Improvement and Practice

I try to improve myself in my craft and I try to be critical and objective and whatever. And among my defects, I think, are: Difficulty with use of color, bad pulse, stiff and rigid human figure. So, what do I do to improve those? The following:

1. Difficulty with use of color: When I'd just started out in university (and whenever I tried using colors, really), it was hard for me to choose and combine colors. I guess that situation stems from having drawn most of the time and just not coming that much in contact with the need to use color and the difficulty to use color manifested itself with much more strength in university, because I was obligated to paint.
And what's the point of painting, if you're not going to use that gorgeous spectrum of colors that oil paints have, right?
SO, to try to remedy that, I've started coloring on a regular kid coloring book. The one I've been using is a Precious Moments coloring book, that's REALLY REALLY old! And I DO feel it's helping me a lot, although I've only been doing it for maybe two weeks. Maybe less.
But each time I get started on a new one, it's easier to visualize what colors to use and I'm very slowly becoming less intimidated when I realize I have to use color in other things.
This is the coloring book:

These are the latest ones I've colored:

And this one's my favorite so far. I think it's so cute, because it reminds me of Christmas so much and she looks so warm and cozy with her kind of tartan skirt. And I really like how the colors resulted, I think I almost smell pine when I look at it:

2. Bad pulse: I don't know where it's rooted, I guess it's just something that some people have by default and some don't. I have bad pulse and I know this, because when I'm drawing, I find myself making a kagillion lines, then erasing them and practically making the whole drawing again so it's cleaner. And when I'm making the clean lines, I have to concentrate and pretty much not breathe, to be able to make a straight line x_x
And sometimes, even, I'm obligated to make the line more than once, because it's so difficult. And I'm helping that with tracing, which I haven't been doing for more than two weeks, either, but I know that it's helping me a lot.
So this is one of the drawings I've traced. I'm just using the coloring book and when I'm done with this one, I'll just get a new one and repeat the same thing.

3. Rigidity and stiffness in the human figure: Before, I didn't care much that my characters or human figure drawings were just standing up with their hands behind them, for the most part. And I actually got really intimidated when I had a mental image of a figure in another pose, other than standing.
I actually kind of still have that difficulty with that, but it's much easier now, with PhotoBooth and pictures from everywhere and knowing that anything and anybody can pretty much be a model or reference. BUT this problem is simply solved by sketching, which I still don't do as often as I should and I'm thinking of just incorporating it into the coloring and tracing routine and just sketching after I'm done with those.
Here's a very light sketching session from sometime this week.


I intend to be as good as I can in my craft.
And, really, the masters had so many difficulties and such perfect work, that there's really no excuse for an artist these days to be nothing short of FANTASTIC with all the resources and materials and KNOWLEDGE that we have these days.
It may seem dumb, but a quote from that movie "The Last Samurai" always gets me, when he sees how the Japanese are so dedicated and devoted to whatever their task is. He says: "These people wake up everyday, to perfect what they strive for" Or some shit along those lines.
That's what I want to do.

I'm still working on the eBay and PayPal thing. I've already found out how I'm going to ship things and about how much it's going to be to ship and pack and with what company. How convenient is it that USPS has a branch RIGHT HERE in little ol' Panama? So I'll be sending things through courier with them and add the price of packing and shipping to the price of the piece.
And I'm looking into what account I'm going to use to receive payments in and building the shop in eBay.

Also, remember about the group in facebook! Feel free to join, invite whoever you think will be interested in my work, leave comments, ideas, feedback, thoughts or anything in the wall of the group or in any of the pictures. And if you want, even, add me to your friends, but remember to tell me that you found the group through my blog, because that would seriously make my day <3 Gabriela Handal
I've been thinking of making a Gabriela Handal Arte fan page D:
The purpose of that would be to make separate albums for the different categories of images, like, paintings, drawings, tattoo designs, commissions. Stuff like that. It would also be really great, because I'm pretty sure much more people would be able to see.

ALSO, can you believe I have a twitter account now? x_x
Thank my fellow artist Richard for that XD
Here it is, if you want to follow: GabrielaHandal.
condron.us

Abstract with human figure

After a while that I'd discovered the ability to make abstracts and actually *like* them, it occurred to me that I could maybe mix them somehow with the human figure, since they look to me like vibes, fire, incense smoke and those mysterious things.
And drawings that involve both human figure along with an abstract have actually occurred to me with more ease these days that I've gotten much more practice with the human figure and loosened my hand with the abstracts.

Here are some examples of the abstracts I've made and the entry in this blog that's only about the abstracts, if you want to see: Abstracts



1. "Birth": This is probably the first human figure that I mixed in with some abstract, at least that I can remember. And I was also much more into fantasy art, as you can see by her many fairy wings; but this creature along with the abstract beneath her, made me think of her being born of a cocoon, that's what the abstract reminds me of. And I love the vibes of this drawing and the drawing itself, it brings me a lot of comfort to look at it. And also, back then I had much more imagination for writing little things and little mental blurbz came while I was drawing, so that's the stuff that's written there on the side. It's barely intelligible, I wrote it like that on purpose, because I didn't want anybody else to be able to read it XD!


2. "Burning": The abstract around this floating human figure are meant to represent something like passion or fire and it's that passion that lifts and lights her up and will eventually consume her.
This one's 9 x 12 inches, just pencil on paper and it's USD 90.00.


3. "Passion": This is a very small little drawing, it's 4 x 6 inches and it's USD 40.00, pencil on paper. This one, also as "Burning", has passion burning all around her and she has her eyes closed, because passion is meant to be felt. I like a lot her relaxed facial expression.


4. "Dreaming": This is one of my favorites in the combination of human body and abstract. As the title suggests, this character is sleeping and she's in the moment when you begin to dream and so out of her comes what could be herself, going off to have adventures, or just her own vibes reaching out into the world, while her body rests.
I feel this one very close to me and I'm thinking wether I put it up for sale or not, but I've priced it for now at USD 90.00 and it's 9 x 12 inches, pencil on paper. I seriously love this one.


5. "Disintegrate": This one has more to do with what I'd written in the entry about abstracts, that sometimes they remind me of something that's disintegrating into the air. Her own smoke is going up into the atmosphere, but she's perfectly at peace with existing in another form that's not human.
She's also USD 90.00, pencil on paper, 9 x 12 inches.



These are some others of the combinations of human body and abstracts that I've drawn. Respectively: "Fuego Visual", 4 x 6 inches, USD 40.00, first; "Eyelashes" (and this one, although not meant to from the beginning, reminds me of that girl thing that we have to kind of put on make up and stuff, so in the drawing, it's eye makeup that's kind of like a little monster XD), 4 x 6 inches, USD 40.00, second; "A whole world", USD 40.00, 8 x 10 inches, third; "Eye Smoke", 9 x 12 inches, USD 50.00, fourth.

And I think the most recent abstract, with an incredibly mushy title and just because I can: "Eternal Flame", 8 x 10 inches, USD 50.00.


Please remember about the group I've made in facebook. Feel free to go on in there and join, invite whoever you may think is interested in my work, leave any kind of comment, feedback, thoughts, ideas on the wall or any of the images and, if you want, also add me to your friends; but tell me that you found me through my blog, because that would be seriously cool: Gabriela Handal Arte.

Also, I'm still working on an eBay and PayPal accounts, so I can begin selling my things to whoever wants to, that's not in Panama. Yesterday I came across the information to send things through courier, because that way it's better than through regular mail, as I've been told by the people that I've sent drawings to through regular mail that they arrived all folded and wrinkled D:
So, if you bought something from me, I'd just add whatever the shipping and packaging is over the price of the piece.

I thought I'd link too, to this really cool website that's like a slide of all kinds of blogs and if you link to them, your blog may appear in their slide and you can increase the amount of views to your blog <3 condron.us

The process

For today's entry, I took pictures whilst I was working on a drawing, so the process of the drawing from beginning to end would be recorded. It's an interesting thing to look at.
Originally, I'd only set out to do some sketching, but these eyes are so pretty that I decided I'd finish them and move on to another sketch. They belong to a girl named Katie and I don't know her personally, but we frequent the same messageboard and she posted this picture to show off her make up.



