Favorites Friday

Favorite's Friday

Hello Zombi-corns, lets see the favorite's of the week.

So so sorry for the huge delay in this but I will be talking about my absolute favorite watercolor paper in this post as well as why you should be buying high quality material for your art.

 

So probably my most favorite medium is watercolor, I love it's raw look and feel and is very relaxing to use. Some of you may've noticed in some of my most recent watercolor paintings that the paper was wrinkling or warped in spots. That is because it was cheap light weight paper. I believe it was a canson roll of watercolor paper, it was about $30. Now if you're doing large multimedia pieces I think this paper would be good, or if your using it for mostly dry mediums. But if your going to be doing wet on wet painting then this is not for you.

 You can see the warping in these in progress shots. The paper is completely dry in these.      

 

Probably the biggest problem with this was stretching it to get it to lay flat, this is where most of the warping took place. Also if you blended too much on a wet area the paper would start to disintegrate.

But I finally got a paycheck that I could use for art supplies and I got a three pack of Arches 300 lb cold press watercolor paper from dickblick.com.

This paper is my absolute favorite let's go over some pros and cons of it.

Pros:

Paint can grip onto it.

 



 



 

 It has a deckled edge.

 

 

 

It (virtually) doesn't warp.

 

Colors stay vibrant through drying. And blacks stay rich and are not chalky.

 

 

 

 

Cons:

Cost,

three sheets from dickblick was around $50, and shipping. You can find a 5 pack on Amazon but there is a small about of uncertainty when buying from them, coming from experience when I've ordered items from their and gotten the wrong item or it never showed up. 

 

Bowing

While it wont warp or crease like the lighter weight paper it will bow off the surface if you are wetting a large area. Because of it's stiffness though it's not much of a deterrant for me.

 

Griping paint

If you are an abstract painter or are wanting a lot of running paint and drips then this may not be for you., The reason I like this paper is because I can wet a small area and the water wont run down the page because of the paper's absorbency but some people may not like that.

 

Deckled Edges.

The deckled edge is great for presentation and gives it a high quality finesse but if you are doing an open composition and are blending out of the page the deckled edge can cause the paint to bloom if you are not careful, usually if I have this happen I can blend it out.

 

 

So there is a few facts for anyone wanting to experiment with this, I will also show how I plan on mounting these for an upcoming student show in the next coming weeks.

 

Now why to buy the higher quality stuff than buying budget friendly. Well it's simply because it will enhance your artwork as well as enhance it to other people. Most of my teachers grade very critically on materials and presentation, though they do all understand that we are all poor college kids.

But just like trying to budget to buy healthier options at the grocery store, you need to budget yourself to be able to buy the right supplies especially if this is what field you will be going into in life. Also you will usually find that higher quality art supplies respond and work better than cheaper materials.

 

Well that's it for this week, I will try and be more attentive to the blog, this week is spring break and I am planning on doing a lot of art things; painting, speed drying paintings, and framing pieces for a show. I will let you all know how it goes I hope you have a good weekend and spring break!

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You can also follow my pinterest page to see all the magnificent things I find from healthy recipes to art to wedding planning.

 



Favorite's Friday

Favorite's Friday

Hello Zombie-corns let's take a look at the things that helped me get through the week.

First off so sorry about missing last week's posts life has been really extremely busy. But I did have some things that helped me get through it.

 

First thing was coffee, lot's of coffee. I was basically perpetually tired all last week because my body has not gotten back into routine of getting up at 6AM and not stop moving till around 4PM everyday yet. The universe's way of telling me "Welcome to adult hood."

 

 

Another really big thing that helped me out was my fraternity brother's and my big. We just went through initiating 14 member candidates, and I got two of my own little's. I'm super excited for all of them and to help my own little's through the process of learning about the fraternity and what we're all about. Because of privacy I wont post any pictures of their faces. But here's a picture from our winter formal of us in front of a giant Christmas ornament!

 

 If you did not know, I am a member of the Gamma Theta chapter of Kappa Kappa Psi here at my university. Kappa Kappa Psi is the national honorary fraternity for college band members and was established in 1919 at what is now Oklahoma State University. I have been a member for a year now and I cannot tell you how much it has helped me in my college career. Having that support system and being a part of national organization is amazing, as well as it servicing college bands makes it even better. Everybody always get's confused when I say I'm in a fraternity and am a "brother", but my fraternity is co-ed so everybody is a brother. It's sister sorority Tau Beta Sigma is the same so all members are sisters.

