rid of all the stuff I don't want/need/intend to use... For example, for a few years, I've had this storage space that I tossed all the neat junk I found and intended to use one day... But now, it is clear to me the hobbies I am going to pursue and building stuff from junk is, unfortunately, not one of them. =P Therefore: toss the junk.

Ooooookay, I think that list should be good for now... =P I think it looks doable.... it looks a bit longer now than it did in simplified form on my notepad, but I'll summarize it here so we can see how manageable it really is:

Health - strength, flexibility
Art - voice, painting
School - work ethic, time management
Personal - time with God, simplify living space

Perhaps that is a little long... but I do have all year to do it... and some of the points can be put on hold until the school-year ends like the things under art and simplifying my living space...
So that's what I'm starting this year with! =) Bring it on, 2012! I think I'm ready! xP Wow, that didn't sound too sure.......... =)

A Chance.

Guess what! =D I am connected to a reasonably fast internet connection... soooooo, I'm gonna post some art! In this first collection, I shall display my meager attempt at digital painting. =P

My most recent painting... I did this one for a Bible class project. It depicts my idea of the depiction of the New Jerusalem described in Revelation 21... (the composition is horrid and thus does not actually show the basic concept behind my idea which is a city, and surrounding landscape, inside a cube that contains the atmosphere...)

Here's one I painted in the process of concept design for the yearbook dvd (this design was discarded so this isn't technically "secret" ;) I sketched it out on paper and then scanned it into my computer and painted over it in Photoshop.

I was doing a landscape sketching tutorial and the subject was this cute little island thing... I was rather pleased with the result. I like the storybook feel. =)

This next one I did a long time ago... one of my blog followers may recognize it. ;)

Another mountain scene... I had a stage where I loved to draw mountains. =P Rather: I was frustrated with the fact that I couldn't draw mountains and therefore began to draw them all the time, thus improving my portrayal of them. =)

I think this was the first painting I did with my new tablet. (a Wacom Bamboo... the old version. ;) If you look them up now, they have redesigned it... pretty piece of hardware. =)

This was done in Photoshop for a tutorial. Technically it isn't painting, but more a manipulation of various shapes and textures, but I like it just the same. =)

This is from my tree phase... actually, I'm still on the tail end of my tree phase. x) heheh... I wasn't real happy with the way I made the foliage... it's too blobby... I wanted it to be leafy and feel less... heavy?

So there you go! =P That's the first set... one facet of my artistic interest... Next, I shall show you some of my 3D art, made with the program Blender.

Quick quick...

Okay! quick quick... don't have much time. I have an orthodontist appointment in a half hour and need to brush (and floss) my teeth! ... not that she can't tell that I don't floss often enough cuz my gums will be all swollen and messed up if I do a really good job...
So my Christmas vacation has been going well so far, not a lot to do, and I am thankful! I've slept in the last couple days and have finally caught up on the sleep deficit I built up during school. Between Blender, music, cooking dinner, and talking to myself or Him, I haven't a lot of "bored" time... I keep telling myself I'm going to clean my room, but it just hasn't happened, though I've started three or four times. =) It does get cleanER each time, but never gets totally clean.
I reeeeeeeally want to start posting art here but... grrrrrr... the upload usually fails when I try... [sigh] stupid slow internet connection... Speaking of art: Cycles as well as OceanSim and some other plugin have been included into Blender... =) so happy... I'm going to try again tonight to post a picture, and if I succeed, I'll show ya what "Cycles" is and why it is so wonderful. =D
Later!

Swimming...

My, my, so much to do. Electronegativity, valence electrons, electron dot structures, the octet rule, the Great Depression, the dust bowl, Hoovervilles, parabolic equation factoring, present-tense verb conjugations, non-linear action editors, and three-point diffuse lighting... My head is positively swimming! I always feel good after finishing a good chunk of homework, but it's always late at night when I've finished and so I lose sleep and don't feel good the next morning. I really need to get this daily schedule thing reworked so that I get enough sleep and stay caught up on my work. So far it's been a choice of one or the other. Some days I choose one, some days I choose the other. Perhaps I'm being greedy, but I want both! (Wow, I just noticed how much that word sticks out from the rest of the text. In fact, I bet you will notice that word before you even begin reading this entry.) Hmm, again I am addressing the fact that someone will be reading this. I've read that in the world of comic strips, you're not supposed to address the fact that the characters are in a comic strip because it detracts from the believability of the story. The reader doesn't need to be reminded that what they are reading isn't real. Not that what I write is fiction. I just wonder whether or not I ought to address you as an audience to my personal thoughts. I think perhaps it detracts from my honesty and unfiltered genuineness of what is written here to remember that someone may be reading this. Or perhaps it's the fact that it's someone I know that will read this. I'm okay with people knowing my thoughts as long as I don't know who the people are. But then again, perhaps it is wise to take care in what one posts, regardless of who does or doesn't read it, because this is, after all, the internet, an inherently dangerous place. One should never forget that.
On another subject, I've addressed the purpose of this blog on a couple earlier occasions and I think for now it shall remain a blog of thoughts. Next summer, I will begin my daily sketch routine and will thus start building a portfolio of my progress as an artist. Sometimes I'm not sure whether or not I should even be pursuing this... I don't always have the time. But I think that, like music, this is one of my dreams that I actually have access to. One of the opportunities that is within my reach. I've wanted to be an actor. I've wanted to be a dancer. I've wanted to be a gymnast. I've wanted to be an author. I've wanted to be unusually ahead in school. But none of those dreams have any real substance to them, and by that I don't mean they're not possible. I simply mean that I either don't have the resources, or the ability, or the true will to accomplish them. However, in this case, I believe I have all three. I don't want art to become my main profession, though my current vocational interest can include art. I want to paint as an outlet for expression, like I play the piano. When I play the piano, I don't read music. In fact, I can't read music. I've forgotten how. (Perhaps this isn't totally true, but for all practical applications, it is.) I simply play how I feel. If I'm sad, I'll play sad. If I'm happy, I'll play happy. If I'm excited, I'll play excited. If I'm angry, I'll play angry. Some emotions that are imperceptible and withdrawn from my visible personality may even be expressed, such as attitude. Swagger. I find release and solace in creating this music. It's comfortable. I'd like to develop this seeming effortlessness in my artistic skills, specifically in painting. Though I probably shan't use it for the same outlet of emotion, rather, I'd use it for the creation of emotion. The sight of a certain kind of environment, lighting, or situation can evoke a sense of peacefulness. Cheerfulness. It is this that I wish to capture. A bright autumn forest, with a stream and a frog and a mushroom and a boy reading a book. Lots of greens and yellows. The vibrant lifecolor of chlorophyll and the warmth of sunlight. Yes, I realize that it takes years of work and practice to achieve this skillfully and effortlessly, but it is one goal I do not wish to let go so easily as unattainable.
I suppose now that I have just stated my challenge. And now you have read it. And now I have an obligation to fill. Accountability is potent motivation. I have already begun irregular training. Hopefully I will have something you'd actually like to see by the time I begin my exercises next summer...

Pain...

Sometimes I wish I could carry the pain of my friends for them... and then sometimes, I wish someone would take my pain away...