I don't have any new art.

Here's something I drew months ago.

Making it look authentic.

Because the edition of the breviary I has is from 1973, before the 3-year cycle of benedictus and magnificat antiphons was devised, and before the revised antiphons and responsories assembled by the CDW for various feasts was devised, I've decided to make little inserts for the office to supply whats needed. (I also added the alternate antiphons and responsories for all the solemnities and feasts of the year, as well as some days which are feasts of devotion for me personally, eg, Our Lady of Sorrows or the Holy Name of Jesus.) I took this as an opprtunity to add lots of very nice etchings from This Site, since the volumes already have that classic look, it makes sense to complete them by adding art that goes with them.

Of course, I don't want them to be jarring.The book is obviously over 30 years old, and the pages have aged quite a bit. Even using 'antique' colored paper from Statples does'nt work. The 'antique' looks quite bright and white compared to the book. So, I decided to tea-stain the pages. It's not a 100% match, but it's a good 85%, and I don't think anyone would notice.

FAN ART.

You know, since I won't have a computer during novitiate, I've been building up my photo references for sketches. Right now, I want to do a whole bunch of stuff with characters from my favourite mangas and comics. It's hopeless for me to get them all done any time soon, but hopefully, eventually In all, I want to do:

Another of Ryohei
Bianchi and Hayato
Dino
Lambo
I-Pin
Haru
Chrome Dokuro

-All from Reborn!

And then,

Tajima
Hanai
Abe
Momo

-All from Ofuri.

St.Joseph.

....Because St.Joseph does'nt have to look like he's wearing mascara, blush, and lipstick. Like in Exhibit A or Exhibit B.

I now have a new favourite church bulding.

Sorry, S.Cyprian's Clarence gate, you've been ousted. S.Mary's Wausau has topped you.

St.Venantius.

..........Because the last thing we need are more pictures of celebrity saints like St.Jude.

The Annunciation.

Something I've been working on.

There is something that depresses me.

St.Peter Paschasius, Bishop and Martyr.

This is it: The inability of so many modern people to see beauty in humanity beyond sex. It just baffles me. You can think of this as a continuation of my last post on art. Well, what I've been trying to say without saying is that for so many people, the human body is a thing for use. A thing to be desired, a thing to be used as one uses clothes or shoes. But, humanity is more than the body. Humanity is the soul as well. The exterior is not all there is to man, and to focus on it is to loose the beautiful truth of what man is: A summation of God's creation, a unity of divine and created goods. The mortal nature of animal and the immortal nature of God, the qualities of the animal, the angel, and God are joined together in man.The instincts of the animal, the intellect of the angels and the will of God, all together in one. That's what makes man special. Each soul is individual, created of nothing, totally and completely special. Basically, it's a really, really high anthropology, and anthropology is more than just skin and nails and teeth. Man is beautiful because man has his origin and end in God, his purpose is to live for God. There is a beauty in the existence of the least and most wretched human being that does not exist among all the other created goods on earth.

This is how I see people. This IS humanity for me. So it really discourages me to see people who cannot see this, people who can't fathom that man is more than just his actions, his ideas, his physical appearance. I think this is partly why people don't get my drawings. The other part is beauty.

Beauty comes from God. I think it's obvious that beauty is more than just physical appearance. Invisible, divine truths are beautiful, the virtues are beautiful, that which is harmonious, integrated, in union and concordance it beauty. Do you realise a similarity in those? Those are the attributes of God. God is in perfect harmony, there ebeing no dischord within him nor come from him.('God is not the author of confusion'.) God is perfect simplicity and unity, he is without composition, each person of the Trinity dwells in inseparable union with each other. The two natures of Christ are in perfect unity, God is in union with his Bride, the church, and with the soul of each individual Christian, provided they are in grace. So, I suppose one could say that that which has its origin in or is in accordance with the attributes of God, that is beautiful.

So, if you want to depict beauty, you have those as a starting point. That's what I want to communicate with my pictures, even the secular pictures. Humanity, all creation, is beautiful, and it's beautiful because it has it's origin in and exists in accordance with God. That's why the base, the sinful, and the diabolical are not beautiful. But, like I said, the greater part of humaniy doesn't live with this in mind. Hence it is, that they have to substitute something else in the place. So the idea of 'beauty' is often replaced by sex. And simply put, that's the lense that most people see my pictures through. Which is why I'm frustrated with the websites I show it on. I'm trying to depict beauty, people see something entirely different.

