1/18/2014 0 Comments Artsy.netHave you been on Artsy.net?
This is a question I wish I had answered "yes" to a long time ago. If you are the kind of person who loves art and wants to expand your knowledge of the world, this is the obsession for you. I honestly can't remember how I learned about Artsy, but since then I have somewhat relied on it for my doses of sanity (when daily life seems to go up in smoke), of inspiration and of reminiscence (I sometimes find myself missing those days of inhaling cups of coffee and meticulously studying and analyzing for my UW Art History classes). Like every other social media site, Artsy lets you customize your profile. Unlike Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest, however, this one customizes according to your artistic personal interests and future learning endeavors. There is a tremendously wide range of media as well as a large selection of museums/galleries, as you can actually see photos of how particular art pieces are displayed in these venues--this gives the art fanatic a chance to keep their mind open and eyes searching for that unexpected hit of inspiration to come onto the screen. You can basically do the following three things on Artsy: Look at art you like, explore the art you may have never heard of or conceptualized, and write about art. I personally find the third to be the most exciting part about Artsy. You can really tell here that it is a website open to all perspectives. You have the chance to get your voice out in the art universe and perhaps to foster productive and flourishing conversation. Here is the link, which not surprisingly is www.artsy.net. Enjoy and let me know what you think! Much love, ~~MC
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I can't remember if I ever mentioned this to you fellow readers in a previous blog post, but last month I made the decision to venture back in the depths of Facebook (after two months of having the account deactivated), as I made a slightly shaky vow to myself to not get as addicted as I was before.
And to my horror, I found myself surrounded by the burning fire of that addiction again, as I was being led by my fingertips on the laptop to the website too many times per day, looking over other people's profiles and commenting on too many things...and feeling too tempted too many times to read over those little bright red-colored notifications that almost haunted me in my sleep. That probably sounded a bit over dramatic, but anyways, I once again deactivated my Facebook account yesterday, and I hope I won't find myself deciding to throw myself again into the website... So this morning, on the first day of my life post-re-deactivation, I drew a few sketches. It seems that without Facebook, I actually have the urge to create more artwork, because right after I deactivated my account for the first time last May, I also did a painted/drawing or two. Here they are, the results of Fb re-deactivation! Enjoy! :) ~~MC 5/30/2011 0 Comments Take a PictureHello Everyone!
On this lovely (partly-sunny, partly-cloudy...The usual weather) Memorial Day, I decided to add to my sketchbook during my brief break from studying for finals (I spent nearly four hours at Starbucks this morning-AHH!). I feel like I've done too many charcoal portraits lately, because when I went over my art website I noticed that the last few pieces looked waaayyy too similar. Therefore, I decided this time to try something new and get out of my comfort zone. ;) I usually enjoy drawing realistic looking portraits with just one or two media (charcoal..or charcoal with watercolor), but this time I used three media (charcoal, watercolor, pastel) while I used a picture I found online to venture somewhat on the middle ground between naturalistic and abstract. My favorite part about making this piece was having fun with all the bright colors! I hope you enjoy it! ~~MC 5/18/2011 0 Comments Part IIOn Day 3 post Facebook deactivation, I made this charcoal portrait. :) More to come! ~~MC
Hello there!
So I finally completed my final exams (hooray!!), so today I was able to take a few decent pictures of my new artwork and upload them for you. :) They're of course also featured on my art website, www.shirenesart.weebly.com. Well, no need tell you more about my pieces, because here they are! Enjoy! ~~MC P.S. Feel free to contact me (in the Contact...Moi section of this website) for any questions/feedback/etc. you might have! P.P.S. The third piece is what I haven't talked about in my last blog entry, because I hadn't done the piece yet. But I'll tell you that the medium I used for the background, unlike for the first two images, was pastel; though all three pieces were done out of charcoal. The original picture was on a page of the January 2011 issue of Glamour magazine (the one with Reese Witherspoon on the cover); the runway model was only on a fraction of the page, but I loved her sophisticated, effortlessly chic aura that she carried, so much that I decided to draw her. (Note: I wrote this on the Thursday of last week.)
