Desert Plume

First Snow.

2009-12-16T18:07:00.003-07:00

I had the idea of creating a picture showing two of my characters seeing snow for the first time. I chose Ying and Yang, only with brown instead of black and white hair; also, this is when they are children. I took this chance to practice background and perspective. FYI: they're in a window. :0

Merry Christmas!

skull bag

2009-07-11T14:01:00.000-06:00

this is a project that i did . i made a bag like the bag that i got from hopper101 ( the smaller one on the right is mine) . made out of :paper ,tape ,glue, black faber-castell brush pen ,black construction paper, paper cutter, holepunch ,and a copier. it took a day to make.the skulls and bones are all hand done by me.it's 3D.

it'll make a good manga backround.

process:

i drew one skull pened it then copied it 12 times on to a peace of paper.

then i cut them out and pasted them in a row on another peace of paper.

i then copied that and,because they were too big to all fit in one row,srank the image.

next i cut the srunkun image out and copied it 4 times on to another peace of paper.

then i cut those out and put them in rows like the one on the origanal bag and copied that.

i then took that and colored almost the whole page black with a Faber-castell brush pen i got for my birthday , i colored around the skull and bones.

copied that 4 times (one for the frount ,one for the back ,one for the bottom and one for the 2 sides.

with a paper cutter i cut off the area around the skulls that i did'ent need.

then i cut the construstion paper in strips and then cut the strips the same hight as the sides of the skull paper.

then i glued 2 of the cut peaces (one on each side) to a sheet of skull paper, on the other sides of the construstion paper i glued the sides of the bag.

then with the other side of the bag i did the same thing but i glued the construstion paper to the sides of the bag which then made the outter of the bag that i was makeing.

then on the frount and back of the bag i punched 2 holes 3 skulls apart with a hole puncher,then i took 2 strips of construstion paper and folded them like a fan unfoled them folded in the ends and insurted them into the hole punched holes one on each side the ends on the inside i unfolded so they would stay.

i did the bottom last because i did'ent know how i would attach it to the rest of the bag.(if you try this you'll see why).then i came to a solution.

i took some strips of the cut construstion paper, folded them in half (hot dog style) and glued them to the sides of the bag on the bottom.

now with something to glue to on the bottom besides air i guled the bottom on and then cut off the extra.

for extra renforcement i taped the sides from the inside.

i then took pictures of it and posted them here.

end of process.

Family requests for drawings.

2009-06-14T16:18:00.000-06:00

This is a picture of me that I made for Uncle Joe. These are clothes I actually wear. I made that shirt in art class.

This is a picture I did for my mom because the Mets lost to the Yankees today 15-0. Jeez....

my mothers day card!

2009-05-24T15:33:00.000-06:00

this is my mom's mothers day card.

sorry it's up so late.

it dide'nt all come out but that's ok.

by the way this pic was scanned from my tati's computer then sent to my shared computer.

(^-^)<-happy!

Happy Birthday!

2009-05-10T16:17:00.000-06:00

This picture I did for Neve's and Lucy's birthday, both this weekend. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Strawberry Marshmallow.

2009-04-23T13:53:00.000-06:00

First we found the manga. Now the anime. This is a current favorite!

2008-10-27T16:43:00.000-06:00

I'm so sorry I haven't been able to post for a while. I did start school, which takes up most of my time. (And homework of course.) But that won't stop me from doing what I love. So I hope you enjoy this outburst of drawings I've done recently when I have free time. I've done a lot of pencils, many others, so I don't post most of them because it's hard to see. Thank you for your time. E.X. PS This is how I sign my work: E.X.

Fruit Drop for Halloween.

2008-10-27T16:40:00.000-06:00

I've started (and this time am actually finishing) a little story called Fruit Drop. This is one that I'm going to put on my binder for Halloween day.

My mom particularly liked this little panel of the berries standing there with their little feet.

Work (other than manga).

2008-10-27T16:32:00.000-06:00

This is a landscape I painted at my teacher's studio. It is in oil and took a long time to dry:
Halloween is coming and so I made this design for my sister's costume. She wanted to be a David Wright (NY Mets) baseball card, and this is based on a 2007 Goudey for those of you who might know baseball. I'm going as a witch.

Artwork for others.