My pictures of people are more than just prettiness. I don't draw people, places, or events because they're 'Pretty'. I draw them because they're beautiful. Adam and Eve are not a pretty couple, they're an icon of the beauty of salvation history, of the goodness in which God created them, which was lost by man and restored in the man Christ Jesus. That's a lot more beautiful than my little picture, and it's a bigger concept than I could ever hope to picture. The Assumption is not a pretty picture, it's a sign of the beauty of Mary, the Holy Mother of God, of the purity of her life, her most pure soul being preserved from all sin. Of the simplicity of her life, lived with total obedience to the God who took flesh of her. So it was that God crowned her with the highest diadem of heaven, she whom he had clothed from her beginning with a vesture of salvation and adorned her soul with Justice, as a spouse decorated for her husband with fine jewels.

Now, ending this too long series of posts, I suppose I should not get frustrated. We live in a 'post-Christian' world, and even that Christianity was often without much substance. But, it does nothing to help me, because from the viewpoint that is opposed to the idea of beauty that I have, its from this one that my pictures are ALWAYS criticised. Part of me just wants to say 'If only you knew!' It's sad, even some of my fellow Catholics criticise my pictures from this point, often with good but still misguided intentions.

Part I
Part II

I should feel guilty.

Because I'm drawing a self portrait.

New art.

S.George.

New Medieval art.

I think I have some of my confidence in my art back.

But, one major problem I have with the few people I let see my work is that, and I don't mean to gloat, my style is too unique. It leaves me open to some pretty harsh criticism. I call my style 'New Gothic' or 'New Medieval'. It's really just melding my own manga style with the Gothic art of the high and late middle ages.

Sometimes it's subtle, like the picture of St.Michael I have here. The design of the armor and the words around the yellow halo are of course of medieval origin*. Other times, it's more obvious and overt, like my picture of St.Hermenegild or my picture of St.Peter Pashasius. Both are obviously gothic in design. (St.Hermenegild with the costume, as well as the patterned background and tiled floor popular for saints of that time.** St.Peter Paschasius is my version of a French miniature of St.Remigius, taken from a book of hours.)

In all of my art, I generally reference MANY pictures for help. For example, for my picture of St.Peter, I referenced the bishop saints of Van Eyeck's Adoration of the Mystic Lamb,used his painting of the Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saints and Canon Joris van der Paele for the carpet, and used Van der Weyden's Miraflores altarpiece to color the chapel. And again, for St.Hermenegild, the backround fabric is a direct copy of a swath of 15th century fabric that went up for sale last year.

In the end, I think my art is well designed but usually poorly executed. I think it looks better of you understand the concepts and ideas that I put into it, so a knowledge of the art of art of the middle ages is good. Of course, I could always learn to execute designs better, but that takes far too much effort, time, and money than is available for me at this time.

How did this happen?

I not only got more than the 4 Llamas I already had and ended up getting my Super Llama, I ended up getting my ALBINO Llama, and am close to getting my Super Albino Llama badge. :D

Also, one of my works got double-digit favourites and views already, and I piked up two watchers.

DA finally does'nt hate me as much.

Mind Changing events.

(The Cross as the Tree of Life, something I did last month)

Without gloating, I think I'm starting to think like a religious. That does'nt mean that I act like one, of course. It just means that I've learned some basic things, and those things will have to chanhe my actions.

The biggest thing is that I realise now that I'll have to give up on art, probably entirely, or at least restrict myself to religious subjects. I've realised that there is no point in me drawing secular subjects. Many of the subjects don't glorify God, and there's the simple fact that I cannot draw without refrence photos. To find reference photos, I have to trawl through pages of photos on stock photo sites or Deviant art. If you don't understand what I'm getting at, just go to your average stock photo site, like istockphoto or Getty images and search any term and see what type of things you get.

That, and some of the pictures I draw don't make sense without lenghty explanation. While me and me friends understand why I drew a pictures, for example, like This One, others won't. People who don't know that Annoh is my friend, who I talk to on Gaia Online, and that on Gaia, there is this thing called avatar art , or 'avi art' for short, where you draw someone's virtual avatar and they pay you in virtual currency, people who don't know that will just thing that I drew a random violent picture of a criminal. Or, if they don't know about the Double Rainbow video, and how Gaia made an Item for it that you can equipt on your avatar, they'll see somthing like This and think that it's an approval for alternative lifestyles.

So yes, as it is a vehicle for scandal, and possibly a near occassion of sin for others, I ought to stop. I think I'll just finish the 10 or 11 comissions that I have in progress and then take a break while I decide what to do with all the avi art and secular comissions that I have in my portfolio.

And also, the importance of cultivating a spirit of poverty, Which means, I probably can't draw anyway since markers are expensive, and drawing requires the use of expensive digital editing programs, and letting other people know that I have any of that stuff can be a cause for scandal ,and it's probably just not right for me to own expensive things like sets of copic markers of multiples copies of photoshop*


Of course, this could all just be me going to the extreme and I could end up changing my mind anyway. But like I said, 10 or 11 comissions and then I'll see where I'm going with this.
*Which, by the way, I don't own.

RYOHEI SASAGAWA.

I'm planning on drawing three pictures of him. One is nearly done, the other two are only sketches. Ryohei is form the manga Reborn!, which is one of my favourites. I have'nt actually read any manga since I left. One Manga and Manga Fox no longer have manga viewable online, my subscription to Shonen Jump ran out, and I'm too poor (Obviously) To buy volumes for myself. And daily trips to the books store can't happen now that I no longer have this thing called 'free time'.

But, I can still keep up with some of my animes, even if the mangas are always ahead of the animes.

Anyway, after him, I have three pictures of Chrome (Chrome Dokuru/Mukuru Rokudo) two of Gokudera, and one of Naito. (Naito Longchamp, the weird punk guy with the weird girlfriends)

Once again, I am reminded...

...That there is a lot of creepy and disgusting 'artwork' on deviant art. I'm subscribed to Marker Mania, so every few days, I get sent the new art that they have accepted from their members to put in the members' gallery. At least 40% of the stuff I end up deleting because, no matter how well done it is, some of the work is inappropriate.

The same happens when I look for stock.

I still run an artshop on Gaiaonline, so when I take a commission to draw a person for a user, I usually look for stock with a pose that will work with what they want done. Sometimes It's easy, sometimes it's not. I really absolutely Hate looking for stock photos, because what Deviantart considers 'tasteful' and what I consider 'tasteful' are two totally different tastefuls. Depending on the user, some people do upload normal and tasteful pictures of people, objects, and backgrounds that I can use. Others upload things that can be pretty offensive. One person I came across even had a series of photos mocking the Blessed Virgin.

But you never know what you'll get till you click 'Gallery' on their profile. It's always hit or miss, and for the most part, you'll find yourself having to slag through a few pages of unsuitable work to find the real gold, Because, unfortunately, the best stock photographers often tend to do that sort of work because it brings them pageviews, which are the nectar of life on Deviantart.

I'm slowly building up a collection of people whose galleries I know are tame. But it's only four people so far.

ETA: And as proof of this, I was on DA randomly browsing, and after I clicked on Daily deviations, wallpaper and channels, I decided to click 'Collections', since I've never done that before. And I'm so happy that my account settings block mature content.

Work in Progress.

Just something I've been working on. I can't seem to get the face or crown of Mary right. *Sigh* Maybe in the future.

STOCK PHOTOS.

A few months ago, when I still had my old, old computer, I saved in draft posts a whole bunch of stock sites, stock pages/searches on deviantArt, and some individual photos that I liked.

Or so I thought.

I need them again, and I went looking through my saved drafts on blogger to find them, and tey are not to be found. Actually, I found some of them, just not the ones I'm looking for. There are some quite nice poses that I hoped to use for a picture of the Assumption, and some pictures in profile that I hoped to used for a version of the Mass of S.Gregory. But none of those can be found.
So yeah, I'm lost. I don't even know where on Deviant Art I found the photos.

More markers.

On Saturday, my brother and I went out on a fruitless search to find a suitable movie to watch. Saturday,of course, would have been my father's 45th birthday had he lived. Instead, we just walked about and spent time together. We had lunch at a burger joint, and then I went to Blick to pick up some stuff. I needed a replacement black marker and white pen and ink.I also picked up two new shades of pink, one new shade of blue, and two new shades of grey. The new greys are light, which is what I needed. It's quite hard to get greys to gradate properly when you're working totally with dark and medium greys. (See how This and This came out for a visual.)
I'll need time to work first. I've been so consumed with my dad, with life in the friary, with school, and my mother and siblings that I've not had any time to do any art. D:

CRAP.

There's some art that I've been supposed to draw for someone, and thanks to the inability of one of the members of my large family to make the grueling 10 block drive up here to the house to deliver my lineart, I have'nt done it.I also have art for a friend, and a couple for another customer I meant to draw, but without the art, I can't do anything.My only choice is to re-draw it, which is'nt an option, sorry guys. Don't blame ME that your art is'nt done. I mean to do it, I just don't have the lineart, and I can't go get it myself.

PNG files.

Wherein, Joes possibly does something stupid.

My entire Deviantart gallery. I'm going to delete and re-upload Every.Single.Piece. In higher resolution, in PNG format, with better scanner settings. And whatever does'nt look good can be photoshopped out. It will take forever, and I know lots of people don't like PNG files. But most of my art is intended to be used by users in a small format. Which means that they're going to be shrunk. JPG files don't look as well shrunk as PNG files, besides that PNG files look crisper and have sharper definition.

Time to get to work. D: