Daylight Wasting time?

Is there such a thing?

I think so, because I'm doing it!! Unintentionally of course. But still the same. I'm accidentally slipping back into the time frames I had when I was at school.  Which of course might not be a bad thing unless you know... you'd like to actually see the SUN!

see? the sun is nice

Unfortunately, my brain has reverted to it's extremely annoying and incredibly inconvenient tendancy to become most creative when it's time to sleep.  I've always been that way (I inherited it from my mom... thanks MOM!) and it was a good thing during school, as I worked a lot, so night was an opportune time to get things done.  However, now... as I have an entire day which can be devoted to working on my skillz (haha) itsa not so good! Now it makes me sleep late into the morning and I feel like I've wasted a huge chunk of my day.

Exhibit A:

I'm writing this blog at 1:40 am.  why? because my brain is WIDE AWAKE!! O.O

i should not draw at 1:40am...

Exhibit B

Is the pure fact I got up, got my wacom, plugged it in, opened photoshop, and sat here to draw out illustrations (horrid as they may be) to help explain my dilemma.


Not even my scrumptous cupcake pajamas and my zebra shower cap with a teal bow could make me sleepy.

ok now you're curious huh...

that's my late night interpretation of zebra stripes. no judging.

so with that... I'm going to try and get some sleep as all this mindless (tho somewhat productive) sketching has brought me to the 2:05am mark.

I need to try and get some sleep or I will sleep past lunch and miss out on all the things I need to get done. That would not be good. At all. And not help me in any way, shape or form.  ...which would fall under the "At all" category actually.... buuuuut Moving ON!

To all of you other sleepless compadre's I bid you adieu.

4/12/11 Sketch

Does anyone else wanna go to Disneyland?

I am prepared to rock some ears....

4/6 - 4/10 sketch

This about sums up my activity for the days listed.  I was only good for a place to perch apparently.

I'm so glad I could provide a place to nap...

I used my sketch program that came with the Wacom, it's called SketchBook Express,... so much better! The line quality is more like a pencil rather than a pure ink line and I can adjust the intensity with pressure.  I'll for sure be using this from here on out for these.

bleh....

Oh my goodness you guys...


I have been feeling so icky the last few days. I'm so sorry I didn't keep up with the daily sketches :(

Tuesday night I started feeling really tired like I had been running around all day (I hadn't) and during the night I felt worse and worse.  By Wednesday morning my whole body felt like I had been hit by a truck and then slept on a bed of rocks. Not good.  I pretty much had all the flu symptoms except for a fever - go figure - chills, upset stomach, headaches, body aches, and I was just so tired. I spent all day in bed with ice packs on my head trying to subdue the migraine. I got better the next few days, went on some errands, and went to a college thing at church, but last night it came back full force. I don't know what's going on :/

Anyway, I'm going to try my hardest to catch up and continue the sketch of the day for April in the morning. It's so discouraging when you really want to get things going and obstacles just keep hitting you every which way. I couldn't even watch tv or read very well without aggravating the headache more.  *sigh* Here's believing that next week will rock!

Till tomorrow :)

4/5/11 sketch

I feel like I'm starting to get the hang of the way the pen moves and the tiny bit of delay in the line - and I mean minuscule delay.  I definitely don't like the line quality photoshop is giving me as far as pixelation when I'm using it tho, so I'm thinking about switching over to a Sketchbook program I got with the wacom. It might have a better overall quality to it.

this little bugger is by my side none stop and I have a feeling she's going to be the ultimate studio cat now that I'm here a lot more.  I don't know how that position is comfortable but hey.. to each his (or her actually) own.

Phoebe cat

 ... till tomorrow! :)

Owl Coasters!

I think by now I've doubled my post count for 2011, that's so sad! haha! But good too because I have so much more things to show you all :)

These drink coasters were a Christmas gift to some of my family (yes, I know it was forever ago... but I couldn't help it!) and I had taken pictures of them to share, but when my Blackberry bit the dust it took all my pictures with it :( So I was lost until I asked my loverly sister to please please send me some pictures of them.  To which she promptly interrupted her Philosophy study session to send me some quick pics of these squee-able coasters.

These are based off of my Owl characters who never got to make it to the wrapping paper I was planning.  Next year!

Owl #1

Owl #2

Owl #3

Owl #4

The whole collection!

I was so happy with how these turned out! I'm planning on making a bunch for gifts and maybe some extra in case you guys want some.

I can't say this was all my idea, my friend Stacee sent me some for Christmas with stamped zoo animals (and a Sock Monkey!!) on it and I became obsessed with finding out how she did it. I knew it would be perfect for my little owls.

I hope you enjoy these as much as I do and if you are interested in some, just shoot me an email at hobbs.annie@gmail.com

Have a Blessed Day!

4/4/11 Sketch

I'm on a spending ban... which means of course that I want to buy EVERYTHING!

