Product Review: Winsor and Newton Pigment markers

While I was at CTN: Expo, Windsor and Newton were there allowing artists to test their lines of markers. Each had a different purpose- one was the watercolor marker, which was water soluble, one was their alcohol based marker which they claimed worked like copic markers, and then pigment markers which was something else entirely.

Basically it's a marker trying to transcend it's markerhood into something close to paint. Its tips are made to act like paintbrushes, and the colors made to be blended. Whatever binders they used is "top secret" because they are trying to still patent it- it's that new. At least that's what the lady at the booth at CTN was saying.

Now, I was excited to see something entirely new on the market. When it comes to markers, especially those used for fine art or illustration, it usually comes down to two categories: Copic markers and then markers trying their darndest to be copic markers. (No really. Prismacolor changed their ENTIRE MARKER DESIGN to include a brush tip instead of a fine tip so that they could be a little more like Copic. And if they say that isn't the case, they are lying because they didn't change it until Copic was wiping the floor when it came to the market)

So seeing a company throw everything over their heads, say "SCREW IT, WE'RE DOING SOMETHING DIFFERENT" and going all out on making something new is very admirable. Whether they did it WELL... Well, that's something to be debated.


The first thing they mention on the website is not the color capacity of these, but their outside. They explain that it's a very sleek easy to grip and easy to control marker with a chisel tip and fine tip.

Honestly, focusing on the outside first is like saying "Look at this gift! Isn't the wrapping paper nice? So well wrapped!" I mean, I get it. The different outside marks that this is a "different marker" but as an artist I'd rather hear about the color first.

The second thing they mention is the archival quality of the marker. The pigment is made to last under intense light- (Also known as Lightfast) and should last well at least 100 years. (Which, this marker hasn't been around for 100 years let alone a drawing done by these markers so that's to be debated how well they hold up)

They work best on coated paper- paper that has a smooth, slippery surface that works best with markers. Winsor and Newton has come up with their own paper pad that fits the bill, but paper for pens/ink or marker paper works. Vellum bristol is likely to work well too.

UNFORTUNATELY, the Winsor and Newton Pigment pen paper WRINKLES. BAD. It's very thin paper, but with the smooth coated surface. I would actually not suggest using this paper besides testing the capabilities of the marker.

(Seriously. You know it's bad when the REVIEW VIDEO has the paper wrinkling.)|

Here is my test drawing on the Winsor and Newton pigment marker paper. The color is not absorbed at all, keeping it rich and fine. The coated surface allows it to blend evenly. However, it DOES wrinkle, and eventually eats at the paper giving it a bumpy, fibrous surface. More than that, you can see that the colors do start coming through on the other side. Overall it wasn't my favorite. I went ahead and bought a much thicker and durable pad of Staedtler marker paper.

Anyways, that's Pigment Markers at a glance. Let's talk the nitty gritty and application.

First off- These markers are WET WET WET. It's not uncommon to have pigment leaking out the sides messily, especially if the tip is loose. The fact that it has a loose tip is interesting because it doesn't exactly have a refill.

The chisel tips sides were often frayed. This is because of it constantly rubbing and scraping against the tightly-fit lid. It didn't affect how the marker worked at all, it just wasn't very appealing.

However, on thicker marker paper, it seemed to retain the color without damaging the paper at all. It kept the vibrancy and the wetness/blendability of the marker. I also tested it on copy paper, and sure enough, it ate and bled through it like anything.

(Of course, my test drawing is an anime eye. Those are far too fun to draw)

The next big test was what inking pens held up with it. This is an important test when using ANY marker or paint to ensure the colors don't get muddy or the lineart isn't destroyed. Unfortunately, I have to say that very few inking pens lasted under the test. The most unfortunate was my Pilot VBall bg 05 which has become my favorite inking and drafting pen.

SURPRISINGLY, the pens that worked the best was Sharpie and Le Pen. Le Pen I've had a hard time working with my alcohol based markers, but it works surprisingly well with this pen. The muddiness you see is actually because I didn't clean the pen before moving on to the next color. The Sharpie held up the BEST of them all- while Faber Castel held up the worst.

For my next test, I tried to blend it with and over other brands of marker, specifically alcohol based to see what the effects would be. It worked surprisingly well with Prismacolor when it came to layering colors, but overpowered the softness of the Copic. Copic caused some smearing and blending when layered on top of it.

When layered with itself, I noticed the tendency for the dark colors to overpower the light instead of ending up in a smooth gradient. The best suggestion I can give is to actually work dark to light when it comes to blending and layering these markers.

