Life of a Random

There's this common insecurity in art (and life probably, at least in my case) that "perfection" is so unattainable that people just don't try to attain anything because they're so scared that their art won't live up to their expectations. I am very guilty of this. That's one of the reasons I'm thankful for art school, because it forces me to overcome this with very real consequences if I don't. *cough* grades, yes I'm a nerd *cough* More recently I've become a little more okay with not being perfect, with letting the paint lie where it accidentally splats, and with not obsessing over the tiniest detail in a design spread. Just a little though. It's a hard fight, and all I can say is that I win it more often than I used to. 😂 While looking through some of my old art pictures on Facebook and some of my paintings from Painting 1 (what probably will be my last required, graded paintings), I thought it'd be cool to compare...

I talk more about what this whole challenge is here (basically a daily tumblr challenge) and how I'm trying to use it to get motivation to sketch more.  Day 1 Prompt: Post a link to a song that makes you feel happy. I decided to choose not one but three  hehe. The top two encompass more of a feeling than really having awesome lyrics. Tear Me Down is my kick-butt-and-own-the-world anthem. One of my favorite things to do is take a walk with music blasting in my ears and this is the  song to power walk to. (The playlist buttons link to their Youtube music videos.) What are your favorite happy songs? TELL ME.

A little while ago, I found a tumblr tag called 31 Days of Self-Care . It involves daily activities that calm you down or cheer you up, all through the month of December. The whole idea is just really original and nice! Aaand the fact that it has a few drawing challenges thrown in there isn't bad either. This is my first post for this challenge (obviously I'm starting extremely late but I wanted to do it on my own time whenever I could anyway). Prompt: W hat’s your happy place? Reply here or illustrate it. If you decide to do this challenge too, leave a link in the comments because I would LOVE to come check it out. 

I am half Taiwanese and half American. I'm proud of both sides and embrace both cultures. This is kind of why I chose racial stereotyping as the theme for my newest school design project. I've never experienced extreme negative/positive stereotyping (thankfully). I actually grew up in a solely white family, far away from my Taiwanese side. But there are still small things. I think it happens WAY to much, sometimes unintentionally. And that's okay, I'm not blaming anyone. I just want to show people how wrong they are to make these assumptions. So far I've talked about this on Goodreads, Twitter, and Facebook, but now it's time to talk to you lovelies about it too. :) My first question is: What race do I look like  (there is no wrong answer here. You can say one, multiple, or none) ? Secondly, what are some common racial stereotypes that you've heard of, thought yourself, or heard someone say? Please comment your answers! I'd love to...

Artist Spotlight  is a brand-new feature that I'm going to be doing on here every once in a while that spotlights an artist (probably one that is relatively new or undiscovered) and shows off their amazing art work. Whenever possible, I will attach links to the websites where these artists display their art skills. Make sure to check them out and show them some love! Tell us a little bit about yourself. Where are you from? Do you like chocolate (The right answer is yes)? YES, dark chocolate for me! Haha, on a more serious term, I was born in Montreal, grew up in Costa Rica, and currently study in the UK. What kind of art do you do? Currently I'm studying Graphic Design, but I'm a huge doodler-- can't have a pen without my hand itching to draw. I really like painting with oils or doing some print making if I have some free time. How long have you been doing it? Have you always done the same kind? I'm halfway through my second year in a Graphic Desi...

Some of you might remember a while ago when I asked for your help on one of my design projects-- book covers. Then I went and created a group for it on Goodreads. Well, this is the official intro post to the group and future plans for the group. :) The group is called Random Design . It's labeled as a student creative arts group. And you can find it if you look for the black flamingo with a pink umbrella. Learn to love it ;) I started it when I started a book cover project this semester in college. I was really freaked out and I needed the extra feedback and support which all of you involved gave. (You're awesome.) But it kind of expanded because some of the members asked if they could put their art out for the group to critique too. And then I went missing due to finals and moving out and being a forgetful bum. Right now, there are 12 members but I'd love it if it expanded. As an art major, I've wanted to combine my love of books and art even more, befor...

I saw the title of someone else's post and it gave me this idea that I should do this on my  blog. I hope you like and I'm sorry for the irregular posts. Dear April... I'm kind of dreading you and happy for you because you hold the due dates of many school things but on the other hand you're one month closer to summer break. And you need to make up your mind about the weather. Okay? Beautiful spring days and yucky gray rainy ones should not happen one after the other. It's throwing me off. And I don't enjoy walking to class in the rain. >.< I went to see an apartment the other day with my roommate, so thanks for that. :) We're so excited about having more than a tiny room to share. Also, it's pretty great that you are giving me two different honors award ceremonies this month. Or it would be if I didn't have to go on a stage and receive things and all that jazz. Have you not dealt with introverts before? You gave me a pretty beautif...

This post is about two days late buuut I have great excuses reasons. I promise ;) I've had school, extra events to attend for my honors program, blah blah blah. It's been great. *sarcasm* Today, though, I want to tell you about an idea I had and also what my current project is in my design class. I've just started a book cover project in that class! While it's really exciting, it's also kind of terrifying since this is what I want to do when I graduate and I would really like not sucking at it. (Also, apparently the professor raises standards quite a bit the higher the class level goes.) After a little brainstorming, I thought of a few book covers from a popular YA series that I'd love to remake (because that's what we're doing, remaking covers)-- the Mortal Instruments series. I love TMI to death, but that doesn't mean I like the covers. At all. So begins my creative process to turn in sketches at the next class. Mostly, I've researched. ...

Okey-dokey, peoples. Game plan. Here goes.  I don't have everything figured out yet, but I'm going to lay out the basics of a posting plan I hope will work.  1. Hopefully, I will post one or two times per week. Ideally, it will be two-- one review and one "other." But there's no way I can post the way I was last year in summer break while I'm at college. Have I freaked out about the THREE art studio classes I'm taking this spring on here yet?  2. I will be tweaking the blog a tiny bit. Mainly just the tabs/links at the top, just so they'll match the current design.  3. Does anyone feel up to doing a guest post for me?? Or if not, are there any things about my real life that you're curious about? As a book blog (or mainly bookish), I don't touch on that too much but I plan to do way more in the future.  4. I have made an art blog.  This is huge. For me, anyway, because I'm super insecure about my art. Which is ri...

This is kinda an awkward add-on to the Liebster that I got recently. There was a question that asked--if there was  book cover for my life, what would it look like? Well, I immediately proceeded to create a book cover and almost finished it. BUT something on my computer (I think it was a program that wasn't working then or something) wasn't working and I got frustrated *grins* and didn't finish it. Since I've learned from sources  *wiggles eyebrows* that you (Briana) really really wanted us nominees to come up with a cover...I decided that I'd finish up the tiny bit that needed done and put it here. HAPPY (late) BIRTHDAY, GIRL. :) This basically describes my life right now. Music is awesome and a huge part of my life. Lists are life-savers. And I really don't know how many I have. ;) The car on the bottom is my baby Mustang and the road kind of symbolizes my life but then it kind of symbolizes me going off to college too. I couldn't decided on o...

Or something like that... I recently got a new laptop and one of the perks is that it's touchscreen. And when I've been coveting my sister's touchscreen solely because she got to use the paint tool which allows you to paint with your fingers on the screen , you can bet that's one of the first things I'm going to play around with. Since I haven't done any pencil drawings or acrylic paintings recently (but wanted to do a post on my art), I'm going to be showing you a few of my digital drawings. They aren't AMAZING but they're good enough that I feel okay about putting them out into the great big wide internet. ;) I did this one with watercolors for the rocks the waterfall is going down and the waterfall (and all other water) itself. I also used the watercolors on the person and boat because I wanted them to have a sort of dreamy feel. I used pastels for the vine that covers the whole left rock face, the water foaming up at the bottom, and th...