So it is just going to be a short post tonight… I’m in a bit of a short post mood. This is Yuki, and Yuki is incredibly and adorably cute, if you ask me.
That is all.
Archive for the 'Portraits' Category
So it has been an incredibly busy few weeks… it really has. There’s been a couple of emergency room visits (don’t worry, everyone is fine now), and a whole lot of other work for this and that. To top it off, today is my hubby’s and my wedding anniversary - three whole years of wedded bliss!
I thought I had best try and stop this post drought… I hadn’t posted in a little while, and despite the almost hectic nature of things at the moment, I thought that I really should start getting back into my blogging again. I have been sketching, though I must admit that it is drips and drabs rather than epic masterpieces.
Annnnyhow… I’m back, and I will be making an effort to post again regularly from this day onwards. At least until it gets too busy for me to look at a computer, let alone sit down and type.
So that is all for today - please tune in tomorrow for another episode of *dun Dun DUNNNN!!!* Kat’s Blog of Doooooooom. I think I might actually rename the site that for a few days… hmm. Photoshop, here I come.
It feels too early in the morning, but I have a feeling that that has come from a combination of little sleep, and the fact that I’m about to get my house invaded by painters. Not the fun, creative, interesting types either… the types that just paint walls, and paint them all the same boring shade of pale cream. Not that pale cream is a bad thing, mind you, but I do tend to think that it is somewhat overused in every bloody rental property known to mankind. No, wait, I lie… that horrid, horrid shade of pale peach tends to stretch the boundaries of colour-love when it is plastered on every room in a place too. Same goes for pale blue - and I actually do regularly like pale blue!
With that said though, I have to say, annoying though it may be to always be surrounded by these particular colours (though I have been lucky enough not to have to live in a ‘peach’ house yet), I would prefer them over some of the ungodly alternatives. I’m not sure who exactly advised some of the people out there about how to decorate, but really… a splash of colour should not have to equal DIY disaster. Unless you are really good at sponging, and know what you’re doing, for god’s sake, don’t sponge! Don’t decide to do an entire room of faux marble paint effect on the wall unless you’ve practiced beforehand! And seriously, just because someone showed you how to do it on TV does not mean that you are going to be able to replicate it perfectly in your own rental property.
Now if you like experimenting in your home, go to town - your home is your home, and you have to live in it and love it… and possibly correct it if it all goes wrong. But I am still stunned at the amount of rental properties on the market that are, in my opinion, not fulfilling their potential (both in appearance, and the resulting long-term earnings) for lack of a few weekends of work and a few hundred bucks worth of paint. Cream all over might be boring, but at least it isn’t bright yellow with uneven white sponging and bright blue trims through the whole damn house.
That is all. This somewhat-rant has been bought to you by the Kat Johnston Society Against Ugly Rental Properties. I just want the damn rooms painted: I need to get those boxes out of my studio so that I have room to move again!
Eep! I actually meant to post up this picture last night, but then my hubby put on ‘Pirates of the Caribbean III’ and by the time that was done (overly long, in my opinion), I was just ready to fall into bed and close my eyes. I had it all scanned into the computer and everything, though, I swear!
Mmmm, it is Sunday today, and the day has started off well. I woke up with a cat nestled in against the crook of my arm, and with my stirring movement, she too awoke. She crawled up onto my chest, the purring already starting before one finger was laid upon her. It seems that cats enjoy a sense of anticipation too.
I cupped her chin in my hand, my thumb lightly stroking along her elegant jawline, while my other hand smoothed down the silken fur of her back. My Lolita (for that is her name) must have some touch of oriental in her, for her jaw and whole body is so smooth yet angular - though she is most definitely predominantly blue tortoise-shell. The look suits her well. While she is fully grown, she still looks so much the kitten, especially in the low light, when her pupils are very dilated. She is our little bear.
I tugged her further up my body, while she, pretending that she will ‘allow’ me the pleasure of petting her (rather than revealing that she was actually revelling in it) opened her mouth in a gigantic, tooth-filled yawn. I guess she just wanted to let me know who was in charge. Ahhh, but my Lolita… she does not fool me in the slightest. She is a cat who loves snuggles, and her purring is like the rumble of an idling truck, or perhaps a jet taking off. She does not fool me at all!
Snuggling her is just the perfect way to start the day.
I needed a break from other things, so I decided to use my pen for something else more exciting than filling out forms. Oi, forms make me tired… not all forms are bad, just the ones I really, really don’t want to fill in!
We’ve had builders in and out and in and out and innnn and out of our poor little house here… plus a plumber over today. Painting is going to occur on Monday or some such nonsense. I really am getting to the point of utter frustration over it, but there ya go!
Annnyhow… all that aside, here is today’s piccie. She’s a little vampie girl, and I think she’s incredibly adorable! But then, I may be just the teensiest bit bias, since I drew her to begin with.
Judging from yesterday’s response to my jewelry (both in person and on the Facebook note made from these posts), it seems that I should try to battle my way through to my table again soon, and get to creating again. Now, if our house could just get back to a useable state (please, owners… seriously… getting a little silly now), I could move all the boxes that are currently crowding around my canvasses and tables and jewelry making equipment, and I could get back to work in there!
Ah well… cross fingers that something will get sorted out soon. That’s all for today, folks!