The nail polish brand OPI has a new collection coming out based on the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie. It features a lot of pastels for spring and summer with the funnest names based on the movie.

 

The one I'm particularly excited about is this one entitled "Mermaids Tears"

Mermaids Tears

 Isn't this such a beautiful color?  I have a crackle black nail polish I got a couple weeks ago also by OPI that would look so fun on top of this!
Other colors include:
Skull and Glossbones - a bone grey color
Steady as She Rose - a light pink
Planks a Lot - a purple
Sparrow Me the Drama - a cool bright pink
Stranger Tides - a sage green
& a Silver Shatter
(all of these will be out in May 2011)


Wait... Isn't this supposed to be a sketch of the day?? YES! haha Here's the tie in...

The name of this nail polish got me thinking. If Mermaid tears were sold as a medicine or herb, how would one bottle it?  They'd have to be some pretty intense glass or something to hold it in because from what I've heard about these tears is they can be pretty powerful.  I imagine you'd have to bottle in a thick glass like a pure oil with a cork top and it would be sold by a holistic (is that the right word?) shop.  You know, where you'd find crows feet, or sage bundles, or lizard eyeballs... (i dunno, go with it!)

So ya! that's my take on it anyway.  I'd imagine they'd be more blue that teal and be sparkly and shiny like pixie dust. What do you guys think?

late 4/3/11 Sketch

When you're on a diet or trying to eat healthy, it's inevitable that you're gonna start craving something. I don't think I've made or eaten as many cookies as when I'm supposed to be eating healthy. It just happens.  Although if I was able to control this phenomena then i probably would not have to be continuously trying to eat more healthy... hmmmm...

April Challange Day 1

ok I need to put a disclaimer on this one because although I don't think i did a horrible job.... haha this sketch needs help!
I'm not very good at using an Intuos tablet and the only experience I have is using it in one class in my entire school career. Even then it wasn't my go to method for working on the computer. Soooo I'm forcing myself to get better on it with this challenge and it will be interesting to see how far I come (or don't) by next month. You know the saying... "Practice makes BETTER!"

so here's the sketch for today...

he needs a little help... he has a "leaning problem"

My dad and I met up with my cousins today and went on a hike.. er well maybe like 10 mini hikes all over the place :) But I'm pooped! This sad little penguin is a bit how I feel right now. haha I'm ready for bed!!

This was a short sketch, I want to keep them loose and not put a huge amount of time put into them to make them perfect.  This is a sketching exercise and while I want to make them worthy of showing, I think it would be unfair to post "finished" sketches.  That's not really the point of this. I bought the Intuos4 last year knowing that I need to become accustomed to using it and haven't had the chance to really focus on learning it well.  Now's the time!

Anyway, So long till tomorrow! :)

The Next Chapter in the Annie Show

Hey guys!

Things have been a bit tumultuous the last few weeks and as a result some major changes have happened in my life in the last 24 hours.

As a lot of you know, I've been working a full time 8-5 job and trying to do random freelance work at night/on the side. It's been somewhat successful but I have not been able to complete my website yet or finish a lot of the projects I desperately want to.

Within the last 6 months or so my job has been sort of up in the air as to what I would be doing, where I would be doing it, and how often I'd be working.  The small independent Insurance Agency I worked for has been affected big time from the economy. Commissions from the big companies (ie: Blue Cross, Blue Shield) have been getting cut down and it's to the point where the business could not support it's financial responsibilities as well as it's 2 full time workers. Because of that, I was let go this week.  It was ended on a good note and I pretty much knew it was coming. I can't fault a little business having struggles in a economic time like this and in reality, it's business!

That being said, I'm choosing to take this time to hunker down and get my "little business" rockin! For a while at least, I'm going to go full time into freelance and treat my illustration work as my full time job!  I know that time put into things can produce results and now I have the time to do that :) I have finally realized that I most likely won't be picked to be JK Rowling's next illustrator ;P (here's hoping!), but I do believe that sometimes it just takes one hit to get the ball rolling. You have to get yourself out there to be seen or noticed - it won't just fall into your lap. Tho we all might wish it!

Sooooo that's the big news!! Its weird because I'm not scared or worried or stressed about this. At All. For once in my life I'm free of other work commitments and school schedules and I can devote my time to what I'm passionate about! It's so exciting! I truly believe that God has a hand on this situation and he can make the best of it, but it's truly up to me to take it and work my butt off to achieve the goal.

This is turning into a VERY long post! hahaha but in honor of this new chapter I'm kicking of a sketch of the day challenge for the month of April. Starting tomorrow I will be posting up a daily sketch of whatever to keep you entertained (hopefully) and in the process work on my sketching skill with the wacom :) So stay tuned tomorrow for that one!

Till then, may you all have a blessed day and a happy weekend!

** I should probably put a disclaimer on this post considering what the date is today. No, this is not an April Fool's joke! LOL This is for real and I'm plowing ahead full steam! **