New Angle

I've been attempting to make the perspective of my pictures a little more...interesting. Thus I've tried out angles and cropping and all this other stuff. A few examples of the more successful pieces...

This was fun to draw, and stemmed from just a random sketch. Her eye's a bit too big, but such are the allowances of shojo-manga-style drawings. :P


This was in no way planned out...It just kinda happened when I was coloring it. It went from random pose practice to McFly tribute. Who knew?


This was drawn a while ago and colored with colored pencils instead of Photoshop. So it looks a bit messy and isn't quite on par with my more recent anatomy skills, but I still really like the angle and the idea. It was supposed to be for a fic that never got written.

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Some Doodles I Forgot

Some more doodles that were saved in the wrong folder yesterday.

Starscream and (oh hell, let's just call it now) JADE. Their relationship motto would make Lady Gaga proud apparently: "When it's love, if it's not rough, it isn't fun." :)

Familyyy. More specifically, Jamie and Lily with kids Finn (the oldest), twins Avery and Emily, youngest Saige, and Evan on the way. -Everything I've Been Searching For

Me 'n young Bee. I picture his hologram as an older teen, but the lil' Bee used in my Birds and the Bee comic was just too cute not to draw again. <3

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Look Ma, No Plotline!

More from 'Everything I've Been Searching For':

Ten minutes later, we were settled on the hood of the car he was working on reviving, sodas in hand. He jiggled with one of the windshield wipers for a second, before giving up with a disgusted huff and turning to me. “So?”
I grinned. “I bought a car.”
His eyes lit up like Christmas had come early. “Really? Is it outside?”
I rolled my eyes. “No, I walked six miles to visit.”
But he was already off the truck and running towards the door. I laughed and followed him.
I found him, just as I had expected, having a small heart attack over the vehicle parked just outside the barn. Or rather, I found him having a small heart attack while draping himself over the hood with a love struck expression on his face.
“Ohmygod, I can’t believe you got a SOLSTICE! These things are hot!”

Once upon a time, Jamie had attempted to impart some of his car knowledge on me through a series of repair lessons on one of his old scrap cars.
It had ended with both of us slightly charred and covered in oil, staring at the smoking remains of a small sedan. Jamie later informed me that he didn’t even know a car that had been dead that long could explode, but I had sure enough found a way. I was henceforth banned from working on engines, which was just fine with me. All that stuff was so far over my head I was surprised the car hadn’t done more than explode.

“So, if you really want to know the truth about me, I’m going to have to show you something that might be a little…scary…”
“That sounds vaguely dirty.”
“…”
“Sorry. It’s late, and my car is driving itself.”
“…Understood. Maybe I should explain first and show later, to be safe. Especially after your spazz attack earlier.”
“Do you honestly blame me?”
There was a pause, and a slight snicker from the radio in the dashboard. “Guess not. Though it was a little excessive. You are a weird one, babe. Bee’s kid is nothing like you.” I must have looked offended, because I heard laughter. “Relax! I meant that in the best possible way.”
“Is there a good way?” I muttered, my arms folded tightly across my chest.
“Definitely. I like you, kid, you’ve got spunk. An’ you’re easy on the optics.”
“…Thanks?”
“Soooo, aliens—“
“Nice segue way.”
“I practiced, Chatty.”
“You’re an alien?”

I likewise wanted to know all about Cybertron and the other places he had been. It was extremely fascinating.
Until he informed me that space was ‘boring as hell’.
“WHAT?!”
“Just empty space, some more empty space—oh, look, a big floating rock—and even more empty space.”
I grumbled under my breath about ‘smart-assed robots’ and he laughed.

We had been on the road for almost a full day so far. Meals had so far been purchased at a drive-thru, which was hilarious when there was a female window attendant. The males all drooled over the car, but the females all had the same reaction when they saw Jazz: blushing, slack jaws, and the sudden intense desire to hit on him like they have never hit before.
“That girl wanted to bear your children, Jazzy.”
“What?”
His obliviousness just made it that much more hilarious.
For me.
“Why do all the human females act so strange, Lily? Are they damaged?”
“They think you’re hot.”
He went very still, the engine of the car stuttering once before continuing to drive on smoothly. I stifled a laugh into my palm.
“Really?”
“Like you wouldn’t believe.”