Also something that helped me get through the week as well as helped me get in the zone for my painting class was a new radio station I made on Spotify.


This is the band that I started the artist radio off of. It's a very ambient pop kind of sound to it, not sure how to describe it you'll just have to look up for yourself.
Speaking of painting class here is a WIP shot of a watercolor I'm working on. Still not sure about the background yet, we'll see.
Well that's it for now, I hope you enjoy your weekend and liked this post!

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You can also follow my pinterest page to see all the magnificent things I find from healthy recipes to art to wedding planning.

 

Motivation Monday

Hello Zombie-corns, nobody likes Monday's let's fix that.

So I am writing this post on my phone because my computer is broke which was the end of a series of unfortunate events of my weekend. The others consisted of my bathroom flooding from the toilet, and back up in the sink, and the website I have to use for one of my classes not working on my computer, as well as it costing $65 to just use it. I can't stress enough to NEVER buy books from the bookstore unless you have financial aid posting for it. That was the cheapest I could find the book and access code and it is going to take most of my paycheck.
But on a higher note I got a 40" an art TV for my birthday, and rearranged my dorm furniture and it feels much better now. I'm also getting a tattoo from an amazing artist in a week.

Now back to the post here is your motivational quote for the day, hopefully it actually shows up cause this app is confusing.

Motivational Monday

Motivational Mondays

Hello Zombicorns, nobody likes Monday's lets fix that.

 

So sorry for skipping last week I have had an emotional and hard time lately, but I'm trying to just keep moving forward. Also here's a work in progress shot of a new painting.

 

Can you guess what it's inspired by?

 

  You can follow my facebook to get updates on the new blogs.

You can also follow my pinterest page to see all the magnificent things I find from healthy recipes to art to wedding planning.

 

Motivational Mondays

Motivational Monday

Hello Zombi-corns nobody likes Monday's lets fix that.

Here is your motivation quote for the day.

 

And another from one of my favorite artists.

 

 

Also some things that have been inspiring me in my art.

This picture of Pablo Picasso is a great example of a project we have in my drawing class.

 

 

And a lot of white stags that ignite the elven heart in me.

You can find all the sources of these images in my inspiration board on my pinterest page, which is linked below.

 

Also something that has been super inspiring is a game for mobile devices called Monuments Valley.

 

This Game is absolutely gorgeous and also has an amazing soundtrack, and its free through amazon, these are some screenshots I took from my gameplay.

I absolutely love totem.

 

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You can also follow my pinterest page to see all the magnificent things I find from healthy recipes to art to wedding planning.

 

 

 

Motivational Monday



Motivational Monday!

Hello Zombie Unicorns, nobody likes Mondays let's fix that!

 Here is today's motivational quote for the day.

 

I love this quote because I always hear people saying they have to get a "practically" degree or job, when it's not something they have a passion for. Anything worth having is never going to be easy to obtain.

 

But yea my week started out kind of down, partly from the weather and just emotions running rampit. So I thought I'd share some artwork and photos that have been inspiring me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well that's about all I have for now, I have to go study for a test tomorrow and go find a new sizer for my ring and super glue for some shoes. Don't forget to paint the roses red!

 

 



 You can follow my facebook to get updates on the new blogs.

You can also follow my pinterest page to see all the magnificent things I find from healthy recipes to art to wedding planning.

 

 

 

Motivational Monday

Motivational Monday!

Hello ZombieUnicorns, I am such a liar on trying to stay on schedule. So I will be telling you today of the new schedule that will hopefully work as well as what my college schedule looks like.

Here's todays motivation quote.

 

So with the participation in two different organizations, Art Club and Kappa Kappa Psi, and being in offices in both organizations my schedule get's pretty busy.

 

Here's a look at my planner from last week.

 

So as you can see I have a lot on my plate, after I took this picture I added two more sticky notes with memo's for club meetings this week.

Now this may scare some people that this is normal college life, I will say that college has been much more work than highschool for me but it's been so much more enjoyable because these are all things I want to be doing. I really wanted to be more involved in college life since it's where I've made more connections as well as what's training me for the real world.

Also in the art world, my first painting assignment is a photorealist painting and that has been a wonderful break in the regular college work. Here's the progress.

 

This is oil paint, but the first weeks of school were incredibly stressful for me and the minute I put the brush to this canvas all of my anxiety just melted off, even if it was just for a small time. I hope to finish this in the next week so I can enter it into some competitions.