It actually feels as if I haven’t done a plain ole sketch on paper in quite a while… though that honestly isn’t true. I think it just feels that way because the last few posts I’ve done to the blog here have been done with images of body-art with sharpies rather than… well… plain ole sketches on paper.
Well, here is a quick sketch done today, and I can’t say that I wasn’t somewhat inspired by a earlier incarnation of Sven from Questionable Content. What can I say? He was absolutely adorable with the longer hair and the rounder nose, not that he looks any worse now… just different. I’ve been trolling through the archives from the very first of this webcomic, and if you’re not yet come across it, now is just about the right time to go take a peek. My apologies to Jeph (creator of QC) if my ’sorta inspired by Sven’ is too similar in some respects! Just let me know if you’d like me to take it down (if you ever see this) and I would be happy to oblige.
So anyhow, that’s about it for today. Another day forward in another thrilling week, which will most likely be peppered with calls back and forth between builders and real-estate agents and the thrilling (yet somewhat disturbing) sound of me yelling at nothing in particular because yelling at something causes more trouble than it should. More tomorrow!
How’s that for a literal title? And how’s this for a proper sketch!
I must admit that I don’t draw from actual figures all that often - I don’t really get too much of a chance to tell someone to pick a pose and sit in front of me naked for 20 minutes. The last time I did a proper ’sit down and draw from a person sitting there’ thing was years ago. Soooo, when I found out that there is a place in Brisbane (at the Metro, actually) which has weekly life-drawing sessions, I was more than ready to drag a friend along and give it a go.
I find it rather amusing that with a fully-naked figure sitting there in front of me, I’ve decided here and there to draw parts which really require no nakedness at all. Both last week and this week I have found myself focusing on just the face, or a hand at some point, rather than the whole. I know that I could probably get a friend to sit still for a while to let me draw their face, but I guess the glitch with that is that I’d then probably have to show them what I just drew. I’m sure that I don’t have to mention that drawing from a photo is just not the same.
Today’s picture is plucked from my sketch-book from last night’s session. The up-tilted face and the partial figure are two of my favourite drawings from the evening. The model was absolutely fantastic for figure studies with well-defined muscles, a wonderfully interesting body/face and an excellent selection of poses, including an incredible kung-fu ‘crane’ style one for a minute there!
So yes - if you’re in Brisbane and want to give it a go (and you should, even if you’ve never picked up a pen before), check out Drawn From Life. All you need to take is yourself and something to draw with - easy peasy!
A quick and early sketch today! I have to go in for my ultrasound later, and have various other annoying things to get done until then, so I thought I’d get this out of the way early if I could.
The picture today is somewhat inspired by Jenny. If you have no idea who or what Jenny is, check out the category links - there’s one called Jenny there. I love the original Jenny to bits, and to be honest, I’m not entirely sure if I could ever properly turn her into a ‘regular’ person. It just doesn’t really work like that.
On another note, I’d like to point out something incredible and fantastic! I’ve now been writing on this blog for over a year. I didn’t actually think about it until last night, but when I did… oh my! I had to race back to the computer to click on the archives for May 2008 to see when the exact date actually was. I actually have an odd sense of accomplishment over all this. There’s 270 posts (or will be, when this one is included), which means that I post approximately two days outta three, or there-abouts… that’s not too bad if you ask me!
For something started on little more than a whim, then continued on under the banner of ’study’, I think the site has gone incredibly well so far. Yes, there are still some things I need to do - finish updating the gallery, finally get around to sorting out the banner for good (the composition as it is currently isn’t perfectly ideal, but with a bit of work, could be much much better), and perhaps a few other things… but it is good. It has certainly been fulfilling its primary purpose: keeping me motivated to do what I know I love… sketching. If people see it, so much more the bonus.
So, celebrations all around, don’t you think? Milestone accomplished.
Just another quick post today. I need sleep - I really, really do. But first, I think I am going to make wontons. I like wontons. They are tasty, and delicious, and in a warm broth they happen to be one of the most delightfully comforting foods.
For lack of better post content today, I’m going to tell you what is going to be in them. I’ve got some premium beef mince, and to that I’ll be adding garlic, ginger, finely chopped chives, finely chopped shallots, a little splash of soy, and perhaps a little flour if it is needed. I’ll then be dolloping that onto wonton wrappers and sealing them up all perfectly.
Some I will have for lunch, and then the rest I will serve up for dinner in a nice warm beef broth, I think, with some wombok and perhaps some noodles… we’ll see how the mood strikes, shall we? In the meantime though… that nap is looking mighty good.
Ah, a solitary dreamer in a world of wakened reality - it is a wonder there is room for dreaming still, when the starkness of the ‘real world’ threatens to consume each and every one of those wandering, winsome imaginings.
Just another sketch from one of my little sketch books today - nothing major, brilliant or life-changing. And I don’t even know what to write about! It’s the weekend, and yesterday we were pestered again by home-owners who don’t seem to understand that you are required to give notice before knocking on people’s doors on a Saturday morning to enter the properties of your tenants.
Now if that happened once, it’s easy enough to forgive… the hubby and I are not unreasonable people. Throw in builders coming over twice with no notice, once at 7:30 in the morn (on a Monday!) to do construction on the place, and I start getting a little grumpy. Time to give the real-estate agent a call again.
Anyhow, all that aside, there really isn’t too much to type about today. So I think I’ll leave it here! Have a good rest of the weekend, ya’ll.
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