As far as the stroke of these markers go, it's nigh impossible to hide the direction of the stroke due to the kind of ink it is. It reminds me of painting with oils, and how each stroke left an impression. Perhaps it'd be easier to hide a stroke with the tiny fine tip, but I was unwilling to cover large areas with it to see. Perhaps the directional issue could be solved if there was a brush tip instead, but I'd like to think that there is a beauty in seeing the directional strokes- you just need to be mindful of where your strokes go.

(As I said- there's no hiding the fact that this is done in marker and the direction of each stroke. However, this particular piece looks like watercolor and is certainly beautiful in its own right.)

Now, in order to test the capacity of the markers, I decided to try a full illustration.

At this stage, I tried to keep it entirely Pigment markers aside from the inked lines. Only the base skin color for the girl was done with copic markers since I didn't have a skin pigment suitable for what I was wanting.

My previous notes on having to blend light-with-dark and dark overpowering light undercolors still apply to this. I started with a base of yellow for the ground and sky to match with the golden design of the deer, and the cream of the little girl. The yellow was far too overpowering, so I added pint to simulate migh lighter violet tones. Pink and yellow do not read wilderness, however, and so I went on to add greens- including the dark green grass on the edges of the paper. The center turned into water as almost an afterhtought.

While working, It's clear what stroke or blending technique I was using. In some places I used my fingers, and you can definitely tell what was finger blended and what wasn't. Also, it gets to a point where it gets hard to layer any more color. After picking it up again after a day I realized I just had to let the colors dry and set for longer, as it was able to layer a lot better after horus of being left alone.

After I was done with the pigment markers, I looked and asked myself "Is this a finished piece?" And to me, no it isn't. I wasn't able to reach a  completely finished look with the markers I had. Maybe if I had more colors I could have done more with pushing the dark and the light of the drawing, but as it was I really couldn't.

My next step was to layer it with prismacolor pencils. Prismacolors DID NOT react well with either the paper's coating or the markers, or both. While I often layer colored pencils with watercolor or the alcohol based markers, it didn't like this. I will have to further test if it will respond better on different paper. But that caused me to hit another roadblock as my normal layering technique was stopped.

I then tried to layer it with a variety of different markers and pens. Most inking pens jammed when in contact with the marker, and refused to work. Even my VBall was having some issues layering on top and it usually runs as smooth as anything anywhere else. It then turned into "what marker/ink will work with this?"

Acrylic ink seems to work the best, though prismacolor markers was able to work over it quite well after it had taken some time to dry. Acrylic ink was used to push the gold, and white ink was used for the outlines and highlights. I also tried things with pouring various materials on the background, including Copic Various inks in purple, rubbing alcohol, Ken Oliver liquid metals, and gold ink. Rubbing Alchohol didn't make as much of a difference as I thought it would- it mostly washed away the top layer of the Pigment in the places applied. It didn't affect the more dried and set areas. The various inks also didn't do much. The Liquid Gold didn't blend with it, instead layered on the top of it, covering anything underneath. Gold acrylic ink was both able to blend and layer on top, which made it the most favorable out of all of the mixed mediums that I used.

When I realized that the Acrylic ink layered well, I decided to try using my Derwent Inktense pencils to layer on top, which worked wonderfully. (I will write a more in depth review of hte Derwent Inktense pencils later, but for now those of you who don't know what that is they are colored pencils made of ink that acts kind of like watercolor pencils.)

The end result was this:

An overall beautiful piece, but one that relies on mixed media to make up for the markers shortcomings due to the lack of experience, the kind of paper used, and the lack of range of color of the pigment markers. However, the color and use of the pigment marker is still very prevalent in the especially in the textures of the background.

OVERALL, the pigment markers were definitely different. They will not be my go-to medium for mixed media, but I can see great potential. There's pros to them, but also cons.

PROS:
-Vivid pigment
-Archival quality
-Blendability
-Unique stroke
-Layering ability after drying with itself.
-Works amazing with coated papers
-Less expensive than copic

CONS:
-Cannot hide directional strokes.
-Doesn't play nice with many other medium
-Melts or smears most inking pens.
-Having to wait for it to dry before layering
-No refill inks that I know of.

I want to try a few more experiments with these in future mixed medium work, like using them with textured papers or with texture paste, adding them on top of a colored pencil or watercolor piece, or adding it on top of a copic "underpainting." Who knows what possibilities there are? 

Game Review: Dishonored

Ever since getting married to my darling husband, the rate of playing Video games has gone way up. Not that I mind at all- like I said in a previous post, actually being surrounded and immersed in these various stories helps my own imagination and creativity grow.

That being said, I'd like to talk a bit about Dishonored.

(Sup bruh I'm creepy as heck and I'm here to take yo money 'n stuff)

Now, I have a relatively high tolerance for "THE DARK STUFF" in video games. That is, death, gore, atmosphere, the likes. After all, I  grew up on ghost stories and scary movies, and Amnesia: The Dark Descent is the bees knees.

That being said, strangely enough, what I HAD seen of Dishonored before actually experiencing it for myself crossed that threshold. I have no idea why. Between summoning rats to eat your enemies, and setting razor traps to flay your enemies and knocking someone off a bridge while they are peeing off the side it was just... Ick factor.

What I DIDN'T understand is you choose your outcome. You can be violent and dark as all get out, or you can play it straight and try to resolve things in a... Well, relatively peaceful way.

I ALSO didn't account for the A+ storytelling and world this game creates, which explains all the "Dark stuff". 

(Can you say-- Ick much?)

Without getting too spoilerific, the story takes place in a kingdom that is overrun by... Rats. Nasty, aggressive, disease-ridden flesh-eating rats. These disease-ridden rats are turning people basically into crying, vomity zombies.

(Weepers be like- join me in my misery bruh)

You play as a man named Corvo, a very important political figure who is framed for a huge political murder within the first five minutes of the game. A murder that makes everything That Much Worse. 

You're hired by a resistance to get rid of the "political enemies" by killing them or whatever... I mean, you've been framed for murder anyways, so you might as well ACTUALLY be an assassin, right?

Yet you still have your playstyle choice. Be like Ezio and be sneaky sneaky as possible, or just... Y'know, be the unrestrained beast you are and kill everybody you may encounter.


Orrrr you know. Do both. Both is good.

The more violent you are, the more the "chaos" goes up and the more dark and icky the world becomes. "Chaos" is like the richter scale for... Well, Chaos.
That affects the ending of the game, and the general happiness of the people around you.

But there was one big thing I didn't mention. The wildcard.

A strange, surreal force known as "The Outsider" comes and offers you UNIMAGINABLE POWAAAAH. The Outsider is like a mix of an eldritch terror and Loki. He basically gets bored, and intervenes in the lives of people he finds interesting enough.

Between all these elements, a dark, spoopy picture is painted of a surreal world gone wrong, and you're the element that can change the tides between chaos and order.

That being said, I found myself getting sucked in to the story and dialogue. Critics might have something else to say, but I am a sucker for compelling story above all, and it was compelling enough that I suddenly accepted the ick. It's a part of the world, it's a part of the experience, and you don't have to be as ick as the youtubers out there would make you think.

The game wasn't very long, either. It's a straightforward story without an insane amount of sidequests to derail you from ever finishing the main plot... Unlike the later Assassin's Creed games.

(What u say about me, you little-)

I'm jk, Assassin's Creed will always be one of my fav games. But really. How many sidequests can you stuff in a game?

(...No comment)

Anyways Dishonored is well worth the look and the play.

The Mormon Mori, out.

Post to-do list

Sorry about the lack of activity! A lot has taken my attention! However, now that the semester is wrapping up, I have a list of planned posts for you. For my record as well as yours, here's what I have planned.

Rowan's Personal Posts
-CTN overview
-Talking about depression.

-Favorite artists

-Teaching art

-Art school vs. Self taught- Is art school a scam?
-Little Red Copperhead: What is it, and progress
-Adoptables: What are they?

Rowan's Reviews:
ART SUPPLIES:
-Blackwing Pencils
-Windsor and Newton Markers- Watercolor and Pigment markers
-Daniel Smith Clear Absorbent Grounds

-Tim Holtz Distress Ink
-Tim Holtz Crackle Paint
-Ken Oliver Crafts Liquid Metals
-Ken Oliver Crafts color burst powder

-Digital Programs: SAI vs Clip Paint Studio, GIMP, Photoshop, Ipad programs: PROcreate, MediBang, Adobe Online
-Rowan Talks about Papers

-Talks about: Stamps, Scrapbook paper, and copyrights

VIDEO GAMES:
-Borderlands
-Skyrim
-THIEF 2014
-Gears of War
-Ori and the Blind Forest

