Wasafaben

So, this semester at school I am pretty busy. I am taking 15 credit hours! Not sure exactly what I was thinking... But I am busy, busy, busy.













Neuschwanstein Castle

I start every day with my German class at 10 am. I love German so much. I've always wanted to take it, ever since high-school, and it's such a thrill to finally be learning a language I love so much! Ich liebe Deutschkurs!

My least favorite class is probably... English. Which I hate to say! I love the English language and I love to write. But unfortunately, the entire class is centered around one novella: Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness.  My feelings can pretty much be summed up by this picture of the author himself:


Are we done talking about this book yet?

No. We have to write THREE essays on it. *face to desk*If you haven't heard of this book, or if you have heard of it and haven't read it... I'm not surprised. I can handle fluffy, over-elaborate dense language in a novel but this read was just... taxing. Yes, I know it was purposefully written that way. But did that serve soften the brain-ache I felt during my experience? No. It did not. The best summary and explanation of this terribly ambiguous read is done by 60 second recap. She's a little cheesy, but I like cheesy humor and the way she explains things is entertaining and super helpful.

One of my favorite classes this semester is probably my Watermedia class taught by Doctor Winters. Basically, I'm learning how to Watercolor. This is my first class with water mediums and I'm really enjoying the experience. I think my work is improving by leaps and bounds. My latest, that I'm most proud of, is my own interpretation of Albert Aublet's painting titled, "On the Beach."





Aublet's:  (sorry for the annoying water mark)





  Mine:

I'm very pleased with the way this piece turned out. Dr. Winters asked to purchase the original and it belongs to his private collection. My first Watercolor sold!

PS: Wasafaben means Watercolor in German.

Gallery of Terror

 For Halloween, Utah Valley University's Illustration Club is holding their first annual "Gallery of Terror." Here is the poster for submissions!



So, as this was open submission, I had to submit something (No excuse there). I'm pretty proud of the results. Here are the pieces I entered, inspired by characters from a story created by Holly Hoenshell-Nelson:

 The Demon Maleng. 

The Demon Liac.

Demons are so much fun to draw. I remember the first time my mom saw some of these guys in my sketchbook, she said, "My sweet little girl created these?"

Well, ya mom, I did. Aintcha' proud of me?

I'm excited to see these hanging up in the gallery, along with the work of my peers! We have a very talented group of Illustrators and Artists. I'm glad they did something like this where the submission was "If it's turned in, it's in."

Neglected blog is... neglected.

Gosh I haven't posted a thing on here...

I enjoyed my tumblr much more than this blog, but I deleted them so... now I will focus on actually doing things instead of wasting my time looking at celebrities...

To be fair I did get some work done. I'll post it soon.

A Beginning.

Titled: "It is better to Look Up." Acrylic paint on Paper. 7"x10".

This is my submission for the Orem Institute of Religion's art contest. The requirements were to take a one-liner from any article from the LDS general conference. I chose "It is better to Look Up". This piece is my first creation with any sort of message, let alone a religious one. Usually, I create narrative pieces, most often with characters interacting, rather than something with a message to be interpreted.

Although it is the end of the year, a time traditionally saved for closing off, tying up, and sending out, I am ending the year with starting a blog. I already got my tumblr up, after having deleted it because I was putting way too much time into it. Mostly, with time that was supposed to be spent on doing homework, or other important things.

I used to think that blogging was for bored housewives with nothing else to do. But I'm not a housewife, nor am I bored. 


I'm an artist. I create. And apparently, that means I must blog. At least... according to my teacher, Will Terry. But as I've become more involved with my peers, my fellow artists, this is something that has become very, very apparent.

So here I am. Blogging. Something that I used to have a genuine disdain for.

For an artist, I think a blog is essential. Will sums it up pretty good in his seven reasons. So I will let this blog be my journal, my network, part of my job and one day, hopefully, a source of income. For all those reading, I hope you enjoy my artwork, my writing blurbs and my rambling.

Merry Christmas, internet. Olivia has arrived.