How to NOT have a boring summer

          This summer has been one of my favorites. While many previous summers have had their fair share of boredom, this time I've rarely had a day with nothing to do. I will admit there is something to be said about lazy days. Every now and then, it is really nice to just relax all day, but too many of those in a row can be real downers. A good way to lift your spirits and have some fun is to leave the house and go on an adventure! I'll give three of my favorite days this summer as an example.

          The first day included an art museum, some grilled cheese, and a great friend. She and I are both artists, so we knew the art museum was a must. We visited the Orlando Museum of Art for an hour or two, then ate lunch at Toasted, a little restaurant that focuses on everything "cheese." I was feeling adventurous (there's that word again) that day and ordered a grilled fig and goat cheese sandwich. Let me tell you, "amazing" doesn't even begin to describe it.

          While we ate lunch, we tried a little art challenge (you can find my blog from this day on my YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/thatoneartist). After a while, it started raining, so we decided to leave. We didn't get very far, however, and made an unexpected stop at a small tea house called Krungthep. Though we only thought we'd go in only to take a peek, we were seated and ordered some tea. The day ended at her house, watching cartoons on the television. All in all, it was a great day with great memories.

          The second day was spent with a different friend a couple weeks later. We drove to downtown Mt. Dora, a cute place with many little shops, restaurants, art museums, and a lake. We walked around much of the town, talking and taking photos, ending up in an abandoned and overgrown courtyard.

We talked, braided hair, and took more photos there, then ate supper at One Flight Up Cafe. Our dinner was interrupted by a thunder clap and a race for the car, but our day ended happily with a trip to an Italian ice place for dessert.

          Finally, the third day was spent with the same friend as the previous day. It began with some thrift shopping. Don't knock it 'til you've tried it - thrift shops are treasure troves. Amidst the many too tight, too large, and too "scandalous" clothes we tried on, we both ended up with some "new" clothes. Then, yes, it started raining. After a stop at Krungthep where we devoured their delicious dessert, "Battle" - ice cream, waffle cone, whipped topping various chocolate candies, and chocolate syrup - and two iced teas, it was off to the beach! 

          The car rides there and back were filled with us jamming out to old songs and just being weird. At the beach, we took photos, ate lunch, jumped in the slightly-too-cold water, and took a walk. I even painted on myself, amidst the curious onlookers, for some nice YouTube intro footage (the intro is coming later, but check out the footage on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_thatoneartist_). Our last act was to stuff ourselves with sushi at Hatsuhana. 

          These three adventure-filled days will certainly not be forgotten. I urge anyone reading this to take a day off from your normal life. Go out and have some fun. Hang out with a friend and get to know them better, be impulsive, experience new things. It will add a little more flavor to your life and leave you with great memories.

- Darcie

Drawing the Human Hand

I have always been intrigued by the human hand - especially just from observing my own. The many veins, creases, and marks add so much character, and they can bend and flex into seemingly endless positions. They can translate friendliness, calmness, aggression, tension, desperation. They can be elegant or harsh, weathered and calloused, or soft and clean. Hands are an incredible creation.

How does an artist capture their simple elegance?

Hands were the bane of my existence (and I am sure many other artists can relate). I would create a drawing I was so proud of, but once I got to the hands, it usually took a turn for the worst. Overtime, I can say hands do not scare me anymore, though they can still be frustrating. While I may breeze through sketching other parts of the body (except for the eyes...but that will have to be a topic for another time), I usually have to work on the hands a bit more, maybe redoing them once or twice.

A couple weeks ago, I took a few pictures of my own hands in various positions and began drawing. I was such using a small sketchbook and placing the hand in random places on the paper as I had no plan for any sort of masterpiece. I was just drawing - practicing, and enjoying myself. I paid close attention to every detail, every bit of color, and was in no rush. Upon finishing the three hands, I must say I was quite proud of the outcome (and still am).

Focusing on any one part of the body, whether it be hands or not, and drawing that one thing to the best of your ability is such a great practice exercise. For anyone who may be struggling to draw this unique, human feature, spend some time on them. Look up pictures or study your own hands, observing the usual creases, where the knuckles bend, how the veins bump the skin ever so slightly. While not everyone wants to draw realistically, studying hands and other real life objects always helps. Cartoonists, for example, are very familiar with human anatomy, and it gives them more freedom when drawing characters in action.

While I do plan to create a YouTube tutorial on drawing hands in the near future, here are just a few tips for the time being:

1. When draw cartoon hands, I would suggest always drawing a "skeleton" first. Just get a few basic shapes to make up the shape and position of the hand before actually outlining the hand.

2. This may go without saying, but when drawing realistic hands, always do an outline first before going in with color. Pay close attention to how the outline of the hand really looks instead of how you may think it looks. Then, if you are going to color, be sure to erase everything until it's just a faint line. Otherwise, the pencil lead will get smudged in the coloring, leaving marks that are hard to cover up.

3. This last one has to do with coloring and can be applied to coloring many things besides hands. There are so many more colors than what meets the eye. Every skin tone - peach, tan, brown, dark brown, et cetera - has a lot more color to it than variations of that one tone. For example, in my own skin tone (pictured in the first image) I have red, pink, a bit of green, yellow, brown and purple (mostly for shadows), and many more. I use them all to give the picture much more depth and a more realistic appearance. But I don't just make them up. When I study the reference picture, I can see all these colors. It just takes practice to be able to pick up on all the colors in a picture.

I hope these tips and pictures helped you at least a little bit! When I post the video (my channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/thatoneartist), I will let you guys know on Instagram. Hopefully it will be soon! The video this week is a blog from an art museum AND a little art challenge, and that is going up on Wednesday, so keep an eye out!

- Darcie

Working in a Print Shop

Currently, I am in the process of filming yet another YouTube video – this one is for Art Snacks and will be posted next week! So, keep an eye out for that. I have always loved art subscription boxes, so I hope you will all enjoy it. But, onto the topic of this particular blog post: my job.

So, where do I work? A little over a year ago, I had a couple of original pieces I was selling to a lady up north. It was hard to part with them since I had never sold an original before (apart from commissions), and I had that "emotional connection" to them that many artists experience with their own work. I didn't want to say goodbye to them forever, and I had heard of a little art print shop about thirty minutes from where I live, so I drove (technically, my dad did the driving) there to have some prints made. While I was waiting for the pictures to be edited by the girl working there, I showed interest in the process. She took notice of this, and asked if I would be interested in a summer job there. I talked to her boss, signed some forms, and suddenly I had a job.

Working at this print shop has been so beneficial. Obviously, the money has been nice (more than nice – it's part of my college fund right now), but apart from that I have learned so much about the profession I want to go into. Being an artist is a lot more than painting and drawing, and working at this shop has allowed me to see more of the business side and acquire some more skills. I can use Photoshop, operate printers, stretch canvases, coat paintings, and more. Who knows, maybe I will open my own print shop one day. As a self-employed artist, multiple streams of income are important to have.

I have made everything seem so simple in this post, but trust me, nothing I've learned came easy. Half the time I feel like I don't even know what I'm doing. Just today, even, I was making four canvas prints and stretching them. First, I had some problems with the color correction, then the printer screwed up. Next, I coated the paintings and let them dry, only to find that I had used too much coating, leaving lots of little tiny drips on the canvas, and I had to reprint three of them. On one canvas, the size was even slightly off. Once all the canvases had dried, it was time to stretch them. After asking countless questions of my boss and coworker, messing up several time when stapling the canvas to its frame (pulling out staples is not fun...), and accidentally getting some weird bubbles in the canvas...

I was done. 

Needless to say, it was a long day. 

However, though I struggled quite a bit, I now know so much more than I did yesterday. Each day is a learning experience and I get better at my job with every mistake. I'm pretty proud of those four canvases now, regardless of the stress involved.

