Sketchblog Edition 2: I'm Ready for My Closeup, Mr. DeMille

Today wasn't as productive as I would have hoped, but I still did do more than I've usually been doing.
Keeping a sketchblog is definitely something every artist should be doing.
I've noticed my speed in sketching, my sense of line, form, shape and shading, and my drive to work is improving at an alarming rate.

I did wear myself out this afternoon, however, after I visited the Sidewalk Arts Festival in Forsyth, then went to my friend Lilly's for a delightful lunch of grilled cheese sandwiches and kitten cuddling.
When I finally got home, I was so exhausted I decided to take a nap, and when I awoke, I rolled over and looked at the wall next to my bed.
There I saw something I never noticed before: a strange series of bumps and small cracks in the plaster and paint that resembled some sort of animal.
I had to draw it.
So here it is: a weird raccoon... fox... red panda... meerkat... thing.
First version is my stylized view of it from memory.
Second version is more accurate to how it actually looks in real life.

After eating an early dinner of Chili's leftovers, my friend Tyler and I went to see Sunset Boulevard at the Trustees.
What a messed-up woman....
Before the movie started, though, I had some time to kill and decided to pull out my sketchbook.
I drew the meerkat thing again, being cute and reaching for something high up, and also some weird lizard monster person.
I honestly don't know where all these large-armed, long-tailed creatures are coming from. *shrug*
Below that is what started as a crane, because I saw some beautiful artwork by my friend Joanna today (Cranes at Ueno Park Zoo), and was just inspired to draw one of my own.
In the end it wound up being something other than a crane, though. I'm not really sure what it is exactly....
Thanks to the magic of Hulu, I've been watching the new series "House of the Five Leaves," coming straight from Japan.
It's great that Hulu caught on to the whole fansubbing thing and decided to start releasing the episodes online as soon as they air in Japan with accurate subs.
I also love the whole look of this anime and how they kept so closely to the original manga artist's style (Natsume Ono has such a unique way of drawing, so it adds so much to it, in my opinion).
It makes me want to get the manga now, but I still have to finish the huge stack of books sitting next to my bed (including another manga by Natsume Ono called "Ristorante Paradiso"). ^^;
Below you see Masa, the main character, who's a wimpy ronin (masterless samurai), and Ichi-San, the secondary main character, who is head of a troupe of kidnappers, and is completely awesome.

Here we have Okinu, who's the adorable young woman responsible for the start of the troupe, who call themselves House of the Five Leaves.
Below her is some odango, which are fried dumplings.
They are possibly the best and tastiest things ever created on this good green earth, and I sorely miss them from Tokyo.
If there were a place that sold them here in America, I'd move there in a heartbeat and give them all my business.



That's all for today!
Hey!
I actually got this one in on time! :D

Looks like I'll be uploading these every evening before bedtime. ^^;

Thanks all!
See you tomorrow!

<3,
Emily Sampson