 

Pretty much the lesson for this week is put all of your effort into something that your doing, especially if it's costing thousands of dollars to do.

 

 

 

 

 

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You can also follow my pinterest page to see all the magnificent things I find from healthy recipes to art to wedding planning.

Favorites Friday

Favorites Friday

Hello ZombieUnicorns, come see all the things that helped me get through the week.

This week was pretty hectic but I did find some new favorites, one of them being this beautiful lip color.

 

This is Maybelline's Color Blur by lip studio, in 15 Berry Misbehaved. I have worn this almost everyday, it's like a more pink toned raspberry color, and have received plenty of compliments about it. The color payoff is amazing, it does transfer but it's not so substantial where you have to retouch after every sip from a straw.

Here's what it looks like on my pale lips. This is one of the only lip sticks I have worn that doesn't come completely off when I drink from a water bottle, it's even held up against some foods. I would compare this to the NYX soft matte lip creams. Both are flute friendly so I will definitely wear this for concerts and performances.

My other favorite for the week is my supportive band family and my Kappa Kappa Psi brothers. I've had a bunch of great ideas for homecoming and recruitment and most of the band is doing pretty well, especially with adding new people into an already written drill.

Hopefully this mood stays for the rest of marching season, and that the new staff don't make it worse, or any less enjoyable.

 

I hope you had a great week, and have a great weekend, I'll see you on Monday with a new quote to start the week off and don't forget to paint the roses red.

 

  You can follow my facebook to get updates on the new blogs.

You can also follow my pinterest page to see all the magnificent things I find from healthy recipes to art to wedding planning.

 

Workout Wednesday

Workout Wednesday!

Hello ZombieUnicorns, today lets talk all the small steps to getting fit and living healthier.

So I recently discovered that my LG G4 had an app called LG Health. It basically calculates your BMI based off weight, age, gender, and height and then tells you how active you should be in a day, by showing you how many steps you should be walking.

I really like it because it shows what hours you are most active, as well as telling you how many calories you have burned.

My account says that mu BMI is about 21.0 and my recommended activity goal is 8746 steps(3.68 miles) which will burn about 250 calories.

I set my personal goal as 8000 and it's pretty easy, I usually hit 7000 steps. Now if I took my phone with me running then I would probably get over the 8000.

But the biggest thing it showed me was how sedentary I am on weekend.

On the tracker you can see your daily percentage, most of mine are between 80%-90% on days when I have marching band and school. But on Friday I only got 40%, no marching, and on the weekend I didn't get above 3%!!! Which blew my mind, and really made me want to change that because I know that's about how active I was when I was home during the summer.

This along with my nutrition class will hopefully help me stay fit and healthy, as well as help my fiancé since he goes running with me.

Apps like these are great motivators for anyone who wants to try and be more active, I would definitely recommend this to any college student, or someone with a desk job, like myself.

Do some research and find what you like best, most smart phones have started coming with a built in app like mine.

Short and sweet today, remember even just walking for 30 minutes a day helps keep you fit and to get cardio. Have a good evening and don't forget to paint the roses red!

 You can follow my facebook to get updates on the new blogs.

You can also follow my pinterest page to see all the magnificent things I find from healthy recipes to art to wedding planning.

Motivational Monday

Motivational Monday!

Hello ZombieUnicorns, nobody likes Monday's let's fix that!

So Monday, quite busy for me already, and slightly stressful. I almost am out of coffee, I'll probably use the last of it tomorrow morning, had a ridiculous work load, got really discouraged during painting class, I have to take a loan out and our first football game is next week. But I am going to try and stay calm.

Here's the motivational quote for this week!

 

Also some other things I found inspiring was a documentary I watched called "The Artist is Present".

 

The documentary follows Marina Abramovic' as she prepares for a MOMA exhibit highlighting her career in performance art. It shows how she trains the other artists to reenact her most famous pieces as well as her very moving performance that takes place for the three months of the exhibit.

One of the most moving parts of the documentary, during the first day of the exhibit her ex-husband and partner in many performances takes part as a viewer. Marina smiling and reaching across the table, later removed, to share a moment with someone who she shared a life with.

Now if you have any problems with nudity or violence then you should probably stray away from this, but she talks of how she stayed driven  after so much sorrow, to perform and create. It's a must watch for any artist, no matter the medium.

