Pencils?(Day 3)

HAY GAIIIIS. 

OK, sorry. Needed that intro. It just...felt right. XD

So anyways, here's my pencil review like I promised. X3 well, like I said I would try to do.

Basically, I initially had no brand. I used one pencil, a 2B Derwent, kneaded eraser, q-tips and tissues. Once I got into heavier shading, I knew I was going to need better supplies.

I like to use a variety of pencils, but my absolute favorite is Derwent. Just top notch supplies, really good quality pencils. They blend daily, but they don't smear very much at all. They sharen beautifully. I have no complaints. I love the design, and the colors. Just everything. Very well made product, beautiful. I would recommend using their soft 12 pencil graphic set. Includes pencils from 9B to H. It's a balanced set and it is completely worth it.

I also use a set of woodless graphite pencils I got for Christmas,  no name on them. When using woodless pencils, one thing to remember is always use less than you think. They blend quickly, messily and easily. You have to use minimal amounts and just be very careful with how much to put onto the paper. Use a lighter B or H then you think is necessary, apply minimal amounts, blend frequently, and you'll do find. I find these best for doing guy liner, eye liner or any darker, slightly smeary make up.

Derwent,  however, is pretty expensive. Some good alternatives are:

Michael's Brand "Artists Loft" is pretty decent. If you're a little tighter budget wise and you want a good pencil that will last, try their brand.

Faber Castell and Primsmacolor are both great brands. I haven't tried out their sketching or sharing pencils, but their specialty is pencils. They make high quality products that last and have beautiful light fastness and blending. My guess is that their pencils are pretty good. They were always cheaper than Derwents, so I would recommend these as well.

All three of these bands have nice designs as well. They are comfortable to hold, they're smooth and they are worth the money if you want to spend a bit less. I know that supplies are pricey and it is very hard to find very good, cheap, high quality products. Hopefully this section has helped. 

Now for the one brand I hate, one I genuinely dislike. General's. First off, a pencils design is very important to me. Is it comfortable to hold? In General's case, they are a little bit rougher. I don't like it at all. They feel award to hold and it is just a big turn off when trying to work on a complicated drawing. The graphite itself actually, for me, tears paper. It's terrible, considering the price of good quality paper. General's shreds through it and it never worked out well for me at all. I dislike the brand,and I would not recommend their pencils. 

In the end, find what you like. These are just my recommendations and suggestions. I hoped you found them somewhat helpful, and thanks for reading. X3

And by the way, dickblick.com is easily the best online store for art supplies. Aside formula shipping prices and shipping times, the prices are unbelievable. If you don't mind waiting a little longer for your stuff, best art site ever. I use this for any supplies local and franchise places don't carry. Go there if you really want to save and don't mind the wait.

Again though, thanks for reading.

Holy mother of Variety!(Day 2)

I love graphite and pencils, in case you couldn't tell. And everything else. XD Using lots of different mediums is really fun. 

The first picture is of Billie Joe Armstrong's lips. Easily the most fun I've had in awhile; I feel like his music gives me a lot of inspiration and creativity, and the music ha helped me through a multitude of difficult times. It was very important to me that I do this. My goal is to be able to do a full face portrait of him by the end of the summer, so hopefully I'll still be on here and hopefully you'll stick around to find out if I succeed or not. I want to do achieve this so badly, failing is almost not an option.

The second picture is just a quick nose I did in conte crayon and charcoal; experimenting, thought it would be neat to expermient with. Charcoal paper is the real issue; light sketching is a must and with how darkly I sketch, that does get  irritating, thought am getting better. I'm much better than what I was a few months ago, to say the least.

The third picture is of some watercolor practice; I got the image from dazzle-stock, a wonderful stock account on deviantART. All credit for the image goes to her.

The fourth picture is of a sketch I'm working on using my iPad. It's of a dress from anthropologie.com. I'm trying to work with fabrics and I haven't had much time to really work on it, but I definitely will. 

I was really busy yesterday, so my apologies for the lack of a blog post. I tried to make today's nice and detailed, with more pictures. X3 hopefully you all liked that. 

Tomorrow I'm having a 2 day sleepover, going until Sunday. I'll do a huge mega post on Monday of all of my art, as my friend draws and we're sure to go nuts with everything. So don't expect any posts for 2 days, but if I have time Friday, I'll do a light pencil and Conte crayon review and overlook. 

On Mondays and Fridays, I've decided to do product reviews and I'll post my various stock and image reference resources, along with techniques i use and methods I find helpful. think you'll all like to know of my various images and where you can find some similar or interesting posed. I also think it will be helpful knowing what I use and where I get it from. I also think learning lots of different methods is useful and helpful.

So hopefully you all read and enjoyed that! Hopefully I'll post tomorrow, and if not, a huge post will be up Sunday night or Monday night/afternoon.

OMGZ ART?????(Continuation of day 1)

So I got an iPad for my birthday, and an iPad stylus for Christmas. These are a few digital things I've done. The blue eye was done in early January, no reference, and the last two were done last week. The red, white and blue one was referenced off of Izzie Murder, and the pink and yellow one was done using Salvador Dali.

Also, ignore my little notes; when those two are finished, they'll make sense.

I used Autodesk Sketchbook Pro for the iPad, and I love the program; it's absolutely fantastic. I would highly recommend it. The stylus I use is a bright, sour-y green Targus stylus. It works great and I love it. If you have an iPad and you like to draw, go for both.

That's my post for today and I hope you enjoyed the first glimpse! Tomorrow, I'll have lots of photos to share and lots of different recommendations. See you tomorrow! X3

Well wow. (Day 1)

I really haven't updated in a very long time, have I?

I'll use this as my art blog then. I'll try to update daily with pictures. My twitter will be posted in the next post.

Hopefully this will be somewhat watched. XD I'd love it if this was read and if people kept interested.

So today is day 1. Of a little vow, of sorts. I promise that so long as time, situations, and patience permit, I will try to blog everyday, with at least one picture and a bit about my art, starting today.

So hopefully anyone watching this blog or reading this post has faith in me and thinks that I will keep up with updating it.

Wish me luck! :D

Well,

Since the person I was helping isn't using this blog or the newsletter anymore, I guess I'll take over. XDDD Read my about me section for the stuff that will be posted here. Sit back and enjoy I guess. X3