It was supposed to take about a week to get to the other side of the country at the speed that most people drove. When I read that to Jazz off the internet directions I had printed out, he had laughed for a good ten minutes.
“We could make it in three days.”
I grinned. “Legally?”
“Eh, potato, potahtoe.”

While he swerved effortlessly around the cars on the highway (“Holy shit, BE CAREFUL!” “Relax, I have reflexes like lightning!” “Tell that to that poor squirrel!” “…”), we took turns swapping stories about our lives.

Suddenly, there was a large red metal face looming directly in front of me. “And so how’d you meet the little human?”
I narrowed my eyes. “I have a name. I don’t call you ‘big alien robot’, do I?”
Laughter. “No, I guess not.”

While two cars rocketed around in a cheesy Hollywood chase on the giant screen, Sam fell into easy conversation with the newest Autobot charge. He was pretty amazed at the record time they found something in common…
“I SO agree! Human yo-yo, Autobot edition would be EPIC!”
Jazz raised an optic ridge. “Gee, Lil, didn’t place you for suicidal.”
She stuck out her tongue at the reclining bot. “Chicken.”

Lily’s face softened as she stared at the mech. “No, Jazz. Recharge. I’m sure you were all self-sacrificing and stayed awake while I was out,” she added sarcastically, to Bee and Ratchet’s amused nods. “So rest, or I’ll sic Ratchet on you.”
“Ooh, low blow, kid.”
“I do what I can.”
Ratchet rolled his eyes.

Yeah, I hadn’t yet had the pleasure of meeting the two bots I was most intimidated of. That was going to happen this evening, since Jazz insisted on introducing me to them. He got a deer-in-headlights look for that one, to which he had an oh-so comforting response:
“Oh, don’t worry. Optimus is actually a big softie when it comes to humans. Don’t mind the fact that he’s twice as tall as me. And Ironhide will just threaten to shoot you; he won’t actually go through with it.”

Optimus glanced at the medic. “Let’s get them inside where it’s safer. The others are almost finished, anyway.”
I peeked around one massive finger and suddenly had the urge to laugh.
Starscream was retreating rather quickly, Jazz on the ground shaking his fist at the jet and cursing quite colorfully. The twins were demolishing Thundercracker as he tried to escape, while Prowl and Ironhide kicked the shit out of Skywarp. Cute little Bumblebee was quite cheerfully stomping on Barricade.
I couldn’t help it; I giggled. Sam glanced my way, eyebrows quirked, and that had me giggling harder. His lips twitched; I snorted.
Then the dam broke.
Sam and I exchanged a look and collapsed, senseless with hilarity, sprawled out over each other in the middle of the Autobot leader’s massive hand, laughing until neither of us could breathe or see through the tears.
And, surprisingly or perhaps not, somewhere over the raucous sound of our laughter, I heard a deep rumbling that could only have been the mirth of Optimus Prime.




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Photoshopp'd

I love playing around with Photoshop. I have a super-old version, like 5.5, but it works beautifully and I'm used to it. I definitely don't do anything too crazy or creative, but I have fun and have made some interesting things...

This took for-freakin-ever, even with the magnetic lasso. But it was fun. Select the area you want colored, cut it, paste it back and move it back in place. Once all the to-be colored parts are out, set the original layer to 'luminosity'.

I took this out the window on a car trip up at school. Then I cropped it to the most interesting parts and tweaked the colors like woah. I probably also upped the contrast, which I tend to do, um, always.

This was done the same as the prom picture. Me and Ray <3

Having fun with the contrast tool. I just really like the colors of this.

A banner for a fanfic. I contrasted it, made the colors neutral, and blurred everything but the area around her face. Sister Amy unknowing modeled for this picture.

Another black-and-white/color picture. I just like this picture a lot, and it was my FB profile pic for forever.

Hahahaa oooooh. We're glowing. I've just discovered the dodge and burn tools in this one.

I've been thinking about dying my hair red......

I love this one, but I kinda wish I didn't color their lips too haha. Still, the Pink Ladies look adorable :) <3



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What I'm Working On, fanfic-wise...

Basic systems on. Auditory: engaged.

“…a little scratched……beat up…”
“…understand…”
“…still drives …condition excellent…”

Communications: damaged.

“A bargain……offers…interested?...”
“…not sure…”

Visual: offline.


“How much?”


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While I was quite possibly the absolute farthest thing from a car expert of any kind, I still knew when I was getting a sweet deal. And my new car definitely counted as one of those instances.
At first, I was beyond pissed that my old car had died. My grandmother had saved a scrimping college student a couple grand by passing down her old car when she bought a new one. That was exciting enough, and it had worked like a dream for quite a well. It got great gas mileage, did well in all weather, and rarely needed any repairs. I thought it would last me a good long time.
So you can imagine my frustration when it just completely crapped out on me one day—when I was late for class. Of course.
I didn’t realize how nice it was to have my own car until I had to do without for two weeks.
But then I scraped together enough cash to buy myself something used and hopefully cheap. Taking the bus was starting to grate onto my nerves, and with school over, I had some money back from book return and I didn’t have to pay tuition for a while. So, armed with my checkbook, I headed out to the nearest used car dealership.
I am under the distinct impression that these salespeople can tell when someone has money burning a hole in their pocket. I don’t know if it’s a sense, or a smell, or what, but they know. Not two seconds after I stepped onto the lot, I was approached by a smiling man with too much hair gel and a five-dollar, polka-dotted tie. He looked so stereotypically “car salesman” that I had to wonder for a moment if I was being Punk’d.
“Well, hello there, little miss! Looking to purchase an automobile?”
A part of me really, really wanted to roll my eyes and inform him that, no, I was in fact looking to purchase a hamburger. But for the sake of diplomacy, I refrained.
Plastering on my best interested smile, I nodded. “Yes. But I’m on a budget.”
Undeterred, the man—Bob, his name tag proclaimed—spread his arms wide, as if beckoning her to be awed by the parking lot full of scraps that could barely be considered cars. “You’ve come to the right place! Bargain Bob is my name, budgets are my game!”
With that beyond cheesy self-introduction, he turned to lead the way through the ‘cars’. I rolled my eyes behind his back and followed.
We walked through rows and rows of cars while Bob prattled on and on about the ‘first class collection’ full of ‘luxury imports.’ Tuning him out, I managed a nod and polite noise of agreement here and there. Apparently I couldn’t trust a word this guy said.
A few of these cars actually did look promising, but that was it. Nothing stood out or really got me interested. Nothing really caught my eye until we reached one of the last few rows.
Bargain Boy was raving on about the engine on a rusted car that was probably twice as old as I was, when a flash of reflected sunlight caught my eye.
At the end of the row to our left sat a small silver car that looked distinctly out of place among the other junkers. It looked a little worse for the wear, with some sizeable scratches and dents here and there, messing up the paint job. But it was clear that the car was seriously nice before whatever accident landed it in its current condition. I left Bob to continue his one-sided sales pitch and wandered over to get a closer look.
As much as I didn’t really care about brand names on cars (as long as they got me from place to place, they were considered good enough), I couldn’t help but feel a bit giddy as I stared down at the shiny vehicle in front of me.
It’s not everyday you come across a Pontiac Solstice in a used-car lot.
It was a small, two-person car with sleek lines and a tail fin. It was a recent model, it was a far cry from the rather soccer-mom sedan I previously drove, and I was willing to bet all the money in my bank account that it was FAST.
And, suddenly, I was itching to test that theory.
Jamie would jump at the chance to work on such a fine car, I thought dryly. The damage was extensive in terms of surface area, but it was nothing that couldn’t be fixed. I wouldn’t have to worry about finding a mechanic when I had a car-crazy best friend.
I leaned in the open window and was surprised to see that the interior was in even better condition. It honestly looked like some sucker had bought the car and gotten into an accident the first time they drove it, because the inside looked brand new. The seats were black leather and perfectly clean. There was a pretty high-tech, scary-looking stereo in the dashboard, currently dark since the car was off. The only damage I could see inside was a curious line across the back seat, as if the front had been ripped from the back and then stitched expertly back together.
“Nice ride, isn’t it?” came a voice behind me, and I jumped, ducking back out sheepishly.
Bob stood on the other side of the car, apparently having finally noticed that I had wandered off. He cast a wistful glance at the silver sports car. “This one’s been here for a while. Shipped in from somewhere across the country.”
I cocked my head. “Why hasn’t anyone bought it yet?” I was really hoping he wouldn’t say that it was too expensive. I had a sudden urge to own this car, and soon. My hand stayed firm on the window.
He straightened his tie with a chuckle, puffing out his chest. “Certainly not because of poor salesmanship.” I had to fight reeeally hard not to roll my eyes. “People just don’t want to buy a car that’s been in a wreck. Don’t trust it. So what if it’s a little scratched, a little beat up?”
I shifted. “Well, I guess I understand that…”
“Still drives like a dream,” he covered hastily. “Thought I’d have engine trouble with it, but the thing still has plenty of life in it. All things considered, its condition is excellent.”
“What exactly happened to it?” It must have been a strange kind of crash to cause such random damage.
He shrugged. “Not too sure. We get accident cases like this all the time.” He smiled as if feeling the promise of a sale. “It’s quite a bargain, considering we don’t get many offers. Are you interested?”
“Not sure yet.” I cast another look down at the vehicle, suddenly picturing myself behind the wheel. And I liked that mental image. A lot. But was it really such a good idea to buy a car with so little thought?
“We’ve got a nice ten-day return policy. Anything goes wrong, bring it back, no questions—”
“How much?”



Everything I've Been Searching For
A Transformers fanfiction

Ye Olde Blogge Rules

Rules for myself, that is. :)

This is a post the anything and the everything, listen when inspiration hits, nothing is too 'what-the-hell's-going-on-in-my-head-right-now'. It's about expanding my horizons, improving my skills, and
Trying new things.

Goals:
-at least (but not limited to) one post a day, and a helluva make-up post for missing one.
-no need for real insight, but if it comes out, don't say no
-DRAW MORE!
-look for needed improvements and make them happen
-try my sister's tablet to see if it's an investment I want to make
-branch out from fanfiction to just plain fiction
-expand my photography into something more than flower close-ups and boring portraits
-get inspired by music
-doodle...more (GASP!)
-use free time for more productive things than internet surfing...
-...but don't forget the joy and relaxation of curling up with some good fanfiction
-embrace my style, it is my own
-find my old art class sketchbooks and revel in the genius of art teachers (thank you, Mrs. Wright!)
-keep making those comics, but know that they aren't the only things worth looking at in my DA gallery
-look up once in a while
-stargaze and bring along a sketchbook/notebook
-make the most of a (sometimes) peaceful job at a (really rather) pretty lake
-don't sweat the small stuff
-find inspiration in the world around me
-have a sketchbook on hand. Always.
-cloud watch. Look for four-leaf clovers. Build a sandcastle. Fingerpaint.
-watch cartoons like I'm nine, not nineteen
-actually try making that BB jacket
-work on drawing clothes, fabris, and folds

Doodle Dandy

I swear I have a doodle addiction. It's like...second nature for me to start randomly drawing on any piece of paper near me--especially school notes. May explain my math grades. :P

Kinda inspired by Ouran and Chrno Crusade. I just like drawing the poofy dresses. :)

I'm really happy with the flow of the hair, and the sleeves on this one. Drawn at work on a daily Sudoku page.

This was taken out of my UConn planner, one of the more complete doodles. You can tell I have time on my hands when I bother to color things in...

Just fun to draw in a color other than black or blue.

A quick self portrait to test out a look for my DA id. Didn't end up going with something like this, but I still like how it came out. I'm wearing my Nick J dogtag :)

Drew this today at work...on the right is a really kick-ass Autobot jacket that I want (now pls, kthanks)...and on the left was a quick, more stylized doodle that came from reading fashion magazines all day.

Characters from one of my JB fanfics: "I Won't Be Falling". Mel, Bre, and Ashley.

"Wait...what?"

Some random girls. The beret makes me happy, hahah.

This has some potential for a finished piece....I am ridiculously proud of the folds of the dress.

Decepticon Girl again, in a bikini and showing off another 'Con tattoo. I'm starting to think of her fondly as Jade, but that's not a definite yet. I really should name her one of these days... :P

This movie spawned more inside jokes among me and my friends than almost any other.

More agenda doodles, plus a random quote I jotted down because I found it funny.

"Vampires like it windy."

...

No, I don't know. Blame J.D.

More agenda stuff. It wasn't actually used to write down homework assignments, apparently.

Two of my favorites. I like the outfit on the right, and the angle of the left.

Many more posts of this sort to come. I doodle about as much as I breathe. :)