 

Also as I was in painting class having a small bought of anxiety from work and a rushed day, I decided to listen on audible to In Real Life by Joey Graceffa. It's very relatable and easy to read so I would suggest it to anyone. He talks about his road to youtube before youtube even existed, a toxic parent, divorce, bullying, special education, and coming out, I believe this is something that should be in school libraries because I feel many teens could relate to his story.

 

But I will also definitely be doing some yoga tonight to help with the anxiety and stress of Monday, as well as work on my handstand, which is yet to be an actual hand stand.

I hope you have a good week and don't let the stress get to you. Tomorrow I will be talking about buying textbooks and why you should never get them from the bookstore.

 

Thank you for reading and I hope you have a good rest of your day, and don't forget to paint the roses red.

You can follow my facebook to get updates on the new blogs.

You can also follow my pinterest page to see all the magnificient things I find from healthy recipes to art to wedding planning.

 

 

 

 



Tip Tuesday

Tip Tuesday!

Hello Zombie Unicorns! With the school season starting back up soon, I am going to share some tips about moving into dorms.

Whether this is your first time moving in or your third we can always use some help. This is my junior year of college and I think I'm starting to figure out how to pack and move in successfully for different types of dorms.

The biggest tip I can give you is ONLY PACK NECESSITIES!

You don't need every little knick knack from home, and you definitely don't need your entire closet. Now if you live pretty far from your school, like more than a day of driving, then some of this you'll have to adapt to your situation.

Dorms are extremely small, you WILL NOT have room for everything you have at home. Only take what you will actually use, don't take your whole makeup and beauty product collection. Most likely you will only have half a room to yourself, and your closet, don't be that person who hogs all the space with their useless china collection and dirty socks.

This was my side of the dorm room my freshman year, this is probably what you will be moving into. Now if you have the option to bunk your bed then you will have more room, but at some schools you are not allowed to because of safety, and you'll only have this much room to store things.

Also you see that dresser in the bottom left corner, I only had half of that to use the other half went to my roommate. Same goes to the top of it.

There was probably only room for another bed between mine and hers, so that space has to be shared and usually doesn't have anything in it.

I recommend packing what you need to get through a week or two first and then if you need more, you can drive home on a weekend and get it, as well as take anything home that you don't think you'll need. This rule also goes with clothing, only pack clothing for the current season.

Things To Waste Space.

TV

Lamps(bigger than a desk lamp)

Chairs

Jewelry

Shoe collection

Plants

Decorations

Trinkets

Clocks

Desktop Computers

Speakers/Sound Systems

 

Now all these are if you haven't seen the room before hand, if you can, go to campus and have a tour of the dorms. Most colleges now have staged rooms that will give you an idea of how much space you'll have. Also go on the school website and see if they have floor plan's of the dorms you were assigned.

These rules still apply for the bigger dorms.

This year I was placed into an apartment style dorm, so I have a living room, kitchenette, bathroom and a separate bedroom from my roommate's. So I had a little wiggle room to bring a few extra decorative things, but I still only brought what I think I will absolutely use, though I'm sure i'll be getting more for the kitchen as the year progresses.

I am only using half of that dresser, and only because I put all my scarves and skirts in their own drawers.

This room did come with blinds in the bedrooms at least.

Very little in this closet.

 

But the dorm did not come with, Wi-Fi, furniture(in the living room), laundry machines or dishwasher, it's also right next to a busy intersection so I can hear all the cars passing through the day, as well as a mystery humming sound.

Things Not To Waste Space.

Anything that can be hung on the walls(no nails)

Closet Organizers

Collapsable Luggage

Curtains

Laptop

Moving in For The Art Student

Obviously the biggest question most of us have before school starts is: what will I need? If you are lucky enough to get your supply list before classes start then go get your supplies then, except for maybe big items such as pads of paper or sculpture equipment.

If you already have a locker/flat file at the school then go store your stuff there before school if its not being used, and if your a new student grab a locker as soon as possible otherwise it'll be taken and you may have to lug your supplies around campus. Or make a friend and ask to share the storage space, never leave supplies in cars or dorms.

If you don't get a supply list beforehand then you'll be in my shoes, my professors usually give the class a syllabus and supply list on the first day of class. Sometimes they tell you to have it by next class period, which will give you about a day and a half to buy supplies, or some of them will say go get it now and then we will start class. If you have the latter option then that some what forces you to use the bookstore, where I suggest never to buy supplies or books, and pay overprice.

 

So whether you're moving into a standard dorm or an apartment style always:

1.Research the Space

2.Avoid space hoggers

3.ONLY PACK NECESSITIES