Scrapbook of Variety

[Sur Vanar Utírieste]

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Hello everyone.

This is and will be my own personal creative and miscellaneous corner of the Cottage. Here, I intend to showcase various creative projects and experiences. While I cannot yet claim mastery in any one artistic medium, I believe even displaying my progress overtime in every which one would be a wonderful way for my fellow fanatics to get to know me and my interests better.

Contents of this "scrapbook" will include, but not be limited to, the following: photography, makeup art, drawings, paintings, digital art, embroidery, works of fanfiction, cooking recipes, and what some of you may already know me for - photo editing.

Having said that, let me begin with a bit of photography...

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Entry #1 - An Aquarium and Two Statues

Over the past decade, my family and I have frequented the Monterey Bay Aquarium in California. I took a number of photographs on every visit, but the two below are my favorite:





The words in the second photograph read: "The sea is as near as we come to another world." - Anne Stevenson



A short walk away from the aquarium, the head statue of American author and Nobel Prize winner - John Steinbeck can be found. Some of my fellow Americans here in the Plaza might have read some of his work for school. (Of Mice and Men, The Grapes of Wrath, etc.)

Only a few steps from where dear Steinbeck's head greets passers-by, a huge red jelly bean wearing a chef's hat rests on a bench just to the side of a candy store entrance.

This is the end of my first entry. I will post again here soon and visit all of your Cottage threads as well.

[Marceline]

Ahhh @Sur Vanar Utírieste, it's wonderful to see you posting in the Cottage! You have promised us quite the variety of works, and I can't wait to see what creative things you've been up to.

Photography is of course a personal favorite medium of mine. I love the scale of the first aquarium photo - it's so cool to see how massive the tank is compared to all the people! And what a contrast in statues.

[Taethowen]

That first aquarium picture is wonderful! I always get countless photos every time I visit the aquarium or zoo, even of the creatures I already have countless photos of. There can simply never be enough!

I love the jellyfish reliefs on the wall with the quote, but I am partial to jellyfish in general. They're so soothing to watch.

[Yávië]

Yay! A Sur thread! I kept running into your name in the Wayback Archive and was hoping you'd find us!

Ah, some familiar places, I love Monterey! Looking at these pics I so wish I was still in driving distance. I hope you have otter photos stashed away over there too. Have you ever been to the jazz festival there? I've always wanted to go.

[Dwim]

Hey Sur! I don't think aquarium photos come any more magical than your first one. It is other worldly, and the quote in the accompanying photo below sums it up perfectly.

Looking forward to seeing more in your thread.

[Sur Vanar Utírieste]

@Zôrzimril I’m so glad you liked it. Yes, I was quite taken aback the first time I stood before this tank.

@Taethowen The jellyfish in this aquarium are indeed very soothing to watch. Oh how I wish I could have taken some decent photographs in their section of the aquarium, but I’m afraid it was simply too dark and crowded.

@Aerlinn Aww, thank you. Haha yes, I was quite the thread runner back in the old Plaza during my active years. *grins* I actually looked up the Plaza on Facebook, found out what had happened to the previous forum and then found the Plaza's new home. I thought it was the perfect time to return and then re-registered.

I’m glad to read that you have also been to the Monterey area, like yourself, I am also no longer within driving distance, unfortunately. I do recall seeing the banner for a jazz festival at one point but I’m afraid I never attended.

The tank for the otters was always a high-traffic area during my visits, so it was difficult to see them, let alone get a good photograph. I did manage to get this one though, during one of my visits:

@Dwim Thank you. The first photograph of the tank and the quote featured in the second one do pair well don’t they?

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Entry #2 - “Anime” Eyes and Other Drawings

I recently set out to master Japanese-style art and learning to draw facial features: eyes, noses, mouths, etc. has been my primary goal. Below is an example of what I have been working on. My artistically-inclined sister told me that learning to draw eyes symmetrically would save me a lot of problems in the long run, so this is what I have been focusing on.

I have also been doodling some kawaii items, such as food and animals.

This is a rough outline of a school child I played in a mobile game earlier this year.

And this is a colored drawing I did two years ago of Luci the Demon, my favorite character from the animted Netflix series Disenchantment. The speech bubble in the drawing features my favorite quote from Luci.

[Marceline]

The otters are so floofy and cute! And you are doing wonderfully with your drawings. I admire your patience working at symmetrical eyes! They are looking great. I also really love that ice cream.

[Raisins]

absolutely love the photographs especially of the otters and the first picture. I think the first picture really shows what the aquarium is like and is quite beautiful. And your sister is right about practicing drawing symetrical eyes something a lot of japanese artists master is drawing from life (Not realisticly just drawing from life so you draw what you see rather than what you want to see) really helps with a lot of headaches when you start going into nonsymetrical poses! I hope to see more soon!

