S/T

S/T in Spanish stands for Sin título, which means no title.

I came up with this piece, sketched it and finished it in three days, I think. Which is pretty fast for me and I'm pretty proud of myself for my speed this time around and how she came out.
Moreover, the space itself is certainly bigger than what my usual 9 x 12 inches, this one is a very oblong 12 x 18 inches. I've only two other drawings in that size.

I ROVE HER <3 Please forgive how bad the pictures are, I have no scanner and I have a shit pulse and I ain't no picture taker and I also have no patience for taking better pictures, these will have to do for now. There's a little bit of light getting in the way of the pencil, but I think she looks good enough.



I hadn't made a drawing in a while and it's always very comforting to go back to my most familiar medium.

Thanks a lot for reading, if it's your first time or you're following. If it's your first time, do follow and leave me lots of comments, likewise if you've already been following!
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Thanks for reading and thanks for everything. See you in the next entry!

97 Obras

Today is the opening of the art exhibit to which I submitted Arianrhod. I have a history with the place, it has the word "museum" in it's name, but it's more some kind of a really fancy and uptown gallery. I have a history, because I think it's an amazing place and I went there to ask if I could make my first art exhibit there and they were like "lol we only do recognized artists" and I was like "FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU". So what I got the notice about this art exhibit, the only thing I paid attention to was that it would be in this gallery, I NEEDED to be in there XD
Then, when I went to turn in the paintings to see which ones/one would be chosen, a teacher told me it was only for ex students and current students of the school and I was REALLY embarrassed, but he told me he'd accept my work anyway and see if anything was chosen and then I high fived myself, because all the embarrassment was worth it, because a piece of mine is IN that gallery hanging right now! @_@
So there are the pictures that were taken today, for the opening. DO notice how ridiculously happy/crazy I look XD:





THANK YOU AND GOOD NIGHT.

Natura

There is currently a national contest going on, the Roberto Lewis contest and I made this piece, called "Natura" to submit to it. I'm having a hard time thinking of leaving her with strangers and getting lost or something :(
I found out about this contest maybe four or five weeks ago? And Natura came to my head soon after that, did some sketches and whatevers, got the canvas and I put her down. I didn't take many pictures of the process, because I really didn't have time to dick around with this one; me working so slowly and the deadline being today.
This painting means a lot to me, I love everything about her and what she means. I'm proud of myself for the amount of color I used and that I put in realism/human figure together with abstract in a big piece (big for me, anyway, she's only 24 x 36 inches). I have a little weight on my chest thinking of letting her go if I DO win x_x
EITHER WAY. On with Natura and the pictures:
1. Only picture I took before she was finished:

2. All these I took today, after she was finished. You can't see the little bit of white paint spatter I did in the blue part, which is meant to be kind of a universe kind of thing. The very first one is all of her, the rest are details:





~o~

This piece really took my attention and put everything I have pending on hold to work on this piece, because of the deadline. The only thing that I worked on, while having this piece pending, was Arianrhod's frame, because the installation for that art exhibit is actually tomorrow and I had to turn her in last week. So, yeah, she was the only one that had permission to distract me from Natura. Moreover, with Natura, it's been one of the few times that I've thought up so much meaning for a piece. Whilst I painted it, sometimes I felt as though I would have to explain myself in front of a jury or something at some point, like one of those ridiculous reality shows; but she just legit has all these amazing vibes full of significance, a lot of things that I really liked and didn't want to forget, so I took a lot of notes and actually printed them out to turn in for the contest, besides all the other documents and information that had to be turned in. I don't know if it will mean anything, but I thought I'd throw a little extra something in there XD
Originally, it was written in Spanish and I really like how it came out; so here I'm going to post both here: In English and in Spanish. It'll be like getting Reader's Digest LOL

Spanish:
Natura

La naturaleza que nos rodea tiene tantas formas, el color alrededor de su cara no tiene ninguna forma específica; son manchas de color, listas para transformarse en la siguiente estructura. Natura representa toda la naturaleza de todo el planeta, el sol, los cielos, el universo y su cara es de mujer, porque la naturaleza es Madre Naturaleza. Sin mencionar, que en el idioma español la naturaleza es género femenino.

Los hilos que tiene por detrás, siento que tienen alguna clase de relación con "String Theory", de que todo el universo y todo y todas las dimensiones están unidas por hilos.
No entiendo exactamente de qué se trata el String Theory, pero me parece hermoso pensar que absolutamente TODO está conectado por hilos. Pienso en los hilos de coser, que son tan frágiles. El destino se teje con hilos, las mujeres que tejen los destinos de todos en las tragedias griegas.

También, son como un círculo que se cierra, pienso que Natura es como un nudo celta súper complicado. A la vez los nudos celtas tienen que ver con la infinidad de la vida y del universo

Tiene algo del ying yang, con los colores amarillos que le salen de los lados de la cara, brindan algo de simtetría y orden. Así como el ying yang, Natura tiene bondad y maldad sin que ni uno ni el otro sea absoluto, igual que la naturaleza; y entre bondad y maldad, tiene su propio equilibrio perfecto. Un equilibrio típico de la naturaleza, que a veces nos cuesta entender.

English:
Natura

Surrounding nature has so many forms, the color around her face has no specific shape; they're stains of color, ready to transform into the next structure. Natura represents all nature from the whole planet, the sun, the sky, the universe and her face is female, because nature is Mother Nature. Also, in Spanish, the noun is female.

