Don't Mind, My mind

So once upon a time I was so intensely engulfed in adorable cute things. Which is still entirely true. But lately i have really just wanted to make everything with black and some other vibrant color. Like Gothicy but not. I guess I don't really know how to explain it. I used to make these disgustingly cute things but now I don't. It's not that I don't want to but rather I want to draw other things. Hmm.

Well anyway here is something new I made. And perhaps I should update my blog more. But who knows? I sure don't.


The Lady Is a Rabbit by ~starshinesky on deviantART

Cupcakes and other sweet things

The strange part is... All I can ever draw is cupcakes and other candy type things. I guess that is good considering my blog name is Candy Constellations but it is slightly unoriginal. I should think of an animal I could draw.... Thinking.... I decided! Sweet. Now To draw some cute things.

I really need to fix my layout on this thing. I should make a way smaller banner and make it much cuter. That is my goal. Haha. But I also have to start drawing things that are not cupcakes, Whoops!

Cutest Give Away ever!

The Blog Miseducated which is a cute DIY and crafty type site is having a really fun give away! So enter enter Enter! I found the site through Audrey Kitching's Twitter since I adore her and her pink hair.

The image below is linked from her site of all the cute things she is giving away! So Go enter~


Here is a link to the official page: Etsy Goodie Bag Give Away

Hmmm.

So there is a lot on my mind lately an it involves many things that I need to document. Which is sad because I am leaving for camp today. I guess it's good for me to have all of this time on my hands to sit down and write out all of the things that I am thinking about. But let's just say a lot of random and crazy things might happen but that is perfectly normal now isn't it?

Anyway, This camp is a really great thing. It's the Valerie Fund's Camp Happy Times. And it is a camp that helps make a week of fun for kids who had cancer. I started going to this camp as a child and it was so much fun and such an experience. This is the last year that I can go to be a Leader in Training and I figured, Why not?

The Camp this year runs from August 16th until August 22nd, and they bus the kids from several hospitals to this camp. Since I have class August 23rd I will unfortunately be leaving the camp a day early in order to get to school on time for move in. But I think all in all it will be a great end to my summer.

I was going to play with one of my sketches this morning but I realize that I just took it off of my computer last night. So, Maybe I'll do some playing before I have to leave.

Sprinkle

Meet Sprinkle my vector person. Or bust rather. I'm quite proud of her. It kind of just came out of me like a blossoming flower. I have Kari Darling to help with the anatomy of her eyes. It's quite a lot harder than most people think. I thought people were easy and I was very very wrong. I'm glad I finally made a person with out copying a actual human or human parts.

I have been meaning to do a cameo piece and I know this doesn't really count but I think it does get quite close. The colors were very necessary thanks for asking. I need to work in bright colors I think. very odd I know. The brown was added to make the other colors pop more. It complemented the piece quite nicely.

This is hopefully not going to be the last piece that involves something other than candy. I do enjoy this quite a lot. Thanks for looking~ And Reading this.

Kari: Weird Dybbuk

Nikon D5000

So today I got a new Nikon D5000~ Exciting! The good part about it is that I now have a Nikon SLR camera that I can use whenever I want and I can use for all of my creative purposes. There is no real negative part about the camera except that my little close up lens does not work on the D5000. Which means I'll need to buy a new lens or ask my grandfather if he has one that will fit the camera.




The iffy bits about the camera are that you can't just plug it into a computer and transfer the photos you need to install some silly program to do it. The other negative part of the camera is that despite how fancy the name sounds, it is no more fancy than my old camera. The major differences between the D5000 and the D50 (My old camera)is as follows. The Nikon D50 was your basic 6 megapixel SLR camera it could however autofocus motorized camera lenses even if they were not specifically made for the camera. The D5000 is a 12.3 megapixel SLR camera with HD video capabilities. The negative is that they don't as readily accept other lenses, it will take any lens with a Nikon bracket but will not autofocus them. The next one that will autofocus lenses not made for them is the Nikon D90.

Nikon is so funny with their naming of things. Who would have thought that a camera called the D5000 was a lower grade than the D300. Weird. It's a good camera either way.

Birthday Wishes

I made this card for my friend for his birthday. I used India ink on Bristol board to create the designs and then cut them out and glued them together for a nice handmade birthday wish. And yes Photography is half of the fun.

The one thing I really regret as far as the card goes is that I wish I had made other people wonderful cards for their birthdays as well. I know a handful of people would definitely appreciate them more than others would.

Also, Knowing now what I didn't know then, I would have definitely used gloves and been more careful because of the ink's nature and when working with glue it leaves traces of ink wherever you touch.

People

So I attempted to make the darling Ren into a beautiful vector creation. her hair and face are lovely but the pompoms are not what I want and I definitely think I need to practice a lot more. It was a good piece to practice on, I just need to figure out how to properly coordinate everything in my head onto the computer.