[Afird Splitax]

Nice scrapbook, Sur. Love Luci! She would make a great mascot for some cute evil person. Your eye sketches look good. Eyes are so great. If you stare into them long enough, it looks like they are really looking back at you.

Thanks for sharing!

[Taethowen]

Aww, otters! I got to (virtually) watch a local wildlife rescue raise an orphaned otter kit this summer and it was so precious.

Your anime eyes look fantastic, but I'll be honest, my drawing skills are not fantastic, so I admire anyone who can make something look like what they actually intended!

[Sur Vanar Utírieste]

@THE MAIDEN FAIR Thank you so much… and I completely agree with you about the otters. <3 It has definitely been a test of patience for me to sketch these manga eyes symmetrically but I hope the results will be rewarding.

@Fuin Elda Wow, thank you so much for that piece of advice. I hope to make drawing and coloring a more frequent habit of mine. I am even considering buying a pocket-sized sketchbook to keep in my purse wherever I go, this way - as you said - I can take artistic inspiration from what I see all around me.

@Tyrion Lannister I am more than happy to share. It does look like the eyes are staring intently at you no?

@Taethowen I completely understand that feeling. My younger brother and sister are hands down the artistically-gifted ones in my family. My brother, an aspiring tattoo artist, has won art competitions at his job and my teenage sister is never short on online praise for her spectacular digital artwork. I kind of wish she would join the Plaza even if just for the sake of displaying her marvelous skills.

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Entry #3 - Inktober 2020 Challenge Doodles

Hello again, everyone. I have been awfully quiet on my Cottage thread this month, but certainly not in real life as far as creativity goes. I recently shared a photograph of a cream cheese-frosted red velvet cake I baked for my mother’s birthday on our Discord server and here is what I have spent my spare time working on the last several weeks.

I recently took on an “Inktober” challenge online, in which I was required to draw a different image every day for the month of October in ink. I knew I would not have the time nor the capacity to create full-image illustrations so I opted for small less time-consuming doodles. I found the most difficult part of Inktober wasn’t drawing the actual images but rather coming up with the concept for each given the list of utterly vague themes and subjects I was supposed to draw.

Now I by no means flatter myself with the idea that my drawings are 100% legible. *laughs* So here are each of my doodles along with the given theme from the list above and a description of what my art is supposed to depict. Unfortunately, I only had the standard twelve-pack of colored pencils to work with but kind of enjoyed the difficulty in having to carefully select my colors and apply different levels of pressure to achieve a gradient effect or shade I wanted.

Day 1 - “Adventurer”
I attempted to draw a man clad in light leather gear with a bow and quiver of arrows strapped on his back.


Day 2 - “Puppet”
I drew a scary ghost puppet, stitched with thick thread in a coat of blue.


Day 3 - “Flight”
For this I drew a female angel with large white wings, unfortunately, I overestimated the amount of space on my paper and the left wing is incomplete. Oops.


Day 4 - “Lost”
Two trees in a forest shrouded in the darkness of night. I projected a bit of one of my own worst fears for this doodle.


Day 5 - “Star”
A four-pointed yellow star in a cloudy night sky.


Day 6 - “Dragon”
The head of a green-scaled dragon.


Day 7 - “Peaceful”
A magenta flower growing in the light of the sun.


Day 8 - “Innocence”
A pair of innocent-looking eyes beneath a pair of tawny brows.


Day 9 - “Breakable”
A red heart shattered in two.


Day 10 - “Desire”
I chose to lean towards the idea of "greedy desire" for this treasure chest.


Day 11 - “Dark”
I drew a prison cell door shrouded in darkness.


Day 12 - “Scared”
A frightened smiley expression.


Day 13 - “Blind”
A cracked pair of lenses. I think anybody who depends on their eyeglasses to see can relate to this doodle.


Day 14 - “Madness”
This one has a bit of a story behind it. I imagined a middle-aged clown named "Bobo", not the most original name for a clown of course, who worked for the Dublin Circus until he started losing his sanity. Now in his madness, he claws at the wall of his bedroom with his fingernails and etches the words "death" and "pain" repeatedly with a knife.


Day 15 - “Opposites”
For this day I drew the sun and moon on two opposite sides of a circle, surrounded by a ring of clouds and stars.


Day 16- “Crooked”
I just could not think of what to draw for this one, so I did a red crooked arrow.


Day 17 - “Sorrow”
A tombstone with a bouquet of flowers laying in front of it.


Day 18 - “Treasure”
Since I had already drawn a treasure chest for "desire", I went along the more symbolic route for this doodle and drew a swaddled baby girl, who I imagine would very much be a treasure to her parents.


