As a little Christmas/birthday (January 16) gift to myself, I decided to buy a few things from Blick Art for the art classes that I’m taking. That website is an artist’s dream, but unless you have a lot of money to spend on there it really drives you nuts. Since I recently got laid off from my job, and my mom has been off from hers as well, spending a lot of money on a hobby just isn’t an option right now. I did manage to buy a few things that I absolutely needed. I’ll just have to be resourceful as well.

I always have this inner battle when it comes to doing art. Part of me feels that I shouldn’t waste money buying art supplies unless I can make some money back selling prints, commissions or the like. And then the other part of me feels that if I don’t invest in myself, how will I ever get good enough to make money off art.

Sometimes I hate being an adult. I miss the days when I could run to my mom and she would buy me what I wanted. Now I have the responsibility of taking care of myself as well as my mom. Oh, I was going to post some new artwork but the big light in my room blew and I’m using one of those “green” bulbs that are only like 60 watts! So yeah, everything looks dark and weird right now.

If you’ve been following me for a while then you know that I try to draw Aaliyah every January in honor of our birthday (January 16), but this year I just didn’t feel up to it. My new year has gotten off to a really bad start and the last thing I really want to do is celebrate my birthday. At any rate, I wanted to share the last Aaliyah image I made. It was done on 1/15/2010. My prayers are with her loved ones. Hopefully my birthday will actually turn out good.

And most importantly… Thank you, Dr. King!!

Recently I’ve decided to get more serious about painting, so I’ve been looking for YouTube videos and information online that can teach me about shading and blending, and surprisingly, I can’t find anything good. That’s crazy since the Internet is full of artists. One thing I notice though is that people are very selfish. They hold on to information like it’s really that serious. I can ask anyone for blending techniques or products that they use to blend acrylics and they will not answer me! I don’t get it. I’m not adverse to doing research and doing what it takes to learn like everyone else, but why be so secretive? I notice that a lot of women do that. I can see if I asked a woman where she got her dress and she doesn’t want to tell me because she doesn’t want me to have the same thing! Even that’s petty, but I can understand that. But what do you lose by telling me, “I used product a or b.” We still have two totally different styles and our paintings will never look alike, so what’s the big deal??

Honestly, everything creative that I’ve learned to do (art, web design, sewing, etc) I’ve learned on my own through reading, trial and error. However, if I ever come across someone who knows less than I do and they ask me to share anything that I’ve learned, I will. Gladly. It’s just not that serious. It won’t take away from anything God has planned for me. After all, there is nothing new under the sun. Everyone learns from something or someone. So stop being so stingy!! Geez