WEBCOMICS:
-Daughter of the Lilies
-Far to the North and Tigress Queen
-Blindsprings
-Ava's Demon
-Clockwork
-Stand Still, Stay Silent and A Red Tail's Dream
-i'M NOT GOING TO TOUCH HOMESTUCK. NO. NOT WITH A TEN FOOT POLE (ok maybe)

Art Process:
-On the Other Side of the Door
-DTA: On Top of the Universe
-Process videos of PROcreate art
-Making Webcomics

Rowan Talks about Fashion

-Hair dye: Myths vs. facts

-Gel nails vs nail polish
-Talks about: Lolita
-Talks about: Mori Girl
-Talks about: Shabby Chic
-Talks about: Boho
-How to layer Mori style
-Adding color to Mori girl
-Mori girl vs. Lolita

CTN EXPO

I have a lot of posts that are partially finished, but not entirely. I was working on a post for "mental health awareness day" but then got afraid to talk so in depth about my particular brand of crazy and so left it. I also have a lot of drafts for ideas of posts, but haven't set the time aside to actually go out of my way to GET ER DONE. Sigh.

Anyways, I have a wonderful announcement! For the first time, I'm going to be attending CREATIVE TALENT NETWORK ANIMATION EXPO! This is like Comic con, except only for artists. They have a lot of talent seekers from various huge animation studios like Cartoon Network, Disney, Nickelodeon... So all the panels are geared towards illustrators, and all the booths are for artists or are artists looking to be hired by these networks.

While I myself are more interested in becoming an art educator instead of an illustrator, my interests are geared TOWARDS helping others learn to better draw from their imaginations and draw it more effectively. Aka, helping others learn how to do illustration. So I'm VERY excited to pick up the materials available there.

Of Games and Creativity

Sorry for the delayed blog entries! I've been adjusting to my new life, and new schedule.

More than that, my husband has brought home quite the time consumer... In the form of VIDYA GAEMS.


I grew up around video games. It has been a huge part of my life, with my dad originally working for SingleTrac back in the day, and then moving on to be parts of other game studios and now owning his own game business as an Independent Game Developer: http://rampantgames.com/

I know that nowadays, there's a lot of people who would call video games a "bane", a "distraction" or say that "Kids nowadays have no imagination- they don't go outside, all they do is sit around and play video games." I'd like to say that that's not true.

Sure, too much of a good thing can be bad in ANY situation. Just like too much exercise can give you adrenaline disorders and too much writing can give you a heart attack... Apparently.

Regardless, I actually would say that video games has helped me become who I am today. It was a "gateway drug" to creativity.

Growing up, I would watch my father play video games. I was inspired by these games, and they led me to doing some of my first art, and costumes.

At age 6, I saw my father play Final Fantasy X. At that time, I drew my first fanart. I also started playing the Animorphs video game, and would draw the stages of that game as well. (I attempted to look for these old drawings, but couldn't seem to locate them. But take my word on it-- They weren't very good, and I could hardly spell the names of the characters right. But it was the first step in a very long path of art and video gaming)
I also would pretend to be Yuna from Final Fantasy, playing in the garden barefoot with a stick that I cut a circle of cardboard and taped it on, swinging the stick around and dancing, pretending to do the Sending.

Eventually my father handed me the controls, and I started playing my very first game- Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Of course, I was so small that I was absolutely TERRIFIED of the crudely rendered monsters, nor was I the most experienced reader, so instead of going on the quests, I would use Link to play pretend. I would run around the village and make up my own stories about what was happening.





I began my first roleplays when I was about 9, using the characters from Legend of Zelda and other games in a new, unique setting. Thus started my affinity for World Building. This led to me and my friends creating crossovers, and trying our best to characterize the characters properly. Where there were blanks in the plot, we would make our own characters-- which led to our first OCs.

Despite my love of the worlds and arts of these games, I admit that I never BEAT any of the games. I just had an approximate knowledge of their plots, their characters, and their world. The first game I ever actually beat was Kingdom Hearts II, in sixth grade.

It was thanksgiving weekend, and my dad went to Blockbuster where they had a game rental area. He picked out Kingdom Hearts II to play over the weekend. I was IMMEDIATELY enchanted by it, and amazed. I did not put the game down the entire weekend.