Day 19 - “Passage”
An entryway with a brick floor. I wasn't feeling too inspired for this one.


Day 20 - “Graceful”
A pair of purple ballet slippers.


Day 21 - “Sleep”
An orange tabby cat in snoozeville.


Day 22 - “Reckless”
A doodle that represents something I consider to be completely reckless in the real world: the steering wheel of a vehicle with a mobile device beside it.


Day 23 - “Flowing”
A waterfall descending from between two clusters of large rocks.


Day 24 - “Legend”
A sword between the pages of a red book.


Day 25 - “Ancient”
This is the Middle-earth inspired doodle. I used a finely-pointed marker for the script of the One Ring. I knew I couldn't write the letters in reverse for the inside of the ring so I didn't bother trying. Professor Tolkien, please forgive me.


Day 26 - “Flawed”
Probably the most difficult to come up with as far as its concept. Ultimately, I drew a red pretty tulip marred by rot.


Day 27 and Day 28 - “Cold” and “Burn”
I decided to combine these two days. An ice cube and a lit match.


Day 29 - “Found”
Projecting for this doodle again, I drew a cent. Something I often find on the street when I'm out and about.


Day 30 - “Betrayal”
A woman's brassiere over a wooden table, alongside a wedding band and man's watch. I... don't think I need to explain this one.


Day 31 - “Bloom”
Since I had already drawn two flowers, I decided to depict the theme of this day as a female "blossoming" into womanhood. A teddy bear that would be given to her as a young child, followed by a pink diary with a heart-shaped lock that she would have owned as an adolescent, and finally a blue handbag with a tube of red lipstick beside it.

Phew. So that is what I did artistically this month. I can't tell you how many times I fell behind and had to rush to catch up. Will I be doing this again next year? Probably not. I will however take away from Inktober the need to make more time to practice my drawing skills.

[Taethowen]

I think all of your doodles are fantastic and creative! I definitely relate to #13. I have actually busted a pair of glasses while I was wearing them, and hunting down an old pair was a nightmare. And I do not blame you at all for not trying to write Tengwar backwards, oof.

[Raisins]

Excellent work on the Inktober doodles! Some are quite creative and amazing. I'll admit the idea behind Opposites is quite amazing and well executed.

And a wee sketchpad is a brilliant way of beinga ble to draw what inspires you at the moment. I will totally admit I tend to carry a huge purse NOT because I carry a lot of stuff around but it allows me to have my bigger sketch books.

[Sur Vanar Utírieste]

@Taethowen Thank you so much. That happened to my little sister as well when a soccer ball at school accidentally broke her glasses.

@Fuin Elda Thank you! "Opposites" was actually my personal favorite. *smiles*

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Entry #4 - Makeup of Halloweens Past

I mentioned in the OP of this Cottage thread that I would share a bit of makeup art with you all, so here are two samples of what I have done for myself and others in my family for Halloween.

This is my younger brother in "Joker" makeup; inspired by the character portrayed by Heath Ledger in the 2008 film The Dark Knight. I spray-painted his dark hair green and used a combination of white and black face paint for his complexion. For the Glasgow smile-style scars of Gotham's #1 clown, I used both liquid latex and fake scars painted over with red face paint.

Please Note: I acquired the full permission of my adult younger brother to share his photograph here.



A few years ago I also decided to paint my own face in the manner of a Mexican sugar skull, not only because it is an iconic symbol in my heritage but because I wanted to do so at least once in my lifetime for Halloween.



I used a palette I had purchased some time beforehand, specifically for sugar skull Halloween makeup, however - I had absolutely no idea that the pigments were water-activated until the very night I had to use them. I was concerned at first about how well my face would look before heading out the door with my siblings, but once the makeup dried the color became vibrant and opaque. Many of my neighbors thought I was actually wearing a mask.

I even paired the face makeup with faux lashes on my eyes, a band of multicolored flowers on my head, and I even curled my hair just for the occasion.

As far as Halloween makeup goes, I have also done a pretty good job for my teenage sister on more than one occasion. However, since she is still a minor I won't be posting hers until she is older, so maybe in a few years' time... with her consent of course.

[Nessa Saelind]

Wow, the amount of detail and patience that must have gone into that skull makeup is stunning! <3 It's really amazing! The scars for the Joker makeup turned out great! But your skull makeup is definitely my favourite!

[Taethowen]

@Annúnfalas - re: busted glasses, in my case I walked into the edge of an open door in the dark. It was unpleasant to say the least, and I'm honestly surprised I didn't end up with a black eye in addition to the broken glasses.

Fantastic job on the make-up art! Your sugar skull make-up looks awesome!