Art Post January 10-17 – Still catching up!! – Anticipating Procrastination by Chrys Albarado

I gave you all a big update yesterday to try and catch up. Let’s see if I can get this post down and posted before the day is out, hmm? Then, maybe I can get on track with a daily. Maybe.

January 10th, 2024

First, I made a video to explain why I didn’t seal the diamond painting that I completed and shipped to my youngest child’s S/O for Christmas. I could not seal that beautiful bling. However, I did send five blings in every color, tediously out in tiny ziplock bags, labeled with the symbols in case any fell off. I will show you the bling I mailed out.

Not great video. Still learning how to do this. It’s very hard to catch the sparkling on camera.

This bling is from Diamond Art Club (AKA DAC). The name is “Pink Mermaid”. The artist is listed as “Chibimica Art”. This piece was a square kit, full drill, with 33 colors and 3 AB’s. She is 16.5″ x 20.1″ (42cm x 51cm) in size and is composed of 33,000 individual drills. I absolutely LOVE her. But, she isn’t really my aesthetic in decor. I didn’t know who was going to be gifted this piece until I was almost done with her.

This is the video I made to explain the sealing issue.

Two different blings here. One is sealed with Mod Podge Gloss mixed with fine holographic glitter. The other is not sealed at all.

This is showing what happened when I tried to roll the sealed bling vs the not sealed one.

Next, on this day, I found a small chibi image that I I believe the artist name is yampuff. I had started to color this, probably a couple of years ago. I decided to color on it a little bit, but I couldn’t remember what markers I was using originally or the color scheme I was going for. So, I just grabbed markers that I still want to test out and I used them to color it.

Continued coloring with Spectrum Noir Sparkle Pens. They are chock full of glitter. Though you can’t see it on the photos very well. However, I’m NOT a fan of the brush tips on these. They have individual bristles, that will fan out while you use them, and they also become fluffy at the very tip. It makes it hard to keep clean lines. Another thing that makes it hard to keep clean lines, is that I was without some of my medication that day and my hands were shaking like there was an earthquake inside of my body. Not my best coloring. But it doesn’t really matter because I was just testing the markers. Lol.

She isn’t finished. But, that’s where I left her. Enjoy the Glitter.

January 11th, 2024

This day. I spent the majority of the day cleaning and organizing. I was still having trouble holding my pencils without pain. I did start my morning drawing but, I had to put it away pretty quickly.

The example of the final result I’m aiming towards.

January 12th, 2024

I worked on drawing the ice cream cone today and created a little time lapse for it. Here are some WIP photos. I am teaching myself to draw using two different books. I alternate between them. Book 1 is a lot more simple, so I can do those drawings in one day, usually. Book 2 is a bit more advanced. Each of the assignments in book 2 takes a few days. I have only been doing this since October 28th, 2023. So, just a few months. I’m a bit shocked at how fast I’m improving.

This isn’t the best angle at all. I’m still working on how to set up cameras. But, here’s a little time lapse for the day’s drawing.

January 13th, 2024

I did two little drawing sessions today.

BRAND NEW SKIRT!!! Dropped my 6B pencil on it. I hope it comes out. 🫤

I have another mount coming soon. I’m currently doing these Timelapse clips, using the DIY time I cobbled together from random stuff, in the below photo.

I didn’t MAKE this today. It was about two months ago. This is what I’m currently using to video up close shots. What is this Frankenstein thing? I took an old piece of a shelf, using Aleene’s Fast Grab Tacky Glue, and glued on a piece of brown felt, to stop it from scratching stuff I might put it on. Like Blings.
Then, I used hot glue on an old phone mount. Gave me a stable, up close camera view. Took me a while to figure it out how to accomplish this. By the time I actually created it, I was making final decisions on the mounts I wanted. So, better late than never?

Hot glued because suction cups despise me. Two different mounts cobbled together. The white part was a claw clip type. It was difficult for my hands to open. I got a ring magnet attachment and put it on the case. It didn’t stick at first. Locktite Superglue gel control fixed THAT. Grabbed another mount that I don’t use but is excellent as far as the magnet strength. I pulled that apart and put them together to create a magnetic mount.

This makes it super easy to switch out the angles. I’m using an IPhone 7plus here. No magback or Qi charging. The port on this phone was wobbly. I almost got rid of it. Then, I discovered those new cables that are magnetic. You place the dongle in the phone port and just leave it there. Then the cable just attaches magnetically. They are really great. I took a chance just to see if I could fix this phones port by stopping the wobble. The dongles actually fit pretty tightly in ports. And what you know? It worked. So, I cleaned off the phone. I use it solely as a camera now. This little board thing I made really works out for using a super old device.

It’s going much better than expected. This is a technique I used often. For coloring mesh, scales on dragons or mermaids, fishnet stockings…. It frustrates me a lot. But, I MIGHT be getting better at it.

More up-close drawing. I don’t know if these videos or good or awful. But, they are fun to make.

Blending and building up the deep shadows. I’ll go back and add in highlights next. I want to really amp up the contrast.

This day, my husband also worked to put the rest of my table together. It was a JOB, because well, I bought parts that weren’t compatible with my desk. Still, my epic hubs made it work. I may make that its own post. If anyone is interested in seeing how he put together things that don’t go together and why, let me know in the comments.

This desk is so BEAUTIFUL, in both form and functionality and ergonomically. I’ve been looking for the right desk for YEARS.

I might post it even if you don’t wanna hear it. lol. I did a lot of helping him with that, as well as cleaning and setting up the trays themselves. I also got all of Christmas properly packed away. It was a busy day. But, so worth it. I also got in one of two new overhead mounts I got off Amazon. So, I really only worked on this one drawing today. It was cleaned off and set up beautifully for me to walk to the next morning. The feeling was so good. It felt good emotionally, mentally, aesthetically, it was just an amazing feeling. I can’t tell you how amazing my husband is for giving me this gift for Christmas. It’s kind of everything.