Alas, we had to return it, but not until I got one of my best friends hooked on it too. Because I loved the game so much, my father bought the game for me. It only took me about a month to go through the entire thing, and actually beat it. It wasn't too challenging or scary that I put the game down, and the plot was so compelling that I was on the edge of my seat. (Of course, looking back now I find the plot rather cheesy, but it still holds a fondness in my heart). Then started a descent into fandom. I drew and drew and drew and drew the characters. I designed different outfits for them. I drew during school. I made up my own stories about Kingdom Hearts in my head. I began to roleplay Kingdom Hearts with my friends. And... I had started looking at fanart online, and had a HUGE desire to join the community. So this was the time where I first scanned my artwork on my own, and edited it with the GIMP. I couldn't figure out file type as GIMP automatically saved things as an XCF, so I had to learn quickly how to change file types, and how to work the digital program. (Note, before this I was posting art of dragons on a little forum called Dragnix, but it was things my parents scanned for me)




It also got me to get a Deviantart account.

Games led to anime, which led to my WEABOO phase, which drove me to want to draw and create more. I became obsessed with Okami and I beat that game two or three times within the year. I went to my first convention-- Anime Banzai in its second year as Yu Kanda from D. Gray-man and was enchanted by the culture and all the SWAG! It led me to make new friends. I learned more about storytelling. My roleplays got more complex, my art improved. Manga and anime then led to American cartoons and webcomics, and my desire to create my OWN stories. The stories of so many games, anime, and comics diversified my story ideas and character archetypes, expanding my creativity and knowledge base.

As James C. Christensen, famous fantasy painter said in an interview in 1989- "...Creativity is not making something from nothing. Creativity is taking information that we already have and putting it together in a new way. Our brain can be compared to a card catalog in a library. When we’re born we’ve got millions of blank cards. In mortality we fill in the cards. And every card is a single perception. Creativity is simply taking the cards and putting them together in a new order or new combination. In order to be creative we need to associate ideas freely and be willing to try unlikely combinations in the hope that something might come of it."




The more gameplays I watch, the more games I play and experience, the more "cards" are added to my deck. The more "cards" I get, the more creative I become, and the more art I make.

To go full circle, do I feel bad for games consuming more of my time? Not at all. In fact, I feel more refreshed, and more geared up to create than when I was drawing 24/7 and giving myself very little breaks. More than that, I do not think video games is taking away from children's creativity, it's adding to it in a different way.

New Home

Once again there has been a lack of updates due to my life being a consistent stream of... Packing, and unpacking. I did not allow myself a lot of free time until our home was set up since having my space truly mine (or rather, ours) is one of the ways I fight anxiety and begin creativity. I knew I couldn't fully "Settle" until it was finished.

Sure enough, I'm done... And it's so strange because now I find myself in an antsy state of "I have spent all summer busy as heck and now I am... Not. What else?" Which is funny because I have a lot of personal projects that I have shoved on the wayside but yet switching my mindset from "BUSY WITH LIFE" to "BUSY WITH ART" is... Strangely difficult. Of course, I've struggled with transitions before.


Regardless, I feel like a personal space is KEY for anyone doing any sort of creating... Creating code, creating stories, creating art. Having a place you can gain inspiration from and then CREATE is the best thing for your mind. Having a place you can RELAX... It's all SO VERY IMPORTANT.

One of the parts of me being married that I was looking forward to the most was decorating my new home. I admitted this freely to my husband. I was honestly tired of having dorm rooms that had so many rules about what you could do with your walls.

Now... We have a small space. But I feel it's a perfect space for a family just starting out.

Enough chatter though! Let's see them pics!

First- FRONT ROOM/KITCHEN

The difficulty with this space was that the kitchen cabinets are shallow despite being tall. That means I can only do one layer of food or dishes. I had to be clever about storage. We had a bathroom shelf that didn't fit over the toilet due to the counter already being over the toilet. So we decided to use that for kitchen stuff. I fashioned the bottom with hooks from IKEA and used it to hang pots and pans, sliding a couple boxes of storage for other kitchen goods underneath. I also have one of those rolling drawer carts in a corner, easy to slide in and out so I can get the food in the cupboard it cuts off.

BEDROOM/CLOSET

 (Apologies for the grainy quality on the first one- trying to brighten the contrast made its quality go down.)

When I first saw the house, the previous tenants had a HUGE king sized bed they were using. It was... Well, let's just say there was no bedroom space. At all. That wouldn't fly with me because a huge chunk of what I own is art supplies and I needed SOME space to store it. (The easel in the front room SO does not count) The best thing I could do is BUILD UP. Get shelves. Use those clever Ikea hooks on a towel rod with various buckets and baskets to hold stuff in. The trick with the shelves is they looked like the kind of thing you would find in your garage. So I spruced it up by putting a pair of curtains draping over it.

