Not-Sketchblog 8: Measure The Times

It's strange.
When you want something desperately, it slips from your fingers.
But when you finally can let it go, it winds up coming right back to you,
or you get something better.

I have one more week of vacation at home,
but I find myself desperately wanting to stay longer now.

It's kind of funny that way.
I had gone into the Summer thinking it would be the worst,
and that's how it happened for the first half or longer.

I had few friends in the area,
had no license (at 25- laughable, really),
no form of transportation,
and family was rarely around to spend real quality time with,
especially with chaos happening left and right (mostly health problems).

Everything was terrible.
I was lonely and miserable,
and obviously extremely unproductive.

But,
as I discussed with my Dad recently,
the Summer wasn't all useless.
It provided very fruitful, actually.
It served as a time for reflection and meditation,
and I discovered a lot about life and love and myself.

I picked myself up despite my depression,
and forced myself to keep walking,
and ended up making more friends along the way.
Where I once had nobody to call on at home,
I now have friends asking me when I'm coming back so we can hang out.

You'll have to understand this is all very new for me,
someone who lived her whole childhood as a social oddity,
with very few friends to count on.
The friends I did have, I only hung out with during school hours.
The rest of the time, I was alone.

I wasn't often invited out to parties or get-togethers.
In fact, I can count on one hand how many times someone ever asked me if I had any plans.
But here I am,
about to leave,
and I almost don't want to.

The friends I've accumulated in the past few months have helped me more than they would probably realize.
I have more confidence in myself than ever before.
I even danced in public without worrying about what others thought of me!
(And with a guy! That was definitely a first!)

The only way I can describe how I feel right now is...
It's like my soul is exploding with love and joy for life.
And I don't want it to end.

But that's just the thing.
I can hold onto that,
and carry it back with me to school,
and put all of that into my work,
and it will make it better than ever before.

My life is fuller,
my heart is healing (slowly but surely),
and my head is reeling from how crazy a Summer it's actually been.

I'm looking forward to going back to Savannah,
but now I'm actually looking forward to visiting Aurora again.

I love you all.
Thank you for helping me along the way.

Love in Christ,
-Emily J Sampson

Sketchblog Edition 90: Friend Of A Friend

Today.
It was good.
It was a nice day.
It was a productive day.
It was a day of amazement.

And I will tell you why.

I awoke at precisely 8:30 AM of my own will,
which happens from time to time.
(In fact, almost every day this summer I have slept without an alarm set,
and about 80% of the time woken up before or by 9:00.
Soon, I hope to shave an hour off that time.)
Dad started work again this week, so he was away most of the day doing teacherly duties.
So I, being the only one in the house, blasted my music and bedroom-danced as I cleaned the house.

While doing this, I, for some reason, got this image in my head:


After eating a quick breakfast, Tucker and I went for a walk in the forest.
I entered the glen area and heard a loud noise in one of the trees right above me.
Then came swooping down a giant golden-winged hawk.
It was on a branch only a few feet above my head,
and I watched in amazement as it glided gracefully through the sky and disappeared behind the trees.
I will not forget the image of it.

Dad met us at the exit to the woods, which excited Tucker almost to the point of strangulation,
and, after dropping the pooch off at home to sleep off the hard work of running around in the woods,
we went out to eat lunch at the mall (yay mall food).
After eating, Dad had to run some errands so I shopped around at the mall.
This was not necessarily a good thing.
See, I had already went out three times (yes, 3) yesterday and bought many things,
and while they had all been worth the cost,
I told myself I wouldn't make any more pointless purchases for the rest of the month.
However, Dad had a coupon for F.Y.E., and they had used Seirei No Moribito dvds,
and,
well,
I splurged.
Forgive me.

Upon returning home,
I called my grandma,
had a wonderful chat with her,
then returned to the parents to enjoy a delicious homemade taco casserole with them.
Yum!

Once filled with excellent foodstuffs,
I figured it was time yet again...

to dye my hair.

While letting the dye set,
I immersed myself in the last episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series Season 2.
(On another note, I am a bit sloppy with the dye apparently....)


After rinsing and washing and drying,
the results were wonderful.
I love the dark red color most of all.
There were a few spots where the color didn't take as well as I'd have hoped,
but for the most part it blends fairly well,
and I'm probably going to cut it soon anyway,
so.... *shrug*

(p.s. This is not an accurate depiction of myself by any stretch of the imagination.)


After dying my hair, I showed it off to Tucker,
who showed his appreciation by giving me a puppy-hug.
When Hobbes saw it was cuddle-time,
he walked over to join the fun.
However, Tucker seemed to be in an especially jealous mood tonight,
and then this happened:
BLOCK'D.

Poor Hobbes.
Oh well.
He deserves it for all the times he picked on Tucker as a puppy.


Now for the free sketches!

Yesterday's was a legendary Wumpkin,
a creature of Tyler's design,
asked for by his sister Alysha.
After thoroughly researching,
I depicted it as best I could in my own manner.
Here you go, Alysha!


Today's was especially complex.
Daniel Yost requests some pretty amazing things,
but this has to be the best of them by far.
A Cyborg Tyrannosaurus.
(Okay so it's a bit of a stretch to consider this a "mythical creature,"
but who cares?!?
It's a Tyrannosaurus...
with a rocket launcher.)
Thank you, Daniel.

Well that's all for tonight!
Hope you enjoyed!
I know I did! :P

Thanks for reading.
Love you all,
and goodnight!

<3,
Emily J Sampson




p.s. I need more practice with mechanical things. *nod*

Sketchblog Edition 89: ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR!

That's right.
I did the sketches today.
Who's awesome?
Me.

Also,
Hannah Fry...


... and her brother Tim...

Are awesome as well.

The three of us went to see Scott Pilgrim.
It was amazing.
I'm glad I got the soundtrack ahead of time.
Also, I want the Score.
The Universal Theme in 8-bit is reason enough.

Watching more Star Trek.
Only a few more episodes left in Season 2.
I may very well reach my goal of watching the entire series before the end of the Summer!
If not, there's a Star Trek: TOS Season 3 Remastered box set with my name on it at Disc Replay.

I got this idea in my head of a rabbit crossed with a frog.
Imagine the leaping capabilities!

I'm switching between names for it,
so help me out by voting on your favorite:
•Rablit
•Rabbat
•Riblit
•Ribbat

Here are some rough sketches of it:


Speaking of rabbits,
today's free sketch goes to the birthday boy Tyler!
So here's the legendary Esquilax,
a horse with the head of a rabbit...
and the body...
of a rabbit.



Oh look, Hobbes is pawing at me.
I have to go now.
Hobbes needs his daily does of attention.

Thanks for reading!
Love you,
and goodnight!

<3,
Emily J Sampson





"You punched the highlights out of her hair!"

Sketchblog Edition 88: No Tribble At All

WOO!
I'm a little pumped, to say the least.
One would think that with all the craziness happening lately at home,
I would be a little more somber,
but here we are.
I've got some pretty awesome sketches for you now,
and though they're not as many as I would like,
they're pretty good quality.
I'm definitely liking this month's sketch request theme,
and there are still plenty slots open so request one here if you haven't already!

First, some leisure sketches.

An image I got in my head and had to draw real quick.
May finish sometime.

Another idea I got after seeing some pretty awesome artwork around on deviantART and this new book my dad got me at a yard sale for a dollar.
(This book right here.)
May implement the concept into one of my universes, such as Randomia.

A robut.


Now the sketch requests!

For August 6th,
a sketch for lucentdelirium (a friend of mine) on deviantART.
A Werewolf!
Rowr.


August 7th:
For dead2 on deviantART,
a Succubus (something I had fun interpreting in my own manner).


August 8th:
For Lauren (aka evui on deviantART),
a Selkie!
Fun!


August 9th:
For Elaine,
a Leviathan!
Always wanted to draw one.


August 10th:
A combo-sketch, mostly for Crash,
of a Centaur with Samuel L. Jackson for a top half.
(That last part was for Vawn-O-The-Dawn.)
Yes, his head is huge.
No, all the anatomy makes no sense.


August 11th:
An interesting thing for Chris Martinetti,
a creature of his own design.
I don't know, Chris.
I'm sorry.
I can't help myself.


August 12th:
My personal favorite of the bunch,
a Pegasus,
for Hillary!


