Ponchos Part 2

Long ago I promised a second part to Ponchos Part 1, and finally here it is. After doing the original image I wanted do a series of individual images for each person with their symbol in the background. It was fun coming up with different outfits and poses for each person, though I'd really like to change some of the outfits now, they were not stylish when I created them either.

Allison - Diamond (because she's worth a lot)

Elle - Strawberry (based off the original drawing in Fruit of Cute)

Gayle - Snowflake (because of her last name)

Haley - Bow (because she's cute like that)

Katie - Bubble (because of her bursting personality)

Lara - Moon (because I'm star and we have the same name (and also because she glows))

Me - Star (because I've always loved stars)

Megan - Sun (because she asked)

Shelley - Heart (because she's so sweet)

Ponchos Part 1

The idea for "Ponchos" came one Sunday when I was doodling and drew myself in a cute star poncho, pointing my toe as I jumped through the air. As you can see I copied that pose into this image.

To me, all my friends are special, so i tried to make everyone unique, using different clothes for everyone and giving everyone their own symbol. Some people's symbols were transferred from past drawings (Gayle's from her ice super powers (too be posted), same with Megan, and Elle's strawberry from "Fruit of Cute"). It was actually a challenge because people didn't always like what I gave them. Eventually I gave up and stopped taking comments and in the end everyone was happy.

From left to right:
Shelley - heart (she even has heart cards)
Gayle - snowflake
Katie (sitting) - bubbles
Megan - sun (I love her arm holes)
Me (jumping) - star (shooting star!)
Allison (sitting) - diamond
Haley (sitting) - bow
Elle - strawberry
Lara - moon

With each symbol, I held a reason for why I chose it. Next post will be the individual outfits (the ponchos are coming off!) and this description.

Friends of Wonderland

This was one of my first real attempts to fill the space and create a scene. I had fun designing costumes and portraying everyone's character. It was interesting to see it would all turn out with all the different types of media I used: sharpies, crayola markers, and colored pencils. I find I use this blend of media in a lot of my art work I've done over the course of high school and early college years.

Alice - Me
Queen of Hearts - Elle
Playing Card - Megan
Mad Hatter -Katie
March Hare -Gayle
Cheshire Cat - Lara
White Rabbit -Haley
Caterpillar - Shelley
Dormouse - Allison

Centarians

This one is pretty. Everyone got to pick what color they wanted to be. That was hard since I'm the only one who knows all the different colors of horse and the specific names, but we worked things out and everyone was happy. I just liked drawing horse-legs and making everyone unique. I must say it came out well on the coloring side, but the hair is another question

Gayle - chestnut with socks

Megan - black with socks

Shelley - white

Katie - dapple gray

Me - blonde chestnut with socks and a star birthmark

Lara - tri-colored

Elle - strawberry roan

Haley - dun (she just said "Like the horse in that "Spirit" movie")

Allison - bay

Rivals and Friends

This isn't the normal set of friends that I show every time. These 3 are friends and classmates that also did art, so in high school I considered them my "art friends." Its kind of funny--and a little sad--how many different friends I had and yet I paired them off into categories: church friends, art friends, everyday friends, etc. And then subcategories as well! Mostly it was because I had so many different kinds of people as my friends, that they didn't necessarily blend were I to put them all into the same room, so I kept them separate. Nonetheless, they were, are, and always will be my friends because I care for their well being and happiness.

Left to Right:
Christy
Me
Casey
Panda(ora)

Ps. I miss those shoes! They were so cute!

Mario World

This one was Gayle's idea, she really loved coming up with video game ideas (as you'll see later). I was just happy to be Toadstool (he's my favorite). I thought it came out really good, and am proud of the designs. However, I really want to redo the craftsmanship! I mean, come on 15-year-old self! Get presentable!

Haley - Mario
Lara - Luigi
Elle - Princess Peach
Me - Toadstool
Gayle - Wario
Katie - Bowser
Allison - Princess Daisy
Shelley - Yoshi

Igals

I remember being so excited when I did this one, and I was so proud when I finished. This picture pertains heavily to how we were when at the time, our little quirks. Doing Ipod silhouettes is so much fun. I want to do more!~

Yellow - Lara
Green - Elle
Blue - Shelley
Orange - Haley (doing her dance move "One another")
Red - Me (with hair in a clip, my usual hair style at the time)
Purple - Gayle (played her flute, made silver)
Brown - Allison
Magenta - Katie

Flower Sprites

Its Spring!!! Theme: FLOWERS!

...This was a time when I really started watching Project Runway seriously.... Lara is Example of A of that as I attempted to be more original. Yeah... never making a costume like that again...

Wahhh! I can do so much better than this. it bugs me. I mean, come on! Its crooked!!!

Shelley - Poppy
Elle - Lilies
Haley - Hibiscus
Lara - Daffodils
Allison - Sunflower
Gayle - Snap Dragon
Katie - Rose
Me - Blue Daisy

Barnyard Friends

From here I can't remember the order of most of my images. Friends kept getting added and removed, I used new techniques, I found myself working less on my friends and more on school projects. Just about the end of sophomore year and the beginning of junior year, that's when I finally felt like the confusing life of a teenager really began for me, and though I hated it, something good much have happened because I am still have half of these wonderful girls as my bestest friends ever!