2008-10-27T16:22:00.000-06:00

I started taking requets from people in my class for drawings they would like. I'm only allowed to do this when I've done all my homework and art classes. These also serve as binder covers. This one I did for Amani:

Amani's sister asked for a drawing because she liked Amani's. She asked for a girl with short hair hula hooping. This character's name is Kiwi:

This is the one that I actually gave her; the colored one is the drawing I kept:

This is one I did for Selena. I based it on a character I saw in the book Kamichama Karin Chu by Koge-Donbo:

And this is one I did for Miriam:

There is also one that I did for a girl named Gabby, in a post further down.

Spellbinder binder covers.

2008-10-27T16:15:00.000-06:00

This is a binder cover of all my Spellbinder characters, and they're color code to match each other so you know who belongs to who.

These are all the guys.

This is Ribbon.

Life graph.

2008-10-27T16:13:00.000-06:00

This was a school assignment for English. It's a graph about some highs and lows in life.

Peace.

2008-10-27T16:10:00.000-06:00

I did this picture for Gabby.

Binder cover.

2008-09-13T16:30:00.000-06:00

For the third week, I did this for my binder. These are the bad guys from Spellbinder. You might recognize Thorn and Scyth from a previous drawing that I did. But this cover features one of my newest characters, Maria Heart and her Spellbinder, Magenta.

Binder cover.

2008-09-13T16:28:00.000-06:00

I do a drawing of people for my binder at school, and this is the second one I've done...it's all the good guys and girls in Spellbinder, my book that I'll get to someday.

Contrast warm and cool colors.

2008-09-13T16:24:00.000-06:00

This was an assignment (see below) I had from my art teacher. It's the view outside my school's art room; the medium is acrylic on canvas.

Divde your canvas into thirds--horizontal and vertical--so that you have 9 squares. Decide where your focal point will be: it should not be in the center, but at the inside corners of one of your outside four squares that came from the thirds when you divided up your canvas.

For this exercise use the bottom line of the top 3 squares as your horizon (mountain, trees, whatever you decided). Use the bottom line of the top six squares as a line to set your center of interest (focal point). Not in center of canvas.

Cool colors recede, warm comes forward. Be aware of your light source. Keep a clean paint brush...a paper towel in the hand without the brush. Don't rush, take your time and think. Make a distinct choice or on shadows, remember a middle value on a tree can be a littler warmer because it's closer to us. Also think in terms of complements in shadows, and where we want to dull a color to make a color next to it brighter.

Variety: to stimulate interest, we need:
contrasts (light, dark, half tones)
color (cool, warm, bright, muted)
shapes (different; large and small)

Hayao Miyazaki.

2008-08-31T15:51:00.000-06:00

My favorite animation artist and director Hayao Miyazaki appeared today at the Venice Film Festival. He is 67 years old. His new animation is called Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea and it's a big hit in Japan. The voices include actress Yuki Amami andTomoko Yamaguchi and actors Yuria Nara and Hiroki Doi. This movie is competing for a big prize in Venice. The story is from the Hans Christian Andersen fairytale The Little Mermaid (not the Disney version) and is about a goldfish who wants to be human so she can be with her love, who is a five-year-old boy named Sosuke. This is the best part: the animation uses hand-drawn art throughout. No computer animation!

Photo: Denis Balibouse/Reuters

A lesson in color.

2008-08-30T18:34:00.000-06:00

This was a very interesting lesson about color. We used cutouts that my teacher had made. I put them together and then learned how to find the reality in them. The cutouts you can see help with depth and shadows even though it's not a real thing. On the right is my landscape.

When I did this it looked familiar to me.

Still life.

2008-08-30T18:27:00.000-06:00

My teacher gave me these reminders for how to do a small still life, 6" x 8" using acrylics:

set up at least two objects; they should overlap each other slightly. Shadow areas on objects should be made up of the local color of the object. For example, the red of an apple plus a small amoung of the complement of red. The cast shadow and object shadow should be two different values. He told me to "think composition": the main object should not be in the center of the page. Above is a picture of what I was looking at, and here's what I did:

Self portraits.

2008-08-30T18:20:00.000-06:00

These are two self portraits that my teacher had me do. The one above I did in his studio. Here are the instructions I got: use charcoal; 10x12; remember how to hold the implement (the medium is charcoal); make a series of straight lines; do measurements. How wide is the nose compared to the eye? Where does a straight line from edge of eye intersect cheek, chin, neck? Keeping those questions in mind I did this one at home:

Sunset.