Guess what?!! I recently drew/painted for the first time in almost a year!! I feel like I could scream at the top of my lungs out of pure excitement and joy...But I won't, obviously, because I am sitting in an ultra-silent part of the library on campus right now XD Plus, I want to save some of my energy for studying later today... Have you ever had that same feeling? after you've put something off for so long and guilty thoughts were hovering at the back of your mind every time you turned the opportunity down? Well, that was what I did for drawing or painting, but no more!! It happened a couple of nights ago when it was just a regular night in the school week, as I was floating aimlessly on Facebook while watching music videos...Basically, wasting precious time (like I had been doing for the last several months). Usually when the idea of drawing came to mind, I'd ignore it out of pure, utter exhaustion from the long day I'd have had from school. But this last night, something changed. I don't know if it was the upbeat, wake-yourself-up-and-get-right-to-it hype of the Ke$ha songs I was listening to (and in case you were curious, I was listening to "We R Who We R" :) ), or if it was just my telling myself abruptly that enough was enough--but something had carried me to my lonely sketchbook and easel, as it also prompted me to gather my charcoal and watercolors to start the long-lost magic. Then, with the replay button of "We R Who We R" (my favorite song...at the moment) on my computer, and with my new-found mindset, I started drawing. I've always loved drawing figures with charcoal, because while it lets you get messy, you'd still end up making intense shadows that create the realism of whoever you're drawing. With that said, my sketchbook drawing was based on a photo of Crystal Renn (a famous plus-sized model) posing on the beach for Glamour magazine. And as I drew the model's figure, like I had always done when drawing portraits in the past, I used my sweeping and definitive strokes of charcoal, as I finished it off with dashes of calm blue watercolor hovering behind Crystal. After I finished this piece, I felt a certain energy that I recognized from the times I'd draw or paint for my art class throughout middle school and high school. I then realized how much I missed that feeling, the feeling of all possibilities coming true and that my creativity will always flow through me with little effort and infinite passion. So, I then made another sketchbook piece... :) this time, based on a picture I found of a random celebrity posing for photographers at some event (I have no idea what); she has most of her back facing the camera, choosing her best angle, as her bright red dress reveals her slender back; she looks seductively back toward the (I assume) large crowd of photographers, as they desperately try to capture her attention. I found this photo appealing even though I had no idea who this woman was, because of her effortless beauty radiating through her confidence and that is fully accentuated by her vibrant dress. Despite that her dress was red, I left it in charcoal black as I colored the background in yellow watercolor...But I still gave the figure the same personality as the actual person. I plan to post pictures of what I drew for all you to look at, since I'm sure my descriptions of them aren't enough...First though, I'll have to take pictures of them. ;) I will get to this lovely task as soon as I can, most likely after my finals are done and over with--which means sometime after this coming Monday. And speaking of finals, I should get to studying for those... :P I hope you at least were able to have an idea of what my drawings look like, since I did my best to describe them...And if not, that's alright, since you will see what they actually look like soon! Au revoir! ~~MC 1/15/2011 4 Comments Audrey HBonjour! For the first post of "Artistic Appetite," I'd like to take us to the last piece of artwork I did...It's called "Audrey H," and I made it out of paper and charcoal. I LOVE working with charcoal, because you can create so many tones of shadows with it, which is why I use charcoal when I do portraits. Also, it gives the viewer such a distinct perspective of the subject of the piece--You would probably have looked at Audrey Hephburn in a different light, if I had done this piece not of charcoal but out of bright acrylic paint... To be honest, I have not done much artwork for the last several months, because of school work as well as the terrible case of laziness..But I recently decided to really try to make artwork more often, both for my own personal enjoyment and for your visual stimulation! Have an artistically yummy day, and bon weekend! ~~MC |
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