The strings behind her, I feel have some kind of relation to String Theory, that the entire universe and everything and all dimensions are joined by strings.
I don't understand exactly what is String Theory about, but I think it's beautiful to think that absolutely EVERYTHING is connected through strings. I think of the sewing threads, that are so fragile. Fate is woven with threads, the Fates that weave everyones' destinies in Greek tragedies.

Also, like a circle that closes, I think Natura is a super complicated Celtic knot. At the same time, Celtic knots have to do with the infinity of life and the universe.

It also has some ying yang, with the yellow that comes out of the sides of her face, they bring some symmetry and order. Like ying yang, Natura has good and evil, without being either or absolutely, and just like nature, between good and evil, it has it's own perfect equilibrium. A typical balance in nature, that sometimes is difficult for us to understand.

And that's it <3 - Here is a public link to the album in my Facebook: Una pieza muy especial
- Here is a link to the album in the Facebook page: Una pieza muy especial
- And last, but not least and most importantly, here is a link to the Facebook page, which you should like, if you haven't yet and you should also suggest to all your friend list, if you haven't yet. The suggest to friends link is under the profile picture, by the way: Gabriela Handal Arte

Thank you so much for reading, wether you're reading for the first time or you've been following me for a while now. If you're reading for the first time, please follow and like my page in Facebook, and feel free to leave me all kinds of comments!

Blue

"Everything's blue in this world"

1. "Blue"
This is one of the most fresh and recent things I've been working on and I have to apologize for everything lately being pictures from my webcam, but it takes me a while to get to a scanner and a lot of things have been bigger than the scanner and, most of the time, I'm also too lazy to take pictures and then put them up in photobucket, pictures with the webcam are so much easier XD
EITHER WAY, the thing about this piece is that I'm only using tones of blue (when I get tired of working on the pet portrait, the blues that are left are used on this piece =D) and that it's the second piece in my life, I think, that I'm making "alla prima". Meaning, I went straight with a brush and paint onto the canvas, there was no sketch previous, either on paper or drawing with pencil on the canvas. This happened precisely one of the times that I was working on the background for the pet portrait that I didn't want to waste the paints.
So, yes. Here's two pictures of it. I was annoyed that I showed to my brother and he said "Oh, I like it, it's a nice cartoony style" and I was like "FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU", because that just seems to be the way that my pieces come out: with a tint of cartoon to them.
I have mixed feelings, I have no interest in hyperrealism, but I DO in realism and when I don't have a model to follow, copy or take guide from, a cartoony thing is what seems to come out XD That's fine, though, I don't mind, I'm still REALLY excited about getting to work on her face. I always have to obligate myself to work on the background first and leave the foreground for last.



2. I've been sketching more. Or trying to.
I was in Rhode Island last year, at the house of a very dear friend (she's really my bestie, bff lol ILher), and her super cool grandma showed me a book of something called "Natural Drawing" and what it talked about fascinated me, because it goes the opposite end of the way that I regularly work. I tend to concentrate on the details of the drawing and then work outwards, rather than getting everything in it's place and go from big to small.
I only remember parts of what I read and I really didn't read that much, but form what I remember, it's called "natural drawing", because you follow the outward lines of things and when practicing, you make these super wavy lines. And it requires a lot of practice and sketches, just to get your hand used to it and then you become a genie at it eventually.
Milla has been my victim of the sketches, I think it's her that I have the most pictures of, so I just open up all of them and draw every single one, one after the other, no matter what. And that's something that I've been really wanting to work on: giving my hand freedom, so that my human figure won't come out so stiff all the time and being able to draw it in every angle, position, size and everything. I'll get it <3
Here's a little sample, 'cuz I really like how this one in particular turned out XD


3. It's been about two months since I got the mohawk and I gotta say, I think me and this thing on my head were meant to be together.
This is probably the second or third boldest change to my image, after shaving my eyebrows. I had my hair down to my buttcrack at the beginning of this year, then I took a picture of Milla with this super cool haircut she had and got that hair do; then I was going through some personal issues with communication (because I just have a horrible time with confrontation and just SAYING things) and I took some scissors and gave myself a haircut like a little boy and reminded myself of my mom a lot; and then I got over that shit and gave myself a mohawk.
I feel like I should elaborate on the little boy haircut: at the time I just wanted to be more honest and open about what I felt and needed to say and getting the hair really short, kind of symbolized that want for bareness. Something gay like that. THEN, I got awesome, and got the mohawk, 'cuz I've srsly wanted one for a really long time and, like I told a friend of mine, it's like the epitome of rebellion!
I don't consider myself a rebel at all or even any of the things that a mohawk could be associated with: punk, aggression, violence; for example. BUT, I just legitimately happen to like how it looks on me and how well it looks with my outfits. I like that it gives me masculinity, just because it's so short; but it also adds femininity, because my neck and shoulders are almost entirely bare.
I like the little bit of androgyny it gives me, but that I never fail to look like a girl <3
So YES, I love the mohawk.



Thank you very much for reading this time around as well, wether you're reading for the first time or you're an assiduous reader. And if you're reading for the first time DO follow!
The page in facebook is absolutely fantastic, it gets updated almost everyday with something that I'm doing, pictures and whatnot, so you can keep updated with my work. So if you haven't liked yet, please do and suggest to your friends! The suggest to friends link is under the profile picture, it would be really great! Here's the link: Gabriela Handal Arte