And then as I drew more on them, I felt obligated to add an entire face to them. I had a whole facial expression in my head and I used the Megan Fox picture for some help with the mouth and the picture of Milla for the nose, because Milla has a great nose and it's the shape I usually use.



So this is the process of how it all went:








The process of stuff is always interesting and everything goes through some kind of metamorphosis: We do physically, wether we're growing up or getting fatter or thinner, the landscape does, relationships do, our ideas do, our opinions, thoughts, desires and passions, insects, plants, the whole world and the whole universe.
It's interesting.

Remember that I have a group in facebook and I'm really proud of myself, because it hit two hundred members a couple of days ago. Feel free to join the group, leave me any kind of comments, thoughts, ideas or opinions on the wall or on the images. Invite, if you want, whoever you think may be interested in my work and once I've set up my eBay and PayPal stuff, maybe you can also buy me something.
I've put the pertinent information of each drawing underneath each image, like dimensions, price and medium.
Gabriela Handal Arte

Discipline, Education and Differentiation

Today's entry is going to revolve more around musing, rather than my most recent work, because I've actually been working on two tattoo designs I found, that a guy asked me for when I was still at the call center. Meaning SOME OLD SHIT.
BUT I'm still going to post several pictures of something that I made back in university and that's where the musing and the title come in.


I've talked to a couple of people and read opinions of a couple of people that I know about receiving an artistic education and it made me feel incredibly disappointed, frustrated and angry that they were completely close off to the benefits of it. According to them (and surely according to A LOT of people) receiving an education in any art or craft is hindering, detrimental and nothing good can come from it. If anything, their schools, universities and teachers, never let you do what you want, they will just order you around, not let you create your own shit, teach the exact same shit to every student of every class they ever get, they only care about creating robots that think in the same path and that's it. Artistic education completely discarded and discredited, simply because there are some rules and direction.
Yeah, a teacher is showing the same thing to a group of people and putting certain limitations and you're not allowed to create your own shit WITHIN THE CLASS. WHO ever said these things are bad?


First of all, a group of people being shown the same thing, doesn't mean they're going to ALL interpret it the same and that what comes out through the filter of their mind is going to be the same thing. The foundation may be the same, but that construction site and building will be WORLDS APART from one person to the other. And this happens, because everybody interprets things differently, that's pretty much the reason for which there are fights about religion and politics and everything else, because although the source was the same, everybody thinks differently and everybody concludes whatever makes sense to them. That's just the way it is, because we're human, and OH MAN it's amazing and beautiful how many DIFFERENT things we can produce from the same thing.


Second, what's wrong with limitations? They're only for a short amount of time. It's like an incredibly stimulating game, it's like different sports and martial arts: You need to get this ball into the goal, but you can only use your feet, or only your hands, or all of your body. Or all you have to do is push the guy out of the circle, but you can't fall yourself, or you can hurt the guy, but only with your feet and hands and not your elbows and knees. All these rules do, is stimulate you into THINKING, and thinking is NEVER a bad thing.


Third, ok, you can't make whatever the shit you want in this particular class. This is only, because you're still in the learning stage and you're still learning the basic rules, so that in the future you can break them. But the right to break the rules has to be earned, just like when you wait until you're a certain age to do certain things.
Moreover, just because you can't do something within class, doesn't mean that your ideas have to be completely forgotten about and thrown into the trash: that's the kind of shit that you do on your own time to develop and improve yourself even further.


