I have been wanting to make a bit more of a conscious effort to post WIPs for my bigger pieces, and so I've been doing that lately... I feel looking at other artist's WIPs can be really valuable, and I usually learn a lot from how artists more skilled than me go through their process.

Example, here is a WIP from : [link] I feel it's really interesting to note how she builds up from a mess and gradually makes her drawing more solid from certain points, after blocking the whole thing in.

Does anyone else take captures of their WIPs? Share your latest one here, I am interested to see! Here is mine: [link]

Also, please read this, and do something good for someone in need : [link]

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Kiriban: 100 000
Commissions: (On hold until I get my shit together)
Art Status: [link]
Mini FAQ: [link]

Tagged by

Eight Things about me:

1. I find my taste in music getting weirder as I get older. I don't know how you can progress from Spice Girls to bands like Mouldy Peaches, Modest Mouse or Phish, BUT APPARENTLY IT HAPPENS.

2. When it comes to my friends, I'm a total doormat

3. Scouts is slowly eating my life, and I am absurdly happy to let it do that.

4. I got my hands on a copy of Horses by Patti Smith the other day, and it's just one of those things where I feel like I came really late to a totally awesome party, where the novelty has sort of worn off for everyone already. Screw you guys.

5. I really hate checking my email and I don't know why.

6. I have, for as long as I can remember, had a habit of bouncing my leg when sitting down. It's an unconscious thing that often gets people asking if I'm cold, or gets my parents yelling at me to stop because the vibrations are shaking the car/table/couch.

7. I worked one month for Dominoes as a delivery driver, and hated it almost from day one. I couldn't bring myself to quit though, largely because three of my best friends also work there! It took the fact that my car broke down in a bad part of town on a delivery - while my parents were escaping from the most dangerous fire our country has seen - before I felt I had an excuse to quit... And even then, I blamed it on my parent's urging! (I'm a total coward!)

8. For someone who has lived 30 minutes away from the city all my life, visited it a lot when I was younger and now go to uni there, I sure am useless at finding my way around it. Which is stupid because Melbourne is quite literally a grid. It's not that hard to navigate.

I TAG YOU- YES, YOU, THE READER.

Also, please read this, and do something good for someone in need : [link]

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Kiriban: 100 000
Commissions: (On hold until I get my shit together)
Art Status: [link]
Mini FAQ: [link]

For those of you who don't know, was involved in a car accident some time ago, and now suffers a terrible thing called "Locked in Syndrome". You can read more about her plight in this article: [link]

Anyway, and a few others are running a fundraiser drive. While I am tight on money myself, I want to pitch in.

SO. I am reopening myself for commissions... Sort of. I'm offering pictures that look something like this, of either yourself, your friends, or characters:
[link] [link] [link] [link]

I've dubbed them "Terrible Portraits". They are meant to be a bit of fun, and for $0.50 USD a pop, you can get as many as you like. They don't take me long to draw, so there is a fast delivery time. If you're willing to pay shipping to airmail a letter, I can even cut the thing out and send it to you.

ALL PROCEEDS OF THIS WILL GO TOWARDS THE SARA BAKER TRUST FUND

I make no profit off it. Think of this as a small donation to get something fun.

Send your 50c (or more, if you want more than one portrait or just want to be a good little duck!) donation via Paypal to: donate@sarascourage.org (with the subject "Donation") OR alternatively you can mail a cheque/money order to this address -

Sara Baker Trust Fund
#10350222753
Exchange Bank
8220 Old Redwood Highway
Cotati, CA 94931

After you've sent off the donation, let me know what you want, supply picture reference(s) and I will get going!

If you want them shipped, let me know and I will calculate how much it will cost (not much, as they should fit in an envelope). Payment for shipping should go to laura@renfrews.com (sorry, I will only accept Paypal!)

Cheers, guys.

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Kiriban: 100 000
Commissions: (On hold until I get my shit together)
Art Status: [link]
Mini FAQ: [link]

I'm not big on omens or whatever, but I do like the idea of drawing on events to stop for thought, or alternatively, give you some drive to keep going.

Today was rather... Exciting I guess is the word. The house next to ours has seen a lot of action throughout the years - our family friends have lived there, a guy who used to work on his car at 2am lived there, one of the occupants after him actually died in there of a heart attack on mother's day one year. After that, the property was bought by developers who added a second unit in what was the backyard, and had our fence redone in the process.

Today, it caught fire.

No, serious, one of the neighbours heard the fire alarm going off, and came to investigate. By the time we cottoned on to the yelling outside, we came out to see some smoke billowing out one of the roof. And then the air conditioner. And then the windows and everywhere. My dad was calling the fire brigade as we could see flames starting to come out of it. The person who lives in the back unit moved her car out and so did I, not a moment too soon as the fire engines started coming in. By the time the fire was out, we had six fire trucks lining the street outside, a command car and three police cars. PRETTY INSANE. Luckily the tenant wasn't around (no one had seen him since he made a noisy exit around 4am Saturday morning, though someone put his bins out the other night), but the owner happened to be in the area and was somewhat shocked. We don't know what started it, but the place looks pretty burnt out.

Basically though, I'm using the event to start a metaphorical fire underneath me. I'm going to try and do my best to get out of this slump rather than stewing in it. Wish me luck

PS. God these IMVU ads shit the hell out of me. They keep making new ones that get around my ad blocking software!

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Kiriban: 100 000
Commissions: (On hold until I get my shit together)
Art Status: [link]
Mini FAQ: [link]

I don't know whether it's the pressure of my many things going on at the moment (only just finished uni for the semester, I have my musical coming up, work, meant to be doing training for Scouts, going to Scouts in general, my 21st coming up which my mum wants me to plan out so it's spectacular, website requests for relatives, and my friends wanting me to remake a movie... The list of commitments goes on), or whether my time has just come but...

I've totally hit the wall in terms of art. I've had slumps before (I just got over a mini one, I thought), but this is just...

It's SO unlike a writing block, which is really weird for me. I know how to get around writing blocks, where it's generally a case of my inspiration running low.

I know exactly what I want to draw. I know what I want it to look like. I even know how the lines should look. For some reason, however, there's some massive miscommunication between my brain and my hand, and nothing is coming out right. Even just flat out copying from references, or even going back and drawing skeletons or impressions... All not working. I'm not entirely sure what has gone wrong, and I'm drawing blanks on how to fix the issue.

I have a bit of a back log on my art, including a contest prize which I wanted to get done relatively quickly. Not to mention I'm doing an 'introduction to drawing' class elective next semester, where the lecturer is infamously a bit of a dick, so I was hoping to come into the class with at least some skill behind me. So... This whole thing is really a bit of a problem for me. Art is usually a stress relief for me, but this whole thing is just adding to my issues. The fact that I feel I'm becoming worse instead of better is really worrying for me.

Has anyone gone through this problem before? What were your fixes that got you out of it?
CAN I BE CURED?!?! XD

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Kiriban: 100 000
Commissions: (On hold until I get my shit together)
Art Status: [link]
Mini FAQ: [link]