Curtains over the windows, as it turns out, makes a huge difference in the atmosphere of a room. It would not look this good without them!

Random note on the closet, although it is a walk in closet it's TINY. Then again, I have a lot of clothes. So a lot of squishing was in order.

BATHROOM

First off HELLO IT ME IN THE MIRROR :'D The bathroom was... Difficult. It's got one shallow cabinet, and one not so shallow cabinet. But then the counter is tiny and over the toilet, and the towel rack makes it difficult to move shelving anywhere because it spans from the door to the shower. RUDE, TOWEL ROD!!
Anyways. I figured out a few things. I bought a shelf from... You guessed it, IKEA. It consists of a bunch of iron bars that you can hang hooks on while still functioning as a shelf. I have a couple of those folding boxes up there as well as jars with my nail polish and hair accessories.Then I hung baskets with various stuff in them up, as well as my blowdryer and mirror. I had a drawer set that I was using gfor art supplies that I decided to put in the corner for storage instead...
The shower is interesting because it's a tiny cubby hole, which means that the mirror doesn't get covered in precipitation but at the same time you have a hard time getting the humid air out of the cubby hole, so you have to watch for mold.

Also, we have more towels than I know what to do with. Such is the blessing of wedding gifts.

That's it for the space! It's a tiny little cottage, but I'm very pleased. Eventually I want to have a space where I can have my own art studio, but that doesn't have to be now especially as my husband still looks for a job. I love it, and I love decorating my space even more. I have so much art, I wish I could put it all up. But right now I have my asian decor, a print by Jessica Douglas, and an original by Keliana Tayler that was a wedding gift for us. That's enough for now. c:

Always be optimistic about the space you live in. If you don't like it, decorate and organize it. Make it a place you do enjoy to live in. It's very rewarding.

This just in. 

My family is a bunch of geeks.

That is all.

Wedding and Honeymoon Notes

I was hoping to be able to have a post ready before I left on my honeymoon, but it was not in the stars I suppose. Everything kind of ended up super busy. Life happens.

Regardless, I wanted to talk a bit about marriage and how the wedding went. This is more of a "slice of life" post and will be tagged accordingly.

First off, I know marriage gets a lot of flack especially nowadays. But there is a wonder in the bonds of matrimony, a permanence and finality that places you in a position where you take on responsibility for each other together as a whole, as opposed to a dating relationship where you are in a matter of speaking thinking of ONE'S OWN and their interests.

Granted, many would rather avoid that responsibility. Being one is very difficult. Being two separate entities in the exciting throes of romantic courtship is fun. Certainly a lot more fun than being tied to that person by law.

Without getting into too much religious talk, I feel like marriage is a step of faith. Yes, it's hard. It's hard to start a new life. It's hard trying to change your name, learning the intimate pros and cons of the one you have vowed to spend your life with, and learning to work through the cons.

That being said, it's totally worth it.

ANYWAYS! The wedding was beautiful. I had in mind this... Forest fairy tea party. I realized later I was imagining a kind of mori girl/victorian style wedding. And in many cases, it was just how I imagined. In other cases, I have no idea what I was imagining.

Unfortunately at the moment I don't have as many photos of the decor as I may want but I do have a few photos of us. My dress was the Taffeta and Lace Victorian dress from recollections. I loved it because it had that shabby chic "piecey" look, but yet still had the Victorian elegance that I desired so much.

My husband on the other hand wanted to match the victorian elegance by buying a vest from the Gentleman's Emporium. Him and the groomsmen all wore vests bought from there.

Meanwhile, I gave the bridesmaids an option between a few different skirts from Pretty Angel and Modcloth, all matching the gypsy-esque and mori girl styles. (I joked it was my way to trick them into wearing Mori Girl) and then told them to find a white blouse. I wanted them to have something that they would enjoy to wear and would wear again, and to have the freedom to not spend hundreds of dollars on a Bridesmaid dress.

I mean look how great they look!!

I love all of these clowns.

The bouquet I didn't want to look like a carefully tended to bouquet only found in the grocery store or at hospitals. i wanted it to look foresty. What's a good mori girl without a piece of the forest?

It turned out more beautiful than I could imagine.

It was done by the sister of the caterer- whose family is pretty close to mine. 