It saddens me so much, that there may be SO many people out there that seriously believe their creativity is stifled so easily D:


SO all of this shit ties in with the images I'm going to post today. When I was still in university, the teacher had us cut compressed carton into geometric shapes with specific measures and the only requirement was that we used texture and the shapes he told us. I don't remember anymore what my classmates did, but it must have been cool to see what each one's final result was and just put them all beside each other to compare and look at. These were mine:

1. In this one I used some waterproofing stuff, those plastic things that come with canvases that you put in the inner corners, behind the fabric to secure the wood and was painted with.... I *think* oil paints D:



2. In this second one, I think it was also oil paints and I used popsicle sticks.



3. This one I think was also oil paints and I used a spatula to make those marks. It reminds me of maybe somebody putting their hands in plaster to get a hand print, but it reminds me more of maybe like a bird walked on it ^_^



4. This one's probably my favorite one, except that I don't know why >=/


All of them are for sale at USD 10.00 each and I'd like to remind you that I'm working on an eBay shop thing, so that all the non Panamanian people can buy a piece if they so wanted to. I'd charge whatever the shipping may be plus the price of the piece itself.
I'm SERIOUSLY looking forward to this, I'm just reading up on the terms and conditions of eBay and PayPal ^_^
Also, remember that I've made a facebook group so that I can upload as many pieces as I can. Feel free to join the group; leave comments, feedback, thoughts, opinions, ideas on the wall of the group or any of the images; invite any of your friends that you'd think would be interested in my work and, also if you want, add me to your friends, but remember to tell me that you found me through this blog, because that would totally make my day <3: Gabriela Handal Arte
Each of the images has all their information in the description, their dimensions, medium and prices and sometimes comments regarding the piece or a link to here, depending XD

Religion

Religion according to Wikipedia.
Catholic according to Wikipedia.

I was raised catholic and consider myself catholic and pray and whatever, but I don't like talking about it much more than that, because it makes me feel preachy and pretentious and because discussions about religion annoy the shit out of me. Religion and politics are just things that shouldn't be discussed about with friends, because they just seem to be such incredibly TOUCHY subjects, it's ridiculous.
I KNOW it's ridiculous, because of how much it pisses me off to hear people's opinions that don't coincide with mine, so I just steer away from that shit and keep my mouth shut and never participate if it happens to come up.

BUT ANYWAY, today's entry is titled "Religion", because I've actually found myself a couple of times making drawings and paintings with some religious connotation. Wether they're my own creation or I was recreating the work of a master back at university.

1. "Fervent": I made this little drawing, because I want a tattoo of a cross on my right shoulder, so I made this as an idea I had. I'm not going to get this, because it's not the look I want, I DO like how it turned out, though, and I think it would certainly serve somebody else as a very nice tattoo or just in a really nice frame, hanging up in somebody's wall. It's called "Fervent", because of the vibe it has: All the floaty things around the cross strike me as spiritual vibes.
"Fervent" is 6 x 8 inches, pencil on paper and it's USD 60.00

2. "Take the blame for the downfall of humanity? Certainly! - Eve": I. AM. VERY. Proud of this! My reference/model was a girl from Vampirefreaks, but I can't remember her username and I don't have the picture anymore D:
The theme of Eve having bitten the apple intentionally and well knowing what she was doing, has come up each time that I've drawn her, but that hasn't been very often. There's only one other time that I can remember that I drew her and she was pulling the apple from the tree with a daring and evil look in her eye and the other hand on her hip. I don't know *WHY* and haven't cared to delve more into that to see where the shit I got that from. I don't think it really matters.
So that's the same trip in this one. Eve's lips are barely touching that apple and she's pulling it towards her with her own hands and has an entranced and lustful look in her face. The dark swirly stuff in the background is meant to be like the bad vibes of what's happening.
This itty bitty awesome thing is 9 x 6 inches, it's pencil on paper and it's USD 90.00.

Please remember that I've made a group in facebook, All the stuff you see here is on there with it's respective prices, dimensions and mediums; except that there are a kagillionz more pieces for you to look at. It would be seriously awesome if you joined the group and, if you want, added me to your friends list and told me that you found me on facebook through my blog! <3
Feel free to join the group and leave any kind of comment, feedback, thoughts, opinions, ideas or ANYTHING on the wall of the group or the images themselves: Gabriela Handal Arte

Also, I'm working on a MySpace page and an Ebay and PayPal accounts, so all the foreign people that want to buy things from me, will be able to do so! Once that happens, I'd send things through courier service and I'll charge the piece's price plus whatever it costs me to ship the piece to you. I look forward to all of this VERY much! I'll let everyone know when this is ready to go ^______^