From the Sketchbook: Persephone....

   Ever since the first hearing of her story I've had a soft spot in my heart for poor Persephone (I even dressed as her for Halloween one year) and her mother Demeter...even though Persephone unwittingly screws everything up by eating those pomegranate seeds.  Okay, I just started with the ending, rewind:

   Demeter is the goddess of harvest and nature, she controls all growing things.  She has a beautiful free spirited daughter, Persephone.  One day Persephone is picking flowers in a field and Hades (who is technically her Uncle, eww) becomes infatuated with her and steals her to the underworld.  Well, Demeter is understandable distraught and goes to Zeus and pleads for him to intervene...and he agrees that Hades should return Persephone to Demeter on one condition, Persephone cannot eat any fruit from the garden.  Before Persephone hears of this she opens up a beautiful pomegranate and eats 6 seeds from it.  The compromise is for 6 months Persephone has to stay in the Underworld and the other 6 months she is with her mother Demeter. And that is why in the fall everything goes to sleep and leads to an unfruitful winter and then nature awakens again in Spring and Summer.  I did a quick little stylized illustration with prismacolor marker of Persephone about to unwittingly break this unknown rule.  I just told this whole story from memory and may have forgotten some details, if you're interested in more go here.

In other news:  To those paying attention I've been gone for 21 days....no I don't have some dramatically good excuse like I was in traction after a horrible car crash and I'm thankful for that.  Life just got in the way, I moved into a new apartment and there have been constant changes and activities this whole summer and I'm VERY easily distracted.  I'm not sure if I'll continue to do this blog daily even though it's called Every DAY is Fantastic, because I really need to devote some more energy to new projects and schemes.   This has been very fun though, and I may try to make it a bi-weekly occurrence instead.

Watercolor Wednesday: I'm Just Wild About Saffron

Saffron is a spice that comes from the dried stigmas of the Saffron Crocus. Today I painted a faerie inspired both by the purple and mauve crocuses and the color Saffron has imparted on food and clothing for years:

From the Sketchbook: Malcom Reynolds

  I am in the middle of watching the Firefly series for the second time, it has to be one of the smartest science fiction shows I've ever seen.  Joss Whedon's wit and his cast of characters make this show a truly special thing which was unfortunately cancelled only half way through it's first season. I started drawing the ship "Serenity" which is a Firefly class vessel and I suddenly remembered seeing naval portraits of sailors with the ship they served on, So I drew the Captain Malcom Reynolds with his ship.  I'm pretty pleased with the result.

From the Sketchbook: Tatiana DaisyTamer

No, I have not lost my mind....well maybe I have a little.  I have been playing a ridiculously easy and cute (and free) online MMO that seems to be designed for 10 year olds, but I'm having fun.  It's called Wizard 101 and the basic idea is you are in a young apprentice Wizard who is helping rid the campus of evil.  There is more to it, but right now I don't care.  My stomach has been hurting all week and I'm just not in the mood to do anything serious. There are quests with such titles as "Saving Private O'Ryan" and "Help Dorothy Gale".  It is campy to the extreme, but that seems to be what I need right now.  So, enough talk here are the sketches and some screenshots, if you want to join me on there look for Tatiana DaisyTamer. ;)

Moaning Myrtle the Photo Manip

   Tomorrow morning at 12:01 AM I will be at my local movie theater witnessing the last movie in a series of 8.  For many devout fans of the Rowling series it feels like the end of an era, the end to their childhood even.  I can understand that a bit, though I did not discover these books until I was an adult (though technically the main characters were my age, I was born in 1980 like Harry was).  However, when reading this story I was definitely transported back and became a child a bit, relating to the children in the book and watching them learn and struggle with spells and relationships.  When reading a series like that it is inevitable that your mind wanders to "Who can I relate too the most?" For me that is a mixture of Hermione Granger (I was that annoying girl in Science class who was first with her hand up to answer a question) and Moaning Myrtle.  Middle School was less than kind to me, actually that is a major understatement, I went through hell, from having glitter dumped on my head to having my purse stolen and later found smothered in green paint and other more personal and physical attacks I don't want to get into here.  It took a very long time for me not to feel anger towards those classmates.  So, when I read that Myrtle was teased about her glasses by Olive Hornby and then ran to the bathroom upset and was killed by the Basilisk, I didn't really blame Myrtle for haunting Olive.  Sure, it wasn't Olive's fault that Tom had let the Basilisk out, but Myrtle did not know what killed her really...no one did until the Chamber of Secrets was opened again.  Also, it sounds as if it wasn't the first time Olive had teased her, Myrtle's fixation on Olive Hornby may have been irrational and blown out of proportion, yet it was understandable at the same time...especially when you realize that ghost or no Myrtle is still a child.

So....now I'll tell you a little about the art!  I was tempted to draw an image of Myrtle, and maybe I will in the future, but it's been a loooong time since I did a photo-manipulation and ghost photo-manips are so fun, so when I saw stock images on Deviantart by Kristina Horner of the Parselmouths I just had to put her in a bathroom!

"Nobody missed me even when I was alive. Took them hours to find my body- I know, I was sitting there waiting for them. Olive Hornby came into the bathroom- 'Are you in here again, sulking Myrtle?, she said, 'because Professor Dippet asked me to look for you-' And then she saw my body...ooooh, she didn't forget that until her dying day, I made sure of that..."

—Myrtle to Harry Potter^[src]

Stock Credits:
Moaning Myrtle: Kristina Horner
Background:  ColdStock

Oh and by the way I will be going to the movie in costume.....as Moaning Myrtle.

Edit: Forgot to add a video with a song from an amazing Wrock band called The Moaning Myrtles, 'And Then I Died':

The Dragon's out of the bag...

Today I want to share with you a sketch I worked on last night while playing Dungeons and Dragons, it's based on a concept my husband shared with me nearly a week ago.  I'm doing things a bit differently today because I'm going to show you the initial sketch, the lineart and the coloring.  I wanted to keep this one very, very simple with the shading.  I wonder if I oversimplified it though, maybe I should add a little more shading...thoughts?

Original Sketch:

 Lineart:

 Colored:

Advice from Roland the Barkeep

Things have been pretty hectic in my life lately, it seems everytime things settle down there is another injury or illness to someone in my family and I've been pretty distracted by it all.  I've been meaning to work on this comic idea my husband Allan came up with of Roland the barkeep.  This is a first attempt, the advice probably won't be in that chalkboard in the future and it will most likely be in strip form and longer bits of advice, but I think for now this illustrates the concept pretty well and is quite cute. I hope you all enjoy it and I also hope to resume a more normal schedule soon: