Czarine

Since it's been a while, I'll update some of the things that have happened since my Yokohama-post.

Ah, maybe I should inform people here too, that I'm right now in Yokohama, Japan, where I'll be studying as an exchange student for two months in Yokohama Design College. www.ydc.ac.jp/eng/course/ I don't know yet what courses I will have, but I hope I get to study animation, as that's what I'm studying back in Finland as well.

I made a tumblr blog about my journey, it's here: yokohamastakuuluu.tumblr.com
It's in Finnish, but it has lots of photos and some videos, so.. yeah. You can leave comments there in english, too.

Wanted to get the old journal out of the way, so here are all the entries I drew for

Participate in our Art Exchange Meme!
It's the holiday season, which means it's the season of giving and receiving!  And what better way to get to spread holiday cheer than with a new art sketch exchange meme?
Participating is simple:  
1.  Copy and paste the following text into a comment on this journal, answer the questions, and post!
Name (or nickname):
Age:
Location:
Artistic medium of choice (digital, traditional, etc.):
I'm interested in sketching:
I'd like to receive a sketch of:
Interests/hobbies outside of art:
Anything else you'd like to share:
2.  Read through comments left from other deviants.  You might find someone with the same hobbies as you, someone who enjoys your favorite TV show, or someone who has similar artistic goals.  Or, maybe you want something different!  Variety is the spice of life.
3.  Leave.

I wanted a specific theme, so I answered to artists who were interested in Assassin's Creed series. It was so much fun! I didn't expect to finish them all this soon.




Here are the ones I received. I'll add more when they get done. Thank you so much!

   
by Saphira6666       by azraelballard            by lildovah24

:thumb346686729:           :thumb352537827:
by GaMeRgRrL123                 by Shadow-Wing456          by ImitationCandy

Copied this from Livadialilacs because bored.

1. YOUR REAL NAME:

Eeva Johanna Halmila

2. YOUR GANGSTA NAME: (first 3 letters of real name plus izzle)

Eevizzle

3. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (fav color and fav animal)

Blue Fish

4. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first)

Halee

5. YOUR SUPERHERO NAME: (Your 2nd favorite color, and favorite drink)

Purple Milk

6. YOUR IRAQI NAME: (2nd letter of your first name, 3rd letter of your last name, first two letters of your middle name, last two letters of your first name then last three letters of your last name)

Eljovaila

7. YOUR WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (both parents middle name)

Hannele Kaleva (my mom uses her middle name as her official name...)

8. YOUR GOTH NAME: (black, and the name of one of your pets)

Black Stick Insect (it used to be my pet, now I have none)

9. NINJA NAME: (First two letters of your first name added with Ruto)

Eeruto

10. PIRATE NAME: (Your middle name after the word Captain)

Captain Johanna

11. JAZZ NAME: ( add le, then brass or ivory, then your last name)

Le Brass Halmila

12. FANTASY NAME: (first two letters of your middle name, second letter of your last name, last two letters of your last name, last letter of your first name)

Joalaa

13. ROYAL NAME: (your grandfather's or grandmother's name, followed by Frederic or George, then by Anna or Mary, then your middle name and last name connected by a dash (-) )

Irja Frederic Anna Johanna-Halmila

14: YOUR ITALIAN NAME: (your middle name with io or ia added at the end)

Johannaia

15: YOUR RUSSIAN NAME: (first two letters of your first name, then first three letters of your last name, then kov or a added at the end (and then a space), and then your middle name with zovsky or chev added at the end)

Eehala Halmilacheva (because women's surnames should end in 'a' iirc.)

Every once in a while I get stuck artistically. I think I can't draw what I want, and all I can draw is garbage. When this occurs, I roam the net for inspiration. Sometimes I feel invigorated, and sometimes I get even more depressed.

Lately I've been thinking about my art and style, and I've come to a conclusion that I'm missing something. I know I can reproduce stuff pretty ok, but when it comes to creating something from my imagination, I just can't seem to get it right, especially anatomically. Well, sometimes I do, but mostly not. This constant battle with comics and realism isn't helping either.

Once again I was trodding around the net, when I came across ConceptArt.org. It seems they have only their forums going, so that's where I went. I wanted to see art, but couldn't really navigate there, so I went to this "Sketchbook" section. There I found the "Journey of an Absolute Rookie: Paintings and Sketches" thread by Jonathan Hardesty conceptart.org/forums/showthre… . It's about his nine-year-journey from a total noob to an artist. Awesome stuff, and really good for people who are doubting their abilities. If you don't want to read the monster thread, watch his progress on vimeo: vimeo.com/29510470

Anyway, what I could learn from his journey was, that I should draw more often if I want to get better. I've always been quite lazy at drawing anything. For that purpose I have been trying to keep a picture diary, but I feel I need to step it up even more. I have weaknesses in hands and feet, and how they connect to the limbs. Also face anatomy could use some improvement. Not to mention perspective. I don't even dare to think of colours.

After looking through Jonathan's journey I sought hand and feet tutorials from YouTube, and found some really easy to understand ones by Sycra. Here's a www.youtube.com/user/Sycra to his channel, there are a bunch of useful tutorials to watch.

Though I'm still stylistically stuck with the comics vs. realism.