I remember Allison wasn't so happy with this piece. She didn't much like the look of having her head sticking out of an animal costume.

Haley - cat
Elle - chick
Gayle - cow
Me - dog
Lara - horse
Allison - mouse
Shelley - sheep
Katie - pig

Dragon Riders Part 2

Well, here's part 2 (and yes this will be 3 parts, not everything was scanned like I thought).


I love the story that goes along with this image. After we all saw the movie together, we stopped by Coldstone and ordered dessert. As we ate our ice cream, someone suddenly had the idea that we should all draw the Dragon Rider symbol on our hands. Someone pulled out their eyes liner and I drew the symbol on everyone's hands. We presented them in a circle as we of us took pictures. I remember I was so sad that I didn't have a camera phone like my friends, so I went home and drew the image instead. It was my first real attempt at realism and I loved it, and I still think it turned out great ('course, if you look at all the hands you can tell that they're all mine).


After that came the image you saw in the first part of these posts. Then I worked on this image which showed us full-size in our warrior outfits. I inked, scanned and cropped on my computer and printed out the image planing to color it again. Of course I didn't have the programs I have now and printed the image in Paint which translated to this enormous image that printed on multiple sheets.


So after coloring it, the image got pinned to my wall, at you can see by the pins at the top corners. Looking at this I still feel like a Dragon Rider - HAHA!!!~

Dragon Riders Part 1

This was done back when the the movie "Eragon" came out. We were all in love with it and even saw it together. The movie made me want my own dragon so bad so I decided to give all of us one.

This is two part (or more?). I had a big drawing session with this theme, so a lot of Dragon Rider images came out of it.

I love making costumes!!!

Beauties and the Beast

I loved doing this at the time, now I hate it. Definitely redoing this one.

Anyways, as you can tell, everyone is Beauty and the Beast characters. Not really much back story. Can you guess who everyone is before I tell you?




Characters:
Belle - Shelley
Lumière - Gayle
Babette the Featherduster - Elle
Beast - Me
Mrs. Potts - Allison
Cogsworth - Lara
Pretty Girl - Katie
Gaston - Haley

Disney Princesses

I remember everyone was super excited for this one. They all started butting in about who should be who. It was fun seeing their enthusiasm, its what drives me to do these drawings.

It was funny when I began to draw Gayle (Ariel from "The Little Mermaid") we both feel strongly about modesty and agreed that the only dress Gayle could wear was the wedding dress (same with Katie). Unfortunately, the first thing Katie said was "Why do you always draw my hair like that? My hair doesn't look like that." See the thing is is that when I first met her hair was, blonde on top, dark underneath. Gradually it began to fade and by the time I was drawing these it had almost completely disappeared. Needless to say, I was not embarrassed, I just brushed it off and kept drawing.

It was fun picking out little items for each character.

Elle - Belle ("Beauty and the Beast")
Gayle - Ariel ("The Little Mermaid")
Allison - Aurora ("The Sleeping Beauty")
Katie - Jasmine ("Aladdin")
Shelley - Mulan ("Mulan")
Haley - Megara ("Hercules")
Me - Cinderella ("Cinderella")
Lara - Snow White ("Snow White and the Seven Dwarves")

Fruit of Cute

I remember that I was really excited to do this piece, but I can't remember where I got the idea (per usual). This is the first piece that I started asking everyone their opinions as to what they wanted me to draw that as. I thought it came out pretty, even now (!), but I still see some bad parts like the shine on everything is bad and the blending is not even in existence, but then i was coloring with sharpie markers and I was new to the whole thing, so forgive me.

Fruit from the top left:
Katie - Kiwi
Lara - Lime
Haley - Pineapple
Allison - Blackberry
Elle - Strawberry
Me - Watermelon
Gayle - Grapes
Shelley - Pomegrante

Poor Attempt at Realism

NOTE: This is Not how I draw today. This how I drew in 9th grade, expecting this was how we would look now.

From left to right: Elle, Haley, Lara, Me.

Funny. None of us look like this. So many things have changed since then: Elle is has gone on to new friends. Haley has short hair. Lara's smile is so much shorter than that. And I... well I've never been good at self portraits so let's not dwell on the absurdness of this image.

Why am I posting this? Because this was once my pride and joy, not because it was my best piece at the time but because these are my friends. And even though I hate the drawing quality I love the subject. Hopefully the next 5 years will prove something even better.

Us Being Us - The First Time

The first drawing. "Us Being Us."

High school is only cool when you have best friends by your side. It's only because of the best friends that I had then that I am who I am now. They are the ones that taught me the costumer isn't always right, sometimes its the person next to you who has the best ideas, and together you can make something incredible.

I don't remember when or why I started drawing my friends as - what anime artists call - "chibi's" but it is something have doing since sophomore year, about 5 years. The very first drawing was just one of my friends: Lara, Gayle, Haley, Elle, Katie, and me; all of us just being us. Over the years, we gained more friends lost others and have since grown into the wild spread friends that are still as tight as ever. We argue, disagree, smile, laugh, and most times act as sisters.

This blog is for the girls that have been an inspiration to me. I've had comments to me about how well I capture a person in a drawing without drawing realistically. People have noticed how I can capture the spirit and personality in a still drawing. I love drawing, it is a privilege to be able to draw my friends. I have seen how these amazing women have shaped me and I pray that we will always be together, no matter where we are.