Deadline Set!

Hey guys! Been a few days, but I've finally made a deadline for myself to get my niece's painting done!

AUGUST 21ST

That will be the day that this painting MUST be done by! Now I just have to see if I can do it! Oh my..That means I have about 22 days to finish this painting! x__x I might have several all-nighters in my near future!!

I've already warned Austin that I'll be working on this painting even if he's over chilling at my house lol. We already did that once, so he knows the drill, haha! He watched Netflix on my computer while I painted and tried not to get too distracted! (Doesn't help that his laugh is so darn contagious).

I don't really have a plan on what I should try and get done everyday for this painting, then again I've never really thought about it that way, yet. Usually for my marker or colored pencil drawings I'll have a set goal that I'll try to finish everyday. For example, Monday I'll get the sketch done, Tuesday will be the lineart, Wednesday I'll finish the line weight, Thursday the main focus of the picture will be colored, and Friday will be the background. It usually doesn't go that smoothly, though. Things will usually come up and interfere with when I can actually get work done on it, but you get the jist. I'm going to try and set goals for each day for this painting. But paintings work differently than marker drawings.

Paintings are usually done by layers to keep the "same stage of completion" at..well...the same stage. So it's harder to have steps for paintings because usually you would work at a layer at a time. So I guess I could just say 1 layer a day and hope it's not more than 22 layers of paint! That would be crazyyyy! But because my canvas is so big, that might be a good goal for each day. Then once all the main stuff (modeling/shading, highlights, etc.) is finished, and I still have time before the deadline, I can work on the details and have goals for each day like I would on my paper pieces.

So, that's my plan for my next 3 weeks! And only about 2 of those weeks I have completely off everything! No school, no work, no nothin'! Now, let's see if I can get anything fun worked in there around this painting schedule!

Wish me luck, I'll keep you posted! (:

So My Plan Is...

So this is the painting I'm working on for my niece! It's 2x3 feet and it's kicking my butt. I've had the canvas for almost 3, maybe even 4, months now. And I'm only starting on the 3rd layer of paint. Yeahhh..this thing will be in its ugly stage for a loooooong time.

Pretty much, she wanted a painting of a unicorn with wings (Pegacorn? Unisus? Whatever it's called..) and I thought "Okay that'll be fun for me to do since I love fantasy AND I'll be getting paid for it!" No...this thing has been staring me in the face, unfinished, for almost 4 months now. I don't know what's wrong with me! If this were for me, I'd probably have it finished by now. And I didn't really get why I was feeling so unmotivated until I actually learned why in my Psychology 101 class I'm taking right now! (Pretty much, our brain sees getting paid for something as work. So when we're getting paid for something we enjoy, our brain sees it as work, so it's less motivated. Or something along those lines.) So after thinking about that and letting it sink in for a few days, I realized that was my problem. And I also think if my sister would have given me a deadline I would be busting my ass trying to get it done, but she said no rush on it.

I'll be honest, there have been times when I thought about texting my sister and telling her to forget it. Especially after getting insulted because I'm in art major and being belittled because of it, but I've tried truckin' on through it. Does it have a lot of paint? No. Is it anywhere finished? Not at all. But I'm still working on getting it done. My niece is also very into art (because of ME mwahahaha!) and when she saw the painting as it is last night, she got so excited and she thinks it's almost done. So I'm trying to use that to motivate me to work on this more! My Psychology 101 class will be over after this Friday! Yipee!

So here's my plan...I only have 3 weeks of completely free summer break before the fall semester starts (eww), so I'm going to work on this painting inbetween everything that might be going on. My boyfriend, Austin, and I have a summer bucket list we'd like to get done, and we already have something planned for next Sunday. So I'll be working on this painting most of the time before we leave, and probably the night after when I get home. I sense lots of all-nighters in my future!

So here are some little facts about this piece so far:
I've already put close to 15 hours into this, and there's a ton more to go. That's the first horse I've ever drawn a full body of, and I'm pretty proud of it, so far! I've never done a painting with a foreground, so we'll see how that goes. And that pink mushroom on the right was actually a happy accident of the first wash of colors running!

There's also a lot of symbolism in this piece:
The little houses on the left are actually "spirit houses." They're believed to protect the forest and anyone who encounter them. I put those in there because they'd look so cool in a fantasy painting, but also for the symbolism of protection. The stacked rocks are usually made by hikers so they can find their way back. I placed these here so she'll never lose her way. And I plan to put some sort of fog/mist in front of, and around, the winged unicorn that has little sparkles in it. Those sparkles are going to represent wishes and angels watching over her. I know butterflies usually have some sort of meaning, but I put those in because she REALLY likes butterflies, haha!

I'm going to have a YouTube video on my channel whenever this gets done with little clips of my progress throughout this painting, so I'll definitely link that when it's finished! (:

First Blog Post!!

Hi everyone who may read this in the future!

Finally jumped on the bandwagon and started a blog. Honestly, I've thought about making one. I used to do daily vlogs about my struggles through college and the ups and downs of trying to become an artist at a professional level, and it was really fun! The only problem was I usually couldn't get very good footage because a lot of my friends didn't like the camera. And I was hardly doing any ART related things so they sort of felt pointless after a while. But, with this blog I'll be able to share and not worry about a schedule or editing! :D Hooray!

I'm not sure what kind of stuff I'll post here. I have two YouTube artsy channels. One is my main art channel that's full of "speedpaints" and some informative videos. I'm trying to convert it to be solely art related, so if you check that channel out, bare with me! My old vlogging channel is still up and running! I just don't do daily vlogs anymore. Whenever an art event comes around, or if I'm having an art day with some artist friends, I'll vlog throughout the day and then edit and upload that because it's art related and that's what most artists want to watch, right? I'll leave my two channels here:

Main Art Channel --> BlueDragon2196

Artsy Vlog Channel --> Haley Bop

Just look them up on YouTube and they should pop up! If not, I'll try and find a way to get them on this blog! I also started out on deviantART several years ago, but my fanbase is pretty much full of ghosts now and I never get any feedback or commissions. So it's just a place to post my digital artwork to now. Oh well.

Enough about that! I guess I should introduce myself! (Taking me long enough right?)

I'm Haley! I'm a 19 year old college student, about to go into my second year at my local community college, and I'm going for my AFA (Associates in Fine Arts) here. Then, I'm hoping to transfer to a university and go for my BFA (Bachelor's in Fine Arts) and I'm not really sure where I'm going for that yet. Depends on how things play out. I've been drawing since I was about 2, so art has been a major part of my life for my whole life! I'm excited to see how I can make something I love to do a career, but I'm also nervous. There are a lot of art jobs out there, but I'm aiming to become an illustrator! I've always been told that my style looks like something from a children's book, and I never really believed people until I realized concept art wasn't really my thing, like I thought it was.

I'm also a complete nerd and a gamer. I'm currently addicted to The Office that I'm watching with my best friend. But I also love Star Trek, BBC Sherlock, Supernatural, Marvel, ASMR, Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Animal Crossing, DISNEY/Pixar, Warriors, and a bunch of others I'm probably forgetting! I love to read, as well (whenever I have the time!). Also getting back into golf, I'm pretty sore after 2 days at the driving range. I don't know how those pros do it for weeks straight! x__x Also getting into art journaling, so I may share some of that here in the future!

Anyways, I think that's enough about me for now. I assume you'll learn more about me in upcoming posts. I don't think I'll have a schedule. I'll just post whenever something is on my mind or something relevant happens, haha!

Now to try and figure out how this site works!