Mother's Day and Cell Phones

            It's a relaxing, Sabbath afternoon. There is a bit of rain drizzling outside, and I've just
finished a watercolor piece for Mother's Day. Yesterday, my family visited a little art show in a nearby town where my mom entered a drawing for a small sunflower painting. Selfishly, I was a bit glad when her name wasn't drawn since I decided it would be the perfect Mother's Day gift to paint myself. So, today, while live streaming on Instagram and filming for this week's (?) YouTube video, I painted sunflowers. The original piece was quite a bit more abstract than mine as my style is different, but I'm sure she will enjoy the picture, nonetheless.

            Also today, I finished a much larger drawing entitled "Numb." This 18 x 24 inch piece is
done in colored pencil and pastel (background and skirt) and depicts a young woman staring mindlessly at her cellphone's glaring screen. Inspiration for this picture swept over me one day as I came to notice the empty, cloudy feeling I sometimes get when spending too much time on my phone – especially at night. At times when I feel sad, I often pull out my phone as a way to numb my mind to whatever problems may be going on. This is such an unhealthy practice, and I have made an effort to be more aware of myself and stay away from this habit.

            Many people have even linked extensive cell phone use (especially at night) to
depression, and I would encourage you to do some research into this. We should all make a better effort to set our phones down more often and start living in the real world, and yes, this also means turning off the television (sorry Netflix) and computer more often, too. Go outside, and get some fresh air! Spend time with your family, go visit your friends in person, do something nice for your neighbors, go on an adventure. Not only will this benefit people around you, it will do great things for your mental health as well.

Meet the Artist!

          Hi everyone! So I am giving this "blogging thing" a go. Actually, it's technically my second try, but the first one didn't go too far so we can just forget about that...

My name is Darcie. I thought that would be a good starting place. Art is my favorite thing in the world – my passion, my past time, my outlet.

And it always has been.

          I've practically been drawing since day one, and mostly people. There's just something that really drew me (no pun intended) to drawing people with their complexities and uniqueness. Each one is so different. I can pull out countless pictures of people from my old sketchbooks – usually done in a typical graphite pencil – and even now they are my favorite subject to draw. However, I have branched out to many other subjects and mediums and continue to take new adventures in my art.

          While I've always had a love for art, I became more serious about it during my Freshman year of high school. I began believing that a career as an artist is possible, especially with the help of social media. I started an Instagram account that year with no other desire than to be able to have my art displayed nicely all in one place, and now, three years later, I have a following of 35,000 and a YouTube account with 8,000 subscribers. Having this kind of visibility and growth online has really encouraged me to believe an art career is possible and ignore the "starving artist" connotation.

          So, I am graduating from high school in 9 days. Wow. That's exciting and scary at the same time... My plan right now for college is to major in fine art, obtain a teaching license (so that I have the option to teach art if I need to or want to), and also get either a minor or major in business. I have heard many times that an art degree isn't really necessary if you're going to be working for yourself, however, I really think I can benefit from what I learn. I just really want to be in an environment where I can learn from so many other creative people – teachers and fellow students alike.

           Besides all of these things I just mentioned, what is art to ME? Obviously I enjoy it, but art is so much more than that. I love possessing the ability to make visible the ideas and pictures I get in my head. Art is such an important channel for getting ideas across, and I love using it to make a point. Art is powerful, and I get to be a part of it.  I find that very empowering yet humbling.

            Aside from fine art, I love music – singing, playing the piano and clarinet, and just listening to it day after day. Music is another way to make people feel things, and I love that aspect of it. I also enjoy playing volleyball and was on my school's varsity team as an outside hitter. I enjoy reading, going to the beach, making new friends, and eating! Finally, the most important thing you should know about me is I am a Christian. No, this does not mean I'll be preaching at you 24/7, judging you, or telling you to get saved. I hate these negative Christian stereotypes, but I do acknowledge that many Christians have brought them upon ourselves. All I hope to do is to be able to show Jesus' love to everyone because this world is so broken. I'm human, and I make terrible mistakes, but I try. With God, all things are truly possible, and I hope to grow in His grace to mirror His character more each day.

            Well, I think that's it! Hope you got to know a bit more about me, and feel free to tell me a bit about yourself in the comments! You can expect stories, art tips, art struggles, and more glimpses into my life in future posts. If you made it all the way down to here, comment your favorite color. Thanks for reading!

Instagram YouTube