My Favorite Word

I took 2 old pieces of mat board, sheets of old packing paper, dental floss, elastic and hemp and turned it into a nice Coptic-bound sketchbook.

 Here's a closeup of the Coptic binding, with criss crossing to help tighten the binding, which if done by hand tends to be loose. I couldn't pull too tightly because packing paper is somewhat delicate.

 Coptic binding allows your pages to lay completely flat, which makes it nice for sketching. That's my cat Poco.

My cat friendly woke me up this morning. I think he misses me.

On the cover of my sketchbook I wrote the word "Endurance"

Endurance is my favorite word in the English language. With regards to sports, it means pushing through physical pain and continuing on. YOUR BODY IS A WIMP. It ALWAYS wants to give up, and endurance is your mind telling it to continue. With regards to life, WE ARE ALSO WIMPS. We have goals we want to attain, but we have a thousand reasons to not go for it. Too old. Not enough time. Not enough money. Too lazy. Too scared. Do it anyway. Endure the hardships. Find away around obstacles. Complacency makes you normal, but endurance is what makes you great.

Using exercise as a metaphor again, working out isn't fun. Go anyway. Endure. It's the people who go anyway even when they don't like it, that can keep themselves fit, hot, healthy, focused and a cut above. That's life too. Sometimes you're down - you don't want to do what it takes - do it anyway. Endure. With art, with love, with life, with exercise, with cancer, with AIDS, without your arm, eyes, with your significant other or without, with all, endure.

Drawings coming soon,
Tiffanny

Friendly Giant

This is a painting I did for Illustration Friday! This week's topic is "Tall".

 And here's a closeup:

 And this is what the sketch looks like:

The scan quality is a lot higher than my old watercolors if you notice. I finally, FINALLY bought myself a nice scanner. There are more light bulbs in my new scanner so you don't see as much of the texture of the watercolor paper, which looks GREAT in real life, but ends up just looking dirty when scanned.

Also, I added a new blue into my palette. It was hard to use at first. Every pigment behaves differently. It's not just a matter of switching out the colors and expecting things to behave as they used to. I wasn't sure if I liked Winsor Blue at first, because when it dried it left little white pocks all over, but I really like the hue. I guess I will keep practicing with it and see if it belongs in my palette permanently. Trying new things is fun.

I am so tired. I have been so busy all day! I finished editing my 100+ paged sketchbook and sent it off to the printers for a proof copy. I hope they do a good job! Secondly, I dragged my butt to figure drawing today. Third, I finished knitting up a sock for my husband, who never has to wear store-bought for as long as I live, as I keep him well-supplied. Forth, I painted this for Illustration Friday, did 2 loads of laundry, organized and cleaned my office space, and did a half-hour cardio workout. I hope I won't be too destroyed tomorrow at work. I recently changed jobs! Last week was my first week at Zynga, Austin TX. I hope I have a good second week!

Well, it's 3:15. It's definitely time to get some rest

Goodnight!
Tiffanny

Quick Sketches

A few quick sketches.
Gracie was holding her tail funny over the weekend. We thought her tail was broken but it turns out she has a condition known as "broken wag" from swimming too much. She gave us quite a scare!

I used one of them there water brushes for these sketches. I really don't like them as much as regular brushes but they're fun for just doing quick washes when you're short on time. It's also nice to cut loose and not be so picky.

Anyway, I hope I can give you guys more sketches. I'm too busy to do anything more finished lately!

Tiffanny