Speaking of the caterer!! We decided on the food to be "Tea party finger foods" and be a good mix of sweet, savory, and healthy foods. (Because nobody wants to overindulge in sugar. Well. I don't. Because I get sick so easily from it!!) She had my mom taste test everything as she made it, and made an excellent and beautiful array of foods from fresh fruit and veggies to savory scones to shortbread cookies and tea cake.

She even did our wedding cake, which was delightfully simple yet elegant with the same "tea party" type theme!

It was a delight even to destroy! ;D 

Of course, we only got a taste of the beautiful foods as we were so busy running around and dancing. Yes, dancing.

We had a DJ (Which was my husband's brother) and then we invited Clockwork and Gears Vintage Dancing to do some routines. We performed a couple with them as well. 

UNfortunately right now I don't have photos of them!! I'll update as I do. But they looked wonderful in all out Victorian ballroom clothes! 

After the wedding, we went right away to go to our honeymoon despite it being so late at night. We were an hour away from our location when the alternator on the car died.
In the middle of the night. In the middle of nowhere on a one lane highway with no lights. 

I have this amazing ability to remain calm and confident in the face of disaster (And then have anxiety and panic attacks about small things later but you know) especially when other people are not able to handle it. My poor husband didn't know what to do. I managed to call basically every towing comapny in the area without having even one pick up, nevermind they claimed to be "24/7" towing companies.

Come the third one, I hung up the phone with a "Well, f--k you too!" and I ain't even mad. About that point, we had a concerned group of people finally stop. They were heading to Colorado and saw a car by the side of the road with a door open and with great trepidation stopped to help. My husband talked to them as I tried to get more towing numbers to call.

Finally I got one. A small, local company from about 45 miles back called "AJ's Towing" answered. At this point it's three in the morning, and it cost four dollars per the mile one way to pick us up. So the kind individuals who stopped charged up our car for a while, and we headed back the way we came. These individuals also booked a motel in the town for us so we would have somewhere to go.

We broke down again three miles outside the town.

And that's when AJ came to our rescue.

We didn't have a lot of options. We already had a hotel booked and no way to get transportation to AJ's place the next morning. So he dropped us off at our motel, and said he would find out where to get the alternator repaired come morning and return it. 

We slept until about 10. And woke to a voice message that said "Your car is done."

Done? 

Upon calling back, they said they got the Alternator replaced simple as that. And would drop it off at the motel. They said the receptionist would call us about payment later.

But she never called. They dropped off the car and gave us the receipt... There was no payment amount there. Just a 0 and the words "Happy anniversary". More than that, there was a 50 dollar bill stuck in there as well.

I have only seen my husband cry a few times since we have known each other. And that was one of the times.

Regardless, we decided to head back home and have our honeymoon a little closer to home. We did fun things around where we lived instead. And... It was still great!

Finally, as an extra!! Some decorating for the reception misadventures!

Art Classes

Hey. I've been meaning to start a queue of posts, but this week is... Well. This is it. The Big Week. The Big day. You know. Wedding stuff. Moving stuff. I've even finished art classes.

Ah. Now that's a thing I should talk about. It's important enough.

I have grown up drawing. I always have. Never stopped, either. However, there was a point in time where I was Not So Kosher. There was a very abusive situation where I was convinced that somehow it was 'bad', or 'distracting' to draw. And stopped.

That's when my anxiety and depression truly set in. Now granted, I have had issues with anxiety since I was younger, but I really didn't know the meaning of it until then. It swallowed me whole, and I had no way to cope with it, nor did I understand what exactly was going on.

I realized through that experience that, truly, there were many young people who might be suffering too. With anxiety with no release. That so many schools and homes were inhibiting creative spirits with no way to cope with their feelings. I realized that I wanted to teach others how to  tap into their minds, and find a creative outlet to these negative emotions and mental struggles. To learn to draw from their imaginations, and how to create. I believe that this truly is a way to "self-medicate", "meditate", and is "therapeutic". Also it pushes the brain in ways that math, science, and reading does not.

From that revelation, I not only became outspoken about mental disorders, but I decided I needed to study in Art Education.

Upon coming home from the university for the summer, I didn't want my education to stop. I wanted to take a job in something that would further my career. But everywhere I turned, I didn't find anything. I eventually got a part time job at Ross Dress for Less, but... That's different. I realized, while sitting at the pughs at church, why not teach art classes from home to the community?

I inquired about the interest in the Relief Society (The women's group) two hours later and passed around a piece of paper I tore from my notebook to get the information of those interested. The paper was nearly full with names and numbers. And I decided right then that I would do it. Starting the next week.

