Female Face in Pen: Catching Depth of the Face

This is a rapid sketch of a female face. I had just finished looking at a book of textile patterns from Mexico and the cheekbones of a photographed woman draped in colorful fabrics caught my eye. I sketched her after I turned the book into the library, so this likely does not look anything like the actual woman in the photograph.

The cheekbones were very important to this sketch. I was playing around with the idea of catching depth through lines. That is why the neck is vertically divided into parts.

I just noticed that the faint shadows of the drawings on the previous pages are slightly visible. That was not intentional.

I hope you like this! 

River and the Sea

An arrow, blue, points at a floating spot of purple graffiti. In the right hand corner, a partly visible skeleton dances. Rays of blinding white light. I like this a little, just due to the random blobs of color here and there.

I did this using a mouse and sketchbook pro, 2011. I hope this isn't as visually ugly as the "migraine headache" drawing.

I have a lot of free time this summer, so I will likely be adding more drawings.

Thanks for stopping by!
~Maya

Narcissus' Musings For May 28th, 2012

I am not liking "Migraine Headache" anymore. It gives me a headache just looking at it. That was the point, but still, I am not liking it. If I delete that picture, it is because I could no longer stand its presence.

I wish there was a way to upload music that I made on Ableton, Live 7. There is only a posting button for images and videos. Maybe I will make some sort of abstract video and use that song as a soundtrack.

I am feeling very creative. It likely has to do with the fact that I am no longer taking 15 units at Fresno State. Now that I have free time I have been listening to music, making little beats on an outdated version of Live, and watching endless versions of Nyan cat. Yes, Nyan cat, that internet meme. It can get a little addicting.

Stay tuned! More to come in the next few months. If you are here for the first time, hi! My name is Maya. I like to make art. I am not that highly trained, but I enjoy creating art. I took one and a half years of drawing at Fresno City College. That is the extent of my educational training in drawing or painting.

I am a senior at Fresno State taking summer classes in order to graduate before August. Thanks for stopping by! Feel free to check through the older posts. I post ninety percent drawings, paintings, and computer software drawings. The other ten percent is this, little written blog entries about art. All the art here is my own, original pieces I have done in the last decade.

Migraine Headache: Novice computer drawing

This is a fast computer drawing I made using Sketchbook Pro 2011. The inspiration came from listening to Art21, the first episode of the fifth season, Compassion. I had it streaming on my computer but I had the drawing software program running which filled my screen, so I just drew while listening to the descriptions of the creation process without seeing what the artists' artwork looked like.

I drew lots of lines using my scroll pad on my macbook. It is interesting using a scroll pad and not the conventional mouse or the typical drawing tablet with artificial pen. I like it, it is an unusual experience. I am limited by a 3 by 2.5 inch space where my finger can roam. My lines are always squiggly and never straight.

I have really grown to like the filler bucket tool. Filler bucket is a little icon that looks like a bucket of water and you click on an area that you want completely filled with a specific color. It is like painting in a matter of seconds. I like this. It lets me think larger than I normally think. Normally I will overfocus on one section of the painting and try to combine colors. I normally do not like solid colors. This software makes me think of solid color differently. I like it.

I hope you like it! It is not elegant, not pretty like the last image I posted, that pink and white flower. It is ugly, and I like that ugly. I like the man in the bottom right corner. I feel like him sometimes, focusing on something nobody else can see, feeling sensations nobody else can feel. He barely notices the light that lands on his face. 

Flower with Sketchbook Pro: Beginner level

I have not really used Sketchbook Pro as much as I would like, due to homework and artist's block. Here is a flower I drew using an economical PenPad Tablet and pen. I felt like posting something though, so here is a flower. Thanks for stopping by this little blog!

Design--Freehand

This is a freehand pen drawing I did yesterday.

The blue and yellow tints are accidental--I had to fill the picture with light because I took the photo with my cell phone and my shadow was visible. I might use something similar to this on a brochure I am creating to commemorate May Is National Mental Health Awareness Month. I am manning a booth on campus to celebrate and I need a brochure to hand out. Unfortunately, the NAMI brochures cost 20 dollars for 50 brochures and they won't come in time anyways (4-5 week wait). I will just make my own brochures to hand out and get them printed cheap through the campus bookstore. 

As you may know from reading the first blog entry, I had started this blog to help raise funds for a mental health organization. Sadly, their funding fell through and nobody seemed particularly interested in my artwork, either. C'est la vie! That's life. On the plus side, I now have an outlet for my creative side and I am still interested in raising awareness on behalf of those who live with a mental illness. 

I bought an art book to display for the Mental Health Awareness Table. It's "Martin Ramirez: The Last Works." Ramirez was an immigrant from Mexico who was found to have schizophrenia and became institutionalized for the remainder of his life. What is great about him is that he overcame his disability and made beautiful art, which is now world famous. His artwork is mostly patterns of lines and curves. He draws a lot of railroad tracks and various religious icons. 

I first saw one of Martin Ramirez's pieces during my intermediate drawing class when the professor brought in her art book of his artwork. I was immediately captivated by his sense of symmetry and his mastery of hypnotic lines. I remember that my hands were stained with charcoal from drawing class and that I had to wash them for about 3 minutes before they were clean enough to touch the crisp, white pages of my professor's book. Once I turned the pages I didn't want to give up the book because the images and the story behind them moved me.

Tuna--Fruit of the Nopal (CACTUS FRUIT)

Growing up Chicana I learned a lot about the cactus, namely, that it is edible and delicious. 

My grandmother used to have a collection of

cactus plants when we lived out in Kingsburg, California. 

Some of my earliest memories are of

watching her cut the plump tunas off the nopal. 

Tunas are the fruits of the cactus and that is what this

photo is of. Cactus is called un nopal in Spanish and it is part of our cuisine. 

To eat, one must first wear gardening gloves to cut the tunas off the cactus, as the cactus has thorns. Then, you remove the rest of the thorns off the plant and peel the skin off the tunas. Inside, the fruit is bright red and soft. You eat it as is; no cooking or spices required! 

The cactus that the tuna grows on can be skinned, cut into strips, seeped in water, drained, and eaten.

It has a sort of slimy texture, so it is an acquired taste. 

However, once you get used to the tangy taste

you grow very fond of laying some nopales down on your omelette. You can top this off with a sprinkling of crumbly Mexican cheese. Nopales are said to be good for warding off diabetes.

I think I will draw some tuna now. Tuna is sort of a symbol of my Chicana heritage, and I think I will go draw some cactus fruit now! :)