Those are cute!  I would totally wear that style.  Infact, when I look for a nice jacket, I usually look for something Victorian-inspired like that.

Okay, I've been laz-er, I mean busy-and haven't written in a few days. Let's see, what's been going on:

Hair stuff:
CWC--Did one yesterday and also did a ACV rinse.

Shea butter--Finally bought some today and tried it. Woo, that stuff is great. I only used a little and my hair felt softer and not as dry. I think I'll lay off the Suave Milk and Honey conditioner for a while and use this between shampoos. Although Suave worked well the first couple of months, I think my hair is getting protein overload and it's been feeling a bit crunchy lately.

Hairsticks--Won a cute pair of hairsticks with glass mushrooms on the ends off of eBay. I just paid for it yesterday, so hopefully I'll get it sometime next week.


Random stuff:
Art--I've been working on an original drawing for the past few days. I have part of it colored, but I'm stuck at the girl's hair; I don't know how I should shade it. I'd better figure it out before I loose interest and start working on something else. 

DeviantArt.com--This site is great. Perhaps a little too great as I am spending more time looking at other people's art than I am working on my own. Oh yeah, I said I'd post a couple of my drawings here. Hmm, I'll do that tomorrow.

Shodo (Japanese calligraphy)--Okay, after taking lessons from Nihon Shuji (a worldwide calligraphy school based in Japan) since January, I finally joined the organization last month as an official member. Each month we get a new set of characters to work on and at the end of the month Nihon Shuji members each turn in a sheet with the best version of the characters they could do and those papers are looked at calligraphy masters (not what they're actually called) and we're ranked according to our ability levels. Well, I got my first sheet back yesterday and I was ranked fifth out of eight beginner levels, with 8 being the lowest and 1 the highest. Yay! I was surprised I had placed so well, but also relieved--I would have been kind of annoyed if I had been doing calligraphy for 9 months and only placed in the 7th level. Next week I have to turn in another set of characters. I hope we can't get demoted...

Lisabelle--Shodo is neat, although frustrating at times when I do three kanji well and then mess up the last one. I was thinking about getting a DeviantArt account, but like you I'm too embarrassed. Compared to a lot of the artists on that site, my stuff looks like crap.

And now for some shameless selfpromotion (haha). Not like anyone would steal these pics, but I put a watermark on most of the art.


Shodo pic one

Shodo pic two. I don't know what this says. Done in the gyosho (medium touch) style.


Now for the fanart.

Totoros and Mei by a pond, summer 2004. This was the first time I worked in watercolor in several years. It's not finished. I think I was going to paint Mei's skin after my Cotman watercolor set arrived, but I never went back to the painting. Medium: grumbaucher(sp) watercolor, Strathmore watercolor paper.

This was done sometime during winter 2003. The original is by the group CLAMP and I think this is one of the characters from Card Captor Sakura. Medium: copic markers, prismacolor pencils, Strathmore sketch paper.


Original:
This is what I'm working on right now. Although it's not as "nice" as the CLAMP fanart, I'm rather proud of it as I didn't use another pic as a model and I'm trying new coloring techniques. Medium: copic markers, prismacolor pencils, Strathmore bristol board. Not finished.


Sorry for the general crapiness of the pics, but I haven't done a lot of art for years and the flash from the camera made things look washed out.

edit: changed the photos into links

I am always in awe of those of you who can draw.  The caligraphy is beautiful.

Thank you very much, ladies! 

Sakina--I don't think I've seen Roman calligraphy, but it must look really neat! I tried doing Old English calligraphy, but I think fountain pens have something against me.

BB--Heehee, you should see the calligraphy I did when I first started taking lessons. Oh, the horror. The calligraphy in the pics I posted are pretty good for me, but when I see what the more experienced students can do, wow! 

Khrome--Chinese brush painting is really cool! Did you take lessons or was it self-taught? Yes, post some of your artwork. I'd love to see your drawings!

Lisabelle--Thank you! I don't know about good. When I stare at my stuff too long, I start to find all the mistakes. Oh, and for the last pic, I wanted the snail to sit on top of a frog, but the frog's head kept looking like a fish so I changed it to a toadstool; easier to draw. 

Totoro is the cutest movie! If I ever go to Japan, I think I would go crazy buying Totoro items (along with second-hand kimono, and other anime things).

Thank you, Panpeus! Woo, kudos from an art major!   

The Totoro pic is *interesting* because I ended up trying two different methods to paint the sky--wet on wet and wet on dry--just to see what the difference would be. Although there's a lot of wonky parts, I was glad to stumble upon a bunch of happy accidents while I was painting it.

I tried Chinese brush painting using one of those kits too. However the one I have is from another company and came in a sea green case. At least you're sticking with it. I attempted a few of the examples in the book, but couldn't figure out what I was supposed to do and gave up. 

It's neat that you carved the bottom of a chop! I remember seeing one for the first time on the show "Reading Rainbow" and I thought they were the coolest things.