Art

Mary, Monkey, and a Student Showcase

by Sarah Baran

Last Monday was the last day of my homeschool co-op’s art class. To commemorate my great achievement of making it through two whole semesters without dying from an overdose of people, I’m doing another art post. If I randomly yell “You shall not PASS!!!” in the middle of it, please forgive me. My brain is slowly looping out from the lack of homework.

 

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YOU SHALL NOT PASS!!!

I did warn you…

This was my end of the year project. I did it in charcoal, the hardest medium out there. Feel proud of me while you ignore his tiny mutant hand.

 

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Guys, meet Liriel Willowtree, the main character of the novel I’m writing. This is not exactly how I meant her to turn out, but she’s one of those bland characters who could literally look like a banana and still be right, so I’m happy with her. This is also the first watercolor painting I’ve done straight from my head with no reference picture, which explains why the right eye is bigger than the left.

 

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Fun Fact: That dingy gray blob up there is the moon.

Another watercolor. Not the greatest photo of it though. Sorry. My camera was having issues. And my lighting. And I think there was a massive earthquake or something going on at the time.

Whatever the issue was, I assure you, it wasn’t me.

 

Now. I did this next picture a while ago (as in last month), but I think it’s kind of cool. The thought process behind it being, “I wonder if I could draw a picture on the computer?” And then proceeding to do so.

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I call it “Modern Art”. Because, you know, she’s blue.

 

 

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Remind me to grow chin hairs this incredible when I grow up.

 

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Luke… Luuuuuuuuuuuuuuuke…. I’m boooooooored…..

 

At the end of the school year, Cornerstone has a student showcase where we all get to be narcissists for the day. I got two pieces of my artwork in, because I was in two classes, watercolor and drawing.

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Here I am, looking smug. And extremely red-faced because it was sweltering in there. And slightly (alright, extremely) young for my age. (I’m not twelve, just so we’re clear on that.)

 

This is the picture I’m standing next to, though I did it a while ago.

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If you’re wondering what the deal is with the bumps, it’s just the stupid watercolor paper. It never rears it’s ugly, rough head until I’m trying to paint a person who needs to be smooth.

And the other picture I got in was the monkey (at the time, Gandalf wasn’t finished yet, or I would have done him), but you don’t need to see that twice.

Now. Awkward story time: As I was standing there, admiring my own work, a lady that I haven’t seen in a long time came up and asked me how I was doing. She chatted with me for a bit, and then asked, “What are you planning on doing when you get out of school?”

That’s when my mind decided to blank out.

I stared obtusely at her for what was probably three minutes, before saying, “I want to…write stuff…”

“Oh!” she said, squinting just a little at my vague expression. “What genre do you want to write?”

Another blank stare.

“…books…”

*cough cough*

I never said I was a people person, okay?

YOU SHALL NOT PASS.

~Sarah

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21 thoughts on “Mary, Monkey, and a Student Showcase”

  1. Actually me?

    “What do you want to write, Elizabeth?”
    “Oh, just…stuff. For pre-teens.”

    *insert weird look here*

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  2. First, that Gandalf charcoal was amazing. I wish I had art talent. *melancholy sigh*

    “Oh you want to be a writer? What is you want to write?”
    “Ummm… well… you know… books and… stuff.”
    “What are you working on now?”
    *no response because I choked and died*

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  3. Sarah,
    First off, I thought the bumps on the watercolor painting added a sense of oldness to it that suited the portrait, which I assume is of Mary and Baby Jesus. I liked all of them, but especially that one and the one with Hiccup and Toothless.

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  5. Books. That works. 🙂 I can’t believe how awesome that charcoal picture is!!! Fantabulous job! Also, was that a Studio C reference?

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  6. I hate it when people, when they find out I’m a Creative Writing major, say “So you want to be a writer?” or “So what kind of things do you want to write?” I always want to be snarky and say something like “I don’t want to, no, but I kind of have to be if I don’t want my head to split open next time I have an idea” or, to the second one, “Words”. I don’t, though, I just put up with it. Usually I’ll try to subtly correct them. “I write mostly historical fiction. . .” It annoys me no end.
    Quite possibly the worst is when the ask what I’m working on at the moment. Depending on the kind of person, whether or not my audience is, you know, actually interested in the topic, I might say, “I’m going to ramble on, and do feel free to stop me if it gets boring” because a little social awkwardness is much better than seeing their eyes glaze over while you’re only halfway through explaining your storyworld (I’m not a people-person either). And I do ramble. I’ve written nice concise back-cover-copy for some of my stories, but if you ask me about one I won’t remember a word of it and just start going. Which is usually a recipe for disaster.

    Apropos of the actual topic of your post: Gandalf looks pretty good, and I like the Toothless one (perhaps just because I like Toothless. . .) too. Anything white is hard to draw and usually ends up gray, for some reason, when I try.

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    1. Ugh, I know what you mean. People seem to have a lot of misconceptions about writing that are terribly annoying, especially when they treat you like it’s some sort of faze you’re going through, just like when you wanted to be an astronaut at age seven. We hates it, Precious.
      And the whole thing about “what you’re working on at the moment”. Do they realize how hard it is to sum up all the glorious ideas one has compressed in their brain? I always end up making my book sound terribly juvenile because I try to paraphrase and it comes out something like, “It’s a fantasy story about this huge…monster…that woke up and started…eating people.” That does not leave a favorable impression. XD

      Thanks. Yeah, white is really hard. Fortunately, my moon is actually white on the real drawing, but the photo I took of it turned it grey.

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  7. Aw, that Toothless one was adorable. He and Hiccup are both adorable.
    And Gandalf…*raises eyebrows* Good job. He looks to be in a particularly irascible mood.
    Nice modern art, too. You should try to sell it for a million dollars.

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      1. Mostly. Just excepting those times he sits and talks kindly to hobbits instead of calling them fools. (Like that scene with him and Pippin in RotK, in the battle in Minas Tirith before the Witch King arrived—A far green country….just the beginning of another adventure… *hugs self* So sweet. One of my favorite scenes.)

        XD Perfect.

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