Art + books + knitting + life

[kadharonon]

I've decided I need to practice doing drawing-things more. I'm planning to do updated versions of old bookmarks to see where I'm at now so that I can set practice-goals. Under the cut, the old and new versions of the Mother of Dragons:

Comments

[anagramofbrat]

Yeah I couldn't get into Un Lun Dun either. It's back on my to-read list, but I couldn't get past the first few chapters.

I was given the graveyard book as a present while in the hospital. All I can say is you will have fucked up nightmares about it if you read it while on morphine. But that said, it's a great book, easily my favorite Gaiman after Neverwhere.

[kadharonon]

It took me two tries to get past the first few chapters of Un Lun Dun, and then I read the rest of it just sort of feeling like something was missing, but not knowing what. Which is more bothersome than having it just be a bad book. A bad book I could put down. This, I kept coming across delightful little moments that made me go "Ah-hah, and now things will pick up, yes?" and being disappointed when they didn't.

Maybe it's because Neverwhere is so much cooler a version of UnLondon than Un Lun Dun is.

I ended up staying up really late to read/finish The Graveyard Book because I was getting afraid of turning out the light and walking to bed in the dark.

[vorindi]

I was pleasantly surprised by I Shall Wear Midnight, since I seem to recall spending most of the other Tiffany Aching books resenting Tiffany for not being Agnes Nitt, which did not happen this time. (Although while it's lovely that Angua got promoted, it made the tag lines in those couple pages so confusing . . .)

In completely unrelated, does the tailor's shop over which Nikolai lives have a name?

[kadharonon]

""Here, go with the Captain," said the Captain" you mean? Yeah. I kinda got the sense that Tiffany is finally growing into her own in this book, which was nice.

Probably something insipid like "A Stitch in Time".

[vorindi]

I think it was more "[Carrot leaves/they leave Carrot, they are a few blocks away] '[dialogue],' said the Captain". But yes.

Okay. (I'm trying to think of ways to avoid having to give it an address, and it having a name might do it.)

[nobleplatypus]

I am loving your bookmarks. Drawing is one of those things I shouldn't have to remind myself to do, because I enjoy it, yet I don't do it as often as I could.

And I'm adding Tortall and Other Lands to my list. I've read some of the stories already in other anthologies, but it's not like it's possible to get too much Tamora Pierce. I need to get through Christopher Moore's vampire books first, though.

[kadharonon]

Yeah, same here with the drawing. I like doing it! I really do! I just... forget to. Which is odd, given how many years I was a compulsive doodler. So, mandating practice for myself.

[kepod]

Since you've had lots of practice doing evenly spaced lines, I bet you'd be great at doing crosshatching for shading effects! :D

If you're looking for drawing guidance at all, I found some free tutorials/assignments over here: http://dev.drawspace.com/lessons/

Other than that, I'd suggest drawing books by A. Loomis.

It's neat to see your development progress. Redrawing the same things seems like a good idea; I'll have to try that sometime.

[deva_fagan]

I have NIGHTSPELL on my pile of library books right now! Looking forward to it!

I really loved FURY OF THE PHOENIX, the sequel to SILVER PHOENIX -- even more than the first book, I think!

That art is lovely! I've always had a soft spot for black and white pen work, and the dragon is adorable.

[3rdragon]

I'm glad to hear that you liked Fury of the Phoenix. Maybe now that I'm (almost) done reading books about Zambia, I can finally get around to reading it.