Here was some of the photos I took, and the resulting art gallery:

(The youngest girl in the group, three years of age. I have decided that teaching young children is not my forte, and there is a reason why I am not teaching preschool. But oh gosh, how precious is it to see teenies create!)

 (Art demo with my adult class with the freelance local Illustrator, Keliana Tayler)

(My older kid group trying to draw light and shadow with all white objects. The results were... Extraordinarily abstract, but it sure was fun!)

(In the course of one day, I turned my family's house into an art gallery. I mounted and framed the student's artwork, made it look nice and presentable, and with my mother's help made cookies and punch. It turned out really good!)

Of course, it didn't go without it's hitches and bumps in the road. Summer is a really hard time to coordinate classes since so many are off on vacation and miss a few weeks, and there's SO MUCH going on!! Some activities worked better than others as well... But the experience was invaluable. I learned so much, and I'm SO PROUD of these kids!! It cemented my desire to teach art.

Nothing was more heartwarming than having one of the struggling students come to me afterwards and say "I really want my mom to buy me a coloring book so I can learn to color better!" or having a parent come up to me and say "My child just told me how much she LOVED art, and LOVED your class!"

Although at times I felt like I might have been a bad teacher, or was frustrated, the results were well worth it.

The MOST IMPORTANT things that I learned from this experience and one I want to share with you, dear readers, are these:

-FOLLOW YOUR DREAMS. BE DRIVEN. HAVE ASPIRATIONS, AND DO IT. If you can't find your niche or a job that suits you, then make your own and see it through til the end. It might be hard work. Sometimes you might want to pull out your hair and cry to the heavens "WHY THE HECK DID I DO THIS TO MYSELF" but in the end, you will be happy. It's always worth it.

-REACH OUT TO YOUR COMMUNITY. ALWAYS. They will love and support you more than you realize. My neighborhood, despite not living here for three years, have been SO supportive and loving. They not only helped throw and all came to my bridal shower, to the point there was STANDING ROOM ONLY, but this art class couldn't have happened with them.

-BE PROACTIVE. ALWAYS. You're the one who is gonna make this happen, you gotta follow through. Set reminders and goals for yourself, write it on your hand, your forehead, leave post it notes on the wall, whatever it takes to reach out to the people and do what you need to do. Set goals.

Mixed media illustration

Hey! So, I'm slowly but surely getting this blog together. I'm hoping to have an update schedule at least by some time in August. The layout right now is not what it's going to eventually be. I'm going to get my fiance's help in coding my own layout. still, I have stuff to share.

Now onto the REAL subject of this post!

 My number one goal in artwork is to be a mixed media illustrator. Allow me to explain. According to Wikipedia, mixed media is described as " a work of visual art that combines various traditionally distinct visual art media—for example, a work on canvas that combines paint, ink, and collage could properly be called a "mixed media" work." Traditionally, mixed media artists usually use scrapbooking materials and photographs for their artwork. Some examples include Jonathan Talbot, the Finnabair team, and Tim Holtz:

*
As follows: Finnabair "Once upon a time", Jonathan Talbot "The Bachelors", Tim Holtz "Tag"
I absolutely LOVE mixed media. I love the idea of taking anything, mixing it with anything else, arranging pieces of what can be considered junk and recycling it into a work of art. I love the idea that the bounds of artwork are unlimited, that anything can be included and organized in a pleasing way. But at the same time, this kind of artwork is also lacking something.

 A story.

 I was always an illustrator. I wanted my work to mean something, to have a story behind it. Mixed media, although beautiful, holds no lasting intrigue for me personally. Works that tell stories leave a great thing to the imagination. It makes there be more than just beauty to a work. It's something we call a "Narrative Quality."

And I am determined to take on the name "Mixed media illustrator." Granted, I am not the first one to used mixed media in their fantasy art and illustrations. One of the most prominent that I know of is Jessica Douglas, who uses enamel, mica flakes, glass beads, and various stones in her pieces.

(Jessica Douglas, "The Leviathan")
I have been doing things with mixed media for a bit longer than I realize or could put a name to it, but now I am refining the process and getting more tools. Here are some of the examples I have of my work:

(As follows: "Token of the Sun's Affection", "Lady in an Art Gallery", "Rain Belikov", "Seth" all by Rowan Barnson)

((These examples and more can be seen at http://nithak.deviantart.com/gallery/))

 Eventually I want to go so far as to do comics in mixed media. We will see where my experiments lead. Wish me luck in my endeavors! A lot of my endeavors will be posted here.

Thank you!