2008-08-19T21:21:00.000-06:00

Here is an artist trading card (ATC). It may seem the texture conflicted with how the drawing went, so it looks a little blotchy, but that was intended. Her name is Sunset even though it's very hard to see.

Back to school again.

2008-08-19T19:46:00.000-06:00

This is a picture that I did for the beginning of school that I will put as the front of one of my looseleaf binders. My mom liked the background and my other mom said, "Hm, flying school supplies." Think what you wish....

Worry color session.

2008-08-19T19:37:00.000-06:00

This is the second lesson I've done. It's how to color my way. You don't have to listen to it, but if you look at it that would be nice. First you draw a picture, then you pen and print it. Add all the shadows.

When you start the coloring process, you have several choices. One is you can do it all in one color, with different variations in shading. I did this one in gray.

If you do different colors, you ought to tie them in somehow with each other. These are all muted base colors.

In this one, the colors don't really match each other, but there are connections. Such as the blue sweatshirt and the blue skirt and the bright socks and shoes.

Even colors that don't normally work together can work if you tie them in somehow. These are all bright colors.

Finally, if your colors do not match at all and you randomly choose colors from all different sections of the color wheel, which I would not recommend, you end up with something that looks really bad. Like this one.

A picture for a friend.

2008-08-19T19:35:00.000-06:00

I drew this picture for a friend of mine and since she really likes animal-cross people and foxes, I decided to draw this one. She does not have a name, sorry.

A day at the beach.

2008-08-19T19:30:00.001-06:00

This is a splash page that I did of two characters in my comic Spellbinder. On the left is Gyro, and on the right is Chi.

These are their spellbinders, Aquamarine and Stone. They were having a sand castle contest, and since Stone's specialty is ground, she was able to make an actual house out of sand. The tools that you see on the lower right hand side are what she used to make the house all furnished and complete looking. And Aquamarine made the smaaalll castle you see on the lower left. She's kind of competitive so she wasn't very happy with that.

Rabi-en-rose.

2008-08-19T19:19:00.000-06:00

This is a better picture of a character several "older posts" back (a sketch that I did of some of the characters in Di-gi-charat Digiko's champion cup theater). Her name is rabi-en-rose(seriously).

Pisces and Aquarius.

2008-08-19T19:13:00.000-06:00

These are two more birthday star artist trading cards. PS These cannot be traded until I have a whole deck representing each birthday's constellation.

Thorn and Syth.

2008-08-10T20:32:00.000-06:00

These are two conflict characters in Spellbinder, Thorn and Syth as you may have guessed from the large names on the side of the picture. They have turned into a cat and dog and as you can see they are not at all pleased about that.

Art by friends and me.

2008-08-09T17:11:00.000-06:00

These are also comparisons, like the post below. They are all studies in pink. The one above is mine.

This one is by Hopper.

This is by Kiyomi.

Our different styles.

2008-08-09T17:02:00.000-06:00

These are pictures that I have up on my wall that are done by three different people. One is mine, the other two are by friends. Can you tell which cutout drawing is by which artist?

This is Flarey.

Pyro.
Panda.

Lavender.

2008-08-06T16:09:00.000-06:00

I got the inspiration for this one from a soap bottle. I thought it would be nice to make as a card for someone who was coming over yesterday. She (Emily) liked it.

Ying and Yang, versions one and two.

2008-08-03T20:31:00.001-06:00

Ying and Yang are characters that me and a friend (M) did for a little story that we were trying to write. These girls are ninja who will perhaps eventually save the world. This is the original version we came up with.

I was asked to create a new look for them and this is what I decided to draw. The characters are also a little older here.

Starly.

2008-08-03T20:18:00.000-06:00

This is a request that I got from a friend. I did this recently based on an older reeeeeally bad drawing that we did more than two years ago.

Sunday at the Museum.

2008-08-03T20:08:00.000-06:00

Today my friend Millie's family took us to the Comic Art Indigenè at the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture. The exhibit was all Indian comic artwork showing how American Indian artists discuss identity, and make fun of stereotypes and culture through sequential art. I found it very interesting how Indian artists incorporate signs and styles from their culture into comics.

Apple collages.

2008-08-02T20:55:00.000-06:00

This is a collage I did as an assignment for my art teacher. We are working on a couple of things right now, and I'll post them when we're finished.