Experimenting

I think the one thing I have yet to work on successfully is the use of the human figure in vector design. I really want to work on that and It's gotten to the point where I most definitely need to teach myself since gaia online is of no help finding artists to help and probably most successful artists when it comes to the human figure don't want to share their secrets! So that's my goal. I know it is constant, however it is definitely necessary.

Sharing Time!

Some cute little Duckies I took a photo of.

Indeed

So I hope to kick my graphic design career into full gear shortly. I came up with business cards that are being distributed whenever someone says "Oh hey I like your poster" Yay~ Not that I have an actual website or will have one any time soon.... Drat.

I am also heavily researching t-shirt printers so I can hopefully print some of my own designs and go "Yeah I made it -Smile hands business card-" Of course my mother bought me card stock with designs already on them but oh well. It was nice of her regardless. Now Just to print the shirts...

Perspective

For some strange odd and stupid reason I can't seem to remember how to properly draw with the use of perspective. This is completely stupid because for a whole two semesters I didn't study anything but perspective. This is so stupid. How could I have ever forgotten how to draw stupid perfectly in perspective cubes? Anyway, I included a page of my sketchpad and attempted to properly put into perspective a wand with a star on top. That did not work out very successfully now did it?
For some reason all of my creative antics went out the window as I stopped drinking coffee. How depressing. I am going to continue to sketch from life because that will probably help spark my creativity. After all it is from discipline that creativity proves itself. And I am trying to surge the creativity within.

I am reading this book that I won at an AIGA guest speaker talk through my school. The book is called "Do Good Design" and it is all about the power of labels and branding and how powerful it really is. There are a lot of random and interesting facts that I learned from the book such as, coke is the second most understood word worldwide. The first is OK! And small towns have Coke brand their towns for 200 dollars just so they can get on a map! How utterly ridiculous is that~

I'm not using this blog as a sketch dump so much anymore because it became so easy to use my phone to upload pictures and post them on the go with Tumblr. This however is my formal blog. (Even Livejournal isn't cool enough anymore!) My Tumblr. In all honesty I really need to keep my pencil moving so I can improve my drawing skills instead of just trying to draw something one day and nothing coming but squiggles! How depressing.

Find me Elsewhere

Deviantart: Starshinesky
Tumblr: Starshinesky
Live Journal Community: Smile Cakes
Live Journal: Starshinesky
Twitter: Starshinesky
Daily Booth: Starshinesky

Sickly

I have been through hell and back with this damn cold. I have gotten nothing done for school or for play and on both occasions I find it more than annoying. I have not been sleeping or drawing or playing or anything lately. It's quite depressing. To be honest I have no idea where all my time has gone. All I know is that it is not going towards making pretty things or doing school work. I skipped classes within the past week. I thought I would go to he gym every day but that is a failure and a half since coughing up phlegm and running are a totally perfect combination I promise.

I'm submitting a lot of my pieces to different clubs on DA and that's not working out entirely well but it's the idea that counts. I'm also working on making myself the perfect layout for Gaia and that is not working out very well either. Like I said, with no motivation to do anything but sleep... I'm on a ball for letting shit hit the fan... Although, Thankfully, my doctor called in a prescription today :)

My Begginings and Towards the Future

I started with playing on neopets. And working on stupid guild layouts. And that's how I got into the whole photo-manipulation and putting one image over another concept. From that I started a website called Graphix Nightmare and that lasted give or take 3 years and turned into Wonderland Effect.

Durring that whole spiel I began to adore Vector Art. Those big fancy wallpapers that have little silhouetted islands on them with like swirls and things. And from that I read several tutorials on how to make said vector art. It has only recently been that I have taken the same ideas and applied them to drawings instead of photographs.

When My parents had begun the whole college search with me I had no idea what I wanted to do. It was everything from a Play therapist in a hospital to a Historian. But None of those Ideas worked, It wasn't really until my grandmother had told me that I should be a graphic designer that I had any intention of doing that.

From that I chose a liberal arts school and declared graphic design as my major. It wasn't until this year that I had any formal art classes. And I am planning on taking more.

Although I had wished that I had started art classes in school and that maybe looking back I should have gone to an art school. I still have chosen to make this my career, and seeing every part of the field makes me happy.

Fuitalicious.

So I am going to enter a fruit Contest for one of the clubs I am in. I'm not entirely sure which fruit I am going to use. I'm thinking either strawberries or bananas. I really want to try this. I hope that I at least get given a chance to be on the poll to win! Wish me Luck!

Gradient Happy

Patricia told me to! No really she did.

Lately I have been in a funk about creating artwork and how to go about doing it. I once used to favor digital work over traditional work and now I am switching that idea. I seem to do better with ink than with digital mediums. And there goes my head on the desk that I have yet to clean... Anyway, she said I should make shapes and add detail. Well I think it's a personal preference when I say I hate gradients. I really do and I think everything I make with them look horrible.

I knew it was a bad idea from the beginning...

Photography

I do take photography sometimes! Really I do. So here is my flickr account so you can look at my photography :)

www.flickr.com Go to happybunnyrocker's photostream

Pretty Flower

I used conte crayons in class several days ago and I simply adored the whole process that went into making the piece. Our subject were flowers, gorgeous flowers at that. Basically the whole idea was that we would use the white conte as the highlights and the black conte as the outline, the brown paper would serve as the neutral tones.

Unfortunately, I do not have a scanner in my possession nor do I think the whole drawing would fit on a flatbed. So instead I sort of translated the ideas from the traditional media into a digital form using digital medium brushes. Either way, This is my end result:


Wallflower by ~starshinesky on deviantART

I think it turned out nicely. I kind of based it somewhat on Andy Warhol, pop art with the black and bits of vibrant color.

Art for Arts Sake

My To Do List is:
+ Write a 2 Page paper about the Arts and Crafts Movement
+ Draw a still life of a sphere and a cylindrical object like a Styrofoam cup
All due tomorrow! Yay.

Sometimes I really wish I had gone to an art school. Not so much to be a graphic design major but maybe to be something else. I find more and more that I like to draw I just am not very good at it yet. I've never taken a formal art class before this year so there is no surprise that I did not get accepted into the design program at the one art school I applied to. Maybe I should have taken drawing in high school. I can't look to the past at this point I have to look ahead. I can always learn something new.

New Mediums And New inspirations

So lately I've been lurking around on gaia online. If you've ever been on there you know it's a huge asian / anime community. So I decided to try my hand at Avie Art. Which is basically that you draw someone's avatar. I tried it with using just illustrator, that didn't work so well so then I tried it in sequence with drawing the characters. That turned out much better.

I'm really trying to get a friendly place for artists wether I own it or join it, it doesn't matter. All that matters is that I get to help. Well I haven't really found anything pre-made so I'm starting one. I still have mannequin MB that I am trying to get up and running. And maybe I can get the two to work together. Maybe. We'll see.

So I drew another really cute vector idea. This one is really cute and hopefully it works out.

Strawberry and Root Beer

My newest Deviant submission is in the form of a smiling happy Root Beer Float. I hope it is taken well since I submitted it to a group and not just to my own personal gallery. Then again I am not the only one submitting either. I hope it makes people a little more excited about my work.


Strawberry and Root Beer Float by ~starshinesky on deviantART

I also decided that I'm destined to make stickers for the rest of my life. :( I'm serious! It's wonderful but horrible.

Hello Friday

So I haven't really dragged myself out of bed yet. I went to bed at 2am because it was either that or pull an all-nighter for an 8:15 class. That didn't really sound like a smart idea since I have art history then. Regardless, I came out of class and as told I would I passed out immediately. I the proceeded to sleep until 3pm and realized my life today will just be a sleep fest and that's all I've been doing.

I also dread Monday I have a Classroom in a Book do for my Indesign class and some homework for chemistry. This is not exciting and I crave a ridiculous amount of poptarts even though I'm not hungry at all I'm a complete and utter dork.

The one thing I did do is I did do some more sketches and now I'm going to take pictures with photobooth because I'm a Mac not a PC and I really have no reason to go to the computer lab in 27 degree weather. Maybe if there were cute boys involved but not now. Hehe. I shall experiment with these ones but I really want them good so they better be really good or else I'll hurt myself. Not really but it will be a sour taste in my mouth.

The Arts & Crafts Movement.

So upon finding out my ubber topic I decide to call my father and tell him all about my more than exciting project. Of course having his PHD in history he crushed my dreams just a little bit. Not enough that I'm actually effected just enough for me to say, "So I guess it's not playing with glitter." And we all know just how much I love glitter. So instead of writing a 2 page paper on something fun like Applied Arts and the whole mentality of designing that sort of thing I get to write a 2 page research paper on Stickily chairs and furniture. The whole thing is actually pretty cool, it's just not actually my thing. Wow what a ridiculous sentence. Yes, I know it just gets worse and worse.

Oh! So I decided I'm going to get a Deviantart Subscription. But of course, being the paranoid freak my mother trained me to be; I'm going to buy a Visa or TD or a whatever gift-card at Wawa or Rite Aid. That way I don't have to worry about it. Yay!

That's all for now!

Hello there!

I have some new posts that I would like to show you.

The first is a lovely Piece of photography I took at my grandparents. This is using a Telephoto Close up lens.


Turn Dial by ~starshinesky on deviantART

The next is a bit of experimental artwork I did. All done by experimenting with gradients, color and memory.


Sweet Sherbet by ~starshinesky on deviantART

Thanks for looking. I think I'm going to try drawing things and seeing what happens. I mean I suck at drawing (let's be honest). But maybe if I can draw something and then outline it with ink and scan it and make it into something pretty I probably can! Yay!

So, I'm doing this project for Computer Publication about Arts and Crafts. It's funny, I literally giggled. Everyone picked something that went along with their own personalities. I like the idea of arts and crafts and tying it into graphic design, that's what I want to do with myself and my Career. So Props to myself for picking it. I'm going to rock this college I really am!