And last but not least,
August 13th's (aka Friday the 13th) is for MagnusXL,
who asked for a Dryad,
which was also very fun to interpret.
:3


YES!
I LOVED doing these sketches, guys,
so keep the requests coming!
There are so many mythical creatures I haven't seen anyone request and would like to draw,
so come up with some good and challenging ones!

I could go on about stuff going on in my life right now,
but I'll just say this:
fight for what you love,
and never let it go.
If something bad happens,
have faith that everything will be okay in the end.
All will work out the way it's supposed to work out,
so don't worry about the small stuff.
Just press onward toward your goals,
keep an open mind,
change continually,
and grow into someone better.
Become the truly amazing person you were always meant to be!
But remember,
you can only do this by acknowledging your faults and taking an active role in addressing your issues.
Don't ignore them,
because you'll only stay still and stagnate,
and make things worse.
Face your fears head-on.
Fight,
live,
love.

That's all I have to say.

Thanks for reading!

Love you all,
and goodnight!

<3,
Emily J Sampson

Sketchblog Edition 87: Worth Fighting For

WOO!
So so so so sorry for the incredibly long delay,
but I'm finally back!

I'll just say a quick little something before I show you the fruits of the past couple weeks.

Life's been crazy lately.Mostly it's kind of been okay for me,
but things have been kind of getting hectic around here.
Won't go into it here,
but your thoughts and prayers are all appreciated. :)

Been hanging out with some great people this summer and really enjoying it.
Learning a lot about life and myself and getting over some issues I've been fighting.

As both my dad and I always say,
life is about finding a balance.
I'm starting to get my life balanced again,and it feels really good.
Looking forward to going back down to Savannah soon to enjoy a fresh start to life with great friends. :)

Shout-outs to:
Sara, Timu-Chan, Other Tim, Kirk, EpicMatt, Heidi, John Einselen, and Dan Morris for being as awesome as they are.


NOW FOR THE SKETCHES!!!

Here are all the sketch requests I failed to upload on time.
Hope you'll forgive me. :)


For MagnusXL,
July 18th's sketch is of T-Bone and Razor from Swat Kats:


For Rainwater,
July 19th's sketch is of Sonic and Tails:


For Beardless Ben,
July 20th's sketch is Boba Fett
(whom I couldn't resist drawing as a rebellious little tot):


For Daniel Yost,
July 21st's sketch is Ren and Stimpy
(from my favorite episode, I might add!):


For Ben Fraker,
July 22nd's sketch is Ken the Eagle from Gatchaman:


For EpicMatt,
July 23rd's sketch is a Smurf,
simply a Smurf:


For Ra'an,
July 24th's sketch is of Bic and Bac from the series Spartakus and the Sun Beneath the Sea
(which I have never seen D8):


For Lizzie,
July 25th's sketch is of the two girls from My Neighbor Totoro
(sorry I messed up the little girl so badly):


(There were no requests from July 26th to July 31st. :( )

August's sketch theme is mythical creatures,
and there are still slots available,
so hurry and grab them while you can!

August 1st goes to Vawn-O-The-Dawn,
who requested a Boggart:


August 2nd goes to MAK-ATTACK,
who wanted a Kappa:


August 3rd is for CobraGFX,
who requested a Dark Angel:


August 4th's sketch goes to AriadneArca,
who requested a Kelpie:


And today,
August 5th's sketch goes to Reed,
who wanted a Gryphon:



Now for the rest of the sketches!





Some posture/walk cycle conceptuals:

I drew the next 6 sketches after watching a NatGeo special on bears. :3






I think, of all the sketches I upload today,
this is my favorite:

A couple student conceptuals:


This next sketch-comic depicts actual events involving me and my dog.



Yeah, my dog's weird.
He just snuck over to my bedroom,
sat in the doorway,
scratched his armpit for a little bit,
then left.
Go figure.


AAAAAAND finally,
a couple guest sketches!

First, a donation on Tyler's part.
It is entitled "Artist."



Next, we have a lovely collaboration between my mother and I.
It's a Musketeer Frog.....
I think....

That's all!

Hope you enjoyed it!

Thanks for reading,
and have a good night!
Love you all!

<3,
Emily J Sampson