Below is the apple my little sister worked on.

Production.

2008-07-31T15:59:00.000-06:00

This is how I draw manga, in this sequence. First I do a pencil sketch, and then I ink it with India ink.

Then I copy it so as not to mess up the original. Then I color it to make sure the colors work together. If not, I can always change the colors because this is a copy.

Then, finally, the finished product, which is sometimes on the original. This is Flower. This angle is from a slanted bird's-eye view. It's the first one I've done of this type.

Meet Ryan Claytor!

2008-07-31T15:43:00.000-06:00

While I was in San Diego, we attended the 2008 Comic Con, which is NOT as cool and shiny as I expected. It was huuuuuuuuuge (three convention floors, like ONE exit). But we did get to see a friend of ours, Ryan Claytor, there. He had a table for his books, and we talked for a while. He gave me a helpful review on my five-page sequential art pages. He is a REALLY nice person.

I like his books and art. He does a cool and funny autobiographical approach that is brutally, very true. It's just a day in the life of this guy, Ryan, but I find it interesting. The art is straightforward, and in one of the books there was no planning, it was RAW. His work is awesome so I recommend it to people who like witty tales of daily life.

Here is Ryan's website.

We're back!

2008-07-31T15:39:00.000-06:00

While we were in Disneyland we went to an Animation Drawing class, and this is one I saw of the original Mulan. (My sister took the picture.) I like this because the charcoal really works with her features and she is so much cooler than those Disney princesses.

Birthday stars.

2008-07-17T14:38:00.000-06:00

I started to draw constellation-birthday signs, like Cancer, Leo, and Sagittarius. (I have to stop posting these ATCs for about a week because we will be gone. But I shall post when I get back!)

Cypress.

2008-07-15T20:51:00.000-06:00

I made this card for trade, if you'd like to trade I'd be happy to as well.

Tati.

2008-07-15T17:47:00.000-06:00

two sides of my tati, the forever-working one!

Lucky day.

2008-07-14T19:06:00.000-06:00

This is the card I did today of my sister. "The likeness is astonishing,"according to a third-party observer. I have to agree.

Morning tea.

2008-07-13T22:42:00.000-06:00

I did this one based on my mom and her love for drinking tea. I've decided that I can manage drawing one card a day, so I will try to post one every day.

Here is a detail of the Tea-O-Me Machine, an invention that brews the perfect cup of tea over and over again: TEA-O-ME

This is my first Artist Trading Card.

2008-07-12T21:04:00.000-06:00

Artist trading cards (ATCs) are miniature pieces of art that are traded around the world. Artists create, trade, and collect art at organized swap events either in person or online. The only official rule for ATCs is the size: 2.5" x 3.5" . (Also, you never sell them; only trade.) The cards can be done in any media (ink, pencil, pastel, watercolors, acrylics).

If you would like one from me, I would be happy to trade with you! Just email my mom at nmboxer at yahoo dot com so we can trade addresses or post office boxes. Please give me an idea of what you would like me to draw!

Two pears and a lemon.

2008-07-12T18:28:00.000-06:00

This is a collage I did today, with my teacher, of two pears and a lemon. I drew the still life with charcoal and then we cut colored paper into pieces and we both did the final result.

Looking for inspiration.

2008-07-11T19:11:00.000-06:00

I tried doing this character in different media: pen, colored pencils, and screen tones.

This is one of my new favorite books, Digiko's Champion Cup Theater, which I picked up at True Believers comic shop in Santa Fe. It influences my drawing a little bit, and now I'm trying not to make the eyes so big. I tried to draw my characters similar to the ones in this book, but it didn't work out.

This is the back cover of Digiko.

Here's my attempt at this character style.

My own story, Spell Binder, is about a 12-year-old girl named Thyme, who finds that she is psychic. Thyme is later visited by the Spell Binder, Starly, and is taken to a magical world where she'll make friends, rivals, and maybe discover some clues to help find her father.
These are several splash-pages I did of some of the characters in Spell Binder a while ago.

Finally, this is the inspiration of the spell binders as well as the story itself:

2008-07-11T19:03:00.000-06:00

I did these last week with my teacher who has a studio up on Hyde Park Road. He is very good because he tells me real things, he repeats things so I remember, and we aren't rushed. Also we are surrounded by art.
Apple.
Me.